CNY 2013: Reunion Dinner

1. Fried noodle
2. Yu piao soup
3. Curry chicken
4. Mixed vege
5. some shell fish with vege
6. Stir fry shark fin
7. Sea cucumber
8. Drunken prawn
9. Steamed chicken
10. shao rou and hong zhao rou

like in restaurant..10 dish....and I also bake a butter cake...


Gu nei made the kids matching pyjamas...fit them perfectly


very happy with my CNY flower purchase $1 per stalk!



and finally simple deco for the house...We used to paste so so many CNY stuff on the wall back at Sembawang old house..and everytime when we removed it, the paint drop off...With this new house...we have learnt to be smarter...We had a red sofa cover just for CNY...that brighten everything...very nice cover...

CNY 2013-CNY bakes

A compilation post of all the CNY bakes for this year

Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies (recipe credit: Bing story)
Half portion: only have this 1 tub, Surprisingly kids love it.
 

Pineapple tart: (recipe credit: Wendyink)
Arghh, do it too late, got the wrong temp..so a little hard




Melt in the mouth German cookies (recipe credit small small baker)
-Unfortunately I didn't like the taste of these cookies,  no fragrant from butter and when it melt in mouth its a has like flour taste...It must be because I didn't use SCS butter...

CNY 2013- Early Reunion dinner at Whampoa

YanXi Also helped out

Jared was extremely well behaved this yr..sit through, eat by himself throughout...and even asked for top up of rice

The bbq was extremely nice with the thinly sliced shabu shabu lamb, pork shoulder/pork belly

I like to carry Yan chen...as he is big size..at 2.5mth feeling like so huge

I thought yan chen's face is bigger than Kaylen's!

Science Center & JCUBE

I won the pass from company ballot again..So this time we are going to Science Center.It was boring...and it made me realised our current schedule with the addition of swim lesson on Sun noon really does not allow us to go anywhere on Sun!. We are just too bz with all the enrichment!

As usual they are fighting over the stuff in science center

Then after Science Center we dropped by nearby Jcube for dinner...and bump into these cai shen






Then after a whole day out..I started CNY baking after 9pm..and finished around 1am with 4 bucket of pineapple tart

The BFG fever

We had this book from Jared's 6th bday from ah yi and yi zhang..and this book was considered the more chim book which he refused to read, words full page, every few page then a picture...and when he finally started on it...he just couldn't get it out of his hand..reading all the time..till I attempted to confiscate the book from him.

He would sit at a corner at mall while we shop to read, poo poo read..and in car, and while waiting for his turn for haircut..all time...when I asked him to stop..he would say, didn't you say reading is good for me?

Finally he finished the book in 2 days which is pretty amazing.



Eyes so tired still read..

He has read far more story books than me..I only remembered when I was in P6 or sec I have a story book A tale of 2 cities and it wasn't interesting so I did not finish it.

But then again, I have stopped buying all story books as I noticed that it just placed at home after reading once..a wastage..So been borrowing from libraries. My favourite is Yishun library as there have the latest and more interesting book

STI: Geranimo Stilton
GRE: Zack Series (thin book, interesting stories with good English, unlike Roald Dahl..making new words all the time)
Horrid Henry and some ladybird classics like Alice in Wonderland which after he completed, I offered him the movie...

Swim Lesson..End of 1st Month

I only went to the 1st and last leson of the month...I'm so glad that there's so much improvement on the kids...

Jared is able to

1) put down his head in water for breathing for long time (this was so diff durng Coach Ben time)
2) swim with board on his own without coach holding

Kaylen

1) Get on the board and with coach guide move in water
2) occasionally head down for breathing.

Kaylen was able to communicate well with teacher Rose. She told that after their lesson teacher Rose is going to have lunch and got to come back and work again at 3pm, 4pm and finally knock off at 5pm. She was still having lots of phobia to breath properlt in water..but teacher Rose was really patient playing n encouraging her at the same time..ladt time with coach Ben oredi get scolding n asked to go home to practise..

We are really lucky to join spam jom swim lesson.

Supper

Just a random supper at Mustafa..forgot what this is called..we asked other ppl how to order..hehe

It tasted very nice, fragrant, light...together with the gravy.

CNY attire- Jared and didi

Very nice shirt for both kids..next year, shall prepare another set for Kaylen and Yanxi. As Kaylen has way too many new clothes for CNY..so I did not buy her new ones to match with yanxi.

Pineapple tart test run 2

Best Pineapple Tart (Recipe Source Wendyinkk)



Even though this recipe have a lot of ingredients, but the result is really good, my old recipe tend to have powdery skin, but this hv a little crunch in them...my only problem is they tend to be too soft for shapping.

Ingredients:

250g SCS salted butter

170g cream (whipped dairy cream)

75g caster sugar

400g  Cake flour

30g Corn flour

50g cream cheese

3 egg yolks

1 additional egg yolk + 1 tsp caster sugar (for glazing)

Method:

Sift Cake flour and corn flour together

Using a cake mixer, blend the cream, butter, cream cheese and sugar together till you get a creamy mixture. (10 mins on speed 2)

Add the 3 egg yolks and sifted flour into the creamed butter mixture.

using the cake mixer's dough mixer, mix till it becomes a smooth dough that is oily enough to not stick to your hand

Allow the dough to stand for 10 mins. (Chilling helps if you are making the pineapple on top kind)

Divide dough into small balls and the pineapple filling into balls roughly 1/2 the size of the dough.

Wrap filling ball with dough ball and shape as desired.

Glaze with the glazing mix.

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins in a oven. (If using convection oven with turbo fan, lower temperature to 160 degrees celsius)

Remove from oven and reglaze again before baking for another 5 mins till golden brown on top.

Ajitsuke Tamago

Recipe: From bossacafez . Click to watch video:
ingredients (makes 4 eggs):




4 room temperature eggs

pot of water enough to cover the eggs completely

a bowl of iced water

for the marinade :

1/2 cup soy sauce

1-1.5 cups water

1 slice of ginger

1 tbsp brown sugar, or to taste

directions :

1. bring the pot of water to a bare simmer. add in eggs and boil for 6 mins. immediately shock them into the bowl of icy water to prevent the eggs from cooking further. leave them in the iced water for 5 mins then peel.

2. combine the soy sauce, water, ginger & sugar and mix well to combine. pour marinade into a ziplock bag and place the eggs inside to marinate for 1-3 hrs in the fridge. do not soak them for too long as the whites will turn rubbery. serve cold.

New year New Lesson..Swim Class Restarted

Come 2013, we started/re-started kids swim class.

It was confusion in the 1st place, I thought I booked a class with SMH forum coach, and just a week before class starting I realised, it cannot be started.

So immediately I confirmed the class at Spans Jom..It turned out not bad..kids got a  lady coach, who is much more patient, and during their 1st lesson, only 2 of them with the coach...so it was like private lesson.

To add on, its free entry for kids at Spans jom, but the parking fees is $3 per entry..After some calculation, it was about the same as public pool( $1.30 for adult, 70c for kid, 50c for parking). So it turned out not too bad..and finally the class is $140 for 10 lesson, outside is $60 for 4 lesson...so it work out abt $1 saving per kid, per lesson...hehe..

.Just that the timing is 11.30am..so my poor kids will get tan from now onwards..

We started a race for the kids to see who can swim first by June..and the reward is a trip to KL!
There's small race for weekly performance, and big race -swim first. Its track at a calendar with sticker!.

Hopefully this helped with the kids to overcome water phobia.



Kaylen refused to do the board thingee..so she lost the 1st wk small race..hehe.

Kaylen's reading at 4yr 4mth

We are seriously lazy...we got on 1st 2 page of 7a...and stop for a mth..and then, I noticed that in recent days, she was able to read much more during normal times eg. MRT, tv etc..

So we skip to 8a! heh. She's reading well..amazing.

Today we tried her on black beauty by Ladybird classics..she can read to...P&J is superb.

2013: New School Day

Kaylen's Day 1 at K1



A little screw up on school bus on both ways..The drivers messed up the location of waiting to and back...heh.

Happy 2013!

Spent the day at Zoo..as colleage  got free zoo pass..didnt manage to see Jia Jia and Kai Kai..as tickets already sold out.








The elephant painted the drawing...nice..