I burnt my Chinese Wok!!!

Oh man. So much for trying to make my own gluten-free, additive-free, wheat-free tortillas. (which, thanks to Miss Intellectual, I learnt that they are pronounced "tor tee yas" and not "tor tee lahs".

I followed some dumb instructions and tried to fry them dry by lining my wok (lovingly seasoned by the Goose earlier) with corn flour. The flour got welded onto my wok, I tried to scrub it off and now the patina is gone!!

I tried to put the patina back, but the re-seasoning process caused all my laundry (hanging in the kitchen) and the whole house to stink of corn oil, and as a result, I had to do damage-control by boiling a pot of vinegar for half an hour.

Duh!!!

I finally found Thunder Tea Rice Recipe!!!!

Thanks to my information-bank The Imp, I finally found this!!

Recipe from The Star

Ingredients
20g ikan bilis, fried till crispy and chopped
30g baked groundnuts, chopped
30g sesame seed
15g Kuan Yin tea leaves (or any superior grade tea leaves)
5g chopped mint leaves
1 tsp salt
3l water

Side dishes (stir-fry with a bit of oil; add salt to taste except the pickled radish)

• 4 pcs beancurd, cut into small cubes and deep-fried
• 25g leek, sliced
• 250g dried shrimp, soaked, chopped and divided into three portions
• 300g French beans, finely sliced
• 300g pickled radish (choy poh), finely chopped
• 300g potato shoots (see chai choy)
• 300g asparagus, finely cut
• 300g cooked rice
  

Method

To prepare thunder tea soup: Use grinder or chopper to chop up ikan bilis, groundnuts, sesame seed and tea leaves until very fine. Pour in hot water and mix well. Return the soup to a pan and bring to the boil. Ready to serve.Add this soup to your cooked rice when you’re ready to eat.

To prepare side dishes:

1. Stir-fry leeks with deep-fried cubed beancurd (tau kon).

2. Fry the chopped shrimps until fragrant.then add finely cut french beans and lightly stir-fry.

3. Soak the pickled radish. Chop finely.lightly stir-fry.

4. Stir-fry potato shoots with chopped driedshrimps.

5. Stir-fry finely-cut asparagus with choppeddried shrimps.

6. To make baked groundnuts, toast groundnuts in the oven and remove skin after they have cooled.

7. To make fried ikan bilis, heat oil and fry ikan bilis until they’re crunchy.

To serve: Invert a small bowl of cooked rice into a large bowl. Scoop portions of the accompanying side dishes onto your rice. Pour hot soup over this and mix well before eating. You can add whatever side dishes you wish

My very first Almond Yogurt

Honestly, I don't know if this was a failure or not. It tasted sour alright, but I've no idea if this is yogurt-sour or just-gone-bad sour, since I'm lactose-intolerant and don't take yogurt!

ALMOND, FILBERT OR MACADAMIA NUT YOGURT
Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup whole, RAW blanched almonds or RAW blanched hazelnuts (filberts) or RAW macadamias
• 2 TBL clear honey
• Water
• Yoghurt starter (ProGurt by GI ProHealth) (I simply used fresh yogurt from here

Step-by-step instructions

1. Put all things you need on a tea towel on the kitchen table:blender, a fine sieve, some tea towels, the nuts, honey, two tablespoons, whisk, water, yoghurt maker + yoghurt container. Get the probiotics out of the freezer only when you need them.

2. Put nuts into blender

3. Add enough cold water to get a total of 4 to 5 cups / =1 litre

4. Add 2 tablespoons of honey

5. Blend for 10 minutes (use a stopwatch)

6. Pour about 1 cup of the nut milk through the fine sieve(You can squeeze out more liquid if you use a teacloth and twist it firmly.)NOW take your probiotics out of the freezer

7. Add 1/8 tsp of ProGurt yoghurt starter to the milk, per 1 quart of yogurt.

8. Stir well with whisk, add the rest of the milk, with back of spoon press out all liquids

9. Stir well and place container in yoghurt maker

10. Ferment for 8 hours.

11. Place in the fridge overnight or at least for 5 hours (overnight is better)

12. Get a bowl, put the sieve on the bowl, put a cheesecloth in the sieve

13. Pour the yoghurt in the cheesecloth so that it can drip

14. Drip for about an hour, or longer if you'd like the yoghurt thicker

15. By pressing the dripped yoghurt further, you can make something that resembles cheese.

The fermentation process takes place at about 105 Fahrenheit.As you see, I do NOT cook or heat the milk. After blending, the milk should be lukewarm, not warmer than 105F. If you heat more, the milk will separate and the fermentation will not take place.Try to find RAW nuts that have been through minimal processing. Deep frying them may be very tasty, but it will negatively affect the outcome and it is also a bit unhealthy.The sieve is such, that if you pour orange juice through it, there's no pulp in your glass.This nut yoghurt is a nice and safe alternative when you cannot tolerate goat's or cow's yoghurt (yet). Go for it!

Conclusion

Experimentation with yogurt-making over. I'm not crazy about it, neither is Tin Hang Zai and I doubt Little Pixie is going to inherit any cravings for yogurt from us anytime soon. We'll stick to acidophilus supplements.

Trans-Fat Free Instant Noodles

OK, so I love the IndoMie Mee Goreng flavour - and decided to switch to Koka Brand just to be safe. (This feels like the devil and the deep blue sea).

However, the MSG-free seasoning tasted quite terrible. So I tried concocting my own and Tin Hang Zai seems to prefer it to the Koka seasoning.

Here's the recipe. Drench your noodles in them.

• Oyster sauce
• Sweet Soy Sauce (there is only one brand selling this in the supermarkets, and this is NOT sweet sauce)
• Ketchup
• Sesame oil
• Chilli Powder (optional)

Everything is done to-taste. Hence, I didn't bother leaving exact quantities. Enjoy.

This Subway sucks!!!

Subway is the Pixies' choice whenever we crave junk food and don't want to go the full-trans-fat way of McDonald's or KFC.

Usually we go to the one in Holland Village but I think we won't go there anymore!!!

Canton Pixie: Can I have my cheese packed separately?
Waiter: NO
Canton Pixie: huh? *shocked look cuz never had such a response before*
Waiter: We don't allow cuz not in our operating procedure.
Canton Pixie (firm voice): No, THAT's not true, cuz the last time I came here you did it for me!
Waiter: *shrugs* ok, actually not allowed
Canton Pixie: *rolls eyes*
Waiter: Why do you want to separate the cheese?
Canton Pixie: Because I want to eat it separately? *sarcastic tone*
Waiter: *sniggers*

This place really sucks. I've seen the male boss before - never smiles at anyone, never serves customers even when there is a long queue and all his staff are busy. Just stands behind them and stares. Even put up a sign reminding all customers to help them by clearing their own tables.

I succeeded at YOGURT!!!!

My yogurt recipe finally succeeded after 3 tries!!!! Here's the final one:

1. Use PAUL's or Nestle plain yoghurt. (I used Nestle cuz it's much cheaper)
2. To begin your own batch, use 1 tablespoon for every 500ml of milk.
3. Scald milk to just bubbling and steam appearing.
4. Let cool to lukewarm - when you can stick your finger in and leave it there without feeling painful for 10 seconds, it's the right temperature. Alternatively, if you have a thermometer - when it reads 40-44 deg C.
5. Stir a bit of warm milk into the yogurt in a separate container and ensure the yogurt 'dissolves'.
6. Gently mix this into the main bulk of the yogurt-to-be.
7. Put into conventional oven, and set the temperature at 40 deg C and allow to set for 8-12 hours. Leave uncovered and door shut.
8. Yogurt is ready when it "feels" like yogurt (I could tip the container over and it was thick and creamy!! Yippeee!!!).
9. I monitored the temperature every hour or so (with my thermometer left inside the oven).
10. At 40 deg C, setting takes approximately 8 hrs.
11. Chill in fridge once done.
    

If you have no thermometer or oven - put the lukewarm yogurt-t0-be into a thermos or whatever container that will keep its temperature in the range 36-44 deg C for at least 5 hrs.

I made yogurt and lassi!!!

Considering that I'm lactose-intolerant, it's amazing I actually spent a day trying to make my own yogurt.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of my new friend Marianne.

Yogurt

1. Use PAUL's or Nestle plain yoghurt. (I used Nestle cuz it's much cheaper)
2. To begin your own batch, leave 1/2 (half) teaspoon of yoghurt (after eating up the rest of the Nestle tub)
3. Scald milk to just bubbling and steam appearing.
4. Let cool to lukewarm - when you can stick your finger in and leave it there without feeling painful for 10 seconds, it's the right temperature. Alternatively, if you have a thermometer - when it reads 36-44 deg C.
5. Stir milk into the half teaspoon yoghurt when it turns lukewarm.
6. Put into microwave (do not turn it on!) and allow to set for 8-12 hours. Leave uncovered and door shut. I used my conventional oven instead.
7. Put into fridge once done.

Lassi
Just put in about 3/4 glass of yoghurt into blender, put in 1/4 glass water, honey, banana or whatever catches your fancy. Blend. Yummy!!!

Tin Hang Zai seems to like it. If my yogurt continues to turn out so runny, I will use orange juice and turn it into Yakult / Vitagen!

Rent A Toy!

This is neat! We rented this for $49! From Rent-A-Toy! They even include free delivery and pick-up!

And so another friend leaves...

We have been in somewhat regular contact for 5 years. She organised my wedding. She bought me my first books on parenting when Little Pixie came along. She sent me encouragement when I did a crucial workshop.

She is the only friend who is more punctuality-challenged than I am. As impulsive and fleeting as I am.

I'm so sad to see her go. I was so bewildered by the suddenness. There was no warning. Just a week ago, she had been so enthused about a new initiative she wanted the group to consider. And this week she's changed her mind about being in this group.

There were many questions I wanted to ask.
'What about this new initiative you wanted to start?'
'Is there a new guy out there?'
'Is your official reason real?'
'Is there something you're hiding from us?'

But I didn't bother to. I could see her mind was made up. And if she'd wanted to answer all those un-asked questions, she would have.

Did the Great Shepherd tell her to go? Afterall He had led the rest before her. But with the rest - He'd given us ample warning. They told us way before that He was calling them elsewhere. With her - it was a bombshell. Lightning bolt out of the literal blue.

I feel resigned. God's will has no why. And I will take Lasik's advice and just "let things be".

When God takes away, He gives us better things instead. Better things will come.

Time Management for Manic Mums

I like this book! It works! And it's funny!

I think I was mean!

As much as I wanted to think of myself as being the confrontational sort, I don't think I am really all that confrontational. I just don't have the guts!

We were in the Cry Room during Easter Service. There were two other families. One (a man) was trying to concentrate on the proceedings. The other (a woman) was not.

For some reason, when the singing stopped and the sermon started, the woman started conversing very loudly with the trying-to-concentrate man about kids and stuff.

I bore with the din for a while. Fine, this IS the "CRY" Room but hey, people here are trying to listen to the sermon! After what seemed to me like a long while (hey, I didn't want to miss out on my sermon! Easter comes only once a year!), I decided that I didn't have the guts to tell her to shut up.

So, I walked silently to the volume control in the room and turned up the volume so that I could hear the speaker above her din.

After that, her child started screaming non-stop and she left the room.

Directions to Pixie Ville

If you are travelling via MRT, pls get off at THE MRT station. Once you are out of the station, please turn left and STOP THERE- you will see THE Mall on your right and a single block of condo units on your left. And in between the two, in the far distance, you should see some point blocks, one of which is mine. Just walk towards there. I've attached a picture of THE Mall and THE MRT station from my window - so hopefully you can figure out where I live!

If you are not the visual sort - here's the wordy instructions.
Once you get out from the station, turn left and walk straight along the station - you will pass an NTUC. Walk past the NTUC and take the escalator down. Once at the bottom of the escalator, turn right and walk towards the nearest traffic junction. Cross that junction and immediately turn right and walk along the path. Once you see a basketball court (which should be brightly lit, unless you are arriving at midnight), turn left and walk along the pathway straight towards the point block. There are 2 point blocks - one is right next to the community centre, and mine is the point block that's further away. At this point, if you are lost, you should look upwards and give me a ring. I should be able to see you from my window.

And so one door closes...

Yogi Bear told Boringtazz and me that he thought we were better off starting everything from scratch rather than trying to work with Longkang Fish. Said that LongKang Fish might turn out to be more of a liability than a leverage. Hedgehog was kind enough to take the time to strategise with us in dealing with LongKang Fish. Mael was there to give moral support too.

Longkang Fish tried to get us to agree to a bad deal, and pay us peanuts in the process. The only thing attractive was the possibility of securing new leads from this engagement. But the Ts & Cs didn't really allow us to secure any new leads. So with that plus the peanuts pay (it does not even cover our babysitting costs), we had to stand our ground and say, we will accede to your terms of not securing any leads, but we can't charge this low.

From all appearances, this door is CLOSED. I feel a sense of relief, and the thought of starting from scratch, starting afresh, away from the old place, energises and excites me.

We may or may not get another deal outside of Longkang Fish, I don't know. But we are giving this our best shot. At the end of the day, we will know that we tried, and we tried our best. I guess that's what really matters.

This breakfast sucks!

Boringtazz and the Canton Pixie just embarked on a huge project they are both really excited about.

One of their first meetings was held at this place. It's great for brainstorming and serious work in the afternoons. Inspiration really hits when you go through stuff like Hotdog in a Baked Potato (Lactose-free!!!), Cream of Mushroom Soup with Garlic Cheese Croutons and Crepes with Ice Cream!

However, the breakfast set sucks!! The Pixie Family suffered from bloating and rumbling tummies after eating the Breko-fast! They took an entire day to recover!!