CNY Dinner @ Home sweet home

I know CNY is over, n this post is long overdue...but I still need to share with you guys this!
It's the first time i tried my hands on Braised Mushroom...A must for us Cantonese. n i'm so happy that i succeeded in making it. :-)









The Herbal chix as usual was great!











This was the pot of braised mushrooms and seamoss together with dried oysters which I was raving about



















The commercial yam rice was far from perfect...in fact, it tasted very chemical












A spread! ..the golden stuff at the back of the picture is actually scallop cakes...miss em..mommy used to cook for me....n the prawns -- Salt and Pepper version. NIce










Now you see it, now you don't! Come early next time. :-)

Horrid Schedule

It's the start of 2009 and the cycle begins with frustration and disorientation. Been bothered by the messed up schedule since last wk due to the introduction of a potential newbie. Checked with him when he is having his other classes and was told that tues and thurs are supplementary days, wed is math tuition day, saturday is Chinese tuition day. After staring hard and doodling with several probabilities (for 2hours!), I came up with the perfect schedule -- Tuesdays and Sat late afternoon. (initially, i had proposed Wed and Sat)....Guess what? his Chinese tutor (who I know personally) smsed me, telling me that he actually has CL tuitions on Tues as well as Sat! To make matters complicated, after school, he goes to daddy's shop and watch for daddy to send him home! Thus on average, he'd be home at around 5pm!! Seems like the CL tutor knows more about the kid than the mom. I tried speaking to the mom, but 2 sentences into the conversation and she asks me to speak to son instead. When I suggested for her to chcek if Math tutor is able to swop, her reply was "she's been with the boy for a very long time...i scared to ask her..the tutors all arrange amongst themselves and then let my boy know"..WOW! Solid! Sweetie speculated that perhaps she's the stepmum!haha..anyway, to make matters worse, after making what I thought was a finalisation at the beginning of the month, came yet another surprise! Another request to swop to Saturday!! Great. it's as if my Sats ain't packed enough. With this, sweetie, if you are reading (which I bet u are not), I hope u are happy that no one bothers u practically every day, and probably nite (since u sleep early and I come home late). U'd probably not miss me and play more golf instead on Saturdays. They say absence makes the heart fonder...hmmm, whoever said that is a LIAR!

No one can empathise the problem/ agony I'm undergoing (unless u are in the same trade) --having to please all avenues. I often have "concern" parents asking if I've eaten and when i said NO...they went "ohhh...oh dear...no wonder u r sooo slim"...then there'd be a dead silence. fortunately not all are like that. Some are really nice, cooking my dins, buying KFCs etc for me...No wonder I'm still so 白白胖胖！At the end of the day, they are only concerned about their kids having enough rest or having their lunch b4 the lesson. Can't blame them, but yet, I'm running a tight schedule here, thus can't expect me to accommodate to everybody!

Alright. Enough of rantings. I've stared and reshuffled things for over an hour. Several people will be affected once again. Hopefully, they are kind enuff to accept the proposal..One hiccup and u'll probably hear from me again. *breathe*

Don't Quit (not refering to smoking!)

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you've trudging seems uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smilke, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

And everyone of us sometimes learn

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out,

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow. (ERRrrrrrm I certainly dont need any blows!)

Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far

So stick in the fight when you're hardest hit,

It's when things seem worse,

That you must not quit!

PS: The above poem ain't created by me...I'm not that poetic....nevertheless, I'm trying to motivate myself and tell myself to push on in this stage of confusion. lots going on in the mind.......tick tock tick tock.....

New Look 2009

Wooo hooo..I'm a happy girl despite the nasal voice! Why? Coz I've finally given my blog a new look!! It's not easy ok, considering that I didn't know how to retain the widget. Usually if you were to override the template with a new template, all your old widgets will be gone! BOO HOo.....but after much research, I did it! had to read thru tons of html but it was worth it! U'd notice (or not) that my mario and golf games are gone...they were too large for the sidebars thus i had to take em out..not like I play la..I'll probably try dabbling with colours next...Was feeling a little useless and out of focus the last couple of days. Especially since I'm feeling under the weather. Fortunately this little project made me feel better. Achievement! SEe, all u need is a small goal to achieve and u'll feel perked. Then again, I've got loads of small goals to tackle...wonder when will i be done.

The header was initially made out of plain toast, but I thought it's boring and gave it a booster! Not bad huh?

My Pussy Willows have bloomed!

Received an sms from sweetie yesterday and was pleasantly delighted. nono...that's an understatement...I was ecstatic! ok, that's too much....but I'd certainly be if my wishes come true. My Pussy Willows have bloomed! Do you know what this means? this Saturday HUAT AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: Just came back from breakfast at Siglap..this little noodle stall opposite SHELL....u'd usually have to wait an hour b4 your noodles arrive. Today, it's fast. I've only managed to flip through a page of the papers and my noodles arrived! Anyway, that's not the highlight. Guess who i saw? Casandra See...>Xue Shu Shan...duno if I got the Hanyu Pinyin right. She seems the same on screen....looks a little looney!haha..but then again, she has a tai tai air in her!...I bet the BMW convertible i saw parked outside is hers! Lucky woman,....rich hub..plus she has the fame (well ok, not that much else she wldnt be eating at a kopitiam, but still some fame) and she also has an accessories shop at Parkway which I patronized 2 yrs back for my ROM. The designer does great stuff, but it's a little pricey though. I think this little 132 noodle stall is pretty famous...I'm always bumming into celebs. THe last time I saw Clarence Lee.....u know that makeup artist? He was there with a few other gay frens. (I dont wish to offend anyone...n I certainly have nothing against gays, but they certainly act like gays. :-))

Bad Back

Went for massage @ Roxy Sq on Sunday and the lady said my back and neck were extremely tensed. I told her that my lower back was aching badly as I stood the entire day literally to prepare for the family feast. The back was so bad, my swings went haywire when I was at the range on Sunday morning. I felt terrible coz I think I'm probably not that cut out for the game. Sweetie must be disappointed since he bought the shoes for me. I'm not too enthusiastic about the game now that I've realised my limited capabilities. You'd need a fair bit of talent for such a game. Practise don't always equate to perfect in this case. But nevertheless, at least I made effort in exercising. Think I'm simply wasting my life. Feeling extremely lazy this year for some reason. In fact, today was terrible...was awoken by an SOS msg from my student @9+am....did some miscellaneous work and went on to eat the fried rice prepared by sweetie (it was pretty delicious...thanks for my perfect instructions!...shhhhh let you in on a secret-- MIRIN SAUCE..yup! that's the secret recipe...try it, it's nice..but don't add too much) Anyway, after lunch, I concussed. Totally knocked out till cousin-in-law came. think i must have slept for 1/2hr...following that, i travelled all the way to Hougang for my first lesson. Shortly after and v enthusiastically, I made my way to Toa Payoh for my next class, only to be greeted by a rude shock -- THE KID AND GRANDMA WEREN"T AT HOME! this family has communication breakdown. Kid has short term memory and granny often channels her energy to screaming and naggin at people instead of remembering things. The mom is working and often leave the scheduling to me. Basically, she doesn't keep track of things. It's dysfunctional, but it's part of my job -- to be tormented by such situations. I waited for 1/2hour but still no sight of them. Eventually, the mom called to say perhaps they went to the temple...she kindof remembered granny saying something about temple! CHAMPION. I left, not knowing how to kill time (It was an hour b4 my next class)...thus, I went home (since it was on the way)...n guess what I did? SLEEP! AGAIN! OMG....n this was amidst the noise cousin-in-law was making whilst playing with the PS2! I think i'm becoming a pig! not only am I getting utterly fat, I'm getting lazy too! HORRIBLE. I need to really get back the old me and be focus! That will probably come after I nurse my back to health. Check out the photo below...horrendous looking right? The lady did somethin called BA GUAN..seems like I've got a truckload of wind and tension in mi, judging by the colour of the mark!

Was playing a "body parts" game with Little Samantha...The aim is for her to recognize the various words and link it to her body. It's kindof long to be explaining the rules, but basically the one with the most number of cards stuck on her body is the loser. Obviously, judging by the look on my face, I lost. :-(

Can't recall if I've mentioned this, but last Friday, i went to Maple Clinic @ Tampines. It's apparently extremely famous for its products and the doctor who's a professional dermatologist has cured many faces. I thought I should just give it a try..this was the queue that greeted me @ 830am! It's amazing. Mind u, that's the queue to take your number. U'd have to wait another 2-3hours before u can see the doc. On avg, it takes the doc 8-10mins to see one patient. In fact, I went to the market, went home and came back at 1230, it was still not my turn. Finally when all was over, it was 230pm!! I've waited an amazing 6hours!! It's insane! There's even this someone who came all the way from yishun to q at 5am, just to be first in queue! She better be of help to my face, else I'll so hate her! But then again, she's really well "preserved" for a woman her age. She must be above 50 yet she looks very well maintained. n Dr Ong's extremely patient. In fact, three of us entered (me, sis-in-law and her bf) and we took a whopping 40 mins for consultation! at that point in time, Dr Ong has yet to eat her lunch! Yet she entertained our every question! Goodness, I wonder what's her monthly salary!How i wish i can turn back time and study to be a doctor! I was deceived back then, into thinking that doctors always deal with blood! I faint at the sight of blood thus I chose a totally different course. Sigh...guess I can only bang my hopes on my kids!

Food, Glorious Food!

The Festive period seems a little quiet this year. Laziness seems to be in the heart of all. From students to working adults, everyone don't seem to get back to work after the two days of hols. I guess it's tough to get our butt up after all the Ba Kwas and snacks! Some even took leave to stay home or continue with their gambling escapades. For me, it's back to work on Wednesday.

Hail Her Mighty-Randomness....following are some snapshots of what happened over the last few days:

This was a simple meal whipped up within half an hour. Simple but certainly no lack of ingredients! It's afterall the CNY! Just in case u are wondering, it's vermicelli with clams, mushrooms, fake abalone, prawns scallops, yellow beans (for the stock) and egg. Is that delicious or what! Indeed the soup was extremely sweet!

In addition to the scrumptious noodle delight, Sweetie was starving thus I had to stuff him up with a bowl of sharksfin. Opened a can of New Moon Sharksfin and added some clams and mushrooms. Tasted HORRiBLE!! Never will I buy another can of New Moon sharksfin...tasted fake and filled with metal aftertaste!

Boiling my power stock!

Had my parents, 2nd and 3rd uncles and family over for dinner on Saturday. Guess who was the Chef? yours truly! :-) I was so up to my neck with the preparations that I forgot to take pictures of the feast! But let me give you a brief of what I whipped up:

1)Pumpkin Soup

2) Lotus Soup (I had to cook two diff soups coz daddy dearest doesn't like pumpkin!)

3) Herbal steam fish (this turned out to be a little hard, but overall the taste was alright and fish was fresh)

4) Spinach with braised mushroom (as a true blue Cantonese, Braised mushroom is a definite item durin CNY! n yeepee, it's the first time I'm cookin this and I succeeded. 2nd aunt commented that it's a little salty though. She n mom are a little on the health conscious side...

5) Scallop Bacon (a hit with the kids and adults)

6) fried Fritters (u know the famous dish served at zhi cha stalls?...I even made the salad cream concoction myself!)

7) Curry Chicken (Daddy and 2nd uncle and cousin Michelle had two bowls of rice! It says a lot right? :-)

8) Prawn Paste Chicken (A big hit again!!! yeepee...but I felt that it's still not right....need to improve...2nd aunt said it's a little too salty again. But 3rd uncle gave me a 8.9/10!)

9) Garlic Prawns (Really succulent! Great to chew and suck on too! Deep fried the garlic and refried them with the prawns. Turned out really good! Pity I had limited pictures!)

10) Durian puffs and barley gingko nut dessert (this was a favourite with the adults!)

I only managed to take some pictures of the prep table and some leftovers. Check out the dessert -- Barley Gingko Nut. ....gingko is supposedly brain food! I managed to cook it till it became milky! All thanks to the right type of beancurd! Looks like Soya Bean drink! Mommy and relatives were impressed! Mommy even thought I added milk! Ha! I had to teach her HOW to make it that perfect! For years, mommy has been cooking this, but it tasted horrid..her beancurd's always tough and her soup is always tasteless and not sweet enuff. mine is just nice! Am proud of ME!

See my Curry and prawns! My Curry was a success!

See my darling Cong Cong! Silly her sneeked into the toilet and drank sips of oil leftover from my cooking pan! She ended up having a smelly and oily "beard"!ahah

This was taken today. SAMSUI CHICKEN! I had loads of leftover soup...lotus and pumpkin. I finished some, together with the curry for lunch today. It was good. Soup seems to taste better overnight! Strange..oxidation perhaps? Anyway, the chicken rice meal was a last min decision. Whipped up in half an hour! Am I smart or am I smart?haha...I even made the ginger sauce which u can see at SOUP RESTAURANT. best of all, I managed to make my own Chicken rice chilli! It was really easy actually.

Ok, enough excitement for the day, time to rest my aching back. By the way, went for a massage today and the lady said I had loads of wind in mi thus the aches and pains..esp at my lower back. Thus she suggested that she does BA GUAN on me. Which was essentially cupping little glass cups over my back and "suck" in the wind. I ended up having 8 hugeass circles on my back. Mind u, they are horrendously dark! Similar to bruises! It is said that the darker they are, the more aches/ pains/ wind u have! Holy Cow! I think i'm intoxicated with pain then. Will try to post some pictures on my next post.