Oily Piece...

Growing up, my mum would buy you chia kuey (aka you tiao in Chinese) and hot soya bean milk back from the market every Sunday morning.

Today, while walking through the market next to my soi, I stopped at a vendor to pick some up.
Yes, they sell them in Thailand too! :)
Only thing is in Singapore they're much longer - like 2 hands' width long.

My breakfast this morning:







Dunk the you tiao into the hot soya bean milk...





Mmmmmm..... yummy!


OK, given it's pretty dang oily - deep friend and all.
But hey, why do you think they call it "you tiao"?

It's Chinese for oily piece! :p



ps: No, I have no idea what they're called in Thai. Should prolly find out. Heh.

It's True!!

Busy Busy Busy....

I've been blogging a lot - in my head.... other than that, am pretty busy with work and prepping for the arrival of the parental unit:


MySpace Countdowns


Will prolly update more next week after my folks have left and it's back to just me in my li'l box.


Ps: Baked salmon again and it was 100% better than before! *yataaa!!*

Cooking Conquests

I seem to be in quite a blogging mood right now.
So.... here are some pics from my cooking conquests over the last few days:

Li'l Box Cafe Presents....


Korean spicy chicken with mushrooms, onions, and kangkong on brown rice:







Baked herb lemon salmon with mixed veges on brown rice:







Baked mushroom pasta:











In case you want to try my easy peasy shortcut recipe for Baked Mushroom Pasta, here it is: (Disclaimer: Measurements might not be altogether accurate - please make your own "agar-ration" on how much to put of what! HA!)

basically...
boil 1 cup of campbells mushroom soup,
add in 1 ts chicken/mushroom seasoning,
1 T cream cheese (i use philidelphia)
half to 1 cup of milk,
italian herbs (u can buy from the store - mixed italian seasoning)
black pepper.

Bring to boil and add in sliced mushrooms,
boil for a bit, then add into casserole dish, mix ard with pasta (about 2 cups I think) cooked al dente. also mix in any brocolli or sliced capsicum.

bake in oven for about 30-40 mins on 180 deg cel.
don't worry - b4 u bake, the soup/milk mixture will be quiet liquid... it will boil to more dense.

last 5 mins, add in top layer of mozzerella cheese.

Presto!
easy peasy. ;)

Contented.

Just had a happy healthy lunch.
Ahhh, the joys of having one's own kitchen....
My first successful baking attempt without any recipes etc.


What I cooked for lunch:
Brown unpolished rice with
Mixed vegetables and
Grilled salmon (lemon)



Grrrrrrrrrrrreat!

Now I'm just chilling and enjoying the wonderful cool weather -which apparently according to a 7-day forecast, will not be lasting long. :(

NewSong in a bit, then will be catching Australia (Hugh Jackman!! *swoon*) with friends after.


LOVE weekends! :)

Mom's Roasted Chicken - Take 1

Having set up my new mini-kitchenette (yes, it's THAT small, it needs double emphasis), I tested my new microwave's grill/cook function.

Made a nice dinner for four... almost exactly how mummy does it - rice, roasted chicken, roasted pumpkin and carrots, and baked beans. :)

I haven't quite got the hang of using the oven yet... the chicken browned too much without cooking enough inside, so was not as tender as I'd have liked it.
Will work on the temperature settings next time... it's a tad difficult when the microwave only lets you select in Watts and not degrees celsius/farenheit. Sheesh....

So ok, pictures.
I really should have taken more pics, but am saving my camera battery cuz I left the charger in Sg, so have to wait till my folks bring it when they come for CNY.... until then, pics will be taken sparingly. (Although I definitely need to take some pics for school - am working on a monthly class newsletter now)


Ok, ok.... without further ado... I give you:

The setup - Li'l Box Cafe A La Shizz!








The guests/customers/patrons/test subjects/patrons....








The food.








The food from a different angle.

Does it look good?
It will be much better next time round! ;)

It's alive.... ALIVE!!!!

I took Anonymous' suggestion and tested pots with a magnet - wonder how common it is for people to be testing the base of pots and pans with a magnet in supermarkets...

The verdict is.... cheaper is better!
The good quality, stylo mylo pot I bought is SO good, it's not magnetic.
I just bought a small (Tesco Lotus) pot that IS... and...










TADA!!!


The induction cooker now works.




Sigh.

Who wants to buy a brand new pot from me?




















(And a big pan too)
Both are non-stick.

Seemingly the non-stick pans are all NOT made of bases that are magnetic.
Guess I'll be scrubbing my pots now.



No, seriously, who wants to buy my pot and pan?!!!
o__O

Grrrr.....

Got home around 6ish.

Pottered around (Dayz style) my box while the handymen fixed up the water to my new sink.
Now I have water running into the sink, but the drainage pipe hasn't been fixed yet.
In other words, I can't use the sink yet cuz if I do, I'll end up washing the balcony at the same time.


After Mr Fix It and Mr Help Him Fix It left, I decided I'd christen the induction cooker by cooking asam laksa maggi mee (and washing in the tiny washbasin after).
To my dismay... wait... no, dismay is putting it lightly - I almost sat down and cried when after about half an hour of trying, the cooker just would not work!

RJ has suggested (and I also read this in the manual whilst almost crying) that my pot might not be of the right material.
However, I don't know what material my pot is... it doesn't say! :(


SIGH.




So in the end, driven by hunger and frustration, I transferred the noodles into a bowl and cooked it in the microwave - a la nuked noodles.
SIGH.
It wasn't fantastic, let's just put it that way.


Then to cheer myself up, I marinated the chicken I had bought on the way home with mummy's secret roast chicken thigh recipe.
Also marinated some cubed chicken breast with spicy korean sauce... though I'm not sure when I'll be able to COOK it! (at least the roasted chicken I can do in my microwave which has a grill function.)



Then I looked at the clock.
WOW....

Time to sleep!!!



Oh and by the way, I'm now almost two-thirds of the way through a small bottle of Sprite which I've been drinking since 2008. HA! No kidding! Since mid-Dec last year! How often can you say THAT???? LOL....

Investing in the Future

Seeing my two grandmas lately, and even my parents and aunties and uncles who are getting older, has gotten me thinking about old age.

We can't deny certain facts in our lives - we are born, we live, we die.
Some die young, some grow old and die.
Some people, when old, lose control over many things - their physical body, their mental state... it's just a matter of time.

Or is it?


Many of the sicknesses and troubles of old age can probably be attributed to lack of foresight/planning/control in youth.

Let's face it - the great problem of the young is that the young tend to live like there's no tomorrow.
In other words, the young do not usually think,"Oh, if I continue to party every night and sleep late, I will be incurring a huge sleep debt and which might one day lead to Parkinson's when I am old."

Ha.

No, I've been through that blatant blindness, and have passed the stage where I can do something without thinking twice about the consequences.

One of my favourite quotes from this movie called Closer is:
"She has the moronic beauty of youth"
I think it's just so aptly described,
Youth have a kind of beauty that will never be revived - it is a moronic beauty, a kind of beauty that is entirely disrespectful of the reality of life that we live in.
Because at that age, we can still afford to take everything for granted.


Well, here are several articles I came across about how what we do and what we eat affects what kind of old person we will become:
Blood Sugar Linked to Good Brain Health
Brain Malnourishment Triggers Alzhiemer's
REM Sleep Disorder Linked to Parkinson's



So... at the start of this new year, why not start planning:
What kind of old age will you be investing in?

KAWAIIIIIII!!!!!!

Watched this movie - Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea - today with Luann, Joelle, Victor, Dillon, and Chun How... it (the movie) was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!
ACK!

If you haven't seen it and are a fan of anime and/or cute things, I strongly advise you to watch it.
Entirely heartwarming and very very very (dare I be this repetitive?) CUTE! :p



I've put the song from the soundtrack on the imeem player on the left - press PLAY to listen.

And here's the trailer:


LOVED IT!
Watashi wa suki desu ne!

****


In other news... I pierced my ears (again) !!!

A few years ago, I had 2 pairs of ear holes... somewhere along the way, I let 1 side "seal up" cuz of some infection or maybe I just forgot to put earrings into the hole and it just closed up... so I had 1 and a half pairs of ear hole for a while.
Then it just got too troublesome... so I let the other 1 close up.

I'd been thinking about getting that 2nd pair pierced again.... so today, with the encouragement and moral support (and a few sadistic jibes from Victor) of my friends, I mustered up the courage to do it!

Nice way to start the new year huh?
I figured now that I'm picking up my fascination for earrings again, I might as well enjoy it. hahaha...

Joelle took a video of the piercing.. which I MIGHT put up later on. Heh.

****

After the movie, we all walked a short distance to the nearby hawker center for some food... and guess what I found?
An old childhood favourite - a kind of pancake (not unlike the ones sold in Thailand) something that Reu and I used to LOVE eating for breakfast on Sunday mornings and during school holidays... our favourites were the cheese-filled ones and corn-filled ones. I think I might have liked them more than Reu, but it sure was a trip down memory lane... we used to kinda fight over who would have more. Of course mummy was always fair and bought us the same number each.


Memories like that are just nice to have and savour. :)

This is what I want for breakfast tomorrow....

Nasi Lemak (Literally translated as "Rice Fat")



























Roti Prata and Tek Tarik (Literally translated as "pulled tea")

















Chee Kuey


























Chee Cheong Fun



OK, maybe not all at once, but definitely will enjoy my breakfasts in Singapore - the one thing Thailand loses out to for sure: Breakfast variety!!!

The only thing that would have made it even more perfect.... MUSHROOMS!!! Mmmmm.....

With all this blogging about doom and gloom lately, I thought it best to make a lighthearted post.

So here's what I made for dinner yesterday and today (yep, making more food so that I can eat leftovers the next few days is great! hahahahaha...)

PS: Don't die ok Deanna??? :p

Our Amazing Body....

God designed such a wonderful body for us... our body's natural abilities to heal itself never ceases to amaze me.

2 days after food poisoning that kept me up all night (and made an embarrassing mess in Lotus at one point too! Sorry Dwight!), I feel almost good as new!

But I've learned several things - our body's ability to heal itself can be aided by proper rest and nutrition (or cleansing / lack of thereof in this case)... and conversely can be hindered by bad nutrition and bad personal habits.


In a generation of processed foods, preservatives, bird flu and the like... one should be extra careful what one puts into one's body, no?

WOW!

The whole food delivery option just got a lot better!

Asian Egg Treats!

Just thought of these today for some reason... the century egg and the salted duck egg.
Goes SOOOOO good in chok (congee).... mmmmmmMMmmmM.....

A night out with the BloGGals...!

Lerie and I are on term break, and the rest... well, the rest just joined in our celebration!
(We also added in a mini-celebration in honour of Nok and Ryan's new *ahem* friendship!)

So we decided to pig out at Coffee Beans...

OK, not all of us have blogs.. but at least half of us... I'm hoping more will join soon...? ;)


Dolly, me, Lerie, Nok.





Nok, Hazel and Maile.




Me and Lerie.




Hazel



My yummy mango lassi.




Greens.....




Yummy sub-dried tomato spaghetti with smoked salmon.





Mmmm.... Blueberry....



Mmm... Strawberry....




Mmm... Carrot....




Our assortment of cakes....





Gone! (almost)




Lerie gettin dirrrrty....




Hazel gulping down her cake!

Meet The Parents.

Today I had a full day of talking to parents.
It was interesting to say the least.

For one thing, I've noticed that... WOW... genes are strong! Sometimes I caught myself practically staring because the parents looked so much like their kids, ok rather kids looked like their parents.
I mean practical carbon copies sometimes!

Also, I noticed how most of my kids behaved, or rather took after many their parents. I could easily see usually which parent the child was like, and hence while talking to the parent, I could almost imagine what that person was like as a child in class!


Then, there are the types of parents:

• Assured parents
• Nervous parents
• Anxious parents
• Nonchalant parents
• New-age parents

Not that I'm generalizing or stereotyping... or at least trying not to. But it's just that I noticed our talks fell into those several categories.


It was good though... having a meet with the parents.
I was able to contextualize their children a little better, and with some, even brainstormed ways to help their children (and the class in general), and to give them tips for helping their kids at home.


So all in all, it's been a good day.
I'm looking forward to term break so I can have time to work on putting some of these ideas into my lesson planning.

But first..... THE WEEKEND'S HERE!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!

ps: Day 3 is still good - am reaping the benefits of the green smoothies already - feel happier, less tired, and definitely have got good bowel movements. HA!

Day 2 - Going Bananas....?

What got dumped into my smoothie today:

Veges:

• carrots
• cucumbers
• kang kong

Fruits:

• apples
• pears
• grapes
• bananas (3)

Mmmm....
I like how the bananas make the smoothie creamy and sweet.
Good protein-dose for the morning, and I feel less hungry than yesterday.

My smoothie-to-go was a lot bigger than yesterday's bottle - twice the size in fact. :)

Green Smoothie Madness

OK, so I decided to put pics up of my green smoothie prep:

My so-called "kitchen".
Let's just say that I REALLY miss actually having counter space!
(Not to mention a stove and a BIG sink!)



Stocking up on fruit...



Stocking up on veges...



Must-haves:
Big bowl and water to wash, and vege soap to get rid of harmful pesticides and fruit wax.




Spinach!




Put whatever combination you like in...




Blend the heck outta it.....




And hey, presto - Green (in this case ORANGE) smoothie!

Sorry- my battery died when I went to take a pic of the full glass, and I want to drink it fresh, so by the time I managed to get the camera working again, I had finished it.
What lah - it was SO good!!!