New dress for Rou

The first time I have my eyes fall on this dress, it was at least half a year back before I officially moved to Singapore. I told myself, I am going to buy this dress for Rou's birthday. So I did not buy at that point of time. When it was getting closer to Rou's birthday, I bought another dress for Rou as I did not see the dress anymore in the store. Disappointed though...but today, I see this dress again and guess what, the entire store was offering 15% discount for all items. Without a second thought, I grabbed it before I regret again...it is just so pretty. Don't you think so ?

Pan-fried pork loin

Don't know what is the actual name for this dish but it is one of my favourite dish as it is simple yet tasty. This is mom's recipe:

Ingredient:
0.5 kg of pork loin
6 tablespoon of rice wine
6 tablespoon of light soy sauce
3 tablespoon of corn starch

Steps:
1. Slice pork loin into smaller pieces ( approx. 0.5 inch each)
2. Tenderize meat
3. Marinate meat with rice wine, light soy sauce and corn starch
4. Leave it in fridge for 1 hour
5. Pre-heat non-sticky pan
6. Put in some oil and pan fry the meat.
7. Once the colour of the meat turn brownish, it is ready to serve.

Sweet corn soup

I am so into cooking recently. While I can still remember the recipe, I think I better record it some way. Rou is very picky on her food. She no longer likes her baby food. I stop cooking her porridge before she turned one since she would never finish even half a bowl of her porridge. And yes, we have been feeding her adult's food. So whatever served on the dining table she will have a share.
Today, I am going to cook her soup since she loves it so much. I am not sure whether this combination is right. I saw it somewhere in the TV ad. Do tell me if there is anything I should add in. But so far, it tastes quite right and most important, Rou will finish her rice each time she has this soup.
Here's the recipe:

Ingredient
2 sweet corns chopped into 4 pieces each
1 carrot chopped into pieces (1.5 inch)
6 red dates to add the sweetness of the soup
1 chicken leg (peel off the skin so that the soup will not become too oily)
2 bowls of water

Steps
Boil the water. Once water is boiled, put in the chicken leg, wait until it is cooked and add in the rest of the ingredients. Boil for 10-15 minutes and transfered to a slow cooker an cook for another 3 hours.

Curry Chicken Recipe

I love spicy food. Curry, Tom Yam, Asam Laksa, whatever hot and spicy. After the episode of searching for Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaf, I now believe that the best cuisine will only come from my own kitchen. Not that I am a super chef, but seriously, who knows your taste bud apart from your own self ?
So, I decided to cook my own curry chicken. Perhaps you can try it out one day to see if we have the same sort of taste bud, haha....

Ingredient - A:
6 cloves of garlic
5 pieces of shallots
5 pieces of dried chili (soak in water to soften it)
2 Lemon grass stalks ( chopped into small pieces)

Ingredient - B:
0.5 kg chicken meat ( chopped into 1.5 inch each piece)
2 table spoon of curry powder
2 stalk of curry leaves
2 bowls of water
3 potato cut into pieces (not too small)

Ingredient - C :
0.5 small packet of coconut milk, dilute it with some water
1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt to taste


Step by step....
1. Blend ingredient A well.
2. Heat up the wok and pour in 5 table spoons of oil.
3. Fry ingredient A and curry leaves until fragrant and add in chicken meat and curry powder.
4. Once the chicken meat is tender, add in 2 bowls of water, add in potato.
5. Add sugar and salt to taste. Stir well and cook for another 10 -15 minutes.
5. Add in coconut milk and cook for another 15- 20 minutes.
6. Ready to serve

and here goes the end result.....

According to my mom, the secret for good curry chicken lays with the garlic. So never cook curry chicken without garlic. It really makes a difference !

Rice, anyone ?

Rou speaks !

Time flies. Rou started to learn how to speak with her broken baby language few weeks ago. Apart from "papa" and "mama", she now learn the word "下雨" - raining. Each time it rains, she will shout "ha yu" in her baby language.

She has now become more independent. She does not like to be carried, she does not like to be held and she does not like us to hold her hand. She just want to walk all by herself. In the house, she will play with her toy while I cook or busy with my house chores.
When i flash back to a year ago when she hits 2 months old, that was really nightmares to us. Rou was a colicky baby, we tried colic drops, we consulted 4 pediatricians, we changed her formula milk to soy-based milk, but nothing seemed to help. Only today I came across this website which introduces 100% natural colic cures. How I wish I would have came across this much earlier. They even show a colic video which is pretty informative for parents who know nothing about colics. When I recalled those days, it was the worst time ever in my life to see my baby in such pain and not being able to help her. Each day, we would just prayed hard that colic would not strike her, otherwise it would be an at least one hour crying session for her. It lasted for a long 3 months and trust me , that 3 months seemed to be 3 years to me.
Seeing her grow out of it was my greatest relief and now I am glad to see her smiley face every night before dozing off to her sweet dreams.

Rou's First haircut

The weather has been quite hot recently. My poor Rou has been sweating like mad in the afternoon especially during her nap time. With her thick hair, it is getting worst. Every time she wakes up, the pillow is like being soaked in water, sponging in all her smelly sweat, Erkk...

We decided to bring her to the salon at Toy'rus. Both of us were so nervous at first but after seeing a few toddlers went through the process, we were convinced. And yes, Rou did well for the first hair cut. She was very cooperative and teng...teng....this is her new look !

I am Back !

After 2 weeks of good food and great shopping back in KL,we are back to Singapore. Though it was great going back to our own place, life without broadband and cable TV was a great torture to me!
Since we left KL, we terminated our land line and cable TV. What we can do in the house when we were wide awake was listen to the radio which we never do when we stayed there.
The nearest place I can surf net was my parent's place which was using dial up. Can you imagine loading a page which took you a minute or 2 and worst if you load an image file, that would take you ages......so after few attempts, I gave up ! Surprisingly I still survive without internet. I have been so addicted to it!
Life goes back to my normal routine.Only difference is I now have a toddler. I keep telling Rou, you are no more baby...you are a to....ddler now ...Haha....
Here's how my little toddler toddling in the house with her favourite piggy bag :

Rou's first Birthday

No grand party, no fanciful birthday cake, just a family of 10 and a simple birthday cake, that was how we celebrate Rou's first birthday!
This little girl was a bit stunt when we light up the candle and sang her Happy Birthday song.
Of all the presents she received, she seemed to appreciate most the hand made birthday card from her beloved cousin brother. Just looked at how sweet she smiled when she hold the card.
Happy Birthday Rou, you have achieved your first milestone and there are many more ahead!