Happy Mother’s Day to All The Super Mums Out There

“The Hardest Job In The World, Is The Best Job In The World”

Clemens is 7 years old, Damir is 5 years old. I will say one of my greatest achievement is to have them in my life. I am not sure if they are my hardest job because they have not given me much probem when I was a full time mum and even being a working mum, I am very lucky to have my own mother taking care of them and a supportive hubby who is always there.

Though not hard, it is a different kind of challenge. The challenge that makes you feel that you are constantly on a roller coaster not knowing what surprises will come out and this ride is a never ending ride even till the day they set up their own family.

Whatever it is, being a mother in today’s context has brought motherhood to a whole new level and I will like to wish all mothers out there a very:

And I will also like to thank:

My Little Darlings

for giving me this wonderful opportunity of being a MUM!!

The BeST job in the world!!

My Little Man

A few days ago I receive a call that I guess no mum will not want to receive.Ring Ring ………….goes my phone.

• Caller: Is that Damir’s mum?
• Mum: Yup That is me. Who is that?
• Caller: Damir’s got injured in school.
• Mum: Huh……. What’s happen?

That is when the teacher started explaining how he cut himself with the scissors during Art & Craft lesson and was bleeding quite alot. Without hesitating, I just packed up and left the office. On the way I was just thinking, “oh gosh, I hope nothing too serious had happened.”

Damir being the baby of our family is one the most accident-prone child we had. He had just broken his head a year ago when he dropped into the drain and now I am told he cut himself with the scissors??????? I was trying to imaagine all the things he had done to cut himself and all the possible questions. Did he try to bite the scissors???? Did he accidentally cut the paper and push it to his lips? Did he cry badly? Was stitches needed? What kind of scissors were they using at school?”

By the time I arrived at the medical centre, I was told that they had just left back for school. So it was back to school. When I saw my baby, he had this huge ugly plaster on top of his lips.

The Nasty Bandage

I was also told how brave he was without shedding a single drop of tear.  All he did when it happen was he just pressed his hands to his bloody wound which totally freak the teachers out which I am really proud of.

Anyway when I finally got the whole story together, I wasn’t exactly happy with what the teachers told me initially that he cut himelf when it was actually a classmate who did it. Still when I saw my baby alright, the teachers freaked out, the other parent apologizing profusely and his best friend crying her heart out, what more can I say as long as my baby is fine.

No nope I am not angry with his classmate as I understand it is all child’s play and she never meant. Through this I can also see what a fine little boy I have when he was consoling his little friend not to cry and he is alright.

• Damir: Don’t cry C, don’t worry I am fine.
• Classmate: (still crying)
• Damir: (Patting n wiping away her tears) I am a man
• Damir: (To classmate’s dad) Uncle don’t scold her ok.

Hehehe this boy of mine, even when hurt really never fails to bring laughter to my heart.

The Nasty Cut Getting Better

The Really Really Sweet Card made by the Classmate.

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Labour Day Is Indeed Labour Day

Happy Labour Day to All!!

Yup it is a holiday today but yet I am stuck working. Nope I am not stuck working in the office but I am stuck working to the demands of my 2 little boys. They were asking me to cook this and bake that for them since quite sometime ago and it was Nasi Lemak (aka coconut rice) that they wanted.

Our Home-Made Nasi Lemak

Well ok I know I coud have bought it for only perhaps S$2.00 at the hawker but somehow or rather I guess it seems to be different if it is lovingly cooked by mummy. I have come across many recipies some using butter, some using lemongrass, some adding ginger and some giving it a good fry before transferring it into the rice cooker. But at the end of the day, I still like my mum’s simple recipie of just using the coconut milk, salt and pandan leaves. Nothing too fanciful but yet light on the palate with the frangrance of coconut whaffling into the nose for every mouthful of rice.

It has been quite sometime since I last cook this dish and am quite hesitant about sharing this even with the thumps up of my hubby and the screming declacaration of my 2 boys, “Mummy this is better than the ones outside!!” But along came my mum and after a few mouthful of it, she was nodding her head in approval and that is when I decided to share this with you guys.

It is indeed really simple with only 4 easily founded ingredients in Singapore. The following recipie is just nice for 4 person in the family with some extras for a 2nd helping.

Ingredients

• 400g Rice (approx. 2.5 cups)
• 300ml Coconut Milk (You can choose to squeezee out the coconut milk from freshly grated coconut or buy the off-shelf pack.)
• 300ml Water
• 2-3pcs Pandan Leaves
• 1/2tbs Salt (I am using low sodium salt so you might need less if yours is the common table salt)

Method (With Step-By-Step Photo)

1. Wash and rinse out the rice.
2. Pour in 300ml of coconut milk. Do not use coconut cream as it is too thick. It prevents the rice from cooking well and gives a rather nasty sticky taste in the mouth.
3. P0ur in 300ml of water. I have ratioed the coconut milk with the amount of water to 1:1. The total of this mixture should be the amount  of water you will need to cook you daily white rice if you get what I mean.
4. Add in the salt and mix the rice mixture well.  Do a taste test. The salt will enhance the flavour of the cooked rice. I have used slightly a little more salt as my salt is the low sodium kind and is not very salty. You might like to start with 1/4 tablespoon first, taste for the saltiness and gradually add more if any is needed.
5. Wash the pandan leaves cleanly and tie it into a knot. Trim off the ends.
6. Add in the panda leaves. The leaves will further bring out the fragrance os the rice. Now the rice is ready to cook.
7. Half way through the cooking time, open up the lid and give the rice a quick fluff. Close and continue cooking till rice is ready. In giving a quick fluff, this ensures that every grain of the rice is cooked and also prevents the bottom of the rice from burning.
8. When rice is ready, serve hot with the side dishes you like. I kept mine simple with the boys’ favourite usuals- fried sunny side-up and fried chicken wing.

See really simple right? Nothing too difficult. Somethings are best kept simple.

My boys happily finishing their 2nd serving

Have I also mentioned that I baked a Orange Chiffon Cake for the boys? The taste is really great but the height not really great. The texture not cottony-soft enough to my liking. I am not sure if I have added too much flour or I have not beaten the yolk well enough or my cake pan a little too huge hence it can’t rise well. so I am not sharing it at the moment till I do a little more experiement on it. But I have got the pictures to share though.

Ever seen such a short chiffon cake?

Texture is light and airy but a little too structured for my liking. Love the orangy taste of it.

Whatever it is, passing through a day like this makes me feel I am totally blessed especially looking at my boys enjoying a game while I am updating this entry tonight. Especially with the boys loving their food and Clemens asking to reserve a slice of cake to be brought to school tommorow, nothing really can satisfy me other than these.

Playing A Game of "Don't Fall Down"

What can be a better way to spend a day like this?

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Best Brunch Ever

“ Sitting in the midst of luscious greens in a small cozy like cottage. having brunch, sipping tea with the cold breeze settling on the skin, making small talks with my boys. That is Absolute BLISS!!!”

Exams are over for the term, I have had my parties with my friends. My hubby had taken the loving thoughts to book us a place at the Riders Cafe since 2 weeks ago via Chope Instant Reservations

51 Fairways Drive, Bukit Timah Saddle Club, phone bookings: +65 6466 9819, Closed on Mondays.

The moment I step in, I will say I fell in love with the place first before the food. The interior so cozy, my hubby got us a window seat where the boys can look out at the stable while having their food (Just a pity it was raining that day, not many horses to look at). Looking at the vast of greens, it doesn’t seem that I am in Singapore anymore. It just reminds us of The Village Green at Highfields that we use to frequent during our stay at Australia. Thanks Hubby, I am loving it so much

The Interoir, Us and The Boys looking out into the Stables

The boys sure did enjoy themsleves watching a lady scrubbing down her house though it is a far cry from what they had experience at our home in Aussie where we stay across a range and them feeding the horses every evening with my apples and carrots. They thought that they could do the same here and kept asking us if we could feed it with apples and of course the answer was, “No…” .

The Horsy Taking its Bath

Anyway when our food came, it was WOW, Wow, wow….. At least for Clemens and I, our food were absoultely gorgeous. I had the Soft-shell crab egg benedict, while Clemens had ‘The Usual’ which is scramble eggs on toast with sussage and BACON. Yup Bacon is his favourite. My egg benedict was absolute divine with the crunchiness of the soft-shell crab in each bite dipped in the runny yolk of the poached eggs. The fresh side greens keeps everything down without giving you the feeling of being over-fed.

My Soft-Shell Crab Egg Benedict, Clemens's 'The Usual' and Damir's Kiddy Meal

As for my hubby, he ordered the normal egg benedict which he thought was really normal and at the moment he still prefers the one we had at Forty-Hands. As for Damir, we thought we will get him the kids meal that sounded really yummy French Toast Drizzled with Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce topped with Marshmellows but in actual the smell and taste of cinnamon was abit over powering for his liking and not too much to my liking as well.

Hubby and our boys really busy eating

However overall, we still enjoyed ourelves, the atmosphere, the small talks we made to each other. Time seem to stop for us a little while then and my favourite are these:

Our Ever-sweet Damir

The Manly Clemens

The Boys Debating Who to Have the Last FRIES

Have I mention that the strawberry milkshake is great too but only a little too sweet? Whatever it is, we have decided that this shall be one of our hangouts from now.

This brunch is great because of who we are with.

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What A GOOD Friday!!!

If you ever remember that we have promised the boys that we will go kite flying again, well we did. And since it is the public holiday-Good Friday which meant we have more time, we decided to go to Marina Barrage.

The boys all got all so excited upon seeing all the kites swimming in the blue clouds

Upoon arriving I realised that it is the same old Marina South which my hubby and I use to date. So if you were to ask me, I will prefer the old place with the great vast of green where we can run around instead of the small piece of green where we have on the top of the roof of Marina Barrage now. If ya get what I mean.

Anyway back to the topic, we drove through McDonalds to ‘ta-bao’ (meaning-take-away) some food for our little picnic.

The boys laying out their items

We found a nice place to lay our stuff and because it rained earlier that morning, the field was rather muddy.

The boys quickly got into action and my hubby was again having a hard time getting the kite up because of the wind. So flying a kite is not as simple as it seems.

Daddy fixing up the kite

Our Doreamon preparing to take flight

Yipppe our Doreamon has taken flight

But the boys still enjoyed their themselves very much especially when we rented the scooters for the boys to explore around.

S$10 per half an hour

After a few hours of play, we got so hungry that we had a sumptous steamboat dinner at Imperial Treasure Steamboat. I have been always meaning to try this out but hubby has always felt the price tag abit too hefty. So when he suggested having steamboat for dinner, I quickly jumped at the chance.

Hubby thinking about what to order

We had the 2 person set meal which is really quite a lot for 2 person but because adding in our 2 little dear boys who finished up the meat, I wished there was more meat.

But overall, I seriously love the thick and rich soup base. We chose the traditional pork bone soup base and I love the sauce that the lady mix for us with 12 condiments. It was superb yummy espeially when you dip in the meat.

The 12 Condiments

From clockwise: delicious sauce mix from the 12 condiments, the 8 treasure balls, the fresh sallops and and pork, my favourite bamboo clam

There were more food but I only managed to take these. Was too hungry and busy eating.

See hubby and Clemens busy cooking their food in the thick and rich broth.

Hubby too busy tucking in

Clemens cooking his prawns

As Clemens said, “Best day of the year !!” I am looking forward t more of these.

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