Lamb shank in its various forms is one of our favourite family dish. I usually make it western style, slow cooked in red wine and balsamic vinegar.

But it is also delicious as a curry. For this dish, I used M-I-L’s curry chicken recipe and replaced the chicken with the lamb.

The lamb is so tender the meat falls off the bone, and the sauce is absolutely lovely with rice!

Keira reading a book to little bro:

And I made pau! Following this recipe.

Our maid has been with us one week now, and I can feel the difference already.

We have been able to sit down together for dinner every night and eat peacefully, while Sean gets what he wants: someone to carry him around.

I am beginning to realise I don’t have to cook one pot meals anymore, and can basically make anything I want, as there will be someone there to either help me with the chopping and cleaning or carrying the baby.

As a result we have been eating in alot more, and eating nicer food

And the most significant difference is that we are spending more quality time with the kids.

Where one week ago, we might have been trying to wash dishes and clean up after dinner, and have to tell Keira: “Wait, wait, we can’t play with you yet.” Now, we can all sit down together and enjoy some family time. It’s wonderful!

Of course it’s not all perfect. The problem is mainly to do with me. I am too nice, and don’t like to tell people to do things. I am automatically friendly to everybody.

So now am having trouble telling the maid what to do and what not to do. Eg. Don’t carry Sean the moment he makes noise because he needs to learn some independence, and I don’t want him to get too attached to her.

Is this something I should control or it can’t be helped because she will be a big presence in Sean’s life for a couple of years? Any Mums with maid experience out there have any advice?

I suppose I feel possessive of my kids and don’t want her to be another “mother”… is that possible?

Had time to make cupcakes with Keira today (while the maid carried Sean and let him watch us). We had a good time together, no stress, no rush. So overall, having the maid is still is a good thing. I think.

Keira’s birthday is coming up this Sunday, and I was thinking of using these cupcakes as the start of her birthday celebration. But they turned out quite ugly, as you can see in the pic above, so have scrapped that idea.

We’re not doing a party for her this year, as Keira has developed a bad case of stranger anxiety (gets very scared when people come to our house). All she wants for her birthday is familiar faces. So it’s just us, ah gong, ah ma and granduncle.

We’re going to a Japanese buffet to celebrate tho. That’s to satisfy my craving for sashimi. hehe. And also Keira loves to choose from the colourful array of cakes, jellies, ice creams and fruits on the dessert table. yumm.

Our girl is three years old now! Wow!

Keira has been enjoying the company of her other cousin, Liem, who is back for the holidays, for the past two weeks.

Liem is also from Australia, which means this is the first time they’ve actually played together properly, which is sad. Why are all of Keira (and Sean’s) cousins in Australia?

Sigh. But we’ve made the most of the time that they are here, and the kids have been having a fantastic time going places and doing things together!

We started with CY’s birthday:

Then lot’s of playing at home, at restaurants and playgrounds. They hardly stayed still, meaning most of the photos I took had one cousin or the other, or BOTH, all blurry because they’re jumping or waving or wriggling around. Like this!

Sean also scored himself some cousin time:)

One night we went out for some chinese fine dining at Gu Yue Tian. Lovely food presentation. Lovely food!

Here’s the starter, from left to right, mango roll with fried fu chuk, giant clams with watermelon, and chicken in rice paper roll.

We also had this pork spare rib with mushroom sauce, cooked to tender perfection.

And managed to capture a lovely shot of the kids posing with Ah Gong:)

Then Sean got upset, so the cousins tried to cheer him up. hehe.

Yesterday was Liem’s birthday party and we had another celebratory get together.

SIgh. Only a few more dinners before Liem goes back… then Keira will lose a cousin again. Gosh, I wish we had a bigger family and everyone stayed together in one place. I can see how happy Keira is when she is with family, and I wish she could have it all the time…

Family reunions always start off so wonderfully, but why do they have to end?

So, Keira doesn’t have an afternoon nap anymore. She stopped about one month before Sean was born, and seems to be surviving on an 11 hour sleep at night, from 10pm to 9am.

What this means is that she is awake, active and demanding for 13 hours of the day. Pretty much non-stop.

So I have to think of ways to entertain her. Playing tea party and building blocks with her make my eyes glaze over with boredom after about 15 minutes. I can’t let her watch Pingu and Mickey Mouse all day, I’m not ready to driver her out on my own with the baby and we can’t even go outside the house because of the sweltering sun.

So, the Rainbow Jelly Project. An activity both Keira and I can enjoy doing together during those long, hot afternoons when we start going stir crazy from the heat and the boredom.

Since I enjoy making food, RJP is simple cooking activities Keira can help me with from which we can enjoy the edible results:)

we made raisin oatmeal cookies last week. This week was rainbow jelly.

This is three layers of jelly, the bottom layer made from apple & blackcurrant juice, the middle layer with pineapple syrup and pineapple pieces, and the top layer grapes with pineapple syrup (oh and a few drops of food colouring ).

The syrup from tinned pineapple makes excellent jelly because it gives that sweet and sour flavour you associate with fruit jelly.

Keira loved it and so did I.

Yesterday, we made banana muffins from a recipe my sis recommended. It is so easy, and very very yummy!

I added in a dollop of apricot jam in the middle because my fingers are itchy that way. Delicious:)

Racking my head now to think of what else we can make.

Wah, we just had quite an eventful week.

What with everybody in the christmas holiday mood and my parents being here, it was a fun and busy week.

Keira is in love with gong gong and po po again. Every morning she wakes up, jumps out of bed and rushes down stairs to play with them. And then if I don’t stop her to give my parents a break, she will just keep on playing and playing!

Since my Mum speaks mandarin to Keira, her chinese vocab has suddenly doubled, and now she is asking me how to say things in chinese. Like, “Mummy, what elephant in chinese?” “What turtle in chinese?”

Kids pick things up so quickly.

CY and I also celebrated our 10 year wedding dinner anniversary this week (which is a different date from our marriage anniversary) and also my birthday!

Went to Mizu to celebrate, and I finally got to try their foie gras fried rice. wah, decadent piece of fatty liver that just melts in your mouth! Unfortunately they don’t seem to have their special weekday set anymore

Foie Gras Fried Rice

Talking about food, we went back for Ninja Joe’s pork burger again, and this time had to wait almost half an hour in line for the burger! Their little outlet was so popular, and people were taking away bags and bags of the stuff. I predict this one definitely won’t go out of business

Then on christmas day, CY and I went to watch Avatar in 3D while gong gong and po po took Keira walking around in 1 Utama. It was our first movie outing in one year I think. But what an excellent movie to break the drought! It was AMAZING. For two and a half hours, James Cameron took us into a beautiful 3-dimensional world filled with wonderful creatures, breathtaking landscapes and a pretty good adventure.

Everything on the big screen definitely looks bigger, and more lifelike in 3D. Very cool. If you watch Avatar, MUST watch in 3D!

Then over the weekend took Keira to play in the Lake Gardens playground, and managed to capture her excitement sitting on the swing. Check out the screaming in this one:

She was so excited. But then CY pushed her a little too high, and she immediately wanted to stop and come out already.

Today we went with some friends to Mizu again to try their Sunday buffet lunch (RM45++pp). It’s not bad. Not as big a spread as hotel Jap buffets, but there’s four different types of sashimi, sushi rolls, six hot dishes, and can order unlimited teppanyaki, hand rolls, unagi, tempura, salmon belly etc. My only gripe, not very good dessert selection.. no green tea ice cream!

Quite a tiring week. But nowadays, even when I don’t do anything I’m tired cos the baby inside seems to take up all my energy.. he gives me backache, indigestion, stomachache and alot of kicking. This time round is definitely alot more uncomfortable than when I was pregnant with Keira. I can’t wait for the boy to come out already!

We went to Mizu at TTDI Plaza for dinner on friday night, mainly because I didn’t feel like braving the public holiday crowds at the shopping centers, have problems finding parking, q up for a packed restaurant etc etc.

Well TTDI Plaza was a good choice for that… the place was quiet as a tomb! We parked right outside and walked into the almost empty restaurant with no hassles at all.

Of course empty restaurants can be worrying cos that means it might not be good! The only thing that was reassuring was that there was a Japanese couple eating at the table next to us - Japanese people should know where to find good Jap food right? And as the night wore on the place filled up with a few more tables.

I needn’t have worried tho. Mizu gave me a pleasant surprise with excellent food in a great value set, which is why I have to blog about it now.

Most of the items on Mizu’s menu are priced on the higher end of the scale - but currently they have a fantastic weekday, mon-fri only, set that is fantastic!

At RM45++, you get a selection of starters, and then choose your own entree and main course.

The starter they gave us that night included chawan mushi, fried salmon skin, tuna rolls, some kind of soya pickled squid, and fishball with vegetables in a light soup.

I was really impressed by how many little dishes they gave us - and the quality, excellent. Keira loved the fishball and salmon skin

Then the main dishes came. CY ordered salmon sashimi for his entree and unagi with rice and miso soup for mains. When they brought it out, I couldn’t believe how huge the piece of eel they gave him was! I think my eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

It was like one foot long! He says the sashimi was also very good - I can’t eat sashimi for another 4-5 months.. SIGH!

I ordered a california hand roll for entree and tempura with soba noodles for my main.

The prawns were lightly battered and fresh, california roll and noodles exactly as what is expected from a good Japanese restaurant. Very good.

For dessert, they gave that japanese red bean rice dumpling thing. Keira ate most of mine, which means it was nice I think!

Overall I thought the set was great for the price, especially for a fine dining restaurant. And most importantly, the food is good.

Mizu has lots of other dishes on the menu, I had a yummy green tea milk shake, and next time - yes, this is one place we will go again - I want to try their foie gras rolls and foie gras fried rice!

Every so often I have a craving for a juicy burger - the type with a soft fresh bun, juicy pattie, crispy lettuce, sweet tomato and lots of sauce. Ahh…

But I don’t eat beef, not since 1996, sigh so I have to settle for chicken burgers most of the time. I am quite BORED with chicken these days I tell you…

Now a new place has popped up in our neighbourhood - Ninja Joe’s at Tropicana City Mall - and they do pork burgers!!! I LOVE pork burgers

They just opened this past weekend and I knew I had to try it.

Ninja Joe is a small, little outlet on the LG level of Tropicana, it only has a few tables and a small menu. Namely pork burger with choice of different types of sauces. So they’re really specialising, making sure they do one thing and do it well!

The moment I saw it I thought it was a great idea, cos most of us Chinese love anything to do with pork. I just wonder why someone didn’t think of it earlier??

One burger is RM5.90, and two is RM 9.90. It is not very big maybe the size of a McDonald’s kiddy burger - so it was just right for our afternoon snack

CY tried the original flavour and I tried it with Teriyaki sauce. Yummy! Fresh, and juicy and tasty. Ninja Joe, you now have a regular customer!

Here’s a photo of the burger, and a pork and potato nuggets side order. The nuggets were OK, but the highlight is the burger.

Ninja Joe is apparently started locally and this is the first ever outlet. Hope it maintains it’s quality and keeps on making yummy burgers!

I’ll definitely be back to try it again.

We had a few huge white peaches that were not ripening properly in the fruit basket a few weeks ago. I dunno why, but the flesh was hard, and yet the inside was turning brown, it wasn’t going sweet, soft and juicy like peaches should.

So, since I had a packet of store bought short crust pastry in the freezer, and I had been craving apple pie anyway, I  used the peaches instead.

Made it exactly the same way as apple pie - by cooking the peaches in abit of water with sugar, some cinammon and lemon juice until sweet and soft. Then dumped the lot into short crust pastry rolled out in a baking dish, decorated the top, and into the oven until the pastry is nice and brown.

Lovely buttery pastry, with sweet and sour fruit eaten with ice cream.. yummy! I feel like some more now…

I’m going through an Italian phase at the moment. Feel like eating pizza and pasta all the time.

Had pizza for lunch twice last week, yesterday I made spaghetti with anchovy and lemon sauce and tonight I made lasagne.

And the week before I made this:

Baked eggplant with minced lamb tomato sauce. Topped with mozarella cheese and lots of olive oil.

That was rich and satisfying. But it wasn’t enough. I also made linguine with sausage and cherry tomatoes to go with it.

Very, very satisfying

I had been dying to have a holiday for ages and ages. But CY has been busy at work and it just seemed too hard to pack up our stuff, and travel dunno how many hours with the demanding girl just to have a break.

So last weekend we packed up for a short getaway at a local hotel. Hehehe. No travel hassles, minimal packing, and we just stayed in the hotel all day, enjoyed the swimming pool, buffet, and let Keira run wild around the place. She loved it.

I also got myself a relaxing manicure and pedicure, which I haven’t done in three years! AND satisfied my craving for a hotel buffet.

I bought Keira two new dresses last week, and our hotel weekend was the perfect opportunity for her to wear them. I really like her dresses. If they had it in adult sizes I would wear them too!

Here’s a white coloured one:

And a green floral one:

We also had a dim sum lunch at the hotel, and I showed Keira how to take a picture with the camera. Here’s one she took of CY. Turned out pretty good I thought:

Some of the dim sum we ordered.

Altho it is all halal, the dim sum were very well made. Everything was fresh and delicate and you could tell that someone put alot of care into making every little piece taste perfect.

Very good. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend, which has “partly” satisfied my yearning for a holiday. I want to go on a real one soon tho. Pangkor maybe… or Sabah?

Also known as Bak Taucheo, this is another recipe from MIL which I have to keep because it is an absolute family favourite.

I love the melt-in-the-mouth meat, the sweet, thick sauce, the rich mouth watering smell as it bubbles on the stove…

A must keep recipe.

Ingredients

3 long strips or 700g belly pork
1 1/2 tablespoon tau cheo (yellow bean sauce)
3 table spoons dark soy sauce
1 whole bulb garlic (yes the whole thing!)
1 large onion
3 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
7 cloves
3 teaspoon sugar

Optional
1 potato - roughly chopped
worcestershire sauce

1) Slice belly pork into approx 1 inch rectangular cubes.
2) Peel garlic into whole bulbs and finely chop the onion (for a smoother sauce blend onion, garlic and tau cheo into a paste)
3) In a big pot, stir fry garlic, onion and the tau cheo in some oil until fragrant.
4) Add the pork and coat the meat in the paste until slightly brown.
5) Mix in sugar and a few dashes of worcesteshire sauce.
6) Add water until just covering the meat.
7) Stir in dark soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon and cloves.
8) Bring to boil, then let the meat simmer on low heat for at least 1 and a half hours. Stir occasionally.
9) Add water if the sauce looks like it is drying up. The sauce should reach about half way up the meat at the end.
9) If you wish, add a roughly chopped potato in after half an hour. This will help to thicken the sauce.
10) Turn off heat when meat is soft and tender.
11) Eat with rice.

I learnt this yummylicious recipe from my Mum-In-Law, and now it is the ONLY way I want to eat my curry.

It is rich and tasty and filled with lovely lemongrass and ginger flavours, and totally healthy!

I thought I better record the recipe here as I always forget all the ingredients that go in.

Ingredients

Paste
2 inches fresh galangal
2 inches fresh ginger
1 inch fresh tumeric
6 small red shallots
2 stalks lemongrass

500g chicken pieces (your choice of cut, but thigh and drumstick is always good) chopped up
3 small potatoes
1 large yellow onion
1 heaped tablespoon curry powder
1/2 tspn coriander powder (optional)
3 kaffir lime leaves
Salt/Soya sauce

Low Fat Milk

1) To make the paste, roughly chop up galangal, ginger, tumeric and shallots.
Place in blender with a little oil and blend until it becomes a paste.

2) Slice the yellow onion, chop up potatoes into 1 inch cubes, chop the lemongrass stalks into three equal lengths.

3) In a wok or a large saucepan, fry the paste with the lemongrass in a little vegteable oil until fragrant. Few minutes.

4) Add in coriander powder (i really like the extra flavour it gives but it’s not necessary) and curry powder, and toast in the wok on low heat. Add more oil here if it is too dry.

5) When the paste begins to smell really really good, add in the onions.

6) Stir fry on medium heat until onions soften.

7) Add in chicken pieces and potatos and coat with the paste. Adding some water (half a cup or so) at this point will help.

8) When everything is well mixed in, incorporate another half cup of water and 1 cup low fat milk.

9) Turn the heat up and bring to boil. Stir occasionally.

10) Once the curry sauce is bubbling, lower to medium heat, add salt/soy sauce to taste. Roughly tear up kaffir lime leaves and mix in.

11) Let it all bubble until the chicken and potatos are well cooked (at least 15 minutes). Adjust the consistency of the curry by adding more or less milk. Stir occasionally.

12) Eat with rice.

Made this for dinner a few nights ago. I love roasted capsicum (or peppers as some countries call them). Especially the red ones. After they are roasted, they come out so sweet and tender, and don’t have any of the bitterness you get from half cooked crunchy capsicum. Crunchy capsicum… yuk don’t like.

So, I thought of doing a roasted pepper sauce to go with spaghetti, and it came out very nice, so am putting the recipe up.

Ingredients

4 red capsicums
4 whole cloves garlic
200g cherry tomatoes
thyme
extra virgin olive oil
1 stalk leek or one onion - finely chopped (optional)
salt/pepper

1) Chop up capsicum and place in roasting tray along with whole garlic cloves (skin still on). Sprinkle on fresh thyme leaves, salt and pepper and drizzle liberally with extra virgin olive oil.

2) Roast in oven at 200 degrees C (180 degrees fan force) for 45 minutes or until capsicum is soft and slightly charred.

3) In the meantime, in a saucepan, sautee some leek or onion (optional) in olive oil until soft, add in 200g cherry tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes soften and start to burst. Turn off heat.

4) Once the peppers are done, take them out and put in blender. Squeeze the garlic from their skin and mix in too. Blend to your desired chunkiness.

5) Mix the resulting sauce in with your leek and tomato mixture. If the sauce is too dry, add some water or white wine to adjust the consistency of the sauce. Bring to simmer. And it’s done.

6) Serve with spaghetti or your favourite pasta.

The other day I went to the Pasar and came back 150 ringgit poorer. No, I wasn’t pickpocketed, but maybe I was robbed, robbed by the sky rocketing prices of basic goods.

Is it just me or is it actually normal for people to spend more than RM 100 on a single grocery trip these days?

I mean all I bought was the basics, the essentials of daily living. Meat, fruit and vegetables. And by my calculations, it would feed four people for four meals, averaging out to 40  ringgit per meal and RM10 per person… for a home cooked meal. Is that the numbers others are getting?? Am I spending too much on food?

Ths is only marginally cheaper than if we went out to a local restaurant and ordered your standard 2 meat, 1 tofu and 1 veg meal. And if you just ate at a hawker place, it would definitely be cheaper to eat out!

OK, admittedly I didn’t buy cheap things…but they weren’t extravagant either. Eg. I got a half kilo prawns (RM11), 1 big kampung (free range) chicken (RM28), 4 pork chops (RM15) and some super sweet and super juicy, and ok a little extravagant plums and mangoes - RM14 for just THREE plums and TWO mangoes. (I wouldn’t normally buy those fruits, but the little girl has a serious fruit habit, and I have been unsuccessful in transferring her cravings onto watermelon and papaya )

I suppose I’m so used to the idea that pasars are cheap, that to spend rm150 there is just scary!

No wonder people eat out alot more here. One, it’s cheaper; two, it’s tastier and three, it’s so much easier - no need to cook or wash up!

The main reason I can see for eating in is that it is probably healthier.  Which is pretty important. Eating healthy should make all the home cooking worthwhile… Damn, if only my favourite thing to cook wasn’t fatty pork!

Anyway, I love food, I like cooking and I like eating, so it’s not something I want to skimp on. I just got to get used to the idea that food in Malaysia ain’t cheap anymore. Or maybe it never was cheap, and I didn’t realise it cos before this I wasn’t shopping for a family?!