Cook Out Pig Out

It has been a tradition for the 4 teachers mummy to meet up during holidays & that's the 1st thing we did once holidays start!!

Since its a cooking session for the kids, I was tasked to head it & assigned whoever to buy whatever!! how nice!! I was deciding how to decorate the children's' chef hat & the idea of their name & nice pictures of them would be nice!! So here it is... mummies wearing our child's hat & striking a pose.Here are the 4 kids.... Waiting for instructions & the signal to START!!
Dish # 1 - Fruit Jelly
Joyce bought all the fruits & the kids wasted no time to cut and fill up the jelly mould with fresh fruits... but felt so bad that there were not enough jelly liquid to fill up for all of them...
They were such good kids, no one really fuss or mind that they have less or little jelly...
Dish # 2 - Pizza
Angie bought most of the pizza ingredients & each were given a base & ingredients to cut & put whatever they like on the base.
Ezra was very creative & made a happy face pizza....

Dish # 3 - Banana Cupcake
The kids worked together & helped each other add ingredients and prepare the mix for the banana cupcake. They worked really well together.After that they started filling the cups with the batter, this took quite a bit of skills and time but they did such a beautiful job!!

The best part of this dish was decorating the cupcakes with icing & glitters!! They had a blast.
Oh while the kids were doing their dishes, they were like celebrities cos all the parents were busy snapping pictures of them!! 4 kids 4 cameras & 1 videocam!
The kids enjoying the fruit of their labour.

Besides the above dishes, we also had salad (thanks wolfie), mushroom soup & baked chicken thighs!! YUMMY to the max!!
We also celebrated Wolfie birthday.... Blessed belated birthday my friend.
It was a night packed with actions & activities!!

The Apprentice

I was just reading a post by Angie abt her little apprentice for bento making!! I decided to borrow that same title for this post... ok Angie?

Ezra was Jac little apprentice!! I was busy cooking tonight dinner in the kitchen and was asking Jac to take pictures. He took out his BIG camera & got Ezra to hold the sheet to reflect the lights!! I can hear Jac telling him "Ezra, hold it higher, yes yes come nearer!"
These are the pictures of the burger Jac took with Ezra's help!!
This is my dinner - beef burger without the bread! Just as yummy!!

Ezra did such a good job and very soon he was promoted to be the photographer with daddy holding the sheet.
This is the picture of the burger Ezra took!! Not bad... gives a different perspective of the burger!

Yes these burgers were our dinner for the evening!! YUMMY!!

I made our own beef patty - minced beef with chopped onions, button mushroom, salt, pepper and dash of basil.

In our burger, I added egg, butterhead, cheese, sliced cucumber and tomato. I made 6 burgers - Jac, Ezra, my dad, my mum, Siya & even one for Josephine!! But I run out of burger buns & poor Jose had to settle for just white sandwich bread.
Hahaha, amazing this post alone has pictures taken by 4 different persons!! Below are from me!!

Sorry son, you have to eat your veg... like it or not!!
Our burger meal is complete with chilled diet coke!! Oh this picture was taken by Siya...thanks

Puff Pastry Chicken Pie

Josephine left some puff pastry in my freezer for the longest time & many times I almost wanted to throw them away....

Finally I decided to make chicken pie with it. Instead of the big pie size, I decided mini size is better. I cut & lined the puff pastry into my muffin tray.

I never like frozen mixed veg so I decided to peel the corn kernel, chopped the carrot and french bean. Bring them to a quick boil & drained. Next to boil is the potatoes and diced them after cooked. Diced skinless chicken thigh, marinate with soy sauce, pepper and seasame oil. Chopped big onion. Fry the big onion, chicken meat until brown, add the diced potatoes and mixed veg and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop the mix into each shell. I realised that I dont have enough pastry to close up the pie so again had to improvise.... cut strips & decorate it on the top!! Brush a little egg & bake in at 180 degree for 20 mins!!

While the pies are baking, Ezra asked to eat the remaining corn. I simply added some butter to the corn & he LOVES it!!

Here's my tray of chicken pies

Ezra took this pic for me!!

He wanted to pose with the pies cos they were so pretty!!

Crispy pastry & moist filling... Super Yummy!!

Bento # 8 & Bento # 9 & Durian Swiss Roll

Jac's dinner for last evening was brown rice with hairy veg. I used 2 prawns to decorate it a little. I also tried cooking this 1st time dish chicken a la king which asked for cream of mushroom but since I dont have that in my cupboard, I substituted it with milk and a slice of cheese. I stir fry some chopped garlic, added in the carrot and sliced button mushroom. Add in the chicken breast meat and a dash of basil and salt. According to Jac, it was very yummy!!


Tonight dinner is rather unhealthy!! Spicy stir fried noodles, fried chicken wing, prawn with jap mayo and china cabbage with 黑木耳.
I was in a baking mood and since I still have durian puree in the fridge I decided to make yet another batch of puffs and even durian swiss roll!! Very happy with the result... taste is great but somehow the colour does not stand out cos too close in colours!! I brought most of my baking to school for my teachers and church staff!!

Bento # 7

I was still thinking if I want to prepare bento on sun evening for Jac but guess I still did!

Today dinner bento was brown rice with beef rendang and 小白菜. Beef rendang was easy but takes a lot time to simmer until the beef is tender. I marinated the beef cubes with some salt and pepper. Cut lime leaves, lemon grass, big onions and tomatoes, stir fry and add the beef cubes. Fry the cubes until brown, add the Brahim's beef rendang mix and simmer the beef until tender.
My lunch was the same 小白菜 with tomato based sauce sotong. I fry big onion, garlic and a little ginger slice with chopped tomatoes, added the sotong & voila a new dish!!


Ezra saw me preparing all the bentos and uploading the pictures and he was very excited and happy. He asked me "Mummy, do you think you can make the same for me someday?" It was at that moment that I felt really bad, feeling somewhat that I have neglected him in my food preparation! I woke up extremely early last Friday and prepared a nice cute shaped bread to surprise him! I was changing and Aunty showed him the bento. He was very excited and ran into my bedroom saying he was very hungry and wanted to eat his breakfast NOW!! I stopped him, saying he can have it in the car ride instead as we were running short of time! Once in the car, he immediately asked for his bread and in the short ride from my place to church (abt 5-10 mins) he finished all his bread!!
I am having some strange orientation of the pic!! it shld be in landscape but don't know why turned out like that!!

Bento # 6

Jac enjoyed yesterday's mee goreng bento but true enough it was too much for him!! Being the nice him, he did not want to waste my efforts and kwai kwai finished all!

So today, I made a conscious effort not to pack too big a portion for him... i tried!!

Today bento is brown rice, stir fried 苦瓜 and stewed chicken thigh with sea cucumber and mushroom! I marinated the chicken thigh with oyster sauce, pepper and seasame oil. Put a little oil and fry the chinese spices, ginger and garlic, add the mushroom and chicken, simmer for 1/2 hour, add sea cucumber and simmer for another 1/2 hour. Volia... another delicious dinner for my darling!!

My lunch was a simple stir fried 苦瓜 with sliced beef... also very yummy but not very filling cos I was hungry by abt 4pm!!

Bento # 5

I am very excited about today's bento.

I brought home some uncooked yellow noodles from school and decided to cook mee goreng for Jac's bento. I remembered Jac telling me that the spicy noodles were tasty but a bit dry. So I added more water to make it more moist but hopefully not too soggy when he eats. Stir fry the sliced big onions, egg, shredded carrot, cai xin, add the yellow noodles, tomato ketchup and chili sauce and mix well. I spicy up the dish with his name using the mini alphabet cutters from Angie, turned out pretty right?

Besides mee goreng, I also cooked sliced beef with seasame seed and big onion. Vegetable was cauliflower and broccoli with flat beans.

I must admit, today's portion maybe too huge but since all cooked liao don't waste it!! Sorry darling, tomorrow will be a more manageable portion!!

My lunch was chicken nugget with the same veg. I chopped the chicken breast, water chestnut, a little of big onion and parsley. Marinate them with a little salt and black pepper. Shape it and pan fry it with little oil! Yummy!!

A Very Enjoyable Day

I promised Ezra that I will be back early today and do something special with him. I got home about 3.20pm, rested a little and Ezra woke up abt 4pm. I asked if he like to go to the library or bake muffin.... Guess what was his instant, no need to think respond! "I want to bake muffin!" and dash straight into the kitchen.

I made some butter cream, a cocoa and lemon favour. The cocoa turned out yummy but the lemon one is a little to sour!

It has been a while since I baked with Ezra... however this round I realised that I was able to involve him more besides just decorating the muffin after its cooked. He helped to sieve the flour, fetched the egg and even helped to crack an egg. He was very careful with the assigned task!!

He also helped to scoop the dough into the big muffin cups and I was surprised he managed to even do so for the mini ones!! Good motor control!
He was just monkeying ard with the oven mittens while waiting impatiently for the muffins to cook.
After the muffin cooled off, Ezra added some finishing touch to the muffin with the colourful sugar! See how serious he was to his task!

He wasted no time to demolish 2 mini and 1 big muffin at 1 setting!!
So Super Yummy!Since we baked quite a bit of muffin, Ezra will be bringing some to share with his friends and teachers in school tomorrow!

After the muffin baking, Aunty and I were busy in the kitchen preparing our dinner. In our busyness, we totally forgot abt Ezra. After sometime, I sensed something is not too right as he was way too quiet! True enough, we found him messing up his room with body powder and he was having a wild time playing! When I questioned him, his reply was "Mum, I am just having fun pretending that I am ice skating! See mum, its so slippery rite!" I don't know whether to be angry with him or laugh at him! I thought it was a very creative idea but anyway he was given orders to clean up the mess.... see he was still having FUN cleaning up!!
After dinner, Ezra sneaked into the kitchen and stole another muffin!! He came out dancing and saying "The muffins are so yummy, they are making me dance!"
Tonight's dinner was steamed promfret and stir fried asparagus with fresh abalone mushroom... I started using lots of black pepper and chili flakes for my dishes and that certainly added much favour to the dishes!! Yummy!!