Day 77 ... Rapunzel's Birthday Dinner

Today is Rapunzel's birthday. She is seven years old.

Mummy has helped her to put on a pretty pink dress. 

Doesn't she look like a princess?

Teacher Lynn gives Rapunzel a story book. 

She is reading the story Rapunzel while waiting for dinner.

They are having chicken for dinner ...

 fish ...

vegetables ...

 prawns and french beans ...

This is Rapunzel's family.

This is Rapunzel's brother, Massimo.

Rapunzel and Massimo are celebrating their birthdays together.

Happy birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to R & M

Happy birthday to You

They huff and they puff and they blow the candles out.

Rapunzel says, I love my family.

Mummy is cutting a slice of ice-cream cake for everyone.

Daddy says, smile for the camera.   :D

I am so happy today, says Rapunzel.

Day 77 ... Pressure Cooker Spicy Teriyaki Chicken

PRESSURE COOKER SPICY TERIYAKI CHICKEN

WITH POTATOES

1. Get The Ingredients

garlic. onion, ginger, chicken, white radish, 

tomato, potato and cili padi (for a bit of spice). 
 

This evening, I was going to have dinner with my kindy kid, Rapunzel, and her family. It was about 5pm when Justine and I reached home, we had spent the morning at Starbucks Borders, while Bryan was attending a 3 day seminar, starting on Friday, in Ampang. I didn't have much time, so decided to prepare a super-quick, hassle-free chicken dish in the pressure cooker. When rushing for time, the pressure cooker sure comes in handy. 

2. Chop The Ingredients

 3. Toss the Ingredients

Add sesame seed oil, teriyaki sauce, shoyu, organic dark sauce, pepper. 

Close lid. Turn on flame until the pot sizzles.

Briefly allow to sizzle some more before turning off the fire.

Leave on the stove to cook by itself.

The dish should be ready within 20 mins or so.

Bryan will heat up the rice when he gets home from the seminar. Justine was still full from snacking on our orange poppy seed cake. Meanwhile, I got changed for dinner with Rapunzel and her family. They would pick me up around 7:30pm. 

Justine says the chicken was a lil tough. Difficult for her to chew with her braces.
Yeah, that was kampung chicken. My mother bought me that chicken when she went marketing.
Am surprised it did not soften up in the pressure cooker. Next time, must put on a lil bit longer.

:D

 Time of Posting : 1:48pm (Saturday)

Day 76 ... My Kindy Kids' Reunion

Okay mummies, look sexy!!!

Today, I met up with my ex-kindy kids with their mums and dads. 

Just 4 of them for this time : 

Chloe, Keenan, Yuan Shin and Kah Yee. 

We met for lunch at PappaRich, Old Klang Road @ 12:30pm.

After lunch, we hung out at Chloe's place till about 6pm.

Chloe had nasi lemak for lunch. She loves to eat rice. Just lost a tooth, and has another one that's coming loose. Loves school and looks forward to class every day. She was a good little host to all her friends today. :D

Kah Yee and her 5 year old brother, who's in our school's Thriller dance performance. Kah Yee's busy juggling school life with gymrama, gymnastics, piano and ballet. :D

Keenan's all dark and tanned. Just came back the day before from a family holiday in Phuket. Showed us that he can now use chopsticks. He had kueh teow soup and milo disosaur for lunch. :D Keenan and Chloe will soon be neighbours. 

Kah Yee's older brothers, both in upper Primary.

Keenan's 2 year old little sister, Katie, with mummy. She has her hair braided up like little Miss Bo Derek. 

Little Miss Bo Peep, to the kids.

Say CHEESE !!! :D

Yuan Shin's mummy (right) and 4 year old brother, Massimo.

Found out today that Yuan Shin changed her name from Ashley to Rapunzel. How cute is that? We did Rapunzel during story-time in class and I remember she's always liked the part that goes :

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair ...

Happy Birthday Rapunzel ... :D

Make a wish now ...

Rapunzel & Massimo

Hmmm, yum-yum, cake time ...

The kids entertained themselves by setting up a little casino.

Cup cakes for tea ...

Rapunzel's daddy and mummy ...

Thank you for the music ...

Karaoke Queens ...

Keenan and I did a number together : A Better Man

Lord, I'm doin' all I can

To be a better man

Arhem, Don't play ...

Thanks for a really great time, Kids, Mummies and Daddies.

Until our next get together ...

Kids, continue to do well in school.

Mummies, practise those songs for next session.

Daddies, no more excuses next time.

 

:D

NO MORE BELLS ...

Day 75 ... Orange Poppy Seed Cake

The Ingredients ...

flour (2 cups), milk (3/4 cup), brown sugar (3/4 cup), 

grated orange rind (1 tsp), orange juice (1/2 cup), butter (200g), 

baking powder (1/1/2 tsp), eggs (3), poppy seeds (1/3 cup)

The packet of poppy seeds is from Grace.

 Justine did the mixing of the ingredients until they were creamy and smooth.

She had to take over from me, cos it was all lumpy and stiff when I was at it, 

and I was going to throw the batter out and start again, 

when she said the magic words: Let Me Do It.

Pour the batter onto a pre-greased baking tray.

My mother-in-law would be pleased to see her pyrex 

being put to such good use. :D

Pop into the oven (pre-heated) at 160 degrees celcius 

for 60 minutes.

The Syrup

While the cake is baking, we made the syrup with

brown sugar (1 cup), orange juice (1 cup) 

and shredded orange rind (1/2 cup).

While the cake was baking in the oven, we noticed that it was kinda rising like there was no tomorrow. Realised that we had used self-raising flour and baking powder at the same time. Amelia had mentioned that if we use self-raising flour, we don't need baking powder. I think that explains why the cake was like rising oh-so-high and the resulting surface appeared kinda cracked. 

Oh no ... :(

I tried pouring some of the syrup over the cake and used the shredded orange rinds to hide the cracks. I guess I had some time to waste. Oh well ... 

Next time, I will have to check on the flour. As for the syrup, will pour it over the cake on individual serving plates and not on the cake tray itself. Yeahh? That way, we can control the sweetness. Some like it sweet, and some not, right?

This is my slice. I like the crusty side. We had the cake with vanilla ice-cream.

You know, if You ask me, I think the texture of the cake is actually quite good. :D Justine says the cake is Yummy (that's because she likes it sweet). Bryan found the cake too sweet but says he likes the orange rinds. It was he who suggested to make the syrup an option.

Lesson learned today :

1. check the type of flour before baking
2. not everyone likes syrup over their cake

Funnily, I am beginning to appreciate and enjoy baking. :D Excuse me, while I help myself to another slice. :D Bryan's  just finished his 3rd helping.

Time of Posting : 9:45pm (Wed)

Day 75 ... Kari Kepala Ikan Parang

KARI KEPALA IKAN PARANG
CURRY WOLF-HERRING FISH HEAD

This evening, we made curry fish. 

Bryan had taken out an ikan parang (head portion) and a ma-yau (fillet) to thaw. Checke the english names for the two fishes and learned that, ikan parang is "wolf-herring" while ma-yau is "threadfin." So, if You want to have a more exotic name for this dish, ahh, a more kuai-low name, well, we could say, we're cooking wolf-herring & threadfin curry this evening. In short, fish head curry la.

The Ingredients.

Bryan bought a packet of instant fish curry paste (brand A1), 

so we decided to just use that.

1. The Curry

Add filtered to the curry paste.

Prepare some tamarind juice.

Add the fish.

2. The Vegetables

Chop the vegetables into bite size.

Add the vegetables.

Allow the brinjals to cook a bit.

Then add the bean curd puff.

This is Bryan's favourite. He loves taufu pok.

Add the tamarind juice, and some seasalt as desired.

3. Garnish

with a bunch of coriander leaves.

That's my plate. Those lil bits of fish that broke was from the ma-yau. 

Not suitable for curry purposes, I guess.

The parang was really good. Flesh was actually quite sweet.

We ate our dinner, with our fingers.

Yummy!

LUNCH

We still had some leftover soup from the night before, so we had noodles again for lunch. My mother had bought us a packet of fish paste, and we added that in. The above is my bowl. :D

Justine's bowl. Notice the chilly-padi and garlic sambal.

Bryan's bowl.

The soup, as always taste even sweeter the day after.

Slurpppp ...

Time of Posting : 12:02 pm (Thursday)