For Roselle

Know Roselle for almost 8 years. She came to our family when Supercute and Black Ninja were still in kindergarten. She is a great help, a great sister, a great partner and now a great mama to my my little princess.

There are many ups and downs we had been through. There were happy time, sad time, angry time, all the time we have together with lots of laughters and arguments. Like what Black Ninja says.....what went up must come down. This is the time we have to say Goodbye but I'm sure there will be time we will say Hi.....like I always stress......the world is small and we will meet some day.

Still remember very clearly the first day we met. These were our respond to Roselle :

* Supercute & Black Ninja.........MONKEY (Had a fright when they woke up from their afternoon nap and saw Roselle) !!!!

* Verytiki.........Hm.....quite pretty.

* ET.........Wow, so skinny.

The first day upon her arrival, we had dinner in KFC. She was so week at that time. After taking 1 piece of KFC (can't eat much) she vomitted....ayoh....waste my money leh :P After which, she was frequently sick....almost every two week. Fortunately, we have many medicines at home. hahaha......no worry.

On this day, memory just flashes back. What I can recall is mostly the fun time. The Malaysia trips, Sentosa resort, New Year, Christmas, National Day, the bowling, the roller coaster, vi keen, shopping, nail polishing, hair colouring & straightening, golfing, eating, movies, singing, screaming for MU goals, F1 etc etc. Of course, there were times with arguments and heat but non of us will put in heart.

I'm very glad that now Roselle is not weak (in fact she has more mussel then me) and have a fat fat belly to bring home. I have nothing much to give you for remembrance but this belly you bring home is priceless.

DO NOT BE SAD !!! NO NEED TO MISS US !!!

cos.......we are never and will never be apart.

All the memories we have for each other keeps us together !!!!

What we want to say to Roselle :

* Supercute : Haha......hehe......write blog lah (he will stay happy and look forward to meet you one day)

* Black Ninja : Ayoh.....you only go army service for two years lah. No worry lah.

* Princess : Where's mama ?

* ET : I want to eat Babui.....(sigh.....only think of food leh), pump and massage for yr mum, take good care of yr mum, use the knowledge you gain in Singapore and be a different person, don't let people take advantage, don't be stubborn, use your brain on your coconut head, sell arowana, set up restaurant, set up stall to do therapy......etc etc.

* Verytiki : Be a warior of life and make us proud. (see, always short and sweet).

Our promise to Roselle :

Study hard, excel in life, earn and save more $ (we need this to buy air ticket leh.....why not Roselle buy us ticket instead :P). Blog a lot a lot.

I'm not going to say GOODBYE. I'll only say SEE YOU SOON !!!

Promise ?.....yeah...PROMISE.

REMEMBER !!!!!!!!

NO TEARS..........I hate tears, it makes you weak !!!!!!!!

JUST LAUGHTERS !!!!!!!

;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P ;P

CHEERS !!!

Happy Deepavali & Happy Birthday Supercute

Happy Deepavali to all my friends.

Deepavali is a festival of lights. Lights brighten the street of Singapore and Indian family will light lamps and candles symbolising victory of good over evil. Beautiful and colourful design papers/flour are paste/painted on the floor of front doors and candles were lit and placed all over the house.

My Indian friend told me that the candles signifying welcoming of god to their family too. It's really very similar to our Chinese culture of hanging up red lanterns and paper cuttings on doors and windows.

This year, Deepavali falls on 27 Oct 2008. Since Supercute's birthday coincide with Deepavali, we give him the honour to light up the candles for Deepavali when the clock strike 12am. He is very happy lighting the candles and continue with his pc games till 2am.

Secret arrange has been plan by Black Ninja to give his bro a surprise the following morning. Black Ninja and Roselle accompany Supercute in the morning to Tiong Bahru Plaza for shopping and having fun time in Time Zone Acard. Supercute is delighted. They had Japanese food again for lunch while I'm baby sitting my princess and preparing the birthday cake for him.

It's the first time I try making Lemon Meringue Pie. Black Ninja is very helpful to be assistant chef. It turns out not too bad but the size is not so ideal. It will taste better if I make it pie/tart size. However, it turn out to be beautiful. Supercute has the honour to decorate the pie.

With left over egg yorks, I decided to bake another Prune cake as standby (just in case they do not like Meringue Pie). Too bad, I couldn't get Prune in the very last minutes and I replace it with craneberry and resins. Haha.....yayaya....this reserve cake is better.

We had western food for dinner with the wonderful accompany of Pebbles and Riffle in Tanglin Halt Hawker Center. As usual the kids and Pebbles had chicken cutlet and the rest of us have mixed grill. ET ordered mutton satay. Well, its delicious but a bit overcook and hard for old lady to chew.

After dinner is cake cutting time. Haha....Supercute blow candles twice, cut cake twice and we sing brithday song twice.....cos I bake 2 cakes.

My first cake is Lemon Meringue Pie.

Next is Cranberry and Raisin Cake.

Many great years ahead my dear son. Be healthy, be bright and be kind always. Enjoy many years of fun spray too. haha.. (the spray is nice and fun but stink.)

Pebbles and Riffle bid farewell to Roselle and the mood is low as departure is always heartbroken. Well, the globe is very small. We will keep in touch always. So, no tears but laughters. Cheers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUPERCUTE !!! BON VOYAGE ROSELLE !!!

DIY Greentea Tightening Mask (绿茶紧肤面膜)

Green tea is tea undergoing minimal oxidation during process. It is originated from China and becomes very popular in Asia, Japan, Korea and Middle East. Regular green tea drinkers may have lower chances of heart disease, cancer, balance cholesterol lever and maintain weight.

There are my type of green tea you may choose that suits your taste buds. There are Longjing (龙井) , Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春), Xiang Pian – jasmine tea (香片), Genmaicha – brown-rice tea (玄米茶) etc.

Ingredients –
2g Green tea powder
1 Egg white
3 tbsp Oatmeal

Directions –
1) Blend Oatmeal into smaller, preferably powdery form. Pour it into a bowl.
2) Beat the egg white lightly.
3) Add egg white and green tea powder into the oak meal.
4) Stir and mix well.

Applications –
1) Cleanse your face thoroughly.
2) Spread the mask evenly on your face.
3) Leave it for 15 – 20 minutes.
4) Wipe it off with a clean wet cloth or wet tissue.
5) Rinse your face with water and tap dry.

Skin Type –
Suitable for most skin type. Good for face with open pores, rough complexion and Oily face.

Frequency of use –
2 to 3 times per week.

Properties –
Green tea is also a very good ingredient for DIY mask for its detoxification and control oil’s benefit. Green tea powder is able to absorb excess facial oil, avoid excessive facial oil cloaking pores. Thus, it benefit in controlling facial oil and tightening pores.

Oatmeal has very good property in removing dead cells.

Egg white has strong tightening and cleansing effect.

With the combination of all these three characteristic, it enhance in tightening skin, prevent sprouting of pimple and acne. Many adolescents are suffering from pimple and acne. I use this mask for my eldest son (Supercute) who is showing sign of sprouting pimples and blackhead. I also use it on ET for removing unwanted dead face cells.

Tips –
1) If you are running out of time or in a hurry, you may use instant oatmeal and forget about blending the oak meal into smaller piece. Instant oak meal is already pre-cooked, so you can skip the blending. You need to mix well and let it soften for a while before you apply.
2) Cover your mixture with stretch film and place it in fridge for 20 minutes and you will have a very cooling cold mask. I prefer cold mask as it always makes me feel sleepy haha…
3) It’s good to use the mask immediately after you mixing. Use the excess on your neck, hands or legs. Use it when it’s fresh.
4) If you really need to keep it for later date, keep it in air tight and sterile glass container and place it in fridge.

5) You can easily get green tea powder from supermarket who sells Japanese and Chinese tea. If you have difficulty getting one, blend it yourself. Blend green tea to very fine powdery form and keep in air-tight and sterile container.

Mushroom Hot Pot, Shabu Shabu & Yong Dau Fu

It has been many times that I wish o have Mushroom Hot Pot and Shabu Shabu but delayed for many reasons. To have warm up celebration for Superute's birthday and Roselle's departure, we made it a MUST to get it done.

We went to one of my favourite supermarket that store a wide range of Japanese ingredients and food. The price is a bit high but the freshness and convenient is there. It is located at Liang Court.

We bought Australian Lean Pork specially slice for Shabu Shabu and assorted mushrooms like button mushroom, golden mushroom, abalone musroom, shitake mushroom etc. They are extremely fresh and all are organic. We can even eat it raw.

The spread is great and we are too busy to get ready the miso soup base till we forgot one important thing.....cook rice. No rice for the night. We replace it with Japanese Udon instead. Anyway, we have evil plan of having a supper after midnight. So, it's perfectly fine to go without rice.

Pebbles baked rosemary wine cake with walnuts and resins. It's delicious and healthy as I was told it only involved 3 tbsp of butter. The ground walnut and sugar toppings are surprisingly crunchy and nice. Perfect combination with our Kim Tian Regency Coffee. Yeah..

When clock strike 12am, we charge to Buket Merah View for Yong Dau Fu. The stall only operate after 12am. I used to visit there with my parents and ET and we need to queue for about an hour at that time. The queue is quite ok nowadays but it still keeps us waiting for half an hour.

I chop a place by queueing and ET proceeded to do the selection and place ingredients in a bowl. After which, ET took over the queue and hand the bowl to the stallholder. We ordered noodles and beehoon. The yong dau fu is marvelous. It was serve in a aluminium bowl, hot and bubbling. The noodles with sweet sauce is mouth watering. Pebbles is amused with the aluminium bowl. Hey, our bowl is average size. They have bigger bowl :P

(Pictures will post very very soon.....cos, I misplaced my card reader again .....hehe...blur blur.)

Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

I have been looking around for good ACV and came across in Fair Price supermarket which cost only a few dollars. Thanks to Pebbles else I’m be ending up buying expensive one.
Did some research and here’s what I’ve found from Wikipedia on Apple Cider Vinegar :

Apple cider vinegar, otherwise known simply as cider vinegar, is made from cider or apple must and has a brownish-yellow color. It often is sold unfiltered and unpasteurized with the mother of vinegar present, as a natural product. It is very popular, partly due to alleged beneficial health and beauty properties such as improving conditions of diabetes and obesity, digestive disorders etc .

Due to its acidity, apple cider vinegar may be very harsh, even burning to the throat. If taken straight (as opposed to use in cooking), it should be diluted (e.g. with fruit juice, honey, or sugar) before drinking. Others dilute it with warm water and add some honey. There have been reports of acid chemical burns of the throat in using the pill form.

So friends, drink moderately and consult doctor if you have some medical issues.

Would like to share with you some Recipes shared by Pebbles using ACV :

ACV Drinks (known as “Honegar”)

Ingredients :
250ml warm water
1 tsp ACV
1 tsp Honey

Directions :
Simply add ACV and Honey into the warm water and drink.

Tips :
1) Rinse your mouth after drinking and preferable drink with a straw to avoid enamel erosion on your precious teeth.
2) Do not use hot water as it will destroy the properties in honey.


ACV Salad

Ingredients :
1 cup of mixed vegetables, tomato, cucumber, carrot and nuts of your choice.
1 cup of dairy sour crème
2 tbsp of ACV
1 tbsp of Honey
A pinch of salt.
Optional – Mixed herbs (you may get from any supermarket)

Method
1) Mix Sour crème, ACV, Honey, Salt in a bowl well.
2) Place vegetables in a salad bowl, sprinkle mix herbs and pour in salad dressing (1).

Tips :
It goes well with salad served over white meat such as chicken and fish (salmon, tuna)

Homemade ACV

Ingredients :
Fuji Apples
1 square of wine yeast
Glass Bowl and bottle

Method :
1. Wash enough apples to end up with 19 litres of strained juice.
2. Quarter the apples, then crush them and strain the pulp through a piece of cloth.

3. Save the apple juice for the next step.
4. Remove 1 litre of the apple juice from the rest. Place a square of the yeast into the 1 litre of juice and mix thoroughly. Thereafter, stir the starter mix into the remaining litres of juice and mix well.
5. Place the yeast/apple juice mixture into several glass bowls or lid-less containers. Each bowl or container should be approximately three quarters full. Cover the tops with cloth so air can reach the mixtures. Then, set them where they can be left undisturbed out of the direct sunlight. The ideal location will have a temperature of 15 to 25 degrees celsius. Leave the mixture to ferment.
6. One time a day, you will need to use a plastic or wooden long-handled spoon to stir the yeast/apple juice mixture in each of the bowls or containers. It will take approximately 3 to 4 weeks for the mixture to properly ferment. After 3 weeks, taste test the mixtures to see whether the vinegar is strong enough.
7. When your ACV is ready, use several layers of small-holed cloth placed on top one another to strain the ACV.
8. Heat the ACV in a stainless steel pot on your stove top over a low to medium temperature and stir it occasionally till it reaches a temperature of 60 degrees celsius, Once it reaches that temperature, immediately remove it from your stove top.
9. Pour the ACV into clean bottles that have air-tight lids. Place the bottles into a hot water bath. Allow them to cool down. Then, store the ACV in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.

Tips :
1) Do not use metal utensils, containers and bowls as vinegar will have chemical reaction with it. Use glass instead.
2) Do not use yeast that is meant for bread making.

Picasa Web Albums

Many of my young friends and friends that are very new to blog have the same questions of how to add slide show and how to add pictures to their blog and what and who provide easy uploading of pictures.

There are many web albums available on the Web and I am currently using PICASA WEB ALBUMS as it's very user friendly and fast in uploading your pics.

Here's the link that you can sign up your account : Picasa Web Albums

What you can do :
1) Post photos and videos online
2) Share photos with friends and family
3) View and save your friends' photos
4) Add captions / comments to your photo
5) Create a photo album on certain topics (eg Otah Recipe), download all your otah photos, copy the embedded code and paste it on your blog......your slide show on otah is done.

My review on Picasa Web Albums :
1) Fast uploading speed
2) Seldom hang while uploading
3) You can choose multiple photos to upload and go on with your other job.
4) It will not slow down and slack your blog too much when your reader is scrolling your blog post.
5) The slide show appear smoothly.
6) I hope they can improve further for us to have more varieties of slide effect (eg pics moving in a circle, pics dropping from top, etc) rather then the current standard slide. However, the fast speed and user friendly features compromise this. I'm sure they will come out with better features soon.

Sign up an account and have fun with it.

Greentea Wolfberry Agar-Agar Recipe (寧夏枸杞)

Wolfberry also known as snowberry is currently grow in many regions and China is having commercial cultivation for its great demand especially Asia market. What we consume is the fruits which have a vibrant orange red colour with many tiny seeds in it.

It has been playing important role in TMC (Traditional Chinese Medicine) for it’s medical effect of enhancing immune system, improve eyesight, protect liver, boost sperm production, improve circulation, enrich ‘yin’ energy, act on liver, lungs and kidneys.

Wolfberry Flower

They can be eaten raw like raisins. Just rinse with warm water and eat it. My kids love eating them as titbits. They can be added into black chicken soup, ginseng soup, herbal soup and brewed into an herbal tea. Just pick up a handful of wolfberry and add them to your soup and tea. It gives a sweet taste and you can consider having your tea without sugar. I like to add a generous tablespoon of wolfberry to my chrysanthemum tea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

Green tea is tea undergoing minimal oxidation during process. It is originated from China and becomes very popular in Asia, Japan, Korea and Middle East. Regular green tea drinkers may have lower chances of heart disease, cancer, balance cholesterol lever and maintain weight.
There are my type of green tea you may choose that suits your taste buds. There are Longjing (龙井) , Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春), Xiang Pian – jasmine tea (香片), Genmaicha – brown-rice tea (玄米茶) etc.

Here’s a recipe I make it up with my son Supercute which combine the benefit of Wolfberry and Green Tea. You can try making different type of Agar using different type of Green Tea. This dessert is good especially when the weather is hot or you have just consume heavy food as it is very refreshing and a perfect thirst quencher on a hot day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea

Sharing with you a recipe that my family like and it's very refreshing :

Ingredients – (Serving for 5 persons)

650ml hot water (70 degree C)
Abt 10g Green Tea of your choice
1 sachet of Agar Agar powder (White) – 12g
250g of sugar
half cup of wolfberry

Directions –

1) Place green tea leaves in a bowl and pour in hot water (70 degree c). Let it steep for 1 - 2 minutes. Steep further if you prefer very strong aroma.
2) Drain the tea to another pot and keep the tea leaves (I chill the tea leaves and use them as eyes mask at night :P).
3) Add the sachet of Agar Agar powder and sugar into the tea, stir and bring to poil over low heat.
4) Put wolfberries into the mould and pour the agar agar liquid into it.
5) Allow to cool.

Tips –

1) Place wolfberry into the mould first then pour the liquid agar gently into the mould. Some of the berries will float and the rest will remain at the bottom.
2) As I’m having a round mould, I push the floating berries toward the edge and center of the mould to form a lovely ring.
3) Be adventurous. Try different flavour of tea. It’s always full of surprises.

Coffee Bean & Tea & Verytiki

It's Verytiki's birthday and I want the whole world to know how happy and bless I am. Haha....

The morning is exceptionally beautiful. ET and I decided to have a good breakfast at Coffee Bean Tea in Tiong Bahru Plaza who serves mouth watering breakfast, cheese cakes and my favourite Earl Grey Tea. A picture speaks a thousand words. See for yourself how nice the breakfast is ;)

Today will be all about food. We continue our food hunting with my kids and we ended up in Hong Lim Complex eating their famous Duck rice and noodles. After which we proceeded to China Town Point and bought a DVD player for Roselle's mother. We would love to give her the world but we can only afford a DVD player as farewell present. Well, it's the thought that count isn't it ?

We had fried Bee Hoon for dinner as the weather is not so fine in the evening. We do not wish to be caught in the rain. Dinner is simple but great.

A birthday celebration is not complete without a nice cake. We had rasberry cheese cake and it's yummy.

Thanks Pebbles & Riffle for your e-card, e-mail wishes and present. The bag is perfect when I go shopping with Princess.

Thanks Supercute and Black Ninja for spending 1 hours searching in Tiong Bahru Plaza for this cute and useful ceramic container. My ring is sleeping comfortably in the box.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VERYTIKI and many more to come. Cheers....