A tribute to a FTWM's cooks...

As the little girl goes to a school nearer our place, hubby and I would need to settle her dinner. Eating out is not exactly a healthy option. I'm also feeling bad because when I was her age, I only ate home cooked food everyday except weekends. It was also during these days, I remember standing on a stool, peering over my aunt's shoulders to see her cook. And of course, disturb her with never-ending questions...

These observations served me well as I picked up some cooking basics from here. Having cooked regularly now, I regret not perfecting my cooking skills during the years where I was just married... As I struggled to find dishes to avoid repeats in the month (fail, because you will spot onion eggs on many days - hubby's favourite dish), I began to hunt for Asian dish recipes online (totally not easy). Thankfully, I have a colleague Mr Han who feeds me with "western" recipes and one-dish ideas (risotto and pasta).

The cooking journey has been tough since I did not cook that often and I did not have a stash of family recipes to rely on. It was also difficult to spur myself on other than through the little gal's enthusiasm for some dishes that I made. :)

This post would serve as a tribute to sweating it out in the kitchen over the last 10 weeks...

Week 1 - (Steamed grouper, onion egg, old cucumber pork rib soup), (Yong Tau Foo Soy Noodles, fried veg, fried anchovies), (Fried fish, stir fry brocoli, fried egg soup with carrots and fishball)

Week 3 (reduced to 2 day cooking): (Cod fish HK style, stir fry nai bai, lotus root pork rib soup), (fried rice, stir fry chicken with potato)

Week 4: (stir fry veg with Lo Han Chai, steamed egg with minced meat), (old cucumber pork rib soup, fried salmon & stir fry veg with mushrooms)

Also Week 4: What I always love to have (and will never be sick of)... In the end we added tom yam paste into the soup. *Yumzzzzz*

Week 6: (Chinese yam & carrot chicken soup, sardines with onions, stir fried kai lan), (threadfin porridge with wolfberries & boiled spinach)

Week 7: (Onion egg, stir fry veg, steamed promfet with tomato, burdock carrots pork rib soup), (chicken mushroom risotto)

Week 8: (only  cooked once this week) (ba kut teh soup with button mushrooms, stir fry vegetable with shitake mushroom, fried egg with tomatoes)

 Week 9: (Omelette, steamed fish with soya sauce, radish carrot pork rib soup), (steamed minced meat with salted egg, fried long beans with carrots, fried egg soup)

Week 10: ( Canfood day! baked beans with sausages, egg soup with tomatoes & tofu, stir fry vegetable, sardines with onions), (pasta with cooked from scratch sauce with Danish meatballs)

Week 11: (steamed egg with minced meat, stir fried sweet peas), (claypot chicken mushroom rice with lup cheong and cabbage)

Hello Kitty present!

Ah gong and ah ma bought the little gal a birthday pressie! And it's a Hello Kitty fridge!

The fridge has a can dispenser where she can load it and press to release just one can!

The little gal loved it so much she was so afraid of losing the paper bag it was put in. ;)

An early birthday present...

大姨 is really sweet because she bought something for the little gal.

Little gal is of course excited about presents and all things labelled with the word "birthday". Mostly she associates the word with cakes and candles. In most family birthday celebrations, she will be there to sit on the lap of the birthday boy or girl and help blow out the candles...

Here is a few pictures of her gleaming away with the present from 大姨...

Someone is addicted to... Ovalteenies!!!

A picture paints a thousand words...

The Christmas portraits...

The very classic snowman for the coming Christmas! ;)

You know your little one has grown up when she swings her hand over your shoulder to pull u closer and poses for a photo...

Back to old school... ;)

Passed by a biscuit shop and found some really old school tidbits! Like the HIRO chocolate coated cake, the "ding dang cat" chocolate coated nuts...

I caved in and bought this! It's not so easy to find such things nowdays. Little girl requested for yellow... She took 2 bites and gave it back to me. I guess its because it's durian flavoured.

Then tried my green one and finished it. ;p here is a photo of her eating what she calls the "round and round"...

PS: This morning hubby was helping the sleepy gal into her school uniform. She stood up and just when hubby thought she was going to hug him and go back to zzz, she pushed hubby aside. Ran to the living room to pick up the "horlicks" sweets. She remembered that the night before mummy had promised her that she could have them when she woke up. Such a cute darling!

Little Megan's birthday party! ;)

We attended little Megan's party at Orchid Country Club - little ozone. The play area's pretty fun and the little gal enjoyed herself! ;)

Got to meet most of my forum friends and their toddlers! All are so grown already... ;)

Megan's birthday cake is really sweet and pretty! Adorned with lots of pretty flowers, butterfly and bees. ;)

Thanks to Phyl for inviting and we has great fun!

PS: check out the cute little gal whose posing with the cake... ;p

The accidental friend?

Went to eat at a neighborhood where there was a shop selling household stuff. The shop seems to be run by two ladies and their daughter was there.

We hung in the shop for quite a while because ah gong couldn't quite decide whether to buy the light bulbs or not... The shop owner's daughter was super friendly... She first offered my little gal some "mamee" that she was having. The little gal took it and I reminded her to say thank you.

Well after this, my little gal received transformer stickers (free from the mamee pack) from her. The little gal was at first apprehensive but soon opened up when the older girl began "talking" to her. Both of them even sat at one of the shelves to share the pack of mamee. To me, I hope this spells the start of my gal's ability to socialise and open up to others of her age...

I hope my little gal can also learn the generosity the older gal possesed. Not only did the older gal share her mamee and stickers, she also gave one pack of mamee to my gal to bring home. Isn't that sweet?

Well a picture paints a thousand words, so here it is... Don't they look like they have been friends forever? ;)