When Shern Was Inside My Belly!

I thought I lost all my photos during my pregnancy and Shern's early months due to the burglary in mum's house last year.
Boy, I was wrong! I found my old memory card and in it were a few videos (yes, videos!) of me when I was 9 months pregnant...when I was almost due!

My belly was huge. And I saw Little Angel a.k.a Shern kicking and punching my belly. I guess he was looking for more space. I quickly uploaded the video in youtube and here you are...watching Shern kicking his mummy from inside my belly!

Shern Inside My Belly

2 June 2009

Noticed the left side of my belly kept on protruding in and out? That's Shern's doing!
And that vertical line on my belly is called Linea Nigra - a pregnancy trademark (which is fading off by now).

And for those of you who feels icky watching it...well, shoo off. I post it here because this is my personal blog ;D

Egg Tarts

Ooopss....another bake post! :P

I've always wanted to make egg tarts but I did not have any tart tins. Therefore I always delayed making them. But when I saw the egg tarts in Wendy's blog, I could not wait to do it there and then. Her photos of them looks damn mouth watering.
The next day, I went to Bonjour and bought the tart tins and started baking it the same day itself.

The ingredients for the egg tarts are simple and I have everything I needed. Butter, flour, sugar, eggs, milk.

l: Pastry needed to be rolled out
r: Pastry in tart tins


Cooking the egg tarts still in tart tins on the wire rack

My end product

One thing is that I did grease the tart pans, although Wendy mentioned that it is not a must if you are using aluminum ones. She did not grease them and they could be unmoulded just find. I am too afraid that I may not be able to remove them later. The kiasu me!

I was lucky that out of 14 egg tarts, only 1 of them leaked, and thus I could not remove it from the tart tin. It was stuck. I ended up eating that one with a spoon. The rest of them I was able to remove from the tart tins by using a toothpick as recommended by Wendy.

My crust was too crumbly. I think I made the crust too thin. Next time must mould a thicker crust. But other than that, it tasted lovely. The velvety texture of the egg custard matches so well with the pastry.
Ah-yee said it is as good as the one we eat at dim sum place. *beaming*

Recipe: Egg Tart Recipe (copied from Wendy's blog)

Pastry
250g plain flour

2 tbsp castor sugar

1 egg yolk

150g cold butter, cubed

Filling

150g castor sugar

150ml hot water

250ml milk(1 small pack of milk)

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs

1 egg white (From the same egg where the yolk was used in the crust)

1. Cream the butter with the egg yolk and sugar.
2. Add in flour. Mix well. (If the dough is sticky for you , well maybe your yolks are larger than mine, add in extra flour by the teaspoon until it no longer feels sticky, but got a slight flour feel to it, but not too much though, as it will toughen the crust. the borderline of stickiness and dry feel is very thin.. so, add extra flour with caution)
3. Roll out pastry in between two sheets of plastic into thickness of about 4mm. Stamp out 9–10cm circles of pastry with a pastry cutter.
4. Lightly press the pastry circles into foil tart cases(I’m lazy to wash up the tart tins).
5. Refrigerate the lined foil cases for 2 hours (I left them overnight)
6. Melt the sugar in hot water, add milk, salt, vanilla essence. Beat all the eggs lightly and mix in all together.
7. Sieve egg mixture and pour into the cold tart crust.
8. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.

This recipe is good. Try it out!

Snacks

Now that Shern is 13 months old, I have less restrictions on Shern's food. In fact, Shern eats everything. But his main 2 meals is still moi/porridge.

However, in between his two main meals, Shern snacks a lot. Below are two of Shern's favourite snacks - Cheerios and Rice Krispies.
Although Shern has only got 8 front teeth - 4 top & 4 bottom, he can snacks on these cereals. I noticed that he sucks them 'til they soften and then swallow. I guess so, since he has got no back teeth to chew on.

Shern loves the Cheerios more, maybe because of the size. Cheerios is made from corn, oats, rice and wheat. This Multi Cheerios provides eight essential minerals, plus iron and calcium. I like the fact that it is not as sweet as other cereals, such as Nestle's Honey Stars, etc.

Nestle's Cheerios & Kellogg's Rice Krispies

Giving Shern the chance to snack using his fingers, rather than I feed him all the time is good. I see that he learns how to grip the small Cheerios/Rice Krispies better. He learns how to pick up the food using his thumb and index finger. And it is also a challenge to him how to put them in his mouth, because sometimes the food kinda 'stuck' to his fingers.

Below 2 photos are of Shern snacking on Cheerios & Rice Krispies.

5 July 2010 - Shern snacking on Cheerios
18 July 2010 - Shern snacking on Rice Krispies

And not to forget that Shern often gets to snack on my bakes - cakes, bread, tarts, etc. This left photo below shows Shern snacking on the Mini Chocolate Muffins I baked earlier this month. Look at his mouth - so chocolate-y cute! :P

And Shern loves Yakult and Vitagen. Which kid doesn't? Well, he can drink the whole Yakult all by himself in just a few minutes. He sucks and sucks and sucks at the straw non-stop!

8 July 2010 - Shern snacking on homemade Mini Chocolate Muffins
16 July 2010 - Shern drinking the whole Yakult all by himself

Well, I am glad that Shern is not a food-picker for now. He gobbles almost everything I give him (except for formula milk...sigh!).

I believe in letting Shern try and enjoy a wide spread of different flavours and textures. Everything should be given in moderate. A little sugar once in a while does no harm! :)
And every child needs some sugar to make him a sugary sweet pie. :D

Proud Mummy of a 13 Month Old

Shern is 13 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old today. I just realized that it has been quite awhile since his last monthly updates. Well, I suddenly feel like updating Shern's CURRENT achievement.

What can I say? I'm a proud mummy. And I find all his antics and gestures all a huge milestone :)

As of today, Shern can:

- walk quite well now - about 20-30 steps, although not that stable yet.
- only say 1 recognized word, which is "mum mum" which means 'eat' in baby language.
- wave his hand for 'bye-bye'.
- thump his hand on his chest to show 'scared-scared'.
- shows 'Good' with his index finger up instead of his thumb.
- look up the ceiling and point to the fan when I ask him 'Where is the fan?'
- sometimes can identify the 'clock' in our house as well.
- twist his wrist from left to right indicating 'No more' whenever his favourite VCD ends, or when his food is finished.
- clap his hands when you sing 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands'.
- dance by bending his knees/shaking his butt when there is music, preferable music with beat.
- point to 'daddy', 'mummy', 'yee-yee', 'yee-pho', 'kong-kong', 'pho-pho' when we ask for them.
- look up in the sky/out the window when we ask 'Where is the bird?'
- whenever he catch hold of a ball, his instinct is to throw the ball onto the floor.
- whenever kong-kong turned on the ESPN channel to watch soccer, Shern will lift his leg up in the air to kick the imaginary ball.
- loves his books and can point to pictures of the books such as 'flowers', 'dog', 'ball', 'bird'.
- loves cars and always push/wheels them on the floor.
- feed himself when given finger foods such as pieces of bread or Cheerios.
- still refuses to hold his milk bottle.

5 July 2010

Oh ya, I forgot to mention that Shern can stick his tongue out too, even when you don't ask for it!

Orange Butter Cake

I was craving for this cake the moment I saw this recipe in Ju's blog.
The yellow cake with orange-y specks and the dark brown crust is so tempting, don't you think so? And I always have this fondness for butter cakes. It is simple yet satisfying.

This recipe calls for the adding of orange zest into the butter cake batter. This makes the cake smells so nice - so citrus-y.

However, I did not have a 9-inch cake pan and thus used a bigger cake pan - thus, resulted in a shorter cake. Luckily, I did remember to reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.
I baked this cake at night around 9.30pm. By the time I finish baking, it is already 11pm and I was hurrying to put Shern to sleep.


Photo#1 - Saw this tip in AFC in Astro - I shaved my butter to make it soften quicker.
Photo#2 - Finally bought my egg white/yolk separator. Ahh...simple tools like this really makes my life simpler.
Photo#3 - Orange Butter Cake batter

As usual, I did not wait for the cake to be completely cool before cutting it. So the cake did crumbled a bit when I cut it. But we couldn't wait. Well, I couldn't wait, that is. I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it!

The cake is so good that we finished almost half the cake even near midnight. All of us has a slice or two, even Shern!
Ah-yee even requested me to bake another of the same cake tomorrow! See...it is that good!

Orange Butter Cake - 22 July 2010

Recipe: Orange Butter Cake (copied from Ju's The Little Teochew blog)
- 195g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 170g butter, softened
- 225g sugar
- 1 large egg, plus one large egg yolk
- 1 1/2 tbsp orange zest
- 12 tbsp whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Butter and line a 9-inch cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Using a mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar until fluffy for about about 2 minutes.
4. Beat in orange zest, then egg and egg yolk. If the mixture curdles, just add 1 tbsp of flour and continue mixing.
5. On low speed, add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with milk.
6. Switch mixer to medium and beat for 10 to 15 seconds, just until batter appears uniform. The batter should look thick and creamy.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula or knife.
8. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until it reaches a dark-gold color and an inserted cake tester comes out clean.
9. Let to rest in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cake stand or platter. Allow cake to completely cool before slicing.

Enjoy!

(Since it was night time, all photos were taken without natural light and this explains why all the photos here sucks!)

Blueberry Ripple Yogurt Ice Cream

Saw this in Wendy's blog and decided to try it out.
And my end results do not look as appetizing as her's. My decoration skills sucks I know.

But the taste of it is so good that I made this twice in the same week.
It's a shame that blueberries are expensive here, although I noticed that the price has been coming down. However, I still bought mine at RM 9.90 for 125g which makes this yogurt ice-cream an expensive desert.

Hubby who doesn't go near yogurt says this yogurt ice cream is nice and ate a few slices of them :)

Yogurt ice cream on a plate without the drizzle topping YET



Drizzled the top with blueberry syrup


Slices of Blueberry Ripple Yogurt Ice Cream served onto plates

Recipe: Blueberry Ripple Yogurt Ice Cream (copied directly from Wendy's blog)

(A)
100gm blueberries
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp sugar (I used icing sugar)
Cook these in a saucepan over medium low heat until you can see the water turning into a blue colour. Do not stir, only swirl the pan with the handle. Remove from heat. Let it cool.

(B)
1tsp gelatin
2 Tbsp water
Place water in a microwave safe or heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Either microwave on high for 20 seconds or double boil until gelatin melts. Set aside to cool.

(C )
250ml low fat plain yogurt (I used Anlene)
200ml whipping cream (I used Emborg)
80gm sugar (I used icing sugar)
1/3 tsp gelatin (for use only after ice cream has hardened)

1. Chill mixing bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from freezer and pour in cold whipping cream.
3. Beat on low for 1 minute then raise the speed gradually to high and whip until it is almost soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and whip until soft peaks.
4. With the mixer on, pour in the cooled gelatin mixture (B) and mix until incorporated.
5. With a spatula or spoon, mix in the yogurt. Mix well.
6. Put only the blueberries (A) into the ice cream mixture. Leave the syrup behind and keep it chilled until time of use.
7. Fold the ice cream twice, not too much, you want the ripple effect. Take care not to break the blueberries.
8. Pour ice cream into a 1L capacity loaf tin. (I used a disposable freezer Tupperware ) Freeze until hardened.
9. When it’s almost time to serve, sprinkle 1/3 tsp of gelatin into reserved blueberry syrup and let it sit for 5 minutes. Microwave on high for 20 seconds. Let it cool down.
10. Unmould ice cream onto a chilled serving platter. Drizzle blueberry syrup over ice cream loaf.
11. Slice ice cream to serve. Do not use a scoop.

Enjoy!

Playing With Daddy's Mobile Phone

Shern just love our mobile phones. He can't wait to grab his hands on any of ours.
And when he does, this is what he will do - Put the mobile phone near his ear and tilt his head to one side as if he is talking on the phone.

I caught him doing exactly that last nite. Shern managed to grab daddy's mobile phone while sleeping on top of daddy!

18 July 2010

The Kite Runner

rippleeffects.wordpress.com

After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I took my mum's copy of The Kite Runner to our recent KL trip and I finished it there amidst all our shopping and touristy schedule. It was that good. I could not put it down although I already knew the storyline from the DVD I watched.

This book is so so so good. The movie is so so so bad. Please don't watch it. Read the book instead. I think the way Khaled Hosseini wrote The Kite Runner is even better than The Thousand Splendid Suns, although many critics say otherwise.

The simple language he used in this book makes it such an easy read, although the book is full of rich emotions. There are times when I had to put down the book for awhile and ponder on the meanings of its words. This book has its own unique and quiet way to reach out to the readers.

The story is based in Afghanistan, and talks mainly about father & son love, friendships, price of disloyalty and horrific realities of war. This book makes me smile and cry at the same time. What I like is that it builds up the characters in depth that you feel that you are part of them - wishing them good all the way. And of course, life is not a bed of roses in Afghanistan - far from it in fact.

I think this is a book for keeps. I am going to buy a brand new copy of this book and keep it in my collection so that I will have a copy that I can call MINE :)

Rating: 9/10

Source: http://www.curledup.com/kiterun.htm

Shern's Bike

18 July 2010

Shern received a V-tech 3-in-1 Smart Wheels for his birthday from the Mah's family. We call it Shern's Bike.

He loves it. Before he can walk, he uses the bike as his walker. He will push and maneuver the bike to the directions he wants to go.
And now, he enjoys sitting and erm...standing on bike, his hands on the steering wheel and pushing all the buttons on his bike.

Don't think that Shern is always sitting on his bike acting all 'kuai-kuai' like the photo below. Don't let this photo fool you.

Mostly, Shern is doing all kinds of stunts on it, just like the 3 photos below.

Stuntman Shern - always making my heart skip a beat

Anyway, Shern enjoys the bike a lot. He plays with it every day.

Look at below priceless expression from Shern on his bike? Awesome!

This 'lil bike makes my 'lil baby so happy :)

Proof That Shern Is Walking

Ok. This video is proof that Shern is walking...although not so stable yet.

Yeah...my baby is walking!

Chicken Pox @ 13 months

Some of you may already seen it in my facebook status...that Shern has caught the Chicken Pox bug. In fact, I noticed some red spots on Shern's back and face the day Shern learnt how to walk by himself - 12 July 2010.

And when I saw the bubble-like spots later in the day, I know it has to be the Chicken Pox. I took him to the Night Clinic in GMC and he was attended to by Dr. Rama who confirmed it.

Don't ask me how he got it. I don't even know.
We do not know anyone who has got Chicken Pox and Shern is usually at home except during weekends. And doc says it should not be the pool as ours is a chlorinated pool.
Sigh...Shern is just 2 months away from his Chicken Pox vaccination. What to do!

Spots on his back - 14 July 2010

Shern was given some meds for itchiness and also a 5-day course of meds which should minimize the outbreak.

And true enough, he does not seem to have a lot of it. Most of them are on his head and face. His body, back and legs have a total of less than 20 spots I think.

14 July 2010

Now is Day 4. And Shern is surprisingly very well behaved. He does not seem to be bothered by it at all. He still laughs. He still plays as usual. He is even learning how to walk. He does not scratch here and there, thank goodness.

14 July 2010

I guess the meds to surpress them works well. Or is it really a blessing that he has it when he is so young...where he is not bothered by it at all?
Anyway, I am not complaining! ;)

Shern's Playmate: Min-Yeeyee

Shern has not got many playmates. At 13 months, I am of course still his favourite playmate. He just likes being close to me...tailing me everywhere I go, even to the toilet.

But there are a few others whom Shern likes to play with. One of them is my sis, Shu-Min. Shern calls him Min-Yeeyee. He knows where her room is in the house and will often walk there with the help of his bike/walker.
He has many toys being kept in Min-Yeeyee's room. His gigantic Kick & Whirl Carnival is there and he knows it.

Min is one of the few people whom can entertain him whenever he cries. She knows how to distract him by playing with him, or just taking him out the balcony just to see 'any birds up there'? Shern is fond of birds btw.

8 July 2010 Shern with Min-Yeeyee

Min is certainly most helpful and I don't know what I will do without her.
Now Min is trying to teach Shern to say 'yee-yee'. I don't think she will have much success in this - because Shern can't even say 'mummy' & 'daddy' properly yet. :P
Good luck, Min!

Six to Eight Steps

Photo source: www.webmd.com

Today marks another milestone for Shern. He REPEATEDLY walked about 6-8 steps UNAIDED on his own! Woo hoo!

Since about 2 months ago, Shern has been walking already but it was always with a help of a walker or erm...pail or sort of. And without them, he was happy just cruising around the house.
He was pretty scared to walk on his own and his hands was always grabbing the sofa, or the wall, other furniture.

Then all of a sudden today, he just stood up - from a squatting position to a straight up standing. Then he takes a few steps. Then a few steps more.

I hope it won't be long 'til he really walks.

Smoothies Overload

I am so behind my smoothie updates. Actually, I did have time to whip out some smoothies for my family...mainly for hubby & I though.

Let's just say it this way. Whoever is lucky enough that when they come over to my house and I am whipping out some smoothies, then there will be smoothies served to you. :)

Anyway, I managed to take some photos of the smoothies I churned out using my blender. And they make such great breakfast pick-me-ups and also serves the purpose of a healthier yet delicious meal companion.

Most of them were made using either milk, yoghurt or vanilla ice-cream as a base.

l to r: Kiwi Lemon Smoothie, Orange Tango Smoothie, and Blueberry, Strawberry & Orange Smoothie

l to r: Carrot Apple Milk Smoothie, Cranberry Banana Smoothie, and Dragon Fruit Smoothie

Kiwi Smoothie

I think these justify the reason I bought the Lebensstil Blender, right? Hubby should be happy with the money well spent :P

Steamboat @ Home

I am not fond of having steamboat outside. I am not fond of balls - dislike fishballs, sotong balls, crabmeat balls, almost all kinds of balls.

If the place has no aircond, then it is usually a very sweaty affair. With the hot soup burning our tongues coupled with our humid weather, I usually get very agitated eating steamboat.
And if the place has aircond, then my hair and clothes will end up smelling like food which forced me to wash my hair later on.

But. But. But. I love love LOVE steamboat at home. I like the freshness of the ingredients. And I get to eat more of other stuff other than balls. And I like mum's mix of homemade chilli. And usually we eat for hours. We eat them again and again...resting for an hour or two and then get up to eat again.

Today mum made steamboat again. Oh, I ate many prawns, and the crab makes the soup so sweet. I'm gonna have second round and third round.

11 July 2010

Oh...did I mention that we are having this for the whole day? No specific time. Just eat as at when you wish. :)

Ohhh...I love steamboat at home.

Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake

I am still catching up on my Weekly Bakes posts. This Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake was actually baked on 14 June 2010, nearly a month ago.

This recipe takes a rich and buttery pound cake and stubs it with lemon laced dried cranberries. It was an instant hit! We finished up even the crumbs!

Baking in my portable oven


Oopss....top part of oven too hot and it cracked a little

Revealing the moist buttery cake inside

Slices of the cake

Next time I think I need to flour the dried cranberries before I add them into my batter because they turned out nearly all sank at the bottom of the cake. Hopefully by coating them with flour, I can eliminate this problem.

This is a definite must-bake cake if you love tangy yet rich buttery flavour.

Oh btw, this recipe calls for a bundt pan but I don't own one so I used a 9-inch square pan.

Recipe: Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake (from Joyofbaking)

Cranberries:

1/3 cup (80 ml) lemon juice (about 2-3 large lemons)
2 tablespoons brandy
4 ounces (115 grams) dried cranberries or dried cherries

Pound Cake:

3 1/2 cups (490 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups (600 grams) granulated white sugar
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 tablespoon (6 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 cup (242 grams) sour cream or plain yogurt
Powdered Sugar for dusting top of cake

For Cranberries:

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring the lemon juice, brandy, and dried cranberries to a boil. Cover and remove from heat. Let cool completely and then drain, reserving the cranberries and the juice separately.

For Pound Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Butter and flour (or spray with a vegetable oil and flour spray) a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt pan. If using a dark colored pan, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest, vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With mixer on low, add 1/3 of flour mixture, alternating with the sour cream, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating just until batter is smooth. (You will have three additions of flour and two of the sour cream.) Stir in the drained cranberries.

Pour batter into bundt pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake for approximately 60 - 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool 5 minutes and then lightly brush the top of the cake with half of the reserved cranberry liquid. After 10 more minutes loosen sides of pan with a sharp knife and invert onto a wire rack. Immediately brush the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cranberry liquid. Cool the cake completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. If not serving immediately wrap the cake well with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze.

Serves 12 - 14 people

Source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonCranberryPoundCake.html