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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Blueberry Cobbler Again!



28 May 2011 - Blueberry Cobbler

Oh my gosh, I am so behind in my baking posts. So for the next three posts, it will be on my bakes, so please bear with me. :)

Last month (ahem!), I baked Blueberry Cobbler again. Yes, I've baked this before
half a year ago. But this time, I did not half the recipe. I have enough blueberries so I tried making the whole recipe size, but using the same baking dish.

When I poured the batter into the my baking dish, it was almost full. I was contemplating at that time whether should I pour all the batter into one dish. Will it overflow?


So what is the results? The batter rose to the brim of the baking dish and luckily it did not overflow. Phew....
The blueberries burst and spread juicily while the crust remains crispy! Really yummy!






Oh btw, I did reduce the sugar compared to the original recipe. But if you do not have a sweet tooth, please further reduce the sugar!




It was really, really delicious when served warm and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Trust me!
I seldom use the same recipe twice unless it is very good.

Recipe: Blueberry Cobbler (largely adapted from the The Pioneer Woman Cooks book)
Serves 8

Ingredients
1/2 cup (113g) butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk

2 cups of blueberries (frozen or fresh) - I used fresh


Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 d celcius. Grease a 3 quart baking dish.
(I used a 2 quart)
2. Place the butter in a microwave-safe dish. Heat in a microwave for 30-45 seconds, until melted.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk 1 cup of the sugar with the flour and milk.
4. Whisk in the melted butter.

5. Rinse the blueberries and pat them dry.
6. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the top of the batter.

7. Sprinkle 1 tbsp sugar over the blueberries. (optional)
8. Bake for 30 mins, or until golden brown and bubbly. When 5 mins of cooking time remain, sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup tbsp sugar over the top. (optional) (I omitted this)

9. Serve the golden, crispy cobbler by the spoonful. Top with whipped cream or ice-cream.



Yiu-Shern - 24 Months


6 June 2011 @ 24 Months

Toys
Shern is still very much into his toy vehicles. He can name most of the vehicles on the road: car, taxi, tractor, lorry, cement truck, fire engine truck, ambulance, police car, and even cranes on construction sites.
His vehicles collection is growing rather too rapidly that we don't have much space for them!

And needless to say, he knows almost all of the vehicles of Thomas and Friends. He can tell you which is Thomas, James, Annie and Clarabel, Harold, Duck, etc. And he can also differentiate between Thomas, Edward and Gordon. All three of them are blue in colour but he knows which is which by looking at their facial expressions. All of us at home and are in awe of him for this.

Physical Strength
Shern is getting really strong. When he kicks, he can kick real hard. And he can jump now as opposed to a few months ago when jump to him means tip-toe-ing his feet!

Speech
Speech-wise he is doing really well now. Although he is a late talker, calling mummy and daddy only at 20 months, his speech development is growing at a rapid rate now. Once he found that he could roll his tongue, he has been following what we are talking.

Me: Hey, Peter, don't be siao.
Shern: Don't be siao.
Me: ooopss...

Yeah, we have to really watch what we are saying. Shern is listening to every single word we say and parrot-ing us!

And he is now able to join words to try to form sentences. Talk about rapid speech development! Of course he dropped all the 'is', 'are', 'with' etc. But he can really make himself understood.

While we were sitting as passenger behind the car, the car jolted due to a road bump.
Shern: Daddy drive scared-scared.
(he is trying to tell us, daddy driving made him scared)

It was hilarious really!

Food
Shern is like the MPPP of the house. He wants to eat what we are eating. And that includes hokkien mee and char koay teow. Yes, he is not afraid of chilli. After slurping them, he will say 'a bit spicy' and then drink his water. And after that he will say 'aiiii', which means he wants more!

Of course, hokkien mee and char koay teow is not his main meal. He just slurps a little of what we give him. He has his own bowl of non-spicy rice or noodles.
I am not the particular mum that makes sure my son eats only wholemeal bread or brown rice and nothing else. Of course they are good stuff and I'll be real happy if he eats them. But just that I don't mind Shern slurping a few mouthful of sinful stuff such as char koay teow.
After all, Shern is already eating all my homemade bakes. Those are already sinful stuff right?

But I put my stand on some food. No sweets for Shern (unless my MIL gives him some once a week when he goes to visit) and no soft drinks!

And one thing though, you can't catch Shern near any fruits. For some reason, he has now decided that fruits are not for him. He spits out whatever fruits I gave him, be it apple, grapes, oranges, peaches, bananas, watermelon. Sigh. Lucky for me, he poos alright. Actually, he poos 2-3 times a day!

Milk
Shern drinks 5-6oz of Anmum Essential 3+ every morning when he opens his eyes. And then once or twice during the day, usually before or after nap. And another 5-6oz before he sleeps. And no, he doesn't drink any milk in the middle of the night (thank goodness).

And when we go out, I don't take with me formula powder, hot water, bottle, etc if it is just the mall or somewhere just a few hours. Maybe because he eats everything, so it is usually no problem to find food for him outside, usually bread or rice or just noodles. He gobbles everything.

I only lug out the formula powder, hot water, bottle with me if we go out the whole day (very seldom) or if we go to MIL's house.

Shopping
Shern loves going kai-kai. He loves to sit car, because it means going out. But to our exasperation, at malls, Shern refused to walk most of the time. When we try to put him down, he will lift up his legs quickly and say 'mai walk'!

And he will not sit in the stroller. One mistake we made, we did not bring him out often when he was young, thus he was not associated with the stroller well. When we did, he was already more alert and clever and refused to sit in the stroller!

On rare occasions, in order to persuade him to walk, we gave him a hat in Forever 21 and he had a good time playing with the hat!


12 June 2011 (photo taken using iPhone)

Character
Shern is really naughty nowadays. He purposely disobey us and does what we tell him not to do. So that was the reason I bought a cane at the Chowrasta Market 2 weeks ago. I have not used it yet, but I know someday I will.

I am not someone who is fond of using the cane to discipline my child. Me, myself was not caned often during young. But Shern really is testing my patience. He can be real obstinate at times. And I am already considered a very patient person. I always try my best to persuade him and explain things to him, rather than force him. Well, we'll see how long 'til I use the cane.

Sharing
Shern does not know how to share. He thinks that sharing means one-way; him lending his things to other people. He cannot understand that people can lend him their things too.

And maybe he got scared during his birthday party because without giving him notice and time, he suddenly has got to share his toys with so many other kids. So now, he has a phobia on the word 'share'. He always replies with 'mai share'.
But if I dont use the word 'share' but instead I say 'can mummy play with it?' (instead of can share this with mummy?'), he is ok with it!
So I really have got to teach him about sharing.

Sleep
Shern now sleep at around 9.30pm or 10.00pm to about 8.00-8.30am, which is about 10 hours+ of a good night sleep. We don't have to carry him to sleep anymore, but just need one of us to lie down next to him until he falls asleep. He will usually toss and turn until he falls asleep, which is usually 5-15 minutes later.

And now, he usually sleeps through the night.


(To read more about Shern's development milestone, please click here.)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Day At the Mall

Quite often we go to one of the malls in Penang during weekends.

As Shern refuses to sit in his stroller, it is quite a daunting task for me to carry him all the time. So usually we will bring Shern to do things he enjoys doing...at the mall.

Like...chilling out at McD. He gets to enjoy his favourite fries and milo. And so he sat happily in the high chair.

25 June 2011

And since he was full, he slept while we dined in Sakae Sushi. It was a pity really because Shern loves sushi. He can take a few pieces of it.

But luckily, he woke up in time to see the Sakae froggy. Shern was so happy to see the froggy. He high-5-ed it, shook froggy's hands and even gave froggy a hug. And he was so happy to tell us that 'frog-frog gave him a balloon'!


And then we took him to the bookstore. Shern loves the bookstore and kept on asking us to 'read book' to him. I ended up reading to him books of Cars, Barney, Thomas & Friends and even a pictionary book!
(I forgot to snap a photo of Shern in the bookstore because I was busy reading to him!)

And then of course his favourite place is Toys R Us. He likes to play with all the toys there, pressing all the buttons and of course his favorite vehicles!
Until now, Shern is always a good boy and will leave the place when we tell him 'car-car want to sleep already. Say bye-bye to car-cars'! :)


Lastly, we did some donation and Shern loves watching the coins twirl round and round the well.

I think Shern enjoys the mall more than me. Because I can never shop with Shern around! ;)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Shern is No Longer Afraid of the Sand!

I'm so glad we live very near the beach. It's actually walking distance from our place, but with a toddler and so many things to carry, we've never walked to the beach before. Haha. We always drive there.

Just 3 months ago in Phuket, Shern hated the sand. He hated how the sand stuck to his legs and asked me to wipe off the 'ekk ekk' (dirt) sand. And he refused to put his legs down on the sand. It was exasperating, I tell you.

So, 3 months later, on his birthday, we decided him to bring him to the beach for some fun and also to re-introduce the beach (sand) to him.
Initially, he was sitting on the mat we brought there. I then purposely put his toys further.

6 June 2011

So then, his feet came out to the sand without him realizing.


Then slowly, we took his hand and led him to walk on the sand. See how he retrieved his leg once it touched the sand? Hehe.
But after a while, he walked out. We were so proud of him.

He then sat on the sand and played with his toys. Little pail, bucket, watering can and spades, etc.

He was even brave enough to walk all the way to the sea with daddy to collect water to fill the bucket.

After awhile, it was no problem. He was having fun playing with sand and water.

Even at the beach, Shern still loves playing with his cars.


He has a nice time that day. And a week later, we brought him back to the beach.
His 2nd time there, we had no trouble at all. He sat on the sand immediately and started scooping sand with his spade into the pail. He was so at home with the sand.
16 June 2011

And he even walked all by himself round and round our mat where we were seating. Shern is no longer afraid of the sand! Yay!


Look at his smiley face while walking on the sand!


Since then, we've brought him to the beach a few more times. And he certainly loves going to the beach!

So what do we do while Shern plays in the sand?
Hubby and I sat down and phak thor. hehe. With me holding my faithful point-and-shoot Canon, of course!


And we got to enjoy and admire the beautiful sunset in Penang.

19 June 2011

Since Shern is rather fussy about cleanliness,I make sure I bring along a few bottles of clean, tap water to wash the sand off him after sand play. This makes him feel better and also all of us are cleaner before we enter into the car! :)

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Scrapbooking: My First Seven Layouts

One confession to make: This is what has been occupying my time lately. If you've noticed that I've blogged less lately, blame it on my new found hobby - Scrapbooking Layouts! Haha!

It's really fun how you get to create one-of-a-kind layouts and document your photos and journaling. I'm still very new and I don't have much stuff. I don't use the latest papers or embellishments. And not everything in my layout is acid-free. But heck, I still love doing it! Creating layouts make me happy!

Below are my first seven layouts done so far:

1st Layout - Remember



2nd layout - Being 29 and feeling Great



3rd layout - Sisters Forever



4th layout - 'Lil One



5th layout - Wedding Rings



6th layout - True Love



7th layout - Just You and I



Oops...I don't name all the brands and manufacturer names because I tend to forget what I use. Haha. Some of the brands are stuck behind the tags and after I'd glued them on, I forgot the brands. And I can't recognize them by just looking at them. I'm blur, yes. And some are scraps I've used before to make cards. So sorry.

And this ain't my scrapbooking blog. It's a blog I blog about everything about me. From myself to my family, to Shern's development, my travels, my baking trials and now my new passion, scrapbooking.

I know I've been pretty addicted to it these days. But once the addiction wear off, I will cool down for awhile. But I know this is a hobby which I will continue to do for a long, long time. Because scrapbooking is just so me! It's creativeness with photos and journalism! It combines my favourite things! Awesomeness!