No Flea Market participation this SAT 27 Aug 2011

We won't be participating in any Flea Market this SAT 27 Aug 2011.

It's the Presidential Elections!
REMEMBER!!! YOU ARE VOTING FOR THE HEAD OF STATE!!!
A REPRESENTATION OF OUR NATION!!!
HE MUST SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH AT THE VERY LEAST!!! (You know full well why I say this)

BTW, I do have more food pics but was just so busy this week that I had no time to post them. Will do so next week! C'ya!

Sausages and Mash / Cook a pot of curry

Saturday, 20 Aug 2011
Kids had no school or tuition last Saturday morning so we had a good rest and slept in. Woke up late morning to start cooking lunch. I was cooking Sausages and Mashed Potatoes and spent a good hour making the sauce from scratch. Had to ditch the first attempt. Wasn't happy with the taste. I was trying to achieve the KFC sauce taste and well both kids eventually told me individually, 'Mmmmm, mum, your sauce is nice!' That's a great achievement! Also realised that to whip up the mashed potatoes to a correct consistency wasn't as easy as one might think it to be.

Sausages and Mashed Potatoes

Mike had bought a small slab of roasted pork so everyone had a bite of that. I also sauteed some baby tomatoes and french beans. My daughter actually asked me why I had to go add those in????!!!! Sheesh, as expected, neither kid touched the veg. Oh yes, fried some commercially packed Ayam Balls but they turned out horrible (from a reputable brand - but so blah in taste).
I also did my black sauce meat and boiled eggs (and whipped up some chilli with plum sauce for sweet chilli to go with) which turned out quite tasty but I'd totally forgotten to take pics of it. Come to think of it, I hadn't even taken pics of my Nasi Lemak. I know, the black sauce pork didn't exactly go with Nasi Lemak but I had already defrosted my pork slabs in the 'lower bin' for a day and didn't want the pork to go bad. Sometimes, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Sunday 21 Aug 2011
I had agreed on Facebook to cook a pot of curry on 21 Aug 2011 but really, after a week of feasting on my Assam Fish Curry, I neither felt like cooking or eating curry on Sunday. Besides, I had slaved a few hours cooking Nasi Lemak for the sake of my son. Here's a taste of the craziness as a mother:

(I'm cooking in the kitchen and son is still zzzzzzzzzzzz)
Hubs: I just went into the room and your boy asked me if 'Mummy was cooking'. I said, 'Yes' and he asked excitedly if it was Nasi Lemak!
Me: Wah! How did he know?

(son comes trotting to the kitchen)
Son: Are you cooking Nasi Lemak? Tell me it's Nasi Lemak!
Me: Yah
Son: Yay!

(we're all sitting at the table eating)
Me: How did you know I was cooking Nasi Lemak?
Son: It's all we ever eat, what!

(Me, fuming........I only cook it because it's ALL he ever eats!)

Very tiredly, after washing up after our Nasi Lemak lunch, I decided to cook a pot of 'unglam' Nonya Chicken Curry. Well, it was a very weak rendition of Nonya Curry but my curry pot was just a symbolic stand. No frills. Just chicken and quartered potatoes.

(my symbolic pot of Nonya Chicken Curry)

We had left over Nasi Lemak for dinner and this pot of curry chicken. I didn't have any commercial Nonya curry paste at home so I tried my best to use normal curry powder and from there, try to achieve the 'lemak' taste. Didn't taste too bad but my guys weren't the least interested in it. They were more interested in the left over Nasi Lemak. Well, at least I did cook my pot of curry!

Working Mother's Left Overs (Ikan Bilis Fried Rice and Assam Fish Curry)

I ate alone last night, washed up the dishes, walked the dog, switched on the TV to hear the Presidential Election candidates talk and promptly fell asleep on the couch halfway through Dr. Tan Cheng Bock's speech. Woke up hours later when I heard Mike talking to the kids (he had just come home) at the dining table.

So what does a Working Mother cook when she's only cooking for herself and her two kids who have told her they aren't very hungry?

Well. I had left over rice and a medium sized bowl of my Assam Fish Curry.

I decided to chop up my remaining brinjal (huge one) and soak them. Added green chillies and some tomatoe wedges and sauteed them with the brinjals and onions till they turned soft. Then I added in my left over Assam Fish Curry and threw in some sliced cabbage. As there wasn't much gravy left over from the day before, I added some broth.

Left Over Assam Fish Curry (Yikes!)

So this might look disgusting to some (looks like something you'd see in a dustbin, huh?) but it was delicious. It was heavenly sitting at the dinner table all by myself, digging through this pot (was too lazy for presentation so didn't even scoop it out into a bowl) and slurping and fishing out bones (from my mouth). I'm so proud of myself that I didn't choke on any Selar bones! They were scary. Selar fish and their fine, pokey bones are definitely not meant for curry but what the heck, it was fun! This ain't no Michelin star restaurant. It's Working Mother's Kitchen and so, no rules, right? Well, there are rules but none for ME - hey, my home, my rules!

I had also plucked together some ham, green peas & corn, eggs and ikan bilis and made Fried Rice (for later, when the kids might be hungry). To go with some otah (otak) I had bought earlier.

Ikan Bilis Fried Rice

Just in case the kids would eat it, I didn't make it too spicy. I did add alot of pepper and some chilli flakes in oil but just a dash. For my own sake, I had my cut chilli padi in soya sauce. Don't wish to self-rate lah. It was ok. Not fantastic but palatable.

And guess what, because no one really ate much (except myself) last night, they're gonna be eating left over Ikan Bilis Fried Rice with fish otah (otak) tonight because it's a Friday night AND I want to PARTY!!! *laughs wickedly*

Flea Market - Changi Village 20 Aug 2011 (SAT)

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Sat 20 Aug 2011
5pm - 11pm

Can't decide to sell old stuff or new stuff....hmmmmm.....

Working Mother's Assam Fish Curry / Pork Rib Corn and Lotus Soup

Yesterday's dinner took me a tad longer to prepare. Often when Pork Ribs (Bak Kut) is are involved, I have to spend more time boiling it to tenderness.

Bak Kut with Corn and Lotus Roots Soup

Daughter was disappointed that it wasn't Bak Kut Teh that I was boiling but then, although she and her Daddy like Bak Kut Teh, the boy doesn't fancy it. He doesn't like the 'herby' taste. Hubs doesn't understand why I would pay more for Pork Bones when one can eat just the meat but I'm always reminding him that it's the bones which give the soup flavour. So as with chicken, I have to always buy the pork with bones and the pork sans bones. Is there any other cooking mother out there who is going mad like me?

Self-rating: 6/10

Then because I couldn't control my urge to eat Assam Fish Curry, I just had to cook it up. But then, this is a Working Mother's version. No fancy fish. I just dumped 4 Selar in and also a packet of Fish meat chunks. I loooooove brinjals so I cut up 2 whole ones. My big pot was being used to boil the Bak Kut so I had to cook my curry in my pan. It wasn't quite big enough to contain all the brinjals! Once the Bak Kut was cooked, I washed up my big pot and transferred the curry over. Then I dumped in left over Yong Tau Foo pieces (since the pot was big enough to take it all in now). 

In the pic below, you see my finished Assam Fish Curry in a Corningware pot which I usually use to serve but not cook in. Although you are able to use Corningware 'from the freezer, to the oven, to the table', I just don't feel it's authentic to be cooking curry in one. Prefer a metal pot.

Assam Fish Curry (with a motherload of brinjals and left over Yong Tau Foo)

So you must be wondering 'What type of Assam Fish Curry is this?'. Well, I used Selar because I HAD Selar in my fridge. Didn't want to go buy any special type of fish. My 4 whole Selar are hidden somewhere below the mountain of Fish chunks, brinjals and left over Yong Tau Foo pieces. Hee hee. This is reality. Who cooks beautifully everyday for the family? This isn't a show. This is a Working Mother who refuses to see food go to waste! We eat left overs all the time. In fact, left overs sometimes taste better.

Oh yes and by the way, I'd gotten all my fish cleaned, veg cut up, curry paste ready and pan heated when I realised I didn't have coconut milk! Sheesh. Spied my can of sweetened creamer and hurriedly improvised - made a mixture out of it (no stomach ache, can you believe it?). The dish tasted a tad sweet but I loved it. It was yummmmmmy!!!! (even if I say so myself!) 

Self-rating: 5/10

Gloating moment: Daughter's boyfriend said my dishes tasted good! I told hubs and he laughed (mean old man) and said guy was sucking up to me. I told hubs he's a clever young man then! But I don't believe for a second he was trying to curry favour. From the short time I've known him, I think he doesn't do stuff like that. He's a nice young man. Well, darn! The food must have really tasted good! *pats own back*



Working Mother's Steamed Pork Ribs / Sio Pek Chye

Was dreaming of eating assam fish curry the whole day at work. Made a mad dash to the supermarket to buy some brinjals (just in case I really wanted to cook the fish curry) and some canned porridge condiments before rushing home to cook dinner yesterday. At lunch, I had walked past a Chinese Medical Hall with packets of food seasoning (what's medical halls and cooking spices got to do with each other???) hanging outside their shop. I purchased Seah's seasoning for Steamed Pork Ribs for S$2 (This is not an ad endorsement. I get paid nothing - but it might give ideas to any working people out there who need to cook food in a hurry like me). Since I had already defrosted some pork ribs overnight thinking to stew or oven bake them, the seasoning would come in handy. I went home and  just rubbed the seasoning all over. Put it IN a big but shallow bowl ON a metal rack IN a pot of water OVER the stove and steamed (prepositions for you)! Cut some chilli and served! Voila!

Steamed Pork Ribs

Hubs was initially quite sceptical when I had told him I was steaming this dish. He kept asking me if I shouldn't fry it instead. In the end, he agreed it turned out delicious but because it involved the steaming of pork ribs, it took a tad longer to get dinner ready. Fortunately, both kids had fallen asleep (after returning home from school) and hubs was busy watching TV whilst I was cooking. I could afford to slave over the stove longer than usual. I didn't add anything else to this dish except for the cut chilli. The gravy you see in the pic was formed naturally through the steaming process. Had a nice peppery taste. Not too salty not too sweet. Pretty tasty seasoning.

Hubs agreed it was delicious. The meat was cooked and not tough but hubs felt the meat should have 'fallen off the bones' and it did not. He probably got that idea from eating canned stewed pork ribs. They DO fall off the bones. One wonders how many days THOSE have been stewed and if the stew is ever changed (or just reused, over and over - BAH! Dun wanna think about it. Just eat it! The canned stuff I mean!)
I did agree and think that it would have been nicer if my steamed pork ribs had beens softer but I would have required a much longer steaming time.

I'm glad hubs comments and criticizes my cooking. It's a learning process for me and if he fakes it and tells me everything is wonderful all the time, I might never learn! He did eat plenty of the pork ribs and that's proof of the pudding. However, later that night, as he was dozing off, he told me he was having a stomach ache. I understood what he was trying to say, glared at him for a moment than asked him what he had eaten for lunch. Hah!

Also boiled some Sio Pek Chye (Siau Bai Cai) and made some seasoning with oyster sauce and hot water.

Sio Pek Chye

I got to eat all the Sio Pek Chye by myself. Hubs only took a bite to taste my cooking. He isn't a big fan of most types of veg.

As for kids....sigh. Son wasted my time slaving over the Steamed Pork Ribs. He took one bite and said he didn't like the taste and that he was eating left over corned beef instead. As I predicted, he made instant noodles later that night. I pretty much just left him alone when he said he wasn't eating the ribs. You could say both guys are easy to please, yet the most difficult to please. If father and son could have their way, their menu would be limited to bread and butter, spam, corned beef, fried eggs, otak, sweet and sour pork, chicken rice or nasi lemak everyday of their lives. Daddy repeatedly tells me he is easy to please with just bread and butter but he doesn't eat a multitude of stuff, so to me, he's super fussy. Son likes pasta and  japanese but dad dislikes both. What am I supposed to do? Pander to their needs? Son needs to learn that Mummy isn't going to cater to his limited eating repertoire and if he's going to go hungy, he's going to go hungry. (Anyway, he likes it cos he's losing his baby fat). Daddy on the other hand - he has a choice to eat the meaty dishes his wife cooks up, go hungry or take over the cooking.

Daughter wasn't feeling well so I'd made a bowl of instant porridge for her instead. Tried to make it as 'not' bland as possible. She played around with the pickled veg but refused to touch the peanuts.

Instant porridge with pickled veg and sweet peanuts

Tonight! Ah, tonight, I'm gonna cook assam fish curry with loads of brinjals. For the fussy eaters whom I know will not be touching my fish curry, I'll be cooking pork rib soup with corn and....and....I dunno....as usual, will just go with the flow...

Working Mother's Suay Kow - Finally!

The Saturday before National Day, I woke up feeling like cooking a big breakfast for the family - which I did; sausages, baked beans, french toast and all (forgot to take pics, sorry). Then right after the last person (Saturday mornings are for catching up on sleep) had finished with breakfast and I'd washed up the pots and pans, I realised it was already time to start cooking lunch!

Decided to finally make Suay Kow (Dumplings). I had already pre-seasoned my minced meat (one packet pork, one packet chicken) a couple of days ago and just had to have them wrapped in store-bought skins.
From past experience, I find it much easier to make them and dunk them immediately in a pot of boiling water, as opposed to making a whole stash ready before starting to dunk them.

Here's a plate of dumplings drained with water drained. Hastily cut chilli and parsley garnish was for the benefit of my hubby who had advised me to spice up my food pics!

Meanwhile, for the soup, I had another pot of pork stock boiling. Also rolled up some meat balls and threw them in to cook.

It may look like a small dish but believe you me, a few Suay Kow will go a long way! Add some cut chilli to soya sauce (light or dark) and sluuuuurp!
Self-rating: 7/10 (Yeah, baby!!!)

Unfortunately, in the days that followed this, I totally forgot to take pics of my Chicken Curry and Nasi Lemak dishes! When a working mother's in a rush to cook up meals within half and hour, taking pics is the last thing on her mind! Darn! Am especially pissed with myself about forgetting to take pics of the Nasi Lemak! Well, there's always next time.

Road Trip

Didn't blog for slightly over a week cos hubs and I had taken a road trip.

Sunset along the Malaysian North-South Highway



Set off much later than anticipated and was still on the road at dusk. Beautiful sunset! Hubs agreed that the sunset was picturesque. I was frantically trying to capture the moment and I was so touched that he told me to hold off snapping while he slowed his car for me to take the pics!

Can't blog too long today. It's off to church for Mass later this evening for our Blessed Mother's Day of Assumption!

Flea Market - Changi Village 6 August 2011

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Sat, 6 Aug 2011
5-11pm

C'ya!

Working Mother's Comfort Food - Stewed Pork Ribs/ Black Eggs/ Tomato Pork

Hubby went out yesterday evening. Came home later that night and asked me, 'So, what did you cook for dinner, tonight?'
No need for explanations. I told him, 'Look at the pics in my phone!'
He'd know eventually if he reads my blog. But he does not. He does not read ANY blogs for that matter. Social media is a waste of time to him (and I'm trying to change his mind about this). He knows I've been taking pics of my dishes so he burst out laughing. At least he was interested in the pics to actually look in my phone. Then he held on to it and hogged it the whole night playing some bubble bursting game....sigh.
Side track note: He said I was snoring loudly after he had only 'died' 3 times at the game.

So what DID I cook yesterday evening? Mid-morning yesterday, daughter texted me from school to cook 'that very nice chicken thingy in a can'. First thought was instant curry chicken (but surely it had tasted horrible?). We exchanged some text messages back and forth before I could figure out that she meant Narcissus brand's Stewed Pork Ribs! Alamak, I had to chide her, 'Pork, lah, girl, not chicken!'.

Hubs wasn't eating with us so we had:

Narcissus brand's Stewed Pork Ribs

Totally oily, fatty, unhealthy and so, so yummilicious (Son won't agree though. He doesn't like it at all). Then because only daughter would eat that and son wouldn't, had to think of an alternative meat dish.
Self-rating: Not applicable (It's idiot proof to cook this, unless one doesn't know how to open a can or turn on the stove).

Tomato Sauce Pork

I cut up some pork chunks, potatoes and onions and fried them in tomato sauce. Decided to use Heinz Del Monte tomato sauce (in a plastic bottle that was very shiok to squeeze) instead of tomato paste and felt that it was too salty (or sourish) for my liking. Paste would have tasted better.
Cooked this for the benefit of my son and he tells me he's full cos he made cup noodles just before I had returned home from work! Hmmmph!!! He only poked around his black egg and tried a bit of the tomato pork. Then he reminds me he dislikes anything in tomato sauce (except maybe spaghetti).

Self-rating: 3/10 (Pork was soft and succulent as I had defrosted for a day in my 'lower bin' but the tomato sauce wasn't to my liking.

Also fried what we call Mike's Black Eggs:

 'Black' Eggs (Eggs in Dark Sauce)

Mike taught me to fry this when we were first dating (hmmm....that would be eons ago). When my cooking skills were limited to cooking rice, frying eggs and instant maggi mee. It's something my mother-in-law used to cook for him. Eggs beaten with dark sauce, pepper and salt! That single bull's eye in the pic is for moi.

No self-rating lah. Shy even to self-rate frying eggs.

Finished cooking all the above in a jiffy.

The cheek of Hubs. He was going through my pics last night on my phone and ahem, actually reading the last 2 posts on my blog and advising me to add abit of garnishing here and there to my dishes so they look better online. Alamak! It's not called Working Mother's No Frills dishes for no reason. I have to cook fast and furious everyday and then still remember to snap pics with my phone.

Oh yes....take a look at the half-eaten Sago with Gula Melaka I had whipped up. Forgot to take pics until eaten halfway. Hee hee, that's happening alot these days:

Sago with Gula Melaka and coconut milk

I had poured the cooked Sago into small bowls to set overnight in the fridge, then cupped them out onto a plate the next day. Boiled Gula Melaka and poured it and some coconut milk over the sago. Made 4 small bowls but 2 bowls was still too much for the 3 of us (Son refused to even try and gets upset if I 'force' him to - so I didn't. Daughter was flabberghasted at this 'new' dish but tasted it and did eat quite a bit. But she found it too sweet for her liking. She asked for her usual 'Green Jelly' instead. That's jello which I make nearly every week).

Self-rating: 2/10 (Sago too sticky and somewhat uncooked in the centre. Gula Melaka too sweet and the brand of coconut milk I used wasn't my usual brand and it didn't taste very nice. Overall, one would be able to taste what this dessert is supposed to taste like but am not happy with the results).

So there you have it - our comfort food.

Fast to cook, good to eat (wait, isn't that from Maggi Mee's ad from eons ago?)



Working Mother's Hainanese Chicken Rice

Tuesday evening :
Daughter: 'What are you cooking for dinner tomorrow, Mum? A------- is coming over' (That's her boyfriend).
Working Mother: 'I dunno. What you want to eat? Chicken rice?'
Daughter: 'Yes! OK, chicken rice!'

Late Tuesday night :
Barges into our room. Double confirmation.
Daughter: 'So, chicken rice, ah?'

Both in unison
Husband: 'OK! Chicken rice' / Working Mother: 'Or sui kow?'
Daughter: 'Chicken rice!'

Husband looks at me: 'Just say Chicken Rice, lah. She wants Chicken Rice, just say OK, lor.'
Working Mother: 'Ok, ok....(sigh)'

Wednesday morning triple confirmation.
Texted message from Daughter:
'So what are you cooking tonight for dinner, Mum?'

Working Mother's No Frills Hainanese Chicken Rice

We eat a lot of chicken at home. Fillet for hubs and the kids. Boney chicken for me. So to prepare a chicken dish, I always have to have both types of cuts at home. To sidetrack a bit, I'm finding it harder and harder to find chicken fillet at the supermarkets and when I can find them, they're usually thawed from frozen fillet but charged like fresh chicken fillet. What a rip off.

Anyway, decided to cook two types of chicken. One, cut up fillet into bits, dip in flour and fry. Not exactly Hainanese Chicken Rice but hey, anything to keep my family happy.

Fillet bits seasoned and fried by Hubby

Actually, the first thing I always do is to cook the rice. I would have had enough soup and oily bits from my chicken parts to do the rice from scratch. But when you have hungry teens in the wings waiting, store bought chicken rice sauce goes a long way. Have tried a few brands and Loy Chng Kee's (forgot the brand but I think it has Kee in it) works best for me. Costs more than the packet ones too. Dumped the whole bottle in although I think the instructions said 4 tbsp for 4 container scoops of rice. I was cooking 5 scoops of rice and by the time I had scooped out my 4th tbsp of sauce, I noticed not much left in the bottle - so just dumped all of its contents into the rice pot, added water, a few cloves of garlic (unpeeled) and stirred thoroughly.

While the rice was cooking, I got the chicken boiling. Chucked some breast meat (with bones) and wingsticks (not chicken wings but little drummettes - Alamak, how to spell drummette?) which I always refer to as small drumsticks, into a pot. Brought it to a furious boil for about 10 minutes, then turned off the stove, covered the pot and let it sit for half an hour in the hot soup.

Meanwhile, I had the fillet bits seasoned and deep fried by hubby (yes, he's getting the hang of cooking - in fact, he fries better than me). 

The boiled chicken was cooked just nice. Not too hard, not too soft and cooked! No pink flesh! That is a big deal to me, considering I worry alot about undercooking chicken all the time. I drained them and dunked them in cold water. Cut up the breast pieces into half, then drizzled a mix of soya sauce and sesame oil over them. Sliced some lettuce into the soup and served.

Voila!

Self-rating: 6/10
Chicken turned out nice. Not too hard, not too soft but definitely have not reached the level of chicken succulence which I can find at some chicken rice stores!
Rice at bottom of pot turned out a bit burnt. Not sure why. Maybe I hadn't stirred the sauce enough. Fortunately, I had cooked 5 scoops of rice so there was plenty on the top to eat.
Wah piang, plenty of cleaning up after that. Would have been much cheaper and easier to go buy chicken rice. But that would have lacked the love hubs and I put into preparing this dish to feed our family.
(Hubby said above pic of white chicken looks like 'sotong' to him. What the heck!?)



Working Mother's Chicken and Chips

Tuesday afternoon 2 August 2011.
Called hubby to ask him help me buy wanton skins. Told him I had already seasoned my minced meat and thought of making 'Sui Kow' for dinner that night (those gigantic wantons filled with minced meat and sometimes filled with prawns or veg). He says 'Sui Kow' in soup sounds good.

What does the guy do? Oh, he buys the skins for me alright. But I get home from work and see him frying crinkle cut chips. Slightly irritated, I ask him, 'Chips and 'Sui Kow'? You KNOW I'm cooking Sui Kow!'. He continues frying and says he just felt like eating chips. He munches on some as he fries.
I couldn't make myself pass any sarcastic comments because I myself had had this weird urge to eat chips earlier that afternoon (and had in fact ordered Fish and Chips for lunch)!

So, Working Mother (also known as Mrs Fixit - although I'm too lazy to fix much nowadays) had to do a quick mental assessment of what I had already defrosted and seasoned in what I call my fridge's 'bottom bin' and do a quick menu change. Decided to season chicken fillet in store bought flour/crumbs to match hubby's chips. The result:

Chicken and Chips

Self-rating:  7/10
(Not too bad lah cos the kids and hubs actually made individual effort to come tell me the chicken was delicious and I had managed to not burn the chicken and yet have it turn out a nice crisp brown!)

BTW, that miserable piece of lettuce (which I placed on each individual's plate) was my pathetic attempt at having them take a erm....balanced meal. Most definitely did NOT work. Neither one of them (that is, daughter, son or hubs ate the lettuce). Son actually asked me if I was trying to sneekily slip a piece of veg onto his plate to try to trick him into eating veg. I, their human vacuum cleaner, therefore, ended up dunking all their lettuce in Nando's sauce and eating it all up. I give up.