Last whole week except Monday, I get a week off from Bento making as kids is having their school term break and I was recuperating from a injured finger and at the same time my dSLR was hospitalised. I took this opportunity to check out some recipe online.  Something that I wanted to do for a long time.

This is some back dated bento I have prepared.

Daddy’s Bento:

Clockwise from left to right: Fish balls, steam rice with a little furikaki as garnishing, fresh veges consist of butterhead, tomatoes, carrot and an egg.

The Prince bento same ingredients as Daddy’s:

I was out of idea as to how I should arrange the food. So I just simply grab a normal sandwich box from Tupperware. And hey, not a bad presentation! If you want to prevent your food from running around in the container, this is how you should do it. Make sure you filled up all the space in the box.

The Princess bento:

That morning, my 8y/o doesn’t want rice. I have them replaced with cereal instead and a pack of raisins to nibble.

I lost quarter of my nail 🙁

It all happened on that Sunday Lee Chong Wei was playing against Lin Dan from China during the Olympic badminton final. I was too kan cheong (excited, nervous) that day. My mind was wandering far…. wondering what combination should I put for Monday bento… wondering if LCW will win the gold… wondering if we will get a holiday if he wins… wondering if I am able to finish my housework by 8.30pm…. wondering if the cabbages I am cutting is enough for today’s dinner and tomorrow’s bento…. wondering if I cut a bit faster, should I be able to finish cooking earlier… wondering… OUCH!

… and all I see is blood oozing out from my finger!

At first, I thought that I have just cut the tip of the nail. But when I saw the blood oozing out, I know I am in deep shit. The blood was covering my index finger and I can’t see how deep is the cut. I even have to rummaged thru the pile of cabbage to look for my nail. Super gross right? How to be a good cook like this? How to secure a San Francisco jobs when the chef position is still open for me to fill up? How!  Pardon my imagination again. LOL.

Back to my nail.  Yup, I found them finally.

Finger still swollen even thought it’s been five days now. I just can’t wait for a new nail to grow. I get irritated when I can’t type on the keyboard and there are many things that I can’t do with a single hand like tying my hair or even washing my the other armpit! I know that is super gross. -.-

So, what is the lesson for today?

~COOKING IS HAZARDOUS! WE SHOULD EAT OUT MORE OFTEN! ~

Over and out…

The Princess and Prince (8 y/o and 6 y/o) has a recital few days ago. This is counted as the third recital for Princess and first time for the Prince. All I can said is, the Prince played very well despite taking up violin lesson sometime in April. We are very proud of him indeed.

Just before the recital started, as usual the mischievous boy can’t sit still. He was seen here turning his violin into a Cello!

And he have to irritate everyone in the room with that streaky sound from the string instrument. The Mummy will have to go sheesh… sheesh…. or gave him the deadly stare.

The Jie-Jie is nothing but a Princess. Other than her chatty mouth (which girls wouldn’t) I do not have to nag her to sit still. But this girl wouldn’t want to take any pictures. Duhh!

As usual, 7.30pm is too early for Daddy to leave the office. He is giving this a miss. Again! The show was delayed for 30 minutes as many musicians turned up late. Prince got impatient and wanted to call his Daddy.

He is asking why his Daddy is not here yet and asked his Daddy why he doesn’t want to come see him play. Scout swear – I did not ask my Boy to called the Daddy. The whole night I was busy with my camera and I thought he just wanted a chat with his Daddy to kill time. The kids does that all the time at home when the Daddy comes home late. And the last picture here you can see my Boy almost in tears.

My Boy is very very close the the Daddy. He still cling on to his Daddy like a Koala bear. I almost forgot the phone was on speaker mode! Now the whole audience knows that the child’s father is not supportive 🙁 . I heard Daddy said something like… “pass the phone to Mummy” and I quickly took over the phone. And guess what? Daddy is almost reaching home and I asked him to detoured to join us since the show hasn’t started yet.  Of course my Boy was so thrilled to see his Daddy walk in and deserved a big bear hug!

I love this picture of the girls and their violin.

This was shot using a 50mm lens. This is what we called synchronized!

Princess is always duetting with this girl (sorry don’t know her name) as they are of same level.

And the Prince…

I was so proud of him, the moment we reached home I marched to my Sis’s house and show the video to Uncle Kimmy, “Uncle Kimmy, come! Nah, show you something. The child that never practise at home can played so well.”

Really! My kids hardly practise their violin at home. Haha! You may ask why. To me, I never like to forced my kids into anything and if I were to give myself a new chore like nagging the kids to practise this and that, you think it is worth it? I was fortunate as my kids was showing interest and naturally accepted it. Even without the daily practising, they still did well. I am not a perfectionist and I don’t expect to have one. They are what they are, the God’s given child.

Every year during this time, Babe In The City – KL will organized a virtual open house makan-makan and every year, we was given a theme as what to cook. My first participation was in 2006, subsequently 2007 and how can I miss this year Merdeka virtual open house. The theme for this year is Mee and My Malaysia. “Participants need to cook up a noodle dish of any Malaysian ethnic, of course the rare and unique ones from your family, hometown, kampung or some ulu place are most welcomed. Your noodle dish has to be something original and not fusionised or tweaked to fit the modern age – Babe_KL”

The first thing that came across my mind is the fermented red wine mee suah. How can the Foochow part with their ever famous dish.

You may get the recipe from my previous post. However, if you would like to participate, please do so as the deadline to submit your entry is on 29th August, 2008. We are all for the muhibbah fun. No one wins a prize unless I claimed that I am an amateur cook. Teeheehee…

Post Updated 31 August 2008 – Round up dishes of all sort of Mee (Noodles) from different culture and race.  Check out Merdeka Open House 2008: Mee and My Malaysia Round-up

One of the weekend ago, I stormed up a big pot of bolognese gravy. I have half of the gravy frozen and the other half we had for lunch. The next day I just need to heat up the frozen gravy for the bento.

Top 2 bento is for Prince and Princess. They had organic alphabet macaroni, skewed edamame and sausages and champagne grapes. Bottom left is my bento (Daddy’s bento not in picture) I do feel a bit uneasy in case I was caught eating kids food aka the alphabet macaroni.

Close-up on the organic alphabet macaroni. Notice the colours tend to fade after cooking cos they are made from food colourings like spinach (green), carrot (orange) and red (beetroot).

I had spaghetti instead and lots of basil since the kids doesn’t like vege. That is a bonus! I hearts basil and have a big plant in my garden. Daddy had the same thing as mine but in a different container. Bottom right is Baby Princess’s bento. She doesn’t like adult food so I replace them with biscuits.

This is my first time photographing a Caucasian baby. Little Xavier is Daddy Boss’s youngest son. It was a breeze as the child is very photogenic. Little Xavier is learning how to walk and was seen busy cruising from one furniture to another. That is double bonus as I am able to catch up with his pace as he is not moving or running to fast unlike some 2 or 3 years old child. Totally love the bright orange wall colour too as they make a perfect backdrop.

Xavier’s Mummy commented that I am good (photographer). However, I replied her that she has a beautiful baby. That really makes a lot of difference to a photograph.

Anyhow, I find my photographs is getting more boring. I see the same stuff every time. Portrait, portraits and more portraits. Urgh! I need to learn something new. Or maybe get a new lens. Woot!

Little Xavier just turn one few days ago. Happy Burfday, Xavier! Lots of hugz and kisses from Aunty.

p/s:  Daddy think I am bias.  Really?

Last Saturday is the final week of replacement class for most school. I wished she will have more replacement classes on a Saturday as I find preparing a bento on a non working day (for me) is so much fun as I do not have to rush or constantly checking on the time. For example last Saturday, I manged to went to the morning wet market to buy fresh ingredients unlike normal days where I just cook whatever is left in the fridge.

Fresh corn for buttered corn:

Shitakie mushroom to be added into Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup:

Clockwise from bottom: Tube macaroni, buttered corn with edamame to go with Shitakie mushroom soup. What we did at home is to mix everything in the soup including the buttered corn. Oh la la!

I have been asked by bloggers if we can use local rice to substitute Japanese rice.  To me,  if I intend to make sushi, I will opt for Japanese rice as they are more sticky compared to our local rice.  But not necessarily.  It all depending on how firm you roll or press down the rice.

For this bento, I used the local rice and since the rice is less sticky, all I need to do is press them down a little harder so that they are firmed in the rice mould and won’t break when I removed  the mould.  I used bits and pieces of seaweed from furikaki (rice flavouring) for the facial details.

From left to right:  Rice, alphabet chicken nuggets, scramble egg with sliced button mushrooms and YAY, it’s the fruits season now.  The rambutans was given to me by my colleague.  Bless her kind soul.

Can you guess what is the smallest bird in this world and how long is the length?

The answer is Hummingbird (no space in between please) and the length is 2 inches long 🙂

Took another flapping wings of the bee.

If only the bee is flying somewhere other than that black patch, I would have a clearer picture of the flapping wings. Not all thing happens to be how we wish them to be.

Took the shots from our recent trip to Avillion, Port Dickson. They have a Lotus pond too. I missed the chance as it was pouring heavily.

This is the 2nd time Daddy pack us all in his luggage during a business call with more of his business partners, Principals and his Boss doing the same for this is not some doggy hotel that we are staying in Port Dickson. We are talking about the Avillion Port Dickson who is famous of their water chalets. Daddy got me all excited when he told me about the chalets.

We was supposed to leave for Port Dickson on Friday but since Eldest Princess have some commitment in her school and can’t skip classes, Daddy went alone as he has got a meeting in the afternoon. Daddy drove back to fetch us at 10.00pm and by the time we reached Avillion, it was almost 11.30pm. We was more excited than tired when we step foot in our room.

Four poster bed. No way! Look at the linen. It looks like someone just did some ironing on it. I can’t wait to roll on the bed!

Son trying out the durability of the bed 😉 Far behind is the kids bed.

Son was shock to see himself surrounded by water when he rolled up the bamboo blind. This is so awesome! I can’t wait for the morning to be here. We then took a stroll around the poolside since all of us are fully awake from the excitement.

Can’t help laughing at the white umbrella in the foreground. Daddy ended up playing pool (mini snooker) with his business partners and I tried to shot some night scene but failed miserably. Went back to the room feeling so dissapointed 🙁 .

The next morning after a scrumptious buffet breakfast, Daddy left us for his 9am meeting again. It is going to take the whole day! I so hate that when I have to run after the 3 active kids all by myself.

Been there, done that. It’s me again hiding under the shades playing ‘Baywatch Babe’ aka lifeguard. Kids spent two hours dipping in the pool, which is a good thing.

We camwhore a lot by the pool side.

I have to get Sasha bla bla bla to put the above two pics into gif file to save the bandwidth. Thanks Sweetie for your help. My kids has grown comfortable with water now. Previously they are not that brave to dive in the pool like that. Hey, jumping in the pool is considered safe as they did not dive head down so I just let them have a little fun. No harm since we are on a holiday.

While kids was screaming their head and lung off, I entertained myself shooting here and there.

The hotels is surrounded by lush of greeneries. There is shrubs here and there. They give me a real tranquility feeling. I managed to shot a humming bird with it’s flapping wings. Will post them in my next post as I think it is special.

Four peacock suddenly appear from no where. The above must be a female peacock.

Now you should be able to tell which is male and female.

Last night I tried to take the signboard but all the pictures turned out blurry. Blame it on low light.

Yes. And the photographer too! *sticking out tongue*

I was squatting there for almost 10 minutes trying to get a near-to-perfect shot if I can. One of the night guard with walkie talkie came up to me and asked what am I doing. Duhh! Cannot see meh! A woman squatting there with a camera must be taking photograph la. Takkan lah I squat there to shit. I just ignore him and pretending looking at the camera display screen. Not really pretending la. Trying to be ignorant and at the same time, I was really looking at the display screen deleting all 20 pictures! Bah! Still prefer the scene at night with all the spots light shining on it.

Oh, oh, oh. Did I forget my job as Baywatch Babe? I was too engross taking photographs and by the time I take a peep at the kids, this is what I saw:

Must go over and piak his butt. Boys being boys. He had fun asking everyone to slide under him. Gosh! Two hours (10.30am) had passed and the pool area is getting hotter. Was supposed to adjourned to the beach but we got lazy while stopping by our room to collect the beach toys.

The kids had a shower. Yes a shower! Don’t miss this part on the shower room. They are so awesome!

Picture this, you are in your room with the window ajar and is able to see the bathroom. And when you go nearer…

… it is a open space shower room. See that sky? Awesome isn’t it?

One is in the tub, another one taking a shower. Right opposite the window before the brown rail is another open space where you can see the sea water. I never allowed the kids to open the window. *gulp*

After the quick shower, we had more camwhore session at the balcony.

Can you spot the Astro satellite dish? All rooms are equipped with Astro (certain channel only). Isn’t that awesome? (Sorry ya, watch too much Kung fu Panda)

Baby Princess trying to impersonate us hence now you see why she had ‘Aunty’ poses. Cute!

Next itenery would be the kids room. While walking towards the kids room, I tried to capture few more shots. With this, hopefully I can change most of your perception on Port Dickson’s beach.

Not even a single debris, tree branches or dead seaweed on the beach. Can you believe that? This is so awesome!

View from the patio overlooking the beach.

Around the hotel is very very cosy. You will feel very relaxed.

A steel bench under the hot blazing sun. Who the hell would want to sit there? More for decoration purpose. We spent the next one hour in the kids room and shortly, Linda (Hubby Boss’s wife) came and join us with Xavier. psstt… they are Caucasian. Another opportunity for me to brush up on my photography. Linda commented that I am good. I reckon she had a beautiful son. I’ll post the pics up in another post. I have posted the photographs up.  Do check them out.  I had a good chat with Linda over lunch. We talk a lot about our Hubbies. We are both living in each other shoes and we know exactly how we felt when our Hubby is often out of town.

Ding dong, ding dong the time is probably mid afternoon when Daddy finished his meetings. We was definitely tired as Daddy and me konk’ed out while the kids dunno what they do that few hours. I bet watching TV plus eating lots of tidbits. And when we woke up about 5pm, the kids want the pool again! OMG! ….

Off we go again to the pool. I shoo them to the beach shortly after that cos I haven’t take any pictures of them at the beach and I have few project lining up too.

We both get a new tankini swimsuit after our previous trip to Pangkor Island. Reason was because I have put on weight and my previous tankini pants makes my tight look so fat. Women are vain for a reason. No? With the tankini skirt, at least they hide my ugly looking fat tight. I feel more confidence walking around in my new tankini. Really!

Baby Princess rushed over when she saw us posing at the camera again. It is not my intension but the pics all turn out that I was not looking at the camera. How crappy!

I can float! I can float!

Tree Pose – Previous tanned marked is still there.

We left the beach at 6.30pm as we need to get ready for dinner at 7.00pm with Daddy’s other business partner. We’ll come back to the beach again tomorrow I assured the kids. Funny how I don’t see any sunset at all. You mean the sun doesn’t set in Port Dickson? *tsk, tsk* During dinner, Prince make a new friend with Jonathan just because he had a Nintendo game! Well, good thing as we are able to bribe him like, “See, Jonathan put on his seat belt” and he quickly put on his seat belt too. Or when he refuse to co-operate we will threaten him, “Later I ask Jonathan not to friend you and share his Nintendo game with you.”

Back from dinner, we all have a good night sleep except for Daddy. Gee! He continue drinking and entertaining the business partners. The next morning I ask if he drank. He said they had whiskey but not for him. He ordered a Milo instead. Wakakaka!

And guess what?

Can you imagine if there is a tsunami now. *yikes*
It has been raining since 7.30am!!!! Gawd damnit! So early in the morning. We waited for the rain to stop but it wouldn’t stop! We have no choice but to used the umbrella instead. All our plan has to cancel. After breakfast, we managed to visit the hotel’s petting zoo for a mere 5 minutes and it rains again!!! Spent the next few hour in the kids room again. OMG! At 12 noon, decided to check-out and head to Seremban for the beef noodle. That’s all for the 2nd day. There is nothing we get to do at all. What a weather!!!

We will definitely come back to Avillion Port Dickson instead of going to Pan Pacific Pangkor. Haha! Not double standard but going to Port Dickson is nearer than going to Pangkor Island.