To the movies

Last Saturday marked the first cinema visit for my two boys.

We were given tickets to watch Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen last Saturday and since the men in my family are crazy over Transformers, I thought it would make a great family outing. On the other hand, I had my apprehensions too.

I had heard that the movie was a marathon 2½ hours long and was in fact wondering if the kids would be able to sit in the cinema for that length of time. Would they fidget, stand on the seats or talk loudly and disturb the other patrons or clamor to be let out? Would they be frightened by the loud sounds or the darkness of the cinema and end up with nightmares at night? Oh my, such a long list of considerations you may say until you know my boys.

Big Buddy is fearful even of Tom and Jerry cartoons when it turns a tad violent. You will never catch him watching thrillers, he heads for a hiding place when suspenseful music comes on to up the ante. Little Buddy is braver but he can be unpredictable. While he usually has no issues with watching suspense thrillers, he refused to sit in for a 5-minute show when we were at the Army Museum two weeks ago because it had gunfire.

Well, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. In the worse case, we will just leave the cinema should the children get too difficult to handle.

And I am glad we went for the movie, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the whole movie experience. As for the loud noises…Little Buddy slept through the last 30 minutes of the movie ;-)

New toys again

The boys were recently given a box of Kid Knex constructors by their Grandfather and I secretly love this new toy myself. Many stores sell the Knex for older children but not Kid Knex for the really young kids.

A lot of thought has been put into making this range of toys because the pieces are of excellent quality, well-built with no sharp edges which may pose some danger to young children. They are easily joined together with simple yet secure connectors, colours are bright and vivid and the end-results, simply too cute for words.

Here are the boys with some of their creations on an early Sunday morning.

Is there school today?

Big Buddy would ask me this everyday till he finally understood that school is out. The mid-year school holidays will come to end in a day’s time when school officially starts on Monday.

It had been a whole four weeks of fun and play for both boys. Little Buddy enjoyed having his elder brother at home to play with and at Big Buddy’s instigation, gets into a whole lot more mischief than usual. To balance out, I try to set some semblance of routine with time set aside for some holiday work, otherwise it will be tough for Big Buddy to settle in to school when term resumes.

Due to the quick and rampant spread of the H1N1 pandemic, we decided not to travel overseas for a vacation. While it is not really deadly for most, we will definitely not court it. Moreover, it is a hassle to have to declare our travel itinerary to schools and offices on our return. We also limited mall shopping, preferring time spent outdoors and at less crowded places.

It had been a great break for Big Buddy but I think he looks forward to seeing his friends again. This past week, he had been counting down to next Monday and I daresay, I too, will be glad when school reopens : )

Shepherd’s Pie

We are celebrating Little Buddy's birthday today and I made this as one of the dishes. It will be the first time I am cooking something for a major celebratory affair.

Shepherd’s Pie


Ingredients

6 big potatoes, cubed
½ big white onion, chopped
1 tbsp chopped garlic
300 gm minced chicken or beef
1 small can of button mushroom
1 cup of mixed vegetable
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
some milk
salt and pepper
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp of plain flour mixed with 3 tbsp of water


Method

1. Stir fry onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add in minced chicken/beef, button mushroom and fry until it is cooked.

2. Add in whole can of cream of mushroom soup and add one can of water and mix well. Add in mixed vegetable. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the prepared flour mixture a little at a time to thicken the fillings to a texture you like. Discard the unused flour mixture. Leave the fillings aside for later use.

3. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in all the cubed potatoes and boil until it is soft. Drain the water and pour soft potatoes into a big mixing bowl.

4. Mash potatoes quickly while it is hot. After mashing, add in the whole cup of cheddar cheese and mix well. The heat of the potatoes will melt the cheese. Add in some salt and pepper to taste. Add in some milk to the mashed potatoes but not too much as the mashed potatoes will turn slightly wet and soft during baking.

5. Pour the fillings into a glass baking tray or metal baking tray. Level the fillings and top it off with the mashed potatoes. Spread evenly.

6. Sprinkle more shredded chedder cheese on top of the mashed potates and baked it in a preheated oven at 200°C until the top is brown and crispy.


Reference : Baking Mum

Chocolate Crinkles

It has been a long while since I made any entries in my blog. Please forgive me as I had been up to my neck in work.

My family loves anything chocolate and when I saw this, I knew I need to try this out. I baked this quite some time ago and unfortunately, I did not manage to take any pictures before they were polished off.



Chocolate Crinkles


Ingredients

170 gm dark chocolate
85 gm butter
185 gm plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
115 gm sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp sea salt


Method

1. Place chocolate and butter in a metal or heat-resistant glass bowl, set it over a pot of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. When the mixture is glossy and melted, stir and set aside.

2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside. (B)

3. Beat sugar and eggs until thick and smooth. Add vanilla extract and melted chocolate. Mix until combined. Add B and salt, mix till well combined.

4. Scoop dough out into plastic container with tight-fitting lid, cover and refrigerate over night.

5. Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Take dough out of fridge and let soften for 20 min.

6. Line cookie sheet with baking paper. Scoop out generous tablespoons of dough, roll into balls and place on baking tray about 3cm apart. Place unused dough back into fridge.

7. Bake 10-12 min until tops are cracked. Remove from oven, let cookie cool on baking tray for 5 min then transfer to metal rack to cool completely before serving.


Reference : Field Guide to Cookies by Anita Chu

All things nice and beautiful

I pride myself as someone with relatively good taste and discerning enough to appreciate the finer things in life. Not that I am good at creating lovely things, but more of being able to recognise a well-designed item when I see one.

During my moments of web-surfing, I sometimes chance upon some fabulous blogs. They exhibit such a refreshing style of artistic flair in the writing, layout or design that gets me all inspired. So much so that, I have decided to bookmark them at the new column I created at the left.

So if you happen to know of any other design-worthy blogs, do drop me a line. For now, do enjoy these.

Butter Cookies

I bought these cute Disney cookie cutters at Carrefour last weekend and could not wait to use them in my next baking adventure. Big Buddy wanted the Winnie the Pooh series while Little Buddy loved the Marie ones – no surprises there since he has always loved cats.

Finally too, I got to use my new cake mixer for the first time. It was such a breeze compared with brute arm power for the previous occasions.

The buttery dough was very soft even after refrigeration so I added some floor to it so that it becomes less sticky. I also floured the cookie cutters so that the dough does not cling to it.

Butter Cookies

Ingredients

250 gm butter
130 gm icing sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla powder/essence
400 gm plain flour
½ tsp baking powder


Method

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar until creamy.

2. Add in eggs and vanilla powder. Beat well.

3. Fold in flour and baking powder.

4. Knead lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper until 5mm thick.

6. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes and put them onto greased baking tray.

7. Bake at 160c for 20-25 minutes.

Reference : Baking Mum