Fri, 9th May 2008

Yet another girls' night out.

Champagne and side dishes and bread rolls??

No particular reason for the shampoo. But we were hungry and we snacked and we drank, and we laughed and we were indecicive, and we drank somemore and talked and laughed and before you know it, it's 10 pm and we still have not had any food yet. S's chariot & S - thanks for the ride! hehe

p.s We had marinated mushrooms, creamed spinach and baked potato with tuna salad and wholemeal bread rolls - perfect.

KL

Popped over to KL for a brief stopover on Weds - was quite distressed to see these scenes.

It seems as if a tornado had whipped through the stalls; Linggi's stall miraculously survived - whew.. perhaps another trip is in order next week before the tornado returns.

Squid Ink Pasta with Seafood Tomato Sauce

Last night I cooked a seafood sauce (recipe is somewhere on this blog :-)) with squid ink pasta.

The kids were slightly alarmed by the black inky pasta but it was good - managed to get the doneness perfect so it was firm, and not hard; and with the addition of some chilli infused olive oil drizzled over lovely sauce, the pasta was silky smooth and delicious. There were empty plates all around.

I used prawns, squid and some tinned sockeye salmon (skin/bones removed).

Here is the pasta boiling away (approx 11 mins for perfect doneness for this brand/type - wm bought the pasta from HK).

And the tomato sauce before I added the seafood (prawns/squid were flash fried with garlic/salt & black pepper to remove excess water). I threw all the liquid from the pan as well as the liquid from the tin salmon into the tomato sauce. I'm using my trusty inherited 20 year old wok.

The children had pakchoy soup with real strained chicken stock with dried scallops and red dates; and fillet of pork fried with onions, garlic & shallots with dark soya sauce over steaming plates of rice. This is Hazel's soup and the vegetables which were boiled whole have been snipped for easier eating for her.

Happy Mother's Day - Sunday 11th May 2008

To my Mum!

And here is a pic of my breakfast in bed this morning. Freshly squeezed orange juice, watermelon and cereal with soy milk prepared by the children.

They made breakfast for Wm as well and took turns to sit and watch us eat our breakfast by running up/down the stairs.

Thank you to my kibbos! xxxxx

Sat, 10th May 2008

Our Mother's Day dinner tonight which this mother here made.

Gorgeous baby racks of lamb - simply marinated with garlic, fresh rosemary, salt & black pepper and light drizzle of olive oil. Yes, they are a bittish fatty but don't eat the fat (except the crisp bits, but of course) and the meat is gorgeously tender and so so lamb-mie fragrant and I could so have had half a rack all to myself if not for that damn pair of jeans I want to get into.

Here is a medium done rack - the other rack was still in the oven as Wm likes her meat without 'blood'.

Simple salad (cos, baby corn, asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded carrots and cherry tomatoes) with home made dressing (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, grated garlic, dijon mustard, mixed herbs, salt & black pepper).

Baby Potatoes. Couldn't decide which pic to put up so here are both.

Altogether a nice family meal with a large glass of red.

And Hazel enjoying her meal.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to Wm, JS, my mumsie, ex-MIL, Z, Alina, Nora, Nudgie, Reeds's Jeeds, Bunny, J, ZT, Tina, Emma and all mummies reading this. Have a great day with your loved ones.

Maths

For Sil & Dom - remember being tutored Singapore Maths nightly by your Dad?

Here he is doing the same for Hazel. The whole family is involved in her extra Maths - she is now on her Primary 3 (yes, 3) book and this ole Ma here is having trouble with some of the sums!!

Time Out

And this is where I'm blogging from - haven't been here for ages - but nice to have a bit of alone time to gather my sanity which has been really wearing thin lately; in fact to be dramatic; been in shreds, thin fine shreds. (my sanity that is).

Caesar Salad

Home made Caesar Salad.

We have some lovely salmon from Canada (thanks to my sister, JS) and last Sunday Wm decided a Caesar Salad was in order. No fuss at all - just a bottle of dressing from Waitrose; some hydrophonic Cos, some homemade croutons (which I made with cubed wholemeal bread lightly tossed in extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper and garlic), chopped onions, black pepper, a drizzle of lemon juice and some shavings of parmigiano reggiano. And oh yes, some lovely roasted garlic and anchovies.

LOVELY!

With some white wine from NZ.

p.s I wonder how all the other bloggers are - have not seen my favourite people for ages. High time for a get-together.