the day boo came into our lives

it was Kat's last day at work today before she goes on maternity leave to have a second baby. we were discussing our birth story at her farewell lunch and i realised the memory of what happened that day is slowly fading away. especially the details. it was one of the happiest day of my life despite the pain and i want to remember as much details as possible. this prompted me to write it all down. 

boo was due on Monday 5 December. on the Saturday before his due date, i was craving Japanese ramen so we had planned to go out for lunch to enjoy our last weekend. we had to change our plans when the first contraction hit me around 6am Saturday morning. i had contractions on and off with no regular patterns. the contractions stopped after two hours. to be safe, we decided to stay at home in case my water broke or if the contractions came back. 

we took it easy all day pottering around the house. the contractions started again around 4:30 in the afternoon and they were 7-8 minutes apart. they went on for another 4 hours and continued to be about 6-7 minutes apart. i remember we were having dinner at the dining table and i had to stand up and walk around the house to ease the pain whenever i had a contraction. 

the contractions started to be closer together so i decided to call the hospital to see if i should go in. the nurse said we should stay at home till the contractions are 5 minutes apart and she said i should take some panadol and try to have some rest too. the pain was so strong that i could barely sleep. Jim moved the nursing chair into our room because every time the contractions hit me, i had to sit up and i decided to try and get some rest in the nursing chair instead. the contractions went on and i think i might have managed 2 hours of broken sleep. 

by 6am, the contractions were closer and closer together and stronger so i decided it was time we get ready to go to the hospital. the traffic was a breeze and we arrived at north shore private around 7. the hospital was really quiet at that time of the day and we were given one of the bigger birthing suite. 

the midwife on duty, her name is Quentin i think, strapped a baby monitor on my bump and informed me that the next midwife who does the morning shift would come and check on me. around 8, another midwife, Jo, came and introduced herself. she checked on me and said that i was 5cm dilated and we might have the baby around lunch time. she left to tend to other matters and when she came back to the room, she said Dr Ford has been contacted and he has instructed her to break my water for me so that i would go into labour sooner rather than later. 

once the water was broken, the contractions were closer together. i had opted not to have any drugs or epidural so by this stage the pain was getting stronger and stronger. i was using the gas provided which didn't help much. around 10:30, Jo came back to check on me. i was in so much pain, i finally gave up and asked for an epidural. She inspected me and said it was too late because i'm almost ready to push. 

Dr Ford arrived in his casual gear around 12:30. by that time, i had been pushing for close to two hours and i was exhausted. i was ready to give up. i remember saying to Jim that I can't do it anymore and i even asked Dr Ford if it was too late for a c-section. he evaluated the situation. turns out, boo's head was stuck and to help get him out, he would need to use a vacuum. by that time, i was happy for him to do anything just to get this baby out. Dr Ford got everything ready and at 1:05, he promised me the baby will be here with one last push. i gathered all my strength and at 1:07, boo was born. i remember he was quite a lively baby practicing his lungs as soon as he took his first breath.  

we waited 40 weeks to meet him. he was perfect and healthy. i was overwhelmed with emotions the moment they put him in my arms. all the pain disappeared and were replaced with joy when i saw his little face. Jim and I could not take our eyes off him for the first 24 hours. 

// boo's first cuddle with daddy //

// boo's first cuddle with mummy //

love is...

...when your husband knows you are struggling with your new mobile phone and spend most of his Sunday afternoon customizing it for you so that it works like your old one even though one of them is an iPhone and the other is a Samsung. 

we picked up our new Samsung Galaxy S4 yesterday and i haven't been happy with it. 

after playing with it for 20 minutes last night, i couldn't stop complaining about how un user friendly and how 'un-iPhone' like it is. 

so this afternoon, he 'iPhone-ised' my Samsung for me. he arranged all the apps into different groups like the way they were on my iPhone, he made the home screen looks like my iPhone's and he also loaded all the photos i had on my iPhone to the new phone. if he had more time, all the songs i had on my iPhone would be available on the Samsung. 

i'm slowly getting used to this new phone. if it wasn't for Jim, i think i'd still be using one of those old school 'non-smart' phones. 

weekend baking \\ sticky date pudding

last night, the Chans and the Chaus came over for hotpot. winter hotpot used to be an annual affair but we didn't host one last year because both boo and baby Chan were still too young for dinner outings. 

 

what better desserts to make to share with our friends on a winter's night than a sticky date pudding? i made one ages ago using a recipe by Jill Dupleix. the recipe was originally collected  from one of the weekend papers but i somehow misplaced it. lucky there are other people on the blogosphere who likes the same recipe so i managed to find it. i shall keep the recipe on my blog so i never have to worry about misplacing it. 

ingredients \\

180g dates, pitted and chopped

1tsp baking soda

1 cup boiling water

50g butter

150g brown sugar

2 eggs

180g self raising flour, sifted

 

toffee sauce \\

150g brown sugar

250ml single cream 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp butter

 

preheat oven to 180 c. grease and line a 18cm round springform baking tin

 

mix dates with baking soda and pour over boiling water and set aside

 

cream butter and sugar together and add the

 

fold in the sifted self raising flour gently, add the dates mixture (liquid and all) and mix thoroughly

 

pour mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes

 

for the toffee sauce, mix all ingredients together in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened nicely. 

 

we served the pud with Connoisseur's classic vanilla ice cream and it was delicious. i haven't made sticky date pudding for so long i've forgotten how good it tastes. everyone went back for seconds. now i can either make another one before winter is over or wait till winter 2014. 

cupcake decorating masterclass

i attended a cupcake decorating masterclass with Kitty last weekend. the class was ran by Cake Decorating Solutions and we attended the class at their Willoughby store. the class normally costs $149 per person but we got a good deal from Groupon. $118 for two. 

we arrived ten minutes before the start time of 2pm and was greeted by the friendly Carol who is the course instructor. all the tools we need were provided and they also provide us with six cupcakes each to decorate. 

this is my second cupcake decorating class. i attended my first one with Sharon at Essential Ingredients ages ago and it was a beginner's class. i have also attended an eight weeks cake decorating class at a local community college. at the beginning, i was worried the class would be too basic for me.
 

during the class, we were thought how to decorate the cupcakes using six different designs and methods. Carol also showed us how to decorate with buttercream and she was very generous with sharing her tips with us on which decorating tip to use for different purposes and designs. for the class, we used the round tip to pipe a honeycomb and a special tip which name and tip number i can't remember to pipe the lawn and the clown's hair.  

we were also given coloured fondants to create simple figurines. i have always used the orchard brand ready to roll (RTR) fondant sold at the supermarkets but during the course, i learnt that RTR from different brands vary in texture and taste. the satin ice RTR was soft and easy to roll in comparison to the orchard brand i'm used to. 

apart from learning how to decorate with buttercream and fondant, i also learnt how to use the ball tool to make ruffles. the first few go was hard but after some practice, i managed to make some decent looking ruffles for the clown's collar and the pink carnation.

the class went slightly over time. by the time we finished decorating the last cupcake, it was 5:45. i wished we could have visited the shop itself to pick up some supplies because there is a 10% discount voucher attached to the course hand out. i'm gonna have to go back one weekend to check out that place. the online store looks pretty amazing. one thing i definitely will get is the fondant rolling mat. the mat provide a guide on how big the rolled out fondant needs to be to cover different size cakes.  

all in all, i'm glad i attended the class as i have certainly picked up some good tips and with the hands on training i got from decorating boo's first birthday cake with Myfanwy last year, i'm ready to decorate boo's second birthday cake. i certainly wouldn't mind doing another course from Cake Decorating Solutions again.
 

// the clown's head, the teapot's spout and handle and the elephant trunk all made with ready to rolled fondant //

// the naked cupcakes ready to be decorated //

// my first few go of making ruffles using the ball tool to create this pink carnation //

// the elephant cupcake decorated with ready to rolled fondant //



// my favourite. even Jim gave me his seal of approval on this one //



// all six cupcakes decorated //

 

pancakes Sunday!

pancakes on the weekend used to be a treat. to measure the right amount of flour, baking powder, milk, eggs and mixing them is just too much effort. pancakes shakers from the supermarket are handy but we never have them in the pantry when we felt like pancakes for breakfast and i haven't found one that i particularly fancy. also, proper maple syrup is not cheap.

after i discovered Nigella's homemade instant pancake mix and that a 975ml bottle of real Canadian maple syrup is only $15.99 in Costco (as opposed to $9.99 for 250ml in Woolies), we started having pancakes for breakfast every Sunday and we call it 'pancakes Sunday' 

the mix is very simple and once all the dry ingredients are mixed together, i generally get four to five Sundays worth of pancakes out of it which is pretty handy. with my trusty non stick tefal crepe pan, i could make three pancakes at a time and it generally only take 15 minutes to make 15 pancakes. 

it became a family affair for us when boo started having pancakes with us too.

to create my instant pancake mix, i put the following dry ingredients in an air tight container and shake it for one minute so that everything is evenly distributed. 

600g plain flour

3 tablespoon of baking powder

2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

40g caster sugar 

to make 15 pancakes, mix one of dry ingredients, one egg, one cup of milk and one tablespoon of melted butter. 

follow your heart and you shall succeed

 

15 August 2013 was a special day for Jessie. she followed her heart and made one of her life long dreams come true. after months of hard work, research and recipes testing, her online cake business (o’CAKEsionally) was born and launched on Facebook. in the course of a day, the Facebook page for o’CAKEsionally has gained over 100 likers. 

i’m so happy for her because i know this is what she’s always wanted to do. Jess and i used to bake together a lot during our high school days. after i moved overseas, she continued to bake and every now and then, she would send me pictures of her creations.   

she first discussed her idea with me in June and we did a quick brainstorming session over the phone. within days, she started messaging me and telling me about the different cake recipes she’s tested and asking me for my opinions on how she could improve her recipes. she would send me pictures of her cakes almost everyday. some nice looking ones when the recipe worked and some ugly looking cakes when they didn't. she would bake them in different tins, using different recipes and tweaking the recipes as she goes to improve the taste of her cake. i'm blown away by her perseverance and creativity. 

it's pretty amazing what you can achieve when you are doing something you love. i'm envious of people who knows what they love, does it as a living and succeed. and i often wonder to myself if i were to give up my full time job, what would i like to do as a living? what would make me happy? and when i do find the answer, would i have the courage to follow my heart and pursue my dreams like Jessie? 

low maintenance husband

Father's Day is just around the corner so it's about time i start planning. we didn't do much last year even though it was Jim's first Father's Day. we're not big on buying gifts for each other on special days but i did get him a card and let him off all his daddy duties for the day. 

Jim on the other hand, took me out for a Mother's Day lunch, gave me a day off mummy duties for the day and he also bought two pandora charms for me (after i told him not to get anything for me). he got up a couple of times throughout the night to tend to boo and by lunch time, he was exhausted. nevertheless, i had a nice relaxing day. 

i was planning to take him out for a nice lunch at a restaurant of his choice but instead he wants a Ploughman's lunch with Italian cold cuts. i thought that's easy, we can have a picnic in the park. before i had a chance to suggest to him that we could have a picnic in the park, he told me he would be happy to enjoy his Ploughman's lunch at home on the verandah. this husband of mine is so low maintenance. he doesn't shop, doesn't like going out and he's very easily pleased. 

to make it a little special for him on Father's Day, i also let him choose any desserts he likes and i'd make it for him.  i was 90% sure he'd ask for a black forest cake but instead, he wanted Donna Hay's panna cotta. i first made Donna Hay's panna cotta at his request six seven years ago and i haven't made them since because i didn't think they turn out that good. guess i'll have to give the recipe another go or find a new recipe. 

i better pick up a nice bottle of Chianti to go with his Ploughman's lunch from Dan Murphy's and do a test run of the panna cotta. and if boo lets me, i might even bake some fresh breads for our Father's Day picnic lunch. 

butter!

we have a tub of double cream in the fridge. i bought it last week for our scones and we only had 1/5 of the tub. it's been sitting there for a week and i can't think of a way to use it.

i was about to throw it out on the weekend because there isn't any other way i'd use it and it doesn't freeze well. as i checked its expiry date, i had a lightbulb moment. i realised i could make butter with it! 

after ten minutes of googling, i learnt that butter making is not that hard with modern technology. 

i followed these steps //

_ pour double cream into electric mixer and start mixing, gradually increasing the speed from low to high

_ once the mixture becomes grainy, add some ice cold water to the mixture

_ continue to beat on high until the butter separates from the buttermilk and come together

_ place butter into a muslin cloth and squeeze out any excess moisture under cold running water

_ remove butter from the muslin cloth, add a pinch of salt and mix well

 

voila! we have butter and buttermilk

i never knew 'fresh' butter tasted this good. can't wait to have them on some toast with

my homemade marmalade. 

weekend baking // macarons

pre mix macarons by Adriano Zumbo is pretty much the only pre mix baked goods i'd buy from the supermarket. apart from those fudgy chocolate brownies by Donna Hay of course. 

i bought two boxes before i went back to Malaysia in May with the intention of giving them to Jessie because she likes baking too. somehow i left them in our storage in the garage and i didn't bring them with me. i completely forgot until i saw them when i was getting boo's nappy from the garage after we came back from Malaysia.  

i've tried making macarons from scratch in the past but it wasn't successful. i've only tried once and i didn't have the courage of trying again. it all seems too fiddly with ageing the egg whites, mixing the macarons shell mixture to the right consistency before piping them onto the baking sheet and making the filling. 

Adriano's pre mix sounds fool proof from the review i read online. the instructions are so easy to follow and the filling is provided too. 

well, i can't keep them in the garage for Jessie because they'll probably expire before our next trip to Malaysia. so i made them yesterday. this batch was not as successful as the last. the first tray went into the oven too early and the oven temperature was slightly too high so half the shell had no 'feet' and they are also cracked. they still taste good though.

if only

Jim asked me a hypothetical question at our lunch date the other day. he asked me if i could turn back time and was given a choice to have my dad with us now, would i take it. he says the only catch is, if dad is, there is no guarantee that we would have boo today. 

this question came about because whenever we talk about my dad and where we are now, i would tell him the biggest regret in my life is not having dad with us. i'm married to a wonderful man, have a decent job and i have a beautiful child. i'm at a good place and i always thought my life would be perfect if dad was still here. if i could go back to Malaysia on an annual basis to visit him, tell him about my life here in Sydney, let him know that i'm doing well in Sydney because of the sacrifices he made. 

dad worked really hard for the family his entire life. he always put us ahead of himself. he gave up his dream car - a Mercedes S class, so that we could all go to uni. back in high school i told him once i started working, i would give him $500 pocket money a week so that he could save them all up to get his dream car. he laughed at me. after his liver transplant in 1997, i thought he'd be good as new and would continue to live a long and healthy life. to enjoy the fruits of his labour once we've all finished our uni degrees and are financially independent. to drive around town in his dream car, to walk us down the aisle, to play with his grandchildren, to travel with mum and to finally enjoy life. 

unfortunately, he never got to enjoy any of these before he left. he got really sick again just as Jessie graduated from uni. i clearly remember when i visited him at the time, he said to me, perhaps his mission in this world is now complete now that we are all independent and capable of looking after ourselves and mum too. he said he was glad that he had lasted that long to see us all graduate from uni. but deep down inside, i knew that he was looking forward to finally enjoy life and to receive his weekly pocket money from me. i thought it was very unfair that he didn't get a chance to be a proud father to his daughters. to see us become who we are today, to hold his grandchildren and spoil them. i wish he could still be here to play with boo and teach him the values he had taught us.

i couldn't answer Jim's hypothetical question because i miss him everyday and i would give up anything to have him here with us now. but i also can't live without boo and i want them both to be here and to meet each other. if only we could have it all. 

homemade goodies swapping

to thank the neighbours for their grapefruits, we decided to give them a jar of our homemade marmalade. 

we've never met these neighbours but we know they are an old couple and they've lived in the same house way before we moved into the street. 

i was a little bit worried to ring their door bell. what if they are old and nasty? what if they don't like to be disturbed? we brought boo with us for good measures. also to make us look friendlier. 

a man answered the door and when we offered him the marmalade, he invited us into the house to meet his wife. we chatted and got to know each other and they even offered us a cup of tea! i think the man's name Tom but both Jim and I can't remember his wife's name. they are both lovely. 

turns out his wife made orange marmalade the same afternoon. made from their homegrown orange of course and before we left, she offered me a jar. 

i thought marmalade making was fun but food swapping in suburbia? that's more fun. i can't believe we swapped our homemade goodies just like the old days. i wonder if food swapping would make a come back one day? 

bank holiday lunch date

it was bank holiday yesterday. Jim and i have both worked for the bank for more than five years now. it has always been just another public holiday for us until this year. 

i've been looking forward to bank holiday since the beginning of the year. unlike any other holiday, daycare stays open on bank holiday. 

Jim and i took the opportunity to have some time to ourselves and decided to have a lunch date (our third date since boo came into our lives) at Jamie's Italian. 

the food was reasonably priced. the pasta was freshly made on the premise and the ambience was quite nice. we ordered a plank each for entree. Jim had the cured meat plank and i had the vegetable plank. both antipasti platters were quite good although Jim prefers the cured meat at Movida in Melbourne. 

we both ordered pasta for our mains. the pastas came in two sizes. we thought the small would have been enough because we've had an entree each but the serving was actually quite small. they were both tasty but small.

to finish the meal, we ordered a tiramisu to share. the mascarpone to sponge ratio was quite good and it wasn't too heavy. 

we had such a great time enjoying each other's company. we talked about what life used to be before boo, where we are now and our future together. 

the in laws will be arriving in Sydney in September and they will be staying with us for awhile. we shall take advantage of them when they are here and have more lunch date and date night. maybe we could try Momofuku next time. 

today you are 20 months and 1 day

oops! i lost track of time and thought it's the fourth today! 

_ you are getting more and more independent. most evenings, you would happily play by yourself while i prepare dinner. sometimes you even sing to yourself as you play

_ you are getting good at putting two words together. this month, you started saying: 'mummy draw' when you want me to draw on the magnet drawing board, 'daddy fix' when you want daddy to fix the train tracks on your train table, 'cank (thank) cue (you) mummy', 'mummy do' when you want me to do something for you, 'mummy cut' when you want me to cut you an apple, 'nen nen (milk milk) time' when you want your last bottle before bedtime. our favourite is still 'nice choo' (shoes) when we put on your shoes for you in the morning

_ you are not particularly good at sharing even though you know how to say 'share'. you don't like it when Joby gets close to you toys and you often say to him: my car, my truck, my choo (shoes)

_ you love 'beach, beach, sandy beach' by the Wiggles'. some days we watch the video clip over and over again twenty times

_ you started sleeping through the night from 8pm to 6am more consistently which i am grateful for because i'm not sure how much longer i can function with 6 hours of broken sleep

_ you love wearing your hat. some days, you wear it all day at daycare

_ you are such a little cheeky monkey and i love you so much! 

Sunday 'jamming' - grapefruit marmalade

before i start turning these 'locally grown' grapefruit into delicious marmalade, i did some research for recipe ideas. 

there are hundreds and thousands of recipes out there. some suggests that you slice the whole grapefruit before boiling, some suggests boiling it whole - skin, pith and all before slicing it, some suggests peeling the skin and discarding the white pith and some suggests soaking the peels overnight etc. 

apparently, the more pith you leave on the grapefruit, the more bitter your marmalade would taste. after reading all the different recipes, i decided to use the same recipe as the cumquat marmalade i made last week except this time i peeled the skin of the grapefruit and cut them into strips. i also cut away the thick white pith before cutting the grapefruit flesh into chunks and i added 2 lemons to it too.

after 2 hours of medium simmer, the peels finally soften and the chunky flesh becomes a pulpy mess. 

i added 8 cups of sugar and let the marmalade simmer away stirring it occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning. i watched as the colour of the marmalade went from light yellow to orange and finally, a deep amber. 

2 more hours of medium simmer later, the marmalade is finally ready. it definitely tastes different from the cumquat marmalade i made last week. it has a deeper flavour with a distinct bitterness to it. it is definitely an adult taste. 

i managed to bottle 6 jars in total and i gave one away to Myfanwy when she came by for afternoon tea today. i kept two for ourselves and the rest will be gifted. 

Jim is having them with some toasts tomorrow. 

setting up a worm farm - part three

we've got worms!! 

last weekend, my patience ran out so we finally bought a box of worms and added them to our worm farm. 

we bought the smallest box we could find which came with approximately 500 worms. most website suggests that we start with 1000 worms but i'm not confident with this new worm farm of mine so we decided to start with a small amount of worms. 

before i added the worms, i added another layer of shredded newspapers, some food scraps and a layer of cow manure. 

the worms have been in their new home for a week and i haven't fed them any food scraps apart from the two layers i added to their bedding when setting up the worm farm. i've been checking on them almost daily. some of them were hanging out on the top layer on the first few days because i could see them as i lifted the hessian to check on them. towards the end of the week, most of them have moved into the lower layer as i could hardly see one when I lifted the hessian. this is hopefully a good sign?!? 

i hope the wormies like their new home and will start munching on the food scraps in no time. according to the box which the worms came in, i'm now an 'enthusiastic environmentalist'! ha! 

// no worms in sight as they burrow deep into their new home //

// all snugged under the hessian blanket //

homegrown grapefruit

as i pull into our driveway yesterday, i spotted a box of grapefruit sitting on our neighbour's front lawn. 

as i parked the car, i thought to myself they would be perfect for jam making if there is such thing as grapefruit marmalade. after all, grapefruit is part of the citrus family and you can make marmalade out of any citrus right? grapefruit are not expensive in the markets but you never know what perticide were used in a commercial orchard and when it comes to jam making, i much prefer to use fruit grown in a home garden because chances of them being pesticide free is higher.

following last Sunday's cumquat marmalade success, i've gained confidence in jam making and i've been thinking what other jam i could make. 

i walked over to the neighbour's lawn to check out the box of grapefruit and saw a note on the box that says 'help yourself'. great! gotta love some neighbourhood love. i picked out three grapefruit with perfect skin and i start to wonder what grapefruit marmalade tastes like. 

looks like it's Sunday 'jamming' again this weekend. 

first of August

it's the first day of August. we are one month away from my favourite season of the year. 

as much as i like winter fashion, knee high boots, thick knits and winter coats, spring is definitely my favourite season. the weather is slowly getting warmer and the days are getting longer too. soon, boo will be able to play in the backyard after he comes home from daycare. we'll also be able to spend more time outdoor, take boo to all the different parks in the neighbourhood on the weekends and go for walks around the block after we come home from work. 

another reason why i prefer spring to all the other seasons is that my favourite trees, cherry blossoms, will be in full bloom which brings happiness to my heart. 

i'm so glad we're in the last month of winter. looking forward to spring already!