I am on a blogging hiatus as I would like to focus on my jewelry craft work. Hence, I will not be taking in requests for reviews of any nature in the future. If you do have queries on my jewelry work instead, please get in touch via email : oon.adeline@gmail.com
My mom cooked our family's favorite ayam buah keluak dish today and I went over to her home to pick it up for our dinner. So I had to think pronto what to prepare for my children since they don't fancy it. Teppenyaki came up and here's another simple recipe I'm sharing for quick fix meals.
Ingredients :
250g lean pork sliced thinly (this dish would also go great with beef, chicken or pork belly or pork collar meat meant for shabu shabu but today I went for lean pork instead as I was cooking a smaller portion)
cabbage
carrot
shimeji mushrooms (shitake mushroom is also a good alternative)
big onions
spring onions
3 tbsp Bulgogi marinade or teriyaki marinade
1 tsp Light soya sauce
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce
*I did not specifically state the quantity to slice for the vegetables because it's a personal preference if you want to have more of it or not.*
Preparation :
Marinade the meat with bulgogi sauce, light and dark soya sauce. Mix well and leave aside for at least 1/2 hour.
When ready to cook, heat up your wok, pan fry the meat till half cooked before adding the rest of the ingredients in. There's no oil involved for me in this dish so its optional. No adding of extra water necessary as the vegetables will produce enough while cooking.
And wala! A healthy dish with wholesome goodness.
Till the next post, have a blessed week!
Footnote : I tend to cook less salty dishes when possible, so please do a taste test before you serve your food and adjust according to your preference.
We have been living in Pasir Ris for 12 years. From an Ang-Mo-Kio-en almost all my life, we decided to move and start our family in the far far east - it was a major move! 12 years ago, Pasir Ris was considered out of the way - 'ulu' if I may add. But really, we don't find it so. This is the place we love. This is the place parenthood began for us. Even if we decide to move house one day, I told the hubs, I still want to stay in Pasir Ris! And with the hubs frequent business travels, it is so easy commuting to the airport and saves us a lot of time.
We love this town for it's wide open spaces and friendly family places. It's a vibrant town and the cluster where we live, is a stone's throw away to Giant megamart and Ikea - a favorite haunt for many of us, for their chicken wings! (hmmm we found the standard for their meatball dish dropped a lot! oops I have digressed!)
Today, however, I would really like to share a spot at Pasir Ris park which I fell in love with.
This set of photos were taken with my Olympus Pen EP1.
As you can see from the map, Pasir Ris park is huge and divided into 3 areas - all of which are great for exploration. This part of the park I fell in love with is area 2 on the map.
You will be surprise to find a horse stable that conducts horse riding lessons as well as leisure pony rides for children - a first in Singapore! It is a super great idea for families to get together or hold mini parties. There is a cozy alfresco cafe that serves lunch and tea snacks which operates just beside it and while the kids are at play, the adults can sit back and chill out for a while. It almost feels like I am away from Singapore each time I walk past this spot. There's no need to go all the way to the zoo to take a ride on the ponies anymore!
This set of photos were taken with my iphone.
In the midst of the same area, there's a Herbs and Spice garden. This garden is maintained by volunteers. It fascinates me and I just don't feel like leaving the place when I am there. It's strange because I am not so much usually attracted to nature but being in the midst of beautiful butterflies makes me very happy and at peace - ok READ : DEPRIVED. haha!
This is definitely an alternative place to explore apart from the farms in Choa Chu Kang.
This set of photos were taken with my iphone.
Of course, I cannot exclude the wonderfully huge playground it offers to children of all ages! This is the largest playground in Singapore - located at area 3 (left side) if you can refer to the map above. If you haven't already been there, then I highly recommend you do! Your kids will love it! And love you! :)
These playground photos were taken with my iphone.
There's also a mangrove area in the park (Area 1 in the map) which is almost like a mini Sungei Buloh. You can do some bird watching, learn about the eco system and perhaps, take part in their conducted nature walks on weekends. For the outdoor photography buffs, this is haven! There's just no end to exploring this park! So I would have to refer you to this site for detailed information you may need.
This photo was taken with my Olympus Pen EP1.
And wait a second, I'm not done with showing you the beautiful scenery that greets me when I go for my walks in the morning. It does wonderful wonders to my soul. :)
This photo was taken with my iphone.
This set of photos were taken with my Olympus Pen EP1.
On the whole, Pasir Ris town has truly lived up to our expectations. And I hope that you too, will take some time to explore this place with your family and see why I am loving my spot!
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Join Sandra tomorrow, as she brings you through the estate of Marine Parade.
Sandra blogs over at www.SANses.com, where she chronicles her life as a
full-time working mother of two toddler boys. Life is now chock-ful of
dinosaurs, trucks and trains... and outsmarting (or being outsmarted) by
the two boys.
In celebration of Singapore's 47th birthday,
we're having a virtual love party! Come share all the little things you love about where you live on this sunny island city state you call 'home'.
I tried my hands on yummy fruity ice lollies today! The idea totally excited me because the hot weather has been getting into my nerves and I needed to keep my cool... of course, my family's too! :)
I chose to use only oranges and strawberries for my first try. Got them sliced up and Megan helped to place them into the moulds.
When it was done, I filled up the moulds with grape fruit juice. I
thought this was the most neutral juice to mix the fruits in. I guess
apple juice would be another great option! It needs to be filled to the
brim before placing the stick otherwise it will not sit nicely on the base.
After about 3 hours, we did a quick check and were absolutely thrilled that it has hardened and look super yummylicious as we imagined it to be! It was indeed thirst quenching and we all had our healthy dose of fruits for the night. :)
This is an absolutely fool proof dessert anyone can make for the family! Do give it a try!
I'm already thinking of trying to make other kinds of lollies for sure and perhaps make lime juice to place into my ice cube trays which I think will taste absolutely fabulous with my honey drink! Don't you wish to sink your teeth into one now? :p
I love quickies - I mean, fast to cook and good to eat prepared meals from home! (hmmmm what were you thinking?)
So I thought I would share one of my family's favorite - chicken stew. It's a super yummylicious all-in-one dish that goes superbly well with plain rice. Here's my recipe if you would like to try it!
Ingredients
3 pcs boneless chicken leg - sliced into bite size pieces (you can substitute with other parts of chicken)
2 medium sized onions - sliced
Slices of ginger
1 large carrots (optional)
1 Potato (optional)
1 tomato (optional)
2 stalks celery (optional)
1 can button mushrooms
1 tbsp Chopped garlic
1 bay leaf (optional)
Marinade chicken with the following :
4 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
1/2 tsp of Maggi seasoning
1 tbsp of corn flour
A few dashes of white pepper
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine (hua tiao jiu)
1/2 tsp of coriander powder (this is my mom's secret to a better tasting stew!)
- Using about 1 tbsp of cooking oil (I try to use as little as possible), saute the garlic, ginger and onions till fragrant. Add in chicken and fry till partially cooked.
- Add in all the other ingredients, give it a good stir and add about 2-3 tbsp of tomato sauce for a tangy flavor and sugar to taste. You can also add a teaspoon of black soya sauce if you prefer your sauce to look darker.
- Pour in enough water to cover ingredients. Add the bay leaf and leave it to simmer for about 30-40 minutes on medium heat.
And there you go!
Happy cooking! If you do try this recipe, let me know if its yummy for you too! :)
Footnote : I try to cook less salty dishes whenever possible so please do a taste test before serving. Do add a bit more oyster sauce if my recipe is too bland for you.
I asked you to make a guess on which song is being played in my car SO OFTEN that it drives me crazy! These were your options :
And ALL of you guessed Justin Bieber!
Well, as much as I want to say that comparatively, the Bieber boy is annoying, you will also find the songs from One Direction annoying when you have to hear it all the time! Doesn't help when the girl seems to go ga-ga with one of them. *oh what am I getting into*
So the really real annoyance comes from One Direction! Sorry to disappoint you all! Because we totally ban B.boy's music in the car. *notice how his name gets abbreviated when I type along*
But actually I can relate. I used to like boy groups like Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, Take That and Boyzone. I still like some of their songs lah.I wonder what my mum thought of it back then...
But it's all in the name of fun so all who have taken part in my fun giveaway had an equal chance to win this :
If you are mummybean from http://lifeisinthesmallthings.blogspot.sg/, CONGRATULATIONSSSS!
Your name has been selected after my daughter did her draw by eenie-meenie-miney-mo the list of names from my screen. :p
Please send me an email ade.loft@gmail.com to claim your prize with mailing details. Or PM me via Facebook.
"I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too. Thursday, I don't care about you. It's FRIDAY, I'm in love!" ~ The Cure
lalala~~~~ I am a big "fan" of various 80's artistes. Various - its because I never really did follow through any of their particular album faithfully. But I cherish the lyrics of many songs because it spoke of my heart - yeah, my teenage heart mostly! So young and so in love ~~~ ermm, crush should be the word. It's always one sided. Never reciprocated. Makes me wonder why.
I loved it when I could use music to express what I was feeling and ended up dedicating songs over the radio, hoping that whoever I am directing it to is listening to it.
Here's some snippets of my favorite emo lyrics. Can you recognize any of them?
"Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you" - Honesty by Billy Joel
" I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you
I know you were right, believing for so long
I'm all out of love, what am I without you?
I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong" - All out of love by Air Supply
"Time, I've been passing time watching trains go by,
all of my life.
Lying on the sand, watching seabirds fly..." - It Might be You by Stephen Bishop
And THIS ONE, I particularly remember because that was when my then-boyfriend-now-husband, was away in Melbourne to pursue his studies. I missed him so much and snail mail was still the in thing. So I dedicated this song to him over radio, had it recorded in cassette (ya back then still casette), and mailed it to him.
"Somewhere, out there. Beneath the pale moon light.
Someone's thinking of me, and loving me tonight."
- Somewhere Out There by Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram
The 80's had been an amazing and memorable journey for me. Good and bad memories that has made an impact in my life in every littlest sense. 90's was so-so, a few memorable songs here and there. Year 2000 onwards had a fair share of bad songs and honestly, don't remember them as well as the 80's.
NOW, my kids are in their pre-teens. (tweens as they call it). And they are crazy about their own music idols. Most times, I really dread listening to their songs in the car, which I blame the hubs for buying em' CDs for them. I'd rather listen to radio anytime which sometimes play their kinda music and they will snigger at me because there's no running away from it! arrrghhhh!!!
Now here's my fun giveaway. I'm gonna link up 2 videos here, both are my daughter's favorite artistes. (urgh is the word, I tell ya!) Guess which song is being played in our car THE MOST - that is driving me crazy when you have to listen to it like a broken record.
Send in your entries by leaving your comment and answer on this post by Monday, 16 July 2012 (contest is officially closed) and the winner's name will be drawed on Tuesday, 17 July 2012 by none other than my daughter. You will need to indicate the name of the artistes : (top) One Direction, (bottom) Justin Bieber.
The winner will receive this pair of wooden pegs with checkered fabric and my handmade clay rose. Use it to clip your notes or anything that needs to be prettied up. Like it? Like it? :)
We thought it would a great day to visit Johore Premium Outlet (JPO) today. It is one of those days where we do an impromptu road trip to Malaysia. Weekends in Singapore is getting a tad boring so we would take the extra trouble to venture out.
The nice cool weather made today a nice start and the hubs decided to drive without his GPS because JPO's location is not updated in the system anyway. So since we've been there before, we thought we couldn't possibly forget where to exit from. Oh boy... how wrong we were! Let's just say, instead of paying for 2 tolls, we paid like for 5!! So from an estimated 15 minutes drive from the customs to JPO, we took like 45 minutes instead. Oh well, the hubs was happy to give his 2nd wife a spin! (2nd wife - car lah!!)
Anyway, we finally reached our destination and was surprised it wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be. The car park was unusually empty. I was looking forward to a very stress-free shopping! And I couldn't wait to see what new updates they had in store!
It is always nice to feel like you are away in some US factory outlet because of the layout - though its a far cry if you want to compare the kind of designs they carry.
The last time we came to JPO was half a year ago on my birthday. The hubs had the sweetest intention for me to shop to my heart's content but I didn't get myself a single thing! It was the same today. When we arrived, the hubs said sternly to me "we are not leaving this place until you buy something for yourself. And I mean things to fill a big bag!" Ermmm... bummer. I wonder if it was me who is so picky with what I want or the way they present the tacky looking designs that put me off. No no... it probably also has to do with the prices too. Not very attractive I must say. The only boutique that beckoned me was Fossil... but a bag at half the price still costing at least S$300 was not a great deal to me. I'm a prudent shopper and the price tags were not at all friendly. Honestly, I don't think I want to go back to this place anytime soon.
We ended up having Baskin Robbins ice cream... we travelled all the way to JPO for ice cream!!
On the way back to Singapore, we dropped in at Toa Payoh central for dinner. This is probably the only great thing that ended our day! A nice and sumptuous roasted duck rice, with kai lan and prawn dumpling soup.
Now only if we could have bought some durian back for dessert, it would make the day even more worth the while. :p
It's been many months (ok a few years) since we thought of bringing the kids to Sungei Buloh. It was either the rainy season or the busy schedule we had to keep over the weekend that deterred us time and time again. Today, there were no more excuses! We finally decided to make that trip down to the nature park despite the hot weather and what a beautiful day for a photography trip!
We arrived around 9.30am and were pleasantly surprised to be invited to join a conducted tour by the park's volunteers. What was even more surprising was that the 2 guides were westerners! *urmmm ok it was quite embarrassing to have them bring us around when we are in Singapore! But I guess if you put any nature lover regardless of any part of the world, they would be more than happy to bring you around :) I'll introduce them in the later part of this post.
The park is huge so we managed to only cover a part of it which took us almost 2 hours to explore. I am not really a nature lover at heart but I would go with the flow as long as I feel its beneficial as a family to do stuff together. It was a treat for the children and us too, as we learned more about the mangroves, saw a crocodile, heron and a number of monitor lizards, just to name a few.
This trilogy of photographs were captured by my son, Brandon. Both the kids had fun trying to spot these animals in the midst of the greens. Truly challenging.
These photos were taken by my hubby! :)
Here are some photographs I took while we were walking along the trial.
This is a sea hibiscus. Lovely lovely flowers scattered on the ground. This was the only one I saw that was not crushed.
This is a bloomed sea poison flower dropped on the ground. Though its really beautiful to look at, it is not advisable to handle it thus the name of the flower. :p
At a few look out sites, trying to do some bird watching.
These were our guides today! And what a privilege to have both of them to ourselves! :p
Roger (left) is a Canadian. He must love Sungei Buloh so much to volunteer because he had just got back from Canada and was adjusting to our local time. I asked him how often he volunteers at the park and he says only about once a year when he comes here for a visit as his Singaporean wife visits her family. Wow, talk about the love for nature! He had been so nice to explain about the mangroves and how it helps with our eco system. Whenever he was in the littlest doubt, he would be quick to whip out his trusty mangrove knowledge book to show photos and explain further.
Luke (right) is from Manchester, England. A young and knowledgeable chap living in Singapore, he has a vast knowledge of the bird species. Unfortunately, we got to understand that we couldn't see much of most species this time of year. He says the best period would be between December to April where there would be more migratory birds. I too, asked him if he volunteers regularly at the park. And he says he is there probably once or twice a year. What a rare treat for us to have them as our guides then! As we got to chat a little at the later part of the trial, I found out that Luke is a food blogger. And has a very interesting blog address at that! Check his blog out at www.hungryangmo.com
As we were walking out of the park, a huge monitor lizard bade us goodbye as it crossed our paths.
It has left us with wanting to explore the rest of the reserve.
We will be back Sungei Buloh!! I don't know when but... we will be back! :p
Quickie Meal - Pork Teppenyaki
