Observations of The Kiddo Dec09-Jan10

The Wife maintains a blog for the kid. in fact she does a pretty good job at it and i've just been plain lazy to contribute my observations. but of late, she'd grown to be more interactive and expressive....e.g.

• she's certainly not reserved in literally pointing out to you what she wants. she will also make short 2-syllabic 'commands' when she points
• she shakes her head and pushes item away when i get the wrong stuff for her
• she understands 'give' and of late will assert her refusal to give by shaking her head rigorously and spinning herself in circles (when she's seated)
  
• she pouts and frowns when i think she's thinking hard enuff
• she joins in the conversation, often exclaiming with outbursts of 'hahahas' & outstretched arms
• she does some imaginative play with her toys, 'talking' to them
• she treats everything with buttons as a phone (she used to just press n bite on them), placing them next to her ear and mumble to it
  
• she is proactive in getting us to play with/demo to her. sometimes when she can't get a desired reaction from her toys/wants our participation, she'd take our hand and place the toys in them (e.g there was this once when she took her tutu as a phone and stuffed it in my left ear)
• she crawls fast and explores new places a lot more
• she associates certain sounds to some animals - cow says, moo, sheep says baa, tiger& lions says hraarrr, cat says meoow, dog says woowoo
• she waves byebye (& the odd mumble of byebye when she remembers...tho she can't do flying kiss)
• she kisses by doing a forehead knock on us
  

i'd also like to think that she'd gotten more discerning and exhibits different behaviour when she's with either of us. for example......

• i'm the iphone guy & she'd come to me for her sesame st-on-the go kick. she no longer likes The Elmo Song...now she prefers Bert & Ernie's Lalala Song, Diana Krall's Everybody Song & The Pointer Sister's 12 Pinball Song
  
• i'm the carry-me-hi-hi guy & she'd try to get onto my shoulder when i carry her

but she's still pretty much the same in other ways.....

• she has only 2 grown teeth
• i hope she'd learn to stand and maybe totter around as she builds more confidence over the weeks.

2010

i'm gonna be traveling back Sg in a few hours time with the family.
my sis is getting married in a week's time and i'm really happy for her. it's indeed a happy occasion for everyone in the family. i'm glad we're attending this after missing out on her solemnisation in jul 09. i'm also gald that my grandma gets to see her grandchild walk down the aisle and this time round, avery's gonna be there to see her gugu in her beautiful wedding gown.

i hope this signals a good start to the new year. 2009 has been kind to me and my family. we relocated to melbourne and i took on the role of a full time parent. looking back at the past half year, it certainly wasn't easy. realigning goals, managing expectations, living off savings.....all these well away from the comfortable distance of family and friends back home. but we'd made new friends, got ourselves a new routine in life. to be honest, i think i really really really wouldn't trade anything in the world for the past 6 months cos i watched my kiddo grew. i was there everyday, every step, every meal & every poo heh. perhaps, i've just grown a lil wiser with her around.

i'm horrid at keeping resolutions hence i'd ceased making any since i was 20.
but this year i'm gonna try giving it a go, afterall i'm already a father of a 1 yr old and life around is no longer as cushy as it used to be & i have only 1 for myself.

1. i must be more focused in life

& i jolly well keep to that.

东坡肉

We're having a couple of friends over for dinner and i'd prepare a menu of stirfry celery+carrot, grilled chicken wings, braised pork belly and stirfry prawns. it's been a while since i'd to cook for >2 adults but it's always fun cos i'd then have an excuse to experiment.

This is not the usual braised pork belly. It's adapted from a recipe for 东坡肉 which is sweet and melts in the mouth. personally i think i shld have just forgo the chilli altogether but i did get the texture right. i'd also added a pinch of salt to make it work for the eggs i'd added for the braising process (cos for some strange reason, ppl tend to associate eggs as part of the braised repertoire). took about 2 hrs to whip this up but i think its well worth it.

ingredients

• 500-600 g pork belly, cut into thick chunks
  
• approx 5 cm thick piece of ginger, sliced
• 5-6 x spring onions (stems only)
  
• 1 x cinnamon stick
• 2 x star anise
• 2 x cloves
• 2 x cardommon pods (break open)
• 2-3 chilli (optional)
• 4-5 hardboiled eggs (optional, cos to be honest they go better in the salty version of braised pork), gently prick the egg whites (like some 9-12 holes/egg, not too deep)
  
• ground pepper
• 1-2 tbsp rock sugar
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 2-4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp cooking wine
  
• cooking oil
• warm water

recipe:

• scald cut pork with boiling water and pat dry. make sue belly pieces have fat & skin on them
  
• ready pot with oil heated at medium
• lightly brown the pork, turning occasionally to get an even browning. this helps to seal the pork's flavour before putting it through the braise
  
• once browned, remove from pot and set aside. pork should only be about 60-70% cooked
• pour out excess oil, leaving just some in pot. wait for pot to cool a lil before leaving it on at low heat
• add in the rock sugar, stir and let it melt into a syrup, make sure it does not brown and carbonise
• stir in the pork and make sure they are evenly coated with the syrup. set aside and let cool
• using the same pot, stir fry the ginger, spring onion, spices
• add the remaining ingredients, soy sauce, water and wine to the spices and bring to boil
• stir in the pork pieces and let simmer at low-medium heat
• set aside some space in the pot for the eggs and introduce them into the pot after the pork pieces are uniformly 'stained'
• let pot simmer at low heat for at least 50 minutes. i'd them simmer for 90 minutes and the pork and its skin was definitely very tender by now. make sure to turn the eggs and pork around once in a while to ensure even 'staining'
  
• once u like the texture of the meat, turn off hob and serve.
  

Those Blardy Prawns

i love seafood. especially crustacean & shellfish.
perhaps it stemmed from a family that limited such indulges to festive/ red letter days (cos they are pricey) & largely cos my dad ain't one of their biggest fans.

i love my prawns whole, ie head & shell. in fact, i tend to ingest them whole too (save for the pointy bits in the head and the tough bits in the tail). i guess that provides some form of calcium intake and may even save some moolah on buying calcium pills.

this is a version that is adapted from the familiar ketchup prawns that most mums would whip up. what's different is that it's a whole lot more prawny, pastey and spicy, just the way i like it. sure to give u a cholesterol kick too but hey once in a while...should be ok lah.

ingredients

• half kg prawns (i used banana prawns...any medium sized proawns will do)
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• garlic (finely chopped)
• ginger (finely chopped. ratio of ginger to garlic = 1:2)
• ground pepper
• ketchup/tomato paste
• chilli sauce (optional)
  
• chopped chilli
• chopped spring onion (as garnish)
  
• 2-3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• sugar (to taste)
• fish sauce/salt (to taste)
• 5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
  

recipe

• trim off legs, eyes and feelers of prawns. when you snip off the front part of the head, you'll cut into the head. that's good cos you'd want the prawnliness to be extracted from those exposed heads
• brown garlic, ginger and reduce tomatotes in same pot at mid heat
  
• add in prawns, stir and let cook till 60% cooked
• add pepper, ketchup/tomato paste, chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce
• once prawns are alomost cooked, turn heat down and add cooking wine
• close lid and let simmer till prawns are all cooked and gravy is reduced
• add garnish & serve