2021 - my first nonya dumpling wrapping

This is something I wanted to do for the longest time!! As the preparation works is very tedious, so had been thinking and procrastinating for the longest time!!  Finally, come 2021, where am working from home (WFH) most of the time, decided to go ahead & try.  I had learned how to wrap from my grandma times when she would wrap lots of dumplings yearly, and so far, only I managed to learn the wrapping from her.

Since my kids preferred nonya dumplings (cos they do not like those fatty fatty layers of the pork belly, they always preferred the minced meat in nonya dumplings!) and I always only like the sweet dumplings compared to the savory bak zhang!! 

I need to prepare about a week for this, soaking & washing of the dumpling leaves.  Cut & cook the minced meat a day ahead and soaking of the glutinous rice the night before the production!  Alot of cutting & chopping for nonya dumplings, but I think it's worth the afford!

Comes wrapping the next day!!  I like my BLUE rice, the colour must be very dark, so after cooking, the blue will be obvious!  ** pardon my messy kitchen! **

My finished product!! If you can see my digital clock at the back, it took me about 1.5 hours for about 20 dumplings!! This was my first wrapping session, following this, I did 2 more wrappings! Hahaha...  getting so addicted, but since we know the sequence of preparing and wrapping them, it became easier!

After 2-3 hours of cooking, my dumplings are ready to eat!

I can still see my BLUE rice after cooking for 2-3 hours!!  Can see my dumpling is really full with meat! Hahaha... very nice!!  Am very happy with my first dumpling wrapping, tasty & easy!

** For 2022, I had wanted to wrap again, BUT, seriously, I forgot about the dates & had missed it! Hahaha... maybe I should do when AM FREE, huh?? LOL... When I mentioned to my helper, she said, she also thought we will be making it this year, but why still don't see my getting the ingredients for it! Ahahaha... BLUR SOTONG ME!! **

My bakes for birthday! (2019 & 2020)

Hahahaha... another back-dated post!!!

I think I better post these photos to remind myself that I had been doing such a big project back when I were this 'adventurous'!!  The first pull money cake I ordered was very expensive & the cake taste horrible!!  Really, we were really shocked that the cake was hard & tasteless, I guess the cake was baked to hold the shape.

Anyways, I decided to try baking myself, after doing some research online on the pull money mechanism, buying all the necessary things I need to make sure it works! Hahaha...

This is my first creation back in Sep 2019, for my Mother-In-Law's (MIL) birthday, using my red velvet cake recipe.  Doing my own cake topper (the chinese wordings topper, as I cannot find anyone to custom-made it for me!) and ordering the icing sheets with the images I want! Hahaha... 100% custom-made cake!!  But IF I were to get into this business, don't think I can do so many things for an order!  And during that time of the year (Aug), I had a difficult time trying to find all those gold coins & ingots chocolates!! They can be easily bought during our CNY period, but other times of the year, GOOD LUCK! Hahaha...

The 2nd pull money cake I made was for my dad!!  No much customized toppers, mostly 'plug & play' type!  Getting lazier! Hahaha... This time, I baked carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! Nice!  But he had fun pulling out the money, not forgetting to pass to my mum after pulling out!

The last cake I baked, a simple Pumpkin cheesecake was for hubby in Nov 2019!!  We used to order the really nice Pumpkin cheesecakes from TCC, but it is not available now, so after some research online, came up with this cake!!

First ang bao from my 1st born on my 2020 Birthday

See how horrible I am!!  Did not post regularly and happened to see this photo while trying to clear my online storage, cos it is telling me my storage is at 98% full now!! OMG...  

Back in 2020, during the covid peak, before vaccines were available, my 1st born gave me an ang bao for my birthday!!  Appreciate her thoughts, giving me her savings and some lucky stars!! Love her to the moon & back!  So back in 2020, she was only 15... I do not remember giving my parents ang bao for their birthdays during my teenage years! Hahaha...

My crochet works

This has been a hobby of mine since young, I remember starting out when I was only in P4, where we can learn crocheting at those shops or at Fairprice supermarket where yarns were sold.  There would always be a tutor there weekly whereby she will teach us what we want to do if we purchase the yarns there!  But nowadays, such services is no longer available anywhere I think, which I thought is sad, as this does deter many people to learn something if they were interested in any.  Though am a member of a few groups in Facebook of such interest, many would post online asking if there is anyone available to teach as they were interested in picking up a new skill/hobby.  Many were referred to some classes held in some shops, which I thought the price to pay for is very expensive compared to my times, where it's free.

This chair cover is made up of balance yarns, which I think is a very useful & easy project to start with.

This is a jacket made for my 3rd born with a hood!!

A toddler's poncho made for a friend's daughter.

My entrance to the kitchen valance.

A few ipod covers for my 1st born.

Cupcake!

Unicorn!

Elmo (for a Elmo fan)

A plain purple cover for my 1st born BFF!

I am more into crochet tops and bags, to-date, I have about 5 tops which I crochet for myself, not yet dare to crochet a bottom, though I have seen many ideas of dresses and shorts or skirts.

This is a 3D leaf bag design for my MIL on her birthday in 2020.

This is another 3D leaf bag for my sis-in-law as her christmas present 2021!

Another 2021 Christmas present for 2nd & 3rd born piano teacher!!  Again, another no pattern to follow bag, learnt the stitch and just went along to get my ideal size and with lining too!!  I finally am able to do up linings on all my crochet bags with a zipped pocket inside, am really impressed with myself! Hahaha...

This is a DIY pack which I got from Taobao, got a few actually, made for my 2 nieces for their Christmas in 2020!   I personally thought this design is really cute & nice!

This is also a DIY pack from Taobao, it can fit an iPad... with all the accessories included and even the instructions online to finish it!  Managed to use if for this CNY!

This bag is my trial one which i made with no specific instructions, size done with my guts after learning the stitch.

This is a last minute project which I did using some patterns found for the lion dance head for a bag actually, and I modified it to be a wine bag!  This was given to WL's friend during one of the gathering in 2021 CNY!

This is ONE of the top I did for myself, with my crochet bag!! hahaha.. taken during Xmas 2021 season with my 3rd born!

This is my BIGGEST Project ever done!!  A cover for my KING size bed, using granny squares!!  Initially I though it was easy, as I can always bring some yarns out with me and complete the granny squares, even joining them up was easy, the most difficult part is the weaving in of all the loose yarns! OMG... to be honest, I have kept this piece in my drawers with 80% of the ends still loose!! Hahahaha...

I always like to share my crochet journey with anyone interested in it... Though I had attempt to teach my 1st born with this hobby, but she was never interested... sadly, no one for me to pass on my skill to.  My 10 YO niece was initially interested and wanted to try her hands on amigurumi, but she gave up after a few tries, as she finds it difficult to handle single crochet stitch.  So, if anyone of you is interested, you can always try to reach out to me via my email.

School year 2022

Comes another new year for my children!!

My 2nd born baby is in his upper sec this year, Sec 3 and finally in long pants now!!  As usual, he just super hate to be photographed, his unhappy face early morning at 620am!! Hahaha... sorry baby...

My first born in Sec 5 this year... really hope she can thrive for better results to get into her ideal place for her tertiary education!!  Lucky thing is, she is still my baby who will listen to my advice.  I hope she can really put in her effort to get better results to get into poly of her choice!! Good luck baby!

This year, as usual, Primary school kids returned to school in staggered mode based on their levels, again, due to the Covid pandemic.  As during the start of the year, children below 12 years old, were not vaccinated yet, thus MOE decided to let the P1 kids start first, so they would not get overwhelmed with all the primary school kids.  And 3rd baby only starts school the next day, and blur me again, forgot to take photo of him on his first day of school!! SO I can only take a shot of him when I picked the kids back from school together! Hahaha...

 

Our 18th wedding anniversary

Today marks our 18th Wedding anniversary and it's really a long way for us.  Looking back, it's really not easy to handle a family, growing slowly from 1 child to 3 children, attending to our work amidst our busy house work, attending to the children and making sure meals are taken care of too.  Its always my joy to see how grown up my 3 children are now, to see that they would show their care & concern for us through their actions and words.  As I always told them, "Your mum is growing old, but upon seeing the 3 of you, everything is worth it and no regrets that am turning 50 in a few years time!" Hahaha... exposed my age??

Anyways, am always glad my hubby is a "Live to eat person" so I get to enjoy good food ALWAYS... am a "Eat to eat person", so long I am fed, it does not matter if it's a feast or not! So it's a bonus to me in all ways! Hahaha...

Here we go, a very long fine dining this year, and lucky, we went for a lunch celebration, so we can have time for our 3 children at the end of the day!  Although they can get noisy during dining time, I always find it a blessing to have them healthy, chatty & noisy! A mentality of a crazy mum I think! hahaha...  My first born always say she got a happy-go-lucky mum, whom she can chat with about anything under the sun!!  This is good for me, meaning she will share all her secrets with me, I HOPE!!!

Ok ok... back to OUR celebration!!  Yes, hubby booked this reservation about 2 months back, and finally the day is here!!  

Here's the menu they had customized for us, with all the items we have ordered, which is really great, at least we can refer back to what we had for this celebration! Thumbs up!!

Here are all our dishes...  Although we only ordered a 6-course meal, the final dishes comes to up about 13 in total, and we are full to the max!!  By the time we are done, it's about 4pm! hahaha... we can't imagine having a lunch served from 1215pm till 4pm!!

These are the complimentary dishes served before our 6-course and after.

The cheese stick is really good, the tart is with onion and liquorice (though we only tasted onion) and a taco chip with some raw seafood with mayo & yuzu. 

This is a mushroom soup which they presented as a mushroom tea to go with a small piece of pastry with truffles, I think! Hahaha... this restaurant really served us lots of truffles!! Even the black thing you see in the mushroom tea, is a slice of truffle!

As usual, French restaurant or a fine dining place would serve a platter of breads!  I guess this is to make sure you are really full!! Hahaha... Sorry, forgot to take just the photo of the bread ONLY, we were served 3 different types of bread, 2 pieces of french baguette (in smaller serving), 2 slices of sourdough and 2 pieces of truffle pastry.  The butter served is a buckwheat butter and also a small serving of olive oil (not in the pic above!)

This pre-dessert dish was served after our cheese platter, there's supposed to have 3 layers, BUT I really forgot what were they, but there is a layer of yuzu shaving, a layer of sherbet and something else! Hahaha...

This is a chocolate dessert from the chef for our celebration... it comes with salted caramel ice cream, all are nice, given that they are not very sweet, so we did enjoyed it!

The above is our post dessert dish!! Alot right??  The 2 popsicles are iced balls, so we will need to eat them first, follow by the other 3 which can be taken in any order we like.  There a serving of Japanese fruits (apple, honey dew & tangerine) with 2 other chocolates pieces.

Alright, the following are our 6-course meals:

This is our 1st dish: Uni served with caviars and a yuzu toast with uni also.

Our 2nd dish: XL sized scallop, does not taste like the normal scallops we had.

This is a rosemary smoked organic egg, the onsen eggs are in the box on the table, the server will pour into the bowl served by the waiter. 

This is our additional Raviole, which we only ordered 1 portion, the Raviole is wrapped with lobster and topped with lots & lots of truffles!!  Seriously, the truffles do not taste as overwhelming as those food served with truffle oil, e.g. Truffle fries, truffle pasta, etc...

This is our 5th dish, fish with a piece of mushroom (stuffed with some of the fish & sweet chad), to keep it simply... hahaha...

This is the presentation of our main course, for photography purpose that the waitress is showing us, and comes back with the below dish served! Hahaha... looks very different from the full slab above!

This is our MAIN COURSE, after SOOOO many dishes above!! We are already full by the time this main is served to us!  But I must say, this is really good... cos the lamb is really tender and no smell of goat! Hahaha... Oops, I forgot the artichoke!  This is the first time I taste artichoke!

Next is a trolley of CHEESE, we are not cheese expert, but still open to options... My verdict is, please skip the goat cheese if possible... cos seriously, the smell of goat is, argh... sorry if you are a fan of goat cheese!  Lucky the light blue cheese served here is still acceptable to us... We do like the sesame biscuits served, the grapes are sweet, so it does help to clear the cheesy taste in our mouth!

Finally, this is our dessert served!  The sherbet on top is mango and vanilla at the bottom does have lava in passion fruit flavour. Nice!

And yes, this is the restaurant we came for celebration, Odette!  Great service & great food!!  A very nice experience for us... Wondering if it would takes 4 hours if we were to come for dinner! Hahahaha...