3 month old Aleyna

Husaini and Julie’s 5th baby, Aleyna

3 months ago she looked like this, isn’t she gorgeous?

Now for something completely unrelated. I have been struggling with back pain for the last 2 weeks. And it feels like so much longer. I’m not sure what exactly caused the pain, I don’t think there was any one factor involved. Perhaps its the 10kg I have gained, considering I’m going to gain an estimated 450g per week from now on, I hope my back starts getting accustomed to the weight. Perhaps it was working in the stroke unit. I did not have a house officer assigned to the unit so I was taking all the bloods and setting all the lines. Which is a 45 angle bend at the waist for a period of time setting the IV or taking the blood. I’m too big to kneel on the floor (which was what I used to do when I was on call as a house officerand there’s no time to think, u just do) besides it makes me light headed so I resorted to pulling chairs and sitting by the bed which ended up in lifting a couple of heavy chairs. Heavy lifting didn’t help my back.

Perhaps it was doing neurological examinations on adults most of which were twice my size at least 10 times a day. I was pulling and pushing on their limbs assessing their strength after the stroke. With the N95 mask that is compulsory, I was breathless and in pain. Perhaps its the lack of exercise since I had that cold and my gynae advised rest.  The pain stops me from sleeping thru the night and when its bad during the day, every single step is excrutiating. I’ve been getting by without painkillers and back rubs by H in the evenings. But we’ve had less meals at home because I can’t bear the standing by the stove. We’ve also spent many weekends and evenings just lounging around. Mostly to rest my back and also because H isn’t comfortable with the flu situation.

The good news is that I’m rostered to the clinic this whole month of July so I’ve been sitting down the whole day these past few days. My back pain had dramatically improved! I’m still rostered to the weekend round though so I went to work and rounded today (ie stand for 3 hours) and the pain came back with a vengeance and much worse than before. I had to sleep it off in the middle of the afternoon as it was getting so bad. So now, it got me thinking, should I request for clinic rotations for the next few months? Does this also mean I can’t stand for prolonged periods or walk for long periods till I deliver due to this niggling back pain? Or is this a temporary back strain? Do all pregnant people go thru this period of pain? Any ideas, anyone?

 

And ps. since I’ve been doing less baking and cooking, I’ve been sooo restless and decided to pull out my old craft box after not doing any craft for the longest time. I’ve created some handmade easy baby toys and some fun food packaging. Can’t wait to share it with you!

 

Some pretty pics from Martha Stewart

 

Dinner for one and a half

Dinner is usually a one pot or actually one wok affair. I make the base which is lots of fried garlic, prawn, squid, chicken and/or beef in different combinations depending on whats available in my freezer at that time. I then freeze this in portions and take it out for a quick dinner. I fry different noodles:  pasta, egg noodles, rice noodles thick or thin and add different seasoning and sauces. It can be Malay style “mee goreng” with some homemade chilli paste, it can be Chinese style Hokkien egg noodles or it can be a pasta with some tomatoes thrown in. Sometimes when we are in the mood for rice it would be fried rice. Something which I’m not that good at, somehow my fried rice is a 50-50 hit/miss situation.

Pretty plate apparently from the Isaac Mizrahi collection bought during the Robinson’s sale. A steal at S$2 a plate. What do you eat when you’re eating alone?

backdated stuff

Giant beef pide my mom made and brought over for lunch. She’s the source of a lot of our meals lately as we’ve been busy, then sick, then tired in that order.

I promised Damien Pignolet’s recipe for roast chicken, but its really really long, so here’s an alternative tutorial

I didn’t have cooking twine and obviously not an expert at trussing chicken as can be told from the bird above. I dug into my craft box, I can’t remember the last time I did any craft, and pulled this out.

The mess in my tiny kitchen post roast chicken.

No roasting tray so I used a rack suspended above a baking tray. My oven was in a mess though with lots of splaterring and spluttering

Remember that Sherry Yard chocolate pudding cake?

This is how it looked like inside. Leave me a comment if you’re dying for the recipe and I’ll try to slowly type it out. Its 3 pages long! And I can’t seem to find it anywhere on the net.. The cake itself is nothing special, it was a little dry to me. The pudding filling was quite delicious and a nice change from the usual ganache or butercream frosting.

Tea for two

Dear Friends,

Aren’t these cups gorgeous? They were part of a set that included this plate which held baba ghanoush from Liz and Farah. We had tea after our usual Sunday morning fry-up in the balcony. On H’s towel which was on the table sunning. Obviously we do not mind drinking tea on used towels.

 

Anyway, due to your overwhelming generosity, my kitchen cupboards are full of kitchenware and I love and appreciate every single piece. However H is starting to make a little bit of noise as my kitchen equipment has started to creep into the storeroom and things are starting to look a little packed in our small flat.

 

Our little baby room is also starting to fill up with an overenthuisastic grandmother to be and lovely lovely gifts from friends (thank you!!!). Our little girl will soon get to wear over 100 pieces of clothing, I kid you not.

 

Thank you for your generosity. We are happy to announce that our kitchen is complete and so are clothes for our baby. We would appreciate books and toys instead if you would like to spoil our little one.

 

Love,

Farhan and H

Pierre Herme’s chocolate rice pudding

This was an after work dessert whipped up by Mel in my tiny kitchen last night. It was pretty easy, involving some stirring over the stove than poured into cups and chilled. We skipped the raisins, somehow raisins and chocolate don’t go well in my book. Pierre Herme suggests serving this with caramelized rice crispies. We had it with crushed butter curl biscuits from Marks and Spencers. We had a carbo laden dinner with bread and delicious broccoli and leek soup by Yati for starters, then pasta and lastly rice for dessert! I’ve started to think of soup recipes for dinner now since they make such a complete meal.

 

Dinner was great and thanks Hanani for the lovely rectangular glass dish. I love Pyrex! Every dish I receive inspires me to try something new and I think this would be a great dish to make this recipe for custard baklava in.

Chocolate rice pudding
Source: Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
Serves 6

950 ml whole/full-fat milk
100 grams arborio rice
2.5 Tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 grams bittersweet chocolate, melted
125 ml/60 grams plump golden raisins

Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the rice, sugar and salt. Bring to the boil, stirring frequently (NB! the milk boils over very quickly, so pay attention!). When boiling, reduce the temperature and simmer slowly for about 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the butter. When the butter is melted, fold in the melted chocolate, stirring gently. Finally stir in the raisins.
Pour the chocolate rice pudding into individual serving glasses. Cover the glasses with clingfilm, cool to room temperature and then chill until ready to serve.

It was waayyy too hot to take photos of these in my balcony so these were taken in the cool comfort of my airconditioned bay window. The lighting wasn’t great hence the cool blues and greenish hues, not the best of photos but it was sooo hot we had to hole up in our airconditioned bedroom. I had two little cups left over from the dinner last night so H and I had a little cold afternoon chocolate treat while I blogged and he watched tv. The texture of these puddings were good overnight, softly set, deliciously cool, morsels of rice and the crunch of cookies on top was a rich and delicious combination. Its best served in small amounts so these tiny glass cups were ideal. Mel and I poured the hot pudding into a jug with a spout and poured it into the glasses. These made neat cups and spared us the pain of spooning small amounts into these tiny cups.

 

I bought the Arborio rice from Culina after searching high and low at numerous Cold Storage stores. I remember they used to sell Barilla risotto rice quite commonly in stores but for some reason it disappeared off the shelves for a really long time. I couldn’t find it for many months. I bought the rice for S$3.20 for a 250g pack which was pretty reasonable. I find Culina terribly overpriced and you can find many items, some a dollar or more cheaper at Tierney’s or other gourmet shops.

Dinner of roast vegetables

First cut up some vegetables that you think are starting to look a little tired in the fridge. Aurgbergines, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkin, onion and garlic are some good things to roast.

Nestle a clove or two of garlic. Scatter some olives. Season well with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried herb of your choice like oregano or basil. Fresh herbs would burn.

Grill for 45 mins to an hour in a hot oven. Finish with crumbled feta and choice of fresh herb: parsley, basil or corriander. Serve with crusty baguette or toasted pita! Dinner in 5 mins prep + 45 mins roasting.

 

On a separate note.. I’ve been using lots of lemongrass products these last few months. I love lemongrass. I think it smells of Asia. Of resorts and sunsets and beaches and spas.

For essential oil to burn, I use Senteurs d’Angkor Lemongrass oil from Cambodia. You can get it at the large Artisans d’Angkor outlets in the airport at Siem Reap or Phnom Penh. This in an oil burner makes me really sleepy and I usually sleep well with this scent in my room.

For something fragrant in the bath I’ve been using A’kin’s Lemongrass shampoo

My latest buy was Lemongrass massage oil, and this by far was the most delicious, potently fragrant massage oil I’ve ever used. From Mt Sapola, they have a new shop at Tampines One.

 

Another by the way, I thought this was a fabulous idea. And beautiful. Made by Quizas. I feel that blogging is a great way to keep in touch with friends, somehow I always feel connected to her by reading her posts. I don’t think Facebook has the same feel, at least for me. Anyway, Quizas, when are you coming over bearing gifts from Italy?

Ugly banana cake

Its 8.22pm and there’s still a load of dishes in the sink from dinner, our new favourite: seafood black pepper spagetti, dark from oyster sauce, slurpy with al dente noodles and peppered very generously with black pepper. I have it with a sauce of light soy and bird’s eyes chilli, sliced.

Still, I couldn’t wait to share this ugly banana cake with you. I went slightly over the top, dotting the top with bananas. Moist and fluffy and screaming bananas, this cake is among my favourite, totally fool proof recipes. 

I’ve made this a couple of times, you can check the recipe out here. I tweaked it a little this time, by using a whole block of butter, 250g instead of the 240g. I used Dole bananas, large. 3 1/2 bananas weighed about 400g. I baked it in 2 loaf pans, my Ikea ones seen here. I topped it with the remaining 2 1/2 bananas left in the comb that I bought. I used a different method of combining the ingredients. After creaming the butter and sugar till white and fluffy, I beat in the eggs well one at a time. I mixed the mashed bananas in a separate bowl with the milk and vanilla essence. I then sifted the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. I then added the banana-milk mixture and the flour mixture alternating in thirds. The science behind this is explained here. I baked it for 50 mins at 180C.

The end result was the best cake I’ve ever baked. I’m not sure where the magic was, was it in the increased butter? The load of bananas? The method? The loaf pan? The baking time? That it was made for my dad on father’s day? Whatever it was, it was way too little to go around and it left me dreaming of mmm.. banana cake.. till another sunny weekend.

Sunday morning fry up

Sunnyside ups, none for me though due to the risk of Salmonella. H’s new favourite baked beans are BBQ flavoured Heinz. We stayed home the whole weekend. Time for some tea and pastry

Photo evidence..

..of a sunny side up with a broken yolk, a common occurence in my hands.

This time on foul mudammas or fava beans in a thick sauce. We know it in Malay as “kacang pool”. Its found in a tin and there’s two brands which we buy, one is made in China with a name I can’t remember. Its found in small grocery shops especially in Geylang and another is a name I can’t read:

I buy this brand from Mustafa and its the only place I know which has it. But we buy the tin with the whole beans which I then peel (each bean has a soft shell that protects it). I usually saute some onion and garlic and then add the beans. H likes it that way. Sometime I add a teensy pinch of garam masala or meat curry powder for some spice. Serve with chopped onion, fresh tomatoes, green chillis, a good drizzle of olive oil, a lime wedge to squeeze over and lots of crusty baguette.

This week’s read has been this amazing blog.

This week I’ve been dreaming of ..

..gardens and

sweet flowers.

This week I’ve been listening to my neighbour play “If you’re happy and you know you clap your hands” on her piano to her little toddler. A baby boy who gets so excited when he sees us coming home. He squeals and runs to the gate and shakes our hands while we ask him how his day is. H is called “uncle” and I’m currently nameless to him. I’ll always ask him about his car and that will set him off “car car car car!” a gazillion times. A coming home ritual which all of us look forward to.

This week I’ve been away from my kitchen so my potatoes are sadly sprouting eyes and my vegetables wilting in my chiller. Time for some roasting of those odds and ends like this quick weekday dinner a couple of weeks back:

Roasted aurbergine, olives, garlic, tomatoes in olive oil. Topped with crumbled Greek feta and fresh corriander. Mop with your favourite crusty bread or pita.

Details soon..

Some light

Coke in a crystal glass in the evening sun

I’ve been spoilt. H has banned me from cooking since I caught a cold he’s had. So its been dinners cooked by mom picked up on the way home. Instant home cooked meals, packed and ready to eat when I arrive home. Now, how can I ever go back to those dirty pots and pans and sweaty cooking after work?