O christmas tree, o christmas tree...

We left our Christmas tree and ornaments in Auckland.  In our current place, there isn't a dedicated spot for Christmas tree.  However, Abel kept asking for one.  Finally we gave in.
$9.80 later, tada.......the tiniest tree we ever had but the boys had so much fun putting it up :)

 

The Christmas angel was made by Abel at IBC in Miss C's class. 

Christmas party at Kidszone

Abel's preschool organised a Christmas party.  It was held on 14 Dec.   The highlight for us was the performance by the children. There were 2 dances, one by the older kids and one by the younger kids.  Abel told me before the party they had been working on the dance for the party. We were delighted to find that he was Rudolph in the dance. He was so happy, confident and cute throughout the dance.

Then there was morning tea.  The children were given packet of foods and parents were served some yummy slices and Christmas goodies. We got a good family shot here.

 

Right after the morning tea, Santa arrived with his big sack of goodies.Abel got his presents. Not long after, Noel also received his presents from Santa.

 

Festival of Lights part 1

13 years ago, we came to visit New Plymouth in summer after our varsity break.  The highlight for the trip was visiting the Festival of Lights at Pukekura Park.  We had very fond memories of the event.  This year, we made sure we bring the boys to our favourite park.  The lighting display is switched on each night from 8pm and on the first night there was also the Christmas in the Park at the adjacent Christmas bowl.

Below are some of my favourite pictures from our outing.

This waterfall changes colour every few seconds.

The Golden Bearing by Reuben Paterson. It is a sculpture of tree with leaves and trunk all painted gold.  It's nice to look at in the day time, but with the spotlight it looked even better.

 

We got to the Flock of Birds area (Black Light Area).  The boys really enjoyed this area as it glows in the dark.  The display looks to be a multi-coloured swallow tailed kites. 

We managed to catch the end of the Christmas in the Park held at the TSB Bowl area.  It was so crowded and the lines to use the rows of toilet was unbelievably long.

 

The jellyfish display in the Enchanted forest area.

 

 

The Poet's Bridge also features Cloud 9 -lighting installation encompassing giant bird nests, water droplets . 

 

 

View of the lake taken from Poet's Bridge

 

 

 

Leche flan or creme caramel

The version that I am making is a Filipino version.  I once tried it in a gathering and it is the one item that DH loved to eat and had asked me to make so many times I have lost count so finally, this Christmas I gave it a try.

Note: Above is taken when I cut it with cookie cutter to provide better presentation

I researched on youtube and read a few recipes and in the end, I chose to go with this youtube tutorial ;) No voiceover but clear instructions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POe8LEsUyzo by JoyMac13

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs ( I use size 7)
1 lemon zest
1 can of Nestle Carnation Evaporated milk (375ml)
1 can of Nestle Condensed Milk 395g (note: DH reckons this brand is creamier and nicer)
1 tbsp Vanilla extract

To make the caramel:
Add 1/2 cup white sugar and 2 Tbsp water and into a pot (16cm) and swirl over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  When the color of the sugar becomes brown and smells like caramel switch off the fire and pour the caramel on the dish.  ( I have used my small rectangle pyrex)

 

 

As for the custard, preheat oven to 180c. Peel the lemon zest into the mixing bowl.  Next separate the egg whites into separate bowl and add 5 egg yolks with the zest.  Then add 2 whole eggs.

 Note, in the youtube tutorial, the evaporated milk needs to be heated in the microwave for 1 minute.
Then it is poured into the mixing bowl with the yolks and egg and zest.  Add in the can of condensed milk and whisk it until everything is well mixed.  Use a strainer and pour the custard mixture into the pyrex bowl and then bake it for 30-35 mins in a water bath (ie putting the dish in another baking dish filled with hot boiling water)

 

Above is taken after the leche has been tipped upside down from the Pyrex. For each serving, I cut it with cookie cutter and pair it with strawberries or just have it as it is. (see top photo) 

Hooray, Abel outgrew his training wheels

Abel had a milestone on 4 December 2014.  His preschool had a bike day and he brought his bike with him in the morning.  By the end of the day, he came home with his training wheels taken off :)
Well done Abel.  We think this has to do with the Bike Programme he had at the preschool in Term 2.  They spent an hour each week for 4 weeks with Carol a lady who came to talk about cycling with the children and then had their practical session.

Here's what Abel shared with me earlier in the year:

Before going on the bike, you need to check the tires for the air, check the brake is working.

• Puts on a helmet.
• You need to stop at the STOP sign. (he recognised STOP sign)
• You need to go on the bike on the opposite side of the chain
• Apply brakes
• Also need to watch if there's people coming opposite you, then need to stop to avoid clash.

These are the main stuffs that he shared with me. Good job, Abel!

Abel's school visit

Earlier in December, Abel gets to go on a school visit.  He will be attending Central School as well.
We received a letter to attend a Parents session.  The Principal and Associate Principal welcomed us and went through what is expected when a child starts school.  Most schools in New Plymouth runs a swimming programme in summer (Term 1) even for the youngest children(year 1).  Children will swim for 30 mins and are expected to know how to change into their togs (swim suits) and dry themselves. While teachers can assist,

He got to meet hir teacher Mrs C. They spent two hours in the classroom

 doing reading, colouring and freeplay.  Finally,

Scones take 2

Last Sunday I made a batch of scones.  I managed to make it all under 40 minutes.  Again, I used the recipe from here.  The change I applied this time is using lemon juice instead of vinegar to make buttermilk (as I ran out of vinegar). 

Ingredients:
3 cups of flour
4 tsp of baking powder
1.5 cups of milk (to which I added 1.5 tsp of fresh lemon juice to make buttermilk)-note you need to let the milk sit for at least 5 minutes
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt (I used 1/4 tsp)
80g very cold butter


Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degree C on fan bake.  Sift the flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and grate in butter and with clean hands work the butter into the flour until the mixture is fully integrated and resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir the buttermilk and add the buttermilk into the dry ingredients.  Use a butter knife to mix. (as if you are cutting the flour)  The mixture should look moist.  *This  time, I did not need to add any extra milk.

Place the mixture on a floured bench and gently pat out into shape with a quick knead. Cut and place on greased tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven). My oven took 20minutes. It should look golden.

Once they are coloured they are done.  Serve with butter and good jam.

 

This time I used scones cutter* to get very even sized scones.  I made 12 in the above recipe.  They disappear pretty quick when I took it out of the oven.

 

After church, I had another piece with jam and cup of tea.

 Note: The scones should feel light when you lift it out of the tray. 
Hints and Tips:
If you're using a cookie cutter to cut the scones, don't twist the cutter after cutting the dough. Twisting a round cutter, while removing it, will cause the scone edges to seal. This will inhibit them from rising.  Courtesy of: http://www.blackbookcooking.com/scones-hints-and-tips-sb

Christmas lights

  Back in Auckland we would drive about checking the Christmas lights.  Here in New Plymouth, we found out a number of houses that's put up real pretty Christmas lights.  It is much prettier in real life 

 

Discovery time

 

Now that the weather is warming up, after dinner, me and Noel would usually go for a walk. Sometimes all 4 of us go, and last couple of days it was just me and N.  Today we explored this part of beach that we don't usually go to.  Noel spent some time making mud pies .

 

Then we found these wood pieces amongst all the other rocks, sea sponges etc.

 

 

 

 



Bounce and Ho Ho Ho

We had the first Christmas party last Sunday at the Action Indoor Sport Centre.  There were lots of bouncy castles and the kids had a ball.  I was invited to join them on one of those obstacle /giant slide thing. I had to go on it 3 times.

 

 

After some pizza, the bell rang and Santa arrived.  All the children gathered and waited to get their presents. 

 

 

 

Seriously Silly Colour

Both Noel and Abel are into the Seriously Silly Colour series.  The stories are usually funny and there's always a 'baddy' or a 'lazy' prince or a 'jokey' frog, or 'silly' goats, or 'angry' troll. The list is too long for me to type all out.  Each book is full of colour and the font size is usually about size 16 and some pages have speech bubble.  Imagine Abel's delight when there was 7 to be borrowed from the library all at once.  Never mind that we have already read some of them, he wanted to borrow them again.

So I have to read them to him over and over again (okay, it's like 4 to 5 times).

 

Noel likes it because it's light reading.  He would read them himself too in a quiet corner.  The series is written by Laurence Anholt and illustrated by Arthur Robins.  Definitely a series I recommend for young boys. 



Little Critters series

We have been reading the Little Critters series by Mercer Mayer.  Upon consulting Google, I learned that Mercer Mayer is an American child writer and illustrator.  Little Critter is good for emerging reader, (so appeals a lot to Abel).  It also appeals to Noel when he was younger and still is  on days when he just wants to do light reading plus the illustration is usually funny or story lines are funny.

The book is usually not very thick and in a 15cm x 20cm size. So, they are perfect for little hands.
The story line is usually quite funny and practical too. Like Critter goes shopping with Mum and his sister and baby sister in the supermarket.
Little sister wants to sit in trolley, she wants to have lollies and other things, and mother Critter said No. (It's very realistic isn't it?) There is a page where Mother needs paper towel and  Sister wants pulls it from bottom of the pile and all the other paper towel fell off the display resulting in a not so pleased store manager. Finally everyone left with an ice cream. 




Note: We are not told what sort of animal the critters are.

Overnight oats -my version

With summer coming up and also seeing lots of overnight oats in the jar postings and one that CC made, I decided to give it a try.

Things needed:
A jar (I used a glass jar)
1/2 cup Quick oats (will try to use rolled oats)
3/4 cup Raw milk

I put it in the fridge for at least 6 hours-7 hours after I screw the cap. I have read postings where they don't cover their oats.

Upon serving in the morning, I added the following:
1 tsp of manuka money
1-2 tsp of dried cranberries
chopped pcs of one half apple
a couple slice of navel orange

Verdict:
It's cold and it has an interesting texture. It's easy enough to prepare. No cooking involved. I had to cut the fruits for the kids' lunch box anyways.  Give this a try, it's a good way to get some of my 5+ a day first thing in the morning.

Sausage Rolls

Sausage roll is another thing forever on my to-do list but never got around to do it. I finally attempted it when I had half a pack of mince left from making those meatballs.  On the same night I made this sausage rolls.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry, semi thawed(Of course I used the ready made from the frozen section in supermarket. We always have this on stand by in our freezer).
Eggs
Beef mince
Bread crumbs
Salt
Pepper
pinch of sugar
Finely chopped red onions

If you read my meatball posting, I have used the same ingredients except for the sausage roll, I sauté the onions first then mix it with the mince , bread crumbs and the salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 200c. 
For each sheet of puff pastry, I half it to get 2 rectangles.  Then I spread the mince mixture and roll it up.  Then I cut into 4 pieces. As mine is finger food , I get 8 small rolls from 1 puff pastry sheet.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. (follow your packet instruction but with my current oven, I always have to increase the time) When the first timer rang, I glazed it with egg and add poppy seed and the final glaze of honey if you like sweet rolls.

Spaghetti with Meatballs

In the school holidays I attempted making meatballs for spaghetti. I read a number of recipes and decided to keep my recipe simple.  I didn't have all the dried herb so my recipe was without any herbs.

Here's my recipe


About 600g of premium mince.
Bread crumb (my recipe won't be so tedious if I had readymade breadcrumbs or food processor) I used my 3 day old bread and toasted it before I scrap with butter knife to get the crumbs.
2 eggs
Salt
Pepper
pinch of sugar
Finely chopped Red onions

Just mix everything and then start to form them into balls.  Instead of browning them on the pan, I baked mine in the oven in preheated oven for 25 to 30mins at 180c.  As the mince were lean there isn't much grease on the oven tray.

Next I cooked spaghetti in the pot and start cooking the sauce. I cheated and used one of those packet by Maggi to cook the spaghetti sauce.  Add a can of whole peeled tomato and ta da....spaghetti meat balls.

Scones

I have always wanted to make scones and I had numerous failed attempt.  My scones usually is lethal (ie  they are usually rock hard and can injure someone if the scone is thrown at them).  Finally, this one received the seal of approval.

The recipe is based on Annabelle White's buttermilk recipe:

Here is the recipe:


3 cups of flour
4 tsp of baking powder
1.5 cups of milk (to which I added 1.5 tsp of white vinegar to make buttermilk)-note you need to let the milk sit for at least 5 minutes
2 tbsp sugar -optional
pinch of salt
80g very cold butter


Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degree C on fan bake.  Sift the flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and grate in butter and with clean hands work the butter into the flour until the mixture is fully integrated and resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir the buttermilk and add the buttermilk into the dry ingredients.  Use a butter knife to mix. (as if you are cutting the flour)  The mixture should look moist.  I find that I need to add maybe another 1/4 cup milk to get all the flour mixed.


Place the mixture on a floured bench and gently pat out into shape with a quick knead.  and cut into pieces and place on a grased baking tray ,close together.

Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven). My oven took 20minutes. It should look golden.

Once they are coloured they are done.  Serve with butter and good jam.

Note: The scones should feel light when you lift it out of the tray. 

Lunch at Impressions

Last Thursday, Jake and I went to have lunch at Impressions Restaurant. It is located in the campus of the local polytech (WITT).  It is a practice restaurant and the food is entirely cooked by its students.
We were waited on and the setting is in a restaurant setting with good linen and sparkling glasses.
The waitress looked after us very well, topping up our water, asking how the food is. The theme is international buffet with food like butter chicken, auberigine lasagne, tempura, sushi, roast beef rolls and so on. 

Here's what I took for myself.

Verdict:
5/10 . Very good value for money but the food hm....they need to practice on getting the rice right for the sushi. Rice looks incredibly overcooked (mushy) but when you bit into it, it is still hard.  Maybe they didn't use a rice cooker. The bread was very hard.  If Noel wants his teeth to be wigglier (is there such a word) he should try that piece of bread there or the roast beef roll. 

I like the service and the 2 of the 3 dessert. I really liked the baklavas they serve.

Overall, I had a nice experience, and with more pratice and guidance, I am sure these students will be able to cook very nicely by the time they graduate :)

Week 1

4/9/14
I woke up at 6am and was out by 6:15am. L had reached my place and we started our brisk walk- I got home at about 7:10am. I must have ran 1 min out of the whole time.

5/9/14
L works early on Friday so we didn't have a date. I woke up at 7am and could hear rain outside.

6/9/14
The boys and I and Mil went to the bike park and built in velodrome. While the kids biked,  I  jogged 300m non stop. It was rather windy so we spent only 30 minutes at the park and then went straight home.  I took pic of the cows grazing by the bike park.

Spring and starting a new regime

Spring is here! Daylight is getting longer and I have started waking up early to go for a walk.
Read in many places that getting a buddy keeps each other motivated.
In my case, L at work has been letting me know the weather is warming up and daylight longer. I practically ran out of excuse:P  L lives in my neighbourhood and I decided I will start walking with L.

On day 1 (2nd Sept) we agreed to meet at the top of my street and go round the block. I think I was late and we missed each other. I ended up doing a stroll and got home in 30minutes.
It was really windy, I didn't enjoy it at all. Oh btw, I was out at 6 30am.

On day 2 (3rd Sept) we agreed to start 15mins earlier so I put my alarm 15 mins and really struggle to get out of bed. Nevertheless I can't keep L waiting so I got out of the house and she had walked down my street and so we started walking. We had a good walk. It was really brisk. The weather was really beautiful, not windy. It was the perfect weather to walk with a buddy.

Let's see how well I will stick to this daily walking.

Sock puppet

Last term, Noel learned about endangered animals.  One of the project they did in class was making sock puppet (endangered animal).  The project was postponed as her teacher was sick at the end of the semester.  They then made the puppet at the beginning of term 3. 

 

Here, Noel posing with his puppet. It has a really big mouth and loves to eat burger.

 

 

Nom nom nom, puppet eating burger.

Puppet has big mouth with lots of teeth and the burger of course.

Ingredients :
One socks, goggly eyes, card board for the mouth and a felt for the mouth. Hot glue gun.

Washing car

Helping daddy to wash his car is so much fun.

Nuts in Space

Recently we read this book called Nuts in Space by Elys Dolan. The book is almost Star Trek meets Star Wars ie it has a crew led by Commander Moose and one of their adventure was at the "Death Banana" (Death Star in Star Wars) The crew went for an adventure of finding the legendary nuts. The crew found the nuts and now they need to bring the nuts home and the journey home couldn't be more wrong. Each page is illustrated with details and it's hard not to laugh when you read the contents.




As both Noel and Abel are quite well versed with the 'technicality' of Star Wars they couldn't help but find the similarities and they found it amusing and entertaining.

As for me, even though the book is found in children's section, I don't see why an adult won't find it entertaining.

Persimmon loaf

Last night I decided to be adventurous and made a persimmon loaf. I had two persimmons sitting in the fruit basket waiting to be eaten.  So I decided to google for some recipe ideas.
This is the one I decided to use.  I did reduced the amount of sugar from the recipe.  Without much ado, here's the recipe:

Note: You will need 2 loaf tins or 1 loaf tin and 2 mini loaf tin. 

 

 

Ingredients

1 cup persimmon pulp (I used one big persimmon and was able to get 1 cup of the pulp)

2 tsp baking soda

3 cups sugar (I only used 2 and 2/3 cups)

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2- 8 1/2x4 1/2 loaf pans.

2.  In a small bowl, stir together the persimmon pulp and baking soda. Let stand 5 minutes to thicken

     the pulp.

3.  In a medium bowl, combine sugar, oil, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until smooth. Mix

     in persimmon pulp and water alternately with flour. Fold in nuts. Divide batter into the prepared pans, filling each 2/3 full.

4.  Bake for 1 hour in preheated oven or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min. before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Below is the pic of both loaves.

p/s: I brought the bigger loaf to work to share for morning tea.  Verdict: The slices were nearly all gone so I would say this recipe is a keeper.


 

西洋菜汤 - Watercress soup

It's been rainy all weekend. Soup is just the right thing to have. I have seen many variation of this soup. Here's my version:

Ingredients:

1 bunch of watercress, trimmed
2 medium carrots, chopped into chunks
chicken bones
3 honey dates 密枣
Handful of goji berries 枸杞
small handful of north and south apricot kernels 南北杏
Approx 2.4 lt water
salt to taste


Method:
1. First, put everything except Watercress and salt with the bones to bring water to boil. Remember to drain away the scum for clearer soup.
2. Then in the last 15 minutes, I put in the watercress. Season with salt to taste.




 

Te Henui Dental

On Holy Thursday, Abel had a dental check at the Auckland children /adolescent dental clinic located at Botany road. The dental therapist advised that Abel needs a filling done on one of his molar.  The 'cavity' was as big as a azuki bean (Red bean). However, as this was only a check, they couldn't fix it on the day. We were told to make another appointment as the filling would take approximately 45minutes. We explained we would be relocating so the dental therapist advised us to get it fixed in New Plymouth.

 

When we arrived with the kids in New Plymouth,  I quickly asked my colleague about children's dental check as she also has a 4 yo. She gave me the telephone number at Te Henui dental a ring.  It offers free dental care for children by the Taranaki DHB. When I gave them a ring, I explained that Abel's molar needs a filling.  They were able to see him pretty much immediately.

 

So above, brave Abel getting his tooth filled.  Dental therapist Gail was excellent. I forgot her assistant's name but she was very good too.  They were gentle and they really took their time to make Abel comfortable. It must have taken at least 3 minutes to coax Abel to climb onto the dental chair.  Fortunately I brought his favourite story book with him. He requested that I must read the story while the tooth gets filled. 

 

Gail didn't do any local anaesthetic as Abel seems to be okay with the whole exercise. There wasn't any tears apart from him asking me to continue reading the stories.  Good boy Abel. He got a spider necklace for good behaviour from the dental centre.

 

p/s: I also made an appointment for Noel to have his tooth checked.  Noel found out that he had an adult molar growing and was very proud and thrilled.