.::. Homecooked Q2'14 Edition.::.

We actually cook at home very often, usually at least 2-3 times a week. I enjoy cooking, and the husband can cook pretty decent food too.  The husband usually cooks western food like pasta and brunch, while I do the chinese food like soups. We love soups, and I think my tastiest soup is herbal chicken soup and ABC soup - these 2 are really yummy and nutritious. For some reason my other soups like lotus root and winter melon soup simply does not taste as good. I usually buy my own herbs for the chicken soup, and I really wouldn't mind drinking it everyday. We do not deep fry at home and I  usually try to balance our meals with vegetables and meat.

Food is very special to me, and I think that putting in effort to cook for your loved ones is one of the best expression of love. And so yes, I really appreciate it when the husband cooks for me and I try to cook as much as possible too. I know that he loves it when he comes home to a home-cooked dinner after a long day at work, without having to think about what to eat or to packet home.



It always warms my heart when the husband does the cooking.



He always cooks pasta, but he changes things up - Crayfish!



My favorite breakfast is bacon and cheese sandwich. It's really good, but I didn't like the chips - he usually does it with scrambled eggs.



Sometimes, it's the details that matter. His honey-lemon drink is complete with a slice of lemon on the top that made me laugh.

His cream pasta with erm poached egg and pan-fry chicken.

This was dinner one of the Friday evenings, I marinated the chicken wings and did the salad while he made the pizza. He added so much ingredients and cheese that it's a gooey mess. Wasn't the best pizza but we had a good laugh. Look at that face on the pizza!

I tried to make beef stew, it was quite good for the first time!

Here's steak salad for lunch.

We have a thing for pork trotters bee hook with luncheon meat. And I tried making prawn-paste chicken with the oven without deep frying. It was not bad, though probably not dry enough and we didn't coat it with some oil initially.

Because the husband (and I) loves steak, we do our own steaks at home often. Sometimes, there are good deals for steak in Cold Storage or NTUC Finest. It's actually a very quick and easy dinner to make.

We had steak at home at least twice the past 2 month

My fresh potato oven-baked wedges are getting pretty good, and I can do a medium steak now.

And because the husband had his wisdom tooth extracted, I have been cooking porridge for the past week. Porridge everyday. I try to cook different soups and use the soup to cook porridge for more nutrients. The most delicious one was this black and white herbal chicken soup with eggs and chopped fish balls (his favorite). It was surprisingly very tasty and delicious.

Oh, and did I mention that I love my pressure cookers? It makes my soup really delicious with just 30 minutes of boiling. It makes sumptuous soups after work possible.

I tried to braise a duck last weekend since the FIL is coming for dinner and he loves ducks. The duck was huge and fat. It did braise pretty well in my underutilized dutch oven though, took about an hour to simmer.

And here's a simple teochew muay style dinner, with steamed egg using chicken soup for the husband. Very yummy and it'd be perfect with some steamed otah and pan-fry luncheon meat. Alas, a whole duck was already way too much to finish - that's why I like cooking for bigger groups, so there's more variety!

Next up I'd like to try salted vegetables duck soup, lamb chops and perhaps a good fish soup.

.::. 2013 in photos .::.

iphone. The one thing that follows me wherever I go and contains snippets of my life. Things that I sometimes forget about.

Mental note to buy a bigger capacity iPhone! And in no particular order, just happy memories that I'd like to remember:

The many celebrations at our home:



With my CCHS friends.



With his CCHS friends.



LY's birthday.



Also JH's birthday, with Minnie and a greedy Chikey.

With the neighbors.

The lazy dog who has grown so much.

Brunch dates.

Unglam pictures I took to send him while he's on work trips.











He sometimes arrive in the morning before I leave for work, and buys me breakfast. And yes, I'm very appreciative of that. I wonder if he'll continue doing that till we both grow old.

Outings with the neighbors.

Brunches at home during weekends. My favorite is the bacon and cheese sandwich.

Sometimes there's pancakes and a good pot of tea.

I cut my hair short after a long time.

We celebrated little milestones in our lives.

I mugged and passed my exam - last 2 in 2014!

One of the rare outings with the dogs.

My all-time comfort food. I love a good porridge whenever I don't feel well, and the husband cooks a good pot of porridge.

We visited Hong Kong, his first trip to Hong Kong.

And Hong Kong's Disneyland pretty much sucked.

We celebrated his birthday and had a delicious steak.

We visited Bangkok again after 6 years.

And my little precious boy has grown so much over the past year.

That about sums up 2013. Lovely memories, cozy home to call our own.

Yea I know, the first quarter of 2014 is already almost over. It's been a crazy, hectic year.

.::. Herbal Black Chicken Soup .::.

Today is one of those days when I feel like work has sucked all my energy from me and there's nothing left in me. Perhaps it's PMS, or maybe it's been a stressful period trying to juggle everything, but I simply feel so spent.

Luckily, there was herbal black chicken soup at home waiting for me on a rainy evening. I cooked it since morning in the slow cooker.

And...it's yummy! I bought the herbs individually instead of buying those ready-packed ones. It tastes a lot nicer. There's quite a few versions of 'herbal black chicken soup', but I used the most common one. Black chicken soup is supposedly very nourishing and good for the body.

These are what I used with one small black chicken:

Chinese dates or red jujube - 红枣 (3-5 depending on size)

Chinese wolfberries or goji berries - 枸杞子 (a few teaspoons)

Polygonatum odoratum - 玉竹 (about half a palm-full)

Astragalus propinquus - 北芪 (3-4 pieces)

Angelica sinensis - 当归 (2-4 pieces)

Codonopsitis Pilosulae - 党参 (2-3 long sticks)

Dioscoreae Oppositae - 淮山 (about 3 stripes)

I simply threw a whole black chicken and all the herbs in the slow cooker and put the pot in the fridge. Just fill the pot with water in the morning before leaving house and on the slow cooker at low. By evening, the chicken would have been very soft and the soup yummy. I add in the red dates/wolfberries and a pinch of salt to taste when I'm back in the evening. You can add those chinese mushrooms, ginger slices or fresh wild chinese yam (淮山). Other variations includes things like white fungus, dried longan, peanuts/black beans, cordyceps, ginseng and even scallops.

This soup makes a simple and nourishing meal and is extremely simple to cook! I usually throw in some noodles - it goes well with rice too. And if you're too lazy to buy every herb individually, the packet ones will do too, though it doesn't taste as good. =)

.::. Get Moving .::.

The husband has been away for reservice and it's during times like that when I enjoy my me-time and to visit the gym more often instead of feeling guilty that I'm not home cooking for him or having dinner together. I still love my kickboxing classes and Zumba was surprisingly demanding!

It's also when he's away that I do my shopping.

The new outlet at Suntec is huge, so is the relatively new outlet at Harbor Front.

 

I keep a ready supply of frozen vegetables in the fridge. Did you know that many studies have shown that frozen vegetables contains more vitamins than 'fresh' vegetables which are actually not that fresh? I love the Bird Eye's green beans and because I dislike peas, I never do get the mixed vegetables. They are surprisingly sweet and I usually stir-fry them with some olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and some oregano.

My idea of a yummy but relatively healthy meal. Black pepper chicken chop with stir-fry vegetables topped with an egg.

And this is what I pack for lunch very often. I pack my lunch to office daily and usually pan-fry a fish or chicken seasoned lightly with a pinch of salt and spices with stir-fry vegetables and fresh white button mushrooms (my favorite).

I've been a lot more conscious with my diet although I still indulge during weekends and sometimes dinner because I have dinner with my eat-whatever-no-exercise-but-still-stay-skinny husband. I try to eat as clean as possible when I'm alone and get some exercise consistently.

Not easy to stay in shape, but let's get moving.

.::. His Birthday .::.

Celebrated the husband’s birthday a few weeks ago. The supposedly surprise staycation that I booked (from our wedding package) was exposed when my dear friends started asking about the staycation during dinner on Friday night. =_=” So, the surprise was no longer a surprise and all my efforts in secretly packing his clothes and stuff was no longer a need.

I headed for check-in after teaching tuition. I still love the hotel we got married in. Because our suite had club privileges, I was brought to the lounge for afternoon tea while they checked me in. The service was great as usual but it was a rush to get a shower before meeting the husband. We had a late lunch and a nap before getting up for dinner. We woke up at almost 8pm, and late for our dinner reservation! I wanted to doll up for dinner, but ended up hurriedly slapping on makeup and getting ready instead.

I brought him to an Italian Steak Restaurant. It’s one of the top recommended places for steak. The steak was really good – very fragrant, tender and tasty, but the sides were disappointing, especially the potatoes. And because of the sub-par sides, Morton’s is still our favorite steakhouse. Morton’s does everything well. The sides as well as service actually.

We started with a salad, with parma ham and burrata cheese. It’s my favorite Italian starter because I love parma ham. The one we had at Changi was unforgettable. This one was alright, but the extremely sweet and juicy and fresh tomatoes stood out and scored.

We had Tuscan potatoes and mushrooms as our sides. The potatoes were horrible – soggy and soft without much flavor. Mushroom was alright – fresh but oily and abit bland.

The steak was the highlight of the night. The presentation itself was impressive and drool-worthy, with the biggest T-bone I’ve ever seen. The steak was soft and flavorful, a result of the Tuscan-style charcoal barbecue cooking. The fatty parts were oozing with juice and flavor. It was one of the best steak we’ve had (although Morton’s still ranks top albeit being a different style).

When we made the reservation, I told them that I was celebrating my husband’s birthday and requested for a nice corner table for 2. We were seated awkwardly right outside the kitchen and near the service area. They included a complimentary dessert with candle for the celebration during reservation, but this was totally forgotten when we were there. We were asked if we wanted dessert, but I would have rather they remembered to serve that complementary dessert with a candle as a surprise. I had to show the waiter the email that mentioned the complimentary dessert on my iPhone (which the waiter took a long time to read and looking really confused) with the husband looking on curiously and asking what's wrong repeatedly. It was exasperating to say the least, with all my ‘surprises’ being screwed up.

Here's the husband with his birthday dessert finally served.

Despite the great steak, I find that the service is not up-to-standard with that sort of price range. They weren't rude or anything though. How difficult is it to remember that the table is having a celebration and serve the dessert with candle after dinner? There was another customer who came as a group (probably family) and was in berms and tee-shirt with sneakers. The waiter at the service area right beside us were all staring and made comments about her dressing -  ‘machiam kopitiam’ (she was dressed as if this is a coffeeshop). I was amused, because I thought the same, but it just didn’t sound appropriate to make such comments about your customers openly when other customers could hear. That made me wonder what would they say about this customer who did not want to order dessert but showed them the email to ask for the complimentary dessert instead. I didn’t like how it feels as if customers weren’t good enough to dine there just because they weren’t dressed nice enough or didn’t order wine (most of them are expats who either dressed nicely or spent a lot on wine).

I suppose we’ll not be going back there anytime soon, unless I really miss their steak enough. I still miss Morton’s warm and homely service with a personalized menu and dessert with framed photo to help you celebrate an occasion.

And here's a picture of us. This is the 10th year I've been celebrating his birthday with him. *gasps*

We really didn’t do much but spend time together and slept our weekend away, pretending that we were atas in our suite and the lounge. We watched live soccer matches while tucked in bed, had a great breakfast and coffee while reading newspapers. The breakfast at InterContinental was great! There was a good variety, including cheeses, juices, fruits, breads, hams and even smoked salmon. I was impressed that they had chocolate milk – it’s something I don’t see that often. The service was great, and I had my bubble bath in a huge bath tub.

We then went to get Lady M’s crepe cake and went home to have a mini-celebration with the neighbors.

Love of my life. 

Happy family.

Happy Birthday my dearest husbandy!

It has been a great weekend. =)