sports fiesta

after many months and practice, we have finally waited for the day to come. we dropped him off at toa payoh sports hall with his teacher and waited inside the annual k1 sports day to start.

the whole event lasted for almost 4 hours with lots of activities. the highlight of the event is definitely the marching band by the little ones. i'm so excited and proud to see him in action. 

 

he is very pleased and happy with his own performance too. he still keep talking about it and tell me he wants more marching band. hahaha.... sorry, my dear son. its only once in your preschool life that you get to be involved in this marching band.

prawn paste wings

i tried out the prawn paste chicken wings recipe that was posted in culinary group in facebook. its pretty easy to bake it and it taste nice too. however, don't marinate too long as it could be very salty with the prawn paste.

 

 

ingredients:

 

part a

16-18 mid-joint chicken wings

2 tablespoons prawn paste

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablesppon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon shaoxing wine

 

part b

1/2 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

method:

1. mixed all of part a together and leave to marinate for sometimes (i leave it for about 30 minutes and find it a bit salty)
 

2. mixed part b together
 

3. coat the wings with part b and leave it to air dry before baking.
 

4. pre-heat oven at 200 degree
 

5. once the wings are air dry, brush some oil on it before putting them into oven.
 

6. bake for about 25 - 30 minutes. turning the wings in between.

traditional mooncake

i have found a better way to egg wash the mooncake to get a nicer colour. some amendments made here.

recipe for traditional mooncake

ingredients:
140g syrup* (golden syrup)
45g cooking oil
1.5 teaspoon alkaline water
200g hongkong flour

egg wash: 1 egg + 1 egg yolk + 1 teaspoon of syrup

method:
1. place syrup into blender/container

2. add alkaline water, then oil and mix until all are well-combined.

3. add flour and continue to mix to form a soft dough. (Depending on consistency of syrup used, extra flour has to be added to form an easy-to-handle dough. may add some flour if the dough is too sticky as the concentration of syrup is the main factor.")

4. cover with cloth and set aside for 2 hr or more.

5. prepare the filing by weighing them and roll into a ball (35g). Keep for later use

6. prepare the skin by weighing them (15g each).

7. dust work surface with some flour. Give the dough a few light kneading to smooth it. 

8. roll each dough over some flour. Dust hand with flour and flatten each dough into a small disc (about 5cm in diameter). Wrap it around the filling and shape it into a ball. (always dust hand with some flour to avoid the dough from sticking).

9. lightly dust the wrapped dough with some flour. Place it in the mooncake mould and press the mooncake out.

10. place mooncake on a baking tray line with parchment paper.

11. spray some water on the mooncakes. (Note: this helps to prevent the mooncake from cracking during baking.)

12. bake at preheated oven at 150degC for 10mins. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 15mins (do not skip this step).

13. brush the top with some egg wash. Return to oven and continue to bake for another 10mins until golden brown

lantern making

school send us a note to work with our kids in making a lantern with recycle materials for school competition. i check the web for ideas on how to make a simple one and also makes me very busy. though its supposed to be made with recycle materials, i end up having to get brushes, paint, ice cream sticks, strings to make.

 

this making takes us 3 days to complete. hmmmm....... should i say it takes me 3 days and 2 days for the kids. i get them to paint on the plastic bag that i had from made with love (the only recycle material that i have and i don't need to spend to get it). they can paint anything they want. i lay out the newspaper on the floor and get them to start painting after dinner.

 

yu xi is painting her usual abstract art. yu ze did his vroom vroom car, sun, rainbow and birds.

 

 

next, we glue the ice cream sticks together to form a square. each lantern will required 5 squares before i can put them together. next day, i glue the plastic sheets to the ice cream sticks square and leave it to dry overnight. 

 

finally, its time to put all together. however the plastic sheets didn't stick well to the ice cream sticks. i re-stick then with the glue tape before i assemble them together. to prevent it from falling apart, i tape the wash tape around the rim to secure it and as a decoration too. here's the final product.

 

its the time of the year again

we are into the 3rd parent's teacher meeting of the year. nothing extraordinary to expect from their teachers. yu xi is still the everything also very good student. yu ze gets a little complain this time. he is not as participative, cooperative as last term. he is also eating lesser in school. no wonder, he is eating a lot more at home now.

 

when i reached home, i sit down and asked him what happen in school? he manage to tell me his views with regards to his feedback.

 

1. he didn't keep the toys cos he doesn't know where to keep them. he keep wrongly, teacher will scold him. (i think this is not very true but seems he feel this way, must tell him what is the right way to do it.) my solution for him is to ask teacher on where to keep the toys. don't know he must ask and helped to keep them.

 

2. he don't want to eat in school cos the food is yucky. he don't want the corn in the soup. don't want the vegetable rice ball and don't want the black pau. (this seems very true cos its all the food that he don't eat at home too.) solution for him, tell teacher to put corn in his rice and not the soup. as for the vegetable rice ball and black pau, i have not answer to it so i skip it. hahahaha.......

 

i didn't go into details of why isn't he participating in class. as a student, i don't like to participate in class too. i guess this might have come from me.

 

while i was busying talking to yu ze on his 'issues', yu xi was also busy trying to show me her portfolio and all her work.  

christmas concert

i just received an email from yu ze's violin teacher. they are having a christmas concert on 1 december at nafa. i can't believe it. the group practice for them will start this sat. i can't imagine the mess and how my son will react to it. now i know why weihan keep revising that new song with him now. but but, he still can't make it for that song. argh!!!! i hope with the group practice, he will be better. must step up on our practice now.

mooncake time

 

its time for mooncake again. since I started baking them last year, i will continue to bake them this year. i bought the new 'angry bird' mould this year. still need improvement on how to apply the egg wash. somehow, its not so easy to brush it on to get a nice coat of egg wash.

legoland again

today is teacher's day. school is closed. to utilize my annual pass, we are off to legoland again. the kids are super excited. on our way there, the kids keep asking to reconfirm that we are going to legoland.

 

traffic to tuas checkpoint was not too bad, i won't consider it as a jam. there was no crowd at legoland too. we don't have to queue for most of the rides. even if there was a need to queue, its was only a 5 minutes queue.

 

 

 

we explore another part of the park and found 2 more new rides for yu ze. yu xi was rejected on both new rides and cry super loudly. hopefully, the next trip in dec (before our pass expired) she will get to ride on them.

 

 

since there is no crowd, we finished our rides pretty fast and ended our trip at 5.30pm. a total of 7 hours spent at legoland.

with lots of love - pineapple tarts

i bought a new tart mould from phoon huat recently. the edge is fill with hearts shape. its so pretty. this new mould also can help to fix the thickness of the tart. i prepared all the ingredients a few days ago and only have time to bake today.

 

 

aren't they pretty? i definitely need more practice with this. this mould seems smaller. i need to adjust the size of the pineapple paste in future if i want to make them again. the regular wrapped up pineapple balls are easier to make then these.

winnie the pooh and hello kitty 'piglets'

its time for mooncake again. so its time for piglets too. somehow my piglet mould is not working well. i make them with hello kitty and winnie the pooh cookie cutter. it works too.

 

  

 

here you are, my hello kitty and winnie the pooh 'piglets'. it was well received by colleagues and kids. one of my colleague was happily eating it and didn't even realize it was hello kitty that she was eating. hello kitty details is not as clear as winnie the pooh, so can excuse her from not noticing it.