Kai-Kai for the First Time

Today is the first time we all go out together as a family since MCO was declared. Other than car rides, it would really be a first time out for Mei-mei.

Packing her handbag

We went to Ang Hoay Lor for lunch. Surprisingly it was quite packed. Luckily Ah Ma called to ensure we could set together as a family and to get a table too. The both of you enjoyed the food. It was so yummy. 

After lunch, we headed to Gurney Plaza. There was a queue to go into the car park but that was because everyone needed to have their temperature checked. 

Aural English Test

Today you had an aural test for English. The teacher made it fun where the text is a dialogue between two people. She also taught the children how to read with some tone... to sound more conversational.

Father's Day Celebration at Home

The dinner menu was a simple Mantou with yummy duck which we bought and char siew which Ah Ma cooked. 

The mantou all steamed and ready to be eaten 

Our dinner spread 

The assembled mantou with char siew, complete with my drink 

Mantou assembled with duck 

My pretty girl all dressed in blue. Yup the theme for today is blue color

Putting on Ah Kong's VIP badge which she made 

Evelyn being very nice to daddy.. to get ice-cream. 

*Do you spot Ko-ko photo bombing the picture? 

Daddy and his precious 

Two VIP for the night. Wearing the badge Evelyn made 

Kiddies with the VIPs

After dinner, it was game night. So we had two groups:

Evelyn playing CandyLand with Ah Kong 

Daddy and I played Mastermind with Ko-ko watching us

For art lessons, the teacher had you design a Father's Day card. It was done over two weeks with tweaking done to improve the card in the second week. Here are your card and present:

Card with our photo 

A little envelope with the magnet you made for Daddy

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY.

WE LOVE YOU.

Baking Day

Today is baking day. We made pineapple jam tarts again, this time using the pineapple jam which I had made instead of using the ready made jams.

Here is the tarts Mei-mei made using the cookie cutters and decorating them with chocolate rice, jam and also chocolate chips:

 And these are the more "normal" tarts. So much work for just so little tarts.

Magnet Factory

We put the mixture into the mold yesterday and here you are painting the magnets. This was a present for Ko-ko so many years ago. Luckily the paint did not dry up. 

16th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 16th Wedding Anniversary. While we usually go out to celebrate the occasion, this year we celebrated at home, with daddy cooking dinner. Daddy and I took the afternoon half off so that we could prepare the meal. This is the dinner table all set up for our meal:

The menu- Appetizers:

2 appetizers: tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese. And another is tomatoes with garlic and Italian parsley on toasted french loaf 

A piece of each for my appetizer with my bubbly.. 

In two choices - mains:

Lasagna 

Spaghetti Carbonara.. with or without cheese 

Ko-ko was busy eating. He had both mains!

And we finished off our dinner with creme brulee which Ko-ko had mad the day before and was kept chilled in the fridge:

Ko-ko putting on the finishing touches to the creme brulee 

Doesn't it look amazing??

We went upstairs and Mei-mei decided to have this picture taken of daddy and I ties together by these pretty ribbons.

It was a lovely celebration. Just the few of us at home. The best way to celebrate our anniversary.

Creme Brulee

You had been asking me to make this. It sounded so scary to make. So many ingredients which I am not familiar with. I had bought extra ramekins in preparation for this last week (or was that the week before last? I have really lost track of time with the Movement Control Order). 

Anyhow, today we really got to preparing it. Luckily we had enough cream in the fridge. I found a recipe with very good instructions, printed them out and we started working from there. 

You were tasked to separate the yolk from the whites... and I reckon you had fun playing with the yolks (and yes, thank you for braking 2 of the yolks into the whites!!)

While you were busy with the eggs, I heated up the heavy cream. Luckily we had a meat thermometer which we had bought MANY years ago when we went to Alaska which came in handy to determine the temperature of the cream and later the creme brulee in the oven.
Ta-da.. here is the creme brulee hot out of the oven:

Next job for you was to remove the ramekins from the water bath to cool down before moving them into the fridge.

You were really careful not to break or drop any of them:

After dinner and the creme brulee were all nice and chilled, we moved on to the final step before serving them - adding the sugar.

Mei-mei finally got to help out: by adding the sugar and spreading them around the top 

And you got to play with fire! Yup.. to blow torch the sugar to caramelize it 

And this is the end result

This is a bomerang of you using the blow torch on the sugar:

As for the egg whites (and 2 broken yolks, I made crustless quiche with them. Would be good for breakfast.

Planting Journey Part 4

Today we decided to move the very long "Mr. Bean" (French bean) seedlings from the egg trays into a larger pot. I had missed one water session yesterday evening and today, the leaves shriveled up. Luckily they managed to revive after I sprayed them with water this morning. I'm not too sure about the survival possibilities of the bayam plants as they are so small. Will not be transplanting them until they grow bigger.

Adding soil to the larger pot 

Digging a hole to place the seedling 

Removing the seedling from the tray to be transplanted 

Planting the seedling into the new pot 

They are all so thin, which was why we added the sticks for them to (hopefully) creep up

Ta-da.. our newly planted french bean plants. We have 5 of them. Hopefully we will have some french beans to eat soon. 

Korean Kimchi Pancake Round 2

Today was a busy day. This was another of the things we had cooked/baked. Kimchi Pancake. This time I reduced the Kimchi (chopping them up smaller so that it is easier to cut the pancake) and increased the flour and water ratio to the amount of Kimchi. We also fried in 2 smaller pancakes.. making it easier to flip, crunchier and for faster cooking.
Daddy was the "fry master" for today's pancake.

Water Gun Fun

No pictures of us all getting each other drenched as we were too busy playing. It was nice weather for water fun as it was not too sunny and not rainy. 

Indian Night Dinner

Looks like we have been having theme dinners for the many weekends we have been dining at home during the MCO.
Tonight is no different. It is Indian Night. Can you guess what was on the menu?

This is Evelyn;s plate (G&T was borrowed from me) 

This is the full fare: Tandoori Chicken, Garlic Naan, Dhal Curry, Prawn Curry and Mint and Cucumber Salad

Dinner was prepared by:

• Tandoori Chicken: Ah Ma
• Prawn Curry: Ah Ma
• Garlic Naan: Mummy and Daddy
• Dhal Curry: Mummy and Daddy
• Salad: Ah Ma
• Jelly for dessert: Evelyn and mummy

Our two other family members, Ko-ko and Ah Kong's contribution for the night was their stomachs to store the food. 

Tonight was a competition between Mei-mei and Ah Ma. To see who was the best dressed. Here you are all decked in your best glittery clothes complete with necklace, earrings and you claimed to have won since you had painted nails (both fingers and toes) 

Sewing Bug

I had to get quite a bit of felt for Ko-ko for his school DT project. And since we had so much left, you have been asking me to sew some things for your toys. You even tried your hand in sewing.. well running stitches, but it's a start. 

Sewing the little (padded) pillow for your little doll's bed 

Added more stitches to the adopted bag 

(partially sewn by Ko-ko who decided he wanted another design for the bag) 

Little bed (in light blue), pillow cases and blanket for your two toys named John and Tom