Chef-In-Training: Chicken Noodle Soup

This is one of the easiest thing to cook and you both requested for it. Ko-ko was supposed to help, but turns out a certain El Sluggo could not wake up on time.

So after online piano lessons, I set Mei-mei to work. First (and only one thing to do.. considering the speed) was to cut the carrots. I peeled and julienned then then passed it over to you to cut them into cubes. While I continued with cutting up the onions. I even had to move away because you said the onions were making you cry!

Then we popped the carrots and onions into the pot and I let you stir them up. 

Ah.. as you can see, a stool was needed for our little shorty-botty.

When it was time to put the chicken in, I had to remind you NOT TO DROP the chicken into the soup, or else we'd all end up with a soup bath!

Tried taking a picture of you enjoying the soup, but got this expression instead.

As for El Sluggo, he was just on time to boil the water for the pasta!

Thief

A scary thing happened last Thursday. The 4 of us had gone out for a car ride to pump petrol and then try out a noodle shop downtown. While we were out, Ah Kong and Ah Ma stayed downstairs to watch the Winter Olympics.

We got back and I told Mei-mei to go shower as it was nearly 9pm and the next day was a school day. Mei-mei went up and then came down to ask Ko-ko why he had left his room and bathroom windows open. He said that he did not. So he went up to have a look and lo and behold.. the windows were wide open. Daddy went up to have a look and it dawned on him that someone had broken into the house.

We quickly gathered our "weapons" (an assortment of cane and hockey sticks and even Ko-ko's Katana) to arm ourselves in case the thieves were still in the house. We searched and search the closets, bathrooms and all the rooms and found nothing. Then a check indicated that the thieves had taken the ang pows I had kept in my drawer. Some (with cash) had dropped on the floor but was not taken. The safe in my closet had also been moved. 

Ah Ma called the police who arrived a while later. She also informed the neighbour in case the thieves climbed over to their house compound. 

Ever since that evening, we have been sleeping in Ko-ko and Mei-mei's room as that was where the thieves had entered. The roof at the back was very close to the boundary wall with our back neighbour (whose house was vacant). Daddy has since contacted the iron grill maker who will come in the next few days.

Today the police came after Ah Ma made an official police report. They dusted for fingerprints on the window which was suspected to be the escape route. Oh my, your room was certainly dusty with a layer of black dust. Kakak, daddy and I had to clean up the dust and wipe up the surfaces (without the fan turned on so that the dust will not fly around). 

We are thankful that not much was lost. We had laptops and watches lying all over the rooms but only the ang pow were taken. And most importantly no lives were harmed. I shudder to imagine what may have happened had we come back earlier or had Mei-mei encountered the thief when she went up. 

Handmade CNY Decorations

This year you learnt how to make these gold fishes in school. So you made 10 of them to decorate our cabinet. But daddy said we want 9 (good significance of longevity in Chinese). So one fist had to be removed.

Then you needed some decorations for school. So we made these:

You reckoned it looked more like a lion than a tiger! 

Made most of the tiger while you were away at school. Left some finishing touches for you to complete when you got back.

Of course, you also needed to pose with the 2 cute tigers:

 

First Round of Vaccination

Today you got to skip some lessons. It's because it's finally your turn to have your Covid vaccination. We managed to get an appointment for you via Keysight. 

The plan was to leave the house at 8.30am so that we arrived by 9. We left a little later, but managed to reach at around 9.05am. Daddy dropped us off and we got onto the lift to the 4th floor. When we arrived at the floor, there was already a LONG queue of parents and children waiting to enter the PPV side. We followed the snaking queue and then finally got to have our appointment and form marked.

Then we queued again for Station 2. We finally got a place to sit down and then it was another wait to have them check our forms and your MyKid. After that we had another round of waiting for Station 3. This station stopped processing as there seemed to be a hold up at Station 4.

We finally got a place to sit down and waited abit before we got to see the doctor in Station 3 where she explained a little about the vaccine and asked for allergies. 

It was a short wait in Station 4 before it was your turn.

We got the tiger station

The "aunty" gave you a jab. Not a sound from you, although you later told me you bit your tongue to keep in the scream

We headed to Station 5 for the 15 minute observation, but we didn't have to wait for the whole 15 minutes and off we went. We got your appointment card for the second jab. 

Before leaving, we stopped for a photo at the photobooth:

And another photo with all the toys set up at the booth.

Great job! You did not complain during the tiring, nearly 2 hour process nor did you cry when you had you jab.

Valentine's Day

I'm so happy to have received this today. One day late from the 14th, but still meaningful. Thanks, precious one. 

Happy Birthday, Grampy

Today, we headed to BM to have a belated birthday celebration for Grampy. We would usually plan to have the party before his birthday, but he had ran off fishing from the 3rd day of CNY up till the weekend. So we had it later instead.

Daddy cooked the meal as grampy had only a grand total of 3 teeth left (the plan was to have them all removed so that dentures could be made). And these 3 teeth seems to be more for display than for him to bite on anything! So since he needed soft food and the Covid cases were on the rise again, we decided to cook the food and bring it over. 

Dinner was lasagna, boiled new potatoes and some (bought) pulled pork.

We also had a cake for him. 

Family photo

Birthday "boy" blowing out the candle.

Mei-mei couldn't get over that he's call the "birthday boy" seeing that he's turned 80! Grampy only got to blow the candle on the third attempt after the two of you had a go with the candle!

Grampy, Nanna and Riley

Happy 80th Birthday, Dad/Grampy! We love you to the moon and back.

9th Day of Lunar New Year

 

Today is the 9th day of the Lunar New Year. It is a big day for the Hokkiens. Many people were up at midnight last night and lots of fireworks were let go. 

Today is also the Chinese New Year celebrations in school. You both got to wear home clothes for the celebration in school. 

Mei-mei all dressed up in her cheongsam

Blurry photo of Ko-ko all dressed in red

Tried another round in the car

This evening, Ah Ma cooked a feast to celebrate the 9th day, since the Ban's are Hokkien lang.

Second Day of CNY

Today was a lazy day. We just stayed at home and had leftovers for lunch. Mei-mei went with Chim Poh, 2 Kor-kor and Martin to visit her brother. You also got to play with Chim Poh's grand-nephew. Ko-ko on the other hand hid in the room to play computer games with his friends. Daddy and I got to catch 40 winks.

For dinner, it was Ah Ma's Hainanese Chicken Rice. A less elaborate dinner but still as delicious.

Ah Ma cutting up the cucumber for dinner

Kor-kor helping to fry the lobak

Dinner is served:

Ah Kong and Ah Ma freshened up a bit after dinner and headed back to Penang. Tonight's dessert was another round of longan laichee and seung wan yuen. And of course we finished up with our drinking session.

Pictures from Chinese New Year

 Here are more pictures taken on the first day of CNY:

Happy Chinese New Year

Unlike previous Chinese New Years (other than 2021), we didn't have to wake up earlier to make sure that we're all ready for the lion dance. Due to the Covid situation, it was decided not to have them over.

So we woke up, and got ready at a leisurely pace then headed down for breakfast. Then we handed out ang pows in record time; there were only 3 kids to give to!! Others dropped by later on. 

Then it was time to get ready to prepare for lunch. It was mee suah. 

The delicious soup cooking

Mei-mei helped with the lime for the chilies

Chim Poh busy in the kitchen

There was 2 fried egg masters this year

Lunch is served

Delicious

After lunch and cleaning up, we had our usual "photo booth" to take pictures. Will post those pictures separately.

We didn't seem to be as busy this year as we were previously. Even got to hang around the kitchen and chit chat. Rested in the living room. Play with the dog..

Tonight's special was the chu yoke yuen. 

Colorful ingredients

Mixing them up well

Took us a long time to finally finish frying them all up

Soup being cooked the traditional way.. over a charcoal stove

And this year we had Jane Ah Chim help out in the kitchen too. And different hands helping in the making of the lou sang. Here is their final artwork.. 

Impressive!! Can see that it is a tiger 

The tiger lou sang with the toppings and sauce

Then it's dinnertime. This year the chu yoke yuen took a little longer to prepare. So dinner started a little later. But of course the master chef, Kor Poh was super fast in cooking up the rest of the dishes. 

Kiddies 

Our dinner feast

Tossing the yee sang

Everyone in the photo

Tonight's dessert was the seung wan yuen. We had that after the fireworks.

All covered with flour and the traditional red dot

Yummy. In the ginger and pandan soup

And of course, our evening drinks