Plain Sourdough Bread

Still experimenting with sourdough bread using this recipe.

Blogging from a smart phone

I must say that I am so happy knowing that Blogger has an app and I can now upload photos and blog from my phone easily! I used to have to upload pictures from my camera or phone into the laptop. Edit there before I can blog. And with two young kids then, it seemed impossible to keep up posting which was the main reason why blogging, as much as I enjoyed it, had taken a backseat. As I mainly use just my phone for photos nowadays, I can just edit them here too and then upload using the Blogger app and post from there! Well I can't do much else like changing the layouts or size of the photos but as of now, this is good enough. So maybe, just maybe, there'll be more posts in this blog from me again!

Sticky Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage

Hah. .. its been ages since I last posted here. Have not even updated the arrival of Baby Lee no.3! Well will leave that for another time as the main purpose for this post is to pen down the recipe for what I cooked for lunch today ie. Sticky Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage before I forget so that I can refer to it again next time when I need to cook it again.

Sticky rice is CheChe O's favourite. Have been wanting to try it out and finally got a chance to do so today. The kids had seconds and thirds! Sent the picture to dear hubby at work and he replied, PLS MAKE SURE TO LEAVE SOME FOR ME. *Giggle* So without delay, here goes...

INGREDIENTS
3 cups Glutinous Rice
1 whole chicken breasts
4 Chinese sausages
6 Chinese mushrooms
10 small red onions
1 handful dried shrimps
Water
5 spoonfuls oil  (I used light tasting olive oil)
4 spoonfuls soy sauce
2 spoonfuls dark soya sauce
1 spoonful Chinese rice wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
White pepper
2 eggs
1 handful chopped spring onions

METHOD
1. Soak rice for at least 2 hours. Then wash and drain water.
2. Soak mushrooms for about 30 minutes. Wash and drain. Cut into strips.
3. Soak dried shrimps for about 10 minutes.  Wash and drain. Roughly chop them up.
4. Boil some water in a pan and place while Chinese sausages for about 5 minutes. Remove from water. Remove skin and slice lengthwise about a quarter of an inch.
5. Cut chicken breasts into strips and marinate with a spoonful of soy sauce.
6. Remove skin from onions and slice thinly. Heat oil and brown onions on low fire about 10 minutes. Remove onions to use as garnishing later.
7. Stir fry Chinese sausages and dried shrimp for about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and fry for another 2 minutes. Add chicken breasts and fry for another 2 minutes.
8. Add remaining soy sauce, dark sauce, Chinese rice wine, salt and a few dashes of white pepper and mix well for about 2 minutes.
9. Reduce heat and stir in rice. Mix rice in evenly. Then cover rice with water. Put heat back on to boil water before reducing again to simmer for about 15 minutes.
10. Place rice into a heatproof dish and steam for another 15 minutes.
11. Meanwhile,  beat the eggs. Add 1 tablespoon of oil into a pan and swirl it around to coat pan. Once heated, pour eggs in to cover pan thinly. Flip once. Remove from pan and set aside and continue frying remaining beaten eggs.
Roll eggs up and cut thinly.
12. When rice is ready, remove from steam and let it rest for 10 minutes. Garnish with eggs, fried onions and spring onions.

Square One

Three hours later from my previous post, I'm pretty much still where I was. Haha. Nope, I didn't get the dishes done. I did hang up the batch of clothings. Figured out that was pretty urgent as people were running out of underwears! Che-Che O came back not too long after and I spent some time with her cleaning up all the books she read and never placed back on the shelf and the stash of puzzle she did not get to complete before reading a bedtime story together and got her ready for bed. By then, it was already eleven. Papa got me my very well deserved signature hot choc with soy milk from Starbucks and I have just been sitting down indulging it with some oats. Aaaah.... Guilty? Well, kinda but I'm too sleepy now to be bothered. Tomorrow is another day. Goodnight world! - writing while lying down on a bed with a stash of laundry. Yes, I will be sleeping here tonight.

Mess!

It's now a quarter past nine at night. All is quiet. Che-che O and Papa has gone out and Master J is sound asleep. I have the whole house to myself and have the radio tuned into the usual Sunday night Jazz on Lite FM.

Sounds like the perfect time to chill with a glass of red.... but...
1. I've been down with a tummy bug. Started on Thursday night after dinner. I ended up with no dinner after dinner as they all came back out. Have been having body aches and a mild temperature till today. My tummy still feels raw and I certainly don't dare to stimulate it any further with foods that will make it churn. So I'm left sort of hungry. I will try to get two mouthfuls of plain oats in later as suggested by a friend. Ya, plain oats in water. Hmm.. yay. yum. Guess I gotta still feed old tum-tum.

2. Dear hubby cooked dinner and left the kitchen looking like probably what's in my stomach right now. A mess!

3. I see things everywhere! Table mats under the TV cabinet, building blocks on the lounge chair, puzzles strewn on the floor, a sock under the kiddo's exersaucer, a train toy on the sofa (now removed as I wanted that space), all these and more on top of a big bag of things to put away...

4. The washing machine just beeped signaling another load of wash waiting for me to hang dry. Meanwhile, there are three loads waiting for me to put away.

5. Project Organise Thy Study Room has been completely abandoned. I thought it would probably take me a whole month. I thought wrong. Perhaps a whole year???

I am honestly short of a scream away. It is times like these that I truly, truly, truly wish I have someone here as a domestic helper. Either that or the ability to wave a wand and utter iggety-ziggety-zaggety and zoom! the mess away! It's just impossible to cope at times. I seriously wonder how do those mommies with beautiful blogs do it? When will I have the time to get a sensory bin or a I-spy bottle done for Master J? Okay, rant aside. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat. Tune up the radio and now get me those washing gloves...... before the fever acts up again......

The Very Hungry Little Reader - an online bookstore for your little readers

Some time last year, amidst the busyness of life, I got together with a friend and started an online bookstore for kids. So instead of going to bed right now (@1.30am), I have decided that I should write a little about our bookstore.

My friend and I both have children and want them to cultivate the love of reading. We both love books and have emptied our savings on books for our kiddos many a time. Good reads in Malaysia are not only rare at times but also pricey. Thoroughly missing the time in UK where libraries are EVERYWHERE! And the children section is packed with books suitable for all ages from birth! Also missing the great deals for new books with offers like buy one get one free. I loved grabbing bargains from charity shops too! Got some books still in good condition for 50p! Don't forget the nearly new sale!!!

Well, we are not in UK anymore are we? But we still want to continue to encourage Che-che O and Master J (and their friends) to love books. So we got our acts together and started The Very Hungry Little Reader - an online bookstore for your little readers.  It is currently found only on Facebook as we have not managed to set up a blog unfortunately. My friend did mention before that most Malaysian parents would be more willing to spend on expensive toys and clothes than books which I have sadly realised to be true! Therefore, the idea of this children bookstore is for us to source for good, quality, popular reads and sell them here in Malaysia at a price lower than our local bookstores. It is our hopes that this will encourage parents to invest more in books which will open up a whole new horizon of imagination for their little ones, stimulate their senses, improve their language comprehension and a whole load of other things!

There is still tonnes to work on. We have more things planned and more new books to upload but we will take one step at a time. Meanwhile, if you and your little reader are feeling a little hungry for some good reads, why not pop into The Very Hungry Little Reader? ;-) See you there!

Time to get organised!

This house comes with a little 'office'. I have sort of claimed it as my studio. Currently, it is in complete chaos! Due to space limit, I have many times stuff things in there and pile stacks of this and that up waiting for that one day when I am free to put them away. That one day is still no where to be found while I am left with a store instead of studio. I need to get organised. We have initially treated this beautiful house as a temporary shelter. Till we manage to find our own little abode. Looking at how the property prices go ridiculously crazily high here, moving into our own home looks dim. So we might as well start treating this house as home.

I have a few ideas here and there including getting a small kitchen island to increase workspace area as well as more shelves or even getting some cabinets installed. But first things first would probably be to sort out the studio. Needing some ideas on how to arrange and get some of the things organised in the most efficient manner. So Google, here I come!