What a Life!

This morning was a beautiful day. I thought I'll do some exercise by walking to the local milk bar to get milk and newspaper.

In the shop, with a bottle of milk in my arms, I looked around for today's newspaper

Me : Excuse me, do you have today's newspaper?

Shopkeeper : ......

Me : But that is not today's newspaper, that's Sunday's. How come you have tomorrow's newspaper now?

Shopkeeper : ......

Me : oh, is it? Today is Sunday?? Sorry, sorry, I thought ....

Sign, life of a 'blurr' housewife

It's been a while since i update this blog.  Blame it on the hayfever, all the snuffling is giving me constant headache, not mentioning the pile of tissue papers I have to get rid of from time to time.

Before these photos become history, I'll use them to narrate our recent trip to Perth.

Thanks to Guido and his family, we get to stay at their beachhouse.  The Scarborough beach is just a stone throw away.  Every morning, Caleb's first reaction was : Let's go to the beach!

Thanks to Stephene's aunt and uncle, the boys and myself had a great feast at their organic vegie patch.  The boys love the cherry tomatoes and bananas (straight from the plant), while I had my first taste of gooseberry (bottom left corner).  Caleb was very excited to see radish popping out from the soil.  The garden supplied us with days' worth of oranges, bok-choi, brocolli, spinach, yummmm

We celebrated Liam's and Sarah's birthday just before we left Perth. The boys had a great time playing on their cousins' swing set.
Top left corner : Liam checking on Cory the big black sheep.

I felt so bad that the little ones did not get to have the rum'n'raisin ice cream (too alcoholic). 

This time, Caleb requested for white ice-cream so we got hold of some vanilla beans and used the recipe from here.

I doubled the ingredients but not the sugar as we like it less sweet.

Pics to be posted later.  (camera battery dead)

Don't drool, here's the recipe, adapted from icecreamireland.com.  The photos didn't turn out well, but it definitely tasted beautiful. 

Murphys Rum Raisin Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar  (I reduced to 1/2 cup raw castor sugar)

5 Egg Yolks (I used 3 large eggs instead - didn't want egg whites lying around)

1 3/8 Cups Cream (300ml double cream)

1 1/8 Cups Milk

1/3 Cup dark Rum (Jamican rum for me)

3/4 Cup Raisins or Sultanas

What to do:

1. Combine the rum and the raisins the night before. Cover and let soak. 
2. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
3. Bring the milk to a simmer.
4. Remove from the heat.
5. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream. (I must remember not to use the electric whisk as it creates too much foam)
6. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat.
7. Stir until the custard thickens (around 60C).
8. Allow the custard to cool to refrigeration temperature.
9. Mix in the cream, beating for one minute.
10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.
11. Add the rum and the raisins once the ice cream has become reasonable solid, (if not the raisins will sink to the bottom) then continue freezing until ready.

When I was at step 7, the custard curdles, so I used the Ba-mix (a hand-held blender) and just zapped it back to creamy state, which was fine.

Jiale was not keen to try it, probably because of the smell of rum.  But Jiajun, who's younger, couldn't have enough of it.  He ended up licking the spoon and cup as well.

Over the last few weeks, whenever mamajojo blogs about her homemade ice-cream, I made a mental note to get an ice-cream machine when I can (read SALE).  I especially love red bean ice cream with coconut milk, yummm...

I used to make rum and raisin ice-cream, without an ice-cream machine, it tasted great (for rum lovers), but it's time-consuming as I have to remember to take the half-frozen ice cream mixture out from the freezer and briskly churned it with my hand whisk, then keep the dripping hand whisk in the fridge during the interval else the cream on it might go off, a less favourable alternative is to wash the whisk after ever use.

Today I finally bought an ice cream machine.  Melbourne is just coming out of winter, so summer-ry stuff are on Sale.  Same explanation applies to that pile of new summer clothes on the sofa.

I was a bit disappointed that an ice cream machine is nothing like a bread machine.

To make bread using a bread machine, I just throw in the ingredients - water, salt, sugar, oil, flour and yeast, turn on power, press a few buttons and 3 hours later, I'll retrieve a fresh loaf of bread.

In comparison, the ice cream machine is like a 'big shot'.  The inner pot/container has to be frozen for hours.  While it sits nicely in my freezer, I will have to physically make the ice cream mixture (looks like I am the ice cream machine more than that metal pot), then pour the mixture into the well-rested and frozen metal pot.

Then that pot of mixture is placed in the machine, which then slowly churns for no more than 30mins, then the mixture (hopefully doubles in size) is frozen in an air tight container.

During the hours of preparation, the machine just worked for 30 mins! 

But again, I get to have flavours I can't get from the shops here.  Irish cream with hazelnut ice cream, anyone?

Just before bedtime,

Daddy : It's brush-teeth time.

Big brother : If I do it goodly, I want a piggy-back ride.

Me (thinking) : goodly?? well, acceptable.

Little brother : Yeah! Pig-ride! Pig-ride!

Me (thinking) : daddy = pig?? well...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Little brother : Mommy, gor-gor giggle me. (= big brother tickles me)

* * * * * * * * *  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thanks to mamajojo's info, we began training Jiale to go diaper free at night too. It's been 2 weeks now, and we are seeing positive results.

He has his milk an hour before bed, visits the toilet and go to bed. Stephen will bring him to the toilet 4 hours after the milk drink (we are quite precise here). There are times when we Stephen brought him before the said time, and there's not a lot of wee, hence leakage later;  Or bring him later than the said time and it becomes too late (puddle of 'water' on the bed).

Luckily, we have a spare mattress (thin one) that we stack on top of the new mattress.  Both have bedsheets on.  If there is an accident, Stephen just removes the wet spare mattress and place Jiale on the dry one.  Jiale can just go to sleep almost instantanously after this short interruption, while Stephen prays for sleep to come.

Anyway, that the first few days.

Now, Jiale is able to get up and ask to be brought to the toilet during the night, now that's worth celebrating, isn't it?

Just some highlights of the months (Jul-Aug)

Stephen attended some conference in France and Switzerland. It was a fantastic trip in many aspects ... scenery, food, wine, catching up with friends, and the talks of course. He bought back two mini piano accordions for the boys, and beautfiul Swiss chocolates for me! According to the house rule, we share them - the piano accordions, I mean.

Mom left for Singapore just before Stephen returns. It had been a great three months to have her here. Hope she's not deterred by Melbourne winter.  She got the boys an Elmo tent/cubby house before she left, they just love it.  Thanks, Ah Mah!

Jiale started attending 3yo kinder in mid-July for 2 days a week.  He loves going to school.  He'll come back with some rhymes we've not heard of, and he in turn teaches us the 'latest hits'.

Shortly after Ah Mah left, Jiale started his swimming lessons. Stephen was in the water with him for his first lesson (much discouraged by the instructor), and during the second lesson, Stephen stayed at home to look after Jiajun. It took the swimming instructor a while to get Jiale into the water all by himself, and when he finally did it, we gave each other the thumbs-up sign. Wow, I was proud as punch.

Apart from kinder and swimming, Jiale also started to attend Chinese class on Saturday mornings.  The students are taught to write 2 chinese characters per lesson, plus chinese rhymes and manyy other chinese words for daily use.  Hopefully, attending the Chinese School will get him to practise Mandarin speaking.  At home, I speak to him in Chinese but he just conveniently speaks to me in English, his explanation being : Mommy knows English.

When Ah Mah was here, he had to speak Mandarin because Ah Mah only knows Chinese (little does he know....)

Here are some pics of the boys playing outside the swimming school.  Jiajun is getting better at climbing.

I came out of the shower one day with my hair wrapped in a towel, and Jiajun wanted it too....

plus our latest addition to our family.  If you win 4-D based on the number plate, any percentage of commission is accepted.

 

Just finished reading a great book by Jodi Piccoult - My Sister's Keeper.

It was a hot topic for a while on whether it's right or wrong to have a 'designer baby' to save the life of an existing one who is terminally ill.

In this case, in order to save their daughter who has cancer, the couple decided to have another baby so as to get the cord blood of the newborn for their 2 year old.

Although it's fiction, the book does look logically at the effects this decision has on the whole family. The cancer-strickened daughter went into remission, but not for long. The newborn, right up to the age of thirteen, was constantly in and out of the hospital to donate part of her body tissue to her older sister, until it comes to a point ....

It was written from various perspectives, so it seems like every one has a reason for doing what they are doing, whether it is morally right or wrong, but where does it stop?

The ending was very surprising and sad, I had buckets of tear, I wasn't expecting it to finish that way.

In any case, it's a great book, and a sad one too.