Our Father's Day 2016

Today is the actual Father's Day, 3rd Sunday in June. 

Breakfast was provided by the church as we celebrated Parents' Day today. 

Breakfast served at the church compound. 

Besides, Son 1 and Son 2 participated in a choral speaking item at church today. 

The kids had done well. Bravo! Glory to God the Father. 

I think the kids enjoyed their time on the stage. 

Keep up the good job, children. Do everything as to our LORD. Do your best. 

How We Celebrated Father's Day

Just an update on how we celebrated Father's Day yesterday, a day prior to the actual day. 

I baked a simple round banana cake for hubby. Recently, I intend to reduce the sugar and artificial colouring intake, thus a naked cake was the solution. 

Banana cake with sliced banana and fresh blue berries. 

I printed some mini pennants, stitched them together (my maid helped me in this) and hung them across the cake with the use of two satay sticks. I thought that was simple and sweet. 

As I put on the fruit, I didn't use any cream. I simply placed the fruit on the cake. That way, I could save up time for whipping the cream and some cash too, since my kids and hubby don't really appreciate it. Why waste effort on things they don't like, right? 

Apart from that, we also had a sumptuous meal at Dragon i restaurant. We enjoyed the meal very much. 

Last but not least,  I would like to thank God, my heavenly Father for His blessings on our family. Thank God for a supportive hubby and great dad in the family. 

Fathers' Day 2016

We celebrated Father's Day with the man in the house today instead of tomorrow to avoid the crowd. 

The man himself booked 6 pax at a Peranakan restaurant we had never been as a family. He wanted to give us a surprise. We drove all the way to Pasar Seni for this. 

As we entered the place, we were like "greeted" by two huge, almost as big as a human statues. I was uncomfortable with them, but I thought may be I should just ignore them and get a table away from them. Then Kev pointed to us another big statues right next to our table. 

Wow! Then only I noticed that the whole place was surrounded with human sized statues! We forced ourselves to sit down next to a huge pantinh of a human that looks like a traditional Chinese emporer. To us, the picture too was horrible. 

At this point of time, all of us were seated down reluctantly and cautiously, except our youngest son. He was so scared that he refused to come near the table at all. 

That was at this time that the man of the house finally took us all, leaving the place. He apologised, which I think was very kind of him as I didn't think that was his fault. He booked it out of good intention. I do appreciate that. 

Anyway, because it was a Puasa month, it was hard for us to find a place with lesser crowd. We went to Pavillion, KL but couldn't secure a parking lot. So we headed back to south, ioi City Mall, Putrajaya and had our delicious Fathers' Day dinner at our favourite restaurant - Dragon i. 

Glad that we left and ate st Dragon i. 

These were a few dishes we ordered that came first. I forgot taking photos of the dishes that came after these as we were busy eating. 

Avocado

I have been taking avocado for breakfast for a few months. I started taking it for its nutrients. It's packed with lots of nutrients. 

But after taking it for sometimes now, people around me compliment me that my big belly has shrunk down a lot and I have slimmed down too. I didn't know why. I thought I was too stressed over some issues. 

But one day, as I was lying down on the bed, I stumble upon an article about weight loss. Here is the link :

http://www.health.com/health/m/gallery/0,,20978353_5,00.html

Then it made sense to me about all the compliments from others. 

Here are some of the good bargains I got for avocados recently. 

About a month ago, I bought some avocados at only RM2.45 each. Those are from South Africa, bigger than the Aussie's. 

Then about 2 weeks ago, I got them at RM2.99 each ( They are quite biiig). Yes, from S. Africa too.

Today, I got them at RM1.99 each. These are from Australia, and smaller in size. However, a friend told me that Aus Avocados are creamier. 

Well, my son2 likes it for breakfast too. 

Paper Mache - Plate / Bowl

My kids are having a 2-week school holiday. The 1st was spent with their grandparents. Now, comes the 2nd week and our maid is away for a few days. 

My sons wanted to do something I was looking at Google - paper mache. So I decided to guide them doing a bowl each. I guess that's the simplest one. 

1) Select a bowl of choice. 

2) Strip / tear the newspaper. 

3) Wet the newspaper strip and place them one by one, on the back of the bowl.

4) After the whole back of bowl is covered with the wet newspaper strips, start gluing the remaining strips (dry ones) over the wet strips on the back of bowl with homemade glue (Homemade glue recipe). Glue as many layers as you like. The more layer the harder bowl you will get.

(We placed a tray underneath each bowl so that we don't mess the worktop) 

5) Dry bowls under hot sun. 

(We live in a very hot place and it took us about 2-3 hours to dry the paper mache completely) 

6) Remove the paper mache from the mould ( in this case, the bowl ). 

7) Discard also the then wet newspaper strips (now dry). 

8) Cut the edge of the paper mache bowl, then use some small pieces of newspaper to cover the edge to make it smooth. 

9) Dry it again. 

10) Paste one or two more layers of paper pieces of your choice on the paper mache, and in our case, coloured serviette. 

(I find that serviette is more forgiving) 

11) Dry the bowls. I dried them in my air conditioned room and by the time we woke up, the bowls are ready.

These are the bowls my sons have made. 

I hope you will try it for yourselves too. Thank you for reading till now. 

God bless every family. 

Dad's Passing

My dad passed away recently. My hubby took my children and I to pay the last respect to him. 

I didn't tell my children about it until we reached his home. There I saw my dad lying in the casket peacefully. 

It was quite sad as my sons didn't even know who my dad is. They kept asking who is that uncle. 

I saw my stepmom and two step brothers. We didn't talk. Thankfully my aunts and uncles were there too so they spoke with them. 

Like it or not, I left after two hours, proceeding to Penang to celebrate Mother's Day and mom's birthday. However, I finally spoke to my step mom, thanking her for taking care of my dad. 

On the final day, my brother and I came back to his place to send dad in his last journey. I saw my step brother stared at me. I think he might have somethings in his mind. Probably disappointed with me? I don't know. 

Will that be the last time I am meeting them? 

Full Gospel Tabernacle 35th Anniversary

It is my pleasure to be a part of this church. I may not be a prominent member, but I definitely love this church. 

Remember when I first came to this church, I was sceptical about being in this church ever since. 

When I first mo Lumpur, my husband (my boyfriend then) went back to Penang over the weekend. I really did not want to skip church and I called up Lay Chin to take me to hers. She having no car, asked for transport for me from a sister in Christ, Soo Lan, who is now a pastor. She fetched me to church and made friends with me. 

After filling in the communication card, they said that I can keep the pen. "A Church You Can Call Home" was written on it. I looked at it and told myself that it won't be true as I really don't plan to continue attending this church. 

But I really don't understand why and how I became regular in this church. 

When I say regular, I mean every week. Perhaps it was Soo Lan who actually helped me to continue with my walk here in this church. I even pulled my hubby into this church and we attended cell meetings very regularly. 

Without we knew it, we were already here for more than 13 years. Throughout all these years, I am blessed to be here in terms of support, biblical knowledge, spiritual walk and principles. In fact, when I look back now, I have grown in this church. I hope the growth is a good growth in God. In Him everything holds together. 

Yesterday as the church celebrated her 35th anniversary, I am blessed to watch the video about how the pioneers and other church members talking about her. 

Here is a short video clip I managed to take during the celebration. 

http://youtu.be/GBqoiibSOTY

May God bless our church 

Korean Digital Perm

Have been quite bored about my hair. So I decided to get a hair perm at HB hair saloon in Seri Serdang. 

During the perm. 

The stylist did a digital perm for me. I have read about this perm and it's nothing new. The perm is supposed to give a natural look, compared to cold perm which might cause frizz and looks stiff.

The front look. I find that the hair in the front is a little straight. Reason was that I asked him to comb this section. Hence straighter hair. 

The back- I like the curls that look very natural in layers, which add volume to my naturally thin hair. I didn't dye my hair. The colour comes from my previous hair dye. 

New Year 2016

Today is the first day in 2016. 

The most thing I am thankful for is that through God's mercy, my family and I managed to cross over to 2016. It is so good to be alive. 

However, I will never forget about my beloved paternal grandma who passed away on Malaysia's National day in 2015. In fact, both Kevin and I lost a grandma each this year as his paternal grandma also passed away a few months before my grandma's passing. 

I don't think Kevin's grandma accepted Christ but I strongly believe that my grandma accepted Jesus a week before she passed away. 

Anyway, this morning Kevin and I took our three sons and helper to church to attend the sunrise service in Full Gospel Tabernacle (FGT). 

I like attending the service very much, especially on the first day of the year. 

We had some tim sum for breakfast. 

The siew mai was nice. 

May God bless our family with good health, joy and blessings abundantly this year. 

This is also my hope that we will draw closer to God and will be able to set good example for our kids and guiding them in following God. 

God's Supernatural Help

Today, God made a miracle for me, solving my problems which had caused insomnia to me last night. 

I just came back from a long holiday and was given the 2016 timetable. I was given 5 classes of English, 1 Year One Physical Education (PE), 1 Year Two Physical Education, 1 Year Two Visual Art and 1 Year One Music. 

Headache No.1: 

PE is a new subject for me so I need to search for the yearly scheme of work and then typing out the lesson plans. I need to search from outside the school as I need the set in Malay language. 

Headache No.2:

Music is also a new subject for me to teach in the school. Not only that, it is also run in mandarin, a language I am not fluent of. Teaching it also requires me to find the yearly scheme of work and daily lesson plans all by myself as I need the sets in Malay language and all my other colleagues are using the ones in mandarin. 

I really felt stressed out. So I was in my insomnia stage that night. I felt overwhelmed. I told God about it. If I am not mistaken, I think I asked Him for help without specifying what God should do. I really believed that I can go through it with God'd mercy and grace. 

So the next morning, I went to school in the morning for Year One orientation. My afternoon supervisor later told me that she has removed the music lesson from my timetable. How relieved I was snd I knew it was God. 

Later, I went for the PE meeting. There, they required me to write the lesson plans in mandarin. So a kind colleague offered me her well typed PE lesson plan which is in mandarin. 

Uh!!! What a relief ! Now, not only that I don't need to teach music, I also do not need to write both the Year One and Year Two PE lesson plans! She will tell me what to teach each week. All I need is the manpower (which I have) to carry out the lessons weekly. 

I am truly blessed! It's like having a faith exercise in God. 

God, you are truly amazing. Thank you so much. 

Yosef's 7 soon

Yosef will soon turn seven end of this year. As a mother whose birthday falls in the long term school holiday every year, I understand the feeling of envious of my friends celebrating their birthdays with our classmates in school. That is why I'd normally celebrate Yosef's birthday for him twice every year, once with his friends before the school term ends and once on the actual day. 

This year, I did it on the Children's Day in his school so that to minimise the trouble his class teacher might have. Thank God I got his teacher's permission to do so on that day. 

So the preparation was really trilled but tiring. The theme of the birthday party was 'Science'. I was able to squeeze the creativity juice out of me to do the decorations. 

I made a anti-gravity Florence flask chocolate cake for him. It was my maid who helped me baked the cake. However, the cake didn't taste good but it sure looked great. 

Anti-gravity Florence Flask cake

Besides the main cake, I baked some other cupcakes too. I made some Braint Cupcakes and some Elixir Cupcakes. They are mostly decorated with simple slightly tinted buttercream. The elixirs were made in fondant. I placed the cupcakes in the paper cupcake stands which I bought from Mr DIY. 

Brainy Cupcakes

Elixir Cupcakes

Because it was a Science theme party, I also made some tadpoles in jellies and eyeball jellies. I soaked some basil seeds to let them become gelatinous. I then put them into the cooked jelly mixture before the jellies cured. The jelly mixtures was then pour into their respective glass chicken essence bottles which I salvaged all these while. Unfortunately, I didn't take a closeup photo of it. 

As for the eyeballs, they were made of jelly too. I used the sphere shape ice cube tray to make them. I tinted a little jelly with blue dye and poured just a little into the cavities. As soon as they cured a little I carefully placed a small piece of chocolate chip in the middle and then I poured in the milk jelly mixture to fill in the cavities fully. Let them cured in the fridge. 

I also bought some gummy worms for the table. A magnifying glass was out as a decorative item next to the gummies.

Next was the Chromosome Pasta to ease the kids' hungry tummy. 

To tie the things together, I placed two Pom Poms next to the main cake. The Pom Poms successfully gave a pop of colour. And they were put one one each side of the cake just to get a symmetry look. 

As for the back drop, I simply folded a piece of plastic (same as the table runner) into half and used some sticky tape to hang it up. I also printed out some letters on triangular shaped paper and hung them up just like it in the photo. 

Besides the dessert table, I also prepared some photo props for the kids to take photos. The kids were happy. 

I am thankful that everything went well and my son was super happy too. Well at least, when he looks back next time, he will have some memory of celebrating his birthday with his friends in the school and with the grace of God, his mother was the one who made the things happened for him. 

I love you, my son! 

School Holiday

We were having a school holiday and Kevin had already taken off during this period. We thought that we won't be going back to hometown as granny had passed away. 

Well, we went back anyway as we really had nothing else to do at home. Yeah, we went back. 

The air in in Penang is better than the one in Klang Valley (Klang Valley's experiencing haze from Sumatra). 

Taking kids back often is good to remind them about our roots, where we come from. It's also a great way for them to learn paying respect to our eldest and do ending time with them. 

Fire Theme Cupcakes

Here are the pictures of the cupcakes I made for the recent customers. 

The flame cupcakes. 

The fireman hose cupcakes. 

    

Cupcakes in the boxes ready for pick up. 

Cream Firemen Hose Cupcakes

As I received an order of fireman hose cupcakes, I have been trying to make cupcakes with hoses in fondant and hoses in cream. 

I found that hoses made in fondant looked better but since the customer wanted them to be cream hoses, I continued trying my best to make nicer hoses in cream. 

I had tried out many brands of red colouring and even did some experiments on the 'soaking' time with those colourings. Finally I got the color I wanted and the hoses looked much better. 

May I present to you my 'fireman hose' cupcakes! 

I am thankful for the opportunity in making these cakes. 

Red Red Red

I got an order to make fireman hose cupcakes and I have decided to make red hoses as the other design is yellow flame. 

So I thought red hoses should look better if  two types of cakes are put side by side on the same cup cake stand. 

I have never thought that getting a true red butter cream is something not so straightforward. I first tinted some cream with Chefmaster Christmas Red and I found that the color didn't turn out to be red, but pink instead. I got panic and added in some orange powder, thinking that it might help to make it vibrant and more fire engine like. No, it didn't turn out to be what I wanted. Instead, the color, though became more intense, looked very old and boring. Yucks!!

I then came out with a brilliant idea- drove to a 24hour sundry shop nearby and got a small bottle of red colouring powder. I got even shocked. The anticipated red turn out to be light purple! 

That night, I was pretty unhappy but still continued piping. The end result was quite lousy as the color was not vibrant. 

The next day, I decided to do a color test. The Chefmaster colouring still couldn't  meet my requirement. It was still pink. 

I did another experiment with the red colouring powder I bought from the sundry shop the other day. The colour was still purple. 

Then I look up at the internet. I googled about it and found that I wasn't alone in the journey of getting the vibrant red butter cream. 

I read about some comments. One of them actually says that the colouring will get more vivid after some time. So just put some colouring and let the color sit. If the shade still isn't up to what we are looking for, then only should we add in some more colouring. 

The next thing I read about was about the brand of colouring. I found that many people actually prefer Americolor than Wilton or any other brand. Besides, I have also watched someone making a cake with many vibrant colours in YouTube that uses Americolor. 

These had helped me making my decision to look for 'Super Red' by Americolor. I bought it and started tinting some cream with it. I also made sure to leave the red cream for a while before adding additional dye. Yes, the result was stunning. The red was exactly what I was looking for and the colour actually intensified and became vibrant. 

The experiment in tinting butter cream. Picture was taken indoor at the same place and with the same lighting.

I hope this post is helpful to you. Thank you. 

Seaweed Soy Floss

Have you heard about the seaweed soy floss? Can you imagine that soy bean can be made into floss? Well, at least for me, I haven't until I tried on this. 

It doesn't cost that much. It's only about RM14 for a packet of 250g. The beans used are organic, non-GMO. 

The texture is light and crunchy. It tastes just like the normal chicken or pork floss, but with bean smell.

The floss also comes with seaweed stripes, which I think complements quite well with the soy bean floss. 

This floss is imported from Taiwan and can be eaten with porridge, bread, sandwiches, sushi and rice, just to babe a few. 

I think this floss isn't bad at all. For those vegetarian out there, this is something you must try! 

Pot Bless During UPSR

'Makan time' (eating time) is a happy time. 

Today, my colleagues and I had a pot bless time in the office. There were many types of good food prepared by the us. 

I lined up quickly and got myself a bowl of bak kut teh soup (herbal tea pork ribs soup). Uh! The soup smells delicious and it has the sweetness of the pork. The meat was sweet and tender too. 

Some of the food prepared by the colleagues

Food I prepared

Skewered cherry tomatos, quill eggs and cucumbers

Somebody was doing a demo on bread and pizza making. The smell of the garlic bread filled the air. Personally, I don't like the smell of it especially in the office. 

Time actually flies quite slowly after eating time especially there isn't a class for anyone of us today. 

Making Sample Cupcakes

Arrgghh! I really was so tired. 

Since accepting an order for cupcakes from Kevin's friend , I thought I should practise doing the decoration of the cupcakes. So I baked a dozen of lemon cupcakes and tried piping. 

Lemon butter cupcakes

The flame icing was pretty easy to make and it looked nice too. The topper was made of fondant. It takes some time but the effect was nice. 

However, the design of a fireman hose was a little bit tricky. First, the hose was too plain as it was. Second, the shape of a hose is snake-like. That's why, I tried on a few orientations of the hose, and I still didn't like it. 

Well I will try again today. 

Dragonfruit Jelly Mooncake

Kevin came back telling me that he tried on a dragonfruit jelly Mooncake and he loved it. So I thought I would just give it a try. 

This is how I made my dragonfruit jelly mooncakes. 

Purée 

Dice half a dragonfruit and put them into a hand press. Press out the purée. 

Filling

1 teaspoon jelly powder

400ml water

2 tablespoon condensed milk

80g dragonfruit purée

1) Mix everything together except the dragonfruit purée in s sauce pan. 

2) Bring mixture to boil then add the purée. (This should bring mixture slightly below boiling point)

3) Turn off fire and let cool a little before pouring it into small cupcake cups. 

4) Let it cured then remove the filling. 

Skin

10g jelly powder

4 tbsp sugar

700ml water

80g dragonfruit purée 

1) Mix everything except the purée in a saucepan. 

2) Bring mixture to boil, then put in the purée. 

3) Let boil and turn off the fire. 

Assemble

1) Pour the skin mixture in the the mould about 1/2 cm. 

2) Place filling at the centre. 

3) Pour the remaining skin mixture into the cavity till full. 

4) Let it cure. 

5) Chill the jelly mooncakes in the fridge before serving. 

Making Glutinous Rice Tapai

Tapai is a Southeast Asia food that is made through fermentation process. Tapai can be made of glutinous rice or sweet potatoes. Ragi is used as a mould starter to ferment the carbohydrate. 

My maid and I are making glutinous rice tapai today. Here is how we made it. 

1) Wash and soak the glutinous rice overnight. 

2) Rise and put the rice on a tray. Steam the rice and let cool. 

3) Crush the mould and sprinkle the crumbs on the cooled rice. Sprinkle some coarse sugar too. 

4) Scoop a spoonful of rice and put it on the prepared banana leaf. Wrap it and secure with a skewer. 

Prepared banana leaves

5) Keep the ready tapai into a plastic bag or container. 

6) Wait for it to ferment (usually takes about three days in Malaysia weather). 

P/s: This batch of Tapai wasn't successful as I wet my hands while wrapping them. One should not wet the Tapai