Our Christmas 2010

I'm a real fan of the Christmas season, and I got excited weeks before the day itself, baking up a storm for family, friends and clients. Two years before, the festive-goodie-giveaway was Oreo cheesecakes, last year, it was tins of butter cookies, and this year, it was 20 jars of chocolate/ dried fruit granola (and quite a few other cakes here and there). I went through 35 cups of whole rolled oats, more than 1kg of honey, about 1kg of brown sugar, same amount of almonds, and not to mention, a lot of dark chocolate and raisins. It was many hours of work, but I truly enjoy feeding people wholesome food. So... Happy Christmas folks!

I spent Christmas eve lunch with my brother at Au Petit Salut. The food was impeccable; I especially loved my main course of mackerel, and sauteed green vegetables. Chubbs had a great time feasting on our profiteroles and creme brulee at the end.

While we were feasting on French food, Fuzzy was away at a company Christmas lunch and gist exchange. My hubby was thrilled to announce that he got the coolest gift of all! A two-man tent! Can you beat that?

After lunch, it was off the Chubbs' pseudo-Godpa's new home to deliver some sweet treats, and to exchange gifts. Chubbs absolutely loved the pressie A got him. A giant book on trucks and cars by Golden Books. Thanks, man!

For Christmas eve dinner, we ate an obscene amount of melted raclette, together with jars of pickled cocktail onions, cornichons, and a potful of steamed new potatoes. It was unbelievably fattening, but sooo good.

Chubbs got to open his first present after breakfast on Christmas day. He was so thrilled to finally get his first set of velcro food, which he cut with a kiddy knife. It was a gift from his 8-year old Aunt Sara. The set even included a sink, a chopping board, and a stove. He can't stop playing with it.

The whole extended family from Fuzzy's side came over for lunch, and the spread was not for the faint-hearted (five different types of meat, and six cakes for dessert). Lunch lasted for five hours, and when things slowed down, Chubbs opened the rest of his presents, with Aunty Jean and Aunty Katie (who are back from New York and Vancouver) looking on.

We had a very simple dinner, which mainly consisted of left-overs and then, it was a quiet night in, with Chubbs sleeping on my lap, me watching TV (with one of my Christmas presents from Fuzzy- Sennheiser RS 160 cordless headphones), and Fuzzy playing video games. Till next year!

Our Changi Village Hotel Stay

As a small Christmas treat for ourselves, we booked a night at Changi Village Hotel; thought it'd be nice to check out the East coast for a day. The hotel has a lot to improve on the standard of service offered. It took us a few hiccups, and almost two hours before we could finally settle down in a room.

Chilling, watching movie trailers with Daddy.

We opted to go for a walk on the beach instead of swimming, because it just rained, and the weather was uncharacteristically cool.

I love the lush greenery near beaches.

Chubbs loved the beach, mainly because of the many sailboats that glided smoothly past us.

The downsides to the beach walk were that I got numerous nasty sandfly bites all over my body, and we found some used syringes and hypodermic needles scattered in the sand. So please don't ever walk on this beach bare-foot!

After the walk, Fuzzy and I packed dinner back to the room, so that we could put Chubbs to sleep early, and enjoy the hawker food. Get this. That night for dinner, Fuzzy and I each had one packet of chicken rice, one packet of nasi lemak with otak, and goreng pisang. On top of that, we shared a medium order of sambal stingray, one large packet of roasted chestnuts, chicken wings, one box of Ferrero Rondnoir, and 1.5l of Sapporo. Even after downing all that food and beer, we were still very tempted to get a supper of satay but both of us were too lazy to head out again. Nonetheless, it was a sumptuous and indulgent night, to say the least.

Looking spiffy, preparing for bed.

Breakfast at the hotel the next day was extremely under-whelming, and we wished we went for prata next door instead. We took in some sun on the deck before checking out, and Chubbs enjoyed practising climbing up and down stairs without assistance. Our son's really growing up fast.

The view from the top floor was lovely, with the boats passing in the distance.

He always asks if he can go down the stairs alone nowadays.

Running around non-stop on the deck.

Post checking out of the hotel, we went to see my parents off at the airport and Chubbs had a great time riding the Skytrain, and he really liked all the Christmassy decor all around the airport, especially the puffer fish (Christmas???) and the gnomes.

Everyday With Tai-Gong

Spending time with his Great-Grandpa is what Chubbs loves to do everyday. At 87, Chubbs' oldest friend is still a force to reckon with, playing football, and chasing the little giggly one around the house. When Tai-Gong is resting in his room, watching TV or reading the news, Chubbs will knock relentless on the door, calling out to him, pleading for him to come out and play. "Tai-Gong! Wake up! Come out and play with me, please!?" It's melts my heart every time. Sometimes, when he's asleep and doesn't respond to Chubbs' knocking, the boy will turn the knob, let himself in, and climb onto the bed, or just stand by the chair, watching him sleep. The little one simply loves being near his Tai-Gong.

Nigella's Chocolate Banana Muffins

This is the first sweet recipe I'm trying from the new cookbook that Shu bought me for my birthday. It was so simple to make, and the results were great for a cake, which only took me a few minutes to put together. The little tweak that I made to Nigella's recipe, is that I added some chopped 72% chocolate into the batter, to make the muffins more moist, oozy and sinful. And since I was bringing some of them as a sweet treat to my girlfriends (including Shu) last evening, I thought I'd top the already hip-hugging muffins off with my favourite peanut butter frosting. And I'm mighty glad I did.

Nigella's Chocolate Banana Muffins

Ingredients:-

2 cups plain flour

1tsp bi-carbonate of soda

1/2 cup soft brown sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

125ml vegetable oil (I use canola)

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas

50g chopped dark chocolate

Method:-

1) Preheat oven to 200degreesC.

2) Mash bananas well with fork.

3) Whisk in eggs, sugar, oil and salt.

4) Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa together. Mix into banana mixture until just combined.

5) Fold in chopped chocolate.

6) Spoon into 12 muffin cups and bake for 15min, or until skewer comes out clean.

The unadorned muffins.

p.s. Fuzzy forbids me to divulge the prized peanut butter frosting recipe :/ Sorry guys.

The Tree's Up

"Ho ho ho! Merrrry Christmas!" Chubbs ran around bellowing this phrase in a pretend deep voice all morning with his Santa hat on. He's really embracing the festivities this year, and especially liked decorating the tree, and very gamely took on his task of hanging ornaments and was even honored with the job of topping the tree off with a star.

A golden acorn ornament.

Checking out his reflection in a silver ball decoration.

"It's fun to rub my nose on the silver baubles."

He did a fantastic job with the star!

It's Been 2-Years and 3-Months!

On a regular day of being 27-months old, here's what Chubbs gets up to.

Sitting down to a meal that he pretended he cooked, complete with cutlery, and a pretend cup of water.

He tones his physique by lifting weights. These water-filled dumbbells from Daiso are great because...

They double up as bugs' eyes...

Elephant ears...

And he even set up a gentry/ toll booth for his cars to pass through.

That's all in a day's work!

Christmas Live Shows

I was reading some parent's forums and found out that there were some live shows for children at different malls, where there'll be singing, dancing, and the lot. So I chose the ones most suited for Chubbs, which feature the characters or shows he's most fond off.

Thomas and Friends at Millenia Walk was first on the list, and we thought we were way early when we reached 30-min before the show. We were wrong, because the arena was almost fully occupied. But we still managed to snag a decent spot and Chubbs sat patiently, waiting for the show to begin.

The little one was really subdued during the short performance, just lying meekly on Fuzzy's shoulder as he watched. We thought he couldn't see well, and hoisted him up on Fuzzy's shoulder. But his expression was the same. I thought at that point, that we made a wasted trip because Chubbs didn't look like he was enjoying it. After the show, as we made our way to the great ramen place upstairs at Parco for lunch, Chubbs became suddenly chatty and excitedly recounted the entire show that he just saw. Including which characters were present, the songs they sang (he proceeded to sing "Jingle Bells" with gusto), and how he loves Thomas. He was just watching quietly and absorbing everything that was going on, in his own way. The only gripes we had about this performance was that the volume was rather high, since most of the audience was just meters from the speakers. We had to cover Chubbs' ears half the time, because even my ears were hurting.

The other series that Chubbs enjoys is the Mr. Men and Little Miss stories. Shan, my younger brother-in-law, has the entire series of books (bought more than 10 years ago), and Chubbs loves reading them. So we braved the crowds and brought him to Takashimaya to catch their live show.

This wasn't a pleasant experience at all. The volume was on so high that I instantly had a headache when the show began. And Chubbs wanted out of there asap because it was unbearably loud. He didn't watch a single minute of the show. But we couldn't escape because the exit was blocked by parents and kids who wanted to get in to watch the goings on. Fuzzy measured how loud it was with an App on the iPhone, and it was consistently above 100decibels. That's equivalent to standing right beside a chainsaw in use, being in a rock concert, and if your home stereo was at maximum volume.

Since we couldn't escape, we plugged Chubbs' ears the whole performance, and hoped it would end soon. Tried to make the best of the trip and get Chubbs' photo taken with one of his favourite characters, Mr. Bump. He didn't even want that :(

He was very much happier looking at Transformers toys, after they killed the noise.

I Forgot

I am ashamed to admit, that I forgot our blog's second birthday on 30 November; almost one week ago. There are no excuses, but I hope there's a slim chance of you guys closing your eyes on my boo-boo after baking and devouring this wonderful cake.

Nothing screams, "Celebration!" more than alcohol or cake. But when you put alcohol AND cake together, it's almost assured that everybody will be having a good time. The beauty in the process of baking this cake, is that you only need 15-min from reaching into your pantry to popping the cake into the oven; together with a spatula, a large mixing bowl, a whisk, and a 9-inch springform/ silicon cake tin. The result after hardly any labour, is a refined and delicate cake that is caramelised on the outside, and moist, silky and custardy within. It's the kind of cake that can be eaten after lunch, at afternoon tea and, as a pre-bedtime treat, and most definitely, at a celebration.

French Apple Cake

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients:-

4 large apples, preferably a mixture of varieties- peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch cubes (I used two each of organic Royal Galas and Granny Smiths)

2/3- 3/4 cup of sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)

3/4 cup plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3 eggs

3 tbsp dark rum

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (triple this if not using rum)

115g butter- melted and cooled down

Method:-

1) Preheat oven to 180degreesC.

2) Mix together flour, salt and baking powder, and set aside.

3) Whisk eggs until very frothy.

4) Whisk in vanilla extract, rum, and sugar.

5) Add half of the flour mixture and whisk until just incorporated.

6) Whisk in half of the melted butter.

7) Repeat with remaining flour and butter.

8) Stir in the cubed apples and pour into cake tin. Smooth the top with a spatula.

9) Bake for 45min- 1hour, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. My cake took 45min to cook.

Storage: Cake keeps best in a cake dome for up to three days.

A cup of strong, black tea goes beautifully with it.

Nourish with Five- Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic and Chili

Somedays, Chubbs takes a lot out of me by late morning, and for lunch, I crave something easy to make, but utterly satisfying, delicious and nutritious at the same time. And for Fuzzy and I, pasta is the ultimate comfort food. I actually get a mild anxiety attack when I'm not stocked with at least three packets of various dried pasta in the pantry :/

I often whip up this simple, light pasta for lunch, which is basically a simple aglio olio, but with ripe cherry tomatoes thrown in for a refreshing sweetness. Many years ago, while waiting tables, I eavesdropped on one of Singapore's top chefs, JQ, when he took time to give an aspiring young chef a tutorial on cooking the perfect aglio olio, after his attempt at the dish turned out disastrous. "1) The garlic must be sauteed till just golden. Not white, not dark brown, just golden. 2) Add just a few slivers of chili, not a handful. You are not cooking mee goreng. If customers ask for it to be super spicy, ask them to go elsewhere for mee goreng. 3) Tear fresh basil leaves with your fingers; if you use a knife, the leaves will bruise and the herb flavour will be flat."

So he went on and demonstrated how it's done. He put in a lot of good extra virgin olive oil and even added a touch of freshly grated parmesan at the end (which I thought was a little weird). After him and the young chef tasted the pasta, he looked at me and said, "You over there... listening so intently. Want to try?" I stood hunched over the kitchen counter, and twirled as much noodle on my fork as possible. It was glorious.

Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic and Chili

Ingredients:-

1 clove of garlic, sliced very finely

Half a red chili, deseeded

A large handful of cherry tomatoes (about 10), halved

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt for seasoning

Spaghetti/ linguine/ vermicelli

A handful of fresh basil

Method:-

1) Cook pasta in very salty water, according to package timing instructions.

2) Saute garlic slivers and chili in a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil till garlic is tender and slightly brown around the edges.

3) Add tomatoes and saute until skin is slightly wrinkled.

4) Add cooked pasta and some of the pasta water. Swirl everything around swiftly so that the water and oil emulsifies into a light sauce. If the pasta looks dry, add a little more cooking water.

5) Season to taste. Scatter with basil leaves. Serve, eat and clean your plate as quickly as possible.

Au Petit Salut Again

My aunt, Yee, very kindly bought Chubbs and I lunch at Au Petit Salut at Harding Road earlier this week, and we had a most lovely lunch. It was rather eventful afternoon too, as nature decided to bless us with a torrential rainstorm as we were reaching and we got rather drenched just getting into the restaurant. We were seated in the al fresco area, and because of the cracking lightning, booming thunder and relentless heavy rain on the roof, it was difficult to carry out any conversation, and I had to order by pointing at the menu. A plus side that came with the storm, was that it was unusually cool, dinning outdoors.

For starters, we ordered a tuna tartare and escargot to share, and they both turned out fabulous. The tuna was tender and seasoned well with mustard, lemon and extra virgin olive oil. The garlic and herb butter that the snails were cooked in, was a delight with the hot, crusty bread rolls that accompanied the meal.

My aunt ordered the ever popular onglet with caramelised onions and fries as her main course and I had the risotto with scallops, squid and prawns. The steak was great, as always, but the risotto was over-seasoned, and the texture, a bit on the wet side. I'd have preferred it a little creamier, and oozier. I also didn't quite understand the rather odd spinach garnish.

Chubbs tried fries for the first time, and even though he's never fancied potatoes, he seemed to enjoy the crisp novelty of them very much.

Chubbs constant and loyal partner-in-crime, Buzz, was very kind to join us for dessert of creme brulee and profiteroles. Chubbs polished off quite a bit of the profiteroles, and was most pleased to have had such a rich and indulgent end to his meal. The mighty strong Illy coffee that came at the very end is always good, sending us on our way with a light buzz.

Chubbs loved running around the garden compound when the rain finally let up, and the weather was cool. The ambience and lush tropical garden setting is what keeps us coming back, and I fear that they'll see more of me when Chubbs goes to school just next door when the new year begins :/