Stuffed

Note to self: do not eat and talk.

Correction, do not have too much of a good time talking and eating. If you do, serves you right that you are awake now feeling like you could burst all seams at your sides and ends of your limbs.

Making Something Out Of Something

I've always been a sucker for making things with my hands. I'm not too good at creating things from abstract ideas or coming up with my own designs but give me a pattern or something to follow and I'll be more than happy to reproduce it.

I've gone through almost the whole gamut of crafting when I was young: cross-stitching, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, felt stuffed animals, beading, those knitted animals/dogs you comb out the yarn to make furry (no idea what it's called). I would have done tatting if I'd known where to get the equipment.

I also loved helping my aunt bake and make cakes, paus, bread, and even pastry. Her sturdy Kenwood mixer was my favourite equipment to operate. I loved that industrial strength mixer.

In secondary school, I opted to do Home Economics rather than boring old Commerce. And boy, did that turn out to be the right choice! My most memorable experiences and happiest memories of school can be distilled from those three years of Home Ec. and the havoc I caused in cooking class (mistaken ingredients, tiny teacups, sporting teachers and great friends) and the quiet times during sewing class.

My 'crafting' genes may have skipped my mom and gone straight on to me as most of my aunts on both my parents' sides have some sort of love for sewing or baking or some form of handicrafting. My mom has no love for it. She can operate a sewing machine (she made me my favourite pyjama pants all the way till I was in college) and make great home-cooked meals but she's not one to 'craft'.

These days, with more time on my hands (??? well, discounting the 'jobs' that I have) I find I'm rediscovering my affinity for making things. Especially now when ingredients and equipment are so readily available as compared to when I was a kid.

It all started with the cooking. And the recipe books. Granted, I don't do gourmet nor gourmand. But I do like to try out a new thing more often than not.

Then I discovered Etsy. I mean, REALLY discovered Etsy. It got to the point that I would trawl through the site everyday just to look at all the pretty things on sale. And then I started buying them. Not much, but a vintage skirt here (and I absolutely LOVE my Etsy vintage denim skirt), a bracelet there, some groovy upcycled clothes for the small fry.

It was her upcycled pants that got me to thinking I could sew for myself too. And then I got the sewing machine. It spent a few months in the cupboard before I took it out and put it to use. First, I had to finish the cat that I was crocheting. And then there were other things I wanted to crochet.

I started borrowing crochet and sewing books from the library. Then I started ordering them from Amazon. Finally I started buying fabric. And dug up some scrap fabric I'd bought from a quilting shop. And then...

Tissue pouches

Tiny totes for tiny tots

My phone pouch with both my phones in it.

Doesn't it look lovely red?

Small fry doing groceries with the tiny tote.

A little bit closer on the tiny tote.

...it's still early days yet. I've got a stack of fabric that I've collected that I have yet to work on.

I don't have a top-of-the-line sewing machine. It's a pretty basic portable Janome with less than 20 different stitch patterns. I just want to sew, I don't want to craft on the machine. I don't even own an electric mixer even though I have thought I'd love to own a Kenwood. I just can't seem to justify forking over an arm and a leg for something I may not make full use of.

I'm planning and organizing patterns in always with a mental footnote to myself: finish whatever you're working on before you start something else. I have a tendency to start many projects but sputter out of steam halfway through and abandon them to their unfinished fates.

So this time, I'm trying to pace myself. I'm taking breaks in between 'projects'. I'm trying not to stock up on too much supplies. I'm trying to juggle all my 'hobbies' (reading, sewing, baking/cooking, photographing) with work commitments, yoga and time for myself and my family.

In the meantime, I've already slightly burned my second batch of banana-chocolate chip muffins. Nigella must not have her times right; 25 minutes at 190C doesn't seem to do it for my babies. At least I halved her recipe and burnt only 4 muffins and not a dozen.

Luckily I'm not one to be daunted. Burnt muffins are but bumps on the road to better, tastier muffins. A slightly sewed over tote handle is just a hiccup to a kick-ass funky messenger bag.

I have greatness in my hands and it shall be utilized!

White Choc Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

The recipe needs some tweaking. I cut down a little bit of the sugar but apparently that wasn't enough. The cookies are still damn sweet. So sweet that I felt immediately full when I caught the first whiffs of the aroma wafting out of the oven. So sweet that hubby's teeth ached after trying one.

In his words, "If these weren't so sweet, they'd be awesome!"

Right. Next time I will make sure to halve the sugar in the recipe. Before I get to the next batch though, there's the matter of this current batch to finish off.

A Day of Firsts

Yesterday, we had a number of firsts in the household:

1. Sophie's new bed from ikea arrived
2. I made okomiyaki (and it was delicious!)
3. Hubby started his chicken breast diet

So, doing item 1 and 2 were fun. Sophie was beyond herself with excitement when I opened up the package from ikea and started to assemble the bed. She not only wanted to sleep in her bed right away, hence egged me on to hurry up and complete it, but she tried in her own way to help too. This means emptying all the screw, nuts and bolts from the package and at one point, throwing a couple to the far end of the room. Not climbing over the bed frames as Jona and I were assembling them was too much of temptation to miss out on. And finally when the mattress was put on the bed, she didn't want to get off for us to put the sheets on. When we were finally done, she went down for her nap about 2 hours later than usual, about 2.30pm.

Preparing and cooking okonimiyaki was just as fun, if not counterproductive. Instead of enjoying dinner at the dinner table, I ate standing up at the kitchen counter, munching on my kewpie-mayo and tonkatsu drenched pancake as I cooked more batches of okonimiyaki. The dish is best eaten hot off the pan or griddle, that's why most Japanese, when they have it at home, cook it on a portable hotplate on the kitchen table. Or that's how I remember my host family eating it anyway.

Hubby's dinner was more bland. And a tad weird, according to him. It was a recipe for chicken thigh that I took off Good Health magazine and incorporated into chicken breasts. There were lemons and oranges and lentil involved. So much for his diet though, as he had more than his fair share of okonomiyaki as well.

All in all, it was a good day. Small fry went to bed in her own bed and I got to sleep through the whole night in my own bed too! What a blast!

Thank goodness for affordable kidtastic ikea furniture and bedding.

Herb Pots

We've just got ourselves a pot each of sweet basil, thyme, rosemary, mint and menthol. Always wanted to have our own little herb 'garden'. I guess pots will have to do for now. They're still in their ugly little plastic brown pots, with no bases. So the plastic bags they came in are serving as bases. I hope to get some nicer pots to put them in and maybe then there'll be some nice photos of them to post up. We used the basil already, for our fried rice. Yumm....

I'm Not Anthony Bourdain, But I Ain't Half Bad

I've been cooking up a storm lately. Just before leaving KL during one of our recent trips, we bought a stack of Periplus and Marshall Cavendish mini-cookbooks from Kino. Best investment we ever made. I've been diligently flipping through them and picking dishes to try out ever since.

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying out a dish or two but since Rizal left for Mumbai and Brussels on Sunday, I've stepped up on the dishes. Not all of them have been from the mini-cookbooks but almost all of them have been successful.

I've been making up several batches of Mushroom Rice Balls (kinoko no takikomi gohan), or what I refer to as my mushroom onigiri, which I picked out from another recipe book of mine. So far, Sophia likes that the best, mainly because it's rice and she loves rice and she also gets to hold it in her hands and eat it rather than mess about with the spoon. And to top it off, it's such an easy dish to make. Did I mention it's quite delicious? Well, it is.

When I came back from my biz trip to KL, I lugged home two huge packets of dried noodle. I'm not sure what kind they are but I know my mom uses them specifically for a type of braised noodle dish she makes. So of course, I call her on the phone before I give it a try and I must say that I'm not that bad a cook myself! The noodles turned out a little dryer and paler than mom's but other than that, tasted just as great. I'm a genius! Jona loved it, and so did the girl. She liked the noodles so much that she ate only the noodles and disregarded the prawns, bits of chicken, mushroom and vegetables in her bowl.

Yesterday we tried a walnut and mascarpone pasta from one of the mini-cookbooks, which turned out splendidly and which all of us really liked too. For dinner, I whipped out the Japanese mini-cookbook and we tried out the french beans with sesame sauce, which was an interesting dish and went well with our lotus soup.

Today I did up another batch of mushroom onigiri specifically for Sophia beause for dinner I was gonna cook Korean chap chae for Jona and me. Given Sophia's experience with the braised noodle, I didn't want to have her just picking at glass noodles and not eating the rest of the good stuff. I did a variation of the usual onigiri; since I'd already toasted sesame seeds for the chap chae, I decided to chuck some into the mushroom onigiri for added aroma and taste. And boy, did it make a difference! Sophia had two onigiri for dinner. Another success story chalked to my portfolio.

Cooking's been quite fun lately. But then again, that's only true, I think, because I have Jona to help clean up the mess after. Before she came, cooking was more a chore than anything else. Just the thought of cooking and then cleaning up could tire me out. Now at least I have the time, energy and interest to look through recipes and am bothered to try them out. Having another person to help eat all that stuff also helps too.

Cooking is simple if you have some extra hands in the kitchen to help prep and clean. What used to be a necessary chore turns out to be an adventure instead.

Black As Black Can Be

Paella Negra tastes damn good. Not that you can see what's in it, smothered in squid's ink as it is.

Subsequent trips to the toilet will make you wonder exactly what squid's ink is made of. That and gape at how it smears all your insides with its inky blackness.

Did I mention it tastes damn good?