Date night at Tutti

We had a quick meal at Tutti for our date night tonight.  We arrived late for lafayette - 8:30 ish and we were one of only a few people in the restaurant itself.

Food was okay for me, Siew Gin liked it, service was so-so...

Good to have a few hours away from the kids, next time we may even bring them to this place..

Bring on the beets !!

Conversations with Tyler

I've recently swapped kids dropping duties with Alan so i get to take Tyler to school. Because of the school bell, i'm usually a little more motivated to get out of the house on time. Now, why can't they have a bell at my work??

Anyways, now, i get about 10 mins worth of conversation with him everyday like his excuse for me not to tell him off..

Out of the blue...
Tyler : Mommy, you don't have to tell me that i can't do something.
Me : why?
Tyler : because if you tell me not to do it, Cody is going to hear it and HE's going to do it..
Me : really? usually mommy and daddy tell you to not do something it's because it's dangerous. If we don't tell you, what if you get hurt??
Tyler : hmmm...

Siobhan's little guardian

Damith and Sabrina dropped Siobhan off at ours to go to a concert. All the kids were sick in some ways and Cody was in a particularly pesky mood and Siobhan didn't actually leave him alone. So, after separating both of them several times while i was eating, i gave Tyler the duty of looking after Siobhan.

I said, Tyler, can you look after Siobhan for me? He sighed and said.. O...K... and i put Siobhan in his care. I turned back to my food and saw all three of them actually behaving themselves for once!

Had to take a picture of this cute sight.

Tyler holding up his hand so that little Siobhan has somewhere to place her dainty hands

Our usual barrier separating the monsters..

Kaboom

Tyler has been watching the Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas caper and often asks to watch it over and over again..  Cody also watches the show and he asks for 'kaboom Daddy'..

When he sees the penguin lighting the dynamite stick he launches into a crazy laughing fit repeating the words kaboom over and over again..

Kaboom Daddy

Kaboom !!

Sunday Dinner - Braised Beef with Polenta

I was just thinking today that it's quite nice when people talk about Sunday dinners. Like it's something to look forward to and an end/beginning to the week and when the family finally sits down to have a meal. I quite fancy that.

So, i told Alan that i would like to start a new tradition. Sunday dinner. :) But i thought every Sunday might be a little pushing, so i think maybe i'll do every other Sunday, or any Sunday i can manage.

So, today i did a little braised beef and potatoes just to start it with a traditional feel. As i was cooking it, the beef wafted its aroma and said to me.. "polenta!!!" It really was the perfect accompaniment.. so, i did a quick search for the recipe and finally combined a few recipe to what i think would work.

Polenta was a new thing to me, never even heard of it till a few years ago. And since the first time, i've had it, it was something i seek out if i see it on the menu. It's not always nice.. so, i was kinda apprehensive about it.

Anyways, the meal turned out quite well. The short ribs were better with bones in. I tried it with bone-in and boneless. Polenta was crispy outside and creamy inside. And my roasted fingerling potatoes were OK. Tyler protested to all these new food but he ate it eventually. :)

Crispy Polenta... not that hard to make after all.. i think it's going to be on our table more often. Even Alan liked it!!!

Red Wine Braised beef with Crispy Polenta and Roasted Fingerling potatoes.

Chinese New Year Banquet

To celebrate Chinese New Year, i organized a Chinese New Year Banquet for about 20 friends. We had as usual way too much food. But it's Chinese New Year, got to splurge a little!

Diana and I

Alan and I

My Ipad keeping the kids entertained

Lobster

Anyways, food was good but i think i'll do my own banquet next year!!! hehe... I better get practicing this year!!!

Cake decorating lesson 2

So, for my 2nd lesson, i managed to arrive nearly on time and was definitely not the last one. I had a cake ready, icing ready and all my tools available. I did forget about my cake filling, but who needs more calories?

Anyways, this class was more exciting than the first as we got to ice our cakes and play with different tips and colors etc. and actual decorating!!!

Here's what i finished at class:

I know the color is sorta uninspiring, but it was what i had.. it did look prettier than i thought it would!

I didn't have time to decorate the middle as we ran out of time. But i did get home and practice a little. It's a little ugly but it's my first attempt, so don't laugh!

Caterpillar and Mr Pig.

Ok the pig was initially supposed to be a bear! But i thought it looked like a fine pig!!

iComputer

Tyler and Cody are really familiar with the iPhone and iPad, but this week they kept talking about Daddy's iComputer and Tyler regularly plays with his iComputer.

What does an iComputer look like if you are 4 years old..

iComputer - Faster than a netbook?

Getting ready for Decorating lesson 2

After being mocked by my friend Didi about bringing down the Asian clan, i was determined to be the best student in my next cake decorating class.

For the next class, we're supposed to bring a baked cake and also some prepared icing. So, here they are!

Did some trick taught in the class and made this really flat cake!

And with additional batter, i even have next week's cupcakes ready! hehehe... and i have to say that this is my first ever cupcake after my disastrous first. Never quite got the courage to retry them! But don't be too impressed, it's from a box cake mix! heheehe.. The icing from the class is horribly sweet, so, it's almost inedible, why waste it on good cake??

Next weeks cup cakes

Anyways, wish me luck in my next class and let's hope i make the Asian clan proud this time. Will take picture of the icing we do in class!

Happy Chinese New Year 2012

I read on my friends Facebook status that she is doing quite a few things for Chinese New Year with her family which includes buying new clothes, making CNY cookies, tea ceremony etc which makes me sorta feel ashamed that I'm not doing anything.

Then it occured to me, i celebrate all holidays with aplomb, why not Chinese New Year? I am organizing a Chinese New Year banquet but i don't have any Chinese New Year traditions in my home. Hmm.. maybe i'll start next year! :)

So, at the last minute, after talking to my parents and coming back from quite a funny party at a Chinese Restaurant with Addy, i did finally pushed on and made my pineapple tarts! Nothing says Chinese New Year like pineapple tarts!!!

And besides i still have 15 days to do something, right?? ;)

Happy New Year!!!

May the year of the Dragon bring you happiness, prosperity and health !!!

100 Days of School Homework

Tyler hasn't been at his new school for a 100 days, but they will reach a 100 days this week, so Tyler was given homework to take a 100 of something and bring it in for show and tell.

Looking around the house, we settled for a 100 Legos and we first counted out a 100 pieces by putting them into 10's and making 10 piles, then building a house..

Daddy also built something as well, but Tyler's design won out.

Perfect pattern but not very interesting

Winning Lego house design

Dinner with Rose-mary and Armen

Armen's mom had hurt her arm recently. And i thought it'd be nice to either visit them or have them over for dinner. But with the boys, we thought it'd be easier for them to come. Less stuff to break!! hehehehee..

Anyways, so, they came and we had a nice time catching up and they are the nicest people to feed. Always full of compliments and asking for seconds. :)

And i had the chance to try a few more new dishes. Yay!!! As there were a few new dishes i wanted to try, i decided to make my Greek Stifado. I felt it was a good meal to tie all these dishes together.

Rose-mary and I eyeing for my mushroom pastry..

Roasted Eggplants with thyme, served with a squeeze of lemon

3-mushroom camembert thyme pastry

Grape cake with ginger honey sauce

All the new dishes turned out pretty good and are all going into my own trusted recipe book. The eggplant was a real surprise. But I like eggplant, so i might be a little biased! ;)

Grand opening of Markers Bar

The Marker family unveiled their new bar tonight and as we are VIP's we got a red carpet invite.

The bar is very impressive and well worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.  If you go ask for the Millser special..

Tom Cruise pouring drinks

Christmas Greetings and gifts from Julius

When we were in the Philippines, Siew Gin met a great friend Poppy and her son Julius and Tyler got on really well..

Shortly after we left the Philippines, Poppy, Julius and Holger went back to Germany and this week we received a Christmas parcel from them..

Thanks Julius

It was partially wrapped in a ministop bag which reminded me so much of the Philippines and also the time that Tyler met the ministop man and was afraid of him..

Ministop Man

The day the snowman died

Tyler, Cody and Daddy built a snowman on the deck during the last big snow fall on December 22nd and today it finally melted after nearly a month..

Not sure when we will get our next snowfall, but we will get Siew Gin to build the next one !!

All that is left of the snowman..

Shuffle to the beat

After steaks we listened to music from iPad's and iPhones through appleTV and one of our crowd was desperate to play a black eyed peas song, so I finally relented and connected her iPhone to the network.  In order to do this I needed the mac address and while checking I noticed that she only had '4' songs on her phone.

Looking further this was even more hilarious on seeing that the 'shuffle option'..

Shuffle those 4 songs !!

Steak au Poivre

I've been making steaks for the group for quite sometime now(Damith has since got his own grill and does half the steak nights) but we've always been quite conservative with our choice of marinade. I did try out a tamari-cumin sauce on the group and i'm not sure they noticed.

This week  for our routine steak nights, i thought i'd just go for a different steak(ok, still the same cut). Steak au Poivre or simply pepper steak looked particularly tempting to me and it involved a different way of cooking which excited me. What? Variety is the spice of life.. tee hee..

So, out of 5 people i got 3 adventurous people to join me on this new adventure! And i have to admit, i had fun doing it. Here are some pics:

Steak not grilled but fried in butter...

Flambed with brandy

Topped up with cream

Meat, alcohol and fire!! What can go wrong and it is definitely my current favorite steak and all that tried it agreed! Yummm.... 

Cody Winter Concert Review

The kids from Glee are safe for the moment !!  We got the DVD back from Cody's Winter concert today and he did make it to the stage, but spent most of the time facing the wrong direction and looking aimlessly in the sky..

Here are a couple of screen captures from the DVD..

What is going on?

Is that a bird?

The class idiot

As part of my new years resolution, i would like to get better at cake decorating. So, i decided to take a cake decorating class at the local hobby shop.

So, on Tuesday i headed over there after work planning to register just before the class start but of course i came late and had the teacher glaring at me with evil eyes and snide comments. But i was determined and sat down.

Class was quite informative and after about what felt like an hour, i thought "the class must be wrapping up soon". That's when the teacher say, "OK, if you would like to take out your tips and icing, we can do a little practice."

I was like "huh??.. What??.. what tips? " And sure enough everybody whips out their fancy packets of decorating tips and icing and i sat there stuttering like an idiot and saw that i did come into the class with a blue sheet that had a list of things to bring for the first day of class! Doh!!!

She told me maybe i can watch.. so i said ok.. since the class is going to end anyways. Then the went around tinkering with their tips and bags and icing while i watched and after a while she said, "now, that you are ready, you can practice on your cookies!". I was like "what??? what cookies??!!"

At this point, i said to her, i'll just got get the stuff since the class is in the shop!! She said OK but my classmates, sweet ladies, told me i could just share theirs. I was like.. OK.. that'd be nice..

So, i got to practice some stars.. which i already knew how to make and the class turned out ok in the end.

Of course, at the end of the class, after i missed 2 of Alan's calls, i decided to check the time and found that the class had extended by an hour. And i had to open my mouth.. "Is this class one hour or 2?? And the teacher looked sadly at me and sad.. "It's 2 hrs, dear.."

Now, i know what it feels to be the slacker and idiot in class.. *sigh*

Eats & Sweets

Tyler finished his Kumon reading quickly today, so we took a quick detour to Eats & Sweets to check out their ice cream and cakes.

Cody wasn't interested in the ice cream, Tyler tried the choc pudding icecream and Daddy got the chocolate mousse...

The boys then found the play area and rode the airplane until it was time to go home...

Chocks away

Tyler Skiing at Eldora

Tyler had the day off from school for MLK so Alan took Tyler to Eldora for a ski lesson.  We signed him up for the yellow class, but when the report card came back it looked more like he was in the red class !!

Skiing lessons are quite expensive, around $120, and when I got the report card back I saw that he could

1. Know which skis are his
2. Walk around on his skies
3. Get up by himself
4. Make a wedge.

We didn't see ticks for

1. Turn using a wedge
2. Stop by turning
3. Stop by using a wedge
4. Ride surface lifts.

Which is all quite strange, as when I saw him he could at least stop using a wedge, ride the surface lift, and was doing some of the wedge turns !!

All in all, I did see some skiing from Tyler..

These Skis are heavy !!

Practicing my turns

Riding the magic carpet

On the big slope

Yes I can ski !!

Tyler managed to last all day skiing and seems to enjoy it, so we will continue to work on his skiing.  There was 5 inches of snowfall while we were there so the journey home was pretty tough and Tyler slept through most of it.

Winking challenged

On our drive home today, Tyler suddenly said, "Look, mommy. I don't have to hold my eye anymore!". I was like.. WHAT??!!

I turned around and saw him straining this entire face to try to wink! Ha!!! But he was right, he didn't need his finger to shut one of his eyes. It was a valiant effort but unfortunately, he may have his daddy's winking challenged genes!!

I had retake this picture a few times to show him he was doing a good job!

This is his Daddy's best effort!

Party Time

Tyler got invited to his first US birthday party this week for his school friend Sarah and it was hosted at the little gym in Westminster.

Tyler really got into jumping and climbing on the gym equipment, and even ate some of the cake..

None of the small children managed to smash the piñata, but it did eventually break and Tyler managed to grab some candy.

Who is that monkey?

Balance beams are easy !!

Everybody Conga

Ready for presents

Whack it Tyler

Baking baking and more baking

Alan had wanted to eat meat pie and it took all of my effort to not cave in to not buy the store bought ready made pie crust. So, Saturday morning,  I woke up and started making my virgin pie crust! And since i was baking, i thought i'd make something for the kids too. Evelyn's cheese straw came to mind. So, i put that together too! :)

Oooh, i also got to use my new pastry cloth and rolling pin sock which made it super easy!!

So, the verdict:

Pie crust turned out perfect. Crumbly and not soggy.

I only did make the short crust. Not sure i'm ready to take on puff pastry yet!!!

Crumbly and cheesy. Kids didn't like it at all but Alan loved it!!

Then on Sunday, I also made some corn bread to use it to accompany my chili. Texture was great though it was a little bland. Turned out the recipe was made for a special homemade cream of corn. Next time, i'll try that. I'll have to get rid of this at work tomorrow with a bit of butter and honey! :)

Creamed Corn Bread

My first pie crust!

Though i've been experimenting a lot of with different cakes and frosting, i've always been intimidated by crusts due to initial crust failures. So, this year, one of my resolutions was to take on crusts! So, when Richard Juday from badminton invited me over for a pecan pie making lunch, i was more than happy to jump to the opportunity.

And it turned out to be pretty simple. Nothing complicated and even easy!! :) But of course the crust veteran was standing right next to me, telling me, nope, too thick, too thin.. a little more.. Next stop, my own pie crust! I also discovered this nifty little thing called pastry cloth and sock. Ordered one right away. Just in time for rolling out my pineapple tarts that i'll hopefully be making in time for Chinese New Year!

My first pie crust

As you can see, my face has ballooned to match the roundness of my pie crust, so, time to do some exercise, me thinks!!! Or less food!!