DRIED 'WHATCHAMACALLIT' SEAFOOD VARIETY

This TCM (traditional chinese medicine) shop was a curious stopover after a family lunch. On top of the usual, conventional stuff like mushrooms, medicinal herbs, dried prawns, anchovies and scallops, on display were also heaps of weird-looking dried chinese medicines and sea products, some of which I didn't even have names for... here are just a handful of what was available, Most of the stuff sold were known for their medicinal value for health. Dried seahorses -known as a fertility booster.

Dried Seadragons, Shark's fins, sea cucumbers and whatnots..

Oh well, as they say: "The chinese will eat just about anything that lives, breathes, crawls and moves..."

PINEAPPLE TARTS

During the trip to Singapore, my sis decided let's make some pineapple tarts-great for alleviating the boredom of her two girls at home and munching on for the whole family, ..plus it gives my mum an assignment for the day... to transfer her skills. Well, found out if you knead the dough too hard, the pastry actually becomes too hard as well. The trick is to keep pinching the flour and rubbing them with your fingers into the butter...not a skill the impatient will master. My niece complained of sore arms after having to stir the pineapple paste for too long. We were afraid the pineapple filling wasn't enough for the pastry so the 1st few trays were rather stingy on filling. Then too much filling at the end, so my nieces resorted to making 'Dolly partons' to use them up- fillings with generous proportions....

Jordie tried his hand at 'painting' on the egg white coating. He loves those pineapple tarts.

Well, it was a nice girls' bonding session between me, my sis, my mum and my two nieces. The boys were just waiting to gobble them down, that's all.....Sad to say, I don't think I shall attempt this in Australia because it is just too much work and not enough mouths around to enjoy them. Pineapple tarts don't keep very well and get mouldy very quickly especially in humid weather.

REUNION WITH COUSINS, FOLKS AND FRIENDS.. & FOOD.

Enjoyed our short but nice trip bk to KL and Singapore. We spent most of the time catching up with family and some friends. Jordie had the chance to rekindle old bonds with some close friends and cousins from both sides of the family. He has a total of 14 cousins so he found it great fun catching up with all of them, both young and old... with the exception of Matthew and Jonathan, my sis's kids from USA,.. oh well,, maybe next year??

Definitely, food was up on the list of faves this trip. He wanted to taste all the foods he had missed i.e. yau char kwai, Rotiboy's famous coffee buns, Auntie Annie's seaweed pretzel, fishballs, Beard Papa's cream puffs, kuih lapis, wantan mee... & the list is pretty long... but certainly Jordie knows what he prefers..

I was wondering if he could fit in his uniform when school reopens. "All I can say is, I've gotta enjoy all this while I can!" is his favourite quip. When we first arrived in Singapore, I found it hilarious that his cousin Yang was wearing exactly the same shirt that Jordie was wearing... sooo cute-cidental.

Most of his cousins are at least 4 years older than him with the exception of little Isaac & Isabel, kids of his youngest uncle.

ONE, TWO, SLURP!

When it comes to mango slushie..or any slushie, we usually have to stop him from downing too much, the condition is that he must share. And Daddy usually doesnt complain about having to help out either ....so, here comes the suck-down, it's a race to the bottom...

EPISODE 38: FONDNESS FOR FONDUE

Have always had a fondness for fondue. We wanted to get a chocky fountain actually just for the heck of it, it was only $20 but sold out at ALDI, so we improvised for christmas eve dinner. Samuel decided that we could still use our small induction cooker with a tiny steel pot to make our chocolate fondue dip and so we bought some cooking chocolate and melted it and viola, very nice fondue for Jordie's fave marshmallows, bananas, nectarines,... strawberries very expensive this time of year, so we opted for rockmelons (cantaloupes) instead.

This was our Christmas dinner spread: seafood pasta, salads and smoked salmon+ of course the fondue.

The smoked salmon was simply divine. Very nicely smoked with delicate flavour and not too salty, with subtle crispy skin. We bought it from the Mudgeeraba Christmas Farmers' Market on the same morning from a smokehouse owner and it was a real yummy treat for us. After dinner, our 'Manna' neighbours from across the street, sweet Ann & Mike came across when they heard us singing carols around our piano and passed us lots of other sweet goodies like cupcakes and trifles... ooh overwhelming... . No, we didn't intentionally start out singing for our 'desserts', they just wanted to bless- again.. More than ever this year, I appreciate family, friends and all that I have. I am so blessed to be here today, with a loving hubby and son and thank God for His provision through all the seasons, and especially so for this season.

BBQ PICNIC @ BURLEIGH HEADS

Me and some girl friends had been mumbling about getting together for some time. So, after a a friend's exams at Bond, we decided it was a good time to hang out. We had a great time at the beach yesterday and the weather was lovely.

It was our first time using the BBQ pit at the beach so we didn't really know what to expect. Oh well, we just went and did it. The GC beaches have pretty good facilities for picnickers and barbie fans. (The Aussies call BBQ 'barbie' by the way). They come equipped with plugpoints, 2 BBQ electric tops,

and tap at the side (the one we got couldn't turn on tho..) and a sink for washing as well as a hot water boiler for making coffee and stuff..

with picnic benches and shaded areas as well in case it rains. Since the rest were late, we decided to start the cooking first.

Jordie soon found himself surrounded by hungry ibises hankering for foodscraps...

The gals came with their boyfriends and it was our first time together actually. We had never met the guys prior to this but we had a great time getting to know each other.

The weather was so nice and windy, we didn't realise just how lethal the sun could still be to the skin. So, here's the price I paid for fun in the sun... with no protection.... Duo coloured very painful arms and chest... OUCH!

EPISODE 37: CHRISTMAS AGAIN

Christmas ... 5 days to countdown.. but this year, I am off baking, my mixer just blew and I didn't want to rush to get another one because I wanted to get a really good one this time to last me another 2 decades, hopefully... if I live that long...

So, sorry Jordie, no gingerbread man 4u this year.. He was busily writing christmas cards to his friends at school and class teacher. The other day, I happened to peek at what he wrote and was so amused.. in his card to school teacher, he wrote, "Dear Mrs Norman, thanks for being a great teacher, and giving me awards twice this year. And remember to have a great time and nice rest this holidays. AND ..I hope you have a sensible class next year. Love, Jordan.".

Well we just got a small Christmas tree this year just to get into the festive mood. A cute one with fibre optics lights and 30 carol tunes and it revolves. On the high-tech side, but looks great in the dark, sitting on our console table. We decided we didn't want another big tree to worry about packing up later.

This Christmas, we will be spending time with Mum Beryl as she won't be making it to church and her children won't be in town. So, we are planning to cook lunch, then bring it to her place to celebrate the day with her plus a bit of carolling.

OTHELLO

Jordie loves a good game of Othello.

Had been teaching him to play it and he's actually getting good at it. Now... his colour must always be white, as good conquers evil. Here, looks like he's winning.... then daddy makes a surprising comeback....ooh trouble! FOCUS..FOCUS...