Wednesday 19 September 2012

Bento Making Reise On-Hold

I was so obsessed with bento art after I’ve got my bento making tools.

I can definitely improve my decorative skills, but only if IZ starts eating them! He was so fascinated by the shapes and patterns I made that he didn’t want to eat much, sad!

7th Sep'12: First trial for dinner - really difficult to get these smiley faces! I wish I had a pincer..
7th Sep'12 Fruits for desserts - IZ was reluctant to eat the butterfly strawberry
8th Sep'12: Tried to shape a hard-boiled egg, apparently the egg was not big enough to fill the mould
8th Sep'12: Breakfast without egg then, but IZ didn't want to eat the whole plate, just wanted to admire them, duhz!

8th Sep'12: 11 fine multi grain cooked with pumpkin served on smiling star!

9th Sep'12: Brown mixed plain rice with cod fish & ngoh hiang - unfortunately he didn't want to destroy the bunny
Until IZ is slightly bigger, eats while appreciating the efforts I put in to be artistic, I guess I have to put this project on-hold for the time being.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Baked Potato with Cheese & Ham! 16th Sep'12

I was inspired by the potato skin I had with friends on Friday evening at Tony Roma's that I wanted to do the same at home.

Tony Roma's Infamous Potato Skin!
The first trial, I tried to simulate the same, but the end product didn’t look nor taste anywhere near.
1st Trial
On Sunday, I wanted to try again, as we have Pamesan and Cheddar cheese, I thought I do not want them to turn mouldy without using again. I altered a little, but cutting the potato skinny instead.
 I tried to loop IZ in to help out. He enjoyed playing in the kitchen, I asked him to scoop the cheese onto the potato, he did very well for the first few pieces and gone crazy after.
IZ hard at work
Then I asked him to put chopped frozen ham onto them, he couldn’t help trying some of the ham. Hahahaha! Curious toddler!
Yums!
The end result was much better, and yums!!
End product
PS: IZ likes raw cheese and ham, but not baked ones though!

Friday 7 September 2012

Kitchen Lernen-Reise

Inspired by how IZ was fascinated by kitchen set at his playdate’s, I have been contemplating to get him a kitchen set. But most of the kitchen sets available in the market are in pink. In addition, they look pretty fake to me.
Playing with Keira's kitchen set
IZ was also fascinated by the kitchen set at Ikea, but no way would I buy such expensive toy, girly toy at that. I wouldn’t dream of IZ becoming a chef, but oh well, if he decided cooking is his passion, then so be it.
I also looked for pots and pans in Ikea, but find them too big and doesn’t make economical sense.
In the end, I’ve got a better idea. Why not try Daiso? Everything’s S$2 there!
Alas. I bought these for his kitchen set!
Lovely kitchen set I chose for IZ :-D
And I bought these to kick myself making some nice bentos for him. Hahaha.. at the back of my mind, I am so ambitious, imagining all kind of cute bento for him so he would enjoy meal time more. But thinking is easier than done. I’m horrified to think I have to wake up half hour earlier to make bento breakfast for him, and more so as I do not have creativity whatsoever running in my blood!
My bento tools!
Thus, I contemplated to start over the weekend. Hahaha! Ya, tons of excuses, isn’t it? Stay tuned for mum’s bento lernen-reise!

Science 101: 5th Sep'12

As I need to trial and err which are the activities suitable for IZ who has just turned 21 months, I thought of growing bean sprouts out of green bean. I’m sure he thinks nothing of the beans sitting on the cotton wool, but I would like to see his reaction when the beans start to sprout.
I’m not sure how long it’ll take though. Hahaha.. I shall walk through the experiment with him!
Day 1
Day 2

Day 3
Edited on 19th Sep'12:

Day 4


Day 5


Day 6


Day 7


Transferring to soil!


1st Night in soil


Next morning! Amazing growth!

IZ's 1st Baking: 5th Sep'12


I downloaded an app on iPad called Donut Maker by Crazy Cats Inc. There are a few donut maker apps, the one we installed as below, for free:
Snapshot of the app in iTunes


IZ loves this app so much that he would make donuts each time he sees the iPad. I don’t really let iPad lying around much since he could say “pad”. Ya, unless when you wish to have that few moments of peace. Nevertheless, he would call out to you “mama mama” and try to get you involve in whatever app he is using, EVERYTIME without fail.
You get to drag the ingredients onto a plate and stir and move on to the next steps etc. I especially like the sound effect when an egg is placed on the plate, or butter splashed on the plate. Then you get to roll and mold the donuts and deep fry them to brown. Once you fried 6 donuts, you’ll get to go to the next step to decorate the donut with frosting, etc.
But then, imagine rolling using your pointer?! That’s exactly what my hubby said. It’s not a good app for IZ as he would think that rolling just need to use his pointer.
Rolling a dough using your pointer
And that’s when an idea came to mind. Perhaps I should make some real donuts so IZ can be “corrected”. So in the evening, after dinner, I pulled IZ (seated on his high chair) to the kitchen and started measuring the ingredients, mainly flour, sugar, butter, egg, baking powder, and salt.
IZ enjoyed the process very much, at the end of it, he put his messed hands onto his face and head. I didn’t think much of it, as I like to let him explore, but when I bathed him later, I saw his skin actually developed some red rashes, allergic to one of the ingredients I suspect. The rashes came and go fast though.
Kneading the dough
Rolling it flat
Tasting raw flour
Donut shape cut
In the end, the end product came out crispy but not as soft (coz I changed the multipurpose flour to plain flour – oh well, our multipurpose flour nearing expiry, and I saw some ugly black stuffs in them so I threw them away).
IZ loves donut so much he kept wanting more!
Success!

Thursday 6 September 2012

IZ's Speech Reise: 6th Sep'12

He hasn't been very vocal compared to some other playdates, who are plus-minus half a month younger or older.

Latest addition to his vocab at 21 months: more, pour, cut, no, eight, egg, purple, bubble, book, put, zhuo (sit in Chinese).

Pretty much still one syllable word eh!

To recap: Words he could say at 19 months: yi, er, ba, mei you (don't have in Chinese) and ah, ber, ker sound of a, b and c, heart, frog, crab, clock, hua (flower in Chinese), bear, milk.