Sushi Making Fun with Cheng Cheng

Every Sunday is usually a fun day as we get to play with my cousins' kids, cheng cheng and Siyu. So on one particular Sunday, I decided to let them have fun with sushi making!

Here are some of the ingredients. I cooked the tamago on my own as I learnt how to cook it some years ago while other ingredients were mainly prepared by my aunt, Alice.

I cant rem whether this is Aunt Alice or Cousin Pearlyn work but it sure looks appetising!

As for me and cheng cheng, we were both busily playing with the sushi rice stencil which I have bought from Diaso!

Cheng cheng trying to add in some ingredients to the stencil.

Then he tops it up with more sushi rice to cover it.

His masterpiece - the Ikan Bilis Smiley Boy


Mine was the Prawny Smile Bear

A better view of my masterpiece from top view.

Princess Christine asked Cheng Cheng : Guess what happens when they(Ikan Bilis Smiley Boy and Prawny Smile Bear) grow odd?



The aged Ikan Bilis Smiley Grandpa and Prawny Smile Bear
(Cheng Cheng laughs)

Princess Christine's Sunset Porridge by the Sea

Poor Sir woodblock has been sick for since Thurs night with a cold. So on Friday late noon I decided to cook some nutritious porridge for him as I headed home from work. With some inspiration as I make a detour to the supermarket, I thought why not a beautiful sunset porridge to cheer him up?

Here's the ingredients I bought:
- 1 pumpkin (Steam and cut into tiny pieces before adding into porridge)
- 1 can of chicken soup with no msg and artificial flavouring
- 1 can of straw mushroon
- 1 cuttlefish
- 1 packet of fish slices
- 1 packet of mince pork (to make meatballs- one of my specialty which woodblock likes to eat. He always says that the meatballs has a taste of laopo's cooking.)
Total damage: S$13.15


Porridge is perhaps one of the easiest thing to cook with as all you need to do is prepped all the ingredients and add them into the porridge at suitable timings. Within an hour's time......

Princess Christine's Sunset porridge by the sea is ready!!!

This sunset porridge by the sea look so appetising that my sick sir woodblock manage to eat 2 bowls of it (despite of poor appetite). Plus there were loads of his fav meatballs in it!

Of cos I did a little presentation and arrange the fish slices on top to make it look even yummy =) Woodblock was pretty surprise when he woke up for dinner and saw the porridge as he neither expect it to be so pretty in colour (ok the truth was porridge wasnt his cup of tea as he often find it too blend for his taste) nor know that I can cook up a sunset porridge (actually me too, it was a dish out of impulse inspiration.)

The Sunset porridge tastes great with the sweetness of the pumpkin that is infuse in the porridge. The fact that the porridge is filled with loads of seafood like cuttlefish and fish slices, it makes you feel like you are dining by the sea.
A cosy and heart warming dish for my sick woodblock.

Nutrition facts of pumpkin:

Pumpkin contains vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, E, niacin, such elements as magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, silicon and copper. The great number of pectins, contained in the pumpkin, helps to remove the excess of harmful cholesterol from the body. Pumpkin seeds are useful for male potency -lol. Also they can be eaten on an empty stomach to expel helminths.Pumpkin fiber is soft, so it is a valuable dietary product. Pumpkin has a positive effect on people suffering from gastroenteric diseases. Stewed, boiled pumpkin and pumpkin porridge are particularly useful for people with high acidity of gastric juice. Doctors and nutritionists include mashed pumpkin in nutrition of patients with gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. Pumpkin helps to form ulcers’ scars quicker.
Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pumpkin-nutrition-facts-and-tasty-recipes.html

For my busy job, I always end up with skipping lunch and loads of gastric problem since the start of my career and it is a relief to know that pumpkin happens to be able to help me in terms of gastric problems =) Dont worry I did not make woodblock at any of the pumpkin seeds at all =P

BUT perhaps I should add it in next time and pretend that it was a careless mistake of a housewife who forgot to remove the pumpkin seeds.

Posing with my masterpiece =) Ok I looked a little oily after the cooking as I did not have time to wash up after cooking.

BUT this is the true beauty of a glowing housewife in the heart of a husband!!!

Location of Amk Craft Store

For those who are interested in the location of the craft shop in Amk, here's the address:

Elsie Departmental Store
Blk 709 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8
#01-2607
Singapore 560709
p: 64515519

Be a Wedding Glogger!

Now I realise these days there are many people who are into scrapbook album making. Despite there are many scrapbook making materials available these days, it usually intimates me that the costs of some of the simple scrapbook accessories are pretty exorbitant and expensive =( definitely not friendly for the DIY brides who are looking into afforable DIYs.

Here's the good news! With a recent introduction from my colleague due to work related stuff, I discover this NEW IN THING which allows btbs to do something similar to scrapbook making - "GLOGS". GLOGS are basically electronic poster which allows you to embed 101 things inside and many animations and ready graphics are provided that are ready for you to add it in. For those wedding bloggers btb, this is so cool that you can even embed in your own wedding videos etc.

Cant wait to catch a glimpse of a GLOG? Here's a sample I have conjure up to display my upcoming excitement holiday!!!

Golden Palm Tree Resort!!! (http://sepang.swiss-belhotel.com/)

It is simply a much cheaper alternative then to go to the Maldives to us and allow us to get a short getaway to somewhere new and not always just the usual Batam. We have opted to stay in the Premier Traveller Villa

Here's the drooling description of it!:
Our spacious 52 square-metre one bedroom villas elegantly stands on stilts with high ceiling covered with Alang-Alang roofing that offers a warm ambience of the nature. The villa comes with a romantic four-poster king size bed. An outdoor private terrace with deck chairs offers a view of the Straits of Malacca.Our spacious 52 square-metre one bedroom villas elegantly stands on stilts with high ceiling covered with Alang-Alang roofing that offers a warm ambience of the nature. The villa comes with a romantic four-poster king size bed. An outdoor private terrace with deck chairs offers a view of the Straits of Malacca.

Presenting my 1st GLOG ..........................


You can simply click on any of the pics to enlarge it! Yes it is just simply SUPER COOL to the BITS!!!! Luv it to the max.! However, do give it some patience to wait for it to load as the file size is pretty huge. I just hope that glogster will be even further improved next time just like picassa over the years. Making it even more user friendly =)

Ops I forgot to mention, the best thing about glog is that it is a free platform!!!
WOOHOO!!!Hurray to GLOGSTER!!!
So once you complete your glog you can print it out into a hardcopy and display it at your wedding reception.... Your guest will probably think that you hire some professional graphic designer to do the scrapbook for you *winkz*

Be a glogster and start glogging today!!!

Our new bag organiser

Do you have the same kind of mess as we have?

Especially after your work or a day out shopping, we always seem to find ourselves placing our bags on the floor as we lack chair spaces to place our bags. If you are ever staying with your in laws, you prolly understand that your world of storage is pretty kept and packed away in a single room and you will really need to crack your head on how to pack your stuff unless you wanna end up being a messy couple with bags all over the floor like what we had for months that we have been married.

Here's the proof:

Crime Scene 1: Mess made by Princess Christine.

Crime Scene 2: Mess made by Sir Woodblock.

It was great that in the end we found the perfect stoage at IKEA again and this time round, I requested woodblock to try installing the cupboards himself!

It was pretty interesting to see my father in law(FIL) teaching woodblock how to drill the walls etc. For years, my FIL wanted woodblock to take over his biz on metal works but to no avail. I bet he must have felt happy when woodblock volunteer to try himself out this time round. I am very happy that my hubby always listen and fulfil all my little requests. Woodblock pampers me just too much at times.

Woodblock starting to drill the wall on his own! I am so proud of Sir woodblock.

My FIL teaching woodblock on how to install the damper and nails.

The final product!!!

Yay now I have a proper storage for all my bags and a cleaner floor space!!

Did I mentioned that this is actually a shoe organiser??? Who says it must be for shoes *shake headz* .

Next project work I am looking for will be the magazine rack for putting my comic books as I luv to read a bit here and there but my study desk is so filled up that it can hold no more books =(

Any ideas?

Dine like an Imperial Princess

This may seem like a much overdue post on my july bdae, but still I wanna record the beautiful memories and yummy treats from woodblock on my bdae =)



When I open my eyes on the bdae morning, woodblock was no where in sight beside me. Instead, he woke up early in the wee hours(despite being a Sat morn) and bury himself in the kitchen whipping up an imperial cuisine for me - " 一品锅！！！！ " (Imperial Treasure Pot or The First Class Pot)

A short intro on what's the "The first class pot" is about:

孔府一品锅，由皇帝赐名。据说，清朝历代皇帝常到孔府，而孔府也常遣厨师进宫制作孔府佳肴，敬请皇太后、皇帝和后妃品尝。清朝承袭明朝品官等级制，官衔为一至九品，一品为最高，九品为最低，清朝将孔府列为当朝一品官的官府。因而，皇帝对孔府用鸡、猪蹄、鸭、海参、鱼肚等各种珍贵原料烹制成的汤菜，赐名为“当朝一品锅”，成为孔府及所有一品官府名菜，历代相传。


Princess Christine's Translation:
The confucius's first class pot was a name bestowed by the emperor of china during the qing dynasty. During then, there were nine classes of officers with the First class officials as the highest ranking officers while the Nine class officials as the lowest class. Being highly regarded, the confucius's family is treated and known as the first class official's family. Therefore, the emperor calls the dish which make up of all the expensive and rare ingredients created by the confucius family as the "First Class Pot".

WAH SEY


Basically it is a dish which compose of all the superior ingredients like prawns, abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, mushroon, fish maw etc.... Limpets is one of my fav choice of a cheaper alternative for abalone =)

In order to ensure the essence of the various ingredients of the Imperial Treasure Pot is being brought out, woodblock opted for a slow cooker instead.

By the time he was done and serve up the imperial treasure pot in front of Princess Christine, his highness was already drooling from her crazily luxurious brunch!!!

OMG, I can still rem the crazily yummy taste of this dish!

All the ingredients used were my fav and I wish to bestow sir woodblock as my royal chef instead.

After the hearty breakfast, woodblock brought me down to Sentosa to take a stroll while waiting for the circus show to start.


I am a pretty good amateur PG at times.

As we were there pretty early, we went down to hard rock cafe to catch some quick bites instead.


Much to my dismay, I find the furnishing of the cafe at RWS still pretty blend and lack the ambience I was looking for in terms of the rock and roll style.

However, the generous serving of yummy hickory chicken wings redeemed everything else at one go.

The best part was the celery with blue cheese dip!!!

After an hour of wait, we were pretty upset that the circus show was canceled. In the end we have to postpone it and catch it on woodblock's bdae celeb instead. Good news was, RWS decided to give us complimentary upgraded ticket(2 levels of upgrade, from $68=>$108) seats to catch the show this time round. Yes I am a sucker for FOC deal. Furthermore, they will be providing us complimentary programme booklet.

After all the disappointment, we decided to head down to the singapore river area for a nice stroll.

Usually I prefer to take the natural shot of woodblock as he always becomes too tense when he is aware of me shooting at him. See isnt the smile so fake?

Next stop, fullerton hotel! Nope we arent spending our bucks on a hotel stay at fullerton. We were there to catch the largest Kueh Lapis cake on display!


As usual, when it comes to food, woodblock wants to have his fair share of the pie. So I was force to help him take a pic of "his blissful moment" to add on to his life journey accomplishments.

The Kueh Lapis Fullerton is simply gorgeous!!! After a fulfiling moment of admiring at the fullerton's chef great masterpiece, we headed to the food fair at clark quay river.

The fair was swarm with both locals and tourists! It was so difficult to find a table to dine at.

Woodblock enjoying some of the traditional foodfare.

After fillinf up our partially hungry tummies, we headed back to the merlion area to await for our ting kat cruise.

Guess what? There was a traditional puppet show held at the merlion!



It's been ages I have seen one since my kindergarden school days!

A pose with the MBS. My face looks kind of plump weeks ago after my disaster short haircut. I am so glad that my hair is now much longer and my face looks so much slimmer now.

While we were at the dock, I almost drool at the pretty tingkat which was suppose to be distributed to us to bring home as souvenir later!!! I have yet gotten a chance to bring my vintage chio ting kat out for a picnic session yet and I plan have one soon during school holidays.

Here's our cruise ride!

It was exciting to be seated at all the elaborately decorated tables. This candle is actually an electric candle but it looks so much like a real candle!! Very romantic. If only if I know where to get a candle like this, I will place it around my bedroom if I ever have a house next time.

Even the seats are adorned with comfy pretty pillows!

The whole boat felt like a mini banquet area as even the 2 corners of the board was decorated with centerpieces.

Princess Christine with the fabulous ting kat!

As for woodblock, he just cant wait to dig in!

The sumptous spread of traditional food fare from the 5 dialects!






The hearty couple!

Cute mini chicken rice balls!

It was great savouring the yummy traditional food fare while enjoying the scenery ride along the singapore river. There was even a tour guide on the boat who will introduce to you about the various history of the singapore river.

The organiser was very thoughtful to prepare the recycle bags for us to do takeaway for our ting kats!

Princess Christine hopes to have such a vintage romantic dining again!