Mama's Bag Of Tricks

I followed this recipe for Steamed Stuff Chinese Cabbage Rolls from 3hungrytummies. All my kids give it the thumbs up. My younger son has requested that I cook it again. I am glad they love it because I wasn't sure if they would eat the chinese cabbage. However, they gobbled up everything happily.

Okay, so there are 3 parts to preparing this dish. First you have to prepare the mince meat. It is a combination of minced pork and prawns. Then you have to prepare the chinese cabbage. You have to boil it first to get it soft. Spoon the mince meat onto the cabbage leaf and roll it up. Steam it for about 10-15 minutes. The last part is to prepare the sauce to pour over the cabbage.

Not terribly difficult to do. For the full recipe, visit the link to 3hungrytummies above. I don't want to take away her thunder. Heheheh. She's got pictures to show you how to do it too. Enjoy!

So often, parents spend much of their time attempting to keep toddlers clean. This summer why not let them get a little dirty? What better way is there to introduce a child to the joys of nature than to allow him or her to help out in the garden? Here are some fun, child-friendly ways to keep your toddler entertained outdoors.

1. Even the very young can be involved in the gardening experience. From an early age children love to mimic what Mom or Dad does. Provide your toddler with some child's plastic gardening tools and set aside a small area of the garden where he or she can dig, hoe and water freely. Even though children this age may be too young to handle plants, they will enjoy discovering things like worms!

2. Choose brightly colored plants that grow quickly for your child's garden. You can even create a rainbow of similarly sized flowers by planting them in arched rows. With a little imagination these bright blossoms will become bouquets, necklaces, crowns and more!

3. Introduce your toddler to a world of fragrances and textures by planting unique plants and herbs. Fragrant varieties include mint, chamomile, catnip, aloe, rosemary, lavender or scented geraniums. Mimosa pudica, or the 'touch-me-not' plant has leaves which curl up if you touch them. Such plants as lamb's ear, cotton, silver sage, globe thistle, and African sundew provide a range of tactile sensation.

4. Planting in unusual containers can also make gardening with toddlers fun and exciting. Whether you paint faces on pots, let them help you made oddly shaped clay planters, or hang dried gourds around the garden, your child will enjoy the variety.

5. Who doesn't love a garden that you can eat? Kids love planting vegetables and watching them grow into something that might one day end up on their dinner table! Toddlers enjoy harvesting as well. Give your child a basket and let him/her help pick the produce when it is ready. You can also intrigue your child by planting vegetables that come in unusual colors such as blue potatoes, red corn, and purple peas.

6. Toddlers and children aged three and up can create crafty projects that will attract wildlife to your garden. Help your child thread things like raisins, dried apricots, peanuts in the shell, and plain Cheerios cereal onto a string of garden twine to form an edible garland. This can then be hung in your garden or draped across the top of a fence for the birds to enjoy!

7. If you have the space, creating a sunflower house for your child can open up a world of experiences and imagination. Mark off a square area large enough that when you plant giant sunflowers around the perimeter, there will still be room to maneuver inside. The inside area can be planted with clover, chamomile, peppermint, spearmint and other fragrant flowers and herbs which are edible or child-friendly. Be sure that anything you plant in a toddler garden is non-poisonous. If your sunflower house is spacious enough, little garden benches can even be placed inside. The sunflower canopy will provide adequate shade, and children will be fascinated by the variety of butterflies and other insects that visit their "home."

Authors Biography:
Briana Kelly has over 5 years experience of content writing in the area of preschool and early education on behalf of Giraffe Childcare http://www.giraffe.ie

Last week I was very lucky to escape unhurt from a car accident. Just take a look at the pictures.




Mine is the big grey car in front with the back totally smashed in. This accident involved 6 cars. The gold color Toyota is the one who caused it all to happen. I was already stopped at the traffic light. This guy, for some crazy reason, didn't slow down. He rammed into the car at the back of me, who veered to the right and hit another 2 cars. He then continued to smash into the back of my car. Unfortunately, that caused me to bump into the car in front of me.

The impact was pretty hard. It knocked my spectacles off my face. When I got down from the car, some people were calling to the Toyota driver to wake up. He was unconscious and they tried to pull him out of the car. But it looked like his leg was kinda stuck, plus he was a heavy guy. He did gain consciousness eventually. The next time I looked around for him, he was already whisked to the hospital. The rest of us victims were left to figure out the mess.

Okay, so..... this is what I've learned about what to do in an accident.

• For your police report, you'll need to know everybody's car registration number, car make and model, what road the accident took place, what time it took place, where were you coming from and where were you going. Note down all the damages to your car.
• Exchange names and phone numbers. Make sure you have a pen or pencil handy in the car. I was quite shocked I almost forgot how to enter a new phone number into my handphone's directory. 
• You will probably be approached by guys who say "I can handle everything for you". Don't be too hasty to say "yes" to anyone. If you've signed up with certain Car Breakdown services, check with them if they can assist you with the accident. We are AAM members and I didn't know AAM has such services. I only knew when my brother told me.
• The guy that caused the accident had an expired driver's license. Initially, we were told that he didn't have a driver's license, and this was bad because then his insurance does not have to pay. But since it is only expired, we are able to make the claim against his insurance. If the accident is not your fault, file a "No-fault Own Damage" claim with your insurance company. This is also known as a KFK (Knock-for-Knock) claim. With this claim, you don't have to lose your NCD. However, this claim depends on the police investigation report (not your own police report). If the police investigation report says it is the other guy's fault, then you are good for the KFK claim.
• One guy told me that I should wait to get my car towed. If I drove it and got into another accident, I won't be able to make any insurance claims. This is true but at that time, I wasn't sure if I could trust the guy. So, I drove slowly to the police station. Talking about police station, make sure you go to the right branch.
• Your car needs to be repaired by a workshop that is on the insurance company's panel. After you file your claim, the insurance company will assign an adjustor to evaluate the cost. 
• What you need for your claim: Photostat copy of your IC, car owner's IC, insurance policy, car registration card, your police report, police investigation report and police sketch plan.
  

It is a miracle that nobody else was hurt in this accident. I did heed my friends' advice and went to get an x-ray for my neck and back, just to be sure. You can actually claim this if you have a Personal Accident Insurance. I only felt the effects of the accident the next day. My body just felt so tired and I collapsed on the bed for a few hours.

Oh, one last thing, I am glad I didn't have my children in the car with me. So, if you have babies/toddlers, please please please strap them up in a car seat. You just don't know when an accident will happen.

I love lotus roots. However, the only way I've ever cooked it is in soup.


Well, DH once again passed to me a newspaper clipping of a recipe. This time it is for LOTUS ROOTS WITH FRAGRANT SAUCE. It tastes okay. I think next time, I will blanch the lotus roots first. I prefer it a little bit softer. Maybe I'm just used to having it soft like in soup. Also, I found the color of my dish is different from the picture in the newspaper. Mine looks more brown whereas the pix in the paper, the lotus root looks more yellow. Do you guys have the same experience of having your dishes NOT look like the pictures of the recipes you follow?

I am trying to locate the original recipe online but can't seem to find it. Well, here it is for your convenience:

LOTUS ROOTS WITH FRAGRANT SAUCE
INGREDIENTS:

• 400g lotus roots, cut into slices
• 1 onion, quartered
• 50g red capsicum, cut into strips
• 1 stalk spring onion, cut into 2.5cm lengths
• 8 dried chillies, cut into halves (I didn't want it so spicy because of the kids, so I just put in 1-2).
• 6 slices ginger
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

SAUCE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp black vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder
• 125ml fresh chicken stock
• 2 tbsp cornflour

HOW TO COOK:

1. Heat up sesame oil in your wok. Saute dried chilli until fragrant.
2. Add in ginger slices and onion. Stirfry for a while.
3. Add lotus roots and pour in the sauce.
4. Let it boil. Then add the capsicum and spring onion.
5. Stirfry to combine everything.

Here's another recipe that I tried today: LOTUS ROOT WITH SALTED EGG (Kam Heong Lotus Root)
I've had this before in a restaurant in Kepong. Absolutely fell in love with it. The lotus roots are crispy and the blend of garlic, curry leaves and salted egg is just heavenly. Have been wanting to replicate the dish at home and finally, I did. If you love the taste of salted eggs, you'll love this dish. I got my directions on how to cook this dish here.


Here's the recipe.
LOTUS ROOT WITH SALTED EGG
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lotus root. This dish above was from 1 lotus root as long as a pen. Slice it as thin as possible.
• Curry leaves
• 3-4 salted eggs.
• Minced garlic.
• Butter
• Red chilli, sliced thin. If your kids don't like chilli, maybe just use half a chilli or omit it entirely. 
• 2 parts rice flour to 1 part corn flour

HOW TO COOK:
Frying the Lotus Root

• After you slice the lotus root, boil it in a mixture of water and vinegar for about 5 minutes. Apparently it is suppose to stop the root from turning brown. 
• Drain the lotus root and pat dry with kitchen towel.
• Mix rice flour and corn flour together. The recipe I looked up uses tapioca flour. I didn't have that so I used rice flour-corn flour as it will also make the lotus roots crispy when fried.
• Coat the lotus roots with the flour mixture and then fry them in oil. Don't have to wait until it turns golden brown before taking them out. When I did that, the chips ended up a bit burnt and tasted bitter. Take them out as they are about to turn brown. You'll see that it will continue to cook after you take them out and you'll have that nice golden brown color after all. 
• Put aside your lotus root chips.

Getting the Salted Egg Ready

• According to the recipe I looked up, you crack the salted egg and scoop out just the yolks. After that you steam the yolks. I don't like the idea of wasting the egg whites. So what I did instead was leave the eggs uncracked and boiled them until cooked (like hard boiled eggs). After it was cooked, I just cut the eggs in half and scooped up the yolks.  Egg whites can be eaten by anyone who wants to.
• Mash the egg yolks.

Putting The Whole Dish Together

• Fry the garlic with butter. Add in curry leaves and chilli. Fry till fragrant.
• Add in the mashed egg yolks. 
• Toss in the lotus root chips and mix well.
• Add sugar and salt to taste.

So there you have it, 2 different ways to cook lotus root (besides just boiling it in soup).

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I'm sure you'll agree with me that natural disasters are on the rise. Floods, tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires... they all make the news so often these days. If you read the scriptures, you'll know that this was prophesied long ago. These are the signs that tell us the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ is near.

Whether you are a Christian or not, or whether you believe in the scriptures or not, the fact remains that we are headed for troubled times. Not only natural disasters, but other kinds of disasters too. Getting a bit pay cut, sudden lost of business income, losing your job and not being able to find employment is a kind of a personal disaster. Worse if you have a family to feed.

So, are you prepared for a disaster?

One way to prepare is to have food storage and a 72 hour emergency kit. This is not something you can do overnight. It takes a little bit of planning and know-how. You have to know what supplies you need to suit your family. You'll also need to learn what is the best way to store the food. So I would advise you to learn as much as you can about it today, because when disaster strikes, it is too late to learn. And we cannot predict when disaster will strike.

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Scratching your head trying to think up of a Mother's Day Gift? Here's a personal gift that will definitely put a smile on any mother's face. It's a craft that your children can easily do too. Quickly download this as it is not going to be available forever.

Here's the preview to this week's scrapbook kit:

A few nights ago, D1 came up to me before going to bed, and told me what he wanted for breakfast the next morning. He not only told me what he wanted to eat, but proceeded to give me directions on how to cook it. I smiled as I listened to my 9 year old boy teaching his mother how to cook.

So, what is this special dish... SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH BREAD.

Directions:
Break up 1 piece of bread into bite size pieces.
Crack eggs into the wok.
Before it cooks, add in the pieces of bread.
Scramble it together.
Add in a little soy sauce.

How many of you have cooked eggs this way before?

P.S. The next morning, he asked me to stand aside as he took over the wok and cooked the dish himself :)

We just celebrated Mother's Day last Sunday. The few days before that, my kids busied themselves making my Mother's Day card. Nobody had to tell them to do it. Somehow, making cards and writing notes has become one of their ways of showing love and appreciation. They also do it to show their dissatisfaction. I've had both "I love you" and "I don't like Mommy" notes. Heheheh.

So anyway, I've seen how over the years, my kids card making skills have progressed. As they grow older, the cards get more interesting, especially with my eldest girl. And no doubt, the younger siblings are following her footsteps. Her cards are not the simple open-and-shut kind of cards. She always adds flaps here and there for me to flip open. This year, she even added a "mystery bag" which had candy inside. My son, D1, also had a little surprise in his card. When I open the card, there's a little pocket containing 2 homemade bookmarks. D2 is only 5 years old and so his card isn't as sophisticated yet as his older siblings. But I'm sure he will soon follow their pattern of making cards that have an extra special flavor.


Just want to quickly share what my daughter wrote in her card:

Have a Happy Mother's Day. Mothers are very important. Mothers are kind, cheerful, generous and a lot more. Mothers are the most fantastic people in the world. Mothers are very precious. If there are no mothers, there won't be any living things in the world. Mothers are always thinking about us. Mothers are the one we must remember. Mothers do a lot of things for us. So, Happy Mother's Day. You are the best one in the world.

So mothers everywhere, as you can see we have to live a very high standard. Our children expect great things from us. Not only that, it is obvious that our children learn who mothers are and what they do by watching us. So take a moment to ponder what legacy you are passing on.

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. And may we all have the strength and inspiration to continue being the best mothers we can be.