This was actually Mal’s birthday cake. His rocket cake was transformed from this round nutella butter cake (it was slightly burnt due to the oven temp) which I was so eager to try out since I saw it on Happy Home Baking. The recipe doesn’t look very sinful and the best part is the assurance that was given for a successful bake even without using an electric mixer (the last time I baked without a mixer was during home economic lessons during secondary school!). So I creamed the butter and sugar with a plastic spatula. (I wonder if the cake will turn out better if a wooden one was used instead)

It was a lot of hard work but it was well worth the effort as my boy loved it and I had also saved my hubby from self destruction by helping him finish up the nutella.

These are the steps:
1. Baked Nutella Butter cake (Happy Home Baking Nutella Butter Cake Recipe or see below if you are using a spatula to cream)
2. Cut and arrange the rocket
3. Coat rocket with Nutella Ganache (see below for recipe)
4. Coat the sides of rocket with orea biscuit crumbs
5. Decorate with M&Ms

Nutella Ganache
Ingredients :
1 cup Nutella
1 cup heavy cream

Method :
Melt the Nutella and cream over low heat, stirring constantly, until smoothly blended.
Let it cool.

Nutella Butter Cake
Ingredients:
225g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 salt
85g butter, soften at room temperature
3 tablespoons Nutella spread
150g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt

Method:
1. Preheat oven at 180 degC. Line bottom of a 20cm (8″) round pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides of the pan, set aside.
2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Mix together yoghurt and vanilla essence.
4. With an electric mixer spatula, beat butter and nutella for 1 min.
5. Gradually add in sugar and beat on high speed for about 3 mins. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl periodically.
6. Dribble in the eggs slowly, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beat constantly for about 2 mins.
7. On low speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in 1/2 of the yogurt mixture. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour mixture. On high speed, beat in the remaining yogurt mixture. On low speed, beat in the rest of the flour mixture. Fold in flour mixture alternating with the yoghurt mixture in 3 separate additions.
8. Pour batter into into prepared pan, smooth the top evenly with a spatula.
9. Bake for about 45 ~ 50mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. Let cool in pan for 10 mins before unmold. Invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

We caught up with an old friend when we were in Amsterdam.
We ate simple home cooked food at her cozy apartment.
We chat, we eat, we drink and we eat again.

It felt just like home even though
we were thousand of miles away,
in a very foreign land.

We warm up and connect in an instance
even though we have not met for years.

We share our biggest flaws, greatest imperfections and darkest secrets.
We open our hearts and bare our souls
knowing that we will never be hurt.
There seems nothing too personal.

We disagree and argue,
And we agreed to disagree
After all we are all different
and To Each His Own.

We are not perfect
and have our own shortcomings
But through the years,
we have learnt the virtue of
embracement and acceptance.

We were both caught up in our busy lives
and many times, we made little effort to keep in touch
yet somehow, no matter where we are
we know we can turn to each other during time of adversity
a phone call or an email is all it takes.

There is no need for flowery language and polite greetings
a simple and straight forward
‘I am screwed’
we are free to
pour out our hearts and
cry out our lungs.

It is all these
and maybe more
that makes this union so special.

And to have this in a lifetime
I should die happy.

~ me

Lately, my boy decided to add fish to his list of favourite food and since then he has been begging me to cook fish EVERYDAY! So other than mushroom, fish has become the next regular dish on our dinner table.

In Paris, it is hard to find live fish that is small enough to fit into a dish. They usually come in humongous sizes, enough to feed us a week and are way to big to fit into my fridge. So I end up buying slices of prepared fish most of the time. The names are usually foreign except for salmon.

I never like cooked salmon. The only time I enjoy salmon is when they are raw or smoked. Cooked salmon, be it steam, bake or fry has a fishy stench that puts me off even when served in a restaurant. I have accepted the fact that cooked salmon = fishy stench.

This has however changed since I discovered this recipe. For once, I craved for my baked salmon during our trip in Amsterdam. It is easy, tasty and healthy and I shall crown this the BEST salmon recipe ever!

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
4 (4 ounce) fillets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs and parsley.
3. Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the bread crumb mixture.
4. Bake salmon 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

Served with steam broccoli and carrot

Tips : Pecan nuts can be added together with the bread crumb for a nutty twist
The Djon mustard gives it a spicy taste similar to wasabi. During the 1st time I tried this recipe, Mal who usually doesn’t take spicy food finished up the salmon with lots of water.
Now I prepare his portion separately with less mustard.

Last night, we had our usual chit chat session just before going to bed. The lights were off and the candles were lit. Just before Mal started rambling on about his rockets, we decided maybe we should sing some songs for the night. I searched through my mind and realised how limited my karaoke song list was. I ended up singing our wedding song and a folk song I used to sing to him when he was a baby.

I was side lying comfortably on the sofa with Mal sitting close next to me. With just the dim light from the flickering candles, I could see his eyes gazing gently into mine throughout my singing and there were moments I thought I saw him holding back tears.
I told myself maybe it was the light.

When the singing was over, he looked at me lovingly yet with a strange intensity.
In a soft and serious voice, he said
‘Mummy … thank you for singing to me’

These few words melt my heart and I know I love him to bits.

Spring has finally sprung and we are back from Amsterdam, capital of Holland aka Netherland, the land of windmills, tulips, wooden clogs, home to the renowned painter Vincent Van Gogh and a city where bicycles outnumbered its population.

We traveled in style and in comfort by first class with Thalys in a 6 seats family suite, served with French food, snacks and free flows of wine, coffee and juice. naaah! I was kidding. We did book the 1st class seats but they were only EUR 10 more than the 2nd class. The ‘family suite’ was more like a 6 seats carriage barred from the main carriage probably due to the French’s low tolerance for loud, active and happy kids. A well trained deer faced, apple headed, wide eyed chihuahua will beat a bawling baby at any time. We were lucky to have all 6 seats to ourselves as the other 3 seats were unoccupied. The food served was not Chinese, Japanese or anything we had tried so far, so I guessed it must be french. There were different kinds of cheese and take-as-much-as-u-want baguette, weird tasting rice with sweet orangey marsh. As for the drinks, we did have them free flow but we didn’t ask for wine

A 4 hour train ride from Paris brought us to a city with warm beautiful sunshine, mesmerizing centuries old canals, traditional looking yet innovative bikes which could easily accomodate 3 kids on every street!

We visited the tulip garden and were swept away by the rows and rows of colourful tulip blooms. We strolled a traditional dutch village with old windmills that lined the river. We fed the wild ducks and geese with left over bread crumbs and called them the lazy ones as they detached themselves from the rest of their kind in the wide open field and chose a place near to human habitants hoping to get their food free.

We walked the cobblestone streets and took trams and buses on the city’s extensive public transport network. We basked in the sun for hours and took turns to climb the big alphabets laid out in the wide open field.

We visited the Van Gogh museum which displayed some of the artist’s most notable paintings during his short 10 years span of artistic career from 1880 to 1890. The audio tour told the stories behind many of his work and give a glimpse into the tragic life of this brilliant artist which was marred by illnesses and depression which finally drove him to take his own life at a young age of 37. We signed up Mal for the children audio tour in the museum and he had fun moving from one painting to another looking for the little butterfly sign which showed the number that he could press to listen to the story behind the painting. He did this for an amazing 2 hours! The museum however proved to be too emotionally exhausting for me and I was totally drained after our 3 hours stay in the museum. We were in need of something less intense and that brought us to the next highlight of our trip.

We boarded the partially topless, clear rooftop boat, a 1 hour narrative canal cruise which took us to different part of the city. It feels so good to feel the cool breeze and warm afternoon sun on our cheeks. We missed this warm weather.

I didn’t know there were so many canals in Amsterdam until this tripbicycles bicycles EVERYWHEREwooden clog planted with spring flowersmeals served on board the trainMal was excited to board his 1st bullet trainmal squatting at central stationnotice the audience behind Mal ?

can you spot the baby in the car seat behind this mama. The front carriage can easily fit another 2 kidssitting at the cafe over a cup of espresso is the dutch’s favourite past time
check out this huge wooden clogthe main reason that brought us to Amsterdam was to catch the tulip bloom which is during March to May periodtulip bloom at Keukenhof garden. It was beautiful.a walk along the river bank with view of tulip farm on the other side of riverthe traditional dutch village at Zaanse Schansthe
big ‘I AMSTERDAM’ alphabets at the big field next to Van Gogh MuseumI made it to the top….but now I have problem coming downphotos were not allowed in the museum but we found this souvenir store next to it that sells replicas of the artist’s paintingsan hour narrative canal cruise

We had seen the nice and goody side of Amsterdam and we thought it wouldn’t be complete if we missed the red light district in Amsterdam. We decided to make a trip there just before catching our train on our last day. It was just after noon and we took a short walk along the red light district, just one street away from Chinatown where we had our lunch. We saw skimpily clad women in bikinis and sexy lingerie, showcasing themselves behind wide window panes in broad daylight! Mal was with us all the while but he was more interested in dodging around, trying to keep his feet on the narrow pavement than to notice the aunties strutting their stuff. It was a real eye opener for me and the Dutch baffled me with their bold and liberal laws on prostitution and drugs.

graffiti on the walls by ’street artists’the red light district on both sides of the canal. Photos were not allowed

BEWARE!
Coffeeshop in Amsterdam is not your regular coffee shop that serves coffee

It is our 1st cross country trip in Europe and there were so much to see and discover. I am loving this and hope that I did justice by trying to describe this amazingly beautiful and happy city with my limited vocabulary and the few pictures selected from our more than 800+ photos.

Malcolm turns 4 today. He woke up asking about his birthday party and was a little disappointed when was told that there wasn’t going to be a party for him this year. We could have invited some of our friends over but thought that maybe after 2 years of birthday bash in States, we shall have a simple one this time. It is one of those things that we wouldn’t want him to grow up taking for granted.

So instead, I baked him a cake, actually it is more of, WE baked the cake together. Malcolm helped to bake his own birthday cake today! Mixing, stirring, decorating and waiting patiently for the cake to ‘rise’. He couldn’t hold his excitement after knowing that I am going to give him a ’surprise’ rocket cake. Yeh, I know it is not much of a surprise. He had long figured that out since he was with me most of the time and had saw me pulled hair over how to turn a round cake into a rocket cake. We end up brainstorming together. A little flag I put up on the cake while he was taking his bathe was about the only surprise he got and he was quick to tell us that he loves it

We spent almost 1/2 the day making. Try mixing using a plastic rice cooker spatula and you will find out how much muscle strength was required. Measurement of butter, flour and sugar were purely based on estimation as we don’t have a weighing machine. Thankfully the cake turns out pretty well and we had gobbled up 1/2 the rocket despite after a heavy dinner.

I would personally prefer someone to surprise me with a birthday cake but Daddy consoled me that more importantly is that we all had fun. For me, I wish that this birthday will be another memorable one for him…

Before going to bed, he asked whether I could bake him a cake again next year… an airplane one!

crushing…mixing…

waiting…

decorating

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

P/s : thank you yeeyee and the gang for the birthday song over the webcam

We attended the Soirée Internationale (International Evening), an annual event held by Ecole Militaire in Paris It was a night with free food, drinks and lively music in carnival style. The cultures and food from over 60 different countries were the highlights of the night.

The big field inside the Ecole was dotted with blue and white tentages. Aroma and laughter filled the air. There were Dutch men in colouful wooden clogs and funny hats, Scottish men in tartan skirts, Korean women in hanbok, Africans in tribal dress and Indians in their traditional sari. Our Singaporean friends were cladded in SIA trademark kebaya and batik shirts instead. Daddy was lucky to be given the chance to come this far to meet and work with these people. We were lucky to be with him.

Kids warmed up in an instance and soon they were running around chasing each other. They were the best nannies for one another and that leaves us some time to go ‘country’ hopping. We moved from one tent to another, sampling food and drinks, chatting and meeting new people. Bon soir and bon soirée were the most commonly used words for the night and I was more than happy to meet someone who speak English. By the end of the night, our tummies hurt from the glutting and our tongues were twisted a little after a trying night of parlez français.

As the night wears on, we quietened down. Out in the chilly night, we curled up to each other, waiting in anticipation. The gaiety around us was drowned and slowly faded into silence as our eyes lit up to the spectacular Eiffel Tower night light show ahead, at a distance not too far away.

Every evening after dinner, upon the request of our 4 year old, we will have a chit chat session. This chit chat session involves turning off all the lights, lit up the candles in the living room, sit on the sofa and TALK. Most of the time, we will end up listening to his blabbing on planes and rockets and his Lego creations for the day. At times, it is more damaging as you find us indulging in some sinful yet irresistible french pastries. I am enjoying this new lifestyle but my rationale mind is telling me to STOP! before my lateral growth gets out of control.

Our latest agreement is to reserve those pastries for special occasions and THIS shall STAY SO till the day I unravel the secret behind french women slim and trim figures despite all the cheese, bread and pastry!

Hmm…weekend is round the corner, shall we celebrate? Pâtisserie pour le dessert??!

I love trees. We are lucky to have traveled quite a bit to see some really unusual trees around the world. We have seen beautiful golden forest welcoming autumn, huge giant trees of a few hundreds years old, forest of blackened and charred pine forests brought by natural wildfires, petrified (wood that has turned to stone when they were buried in volcanic ash and debris) forest of a few thousands old, twisted trees believe to be the work of vortex energy, trees which had once inspired renowned painter.

Sometimes during road trips, we would pull over our car on busy highways just to have our picture taken with a beautiful tree. In Singapore, my favouite banyan trees are like old old grandfather with endless tales to tell. They may look strong and majestic yet mysterious and eerie at times, with an immerse power.

Now that we are in Europe, there are more trees waiting to be discovered.

During an evening stroll at the park near our place, I saw this, the silhouette of a winter tree against the blue evening sky. Mother Nature herself may just be the best painter afterall.

We lunched out for the first time at a typical parisian brasserie, La Pointe Saint Eustache. It was at the 1st arrondissement, geographical center of Paris and a haven for tourists where The Louvre, Les Halles and the Palais Royal are located.

beside this old historic churchwe found this brasserie, La Pointe Saint Eustachel’eau in a blue flaskDaddy ordered a Carnard which tastes like roast duck cooked in ang moh style. He loves the potato though I find them too oily
I ordered a steak cooked to moyen. It was a bit tough but it goes super well with the Dijond mustard. Just writing about it makes me drool!this was wrapped around my steak. 100% fatty bacon. I can’t bring myself to swallow, how sinful! Mal had his omelette with bacons…to be exact 3 omelettes!

Shoo dog shoo! this dog, which looks like Tin Tin’s Snowy was seated just like any other patron in the brasserie. Parisians LOVE dogs!

After lunch we took a leisure walk along Les Halles, once a central wholesale marketplace until 1971.

Les Halles

and saw this ooohh laaa laaa, passionate french lovers kissing in the middle of the street!

The walk brought us to Centre Georges Pompidou, the national museum of modern art which also houses a vast public library and a center for music and acoustic research. Mal calls it the ‘funny’ museum because of the huge pipe like structures seen outside the building. I find it more like an unfinished piece of work, a building still under construction. Just outside the museum there were crowds gathering around street performers, such as mimes and jugglers. The Stravinsky Fountain around the corner is something refreshing to see. The automatic fountain painted in bright vibrant colours is a piece of art on its own. A nice change from all the sober coloured historic buildings in the vicinity.

the pipe like structures outside the center and people queuing up to get inside the Pompidou the building looks more like unfinished to me

look at these fountains in fun jubilant colours, a great contrast from the sober coloured buildings around

fountain art

Further ahead we came to Hotel de Ville, housing the City of Paris’s administration. Ever since 1357, the City of Paris’s administration has been located on the same location where the Hôtel de Ville stands today. It was rebuilt in the 1870s after a fire that took place in 1871. It was there that we saw the biggest and most ancient looking carousel ever.

Hotel De Villethe grand c
arousel in front of Hotel De Ville

watch me balance

We took a long walk along Seine river …

we saw little stores selling paintings,
and very old books

and there is something for me too…an old Tin Tin comic selling at 12 EUR

It was Daddy’s plan to bring us to The Louvre, the biggest and most visited museum in the world, which holds some of the world’s most famous works of art such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. We were however distracted along the way and ended up somewhere else…

Every walkway and every turn, you are greeted by a building, easily a few hundreds years old, since there long before our time, with a rich history waiting to tell.

Some people says that you don’t really know Paris, unless you know its buildings. It is an architectural timeline detailing the many eras, styles and trends from Medieval to Modern and that is what that made Paris an architectural wonder.

Things are a little pricey here in Paris. There is no Dollar store like in States or Popular bookstore like back home where you can get kids’ stationery and craft supplies at rather reasonable and cheap prices. Other then his crayons and pencils which we brought with us from back home, I had invested in some poster paint, colour markers, a few paint brushes, A4 size papers and a paint mixing palette for Mal. He doesn’t have the luxury of colourful construction papers and mega size mahjong papers and have since learned to collect junks for his craft box.
Our collection now includes cardboard, styrofoam and plastic boxes, egg trays, toilet and kitchen towel rolls, scraps of cloth, used sponges, straws, kebab sticks, daddy’s coffee container basically anything that are not too dirty or soiled and can be recycled. We have learned to be more conscious and aware of the ‘junks’ in our house and will now think twice before throwing anything away. Mal has to remind Daddy to bring back his empty mineral water bottles, straws and kebab sticks so that he can make his next craft, an Apollo Lander. With the junks, we managed to churn out some space crafts …

a detachable Saturn 5 rocket, the Solar System with the Sun and all the 9 planetswe also learn how to draw circles without a compass he can now sleep with all his planets and stars (and did I mention that we managed to get those luminous stars like what he used to have in his room back home)

This book, Outer Space : A Crafty Inventions Book provides some really wonderful craft ideas for my space fanatic boy. We will need to improvise for crafts that are too complicated. It is a good way to brainstorm with your little ones and come up with alternatives.

It makes me smile to hear Mal says ‘Oh, I have a good idea!’ though a lot of times, his ‘good idea’ doesn’t really work

Saw this on Youtube. These kids are awesome! The girl is 8 and the boy is only 5.

This is our current favourite quick fix for lunch. Msg and additives free homemade kids’ pizza using our left over bread or baguette. I love it more with the baguette as it is crunchier and there is more ‘bread’ to it. This is so healthy and easy to make that the kids can join in during the preparation and have fun at the same time.

Cut up the toppings or have your kids help cut up the softer ingredients using a butter knife. Let them help to sprinkle all their favrourites on the bread, bake it and you have your healthy, yummy pizza!

Maybe it is because Mal was involved in the preparation, he seems more appreciative and would eat up EVERYTHING including the vegetables and this makes me very happy.

designing his pizza. Each colours represents different ingredients. Red = salami, Orange = mushroom, Green = broccoli, Yellow = cheese

he calls it his ‘Tsunami Pizza’ since it sounds like Salami

helping to cut some of the ingredients and arranging them on the pizza

look at the healthy colours

YUM!

Ingredient
1 slice of bread or 1/4 of baguette
1 sausage
1 flower of broccoli (we used the frozen ones that are already cooked)
2 portobello mushroom (or any other fresh mushrooms)
mozzarella cheese (or just cut some normal sandwich cheese into small pieces)
tomato ketchup
oregano
salt

Method
preheat oven at 200 deg celsius
slice sausages, broccoli and mushrooms
spread the bread generously with tomato ketchup (this will give you the pizza taste)
sprinkle mozzarlla cheese
arrange broccoli, mushrooms and sausages on the bread
add salt and oregano (the oregano gives it a really nice fragrant)
top up with more cheese (this will help to hold the toppings in place)
bake for 10 min

For a twist, you can use other toppings that are easy to cook. We had tried crab meat, tiny cooked prawns, small onions, ham, salami and they all taste yummy.

The tree right outside our living room’s window which was bare and empty when we first arrived has blossomed and bloomed. It is now crowned with lots and lots of lovely pink flowers and looks just like cherry blossom. In an attempt to capture this beautiful tree, we painted these …

This is not St Dalfour’s latest green fruit jam. It is my fruit of labour…

Authentic Homemade Kaya with Kopi Tiam Style Half Boiled Eggs

I had forgotten how tedious, laborious, time consuming, mechanical Kaya Making is. I think when it comes to ‘affairs of the tongue’, one tends to be forgetful. For me, it was not merely falling into the trap of temptation, but also repeating the same mistake twice! My first attempt was a disaster, again like last time, it was due to over heating. I had to dump everything into the garbage chute.

After one and a half hour of standing and non stop stirring over constant low heat, the kaya was finally done. The 2nd attempt was a resounding success. There wasn’t a single clump.

I was a proud and contented mama.
I manage to fulfill my promise to Mal.
He had homemade kaya toast for breakfast the next morning. Since I do not have a bread maker like here, I used back Auntie Jess’s recipe

Ingredients
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
150g sugar
250ml coconut milk
3-4 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp pandan paste (optional)

Method
1. Blend eggs and yolks together.
2. Stir in sugar until dissolved.
3. Combine coconut milk and mix well.
4. Strain mixture. I skipped this step as I don’t have a strainer, still the kaya turns out smooth
5. Add pandan leaves and pandan paste.
6. Cook over double-boiler, stirring constantly, till desired consistency.
7. Cool and bottle.