Day 1 Physiotherapy

Finally ... I started my physiotherapy today. The session lasted for an hour and a half. Some of it was painful, some of it was relaxing. The ice packs were nice. My shoulders have gotten so bad lately it's hard to wash my own hair or do things for the children without some pain. So I figured, time to get it fixed.

Jo sat down quietly and observed what they were doing. She's really good for a 2 1/2 year old. :) but at one point, when she saw them putting stuff on me, she panicked, and the poor little one started crying badly. So I told her to stand by my bed and hold my hand. She did that in between sobs. I'd to assure her that I was ok, and the physio was helping me and not hurting me. Let's hope the shoulders and back will get better with each session. I'm praying hard.

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Tonight as I put the children to bed Jo said "Mummy, I'm so happy to be with you."

As for Nel she said "Mum.....I wish I was a baby again...."

I asked her why she wished that... and she replied "When I was a baby, you hugged me while I closed my eyes and you used to tap my back till I fell asleep."

I recalled back to the days before Jo was born. Nel being the very affectionate person she is, would snuggle close to me, her hand always touching my shoulders to make sure I was right there beside her when she slept. but when Jo was born, we had to move Nel to a different room, coz Jo was a super wakey baby, waking up 5-6 times a night.

Anyway, so today, I snuggled close beside her, and she held my hand with one, and with the other, held my shoulders like she did when she was a baby. Then she said "sing me my favourite song mum, "May The Lord Bless you.."

So I sang..and she fell asleep, soundly like a baby. :)

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As for my weekly cooking/baking sessions with Junee...last friday, me and Junee attempted to make Onde Onde...and here are the pictures. Yup, they turned out delicous and are very easy to make . :)

The Paste - Glutinous flour, tapioca flour, juice from screwpine leaves

Fill each one with palm sugar and roll into balls making sure sugar is properly sealed inside.

boil, drain and roll in coconut

Bite into it and fill it "burst" in your mouth as the palm sugar melts in your mouth. yumm...

Baking again..

This week I decided it was time to take out the mixer and start baking again after a few months rest. The last time i baked was for Christmas, and i Was baking so much, I didn't wanna bake at all after that.

Well, as you all know, Nel's started kindergarten, and she has to take snacks to school everyday. Sometimes it's sandwiches, but she mostly prefers biscuits (cookies). So, I decided better make her some wholesome, healthy ones free of preservatives and low in sugar. :)

Well, I picked this Oatmeal COokie recipe from Martha Stewart's cook book. mOdified the recipe a little by cutting ammount of sugar by half. Usually I add raisins, but this time, I thought I'd make it a little more sinfully delicous. I replaced the raisins with really good bitter sweet dark chocolate. The result.......................... ahhhhh....absolutely delicious.

I gave a batch to Aunt Gladys. She's my mum's friend since the time I was about 7. Later she sms'ed me and the message goes "thanks....very delicious, all gone in 5 minutes!" Nel loves it, so I'm happy, coz it's nutritious. :)

Looks kinda sparce, but that's coz we had already eaten them, warm, fresh out the oven....before I took this shot.

yeah...oatmeal, wheatgerm and good good dark chocolate.

one batch of cookies here..

Then, I decided we'd bake some sausage buns. Junee helped me out on this one... I'm afraid the bread didn't turn out as tender as I'd like it. Fault of the recipe I think. ok, my fault too for experimenting way too much. I added Atta flour to see if it'd turn out well. Anyway, it makes really good breakfast rolls if eaten hot with cream cheese spread. slrrpppp........ i think I'll go get some now. see ya.

Picture taken before entering the oven. No pictures after that. Was too busy tasting.

This is a busy CHristmas ...The dinner I planned for has come and gone. It was really good time catching up with old friends. Guess what? they all loved the food, and a few suggested I opened a restaurant. haha.... but no way. I spent way too long preparing all the food, if I were to open a restaurant, the dishes would never get to the guests on time. :)

ANyways, am gonna go cook now. Gonna help my sis in law prepare a dish for the party at her house tonight. Will probably make Mexican Chili topped with Mashed potatoes.
Tomorrow will be grandma's, and I will be the one bringing THE turkey. Then on Christmas day it will be at my parents. Well...what to do, we have a VERY large extended family.

I've a question, if Gail can answer? If I buy a self basting turkey, would I have to add salt still? How much? do I add a lot lesser than usual?
ANyway, here's some pictures. Enjoy.

Nel decorating her gingerbread star

The finished product. It was delicous and not like the super hard cookies you get outside. I substituted the Molasses with 3 parts Treacle and 1 part Golden Syrup. I also omitted the black pepper and cut back on the cloves. Yummy.

here's one decorated by Little Jo. YUmmy with extra cream, fingerprints and drool. Partly licked too before it was finished. :) Jo calls it the "funny gingerbread man."

My Golden turkey..I used fresh herbs. The fresh ones are SO expensive. Can you imagine, I paid 15$ for 2 sprigs of Thyme? and a hundred plus for this small turkey? I also covered the turkey with streaky Bacon which costs a LOT here. For 5 thin slices I paid something like 20$.

My Shepherd's Pie, which was really a favourite of the day. I layered the potatoes with Parmesan cheese in between...which really added flavour to the potatoes

Anyway, yeah...better get cooking now.

Merry CHristmas ALLLLLLL.....................

Avocados and pigs

Avocados are supposed to be really good for health due to the valuable nutrients it contains. If you wanna know more about the nutrients found in an avocado, you can look at it here. Recently my sis in law brought me 12 BIG avocados from Indonesia and I thought "oh me gosh" how am I gonna swallow all that!

Anyway, I decided to make some of it into milk shake which is what I usually do. Here's how I do it,

1/3 rd avocado to 2/3rds fresh chilled milk. Add a little sugar (if you're sweet-toothed) and blend all. Drink. If you want it a little more "yummier" but fattening, add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and blend it all together.

As for my Indonesian friends, they blend

avocado,milk and some milo/coca powder and sugar. Tastes good too.

Anyway, I tried all the above recipes, and my little ones refused them all! *sigh* so I decided to try something else. Here's what I tried....

3/4 cup triple chocolate ice cream

1/2 avocado

1/4 cup fresh milk

Blend all the above and let it freeze and harden.(serves 1)

SO i tried the above, and little N tried it and said "YUmmmmmmmmmmm!" so without her knowing it, she swallowed half an avocado. :)

As for my hound dog Baby J, who smells everything out, and has super sensitive taste buds....she tried 2 scoops and said "yukk" and decided to play with it instead of eating it. I guess, you just can't fool the little J.

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N: Mum, if I can look after a dog and a cat, a fish, a tortoise and a rabbit and a hamster well, do you know what I want next mum?

Me: what would you like? (Wondering what on earth could she ask for after all those animals named.)

N: I would like to have a pet pig!

Me: A What???

N: A Pig, not a guinea pig, but a real baby pig, just like in Scallop's Lap.

Me: Scallop what?

N: Scallop's Lap mum! (and brings out the VCD of Charlotte's Web to see.) hahahahaha.....

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N: Mum, is it true only adults can kiss on the lips?

Me: Yes dear.

(I find I have to teach my little girls these things from young...today's papers showed rape is up by 28%....scarry.....so I have to teach her what is appropriate behaviour and what is not as far as physical contact is concerned.)