Monday, March 19, 2012 at 10:37PM With spring just around the corner, I felt inspired to play around with eggplant and mustard - two of this season's veritable bold colors.
Pulling all these pieces together took waaay longer than I expected, but it's a nice start to the week and these vibrant colors brought a certain gaiety to my day.
Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 3:55PM I was recently going through my bookshelves and came across Ann Lamott's book Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. I can't recall how I found out about this book but I read it about two years ago, when my son was around six months old and I was licking the battle wounds of first-time parenthood.
Ann Lamott's book is a frank, candid and funny account of raising a newborn, and how insanely challenging it is. At the point of writing her novel, she was a recovering addict and a single mom, struggling to make sense of this new world with a baby. With a remarkable stable of friends and family, and through sheer faith, she meanders through the first year of her son's life in a way that is deeply heartfelt, inspiring and a true celebration of love.
As a new parent facing the oftentimes crazed days of parenthood, reading Operating Instructions then gave me a good laugh and made me feel like at least I hadn't lost my mind.
Reading her book, I literally watched her baby Sam grow up through his first year. Considering I first read this book only two years ago, in my mind, baby Sam is well, still a baby. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this baby whom I saw through his first year is now 21 years old! And not only that, he's a dad! He had a baby when he was 19!
Sam's son is now almost 3 years old and funnily enough, just when I decide to re-read Operating Instructions, Ann Lamott has written a new book with her son about her grandson - Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son, which will be released next week on March 20. I found a nice read in Reader's Digest on Ann Lamott's thoughts on being a grandmother, taken from excerpts of her new book.
Ann and Sam Lamott are giving a talk at City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco on April 10. Too bad I can't go, I think it'll be so interesting to see the dynamics of this mother-son duo in action, to see Sam the baby as a grown man, and how his mom - who cried endless tears over him - is doing today, over two decades later.
In the meantime, I'm looking forward to reading her new book.
Kids Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 3:27PM My son's not much of a fan of eating. It's just not something he's particularly interested in. He doesn't like cheese. He won't eat pizza. He doesn't eat barbequed chicken. Or ribs. Or a sandwich.
He does like pasta. And rice. And Chinese soup.
The sure-fire thing he will eat in absolutely any situation in copious amounts, is fries. And Pepperridge Farm Goldfish crackers in cheddar (doesn't really like the graham ones). I must confess that we have, on very very select occasions, given in to letting him have only goldfish crackers for lunch.
Anyhow, his favorite color is green. He will always pick the green crayon, the green car, the green train, the green page in the book.
So I was in the store the other day and lo and behold, saw some spinach noodles. I had a sudden eureka moment and thought, I can make him some green noodles! I can cook this every day! My dinner woes will be over!
So dinner was cooked and he was sooo excited to see his green meal and we could not get his bib on fast enough (messy eater!) and get him seated at his toddler table.
He took one bite and spat it out. With much aplomb. Absolutely refused to eat it afterwards.
So much for a brilliant idea. We could certainly use some Green Eggs and Ham.
Kids Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 10:32PM I'm constantly trying to find something interesting outdoors for my son to do. He gets angsty very quickly if he's been cooped up indoors for too long. Once he's exhausted playing with his toys and with nothing much to do except twiddle his thumbs or vacillate between cooing and smacking his baby sister, it's imperative that he gets out of the house.
I've seen a purple open-top bus pass by on our street a lot, and decided we should go for a ride. This purple open-top bus is called the Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus, which is conceptually a rickshaw - you really need to stretch the imagination to see how this huge double-decker bus powered by an engine is in any way remotely a rickshaw.
The rickshaw part is, presumably, how you take in the sights and sounds in an open-air manner, much like a rickshaw. I'm guessing even the bus company realized this was a stretch, so for anyone having difficulty connecting the dots, there's a helpful illustration of a rickshaw, pulled by human strength no less, cheerfully painted across the bus' exterior.
I wasn't exactly sure where the bus would go, I figured if we came across a place of interest, we'll hop off. And then figure our way home later. Surely that should take up an afternoon.
We got on the bus on Caine Road, and clamoured to the open-top upper deck to get seats. It was very windy which really tickled my son who could not stop laughing at the wind blowing his hair into disarray.
As the name implies, there's some uh...sightseeing, and we passed by the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Science (?), the High Street Old Mental Hospital (!), The University of Hong Kong (double ?), the Western district (at least famed for dried seafood), and ended up at the Star Ferry terminal (finally, a bona fide attraction).
Taking the Star Ferry is one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong, I love its rustic feel and how it transports you back in time to a Hong Kong of old, when life was simpler and slower, with (I would imagine) sailors on deck chewing their tobacco to while their time away. There are still sailors on the Star Ferry today, decked out in sailor outfits, lending a certain authenticity to this age-old transportation experience.
We took the Star Ferry across to Kowloon, got off, walked all of 10 steps and bought some 老婆饼 (old wives' cakes - a Chinese pastry filled with winter melon paste), hopped back onto the ferry, and happily tucked into our goodies on the ride back.
My son thoroughly enjoyed himself, was extraordinarily co-operative the entire time, completely pleasant in every way, with nary a whine or whimper.
A delightful day out that wasn't quite planes, trains and automobiles but a bus, a ferry and an agreeable toddler isn't too shabby.
Kids Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 10:21PM I love the idea of baking bread. And sometimes I'm spurred into having this idea translate into actual bread making. Like today. I was in the mood for some butterscotch and decided to make some buns with it.
The thing about baking bread is that whilst the aroma is heavenly, to actually get to that point, you must first have gone through some serious kneading. Which I usually approach with much gusto, only to start regretting having embarked on the bread making effort in about 2 minutes flat. I just don't get the whole kneading-is-therapeutic thing.
These buns are perfect for breakfast except that with the time you'll need for the dough to rise, and then rise again, they'll never be ready in time unless you start making them in the middle of the night.
As an alternative, it's possible to let the dough rise overnight in the fridge for the first rise. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it in the lowest section of the fridge. Take it out first thing the next morning and let it settle to room temperature. Work on the dough according to the recipe for the second rise.
This recipe was taken from the Food Network:
For the bread dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tsp salt
1.5 cups tepid water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 oz honey
1 oz olive oil
1 oz dried milk powder
For the butterscotch topping
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup instead)
1 stick of butter, in chunks (I used a little less than half a stick)
To make the buns:
Place the flour, oats and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center right through to the bottom of the bowl and pour the warm water inside. Add the yeast, honey, oil and milk powder and let the yeast bubble and froth. Using two fingers, gently stir in the flour in small circular motions right where the flour meets the water. As the dough forms, the stirring can go much quicker.
Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a well-oiled bowl and turn the dough around to ensure it's fully coated in oil - this helps to prevent crust from forming as the dough is rising. Cover with a kitchen towel and place it some place warm. Let it rise for 1 hour or until it doubles in size.
Punch back the risen dough and roll it out. Slice into pieces (this makes about 9-12 pieces), place them in the butterscotch pan and set aside to rise again for about 30 minutes. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 190°C (375°F), remove from the oven and turn it out right away onto a serving dish.
To make the butterscotch topping:
It's probably a good idea to do this while waiting for the first rise so the butterscotch has time to cool completely in the pan.
Pour sugar into a pan and pour in an equal amount of water around the sugar. Turn the heat on but do not stir. When the sugar starts to brown, swirl the pan. When the mixture reaches a light golden color, throw in the butter, let it melt, and then remove from heat. Whisk until it's smooth and starts to thicken. Let it cool in the pan before placing the dough in for the second rise.
The sticky gooey butterscotch is insanely difficult to clean off, so here's what I do: fill the pan with water and put in back on the stove. The heat helps to turn the butterscotch all soft again and it'll be easy to clean. Stick any other items that have fallen victim to the butterscotch - knives, whisk, etc in the pan and it'll wash off easily too.
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