New Kid On The Blog

7-MAR-2011:

A couple of months ago, before the CNY, an ex-colleague brought over a cotton soft cheesecake - sort of like a sponge cake but much softer and a bit moist. I thought it was really nice. I studied the box that it came in but all I got was some Japanese sounding name that I've never heard of or seen before, and there wasn't an address on the box too. For those of you who are doing sales or marketing, how important is information for your potential customers!

Anyway, since there was a Jap-sounding name on the box, I then Googled "Japanese Cheesecake" and there really is such a thing. I found the recipe and attempted it once a few weeks ago but it was a failure. However, the 2nd attempt was a success and this cake has passed my MIL test (you know how difficult that is!).

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings.

Baking in a water bath means you pour the cake batter into a cake pan and then put the cake pan into another bigger pan filled with hot water. Since I do not have a small enough cake or a big enough "other" pan that can fit the cake pan, I used my Le Creuset and Anolon instead.

# posted by Skye @ 12:55 am 0 comments

4-MAR-2011:

As of today, Dom is 5 years and 2 months old and Em is 16 months old. And both of them are down with fever, cough and running nose. It's been quite a while since one of them fell sick and I'm sure you've heard a lot of mums muse about their hard times when all their kids fell sick at the same time. For once, I am relieved that both of them are sick instead of just one. I'm not sure if what I feel makes any sense at all but I'll try to explain.

As I become older, I really feel that I get more worried and paranoid about most things. I used to have fevers in the past like everyone does and it was really no big deal at all. A couple of panadols will sort it out. But now when it comes to the kids, there are all sorts of possibilities. Could it be dengue fever? Could it be bacteria infection? What else? I get worried especially when there are no other cough or running nose symptoms. This time round, the fact that it is contagious suggests that it is most likely just a common cold. Although the same aedes mosquito could've bitten them both and that bacteria infection is probably contagious too. Ahh ... like I said, it makes no sense, but the theory is based around the idea that something really serious is less likely to happen to both the children.

Five-year-old Dominic is behaving more and more like a boy. The little boy who used to be so sweet and obedient is now so ... active and "deaf". He jumps around, disturbs his sister, runs around, shouts ... and every instruction has to be repeated a few times and when there is a single minute to spare he would ask "What shall I do now?". When I suggest, taking a rest, relaxing, sleeping or anything similar, he'll say "Resting is not a do!". When asked to tidy up his toys, he pulled his sister along and said, "You ... you mess this up. Help gor-gor to tidy up." When his sister is not bothering him, he'll find ways to get her attention, annoy her and disturb her. When his sister IS bothering him, he'll ask me to take her away. Haha!

On the other hand, I feel that 16-month-old Emily finds her brother very annoying! She'll often make noise and push him away when he's near, but they have their moments of fun and laughter as well. Em is starting to talk more now. She taps on my shoulder, back or arms and calls me "mama". :-) And she calls out to "daddy" when he comes home. She also calls out to "gor-gor" (while crying and pointing at him), to indicate that gor-gor has bullied her. And her two other favourite persons are "mama" (grandma) and yeh-yeh. She says many other single words and generally makes a lot of noise.

Emily still sleeps with us and she cries every night. The crying stopped when Saimun removed her from the cot and now she is sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I think she didn't like to be "trapped" inside the cot. She also doesn't like it when Dom gets all the attention, for example when I'm revising his homework with him or reading to him. She'll normally wail in the background until daddy gets out of the shower. It's a good thing that both Dom and I are able to effectively block her voice out. Haha!

After a few weeks of coaching, I think Dom has improved greatly in reading (in English). I need to buy him more books because I'm not sure anymore if he's actually reading the words or memorizing! To encourage him to read, we have started this game of treasure hunt where I would write clues on yellow sticky notes and then he would hunt for the treasure, looking for the clues. I started the game by drawing pictures - like a picture of the oven to indicate the next clue is in the oven, and when he got hooked with the game, I changed the clues to words. The "treasure" is usually a gift that I bought for him for having collected 10 stars for good behaviour (we're still using the same method we used since few years back).

Every evening, after the 3 of us have showered, we will have a game of hide and seek. Dom is getting better at seeking but not so good at hiding (always hid in the same places). Em is extremely good with hiding. She doesn't make a single sound when we're hiding! As for me, I'm really running out of ideas on where to hide next!

Finally, some photos of the little ones.

# posted by Skye @ 1:06 am 0 comments