Goodbye Marguérite, hello Lux!

Our 10-year old washing machine has retired. Spent our precious public holiday in search of another. Luckily, we managed to get one at a reasonable price.

Thank you for 8 good years, Marguérite. You were part of the family and saw to the cleanliness and hygiene of our two babies. You can finally rest now.























Hello Lux. Welcome to the family. May your stay with us be a long and wonderful spin.

Same school. Same uniform.

B's uniform has finally arrived. Also order new ones for K which have also arrived.

Love that they are in the same school and wear the same uniform. Limited time only.

K starts music classes

K has been enrolled in the Yamaha Junior Music Course. We have had one lesson so far. Have heard really good reviews about this course. My aim for K is that she would be able to learn the theory involved and hone her hearing to the point that she would be able to listen to a song that she likes and play it on the piano. That is something I wish I can do but am not able to. Who cares about the exams or the grades. She was super excited about starting her classes and has been asking about them since I told her that I had enrolled her. Finally, the day arrived.

Dinner before class.

Her seat.























The first note she learnt. Do.

With her little friends.

















She can't wait for the next lesson. I hope this enthusiasm keeps up.

One last look

I was clearing some of K's old dresses. Most of them were hand-me-downs. There was one that I really liked, which I bought. T'was a pity to have to put it into a pass-it-on-to-someone bag. I had to put it on a small child to admire it once again. He was not too pleased.

"No wan!"























Jumping in protest.























Whines.

Just for Laughs

Cooking Lesson 1

There are all these yummy foods that my parents cook up and as a cook, I pale in comparison. I cook vegetable soup. That basically means you chop up all sorts of vegetables and chuck them into a slow cooker and let it do its magic for a couple of hours and wala! You have vegetable soup. Not much to brag about.

Hence, I decided that it was time to learn to cook my favorite dishes, beginning with a vegetarian dish that we call mee kng. It's some gluten dish with salted vegetables, tomatoes and mushrooms.


Ingredients:
Flour 1 kg
15 mushrooms, all about the same size
Salted vegetables
3 tomatoes
1 large red chilli
Garlic
Light sauce








I was told that this was the most important step. Add water to the flour to make a sticky paste.



















With more water and kneading, it should start looking like that.

Finally, when it all sticks together, leave it for an hour to hour and half, covered with a moist cloth.

After 1 hour to 1.5 hour, start to rinse the dough, kneading it at the same time.



















After several rounds, the water should become clear and the gluten (mee kng) will stick together again. Rub some salt into it. Again, leave for 1 to 1.5 hr, covered with a moist cloth.



















Then separate into small pieces like so.















Meanwhile, the salted vegetables should be soaked in salt water to ensure that it isn't too salty.















Mushrooms to be soaked to soften them. Then wash them and soak again in hot water. The mushrooms were separated into two bowls as some were ready but there were others that were still not soft yet.















Cut the tomatoes into 6 pieces each and the deseed a large chilli and cut into 4 pieces.



















Now the frying begins. Heat up some oil till it is really hot. Put in the pieces of mee kng and fry them till they are golden brown. Set aside.



















Remove the oil and leave only a little. Fry the garlic till brown. Then add the mushrooms and fry till fragrant. Add the light sauce.

Next, add the salted vegetables.



















Followed by the mee kng.



















Add the chilli and tomatoes.



















Then add about 500ml of water. Add more later if necessary.



















Cover the wok and let it simmer at low heat for about an hour.















Tada!! There you have my favorite met kng dish. My maternal grandma would have been so proud of me. My first attempt and it was a success. Success because I managed to get 32 mee kng balls! My mum has told me so many times about how some people end up with none or very few because they were not able to "wash" it properly. Must remember to soak the salted veggies in salt water for a longer time next time though as the dish was a little too salty.