Our Renovation Journey

During the millennia Y2K, we gotten our current house, registered our marriage, renovated the house and moved in. It is 2016 now, means it is coming to 16 years since Y2K, time flies! Things are starting to fall apart or have already fallen apart, and since we do not intend to shift house (no money, ha!), we decided to renovate our house. We took the opportunity to do a major revamp of our bedrooms and kitchen, aiming at building more storage space as more things built up since a family of 2 in Y2K is now a family of 4.

Hence, I started to look for an interior designer (ID) company after the Chinese New Year public holiday. I visited renotalk forum and installed Qanvast, a mobile app, on my phone. From there, I shortlisted 3 companies - FC, IS and SF. The selection was mainly based on the reviews found on these 2 platforms. I emailed them to inform that we intend to renovate our house and that we have to continue staying in the house while the renovation takes place as we do not have a place to move in temporary. Among the 3 companies, FC and IS responded to my email. Since we did not hear from SF, we assumed that this company was not interested to do our business.

I also asked friends for recommendation and gotten 3 referrals (Comp A, B and C). Comp A asked me to list out my requirements, and I did, which I sent to all 5 companies - FC, IS and the 3 referrals. Comp A looked promising at first as the ID was pretty responsive but I did not hear from her further, perhaps she was overwhelmed by our idea of continuing to stay in our existing house while the renovation takes place. Comp B did not respond to me after receiving my requirements. Comp C, FC and IS remained in the selection process.

Among the 3 remaining companies, only IS came up to our house to understand our requirements. For FC, we met up a senior ID at her office twice but never once did she offer to come up to our house. For Comp C, the ID tried to understand our requirements mainly through whatsapp; we did not meet up at all. IS came up with a quotation that best meets our requirements, not surprising, isn't it? Afterall, it's the only company that bothered to come to our house to understand our requirements. Price wise, IS may not offer the cheapest quote among the many ID companies out there but it was considered a lot affordable as compared to FC. FC's quote was equally costly as IS but it did not include many storage options that I requested for because the ID kept suggesting to us to buy off the shelves, which we have to factor in another substantial amount, and this made the quote not as attractive. Besides the costing, I also felt that the ID did not grasp our main concern, which is to have more storage space. Comp C did not give us an itemised quotation, so it was not easy to look into the details and evaluate accordingly.

Stay tuned to find out which ID won us over...

A New Year A New Beginning

It's 2015 and here's my first post for the new year. A New Year A New Beginning!

I had quit my full time job to become a SAHM (stay at home mum/manager/minister/miser) since Oct 2014, and have been a SAHM for 3 months. So far, I have not regretted my decision and in fact, I'm loving it! During the PSLE marking days, I could teach my son and help him prepare for his year end assessments. He did us proud! He received a Certificate of Achievement for outstanding performance in Mathematics from his school, and we were invited to attend the Prize Giving Ceremony. He also received a Edusave Certificate of Academic Achievement 2014 for being in the top 25% in terms of academic performance in the level and course and good conduct in school. Shortly after all the assessments, it's the school holidays! After all the serious study stuff, it's time to play and enjoy the holidays, which my son and I spent 6 weeks together doing different things. All these would not had been possible if I'm still working.

It's just the start of 2015 and I would say it's a great start for me! I found a part-time home based job. This means that I could stay at home to do my housework, cooking, baking, picking up my children while I can work flexi-hours at the luxury of my home. Although the pay is not a lot for a start, especially compared to what I earned previously as an IT Consultant, but is a good start. It gives me extra money to spend or save, and I'm contented. :)

Did I mention baking? Oh yes! I love to bake... Chinese New Year is coming soon! I'm planning to bake Kueh Lapis (refer to http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2014/01/kueh-lapis-recipe.html for the recipe), Pineapple Tarts with homemade pineapple paste, Cashew Nut Cookies, German Cookies (that I just learnt from a friend), and thinking if I should try to make Kueh Bangkit again after my failed attempt last year.

Hopefully I can bake as much as possible, as time is a constraint since I have a part-time job now with assignments to complete on time, and my schedule is getting packed with birthday parties/celebrations on 17, 18 & 24 Jan. Hopefully, I don't have to bake on 14 & 15 Feb weekend, which is the weekend just before Chinese New Year, as I don't want to bake on V-day and my birthday!!! I want to celebrate and spend time with my family instead on baking. V-day is nothing special since it's a yearly affair but this year's birthday is somewhat a little different as it's one of those Big 0 (四张没得找咯!). What's so special about 四张? It's my first "张没得找" with my children as I don't have any child yet when I was 三张, and it's also mean I'm somewhat entering into "elderly" (enrolled into Elder Shield) stage, haha... It's not that big birthday that I have to celebrate it in a big way; I'm contented to just being able to spend time feasting and merrymaking with my family. :)

Carrot Cake Recipe

I posted photos of the carrot cake that I made on my Facebook, and a friend asked me to share the recipe, so here it is. Please note that this recipe is originally adopted from http://ieatishootipost.sg/2013/05/carrot-cake-chai-tow-kueh-recipe-with.html (credits to be given to ieatishootipost) with modifications made (written in blue) to the recipe according to our taste and to fill up my 10” by 3” round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. 

Ingredients:

~750g radish after peeling and cutting

500g rice flour

20g tapioca flour (or you can use cornstarch if you don't have tapioca flour)

10g salt

15g sugar

2.05L water (1350ml for radish, 700ml for flour)

Chye Poh (菜脯) - 1 packet

Garlic - 2 cloves

Important Notes:

- Radish: Best is to get Japanese Daikon.  It is more expensive than the local ones which you can buy from the local markets. If you are buying the ones at the market, go for the ones from Cameron highlands instead of the ones from China.  

- Rice flour: Make sure it is the wet milled type and not the dry milled type, which is used to make batter for deep frying.  

Steps:

1) Cut the radish into strips which are about twice the size of matchsticks.  Cutting the radish is better than shredding it because when you shred it, the juices tend to leech out of the radish.  Cutting it also means it is a little thicker and so it gives it a better bite. (I used a food combo processor to cut the radish, saves time!)

2) Mix the rice flour and tapioca flour (or cornstarch) with 700ml water into a thick slurry.

3) Heat up the water in a separate pot and add salt, sugar and alternative to MSG such as dried cuttlefish, konbu, ikan bilis, dried scallops etc to give the stock a bit of umami flavour.  You can of course use a bit of chicken stock powder but just take note that it is as good as adding msg.  So if you are doing it as a shortcut to making your own chicken stock then it is ok, but if you are trying to avoid msg, then it is not ok.

4) Once your stock is ready, add the radishes into the boiling water and cook until the radish turns translucent. (5-10mins)

5) Next add the flour mixture to the radish and stir until it has thickened evenly. (I removed whatever that's added to give the umami flavour from Step 4 above before adding the flour mixture into it.)

6) Oil the pan and then add the thicken mixture. 

7) Steam for 2 hours and leave overnight in the fridge to set.

Steps to prepare the Chye Poh condiments:

Finely chop two cloves of garlic and add them to the Chye Poh.  Add some vegetable oil and cook until the chye poh turns brown.  You may add some sugar if you prefer your chye poh to be sweeter.

Instructions on frying:

*Advise to use a non stick pan.  It actually works pretty well and is more practical for most people.  

1. Cut the carrot cake into 2 cm cubes.  

2. Add oil to the pan and when it is hot, add the cubes of carrot cake.  Press the carrot cake down gently onto the pan so that it breaks.  This creates an irregular surface which enables the chye poh and fish sauce to stick to.  This is much better then chopping the carrot cake with a knife into smaller cubes as you get only smooth surface on your carrot cake that way.  That is why its better to start with larger cubes and break it into irregular shaped smaller chunks. The aim is to have some large pieces where you can taste the rice and radish and some smaller pieces that get charred and coated with chye poh and fish sauce. 

3. Add fish sauce and continue to fry (I did not add fish oil though as I don't want to buy it just for frying carrot cake.)

4. Add Chye Poh mixture and continue to fry till it develops and nice crust. 

5. Add an egg (I added some prawns as well before adding the egg) and fry till brown.  Serve with chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.

Black Version

With the black version, add the dark sauce towards the end of the frying process.  Fry till you develop some crust on the carrot cake and then reduce the heat and add the sweet black sauce.  Toss until evenly coasted.  Then turn off the fire and add some more sweet sauce, stir fry till even and then serve. Note:  Sweet black sauce turns bitter if subjected to too much heat. (I did not add sweet black sauce as I don't like my carrot cake to be sweet, instead I added chilli to make it a bit spicy.)

Final note: I fry the carrot cake 1 portion by 1 portion to tailor the taste to different family members.

Carrot Cake (3rd attempt) on 12 Oct 2014

It's been months since I last made carrot cake, so finally decided to make it, especially I have so many packets of chye poh in my fridge - 2 opened packets and 2 unopened packets. I think my mum might have opened another packet when she couldn't find or didn't notice the 1st opened packet.

This time, I made the carrot cake based on a recipe from ieatishootipost but I modified it according to our taste and to fill up a 10" by 3" round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. Verdict? Well, it's a success! The carrot cake turns out to be more firm as compared to my past 2 attempts, and of course, I made it without my mum's help. :)

Rainbow Cheesecake (4th attempt) on 28 Sep 2014

I had tendered my resignation as I decided to become a SAHM to look after my P1 son and have more time to teach or revise with him for his study. Hence, my last day of work is 30 Sep, and I decided to make some cheesecake for my colleagues.

For easy serving, I had chosen to make individual portions. This time, I used 2 flavours of yogurt - Mixed Fruit and Nata de Coco. What did I learn this time? Well, I realised that the cheesecake wasn't as "smooth" looking as my 3rd attempt; there's coconut flakes. I realised that it must be the Nata de Coco (means cream coconut) flavour of yogurt that I added in. Before I realised this, I thought what had gone wrong this time round? hahaha... Hence, I should avoid using Nata de Coco flavour of yogurt if I want a smoother looking cheesecake.

Making Snow Skin Mooncake

There was Teacher's Day celebration at my girl's childcare centre. We were supposed to attend the celebration but we were informed by my son's school that he's sick, so we had to rush down to his school to pick him up. Hence, we had to pick up our girl first since her childcare centre is near our working place. When we reached her childcare centre, they were having mooncake making as Mooncake Festival is just round the corner. The teachers asked us to make mooncake together with our girl first before leaving the centre, so I did.

Mooncake making isn't difficult for me at all, especially the snow skin ones. When I was still schooling, I had been helping my mum to make snow skin mooncakes to sell to make extra income for the household. Hence, when I saw the teachers and some parents sprinkled flour into the mould, I suggested that they should tap the flour on the skin instead of sprinkling flour into the mould. 

Why do we need to tap flour onto the skin and why cannot sprinkle flour into the mould? We need to tap flour on the skin so that the mooncake would not stick to the mould, and hence, it can "drop" out from the mould when you shake the mould sideways. We do not sprinkle flour into the mould as it would cover up the pattern in the mould, and the end product would not have a nice defined pattern on it.

Although I have not made mooncakes for a long time, I still can remember my mum's teaching. See the end products below.

Handmade Personalised Pen Hugger

Teacher's Day is round the corner, and I've been thinking what gifts would be appropriate for my son's teachers. A red pen would be useful for the teachers as they would need to do markings! However, it looks "miserable" if we give just a pen although it's the thought that counts. Since I've been into rainbow loom, and I have come across videos showing how to make a pen hugger, which there were girl and boy designs. Hence, I decided that I would make a pen hugger as well. To make it special for the teachers, I also personalised them according to how my son addresses them. The personalisation was something that I have created, which I am really proud of. :)

Credits to be given to the creator of the pen hugger, Made by Mommy, and this link leads to the girl/princess pen hugger video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viKdHxuwoiU.