Food that TnT like... and those they don't

We've not had a maid for more than 10 months now. Wasn't easy to adjust at the beginning after being served by maids since Toby was 7 months old.

Foodwise, we ate out during lunch, whether in school or at the various coffeeshops and dinner was tingkat. This arrangement was an immediate solution but I wasn't comfortable with it. When mum went on a holiday and then us, I terminated the dinner tingkat in December. And.... decided to start cooking with lots of help from friends over msn or SMS. Oh, the wonders of technology... thank you, God!

This is a list of what we tried... I'll try to add the links / references when/where possible. Incidentally, I'm doing this while a pizza is baking in the oven. Never thought I'd bake a pizza so, if I can, so can you :-) I also thank God that through this, TnT have more exposure to cooking and are willing to prepare their own meals... to some extent :-)

There are no pictures ... yet....

Have fun!

What TnT like
* Pizza (base from kid craft central and topping varies). Today's the time I've tried to bake a pizza. First one had too little tomato paste (Toby) and the broccoli was too big (Toby). This one has more tomato paste and the broccoli's much smaller. Added chicken for protein both times. I doubled the base recipe so it fits my rectangular pan of 11" x 9". It's a chewy crust which I didn't spread too thinly. Both times I baked for up to 10 mins before putting the toppings.
* Mixed black rice (recipe from Mrs Choy's Cantonese Cuisine but adapted according to whim). Mum cooked this for us when Sis and I were young. It's like a rice cooker version of the claypot rice. Kids have fun mixing the rice with the black sauce and adding the raw egg. I used Kwong Cheong Thye (don't know if this is Mum's...) dark soya sauce which gave a nicer colour, fragrance and taste as compared Tai Hua. This is a quick easy meal in that I can prepare the chicken days before and kids can cook it themselves.
* Salmon porridge (recipe ... can't remember from where, I'll update when I do) Cut salmon into small pieces (Toby likes to mash them up even when I cut them to really, really small pieces). Season with fish sauce, sesame oil and pepper. I use brown rice for this porridge after Elizabeth shared with me that brown rice porridge is more fragrant. Add the seasoned fish to the porridge and cook. Kids can also do this themselves.
* Roast pork
* Coke chicken
* Panang curry aka potato soup
* Teriyaki salmon rice
* Miso soup

What Toby doesn't like but Tiffy does
* Mushroom stew
* Teriyaki chicken rice

What Tiffy doesn't like but Toby does
* Salmon fish soup

Recipe Links

Arts Central
Violet Oon's Recipe File
Najwa's Chicken Korma from allrecipes
Nasi Ulam from CC Chia
Nasi Ulam from The Star
Steamed pumpkin rice flour cake from the lazy chef
Steamed spare rib from Woh Hup

Kuih Bakar

3 large eggs, 200gm sugar, 280gm flour, 300ml coconut cream, 550ml water, 1 tblespoon pandan paste

if u got no pandan paste, u can use vanili/vanila

Kuih Bakar Recipe from Almost Bourdain

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Sabbath Day

Sabbath Day from William Kassler on Vimeo.

Recipes I want to try

Ngoh Hiang

Quick and easy Chicken Rendang

Steamed Pumpkin Cake

Easy to cook Japanese Beef Stew

Macaroni and Cheese

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Cheese and Chives Scones

95 days without a maid and we're still doing fine

I'm much happier these days, without a maid. Very tired on some days but much happier.

The maid started acting odd, about 3mths into her job - forgetting stuff, not doing stuff that she's been doing for months, attitude was deteriorating. I was disappointed, of course, having had to change so many but it was time to let her go when she challenged me to send her away. And so I did. Then she asked me, "what about my family?".

Anyway, the good thing about not having a maid - kids are more independent

• Making their milk - After I changed the thermos flask to something they can handle, I taught them how to make their own milk at night. They wash up after drinking, before they sleep. Only time when this happens automatically without me reminding them, is when they want to play on the computer. I'm happy enough that they're doing it on their own.
• Changing the sheets - We change our sheets every Thursday but sometimes I'm busy and so I change on Wednesday night. Somehow, they find it quite fun removing the covers. Toby likes the pillow cases, and they cooperate (yeah, sometimes they do things together without quibbling) and pull the bolstercases off. What they don't like, is not putting the new sheets / covers on again. The odd thing is, they don't like to choose the new sheets.
  
• Doing the laundry - Well, this is simply dumping the stuff from the laundry basket, adding the laundry ball and soap powder. I taught them to adjust the water volume and listen out for the beep to add the softener. On good days, they'll bring the bamboo pole out and hang up the laundry. Toby helps me bring down the dry clothes and Tiffy helps me fold. She's watching me iron but still not keen to handle the iron.
  
• Clearing up after dinner - They now drain the liquid in the dishes in the sink and then throw away the leftover food, leaving the empty dishes in the sink for me to wash. Table is wiped by them now and the share the throwing of the rubbish (one ties up the bin bag and the other gets the door and gate).

What does that leave me, 'cos it seems like they're doing all the work? Well, I do the floor and toilet and take up the slack when they don't do the stuff above. One thing I don't do, is wash their school shoes for them. If they don't wash, they'll just have to go to school in dirty shoes. So far, so good, they wash regularly.

Nowadays, our place is not as clean and we eat tingkat dinners. We used to eat out at the coffeeshops during lunch till the stall owners recognised us but thank God, I'm starting to cook simple lunches for them now.