Books Books Books

I love to buy books for Little Lucas.. I love to see him flipping through the books with his small little fingers.

At times, he can just sit his cot and go through the books page by page for 10-15mins.
I consider that as a milestone as Little Lucas can't even sit still for 5 mins.

The books that I buy must be colourful, bright and with lots of pictures. They must be sturdy to withstand the throwing done by Little Lucas. Which is why all the collection that I have are mainly board books, big or small.

However, I find it very difficult to browse books at bookstore with Little Lucas around. He is always on the move and he talks quite loudly, or otherwise he will want me to carry him all the time. As I only have weekends to do shopping so there's no chance for me to shop alone at bookstores.

Recently, I found this website which have many interesting books and I find that they are rather good for first timer to start with their little ones.

http://www.eucalbooks.com/

Their books are suitable for babies, toddlers & young children. Big and bright pictures, quality products. Especially the Touch & Learn series, there are many soft, rough, fury, congregated & many other more kind of patches all around the books for our little ones to touch. This helps to enhance their sensory skills.
Flip cards is also another good choice. They are ideal for infant stimulation and fascinating to many children, making learning a fun part of everyday play.

One plus point is they offer online purchase and offer FOC local mailing, of course you can always opt for registered mail at a little extra cost if you preferred one.

Here are some of the books that I bought recently.

Happy Father's Day

Out of so many cookies & cakes that I made, Des eat none of it.
Because he only knows how to eat chocolate cake!
So as a Father's Day gift and I made this for my dear hubby (on behalf of Lucas... keke)



Plain chocolate cake before decoration (my pan is too big resulting in a short cake..hee)





After decoration with Fondant (using alphabet & cookie cutters) and M&Ms



Little Lucas getting excited over the cake!



Happy Daddy with Little Lucas



Happy Family!


As there will be crowds at all dining places, we decide to stay at home a for nice (I hope it is) home cooked dinner prepare by me (who else...), we invited Fiona over too!

So this is our dinner...



Curry Chicken
(Using Prima Pre-mix, I am not that hardworking to pound all the chillies and spices to make the curry paste)



Omelette with ham & crab meat



Salmon Teriyaki (another way of cooking our favourite fish)



Lastly for dessert, Macaroons from Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie (proudly sponsored by Fiona)






Recipe source (for cake): Happy Home Baking

Mango Yoghurt Ice Cream

This is an egg-less ice cream. Tasty and refreshing. Perfect for this hot weather


Recipe Source: Small Small Baker

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Another method to eat my all time favourite Oreo Cookies :)
(Please pardon me for the lousy photography skills)

FYI, I got this non-diary cream from Phoon Huat






Recipe source: Small Small Baker

Oreo Cheesecake (no bake)

Baking was never my hobby only until recently. How does it become one?? All because of this cheesecake.

I got a no bake cheesecake recipe from a lost in touch friend way back in 2003. At that time, I managed to produce the cake without any problem. But now when I looked back at that recipe, I find the measurement of the ingredients are all so weird.

Amy also tried it out a few months back, well, it does taste like a cheesecake, but i find that it could be better.

So I went on to www to search for another recipe and that's where I came to know about Happy Home Baking.
I am so glad that I chance upon her blog as it has so many wonderful tips & recipes on cakes and bread making. It truly inspired me to pick up baking (and cooking) and true enough as what HHB said, baking is addictive!!

So here's the cheesecake that I make.
I dust it with cocoa powder and deco with some mini oreos to a otherwise ugly looking cheesecake.
Thank god the final effect was great.. My family commented that it looks so "pro" (bashing) and it really taste FABULOUS!!

PS: I used Oreo instead of Digestive biscuits for the base

Recipe source: Happy Home Baking

Bento for Jasmine

As Lucas is still too young to eat the kiddy bentos, so it's not very often that I make them.

And since Jasmine is on school holidays now, that gives me a chance to make one for her.




Potato salad moulded in star, heart and bear (sorry, it don't looks like one again..) shape.

Rabbit cut out from cheese on plain cracker and some grapes for side.

Jasmine has been telling me how much she wants to try the baby mash potato that I made for Lucas. But the mash potato has to be served hot and that makes it quite difficult for me to prepare one for her.

So I made this potato salad instead.

Potato Salad Recipe

Ingredients

1. Potatoes (4 large)


2. Carrots (1 large)


3. Crab stick (6 pcs)


4. Eggs (3 pcs)


5. Japanese cucumber (1 large)


6. Mayonnaise (1 small can)


7. Some butter

Method

1. Boiled potatoes, carrots and eggs


2. Mash up potatoes with butter, set aside


3. Mash up eggs, set aside


4. Diced carrot and Japanese cucumber


5. Shred crab stick (straight from the chiller after washing, no need to boil)


6. Add in diced carrot, Japanese cucumber, shred crab stick, eggs & mayo and blend everything together.


7. Chill it before serving

Lucas Can Walk :)

Banana Blueberry Quickbread

When i first saw the word, Quickbread, i was quite curious how exactly does that taste like.
After doing some research on www, realised that it's actually quite similar to muffins except that maybe you do it in loaf pan or round pan instead of cups.. :)

I tried this recipe from HHB... I must say this is my best bake so far.. the appearance and texture are just wonderful (erm.. for my level of expectation of course!!)

Is a rather simply fuss free recipe to follow, just mix, pour & bake.. and TADA!!








Recipe source: Happy Home Baking

Froggie Bento

Used the pandan bread to cut out the frog head... Doesn't really look exactly like a frog though I should really get the Nori puncher so that the face details looks more real.

Added 2 pcs of the doggies cookies and 1 piece of Minnie biscuits. (All the mickey biscuits have broken ears so cannot be use here.. ) and some cherries

The scramble eggs was for Lucas and he loves it.

Baking Dishes

Since I bought an oven (oh.. it's just a very cheap one.. cost me only $60 bucks), so I must put it into good use right?

So I make this baked rice for lunch. This dish is very simple and easy to make. Do give it a try.



Pre-bake look



Freshly baked look (should have cover it up with more cheese)



Ya ya.. is the pan-fried salmon again! :)


Recipe Source: Happy Home Baking

Lucas 13th & 14th Month Pictures

Lucas is Sick :(

Just a few days back I was commenting on how good breast milk was in building up Lucas's immunity, now he is sick! :(

Last Tuesday he got infected with viral fever, the temperature was still quite ok during the day ranging from 37.5 to 38.5 degree. By 8pm, he hit 39.8 degree, for a moment I thought my thermoscan was spoilt!
Quickly rush him down to the GP and it was really 39.2 degree. Doctor gave us some medication to bring the fever down and he did a urine test. Thank god there isn't any infection.

By 3am, he hit 41 degree, I almost got a shock. How can it be so high when his urine test is normal. I quickly wake Des up, get changed and rush to KK. As usual, given medication on the spot and they placed a urine bag on him to do another test again. We waited for 3 hours before Lucas urinated!! Phew!! But luckily he passed the test.
The doctor reckon that this is just viral fever which will last for 3-4 days with the temperature going very high up for the 1-2 days. She advised that if Lucas's feeding is ok and he is still alert, there isn't a need to go to the doctor every now and then when we see a high reading on the thermoscan (this would just make us more frustrated). We can give him medication to control the temperature (don't let it go beyond 38.5 degree) and sponge him to bring the fever down. The main area to sponge would be forehead, neck, armpit and groin. These are the areas where the big blood vessels are.

Finally his fever was gone by Thursday midnight. However, by Friday evening, rashes started to appear on his tummy. According to my mum, this is normal but I never see such things before, so was quite concern. The next day, we went to GP again and before I could ask he already know why I was there :)
Gave us some anti-itch medication saying that the rashes will go away in a few days time. This is commonly known as false measles which is normal after a viral fever attack.

Before the rashes are gone, he is now down with diarrhoea. OMG!!! My poor poor Lucas is being hit by so many sickness one after another. His butt is all red and sore now.. dare not even sit on the floor and wants to be carry on the while. Won't even let Des carry him cos he didn't manage to handle him properly and hurt his butt...
Hope he recovers soon!