Sweet Pea Journey

Family, Friendship, Food, Fun and Everything in Between!

Author: Sweet Pea

Kids and Parenting

Tooth Fairy’s Visit

Tooth Fairy came by and visited my little girl, who lost 3 teeth yesterday morning.

She must have been super good girl, because she got something she really really really wanted -Hatchimals.. She was up around 5 am, super excited about finding 3 eggs under her pillow.

After waiting for an hour, she decided it is taking way too long for everyone to wake up, since she doesn’t want anyone to miss her cracking the eggs, she woke everyone up. The egg cracking ceremony starts.

There they are, her new favorite cutie pies. And she wants to lose 100 more teeth.. (eye rolling…)

Tooth Fairy did an awesome job, now today, she needs sleep… :p

 

Life and random things

First 3 Teeth

Yep, my daughter lost her first 3 teeth today. Not naturally, but they had to be pulled out by the dentist.

These are some teeth with giant roots. Yes, she was in a lot of pain, she was crying a lot, bleeding a lot, angry a lot, coming out of sedation. I can’t find the right word to describe how terrible I felt, as a mother, I couldn’t comfort my suffering child, I felt beyond helpless, I just want to take on all the pain for her, only if I could…

That was a very painfully long duration of 4 hours, before she fully shook off the drug effect. I got my sweet baby girl back again! We took a nap, we played her favorite game monopoly, we read books, ate and took medication, and went to pick up baby brother.

A couple of bowling games later, we celebrated with yummy dinner. Final picture taken, smiley faces with her first 3 lost teeth. She went to bed, super excited to see what Tooth Fairy will bring her tonight.

Sweet dreams my little angel, mommy will always love you and be there for you, no matter what.

Cooking

Singapore Noodle – Requested Dinner

Singapore noodles were requested to be on the dinner menu tonight. The reason is simple, it is super tasty. So I made it.

 

Ingredients:

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow onion,  sliced

1 red onion, sliced

1 lb shrimp, shells removed and deveined

1/2 lb bbq pork, thinly sliced into match sticks

7 eggs, or whatever amount you have

1 bag of dried rice sticks, softened in hot water

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp yellow curry powder

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

1 cup water

 

Method:

Prepare all ingredients, wash, chop, soften, line them up. Drain water from noodles and roughly cut noodles with kitchen scissors, marinade shrimp in some salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic.

 

Large wok on medium high heat, go in with about 4 tbsp oil. Crack eggs into the wok and break up the yolk with your spatula or spoon. Stir eggs around until it is scrambled.

Push eggs to one side of the wok, add shrimp and cook until shrimps are 80% (ish) done.

Scoop out eggs and shrimp, you don’t want to over cook it. Add more oil into wok and add all vegetables into wok. Cook until vegetables are softened. Season with salt and pepper. Add bbq pork. Add eggs and shrimp back into wok. Add all noodles.

Add all seasoning and water. Use 2 spatulas or spoons to stir everything around. It will take a while to fully incorporate the seasoning and evenly distribute the flavor. Once it’s evenly distributed, and water absorbed by the noodles, taste for seasoning. Add any seasoning to entertain your taste buds.

If you don’t like spicy food, skip the cayenne, chili powder doesn’t add spiciness that much but it gives the noodles a warming pinkish color. Of course the main color will be light brown, due to yellow curry powder and soy sauce.

Seriously, make a bunch, these noodles hold their texture quite well, it will last a couple of days in the fridge, if it will ever survive that long.

 

 

 

Cooking

First Attempt Beans and Cheese Pupusa

I made these today, just had to try them. Also, just because it’s Sunday.

In order to find the right ingredients and make it Mexican way, I actually went to Fiesta and asked two ladies. With 75% English and 25% Spanish translated into English by the 8-year-old boy who was with them, I think I got it down.

 

Ingredients:

Maseca , about 2 cups

pinch of salt

Luke warm water, about 2 cups – I did not measure masa or water, totally did it by the feel of the dough, like a pro!

1 can of refried beans, yep, I used the canned stuff, I have not packed down the skills for charro beans yet.

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, only because I did not have any mozzarella on hand like I thought I did

 

Method:

I poured some masa into a large bowl along with the salt, with one hand in masa, luke warm water in a cup in the other hand, I slowly poured water into masa, and mixed it by hand. Masa absorbs quite a bit of water, but be patient, and mix masa and water until it forms a rather wet dough.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for a few minutes. In the mean time, take out a heavy bottom pan, or flat griddle. I used my trusty cast iron pan. I opened the can of refried beans, put some cheese into a bow and set up my work station.

Once the masa is rested, heat up the pan on medium low heat, lightly grease the pan. Take a baseball size dough and form a hollow disk in one hand, patting with the fingers of the other hand. I am right-handed, so the hollow disk was in my left hand, I used my right hand to help shape it. Put a pinch of cheese in the center of the disk, followed by a tsp of refried beans. Close the disc up by curling the disc and meet the edges on top of the filling carefully and form a ball again. Patch it up with excess dough from the ball or from the bowl. Then carefully flatten the masa ball with filling back into a thicker disc. Be careful not to pat too hard, otherwise the filling may spill out.

Lay the disc onto the pan, and fry 3-4 minutes per side, or until it’s golden brown and the edges of the pupusa is cooked through, as well as the centers.

This is great on its own, or a side dish with harrisa chicken and veggie bake. Enjoy!

 

Cooking

Harrissa Chicken and Veggie Bake

This is another super healthy, super easy dish you would want to make over and over again.

Ingredients:

1 green bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 eggplant

2 onions, I used 1 yellow, 1 purple

5 chicken leg quarters, or drum sticks, or thighs, or a whole chicken, butterflied

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

6 tbsp harrisa paste, I used mild this time, will try spicy next time

 

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Clean and cup all vegetables to bite size, arrange at the bottom of 9 x 13 pan. I used 2 pans to avoid over crowding, but this will not be too much food, I know, amazing! Salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and olive oil go into the veggie goodness and mix with a spoon or hand.

Score chicken down to the bone, salt and pepper chicken, ensure to rub into the cracks of the cuts. Dump harrisa pates onto chicken and veggies and mix really well. Lay chicken on top of veggies, this way all the chicken fat and drippings will flavor the vegetables.

Both trays go into the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy the goodness!

Note, the mild harrisa paste isn’t spicy at all, at least not to me. I used some of the chicken for my tacos, and had to add some spices. I will try the spicy version next time.

 

Life and random things

Senior Moment

Walking towards my car after work. I looked around the corner where I parked my car, my heart almost skipped a beat! The driver side rear of my car is severely scratched and dented! Black scratch marks all over the car, above the back wheels…

OMG! My car was parked here all day, how on earth did this happen?

I quickly walked towards my car and started examine the damage..I looked and looked, for a good 10 seconds, slowly towards the back of my car…. just to realize the car next to this one is mine…same make, different model….

Major senior moment! Well, at least the cars are the same color… got into my own car as quickly as I could, started dying laughing.

Cooking

Ratatouille

What a fabulous vegetable dish! It sounds not so appetizing, I admit, looks can be deceiving as well, unless you are really into that presentation thing and can afford tons of time on that, but the flavor, I have to say, it is amazing. Give it a try, super easy to make, super nutritious, easily transformed into vegetarian version, perfect for leftovers… what else to ask for?

I forgot to take pictures of mine, so here, I borrowed Martha Stewart’s image from her recipe. Of course mine is a lot simpler, nowhere near as fancy as far as red wine vinegar is used..but the final result looks pretty similar. I will for sure try hers next time.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, diced

5 Roma tomatoes, diced

2 yellow onions, medium size,

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 zucchini, diced

1 squash, diced

2 giant weird beans from my parents’ garden, diced. Totally optional, I just wanted to use it in my dish, what else am I going to use it for, seriously? Yep, that thing is like 1.5 ft long!

salt to taste

2 tsp garlic powder, you can totally substitute with minced fresh garlic, as a matter of fact, you should! I was being lazy..

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp dried parsley, again use fresh if you have access. Being Asian, I normally stock up on green onions, very rarely parsley.

1 tsp chicken bouillon, or use chicken / vegetable stock

I had some cooked ground pork, so I threw about 1/4 cup of that in to add flavor, totally optional.

1 bay leaf

 

Method:

Heavy bottom pot, I used my trusty Dutch oven, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, on medium-high heat. Cook onions until fragrant. Salt onions. Throw in all the rest of diced vegetables (how easy is that?!) Stir the vegetable around, add more salt, and all the seasonings, throw in the bay leaf. Add about 1 cup of water. Don’t worry if it seems dry, the vegetables will give out quite a bit of moisture during the cooking process. Bring the mixture to a low simmer, lower heat to medium low. Cover tightly and cook for about 1 hour. Stir occasionally and check liquid level. Make sure it doesn’t burn.

Fish out the bay leaf, enjoy! This dish is amazing the next day too. Good luck not over eating! But the good news is, it is so healthy you totally won’t feel guilty stuffing your face!

Life and random things

First Day Back to Work

It’s been a super busy and stressful summer, my blood pressure is through the roof, that’s what my wrist surgeon’s nurse has been telling me, every time I went back for a post surgery visit.

Life is interesting, it really is.  When you think life is wonderful, you got literally everything you dreamed of, you never know what’s around the corner waiting for you. You can lose everything you ever had, quite literally, in a blink of an eye. When you think you are at the rock bottom of your life, there is opportunity everywhere, if you just open your eyes, you will notice everything you never noticed before, loving caring friends, who want to help you everywhere they can.

Today, I went to work, after months. It’s a bit bitter-sweet. I am back to the company I worked for over a decade ago. I saw a lot of familiar faces, people took their time came by my seat to say hi and welcome back. Just before my meeting, my new boss told me: “you know, the day after your interview, several people came to me confirming if you came. Let me just say, I got this feeling if I didn’t hire you, I would be a very bad person.”

That meant so much for me. I don’t know who said what to whom, but how welcoming everyone was, it really made my day, not a bad first day back to work for me.

 

Kids and Parenting

Rainy Saturday Tie-Dye

This is the first attempt, for all 3 of us. Major lessons learnt.

Saturday morning, down pour rain. We are stuck in the  house for now. Kids have been asking for tie-dye, well mainly my daughter. My son could care less about tie-dye, haha. I got 2 kids t-shirts, light color as a canvas for our tie-dye project, one light yellow, one baby blue.

I got the tie-dye primary color set from Amazon.com, rolled up our sleeves, got kids equipped with gloves, craft paper on the floor, we got on it.

I helped them bundle the t-shirts up in a roll, sectioned them into 6 wedges using rubber bands. As expected, I did my homework, watched many how-to videos. In theory, I am a pro.

The end results? They are more like Halloween costume, crime scene shirts…

Lessons learned, I bought the spray on type, I should get the squirt on liquid, so the shirts will soak up more dye than just the surfaces of the folds. And don’t go stingy, just keep spraying, when in doubt, keep spraying, the entire shirt needs to be literally soaked. I will get more shirts and get squirt dye and make it right :p