Emmanuel AOG Christmas Food & Fun Fair

Yesterday was our church's food and funfair! We had great fun and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Everyone's been praying for fine weather especially when the event's smacked in the middle of the monsoon season.

We sold hotdogs with mashed potatoes and fruit & marshmallow fondue. Everything was sold out by the time the funfair was over, which is absolutely amazing. One praise point - all glory to God for directing in making mashed potato gravy - which I'd NEVER done before! :) With ingredients ALL from home - and it's really just bare essentials. I thought my trusty cookbook would have the recipe, but it disappointed me. However, thank God - I found one online! Ingredients are a hassle, especially when my cell friends actually ran all around the island looking for the elusive ready-made mix. It's challenging also because most recipes required brown sauce, which meant we had to go to the supermarket - and we didn't have time for that. We only had one hour to churn it out.

I can't seem to find that recipe now, but if I can recall my experience - not the recipe, it is:

30g butter (look in fridge)
30g plain flour (look in cupboard)
300-320ml chicken stock (look in fridge for Knorr and pray that it's there)
1 tbsp beef granules (don't bother to look in fridge coz it won't be there. Substitute with BOVRIL!)
salt & pepper (Bring along - but salty enough, so don't have to add salt)
1 tsp mustard (You must be kidding. Although recommended, I didn't dare. And I didn't have also.)
10g Cornstarch (Maid will suggest.)

I multipled all ingredients by x3. Coz we were selling one whole pot of mashed potatoes.

Steps:
Heat butter. To get 30g butter, put knife in hot water to cut butter.
Mix in flour. Stir continuously till brown.
Pour in chicken stock. (VERY BAD IDEA.) Better to mix butter and flour INTO the stock instead - unless you like oily and painful fireworks.
Stir and stir. Hope it'll turn out the way it's supposed to.
Add in huge teaspoon of Bovril. (Huge teaspoon coz tablespoon cannot go inside the Bovril jar.)
Keep stirring. Mixture will thicken.
When it looks like it's not going to thicken anymore, maid will suggest to put in corn flour mixture. Then it'll thicken.
Taste. Pray. Cannot complain.
Then be surprised by the miracle. :)

I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY PRAISE GOD. We were praying very hard in the car because it was quite an impossible task. But God is good. He is the God of all! Even mashed potato gravy! :)

My bro & Jacque came to the funfair! It was amazing seeing them there. And we took 3 shots - well 2, and for the final one, there was some miscommunication, and we almost didn't take it. I'm glad we did - coz it was the BEST shot! :)


From left: Jacque, Randy, Mum, Me, Ben

Shalom when he was about 6 months old - I think

Was looking through some photos in my youtube collection - only a handful - and I found this classic. Our dear boy is some great actor! Winner of the Granny Award 2007! :)

Enjoy!

Dec Hols (Updated)

It's about the halfway mark for the holidays. It's been jammed packed, partly doing the activities I planned, and doing those I didn't plan and not doing those that I planned. :P

It's going to be another 3 weeks (or less) before I return to school, so here's the checklist:

Planned & Did/Doing:
1. Bake cookies
2. Go zoo
3. Go Jacob Ballas Children's Garden
4. Lose weight
5. Manicure/Pedicure
6. Go Pasir Ris Park
7. Dinner with granny (she came over to cook)
8. Church funfair
9. Revamp entire year's worksheet (almost done!)
10. Massage(s)
11. Facial(s)
12. Reading through 2 Timothy 30 times (I've read about 11 times this hols)
13. Re-reading Harry Wong's First Days of School
14. Reading Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind by Robert Shirock
15. Read Second Dawn
16. Financial Budget for 2008
17. Prepare calendar (of events)
18. Science Club Workplan
19. Go Ikea to shop for couch and bookcase
20. Made homemade Playdoh (excellent stuff! Recipe here.)
21. Go Gogo Bambini
22. Prepare EL dept CD for P4 2008!
23. Get set of facial products
24. Prepare for getaway


Planned & Not done:
1. Shu'e's wedding
2. Science Club 30 week schedule
3. Get couch
4. Get bookcase
5. Pack study
6. Pack wardrobe shelves
7. Neaten messy hair
8. Get new clothes (current ones are dying/dyed or won't fit)
9. Get new shoes (all are worn out!)
10. Bake muffins
11. Catch Island Princess
12. Go Gogo Bambini
13. Go Birdpark
14. Go Underwater World
15. Personal Vision for 2008
16. Holiday getaway with Ben (coming soon)
17. Tint windows
18. Collect photos
19. Christmas presents (!!!)
20. Prepare EL dept CD for P4 2008!

I refuse to add anymore. I've got less than 15 11 days left and I won't be able to do all! :P

Didn't planned but doing:
1. Get hooked on Facebook
2. Find all my long-lost primary school friends eversince I lost touch with them 2 decades ago. (I left school earlier.)

I Cut My Hair!

Warning: Bimbo Post

After many weeks of fussing over my hair, I stepped into One Salon @ Century Square and was at the mercy of a very nice hairstylist, Alex. After 3 hours of hair cut and treatment, I finally stepped out - poorer, but feeling better. :)

Even Ben noticed that I looked different... and paid slightly more attention to me. :)


See the back? I didn't realise that this shot allowed the back to be seen too. :)

The Aftermath

Haven't been able to load the photos - a million things to do, it seems. Anyway, the baking was quite a success, with edible yummy cookies that has tons of chocolate chips, mini m&ms, rainbow rice, etc. It's really sweet! But the sweeter part was watching the girls enjoy themselves, plus Shalom eating more (chocs and cookies) than he was helping. The scary part, however, was the clean up, which Lina did almost right away. She enjoyed herself baking too. The buttery smell lingered overnight, and thankfully, by this evening, it's mostly gone.

Will post photos when I can find the cable to the digital camera which I'm finally using. Have been using my phone to take photos, and I know I'll kick myself for being lazy and not use the digital camera coz when I look back, I'll see only poor quality shots. :P

Am feeling less down these few days, thanks to the kids, Eve & Elise's company. I'm seriously re-thinking my Stay At Home Mum option in four years' time. If I were to do that, my social life would dwindle to - BEN. And that actually means zilch. We hardly see each other, meet up once in a while, and while we're at that, we talk about work and kids and him. I really hope this trip to Malacca and KL in 2 weeks' time will strengthen the marriage. If we continue the way we are, it will continue to be challenging. I'm glad that we're both looking forward to the trip, but lately I've been feeling very isolated; like I'm in a vacuum. When I talk, there seems to be no sound coming out, because there's no response. I can't even be honest with myself, with anyone, definitely not here. I'm dying inside.

But life still goes on.

Pretty Pretty!

Just came back from a classic manicure+pedicure appointment ($58 for trial, usu. $68) at Pretty Pretty at Eastpoint Mall. Made an appointment after reading the rave reviews in Simply Her mag, and since I wanted to do up my nails (in the midst of a total makeover without any drastic results... go figure) why not?

Am impressed. Equipment is sterilised for each use, and file, buff and toe separators are disposed of or given to customer after each session. Plus, the other quality products used, and that emphasis on hygiene! Customers to wash their hands with soap before treatment, feet soaked in disinfectant, micro-antibacterial something applied before nail polish... Great for clean freaks like me. And the place is so lovely! Nice waiting area, comfortable chairs, excellent service.

The service processes were very nicely thought through, and every single detail has been taken care of, right up to putting on my rings and watch before painting my nails. If that's the norm, then I've been to the wrong places. I thought it'd be nice if they had a tv, but later when I walked past another nail place which had a tv, I thought it wasn't as classy as Pretty Pretty with a local chinese channel being aired.

I was very surprised when I realised that the guy that'd walked in was the boss. When I saw him, I noticed his shirt - stripes, like the wallpaper and the decor. Hmmm... the in-thing? He's very professional, has excellent service, and even offered to get lunch for me, which obviously I declined.

Overall, I'm just very impressed by the level of service with this place. Seriously considering taking up a package - just that my annual budget for 2008 is supremely tight, and it's not really for a good cause. :P Great session nevertheless. :)

Attempting to Bake

We've got a cookie Christmas party on Saturday, and the kids will be baking them on friday! :) I'm searching around for a few recipes (with ingredients available locally!) and will jot a few here:

FIRST CHOICE FESTIVE COOKIES
Recipe By Chef Celian Leong

Ingredients (A)
1.75 cup Ghee oil
0.75 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1.5 tsp Baking soda
2 nos FIRST CHOICE Egg yolks

Ingredients (B)
1.25 cup Icing sugar
2.5 cup Plain flour
2 tsp Baking powder
0.5 cup Crushed FIRST CHOICE Jackfruit Chips
0.5 cup Crushed FIRST CHOICE Cornflakes
0.5 cup Toasted FIRST CHOICE Almonds


Method of baking:
1. Place all ingredients from (A) into mixer, stir till light and fluffy. Hand-mix thoroughly ingredients (B) - flour mixture with First Choice ingredients (crushed Jackfruit Chips, Cornflakes and Almonds).
2. Fold in all ingredients from (B) into fluffy ingredients from (A) and mix into semi-soft dough. Place the dough in the refrigerator until it is slightly firm.
3. Divide dough equally, shape dough to desired cookie shapes and arrange cookies in line on the baking tray. Preheat oven before baking cookies. Bake the cookies at 180ºC for 12 to 15 minutes depending on size of cookies till golden brown.


Chef's Tip
Brush the cookies with egg white and sprinkle First Choice Chopped Macadamias nuts for a nutty taste.

My Two Angels

Without these two angels, my first year of teaching would be horrendous. They have been my trustworthy aides, my support and my help. I am just so thankful for them. They have helped me without reward for the longest time, and through their helpfulness and perserverance, I have learnt a lot. :)

Thank you Phyllis and Siok Khim. You have made 2007 a wonderful one for me. :)

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

So in the end we trotted off to Jacob Ballas Children's Garden. We made a sudden detour after heading towards Vivo and went straight for JBCG. Needless to say, Abby was thrilled coz she's been asking to "go to the garden" eversince we brought her there once.

We stopped by the Kids' Cafe at the entrance, and sadly, the food isn't too fantastic; service wasn't all that great either. But when we went in, the water play area was quite a madhouse with the kids on a Friday afternoon. The water seemed uncontrollable, but the kids went all out to have a good time.


Abby and Shalom experimenting with the tempermental water spray. Vic was very suspicious of it initially.

Shalom was just mingling around with groups and observing what they were doing, and occasionally dipping his hands into their tubs, much to their annoyance. But he, he's one who can charm the socks of a caterpillar! :P


Watching the bigger girls do their thing.


Getting more up close and personal, much to their annoyance...


Dipping his fingers into where they aren't supposed to be...

Well, they aren't caterpillars, so they weren't really charmed. Simply put, they told him to buzz off.

Vic was rather cautious at the beginning, I guess from the short nap and frightening bigger kids, but after a while, she started warming up to the place. By the end of it all, she started having a great time! But by then, Shalom had run through the showers countless times and was standing at a spot, not really moving. I got quite scared. He was just looking at the kids, but this time round, his teeth were chattering. He was freezing! Quickly, I sprang into action, rinsed him up and got him wrapped up nice and warm. I grabbed his jacket and gave him hot milo. Soon he defrosted and came back to life. (The last time I tried to get him out of the water at the zoo, we almost had a fight. This time round, he was very willing.) Taught him how to tell me if it's really cold. I think he kinda got the idea.


After defrosting...about to head home.

We went back to the garden to touch the Mimosa plants, but Abby had to go to the loo. So after that, we ran out of time and had to leave.


Two pretty flowers at the garden. :)

We'll definitely be back again; it must take at least half a day of good weather to explore the whole place! :)