Culina Lunch Again

After Miss K visited the dentist, which I perfectly timed to have finished by lunch time, we headed to Dempsey Hill again to find a place for lunch. Sadly, a bit, our best option was Culina again. It was an easy choice for MIss K, she chose Truffled Macaroni and Cheese.

We also had Burrata to share.  It was no-brainer for DH that most of time, picked pasta with Crabmeat (again and again!).

I had salad which doesn't seem to be listed on the menu anymore. It had baby spinach, beets and quinoa with very acidic dressing. I did mention about the unpleasant dressing to the waiter, because it was so hard for me to enjoy the dish. Like in many other restaurants in Singapore, neither apology, nor explanation was offered.

Sava's, Ann Arbor

About two to three weeks before our arrival in Ann Arbor, Miss L was invited to have dinner in this restaurant. Its location is in downtown Ann Arbor, right around the campus, right across from Totoro, in fact, How handy! She was thrilled to have us try the food there as well.

I love Calamari and tend to order one when I see them on the menu, especially when I have many companies. This particular one, however, was not the kind that I like, particularly the gravy that was already served on top of the fried Calamari when they came at our table.

I have to give credit to DH for choosing Pan Seared Sea Scallops,it was the best dish of the night. The dish was served over Mushroom Risotto and Spinach.

I indulged myself and my companies with this Steak and Potato Salad. After digging the salad that was served on the bowl, for a little bit, I realized that I could not find any potatoes inside. Apparently, they were forgotten. After asking, the waiter brought  them in a small plate. They were cubed and fried. Nothing impressive, but it's interesting to have potatoes instead of croutons.

Miss L was looking for Arancini that she had before, but they did not have them on the menu anymore. She ordered Pan Seared Salmon instead. The salmon was served on couscous and topped with corn salsa. The salmon was eaten, but most of the couscous was left untouched.

Miss K, who always missed her pasta, had Mac & Cheese. It was simple, straight forward and the plate was cleaned up really well. I guess, it must have been quite good.

Finally, we shared this rainbow cookies. There were three layers of Sponge Cakes inside, coated with chocolate at the top and bottom. They were served with whipped cream and milk, if my memory serves me right.

Mini Mac & Cheese

Preparing meals becomes a lot easier when one of the kids could specify what they actually want. Just like adults, sometimes they do not know what they want to eat. We do want to eat but we run out of ideas of what to eat. So it was such a major help when someone who came back from an 8-day trip said,"Just prepare Mac & Cheese...." That's not a demanding suggestion at all.....

See... communication does help. I am happy that a tween, by age category, could identify what see wants. More often that not, when I ask the other family members what they want for dinner, I got some sort of no answer. A reply of "I don't know.." or " I will eat whatever you cook..." or DH's classic answer " Don't cook tonight, go and have a rest...." is not really helpful, because in the end, we all need and want to eat. We will be hungry by whatever time it will be. Even if I don't cook, we still need to eat something and what would that be?

With these Mini Mac & Cheese, I also prepared garlic bread and Baby Arugula Salad with homemade blue cheese dressing. Good meal.

Mac

I woke up this morning only to find out that Dow Jones went down by 777 points, no thanks to US lawmakers that did not approve the $700 billion bailout plan. Consequently, Asian markets fell all over the place and that's how the last day of September went in the financial market. Gloomy, chaotic, uncertain, worried. Nobody knows what to do for certain.

So .... 30 days went poof.... and it is the end of September. That's really really super fast. Six weeks of school have gone by and we will have a little break after the 8th week. A break that is truly needed considering that first term is really the longest one of all. If I were a student, I would certainly look forward to it. As a mother of three students, I look forward to it too. I am getting tired of dealing with exhausted, grouchy and suddenly IamsmarterthanyouIcouldntbebotheredwithwhatyousay kids around the house. I am very aware that having them around the house will be another set of challenge too. Yes, this time we are not going anywhere. Two of the three need some studying done during the break. So the break won't be a pure break. I hope it'll be okay.... It still a change, a tone down of rhythm.



Baked macaroni and cheese reminds me of those days when the kids were younger and still had the love to go down to the pool downstairs and swim and play and had fun, - with me. I miss those days, I miss the time when I was still able to go with all the three and just did something, together. We hardly have that anymore for many various reasons. I don't think that's what my kids thought of when they had mac & cheese last night for dinner. They simply saw something they liked for they hungry stomach after spending nearly the whole day at school. Nevertheless, I am happy that they seemed to enjoy the meal.

Easy Macaroni Snack

My nephew turned eight years old yesterday. I certainly wish him all the fun things in the world of being eight years old. It has been an exciting journey for him, moving to a city where he used to live and now is attending a new school. It must be nice being eight. It's such a bad time to be an adult these days. Life is such a mess everywhere right now.

Too many horrible disasters have been reported lately. The last big natural disaster, Ike! The last huge financial mess: Lehman Brothers! It's no fun managing funds these days, no kidding. It's extremely challenging to keep your chin up and to maintain the glass is half full attitude when one bad thing after another keeps on happening and the stock market continues diving.

So here is to keeping it simple in the midst of complicated life, macaroni croquettes. They were nice, cheesy and easy to make. I can't remember the last time I made them, it must have been years ago. I know that I used to make them when I was a teenager, which was around a couple hundred years ago.