And Off They Go!

So they go back to school today...... Life is wonderful!

On The Eve ....

School is going to start in less than 12 hours and I had nothing much planned today. We attended the sunset mass yesterday so that we could watch the last swimming events in the Olympic Games in the morning. We wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to witness Michael Phelps getting his 8th gold medal and broke a new world record with his team mates and to see 41-year Dara Torres winning a silver medal in 50-meter free style. They and so many swimmers were so fantastic this time. Incredible!

My Sunday has been a complete unproductive one, I feel. I got some cleaning done, some laundry done and some cooking done too. I went around making sure that the kids are well equipped for their first day of school. In this country, bringing umbrella is a must, unless you want to get caught in the rain. A day could be started off nicely with the sun shining nicely, but by afternoon it could end up with downpour. So it's umbrella, money, school stuff! Don't forget that! Uniforms have been prepared. Shoes have been located. Make sure we all get up early enough for school! First day can be quite nerve-wrecking!

The rest of the evening was very much spent on watching Olympics events on TV. With more than six channels available here to watch many sports of our choice, we flipped the channel watching the finals of gymnastics, tennis, table tennis, badminton, athletics and a few others. For the first time in a long time, we spent so many hours staring at that small screen.

Tomorrow, our first baby will start her last year in high school. A very important year indeed and a year to treasure before she goes away for college.

Okay, so we are ready for a new school year. Bring it on!

The Champ

I just couldn't help it, I have to write something related to Michael Phelps, who, as of today has won 7 gold medals at Beijing Olympic and he still has one more event to go to tomorrow. This super fantastic swimmer has super large breakfast to replenish his energy: fried eggs, toast, tomatoes, fried onions, mayonnaise, cheese and more...... Reportedly, he needs 8000 to 10,000 calories per day. Ha!

Eating machine indeed, but more importantly, super duper swimming champion!!! Best one ever!

Friday With Strawberry

If life could be as simple and as sweet as this strawberry crisp..... hhmmmmm... One could only wish....

Strawberries are always available, i.e. imported, here. They could come from down under or North America. Prices could be right up there and I normally buy when some stores have them on sale.

Upon taking my little one, that is not so little anymore, to the dentist, we went to Carrefour to get her favorite Parmesan cheese and more pasta. There, we discovered that strawberries were being offered at better price. And with food prices rising so much here, I took opportunity to buy lots of them.

I use some for this yummy strawberry crisp and still have more in the fridge. We're gearing up for school on Monday!!!! More calories!

Keeping It On

Kids.
Hungry.
More snacks.

This time, someone craved for this Indonesian Sweet Martabak, a thick pancake filled with grated cheese and thick sweetened milk, after spreading some butter and sprinkling some sugar on it. Understandably they are so yummy.

Some like them with chocolate sprinkles and chopped peanuts. Calories???? A bundle. Go on a diet tomorrow!

Snacking Scallion Cakes

When the kids are not in school, food seems to be the most talked about topic around. What's for breakfast, what's for lunch and what's for dinner are the most frequent questions raised. In between, I can hear "Ummmm... I'm still hungry, what can I eat????" Trust me, we have cupboards filled with food and fridge that are well stocked. Growing kids eat a lot and often and they claim that they are hungry again within minutes. It's a good thing that they still try to make time to swim, run or bike to keep themselves fit and to burn the calories consumed. When school starts, they will eat eat more regularly again.



Scallion cakes are good for breakfast but they are nice for snacks too. We had these scallion cakes from a Chinese restaurant when we had dim-sum in Orlando and we liked them. They were deep-fried and of course yummy. We don't normally make them at home but we gave it a try using one of the recipes we found in the internet and altered it a bit. Not too bad, the kids loved them but I still want to try again using a different recipe to compare

To Use What's Given

Candied Cassava, a Thai dessert which actual name is Montad Chuame is one of my favorite Thai desserts, that I don't normally make at home, unless someone gives me that cassava. The supermarket that I go to, simply does not have cassava. My lovely mother in law remembers that cassava is in the list of things that I gladly have and she sent me some from her garden via DH last week.



Despite its slightly difficult to pronounce name (for me!), this dessert is simple and easy to make. The ingredients are only cassava, sugar, salt and coconut milk. I use the recipe from A Daily Obsession.

Thinking Of Beijing On 08-08-08

I am watching the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games at this very moment. It is so grand and beautiful and it brings back the memory of our visit to the city more than three years ago.

I have some pictures posted in this link. Digging deeper, I found a few that I love to share here too.

The famous Forbidden City, the Chinese Imperial Palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. (Thanks Wiki!)


Starbucks at Forbidden City that is no longer there.


The Great Wall of China, obviously! More info here.


The snow in March, captured from the Great Wall.


By Beijing's Hutong, traditional courtyard residences with small alleys. Not very visible in this picture.


At Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing




Temple of Heaven, a complex of Taoist temples near Beijing.

08-08-08

After traveling 137,000 kilometers through 130 cities in 130 days, the sacred flame finally arrived at Beijing 101 Middle School today. The countdown to Beijing Olympic Games ended and the games officially will be open tonight. I am now counting down the days for school to start, 10 more days!! I am looking forward to seeing swimming, it will be so exciting to see 41-year old Dara Torres making an attempt to snatch 50m freestyle gold and maybe break a new world record. Yay for women in the 40s!! She is so fantastic!



Thanks to my M-I-L's recent delivery, our dry rice noodles stock has gone up to nearly 5kg from previously half of those. Around March she send a 2.5kg bag of rice noodles, which we used up probably just 1/4 of it. In June, prior to our trip, we received another 2.5kg. We shipped off the older bag to others and kept the new one and left for one-month trip.

So now, in less than three weeks upon our return, again we got another 2.5 kg. She loves us so much! I wonder why DH couldn't explain to her that we still have so much of it. My guess would be that it's a lot easier to just take it and go and worry about passing it on to someone else later as typically the case. Yes, they definitely will find a new place soon.

So here is my effort to use up the rice noodles: fried noodles with eggs, carrot, cabbage and green onions! Now we have around maybe around 4.8 kg to go!

Cookie Press Premiere

I was chatting online with my sister when my nephew conveyed that I should not just post food pictures in my blog, to which I replied "Of course not! I put other pictures too!" He then said that I should send them the food too..............

I went "Oh...........". I would if they lived in the island here. If I send them the food that I prepare, the food would change form by the time they get them. Duh!



I got myself a new cookie press a few months ago to replace my broken one and I had not use it until yesterday. It's always fun to make cookies, the part that I dislike is washing the dishes! We can't install a dishwasher here because of lacking of space. Here we go, basic Spritz, first cookies made using my new cookie press!