Calling All Salmon Fans Out There

Normally, I don't share food recipes of my cooking. That is because I'm not the greatest cook and cook only on weekends. It's usually simple dishes like a dish of vegetables, steam or fried fish with soup. This time I decided to share because I cooked salmon and if you didn't know already, I.LOVE.SALMON. But since it's not cheap and we don't always see it at the morning market, we don't buy it every week. Usually we buy kurau or English threadfin. 

Now, I know there are many salmon fans out there so I'm sure you will love this recipe. This time the fish is not fried or steamed the conventional way. My mum will always collect recipes from The Star newspaper. She'll cut them out and paste it in those old annual reports she received. That's how I got the recipe.

You'll need:

1 fillet or steak of salmon. (mine was steak)

1 small packet fresh herbs. (I got rosemary herb)

2 slices of lemon

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towels. Cut 1 sheet of aluminium foil about 15cm x 30cm and lay them (long side facing you) on a working surface.

Place the salmon in the centre of the foil. Sprinkle a generous pinch of salt and pepper on the fish and rub all over. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the fish. Can you see the oil at the picture above? Mmm..

Break off a sprig of rosemary herb (I broke 2 sprigs! Can't resist the nice smell of the herb) and place it over fish.

 

Then top with the 2 lemon slices.



Make an envelope by folding the 2 long sides of the foil over the fish to enclose it.

Then fold both ends over and now the fish is snugly packaged.

You can steam or bake the parcel. If you chose to bake, then preheat for 10 minutes at 160 degree Celcius, place parcel on a tray and bake for 6-7 minutes.

You can also steam the fish like me because I don't have an oven. Steam it in a wok and just place the parcel on the steam rack. Of course cover the lid and steam for 5 minutes. (I forgotten to take a picture!)



There my salmon ready to be devoured. The verdict from the hubby and kids? Two thumbs up! They said it was delicious. There was a nice aroma and it had a nice tasting sauce. Fish wasn't tough, flaky and dry. Succulent!

Let's Go To The Movies

The title of this post actually reminds me of a song in one of my favourite movie musical, Annie! Hubby got four free movie tickets, so this time we're all going! Before this we didn't have any confidence to bring Joseph yet but since now he's turning 3 soon, we thought we might give it a try. This is his first time to the movie and Elizabeth's 3rd time. We're all excited, even Mummy was excited. I don't know whether it's because we're going as a family for the first time or I was anxious if things does not go smoothly. Guess what? Things went smoothly! Yipee! More movie trips in the future. :)

My cuties walking hand-in-hand along the shops in Pavilion towards GSC

Nope, we didn't watch this movie. Spiderman is not out yet.

Nope, not this Brave movie too.

What else? Madagascar 3 lah! My girl loves the first two movies. So this part 3 is definitely our choice.  

Elizabeth is all set with popcorn for the movie.

Joseph already started monkey-ing around before the movie started. He was enjoying his corn-in-a-cup.

Then the screen came alive and their eyes were glued.

Joseph was too light for the seat so he sat on Papa's lap nearly throughout the movie. Joseph even brought his 'bear-bear' along.

It was a nice movie experience with the kids and I'm sure they enjoyed it too. Joseph stayed put nearly throughout the movie. Only towards the end, he started moving back and forth from his Papa to me. But still behaving quite well. Now you know I can't get that funny tune from the movie out of my head, "circus, afro, circus, afro, polka dot (3X), afro!" Go watch the movie, then you'll know what I mean..;)

While Papa Was Away Part 3

It was Father's Day but since Papa was away, I planned some crafts for the kids to do. But first, Nutella Fudgesicles to cool their body down. They were in the freezer overnight and should be ready. The kids and I loved it. We saved one for their papa too.

The kids licking away. Nutella Fudgesicles.

Coming up next, we did Father's Day craft as a gift for their papa. For Elizabeth, she did a card in a shape of a shirt with tie. It was actually an idea we got from one of her activity books. As for Joseph, just a simple card that I know he'll enjoy doing and I got the idea from the Internet.

 Use a coloured paper and if it's A4 size, you can fold it into half and glue them together. Cut two vertical lines about 1.5 inches and fold them like step no. 2 at the picture above. It will look like a shirt collar. Draw out a shape of a tie on another coloured paper and cut out the shape. Apply glue only at the top part of the tie and paste it slightly under the collar.

You can stick two buttons at the ends of the collar like the picture above. Then flip up the tie to write something under the tie. Elizabeth wrote "Surprise!!!"

Tada! A cute shirt with tie and buttons on the front.

A message for papa at the back. Just paste any light coloured paper if the shirt is dark coloured and write or draw whatever you want for daddy dearest.

Now it's Joseph's turn. He just had to place his right hand on a paper. Then I'll spray colours around with a toothbrush. So there'll be a shape of his hand on the paper.

Tada! Joseph's card for papa. it smeared a little because he couldn't keep still. I got big jie jie to help Joseph to write a message for papa. This card is good for keepsake so you can compare size of the hand on the card with the size of the hand in the years to come.

After all that hard work, you will never go wrong with spaghetti bolognese for the kids. ;)



While Papa Was Away Part 2

Continuation from the previous post, Elizabeth doesn't nap in the afternoons during weekend. Even though I tried to make her nap, she would resist it. Maybe she wants to be with me as much as possible. Muahaha..:P So to while away the time, I told her to do some colouring. She has so many colouring books and she hasn't even finished colouring some of them. She did some puzzles also in her activity books.

Can you see that pink hairband there with two stars? It belongs to me you know? I've kept it for many years and now pass it down to my daughter. Old things really can last long eh?

We also did Nutella Fudgesicles! I found it through Babycenter. We loved it! Although it will get messy where kids are concern but worth a try.

The recipe calls for hazelnut chocolate milk but I couldn't find it at the stores so I just settled with normal full cream milk. Tasted good too. You can also use chocolate milk if you want. That's one cup of full cream milk.

Pour the milk in a bowl.

Scoop about 1/4 cup Nutella.

Whisk together the milk and Nutella. I don't have a whisk so I just use spoon.

Pour mixture into the popsicle mould. Put it in the freezer overnight. We shall see the kids' reaction in the next post. :)

Then the kids sang nursery rhymes and goofed around. Not forgetting reading before bedtime. Hope you'll enjoy the videos.

While Papa Was Away

Last weekend, the hubby was away on a business trip. Leaving me with the kids. :( Sad because we all missed him and we cannot celebrate Father's Day with him. But I've already planned out some activities for the kids. Initially some activities involved going to the playground but that had to be cancelled since the haze was very bad over the weekend.

I guess it's natural to do an art and craft activity. What more than art and craft since kids enjoy them right? We finished off doing a tortoise craft we did halfway because we ran out of green paint! I didn't follow exactly but I got the idea from Disney Junior's website. Here's the steps to do a tortoise!



Draw the tortoise's head, tail and legs on a paper plate. Then cut the shapes out. Stick them on another paper plate.

Put some glue around the sides of the paper plate. Then we stick another paper plate on top so that the head, tail and lets are pressed in between the two paper plates. You can use a paper bowl on top if you want to make the tortoise bulkier. But since we don't have a paper bowl, we just settled with a paper plate instead. Then paint the tortoise green. Use a sponge to make streaks of yellow paint on top of the green paint. Make sure the green paint is fully dry. Otherwise, you can't really see the yellow effect just like mine. Haha.

Paste googlie eyes on the head of the tortoise. Since we don't have glitter, we just use glitter glue to make spots on the body and tail. Red glitter glue for the body and purple glitter glue for the tail. Tada! Elizabeth can't wait to show her papa.

A Walk By The Riverside

Did you know that there's a hotel by the riverside in Malacca? Well, I didn't! One weekend when I was back in Malacca, after having our breakfast, we still had time to kill before church mass starts. So I suggested to take a walk by the riverside. Something we've always enjoyed doing as a family but haven't been doing for quite a while. We were pleasantly surprised to find a hotel by the riverside. When it was there, nobody knows. LOL.

Anyway, we took a stroll along the riverside and also part of the hotel. I found out that the hotel is called Casa del Rio and it's a boutique hotel. And of course, I took some pictures to share. Don't know what to do in Malacca? A walk by the riverside, will always do you good. :)

Beautiful fountain at Casa del Rio hotel.

Above: Across the river is where you board the river cruise. You can see the Menara Taming Sari and Maritime Museum too. Below: The rooms facing the river. 

Nice view right?

My favourite photos of all! Don't be fooled by Joseph's expression in the first photo. He is not in pain. He's just acting it when I asked them to smile for the camera. And that's why I made sure he smiled properly for the second take. :)

It looks like Paris I'm assuming. Even though I haven't been there before. >_<

Another view of the hotel.

The famous Melaka River Cruise. Don't worry nowadays the river doesn't smell bad like back in those days. Haha.

Barbie Event

Yesterday, I sacrificed my one day of work to bring Elizabeth to this Barbie event in 1 Utama Shopping Centre. Yes, ain't I a crazy mum? We arrived around 10am. Don't want to be late and caught in another bee line, do we? There's a free makeover and photoshoot with a minimum purchase of RM80 Barbie products if you're a Toys 'R' Us member or if you have a Maybank credit card. If you are not a member of any of those cards, then you must make a minimum purchase of RM100 to be entitled for the free makeover and photoshoot. That's the reason why we're there so we did our purchasing quickly then proceeded to register for the photoshoot session. Elizabeth was then whisked off for her makeup session and then changed into a costume of her choice. When it was her turn, she had to follow a few instructions on how to pose for her photoshoot. I felt that the photographer should try harder to teach the child how to work on their facial expression and should do a few takes to get the perfect shot. But it's not entirely he's fault too. Maybe he cannot linger in a session so keep up with the growing line waiting for their turn. Other than that, Elizabeth enjoyed the experience. No photography or video allowed during the photoshoot for parents. So I can't share with you any photographs in the process. I can only show you the picture once it is ready as I didn't opt for the instant photographs.

While I was choosing the photographs to be processed, I heard the MC announcing that there would also be a Barbie Kitchenette "I Can Be Chef" programme lined up for the children to participate. I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't expect it. Wonder how it could have slipped my eyes when I read about the event in the newspaper. So since I'm already entitled to register for the programme (minimum purchase of RM30 Barbie products), I wasted no time in registering. The programme only will commence at 1.30pm so we decided to go for our lunch first as we were both famished by then. We looked for a place that serves spaghetti as it is Elizabeth's current favourite now and stumbled upon Dave's Deli. I don't know why but Dave's Deli always brought back memories of my college days when we first discovered Dave's Deli way back then in 1 Utama Shopping Centre. It's really good that they lasted until today. They have a 30% discount promotion during weekdays from 12pm to 3pm which I was absolutely thankful for it. This also brought in the crowd! It was amazing to see a long queue and full house. I've never seen Dave's Deli with such long queues before. Anyway, I ordered spaghetti with sausage and mushroom in tomato sauce as planned for the princess and I ordered salmon and dill quiche for myself. My jaw dropped when the spaghetti arrived because I didn't expect the portion to be huge! I could've shared the meal with Elizabeth but it was too late. We tried with all our might to finish it but alas we couldn't in the end.

The princess digging in the huge portion of spaghetti.

My quiche. It was good for me. Oh well, maybe a hungry stomach makes everything tasted so good. The long queue of people waiting their turn to make an order.

Striking a pose around the event site. In the 2nd pic, you can see the prop at the background used for the photoshoot session.

More pix before the programme starts.

Elizabeth excited and raring to whip up some cupcakes.

The process of making cupcakes. There were 4 children in a group and Elizabeth had to do it with a new found friend.

While waiting for the cupcakes to be ready, they did pizza! Most kids didn't want the capsicums and mushrooms just like Elizabeth. She just opted for the sausage. Haha.

A group photo of the participants.

When the pizza is in the oven, it's time to decorate the cupcakes.

Elizabeth so proud with her creations.

One of the stuff we bought from Barbie upon her majesty's request. She looks regal doesn't she? hehe.

Kids just love this kind of activity huh? After that she exclaimed that she likes cooking. Good then, I can have a handy helper in the kitchen next time. :) If any of you are interested to let your kids have fun in this programme, you can still make it until this weekend. Good luck!



Madagascar 3 in Pavilion

I thought we wouldn't be able to make it for this event because we had to go back to hubby's hometown in Seremban last weekend. But since yours truly is efficient here (ahem!), I packed our bags in quite a jiffy and so we had time to make a pit stop to Pavilion before heading back to Seremban. We were there about 11-ish in the morning, not too early and not too late. We can hear that the Madagascar 3 event had already started while we were heading straight there. And not surprisingly that the crowd was already starting to build up.

There was a fashion show competition going on when we arrived.

There's about 3 mini carousel there. It will never go wrong with kids.

Those Madagascar soft toys are so cute. But it doesn't come cheap! The smallest size ones are selling for about RM59!

1. Balloon Buzz's booth but I didn't get anything for the kids. Luckily they didn't ask for anything also. Phew! :P
2. Mr. Hammer there at the back but the kids didn't say they want to try. Phew again. :P 

Quite a good job they did here with the balloons to form into Gloria the hippo. But I still feel a bit squirmish looking at all the tiny tiny balloons. It looks like she has giant warts. Hahah.

Yes, I can see they are penguins but doesn't really resemble the Madagascar penguins. Not a really good job here. Skipper!

It's all here. See the crowd increasing? Oh we got popcorns from Planet Popcorn, one of the booth there. But I still think Garret is better.:D

More pix with the balloons and the soft toys. Joseph already hitting the balloon animals and I was worried because the sign says "once broken considered sold". Joseph enjoyed kissing the Alex the lion. haha.

Joseph kissing Marty the zebra this time. Then taking a pic with their favourite character Alex.

The kids were interested to try this trampoline. Elizabeth was a little nervous at first but she had a blast jumping.

Joseph jumped for a while and then asked his Papa to swing him instead. All the time until time was up!

The ticket costed RM15 and it comes with a complimentary photo. :) We got the photo instantly even before the ride was over!

'Meet the Penguins' session. We didn't want to make another bee line after that trampoline one. So just seeing them from afar would be enough.

It was quite a fun outing for the kids although we had to wait in line for the trampoline ride. The children having a blast is of utmost importance isn't it? We are thinking of maybe catching the movie as a family if Joseph can behave. Cross our fingers! ;)