邋遢猫的窝

To realize the value of a sister/brother Ask someone who doesn't have one.

To realize the value of 10 years, ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize the value of 4 years, ask a graduate.

To realize the value of 1 year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize the value of 9 months: Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize the value of 1 month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby....

To realize the value of 1 week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of 1 minute: Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize the value of 1 second: Ask a person who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even more when You can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member: LOSE ONE.

(I received this from viral email)

我是不是贤妻实在不敢讲，但女人要做好本份 - 生孩子煮饭洗衣是应该的，做得好不好是其次。

赚钱是我们的能力，不是本份，所以再多的钱也是我们的 (男人不要虎视眈眈)!

男人的本份是赚钱养家，做不好的话我们可以分担。但因为我们分担了男人的本份，男人就应该没有怨言的抹地、洗厕所、照顾孩子。

Men are providers and protectors. Women are nurturers and supporters.

This is golden rule. I have no complaint executing the roles entrusted by God.

However, women have since evolved & becoming providers today.

But the society has yet to evolve. Despite being the providers, we generally still expect the women to nurture & support.

I came about this idea after trying beef sandwich at Wondermilk - you know, the shop that sells cupcakes.

They serve some nice sandwiches but rather expensive for the 2 slices of breads.

Here is what I have modified from theirs, and it turned out to be my hubby's favourite lunch:

Garlic Beef Sandwich

Ingredient:

150g Beef (enough for 5 sandwiches / 10 slices of bread).

- Slice beef to thin pieces & marinate with soy sauce. Never marinate with salt (well, something to do with osmosis, the beef will get very dry). 

- Add a spoonfull of corn flour, mix with fingers. Leave for 1/2 hour or so. Why corn flour... not very sure, I learned from my mother, something to do with the tenderness of meat during stir frying. Old wisdom. Just follow.

Garlic & ginger - chopped.

Wholemeal breads (10 slices)

- Spread with generous amount of butter, toast till golden brown (I have tried white bread, but it is not as nice as wholemeal bread)

Salad leaves and tomatoes (sliced)

 Preparation:

1. Heat some oil, saute garlic & ginger.

2. Add in beef. Stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes (depending how well you want it to be done). Add a bit of water if it is too dry. No need other seasoning.

3. Ok... you don't need me to teach you how to sandwich the breads. But I'd always recommend Lingam Chilies sauce. Made in Malaysia!

 :-)

Enjoy your OL lunch.

Only when my mother-in-law is away that I realised how bad a cook I am.

I ran out of idea on what to cook for lunch & dinner, 3 days after taking over the kitchen.

Incidence 1:

Hubby: "I go to buy prawns, what style can you cook?"

Me: "I can try sambal... let me check the recipe book!"

Hubby (very determined): "... ok, don't waste. Let's go out to eat."

Incidence 2:

Dinner, I volunteered to cook for my husband.

Me: "You need to let me do some experiments. Or else I'd never learn. You have to eat (no mater what) to show me some encouragement. It's for your own good, your mother is not going to be here forever."

Hubby (reluctantly): "ok... so what are you going to cook?"

Me: "Beef sawi!"

Hubby: "Is there such a dish? Nice meh?" (VERY doubtful)

Me: "It is a famous Cantonese dish." (not sure if it is, just trying to convince him).

Half way cooking...

Me: "Yikes! I put too much water in the rice, honey." - I know he hates sticky wet rice. His low expectation has hit the bottom.

But the beef sawi was really delicious.

Hubby:"What do you think about the dinner? Nice?"

Me: "You can't ask me this question, because I am the cook. Is it nice?"

Hubby noded his head (at last), showing some satisfactions.

Me: "So, are you confident now with my sambal tomorrow?"

He laughed.

Incidence 3:

Cooking sambal sotong.

Me asking hubby:"Btw... did you by any chance see how much belacan your mother put in the sambal?"

Hubby shrugged his shoulder. Ok... my best effort ... let's try my luck.

Hubby (trying to save his dinner):"Remember to put sugar..."

Sambal turned out to be super hot, and some taste was obviously lacking.

Me (trying to save some grace):"I think it's too hot, it overwhelms the other tastes. Probably it's the India chilies (my mother-in-law said chilies that came from India are very hot)."

:p

Incidence 4:

 Baking bread for breakfast, with lots of cheese & Nestum cereals.

Hubby:"Wow! Ho liao (in Hokkien - good stuff)."

Me:"Of course."

Set the timer, bread would be ready the next morning.

Next morning, excitedly, I showed hubby the bread:"See see! My ho-liao bread gets so small this time. Looks like a french bread!"

"Oh no... it's a hard rock!"

"Oops ... I forgot the yeast..."

I have a friend, when he was single, he swore to marry a woman with a degree, so that they share the same wave length & are competible.  Eventually he did marry one. But later he complained about having endless arguements with the wife, because she always has opinions, she is not docile enough. 

I always wanted a job that is less stressful, less weekend work, less stayback nights & more managerial tasks. After a while, I think it is boring, there are too much routine, there is not much learning.

The same good things sometimes are not going to be the same when the circumstances changed, or when we have too much of it.

Maybe life is a paradox.

Maybe we have to learn accepting the whole package of what we are getting.

It's a hot Sunday.  I did 3 rounds of laundring, then bathing, feeding & putting Damien to sleep. Going out is not an alternative.

"What for lunch?" hubby asked. "Let's see what's there left in the fridge". I don't normally do marketing, my mother-in-law does. So I got to be creative with limited ingredients.

Here's what I have "invented" - Choy Sem Aglio Olio Spaghetti.

Ingredients:

1 big red chili - sliced

4 small chili padi - chopped

Garlic - 1 whole garlic, chopped

Choy sem - washed & drained

1/2 Carrot - sliced to strips (this was the remaining from cooking Damien's porridge)

Prawns - marinated with salt

Olive oil, pepper, chicken stock granules, salt & MSG for seasoning (I know it's not healthy... but it has to be as far as taste is concerned)

Rosemary (supposed to put chopped Parsley leaves, but I don't have any, so I tried Rosemary that I used to marinated lamb shoulder yesterday. It turned out to be really aromatic!)

Spaghetti enough for 2. Hold speghetti in fist to the size of a 20 cents (that's enough for one person).

Preparation:

1. Boil spaghetti in rapidly boiling water until tender (break spaghetti to check if the centre is white in colour. Cooked spaghetti has no white centre).

2. When cooked, drained spaghetti. Toss with some olive oil to prevent it sticks together.

3. Boil water in a deep pan. Put in choy sem to boil for 3 minutes.

4. At the same time, heat wok with generous amount of olive oil over medium fire. Saute garlic & chilies together.

5. Turn fire to max, put in prawns, spaghetti & choy sem in order. Sprinkle with some Rosemary.   

6. Put seasoning to taste & fry for 2 - 3 minutes.

Voila!

A satisfying lunch must served with something premium...

The best Root Beer in the world - RM3.99 from Cold Storage (notice the clever cap)? 

Ahhhh... blurrrp... what a cooling Sunday.

I was a nerd in school & now a busy OL. Cooking is a foreign skill but I manage to pick up some simple recipes from my mother-in-law.

Lamb shoulder is one of the simplest but delicious one. That's what I had just cooked for lunch.

Simple ingredients for 2:

• Lamb shoulder            4 pieces
• Salt & rosemary          For marinating

 Rub both sides of lamb shoulders with salt, tenderise with tenderer.

Rub a generous amount of rosemary on the meats & leave for at least an hour. You can find bottled rosemary at hypermarkets & Jusco.

Heat wok & fry some garlic to add to the aroma (if you like). Use medium fire to fry meats to cook.

Ta-ta-ta-ta...

Served with salad, steamed carrots & potatoes + Lingam Chili sauce (无得弹!)

I'm supposed to be on leave today taking care of Damien as my in-laws are back to Penang for Cheng Beng. But an important meeting came up, I have to leave my 16 month-old Damien alone with my husband for at least half a day.

All he needs to do is just changing, bathing & feeding Damien. But my mother-in-law was so worried that she intended to cancel her trip. I had to assure her few times to let her son manage Damien, he needs to be given a chance to learn so. 

My husband had never bathed Damien before, probably had only observed a few times. So I decided to let him bathe Damien last night. An express & intensive course indeed.

 I supervised him struggling thru the whole process. While trying to discipline Damien, he misplaced the shower head & got himself wet from head to toe. At times, Damien almost fell down in the bathroom . Before he managed to dry Damien, Damien ran inside the room & peed on the floor. He was frustrated, instead of drying & dressing Damien (who was still soaking wet), he intended to clean the floor first!

I started to get worried. It seemed that I'm not leaving my son in any good hands... So he had an earful of dos & don'ts from me last night.

I left the house before 7 am & managed to call him twice (checking... ), I didn't hear Damien screaming or crying in the background, so I guessed he was doing fine!

I went on to have lunch with my colleagues before heading back home. I reached home only at 2.30 pm.

The moment I stepped inside the house, Oh Gosh! my jaw hit the floor...

Despite the messiness, thanks God my son is intact.

Back from work at 9 pm today.

The moment I stepped inside the house, my 13 year-old niece Kimberly, who had just gone through St. John first aid training, eagerly wanted to demostrate something funny.

She laid my son Damien down on the floor, pretending that he is injured or fainted. She then kneeled down & leaned torwards him, holding his shoulders with both hands & started talking to him, loudly & desparately,

"Sir, Sir, I'm a qualified trainee from St. John, I'm here to help you, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Damien, who doesn't even know how to call mummy yet, responded unexpectedly by shaking his head, profusely.

Laughter immediately burst in the house. 

Funny enough, he understood & responded to a question (can you hear me?)!

But he shaked his head (No...I couldn't hear you)! ha ha ha...

人生最痛苦的就是煎熬；去除煎熬就只有一个痛苦的决定。 

或许到了某个阶段，坚定是我们仅有的美丽；勇敢是我们唯一的势力。

再多的苦也要苦在过自己的生活，不要苦在委曲求全的宿命。

有时我们怕失去，也不知道会不会就是因为怕而失去。

看不到的未来都是可怕的，但很多时候当我们回头看时，以前的未来也不过如此而以。

送给全天下的女人共勉。

我们都可以。