Girlet's Piano Mini-Concert

Girlet had been busy practising her piano the past 2 weeks in preparation of today's mini-concert at her music school.

The concert started at 7.30, so we had dinner first at a Japanese restaurant near the premise. Girlet was a little nervous so she didn't eat much, even though we ordered her favourite dishes.

After a few other performances, it was Girlet's turn. She started with a duet with her teacher playing 'Firefly'. Being her first performance, her teacher thought that would calm her somewhat. Which it did. Then she played three solo pieces, The Juggler, Kite in the Sky, and Lightly Row, all with only a couple of mistakes. She didn't pause but just continued playing. Look at her very serious expression. When I asked her later why she was so serious, she said she was concentrating very hard, and forgot to smile. With some of the other performers.

Anyway, she was very motivated to see the older kids playing so well, that after her concert she continued practising the piano pieces. Let's hope she maintains the momentum.

Edit : Finally found out how to download the video to the blog. Actually, downloading was easy, it was the getting around to find out that took a long time.

Bento # 59 - Maki and Fishies swimming around

This bento was from yesterday. No bento today as Girlet's friend was celebrating birthday in school and food was provided.

Top: Fish shaped watermelon

Left: Maki with Ebbiko, crabstick and cucumber, with egg maki in the middle. Edamame stuffed at the sides, and soy sauce in a fish shape container.

Right: Fish shaped sausage, and sausage that I tried to cut into a fish, and fish shaped cucumber.

I found out that Girlet would eat cucumber if if was rolled up in maki. She left the fish cucumber untouched.

How-to : Make flower egg/ham

To Lisa: Sorry for the late reply. I've been busy the whole day. Anyway, how I made the flower egg may not be the proper way. Like your dumpling sandwich, I saw the pic, and did it my way. Please feel free to improve on it.

First, beat the egg with salt and pepper added (you may want to add milk, suspect Japanese add Mirin and sugar).

Fry paper thin. I used a rectangular pan.

Lay the piece of egg flat on chopping board and make parallel slits about 1/4 inch apart in the middle of the egg (not all the way through). If you make long slits, the effect will be like mine, the 'petals' will open up wider. I didn't have time to fry an egg, so am showing you pics using ham instead.

Fold the egg/ham in half, perpendicular to the slits. I found out the hard way that if I cut after folding the ham, the ham tend to break.

Roll the egg/ham up and secure with a toothpick. For girlet's bento, I left out the toothpick, just wedge it tightly among other food so it doesn't unravel.

You probably would want to experiment with wider/narrower slits, longer/shorter slits, thicker/thinner egg, all of which will affect the final product.

Bento # 58 - Inari-zushi

One dish that we always order at Japanese restauraunt or sushi bar is the orange fish roe or ebbiko. It is Girlet and Boylet's favourite, next to the red baby octopus. So, when I saw ebbiko at the supermarket, decided to get for the kids.

I was thinking of making ebbiko maki, when I remembered the balance of the aburaage/fried beancurd pouch bought a few weeks earlier in the fridge. Decided to make inari-zushi instead. In the end, I made two fillings - sushi rice mixed with flavoured korean seaweed, and sushi rice topped with a very generous portion of ebikko.

For Girlet's bento, she had one of each inari, edamame, potato croquette stuffed with sweetmeat/bakwa, fishcake roll, , egg flower and grapes. there are more edamame behind the dog divider. Her only complain was that I stuffed the inari so full that it was hard for her to eat. Oops, talk about kiasu. It was a good thing I packed a small fork. She used the fork to eat up some of the fillings first, so that the inari could fit into her mouth.
Since I still have more tofu pouches, decided to make a bento for myself too. Mine had two inari with seaweed and one with ebbiko. Saved the rest of the ebbiko for the kids' dinner. Made another egg flower, from the balance of the egg from girlet's bento. Laid them on top of a bed of green and red baby butterhead lettuce, accompanied by red & yellow capsicum, cherry tomatoes, edamame and a fan shaped strawberry. Had the salad with French vinaigrette. Delish!
A different view of my bento.

By the way, I bought more aburaage at 100 yen shop yesterday because it was only RM4.90, compared to RM6.90 I paid at Jaya Jusco. It was the same brand and same packaging. Also must add that from the making this bento, I've acquired a few Japanese vocab along the way. *_*

Bento # 57 - Dinosaur Pasta

Today was speed bento day, as have to rush for Babylet's music class. Last night, we had bakuteh for dinner and girlet requested to pack that for her lunch today . But how to pack that? If put in thermos, I'm sure the teacher wouldn't be impressed with the aroma wafting through the classroom... hehe... Her second request was for egg mayo sandwich.

I thought about what other carbs I have in the freezer and remembered the leftover dinosaur pasta from last week, which was frozen without the sauce. That's how she ended up with egg mayo pasta with mixed veg today. Boiled the eggs last night so today will be cold to keep the mayonnaise fresh until lunch. This morning just heat up pasta and frozen mixed veg, wash some grapes, and mash the eggs. And assemble. Included a dino biscuit to complete the theme. Accidentally broke the stegosaurus in half, replaced with T-rex. All in took almost 15 mins.
After taking photo,
Girlet: T-Rex is boylet's favourite.
Me : So how, I broke the stegosaurus. No more left.
Girlet: Never mindlah. Let boylet have the T-Rex.
Me : You don't mind the broken one?
Girlet: It's okay. Maybe I eat it first?

And she ended up with this bento instead. Fortunately, as now the spoon can fit in.
The dinosaur pasta may be a novelty item, but boylet really eats more and faster too when we have this for dinner. Gotta ask BIL to buy some more when he comes back from Australia.

My busy day

Been busy the whole day. After Babylet's music class, dropped her off, and went shopping at 100 yen shop in Damansara Uptown, near the HSBC bank. Found the 'facial' quail egg moulds, car/fish & rabbit/bear egg moulds being sold there for RM4.90. Felt upset cos bought them 3 months ago at a premium. Being 'buaykamwan' /dissatisfied, bought more for friends. Now have to think who to give to.... hehe.... or anyone up for a swap?

Bought a whole lot of stuff at 100 yen shop, after multiple phone calls from my sis in Johor who in turn was online with Emily and conferencing with her colleague on the other phone. They ended up getting a whole lot more stuff than I did! My head was spinning after the umpteenth calls to add more things. *_^

After shopping, went to pick up Boylet from his nursery and to send Emily her purchases at her workplace nearby. She was so sweet to buy us Banana Pie and Triple Espresso Brownie. Super duper YUM!!! Thanks Emily. Muak! I was too busy shopping to eat lunch, so didn't feel guilty to indulge in a quarter of the Brownie and a quarter of the Banana Pie.
In the afternoon, supervised the older kids' homework, and off to their music jamming class. Return home in time for Girlet's piano practice and dinner.

After dinner, went to visit a friend who just had her first baby after 8 years of marriage. She wasn't desperately yearning for a child. Just if it happens, fantastic, if not, she'll just enjoy her life first. Great attitude there. After honeymooning for 8 years, she managed to conceive naturally. How great is her faith!! The baby boy has got very chubby cheeks, being 3.9 kg. And very amiable, just like the parents. Congrats!
And now I have insomnia, so am babbling on the blog instead of sleeping. Ha! Must the caffeine in the Brownie.

Bento # 56 - More Lormaikai

After a few days of bread for bento, thought better change the menu before girlet gets bored. So made lormaikai, this time went easier on the dark soy sauce unlike the previous effort. Wanted a change from my normal onigiri moulds, so tried a mushroom cookie cutter, using a cling wrap to prevent rice from sticking to the cutter. From there, the bento evolved to a sort of garden theme, with another rice flower, sugarpeas as grass and carrots as butterflies. The butterfly cup contained shredded chicken, and added the siumai for more protein and fill up the space, hehe.... The siumai were frozen leftovers from weekend-bought as I'm yet to master making it.
The top container had pulasan and lotus paste pandan angku kueh. Finally found a place selling very sweet pulasan. Every weekday, there's a lorry in front of Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Damansara selling fruits from 2+pm onwards. The fruits are from Thailand. Of course the fruits vary according to the season, but they are all quite consistently sweet.

Verdict: Girlet finished everything except some of the vegies and half the angku. She came home and asked for more pulasan, so it was that good.

Babylet puzzles

Babylet loves doing jigsaw puzzles. This is one of her 'homework' from her enrichment class to improve her fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. Currently she can only do up to 5-pieces puzzles, which is less than boylet at the same age. But then, she can speak better than boylet with fully formed sentences.

Unfortunately, she likes to prefix 'the' to some words, for eg. 'the mommy' and 'the book'. So her sentences becomes "I want to follow the mommy" and "Please read me story the book". Haha.... some more touchy when get corrected. I'll just have to wait for her to grow out of it."TaDah!", babylet cheers for herself after she completes each puzzle. Another homework, Babylet showing off her scissors skills and camera smile.
Basically, she just want to sit next to me as I use the computer, blogging or facebook-ing. *_*

Bento # 55 - Dumpling Sandwich

Another bread bento, this time copying Lisa's dumpling sandwich. Unfortunately mine is without the cute food markers. Nevertheless, girlet enjoyed making the dumpling using the dumpling mould from 100 yen shop. Take two slices of bread, cut into a circle (according to the mould), fill the middle and press the mould. Easy enough for a 6-yr old. Without the mould, I would just press the edges with a fork. From left : white and red dragonfruit cut in bear shape. Two bread dumplings, one buttered and filled with meat floss, the other with Nutella. Four quail eggs in animal shapes, and chocolate alphabet cookies spelling out girlet's name. Staked two bear silicon cups on top of each other as they are too shallow individually. Also a fish sauce bottle containing soy sauce.

Bento # 54 - Mickey / Minnie sandwiches

Girlet requested for sandwiches, and I was glad to comply. Sandwiches = a fast and easy bento to make.

Mickey Mouse sandwich with Nutella, Minni Mouse with kaya (coconut jam).

Babybel cheese, Grapes, and Ham chunks on lettuce.

Bentos # 53 - for Girlet and I

Since girlet loved the seaweed onigiri the previous day, I made another with her agreement. This time tried a round one. Managed to make a perfect ball.... hehe... not hand made lah, used a rice mould from 100yen shop. Also packed a stewed drumnet in soy sauce, baby french beans stirfried with minced pork and wolfberries, a crabstick wrapped with egg, and ham shaped as sea anemone. For desserts, girlet got some grapes and mini grape-filled marshmallows. Forgot to add the food picks before taking the photo. Unfortunately, girlet must have been bored with onigiris as she left that untouched and most of the grapes as well. She had poor appetite during dinner too. Hope she's not coming down with anything.
Also packed a bento for myself even though I ate at home : A salad with green & red lettuce, red & yellow capsicum (don't fancy green ones unless cooked) and cherry tomatoes. For this meal, also fry some mushroom in olive oil and then simmered in balsamic vinegar. The remaining dressing was for the salad. I found it hard to eat out of the small box. Could't stir or mix as everything was packed tightly together. For carbo, I had a red bean onigiri purchased from Jaya Jusco. I had expected it to be sweetish being red bean and all, and was surprised by the rather salty taste. Not something that I'll try to duplicate. Anyway, after finishing this bento, I remembered my soy sauce drumnet still in the pan for reheating. Thank goodness. That completed the meal nicely.

Bento # 52

This bento was very quick and easy as all except the onigiri were premade. Cooked the rice in the morning and mixed with sushi vinegar (because girlet likes it this way). For the triangular onigiri, mixed with some Korean seaweed from Jaya Jusco. The flower onigiri (thanks again Emily for the mini mould) was mixed with Sakura Denbu.

At the top are two crabstick fishballs. First, pull apart the crabstick. Then roll fishpaste into a ball and wrap the fishball with the crabstick. Saw something similar being sold in the wet market, and thought to try my own. Of course, mine ended with odd shapes.

The pink flower is kamaboko rolled up. Sorry for the bad lighting. Girlet ate everything except the flower onigiri (just took a bite) and the lettuce. Said she was too full. Maybe should have substituted one onigiri with fruits.

Long Distance Cousins

The kids' two cousins came back for a visit. Maya is two months older than babylet but is so much taller. Must be the Irish blood in her. Boylet knew we were taking photos and asked to change to his new crocodile t-shirt from Oz. Unfortunately, kakak didn't understand him and he threw a tantrum insisting on changing. What a vainpot, even vainer than the girls.

Babylet was most excited to have her own friend to play with, even though they mostly did parallel play and not with each other. In the morning when she woke up, she would ask for Maya, and in the evening would ask to go to the playground to play with Maya.
Not too late to celebrate National Day. Babylet showing Maya the Malaysian flag.
Girlet with 4-month old baby Danny. He's a good baby, slept and drank very well. But struggled to adjust to the heat and humidity here.
The kids playing in front of the neighbour's house, petting the cat and her kittens. Bye, Maya. Babylet will miss you lots.

Tap and Modern dancing class

Girlet had her ballet concert in May, during which she was very impressed with the tap dancing sequences. She had been bugging me to let her learn ever since. She's so busy with so many classes, still want to take more.
Another mom told me, "If she's interested, you shouldn't hold her back. Let her experience more things, then she'll know what she likes." Yeah, the problem is I would have to buy the whole paraphernalia that comes with it and tap shoes are not exactly cheap. After letting her wait for a few months, to ensure that she's still interested, rallied the other ballet moms and asked the dance school to start a tap class right after her ballet class. That is the only time she's free and also can reduce my commute time. As it is the other two siblings' schedules have to revolve around girlet's since she's the busiest.

Sidetrack a bit here : Is that considered unfair or biased? As she's the eldest, she gets to tryout and choose different activities and schools. And for convenience, the other two not only follow her schedule, but eventually her choices of schools and activities as well. It is hard to be totally fair to each kid.Anyway, back to the topic. Just look at this happy face with her new tap shoes on. She's now tapping everywhere the house, despite me telling her not to scratch the marble and parquet floors. She declared that dancing classes are her favourite activities. For a start, the school is combining tap and modern dance and next year, the kids can decide which they want to branch into or both. She will have to choose one as I'm putting my foot down on three dance classes *faint*.

Bento # 50 & # 51

For bento # 50, tried to create a flower basket. The ham and chicken slice were too think and the resulting flower couldn't fit into the bread basket. Note to self, get the deli to slice the ham thinner next time. The bread was Farmer's Rolls from Delifrance. Boylet loves it heated up with just butter slathered on. The fillings here were egg mayo, ham cut with flower cutter and baby corn. Tried to make a flower with the sausage, but another failure as the sausage broke when folded. Aiyah! I want delicate and dextrous fingers like LZmommy's. And the fruits were the last of the strawberries and blueberries from Oz.The flower basket from another angle. Can make it out or not?
The second week of school (last week), and I finally got my act together. Bought groceries and spent an afternoon cooking dinner and making extra to stash in freezer. Basically just took a variety of minced meat & fishpaste and shaped, stuffed and covered in various ways.

The easiest was minced beef mixed with finely chopped onion & parsley flakes and turned into mini burgers. Mashed potato was turned into potato croquet, some stuffed with sweetmeat/bakwa. Fishpaste were either rolled with crabstick for steaming, or wrapped with seaweed, or covered with bread squares for deep frying. Also deep fried some chicken nuggets from Ayamas. The maid did all the deep frying. Was supposed to make wonton, but became too lazy in the end.

Bento # 51 contained the fruits of the labour : Nuggets, fish with seaweed, mini hamburger and round potato croquet. Tomato ketchup was in the pig container. Wanted to make onigiri for girlet, but she requested for mini croissant instead. Fruits were watermelon and papaya. Had to cut heart shape again because the heart shape silicon cups are the only small yet tall ones I have. The other small silicon cups are too shallow, resulting in the fruits falling all over the box during transportation. Whereas the other taller silicon cups are too big for this bento box.

Kids Talk # 1

I've been telling girlet that we have to be more careful when spending money because I'm no longer working and bringing home an income. "Are we very poor?" " No. We just can't simply buy toys everytime we go out." She nodded, and thinking that she understood, I left it at that. But apparently, she was worried as evidenced by the following anecdote by SIL.

Girlet & Boylet followed SIL home after the dinner.... and they started fighting on her bed again. In order to moderate the session, she decided to ask each of them to tell me one of their secrets. Boylet told me he still likes this friend of his called Winston (apparently this is some boy who bit him) and girlet told me that she knows one of SIL's secrets.

SIL: What? What is it?
Girlet: I know you're getting married to korkor LK.
SIL: How you know? Who told you?
Girlet: Ah ma (grandma)
SIL: Why ah ma so busybody?
Girlet: Ya, she always tells me secrets.. hahahahaha
GIL: So you gonna be the flower girl?
Girlet: Ya
SIL: So you have to ask mummy to get you a dress then
Girlet: Ya... but... I wan to ask you... what is the pay??
SIL: *_*

Aiyoh. It's her one and only chance to be a flower girl, somemore have the cheek to ask to be paid.

Bento Party on Sep 6

Finally, the long awaited Bento Party has come and gone. It was hosted by Bentopet and Emily. Venue: Onsen, a Japanese restaurant near Palm Spring Apartments in Kota Damansara. It was a small party of 25 ladies. Each received a fabulous goodie bag. Thanks, Sue from Cooking Momster, who contributed some of the items. There are a selection of cookbooks, Hershey's cake mix, popcorn, cookie cutter, sausage shaper, mints, a bento box (not shown here) and even beauty products. (By the way, the pink mini onigiri mould is from Emily. She gave one to my sis, biblo, and I very thicked skin asked her for one too. So cute- mini onigiri is just the perfect size for kiddos. Thanks Emily!) .Bentopet started the party with a very professional talk on bento, with powerpoint slide and everything. Emily followed with an advocation to go green through bento. Good speech, ladies! After that was an ice-breaker, introduction by each participant. It was good to finally put a face to the blogs that I've been following. As expected, there were many fans of bentopet and allthingspurple there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to chat to Christene as she had to leave early.

Lunch was a buffet spread of Japanese food, with chicken karaage, mixed tempura, mixed maki, crabstick salad and cupcakes, the later provided by SuYin. See bentopet's update on the party for pics of the wonderful cupcakes.
Both the above photos were copied from Yatie's blog.
But before we were allowed to eat, we were put to work first. Hehehe.... we had to pack the food into our provided bento box and the best presentation will get a prize. There are two categories - with accessories (which you were supposed to bring along) and non-accessories. Such an interesting concept, huh? This was my first attempt, a grown up bento. I brought along the lettuce as dividers.

After my sis took hers to be photographed, I realised that the cupcake was part of the presentation. I had taken a cute teddy bear to bring back for the kiddos, which did not match my bento at all. So out came the cute bento dividers, picks and Hello Kitty sauce bottle. Between my sis and I, also brought along some 'more' grownup silicon cups, dividers and sauce bottle, but the sis ended up going for the 'non-accessories' category. My final presentation was a very kiddy one. Well, I am blogging about kids bentos.

After lunch, we get to purchase bento supplies by the 100 yen shop..... all at RM4.90 each. My sis and I bought a big bagful each. Nothing compared to Emily with 3 big bags and 1 box. It was a good thing she had her daughters and sister on hand to help her carry her stuff. Maybe that's why she brought them along? hehe.....Here's another pic from Yatie....

On hind sight, I didn't buy a lot. Here's a pink set - two-tiered box, one-tiered click box, dividers, square sandwich box (bigger pic below), matching belt and bag. Bought extra belts as light pink gets unbelievably dirty by 6-yr olds.

The sandwich box turned out to be collapsible..... cool huh? This was one item that was completely sold out at the party.
Also bought a black bento box and matching dark brown belts for d'hubby, if and when I pack breakfast/snack for him. Also bought the blue and maroon because I already bought the bags (at the bottom) earlier on without the boxes.
This beige two-tier bento box was part of the goodie bag. I bought a beige striped belt and bag to match it. That'll be my bento box if and when I pack bento for myself.

And finally, blue and pink clickety boxed, for presents, and a dumpling mould, if I ever get around to making dumplings.... hehe..... There were also other things that Bentopet sourced, some from Daiso such as silicon cups, sauce bottles etc and some cutesy bento boxes eg. Doraemon and Hello Kitty. I had wanted to buy the Hello Kitty box, but thought not be kiasu and wait until after lunch. Of course, what I wanted were all booked and sold out by then.

The good news was that I got the prize for best presentation with accessories. Thank you. This was what I got!
Wasn't that a fabulous bag? And the contents were egg moulds and the cutest animal dividers. Thanks again.

Sorry, I didn't get the name of the person who won the non-accessories category, who incidentally also won the lucky draw. How lucky was that? And Kelly, from Kel's place, also received her prize from Bentopet's 100th bento competition.

Thank you very much, Bentopet and Emily, for the very enjoyable and well organized Bento Party. Looking forward to the next meet up.

Edit : For more photos, check Hijack Queen's blog.

A week's worth of Bentos # 45 - # 49

All the bentos here are from last week - end of August. Didn't have the chance to buy groceries after the trip, so had to rely on the bakery shop.

Bento #45 : consisted of mini croissants with egg mayo & parsley, strawberry, blueberries and a fruit roll.
Bento # 46 : Charsiew Pau, fried prawn ball, crab on stick, tiara shaped watermelon, honeymelon & papaya and blueberry. This was the bento box purchased in Oz, and actually too big for everyday use. But just the nice size for a pau. Couldn't fit it into any of girlet's bento boxes. The cover is not flat, hence there is a gap between the cover and box. I had to put a cling wrap before putting on the cover to prevent the fruits from spilling over the divider. And the box costed RM21 after conversion, which I thought was a very reasonable price.Bento #47 : Chicken nuggets, portugese egg tart, round doughnut, and pulasan – girlet’s current favourite fruit. Taste better than rambutan. My mum brought it along from Johor. Missed my granddad’s award winning pulasan. Since he passed away, his orchard had been neglected and now we have to buy ‘inferior’ pulasan from others.
Bento # 48 : Another all storebought bento, in this case, from Breadstory. A trio of colourful swiss roll, with pandan kaya, chocolate and strawberry jam. Bread 'dimsum' with cheese & sausage, and grapes.
After so many days of bread, finally had a chance to go to Pasar Besar in TTDI for fresh supplies. Bento # 49 had fried noodles with sawi, carrots, beansprouts, fishcake, egg and fish tofu (arranged alternatedly at the bottom) and half an orange.