A beautiful spring baby

Having a baby from start to finish is a very sacred mission that is assigned only to the toughest of human race - mothers.   

Raising a child from birth to independence is a wholly challenging mission, definitely not for the faint-hearted.

Emmanuel and I are in the deep blue realms of these 2 missions, having completed Mission no. 1 twice successfully and still struggling through Mission No. 2.

And so, the 2010 spring collection features Coralie Anna Danielle Shu Hui Planel, launched on 10 April 2010 on a beautiful sunny morning and weighing in at a springy 3.4kg.  Finally, pink is in fashion in da house and we brought out all the flowers and hearts in all the hats, mittens, pyjamas and even the pacifier collection.  Out with the blues and browns! Shoo-away!

Although our elder son Theoden is only 2 years older than Coralie, memories of how to take care of a newborn were already ebbing away in the back of our minds.   

We have already forgotten how puddy-cat kitten small the newborns are, how tiny and fragile just like Cinderella’s glass slippers.  We forgot to burp her after breastfeeding.  I vaguely recall what is the “football hold”.  I’ll bet there are a lot more things to discover in the days to come and we eagerly await them all.

The day before Coralie arrived, I was getting kinda desperate since she has already reached her 40weeks and is still not out yet.  Not even a twitch.  2 months before, I was ordered on bedrest and every spasm caused me a mini-heart attack thinking that my baby will be 2months prematurely delivered.  And now that the time has come, she has decided to stay in and order Chinese.  Hrrrrmmmphhh…

So,  I tried every trick in the book that is recommended for a natural induction.  Pineapples, spicy food(chicken curry and roti prata! Mmm…), walking, nipple stimulation and the you-know-what.  At the end of it, one of the above must have worked cos I started having contractions at 2.30am.  Yippee!!!  Or…, maybe it was just time to come.  We’ll never know…will we? ;p

At the hospital, my doc told me I am still only 1cm dilated, like I was 3weeks back.  The possibility of a VBAC seems like 5 planetary solar systems away.  Despite the waves of contractions that seem to tsunamise me as time passes by, I knew we had to proceed as doc had already strongly advised us – a caeserian delivery. 

We had wanted so much to do vaginal delivery for Theoden but ended up with a c-section cos I had an infection and high fever.  The whole c-section process and recovery was every mother’s nightmare, only 20x worse with the infection.  And so, we wanted to avoid it if we can the second time – and still, we lost the battle.  

Docs had already advised us against vaginal delivery cos the incision scar from my previous c-section was very stretched out and the uterus may rupture if I do a vaginal delivery, i.e. may or may not lost the uterus, a risk which we honestly didn’t want to take since we still wanted more children.    Ok, I know what you are thinking: I am not doing a “20 kids and counting show” but I think 3 kids would be nice.  ;p

Alors!  So, into the OR we go and pop comes Coralie, all hairy and furry like a little baby monkey.  Still didn’t stop us from raining kisses all over our baby girl…  Alas!  It’s over!  Mission No. 1, I mean.  And now, on to Mission No. 2, the tough part.

I have to add that the recovery process this time for a normal c-section(w/o infection) was super-duper smooth-sailing.  Not that I am doing salsa dancing right now but at least the trip to the toilet the next day was not Mt. Everest daunting.  I guess I should have just followed doc’s advice after all and take the c-section appointment instead of suffering the contraction pains for 6 hours for literally... no reason at all.  Oh well, no pain, no gain.

Tap...tap...tap... (goes the little fingers)

At first, we were anxious the baby will arrive prematurely.  We coaxed and cajoled the baby to be patient and wait, and so she listened and did.

And now at full term, we are getting worried she might arrive too overdue(ever heard your husband telling you stories of friends who had overdue stillborn babies with ingrown nails and all just before you are due?). 

With all my might, I am willing either one of the following to happen TODAY :

(1) The water to break, or 

(2) Contractions to come every 7 mins.

I never thought the day would come when I say I would love to have contractions(i.e. pain???).  Being a mom is changing me indeed...

Me *heart* my pressure cooker!

Coming from Singapore, I have lived 90% of my life without cooking in my kitchen.  Who needs to cook when you have 24hr foodcourts, great coffeeshops and affordable hawker food surrounding you?  Now, I can't live without an oven, and Emmanuel has introduced me my newest obsession - the pressure cooker.

First, we bought the pressure cooker so he can cook potatoes and artichokes fast.  Other than that, it stays in storage pretty often.  Frankly, I was a little in awe of it...all that steam whistling so fiercely outta that little outlet - I didn't really wanna mess with it and stuck to my trusty pots and wok.  And THEN, I saw chef Michael Smith using it to braise tough cuts of beef to fork tender in under 20mins and I got curious.  Of course I tried it the very next day, and ever since, this pressure cooker baby is my latest love.  Now, I wanna cook everything in it!

Braised Ginger Orange Beef

His recipe said to simmer the meat in pot for 1hr but you can throw everything into the pressure cooker and you will have a very satisfying meal in 20mins!  For some reason, the orange juice, marmalade and the 5-spice powder blended so well into each other and rounded up the flavours wonderfully into a very aromatic sauce.  Instead of serving over rice, I would put some thin rice noodles in the bowl with lots of bean sprouts, or maybe baby bak choy the next time!  The sauce need not be thick and makes a delicious soup base, down to the very last slurp!

In fact, I ate so much of this dish last night I had to suffer for it after...gluttony as punishment - what can I say?  ;)  At my 36weeks' of pregnancy, I had suddenly developed a ferocious appetite and been gaining weight at an astounding rate faster than an Olympic sprinter can compete with. Sometimes, I forget that my stomach really has not much space to expand into and  still...I stuff myself silly with food!

Oh well, la vie de la maman gourmande...

Little Japan in my kitchen

 

True to my word, I made Unagi-don for dinner last night and true to a finicky 2yo eater, he ate 1-2mouthfuls and stopped right there.   *exasperated!*

Despite my cold, lack of taste and smell, I somehow gave myself a 9 out of 10 for this dish.  It is so super easy peasy to make and I really adore grilled eels with that sweet touch of teriyaki sauce.  Every time I go to a Japanese restaurant, unagi-don or unagi-rolls are always my fave choices.  I wonder why I never made this earlier before!?

UNAGI-DON RECIPE (makes 4)

A) Sushi rice:
2cups sushi rice
2cups water
1/4 cup rice vinegar(or white wine vinegar if you don't have rice vinegar in your pantry)
2tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cook sushi rice in rice cooker as per normal.  As rice is cooking, dissolve the sugar and salt in the rice vinegar.  Once the rice has finished cooking, pour the vinegar mixture into the rice and mix it well with a spatula.

B)  Unagi
2 packages of Unagi fillet(12oz each)

If you buy those frozen unagi already pre-cooked in Asian grocery stores, simply follow the cooking instructions and pop it into the oven.  I baked mine at 350fahrenheit for 12minutes.

C) Sauce
1/4 cup mirin
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp soya sauce

Add all the ingredients into a small saucepan and simmer gently till it thickens.  About 10-15mins.

D) Toppings
Nori seaweed strips
Toasted sesame seeds
Spring onions

Assemble the rice in a bowl, sprinkle sesame seeds over it, top with the unagi, spring onions, nori strips and finally, drizzle the sauce over the top and you will have a yummy unagi-don right at home.

Oiishi-so!!!!

A finicky eater at 2 years old

Yes, that about sums up MY son right after he turned two.

He is a chip right off his mom's block(even if I am now ashamed to admit it) and has inherited probably my worst gene of all - being picky.

There is such a long list of food I don't eat, touch or even sniff at simply because of its texture, taste or looks - that I don't even wanna list it down.  My girlfriends were sometimes surprised that despite all my adventurous gourmet spirit, I am a seriously picky eater at heart.

Now, I get a taste of my own bad medicine when my son says "No!" very determinedly to the dinner bowl that I had so painstakingly prepared for him - packed full of vitamins, fibre and proteins...and all into the bin.

Instead, he makes a beeline for the fridge, uses all his mighty force and opens the magical door, and his little hands goes straight for the cheese.

Ahhh....protein.  GOOD.  But, he can't seriously think he can get away with just eating cheese for dinner!!! *gasp!*  EVERY night!?!?  Maybe I should just get a cow for a pet.

Whatever ignorance bliss I had been enjoying in the past has now dissipated at the dinner table.  I fret and ponder and pray that he will eat at least a few spoonfuls of whatever I am preparing - no wonder I am getting more white hair these days.

Turning quite into his own character these days, I am still hanging onto hopes that maybe(just a tad maybe...) he might transform into his father one fine day and just eat about anything I put in front of him.  That's the kind of guy I like.  ;)

Then again, he's got my genes. *groan*  Good or bad, I just have to live with it day by day, meal, by meal.  To think of it, I bet my mom had a tough time with me when I was young.  I remember hating to eat leeks - and yes, I still DO hate to eat leeks.  Yucks.

Every night is a challenge for me now as I struggle in the kitchen and wrestle with my conscience.  Mac and cheese?  Mashed potatoes and chicken?  Beans and hotdogs?  French fries?  I think my mom will have a heart attack reading what her precious grandson is eating.  Oh well, she will know when she arrives in April and have a face-off with him in person.  Can't wait to see that one.  Kekeke....

The thing is - he is growing well and shooting up like a beanstalk.  Cheeks are chubby and still pinchable, legs are strong and fingers are quick, mind is exponentially expanding to accommodate all the alphabets I am teaching him(he recognizes "O", "S", "E", "W", "D") and he calls his favourite toy tank engine "Thomaskiki" - a word we hear around the house much more than even "Papa" or "Mama".

The bottomline is - he is not starving, but just picky.  He'll survive.  Just like I did.

It is almost 4pm and time for the maman gourmande to fret about her next challenge for the night - will he take to unagi-don?  Hmmm...I'm hoping the sweet teriyaki sauce will do the trick.  Wish me luck.  ;)

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Who can resist an old-fashioned apple pie whenever you see it on the dessert menu?  I know I can't, especially when it comes with a double scoop of good old vanilla ice-cream.  Mmm-mmm....

Inspired by my all-time fave chef on food network, Canadian Michael Smith, I had to wait a few days to get well before I could make this scrumpilicious-looking pie.  Actually, what drew me to this recipe was the baker's trick he revealed on the show - which was to use frozen butter and grate it into the flour mixture before mixing it into dough.  Never seen that one before.

Intrigue, i had to try it to see if it really makes a good pastry become patisserie-worthy.   

So this pie came out looking old-fashioned alrite, but what brought us back in time was the taste.  Nothing like a warm home-baked apple pie.  And the pastry?  Awesome!

Seems like this is an autumn keeper recipe for when we go apple-picking next time!  ;p

Small gestures matters...

My husband has always been an amazing man, and yesterday, he proved to be worth a million stars in the nightsky with his small and thoughtful gestures.  You see, small gestures are what keeps a couple happy and the relationship going.

I experienced early labour contractions at 32weeks, no thanks to stimulation from abdominal cramps caused by stomach flu.  So of course I am suffering and thinking it was just stomach cramps due to the gastro but instincts tell me otherwise.  My santa of a doctor confirmed that, yes, I had contractions and from now onwards, bedrest is mandatory.  No household chores, no carrying of toddlers, no sex, no nipple stimulation.  Just rest. 

To some people, this sounds like heaven - to me, bedrest is torture.  Now I understand what "bedsore" means.  After lying on your sides for so many hours a day, my hips do get sore and my "heavenly bed" no longer seem heavenly to me.  It feels like the "Jade Bed" from the chinese folklores.

With 8more weeks to go, I don't see how I can do bedrest everyday, but I really don't want to up the chances of Coralie being born too premature.  Preemies often experience developmental problems later on in life, they are definitely not as smart and I want my child to be fully developed on her own in my womb before emerging into this world.  She's gotta learn to be independent at a young age.

My husband knew I was bored lying in bed the whole day and sitting on the sofa watching TV is not very comfortable for too long periods of time.  So, yesterday, he went and did a surprise shopping trip and bought me the second decoder for our cable channels, reinstalled the tv back into our room and even fixed up the dvd player.  We had resisted buying the second decoder cos it was ridiculously overpriced here in Canada($200 in CA vs $60 in the US) but he did it for bedridden me.  Merci beaucoup, mon amour. :)

So after reading this article, I knew we are on the right track.  Small gestures contribute to big love.

Have you made a nice small gesture to your loved one today?

A slice of banana heaven...

I've baked countless loaves of banana bread with my leftover too-ripe bananas BUT never have I ever praised myself for such a job well done.  Usually, I follow the recipe from James Beard's Bread book and a few times of late, the bread has turned out undercooked in the middle and overcooked on the sides.  I thought maybe my oven is not well calibrated or did I just throw in too many bananas?  Overall, not satisfactory.  So, I gave up on his recipe finally and decided to spare my family the torture of eating bad banana breads.  I googled for the "Best Ever Banana Bread" and guess what I came up with?

Best Ever Banana Bread
The Best of the Best - Vol. 1 (Page: 15)
Grand Slam (Page: 21)
Freeze overripe bananas in their skins in a plastic bag - when you've got 6, you're ready to make the best banana bread you've ever tasted.
A tip from our friend Janice on Salt Spring: you can add frozen blueberries but don't mix them into the batter - the colour runs. Just alternate batter and blueberries as you fill the bundt pan.
Ingredients:
1 cup (250 mL)butter
2 cups (500 mL) sugar
3 cups (650 mL) mashed ripe bananas (6)
4 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups (625 mL)flour
2 tsp. (10 mL)baking soda
1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
1 tsp. (5 mL) nutmeg
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add bananas and eggs and beat until well mixed. Mix dry ingredients and blend with banana mixture, but do not overmix. Pour into 2 lightly greased loaf pans or a bundt pan. Bake 55 minutes to 1 hour; test for doneness (toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean) and cool on rack for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Freezes beautifully.

I didn't have a chance to take any photos of how beautiful the banana bread turned out cos Emmanuel and I wolfed it down so quickly.  It baked so beautifully and turned out moist and yummy, no undercooking and the sides were nice and crusty without drying out.  Just halve the recipe for a loaf pan.  But it is so good, why not make a bundt pan instead?  

I compared it with the James Beard recipe I use often or any other banana bread recipe, and honestly, the basics are the same except maybe a little bit less flour in this one.  


This recipe, will be the ONLY banana bread recipe I will use henceforth.  In fact, I can't wait for my Del Montes to overripe soon!  ;p 

Coming together now...

Is 2010 the year for marriage or is it just my age? 

A couple of my friends are getting hitched this year and I can't be any happier for them.  (Congrats, people!)  =)  What an exciting journey for them to embark on!  After almost 4years of marriage myself, I say, it is totally NOT underrated!  Trust me!

It is all kinda giving me a flashback to where I was before I got married - tanned, adventurous and always ready to go and do something.  Funnily, nothing has changed much except for the tan part(it is near impossible to get a tan in Québec).  It is certainly living an adventure full-time when you have an active toddler always up to some form of mischief, and I am still always ready to go and do anything fresh and exciting - like having a second child. 

Getting married was not something I lived my entire life waiting for, nor, did I have a "dream dress" or notions of a Maldives honeymoon after.  I guess I was just lucky to meet the man of my future life and got married in a flash.  Our Galapagos honeymoon was postponed due to the arrival of Theoden but one day, I believe we will make it there to see the hammerheads(if they are still there).  In the meantime, we've enjoyed so many wonderful vacations together as a family even though they were not called "honeymoons", but hey, who's keeping track?  So, nothing is really perfect, just "almost" perfect.  *wink*

Was I lucky?  You could probably say that.  Not many people arrive at happiness the way I did and some took a long and painful route to reach where they are.  As long as you reach your final destination of happiness, that's all that really matters. 

So, things are falling into place now for the people around me, and even my basement is slowly taking shape!  It is all finally coming together now...

What will Year 2010 bring?

As expected, 2009 went by in a blink, including birthdays, anniversaries, christmas, new year...

BUT it was a damn good year.

Top 5 Highlights of 2009:

1.  I got pregnant(yippee!)
2.  We bought a house(whooppee!!)
3.  Saw Yellowstone finally after all these years
4.  Theoden met my entire family in Singapore for the 1st time
5.  Diving in Sipadan

Now, I wonder what would 2010 bring us?

Top 5 Predictions for 2010:

1.  I will give birth to a gorgeously cute baby girl(no doubt about that one!)
2.  Our new house will finally be cleaned and unpacked(fingers crossed)
3.  We will throw many wonderful BBQ parties at our new deck
4.  Hawaii is a-calling us for our summer holiday!(Diving!)
5.  I will pass my driving at age 33(at long last...)!

Oh, might I add another one too - my son will be potty trained and he will miraculously NOT wet his bed at night till he gets married and moves out of the house.  He can do whatever he wants by then.