Food Network Day

I made a couple of dishes from the food network recipes.
I made the Chocolate Almond Fudge (picture to be uploaded tomorrow).
For dinner, we had the spice-rubbed pork tenderloin with Sweet & Tangy watermelon salad.
The dinner was fabulous!!! Will try my chocolate fudge tomorrow. :)

The recipes are as follows:
Spice-rubbed Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp chile-garlic sauce (I used the asian one, like lee kum kee)
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin

Preheat oven to 375F. Line baking sheet with foil.
Mix sugar, coriander,cumin, salt, chile sauce and 1 tsp of oil in a small bowl to form smooth paste, Rub the paste over the pork.
(The recipe called for cooking the pork on skillet over medium high heat to brown the sides, but I didn't do this). Transfer to baking sheet.
Roast pork until cooked through, 20-25 min (thermometer inserted in the center should register 155F). Let stand, loosely covered with foil, for 5 min. Carve and serve.

Sweet & Tangy Watermelon salad
Ingredients:
- 2TBS rice vinegar
- 2 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 cups diced seeded watermelon
- 2 cups diced cucumber
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts (I omitted this)

Stir together vinegar and sugar in a medium bowl until the sugar almost dissolves. Add watermelon, cucumber and cilantro: toss gently to combine.

Chocolate Almond Fudge (the recipe uses pistachio, but I used almond instead)
Ingredients:
12 oz 70% dark chocolate chopped, or 12 oz semisweet chocolate
1 (14-oz) can condensed milk
pinch salt
1 cup sliced almonds

Melt the chopped chocolate, condensed milk and salt in a pan on low heat.
Add nuts to the melted chocolate, condensed milk mix and stir well.
Pour this mixture into a 9-inch square tray (lined tray with baking sheet for easy cleanup)
Smooth top.
Let the fudge cool and refrigerated until set. Cut into small pieces. Once cut, you can keep it in the freezer, no need to thaw just eat straight away.

Above are the recipes if anyone is interested in trying. :) My presentation ain't that bad eh??

Scorching HOT HOT HOT

Took our neighbour to dim sum this morning, courtesy of Huilee, since she's moving soon and they have been taking good care of her for the past few years, so she wanted to say thank you. Nice gesture!!!. We went to Shi-Art at Richmond Center.

Colin cried for more than an hour today during nap time. It's probably because it's so hot today. I just realized it now. I don't blame him because it is really hot. I might buy a fan to put outside of Ava's room because I think her room is the hottest after the office.
She pooped twice in 10 minutes before naptime. I really don't know how to potty train her now. She refused to use the potty... (*sigh*)

Sharon and Annabelle came by to play today. Ava put stickers on herself, Annabelle and also Colin. Sharon helped her. Poor Colin, he's the object of his sister's mischief. Of course when there're kids, there's the jump n slide. It was inflated again today. Ava was jumping like crazy. She's soaking wet from her sweat. I want cool weather.. not hot.. :)

The last picture of Colin... Can you counted how many folds he has on his tummy???? hehehe

My lil hood boy.. :)

Tried a new restaurant (per Laura's recommendation) for breakfast called Kingspark Steakhouse. Even though they are called Steakhouse, they serve those breakfast hongkong style. It's pretty yummy, but similar to other HK Cafe in Richmond.

Colin wore a "headband cap" today. He's sooooo cute.. yes, he's mine.. hehehehe
I just love taking his pictures.
We're deflating the pool now before it becomes a permanent fixture in our family room. So, "Ava, Colin, say goodbye to Mr. Elephant slide and the pool".

Went to dinner with Sharon & family at the Kingspark again because Simon thought their dinner menu looks good when we had breakfast in the morning.
I ordered the Japanese big bowl with Pork chop and BBQ Eel. Yummy.. :)

Garden City Playground

We had a meetup at the Garden City Playground in the morning. I love the park and so does Ava. She was trying the slide, then went to play at the creek, then the swing and of course building castle and destroying it at the sand box. :) She was so happy and so dirty.. Put up so much fight when I wanted to take her home. We'll definitely go there again.
We had a meetup there so there're a bunch of my friends there. Candy was there, then Tracey, Tara, Susan, Kerry, Christy (the hot mama), Weeze, Kathy and many more. It's so fun to see everyone. I haven't seen most of them since the 24 hour relay.

Lunch was McDonald and Dinner was the Keg. I had the prime rib and Lobster (lobster for Ava).

PARK my money at PARKer Place (yes, I'm corny!!!)

Cooked Korean Bulgogi for lunch, then another veggie dish with napa cabbage-tofu-eggs, miso soup and peach-kiwi salad. After lunch, I went to Parker place and spent a bunch of dough there. Ooopppsss... hehehehe I bought a bunch of clothes and 2 pairs of heels.. hahahaha

Ava was very playful today. She wore the smock that my mom made for her and she kept saying that she's pretty and her dress is pretty.. :)

We went to sign the sale of one of our Surrey's condos at the notary. Finally sold one, now one more to go!!!

Do we look alike??

I've been meaning to do this for the longest time. I wanted to put Ava and Colin's picture side by side to see if they really look alike. Now, you tell me... :)

Just call me Martha!!!

I don't know how I'm going to continue doing my stroller workouts because Colin was crying the whole time when we went this morning. Maybe what I'll do next time is to go to the class, and when he started crying, I'll just walk ahead of everyone and try to get him to sleep, because I think that's why he was crying.

So, I whipped up these food for lunch today. I fried some eggs with mushrooms and dried radish, and made some salad. I didn't had any rice at all today.. hehehe am trying to cut down on my carbs consumptions.

Then, for dinner, I made the Five Spiced Chicken Wings, recipe courtesy of Dave Liebermann in the Food Network Book I borrowed from the library. So, I bought 4 lbs of chicken wings on Sunday, then I marinated the wings in Chinese five spiced. I substituted the Cayenne pepper from the recipe with Paprika. Then, I made my creamy cilantro sauce.
Tracey called and asked if I want to go out for dinner, so I invited her over for dinner instead. I'm a bit nervous because I don't know if she'll like my cookings. :) I added herbs potato and mushrooms, and also corns and salad to dinner.
I thought it was pretty good.. :)

Huilee made Carrot Cake today and it was really good. It was not the typical carrot cake's texture which is like banana bread. This one melted in your mouth.. VERY GOOD!!

Heavenly Herbs

I cooked with herbs today
A brand new herbs
Rosemary and Oregano
And of course some parsley too

Rosemary and Parsley for my chicken
Some soy sauce, salt and pepper
in the Oven the sauce is thicken
I'm sure the taste is super

Then, some rosemary and oregano for my potatoes
don't forget some salad too
I can feel tingling on my toes
my family loves them and damn they're good.

Experimenting with cooking has been my new favorite things to do, I've tried a lot of new herbs and today it's rosemary and oregano's turn. I bought some dried rosemary and parsley yesterday. I like fresh ones, but sometimes, having dried ones are pretty handy. So, today I wanted to bake some chicken, and I didn't know what to use. I laid the chicken on my roasting pan, then put some garlic on the side (smashed them first), I added some salt and pepper, then pour some rice vinegar, some rice wine, some sweet soy sauce. I added some bacon on top of my chicken, put some unagi sauce, and in they went to the oven.

Salad was the usual caesar salad with romaine lettuce, grounded some pepper, put the renee's salad dressing, some parmesan cheese and my homemade croutons.

I also cooked lotus roots and peanuts soup. Simon loves this. I also added some roasted red potatoes with sliced mushroom. I quartered the potatoes and then mixed with the mushroom, then poured in some olive oil, salt and pepper, some oregano and rosemary, threw in some garlic powder. Tossed all of them together before roasting them in the oven. YUM.. MY!!

I'm so excited with all these new herbs. I'm thinking of asking Simon to get me an herb garden for my kitchen.. How exciting is that???
Tomorrow.. I'm going to cook Dave Lieberman's Chinese Five Spice Chicken Wing with Creamy Cilantro Sauce. Yum Yum.. :)

Colin's laughing at Papa's humming

Simon humming some songs and Colin just kept laughing.. :)

Strawberry Festival and Feast

We went to the Westham Island Winery Strawberry's Festival. The festival started at 10am and we got there right at 10am. A lot of the crafts were not open yet. I went to the winery and tried some fruit's wine (yes.. at 10am.. hahaha). I tried their strawberry rhubarb wine, apple wine, plum dessert wine, raspberry and black currant dessert wine. I didn't like the last 2, so I bought the strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, blackberry and the plum dessert wine. :)

Ava was so fascinated by the kittens there, she stayed in front of their cage for the longest time (the whole time I was drinking...I mean sampling the wine inside).
We had to use "strawberry picking time" to get her to walk away from the kittens. So, we went and got 2 buckets for our strawberry picking. She was running around and picking the strawberry. I had a couple of "mis-pick" where miss Ava there picked the green strawberry. I had to keep telling her, "No.. Not the green ones, pick the red ones.. yeah RED, BIG STRAWBERRY". She finally got it right. She had so much fun running, holding her bucket, squatting and picking the strawberries. Colin also took part in picking (with me).

Elisa and the gang came when we're picking and we joined forces. :)

After the strawberry festival, we all went to eat lunch (dim sum) at the Red star restaurant. They have 1 restaurant at granville st, but recently added another one on the 2nd floor of T&T Supermarket. We're pretty disappointed with the food. It was not as good as the granville branch.

Put Ava and Colin to nap after we got back, then Simon and I went out to see some open houses (yes, this is our past-time). We got a call from Huilee around 4pm saying that Ava was playing with her poops again. GOD!!.. We rushed home and lo behold, we have a poop painting on the wall and some on the carpet (I need a new carpet!!). I took Ava to bath and Simon cleaned her room. I was so mad at her, and I kept yelling at her saying NO.. You DON'T PLAY with POOPS!! I didn't know if she understood me or not. She wanted Simon to hold her after her shower, but since he was still cleaning, I told her NO. She cried and cried and cried and asking for her daddy.

I don't know what to do anymore. It seemed like she only did this when we went out. If we're home, she's usually very clean. After the whole ordeal of telling her no, and her crying for her daddy, she was back to her usual happy and mischief self again.. GGRRRRR

Peanut shock!!!

Tracey and Owen came by this morning for playdate. Everything was going great until suddenly Owen was chewing on something. Ava has this Dora car where she filled with peanuts (we called it the peanut car), and I threw all of her peanuts out already. But, apparently, she likes to take the peanuts out and takes them everywhere. So, Owen, who has peanut allergy, found one and alas, put it in his mouth. Tracey and I were really shocked and ran to try to get the peanut out of Owen's mouth. He ate it with the shell on. Tracey got some out and then I also got some out after Owen bit my finger, but it's fine. I'd rather got bitten than having Owen goes into shock. We watched him for awhile and he seemed to be fine. THANK GOD!!!!

After Tracey and Owen left (unharmed), ate lunch and put the kids to nap, and I went to Parker Place to visit the Beauty Court to get some information. But instead, I got a facial. hahahahaha
Felt so good afterwards though. I think they got all my blackheads out and my face felt smoother. :)

Macaroons, Fruits, Sparkling Juice and Bubbles

I had a doc's appt today for Colin. Last month on his checkup, doc said that he's underweight, so we went and checked his weight again today. He's still underweight. I'm feeding Colin formula three times a day and it turned out, I need to feed him at least 5-6 times a day. My poor baby's probably been starving all these times and i didn't even know it. I'm such a bad mom :(
So, I've started feeding him more today. Doc said I can give him porridge and chicken now.

Laura had invited Elisa and me to her house for playdate at 1:30pm. I was late because Ava and Colin didn't wake up from their nap yet. I was late for 1 hour. Thank god they were not mad at me.. :) Laura made chocolate macaroons and they were yummy. I brought fruits and Elisa brought sparkling apple juice and bubbles for Andre.
We chatted a bit and ate a bit then headed out to the backyard to play the bubbles. And, we found out that Andre was scared of the bubbles. He got scared everytime someone blew some bubbles. Ava and Viola loved the bubbles of course.

I took a nap after we got home, I don't know why I was that tired. Colin and I napped side by side while I could hear Ava playing on the background. She was pretty loud, but I was so out of it I didn't care. I kinda felt at one point she was singing on my ears.

Chocolate of the day is: Palet d'or and Hazelnut Chocolate

Swim and Splash Pool

Dimsum at Fisherman Terrace with Tracey, Lori, Kim and my babes. I haven't had dimsum for quite a while, so it was really good. Ava ate a lot and of course chatting away with Lori.. :) They were so cute. :)
Colin was pretty good as soon as I gave him his crackers.

We bought a swim and splash elephant pool this past weekend but we didn't really assemble them until yesterday. But since SUMMER is still not here, we only use it in our family room. It was used as Ava and Colin's milk drinking hangout place. hahaha.. They look so cute though, playing in the "dry pool". Colin loves to try to climb out of the pool, but since he's not that tall yet, he usually got stuck in the middle. He can't move forward but also stuck hanging and can't move back. It's the funniest thing.

Huilee brought back some Raspberry chocolate, caramel chocolate and peanut chocolate.. Yum yum..

Another thing that's been on my mind lately is that I'm getting very low in self confidence now because I think I'm fat. I hate my huge arms, and I hate my flabby tummy and hate my cellulited thighs, not to mention my scar-filled face. Sigh.... sigh... sigh... What can I do to get rid of all the above????????

Ava... ewwwww

Last night, Simon and I decided to go to London Drugs and Superstore to get some snacks. Ava and Colin were still awake when we left (don't worry, huilee's home!!!). We went and got some snacks and crackers, I got the "bio oil" after hearing that it worked for stretch mark and scars. Then, Simon and I went to the "Rose Garden" for bubble teas. The last time we went out like this was before Colin was born, so we're really enjoying ourselves.

Then, when we got home, we found out that Ava was playing with her own POOPS!!! yeap, that little girl who seems to clean and cute was playing with her own excrement!! YUCK!! She was of course asleep when we got home, then Simon cleaned up her poopie and had to wake her up to change her. I don't know how dirty she was, but since it was late and she was sleeping, we just went ahead and let her be.

In the morning, Simon bathed her again, and then I took ALL her sheets, pillows, etc and put them in laundry..

Ok.. enough of the yucky stuff.. huilee brought home caramel peanuts and rochers today. YUMMY!!

The start of chocolate week.. I'm so dead

I was so tired in the morning because of all the excitement yesterday.
So, today I took it easy.... ahhhhhhhhhh

Huilee brought home the first set of CHOCOLATE WEEK..
First sample: Chocolate dipped strawberry.. or is it Strawberry dipped chocolate???
There were 5 of the chocolate, and I ate 1 piece. Ava ate 3 1/2 pieces. She's going to be a fat girl.. hahahahahahaha

Bear Creek Park Picnic

"Semi Pro" is a pretty stupid movie, but it made us laughed. :)

We had picnic at Bear Creek Park today with Elisa & family, Serene & family, Lian & family and Sharon & family. The weather was so nice. I brought my chips and dips. Elisa brought fried rice and blueberry cheesecake. Serene brought pastries, Sharon brought breads, fried vermicelli and green tea. We laid out picnic blankets and the kids ran around playing. There's a huge water park there and two huge playgrounds. We ate lunch and then went for a train ride.
We also blew some bubbles and Ava missed her nap. She was so hyper and ran around and played around. We had so much fun. On our way home, Ava and Colin fell asleep. I almost fell asleep also, but tried to keep awake for Simon.

Colin had his first cracker today. He loved it!!!

I'll have such a good night sleep tonight because I'm so tired. :)