JKaY

vacation

2010-04-05T20:48:00.002+02:00

Hi all, we've all been terribly sick these past 2 weeks. Coughing and sneezing, especially Kai. She got hit the worse.
Anyway, happy easter everyone. Hope you guys have a fun holiday.
We're going on vacation to Prague this week.
So, see you next week.

I feel random today.

2010-03-26T20:10:00.007+01:00

1. I won a blog contest a few days ago. I've never won a contest before. Yipiiii! (I won a beautiful cabled beret pattern).

2. If you have 10 minutes, bake these vanilla cookies now! It's really really good. I didn't chill the dough before baking. I dropped spoonful to cookie sheet, and put several raisins on top. The cookies came out mound-y. Sorry about the terrible pic. Monkey King wasn't home, and JD insisted on being in the pic :P

3. Finally, I can have dessert for breakfast. I made this a few days ago, and it tasted just like carrot cake. Yummy! The carrots need to be steamed/microwaved before added to the batter or the resulted pancake will be crunchy. Otherwise, you can microplaned them like I did.

4. This is also very good. All da monkeys in the house loves it :) Next time, I will upped the cranberries to a cup.

5.
What's so special about the beds? Well, JD made the beds this morning. I didn't even ask her to. She said that I was busy with Kai, so she made the bed. And yes, we all sleep together in oneroom, even though JD has her own room. She hasn't sleep in her "real" bed for more than a year now.

6. Yesterday was a great day. After more than 15 months in waiting and trying, Kai finally sleeps in her stroller. We were on our way back from the library, and I saw her pull her hat down. When I stopped to open it, she woke up, and pull it down again. Funny monkey :) You can also see that she was holding a piece of banana in her hand. She was asleep for 1.5 hours, and woke up asking for nursing, and slept again in my arms for another hour.

And that's all folks.

Dinner time

2010-03-24T11:22:00.000+01:00

Kai has been particularly stubborn lately. She refuses to seat on her baby chair. She only wants to seat on my lap or big sis' chair.

When she sits on my lap. Dinner is easier, but well...

Help help

2010-03-21T11:13:00.000+01:00

JD loves to have date nights with us. We usually read more books, play computer games or eat late night snacks and drink tea. On this particular night, we opened up a new cookie box. She peeled off the sticker and stick it onto the top of her head.
She said help me mama, help me.

Hi!

2010-03-18T20:21:00.000+01:00

We broke our washing machine. Ad our landlord bought us and new one, and gave us the box for the kids to play. A door and a window later. Voila! A new toy for the kids.
Hi!

Peek-a-boo

Spider Mitts

2010-03-15T18:38:00.003+01:00

The Monkey King loves to ~~stalk~~ take pictures of people. And he put on a request for a photographing mitt last winter. The project started off with a promising future. I spent a few days designing, and swatching. However, I lost steam somewhere in the spring. And the unfinished mitt stayed languishing in my knitting basket, until I picked it up again a few months ago, and finished it. The King tested the mittens during snow, lo and behold, it turned into gorilla mitten when wet. Well, they were 10 sts too big when dry anyway. I'm contemplating on knitting him a new one, but hey, it's almost spring already :P

The left one

The right one

On action

Project: spider mittens, inspired by Spider socks
Ravelled here

JD's 4th birthday

2010-03-08T18:26:00.001+01:00

2 weeks ago was JD's birthday. We celebrated as usual by eating red egg.

Then, I brought some mini blueberry muffins to her school. I used frozen blueberry, and omitted the crumble top.

When she got home, she showed us the birthday crown that her teacher made for her.

Since her birthday was on Monday, we waited until that weekend to really celebrate it. We decorated the house with balloons (as usual). Sorry about the messy table. It was really hectic because the kids were sleeping, and me and the Monkey King was on crunch time to decorate the cake and cleaning a bit.

JD wanted princess cake. Thank goodness for youtube. I found a tutorial for princess cake. The cake is a white cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. The icing is white cake icing. I doubled the recipe and baked the cake in 2 round pans. It should be tall enough, however, I think because I didn't use cake flour, the cake fell.

The b'day girl with the cake, and family pic. The hat crown is my birthday present for her.

The birthday presents. The ones that she loves most are the crown, fairy wings, princess dress and high heel.

Look who's in the dryer

2010-03-07T20:50:00.000+01:00

Sisterly love

2010-03-05T20:24:00.008+01:00

On most days having a sister is good. You have someone to share with and to do things together.

Watch cartoons on computer

Hold hands on an icy pavement

Reading books together

But having a sister means that you have to really share things.

No Kai, I played with this first. Don't touch!

Don't get too close to the edge, watch out!

Okay, I guess we can share. I really really don't like it though

Asian Food

2010-02-21T11:33:00.000+01:00

I was craving for Japanese food last week. Sadly, there is no good Japanese restaurant here. They offer decent sushi, but hot food wise? It's terrible.
So, I browsed the internet (thank God, for internet), and found the recipe for what I want.

Hambaagu (Japanese hamburger)

Recipe from Just hungry
I didn't really follow the recipe to the dot because I was out of several items. But it still turned out decent, and quick dinner.

Croquette

Basically coat leftover mashed potato with flour, egg, and panko bread. And fry it.
Really awesome use of leftover mashed potato. It's a very versatile recipe. You can put veggies, meat or herbs, curry in the mashed potato before you turn it into croquette. I put veggies (carrot, corn and peas) and ground beef in the mashed potato.

Kwetiau Sirem

Surprisingly quick to make.

Somewhat of a direction to make:

Boil kwetiaw til soft (2-3 min). Put into a bowl, add about 1 Tbs of oil, oyster sauce, and sesame oil.
Heat cooking oil in a wok. Add minced shallot, minced garlic til fragrant. Add meat. Cook til cooked through. Add in vegetables.
Ad water about 1.5-2 cups. After the water boil, add in salt, pepper, and a bit sugar. Stir.
In a small bowl, mix 1Tbs cornstarch with a bit of water
Add the cornstarch mix to the wok. After the sauce thickens, add in 1 egg. Immediately stir it. Turn heat off.
Prepare bowl/plate with kwetiaw. Pour the sauce on top.

By the way, kwetiaw is he fen.

Playing with hair wax

2010-02-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

I bought a tube of hair wax for the Monkey King. I tried to convince him that it'll make his hair better looking, not like an overgrown chi chi chia. So, I slather some wax on my hair, and the kids. We had fun creating funny hairstyles.

There's something about ~~Mary~~ JD

Wind-swept hair

Kai: "Waaa...stop playing with my hair, I just wanna take a bath"

Future Professor

This is not a product of hair wax. This is what happens when you put mashed bananas on your hair. It sticks out even after I ~~wiped~~ scrubbed it with wet towel. Nice to know that bananas is a good substitute for hair gel/wax. Good experiment, Professor!

Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Valentine!

2010-02-14T12:25:00.001+01:00

In this Valentine, I'd like to declare my love for my.... cast iron pan. Heh heh heh...

I acquired a used pan sometime in the fall at a flea market for almost nothing. Just recently I managed to properly season it, used it, and fell in love with it. If you owned one, you know what I'm talking about.

Things you can make with the pan:

Apple cake

Recipe: Apple cake in iron skillet
Verdict: Really yummy, but next time I would use 1 more apple, and reduce the butter used in cooking the apples

Pork chops

Recipe: mine. But it's basically pork seasoned with salt n' pepper, dredge with flour and fried.
Please overlook the blackness of the pork. It's not that burned, just a little bit :)

Potato skillet

Recipe: improvised.
Finally I can eat a proper skillet like the ones at Denny's. There's no Denny's or potato skillets here, so I'm quite excited.

And finally...Fried Chicken!!!!

Pretend there's a fried chicken pic here

I completely forgot taking pictures of it. We're so excited in having fried chicken for dinner, that we forgot to take a pic until there were just piles of bones left.
The chicken is really really good. The Monkey King said that it's comparable to Kentucky's. Mwahaha....that's good. Coz there's no Kentucky here either.
Man...remind me why we move here again?

Anywho...last but not least...

Homemade pizza

I know it's not made from the iron pan. But, it's so good that I just have to post :)

Happy Valentine everyone!
And Happy Chinese New Year too! Wish you all the best in the Year of Tiger.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! I'm off to make dinner. Hopefully I won't burn my duck :P

Basara Restaurant

2010-02-11T10:56:00.001+01:00

We ate lunch at the Basara some time ago. (Ma, if you read this, it's over at the meat shop. We ate carrot cake there 2 years ago). The restaurant is situated inside a market hall. The restaurant/cafe on one side, and the market on the other side. They have butcher, fish stall, cheese and coffee stall, and green produce. It was quite fun for the kids to eat there because they don't get bored waiting for the food to come. They can walk around looking at the live lobster, crabs, and scallops in the aquariums.

We ordered margherita pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, with freshly grated parmesan and ruccula on top)

Appetizer of the day (meatball, roast potato and dijon mayonaise, grill salmon, bread with herbed butter)

Raw Scallop
We choose the scallops from the aquarium, and prepared fresh. It's drizzled with olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper.

This was our first time eating raw scallop. I kinda like the texture, and the sweetness of it. But I think the olive oil overpowered the whole thing.

The brave kid trying the scallop. (She didn't like it though)

A Day at the Mall

2010-02-08T10:35:00.003+01:00

This ride is fun, just make sure don't put money in it or I'll be scared.

Bread stuff

2010-02-05T12:05:00.001+01:00

Sorry bout the crappy pics. Hard to get sunlight at this time.

Recipe: Pear Bread
Verdict: Quite good. But I couldn't taste the pear at all. It mostly taste like cinnamon quick bread.

I know this is not baking. But this waffle came out smelling like newly baked bread :)

Recipe: Yeasted waffles
Verdict: this waffle tastes and smells like bread. It's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Pretty good. And easy to make too.

Halsen

2010-02-03T11:08:00.002+01:00

JD's been begging for a halsen for weeks. I was going to buy it at HM for 40 NOK (roughly U$6-7) until the monkey king said don't be lazy and knit it for her :)
So I did.
I present to you:

JD Halsen

The messy back view

Lined it with fleece to make it warmer, and tame the curling

Pattern: DROPS neckwarmer
Modi: Lots. Added hearts fair isle. Knit it in st st instead of garter, and added 2 sts for selvage. Knit the ribbing neck longer, so it can be folded. Sew fleece to the back for added warmth. Added single crotchet for the edge.
Verdict: JD loves it. And she asked for 5 more halsen :P
Ravelled here

What's for dinner?

2010-01-30T10:41:00.000+01:00

If you have several hours to burn (about 2 hours). I seriously recommend making these for dinner:

Short Ribs

Recipe: PW Short Ribs
Modi: Used bacon instead of pancetta (but I think it didn't change the flavor much), and simmer it on stove top instead of bake it.
This is seriously good. It's like the ones that's served in restaurant. And it took only about 30 mins of preparation, after that simmer it for 2 hours, no need to check it etc. I served it with creamy mashed potatoes and salad.

Pig ear and tongue

It's really easy. This is more or less the recipe (I didn't measure anything, just eye ball and taste check it)

Procedure:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place the pig's ear and tongue in the water and par-boil for a few minutes to remove any scum and impurities.

2. Remove the pig's ears and tongue from the water, throw the water away. Place the ear into a small pot. Add enough water to cover the ear. Add the Shaoxing Rice Wine, or sake, soy sauce, sugar, star anise, salt/pepper, five spice and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour, occasionally checking to see that the ear is immersed in the water. Add tongue, and simmer for another 30 min. When done, the ear will be very soft and very dark brown in color. A chopstick should easily pierce through the skin. At the end of the braising, reduce if not already the soy sauce mixture into a syrupy mass, put it in a small bowl for dipping.

3. Let the ear and tongue sit at room-temperature

4. Place them onto a cutting board and slice lengthwise into slivers. Serve cold.

Shaun Pullover

2010-01-27T10:21:00.002+01:00

Kai desperately needs sweater now, so I knitted her a simple pullover. I knitted 9 mo size using bulky yarn hoping to achieve a 12 mo size. But I think it came out size 18-24 months.

Pattern: Basic baby sweater by Amy Bahrt for the pullover and Shaun the Sheep chart from Simple Knitting mag
Yarn: Gedifra Fashion Trend (green), Brown Sheep Bulky (onyx), and LB Polarspun (white)
Needle: US 8 and US 9
Modi: Knitted size 9 mo using bulky yarn to achieve 12 mo size, added shaun the sheep chart, make body and sleeves longer by 0.5". Used Jeny's stretchy BO for the neck.
Ravelled here

Craft hope

2010-01-21T15:45:00.001+01:00

I'm sure you have been talking about it. And I am sure, like me, looking at those faces makes you feel helpless. I am also sure you have heard of Craft Hope for Haiti, but just in case you haven't, take a look here. 100% of the proceeds from the shop go to Doctors without Borders.

Do you want to try?

2010-01-19T11:30:00.001+01:00

Kai loves to pretend eating. Just give her a spoon/fork and a bowl, and she pretends eating from it.

Aaaammmm....yum yum

mmmm.....it's goood

Do you want to try some too?

It's good right?

Breakfast Strata

2010-01-17T13:45:00.000+01:00

An awesome solution to bread leftovers (mostly bread butts, that nobody wants eat). Plus it can be prepared in advance, except the baking part.

I didn't use a specific recipe for this, and didn't measure the ingredients that I used :P
This is the basic idea:

Leftover bread cut or break into pieces (about 3/4") enough to fill the pan 3/4 full.
Whatever filling you want (I used ham, and a can of mushroom)
1-2 cups of grated cheese
4 eggs
1-2 1/4 c milk
salt and pepper to taste

1. Generously butter the baking dish
2. Fill the dish with bread and fillings (ham, cheese and mushroom). Mix it.
3. Whisk eggs
4. Blend milk, salt and pepper into eggs.
5. Pour over bread
6. Wrap it with cling wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning,
Unwrap the baking dish, put it into oven. Bake at 200 C for about 20-30 min or until the egg part set (not jiggly anymore).
Enjoy!

Kai's crying sequence

2010-01-14T13:39:00.000+01:00

Simple Peanut Butter Cookie

2010-01-11T13:25:00.000+01:00

I was in the mood for something fast and easy. Then I came across this recipe. It's really simple and only took 15 minutes from cracking the egg to finish baking it. I forgot to roll the dough in sugar, so, it's too sticky for me to criss cross it. But I think it's still good.
Pardon the half eaten cookie on the tray, forgot to take it out :P

Source

Recipe:
1 cup Peanut Butter, smooth or crunchy
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
sugar for rolling (optional)

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Combine the peanut butter, sugar and egg in the bowl, mix until fully combined.
2. Take a teaspoonful and roll in sugar, then place on a greased baking sheet. Softly press the back of your spoon into the dough to spread, then use a fork to create the criss-cross pattern.
3. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes then cool. Enjoy!

P.S: I baked it a tad too long, so some of the cookie came out a bit burned and crispy. But some of the not burned ones are chewy.

Banana girl...not

2010-01-09T17:10:00.003+01:00

These are videos of Kai eating banana by herself. Kinda.
I gave her a chunk of banana and she basically smeared it all over the place.

On the first video, when I tell her to eat it, she put it into her mouth. If not, she just throws it

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T13:23:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all an awesome 2010.

This year started off pretty good here. We had a white Christmas (someone said that it only happens about 15 times in 100 years), and miraculously the snow stays until now. Everyday the temperature dipped below 0 degree Celsius, but who cares, there's snow on the ground :)

New Year is one of the best time in Bergen. The whole city lights up fireworks from 11:50pm until around 12:30 am. Afterward, the city blanketed by smoke and the ground by bits of paper from the fireworks. We also bought a few fireworks (the one without noise, so it won't frightened the kids), and lighted it up before bedtime.

We told her to smile, and she said that she's afraid :)

Knitting FOs

2009-12-30T15:54:00.003+01:00

Baby Beret
I knitted this for a friend's baby. This is such a quick knit and easy pattern. I botched it up though :P
This is Kai's first snow. She wasn't happy about modelling the pic because she's cold :)

Pattern: Basque hat
Modi: ran out of the multicolored yarn during the decreases, so at the top only use the red one, and did rapid decrease (k2tog all around, k 1 round) until 8 sts remained. Added pompom.
Ravelled here

Knitted this long time ago, but only remembered to take pic of it now :P This is for the baby's mom. Hopefully she likes it.

Pattern: Wisp
Modi: Overdyed the FO using Jacquard Acid Dye in sky blue.
More details on my rav project page

Kai's bday celebration 2

2009-12-19T10:10:00.001+01:00

Finally we all feel somewhat better, and celebrated Kai's birthday last Saturday.

Decorated the window with balloons that my mom sent. Thank goodness for pumps! The purple hot dog balloon is surprisingly really long (about 1 m or 3 feet).

Family pictures. My mom joined in through Skype.

The birthday girl with her new toy.

Cutting the cake.

I baked this carrot cake with this frosting. I added 1/2 c of shredded coconut to the cake, and substitute 1/2 c of butter from the frosting recipe with cream cheese. The cake was really good and moist. The raisins make this cake more interesting than regular old carrot cake. The monkey king that doesn't like carrot cake loves it!

Even the birthday girl likes it too, I think. Whaddabout JD? Does she like it? Well, she ate about 3 big slices of the cake before I stopped her. She coughed quite a bit that night.
Lesson: just because the cake has carrots in it, doesn't make it healthier. Especially to a cough prone kid.
Lesson learned! :))

Kai's bday celebration 1

2009-12-17T14:34:00.003+01:00

Can't believe that my baby's turned 1. Too bad we all came down with a cold, so only mini celebration for her on the day. I made red eggs and noodles for breakfast.

The red eggs. For Chinese, they symbolise good luck, roundness (as in complete happiness) and a sign of fertility/prosperity. Please ignore the botchiness of my eggs. I should have searched online beforehand on how to make smooth (boil the eggs with vinegar and salt).

Kai: Wow, what's this? Everybody is eating it spoon, I should try too.

Kai: Nah, it's easier by hand.

She ate about half of it before she starts throwing it to the floor.

Hello

2009-12-10T14:06:00.003+01:00

Hi! We got back from the vacation about a week ago. But then all of us girls got hit by endless coughing and snotty nose :(
Kai turned 1 on Monday. We had to postpone the celebration because of the sickness. Hopefully everybody up and running this weekend, and we can celebrate it.
I'm still confused what birthday cake to bake and decorate. She doesn't have a favorite thing. Well, she loves to nurse, but I think boobie cake is not appropriate for 1 yo, don't u think? :)

Death by coffee

2009-11-30T12:30:00.000+01:00

I've been following Ree from the Pioneer Woman for about more than a year now. She and Deb definitely contributes to my pouchiness and round buttom :)
When Ree posted this recipe awhile back, I really wanted to try it but never had the time to bake it. Until now.

Recipe: Coffee cake

Frosting recipe: Best creamy frosting

Verdict: I didn't use the frosting recipe from cake recipe, because I'm bored of regular o buttercream frosting. I found the frosting recipe from Tasty Kitchen, and it is sooo gooodd! I'll never go back to the buttercream frosting again (unless I have to). I added 1 Tablespoon of instant coffee to the frosting to make it coffee flavored. The cake is a bit dense. But flavorwise, if you love coffee, this is the cake for you. It's best enjoyed with a cup of coffee. Told you it's death by coffee :))

Cooking stuff

2009-11-25T12:21:00.000+01:00

When it was mushroom season, the monkey king brought home a box of Cantarella mushroom. Never cook with them before, so after intense browsing, I decided to make mushroom stew, except that I don't really have the ingredients.

Recipe: none. I fused several mushroom stew that I found online to adjust for my lack of ingredients.
Verdict: mm...too mushroomy? :)

Curry Kyllingboller (Curry chicken meatballs)

Recipe: from Rema 2000 (grocery store) pamphlet. They are advocating dinner for 4 in less that U$20.
Verdict: definitely not enough flavor us. The idea of using chicken meatball than real meat for curry is refreshing, but not using coconut milk for the curry sauce? That's baffling for me.

Farikal (lamb in cabbage)

2009-11-23T12:15:00.003+01:00

I couldn't believe that I've been living in Norway for 2 years. Time flies. And during those 2 years, I've never cooked farikal, despite the abundance of lamb during October.
This is about to change...

Recipe: Farikal
Modification: nothing, I think.
Verdict: Really easy recipe. Just just assembled the meat and cabbage in a pot, and leave it for 1.5 hours on low heat. And it came out really good. The meat is soft, tender, and flavorful.

Cabled Beret

2009-11-19T12:10:00.000+01:00

Finally, another knitting FO just in time for the cold season.

Pattern: Cabled beret (Ravelry download)
Yarn: Brownsheep lamb's pride worsted frogged from Bzz hat
Needles: US 6 and 8
Modifications: don't have enough yarn, so shortened the cable section (more on rav), and added pompom on top
Verdict: Love it. It's slouchy but not too slouchy, warm, and can you believe that this is my first beret? I've been missing on the whole slouchy beret thing. Definitely need to make more of this.
Ravelled here

Furikake

2009-11-15T12:00:00.000+01:00

I love love love furikake. They are really yummy eaten with warm rice. But sadly, there is no furikake in Bergen. So, after reading Just Bento's furikake, I decided to make homemade furikake

Recipe:

1 piece of fish (I use cod marinated in pepper and lemon)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 sheet of nori (cut up in small pieces)
1-2 teaspoon of sesame seeds

Heat up a dry non-stick frying pan. Dump in the fish, and break them up with a spatula. As they cook and dry out, keep breaking them up until they form fine flakes. Add the sesame oil, and soy sauce halfway through and keep stirring. Your objective is to dry out and crisp up the fish without burning it.

When the fish is fairly dry and fine, add the nori and sesame seeds. Stir this only takes about 10-20 seconds.

Remove from the frying pan into a bowl. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to a week. But in our case, we finished it right away.

Aviatrix baby hat

2009-11-11T11:08:00.000+01:00

Pattern: Aviatrix baby hat (Ravelry download)
Yarn: various wool scraps
Needles: US 4 and 7
Verdict: It's really cute and fast project. I think it took me about 3 hours. I really love the colors, shape, everything. But what about the intended recipient? Does she likes it?

What...you don't like the hat baby?

I guess not...

A second later....

Hmmm....I guess doesn't help it stays on...oh well.

Ravelled here

Halloween Food

2009-11-09T11:26:00.000+01:00

I saw hot dog impaled with spaghetti on some blog long time ago. And decided that this would be fun for Halloween. So, for Halloween dinner, I made...

It's impaled hot dog with spaghetti, burned octopus hot dog, and steamed broccoli on regular pasta sauce. It's a hit with JD coz she loves finger food.

I also made cupcakes for dessert

Recipe: Peanut Butter cupcake
Modifications: I use mini cupcake pan, crunchy peanut butter coz I'm out of the smooth one, and reduce the sugar to 1 cup. For the frosting, I just put 1 stick of butter to mixer, cream it and add sugar and powdered sugar until desired consistency.
I tried to color it to orange, but it ended up lilac color...weird

After adding some buttercream frosting and licorice for the legs and eyes

5 hours baby sweater II

2009-11-07T11:25:00.000+01:00

5 hours baby sweater II, originally uploaded by Anak babi ilang.

Pattern: 5 hours baby sweater
Yarn: Caron simply soft and some white acrylic
Needles: US10
Verdict: very fast project with adorable result
Recipient: JD's kindergarten teacher

Ravelled here

Hi

2009-11-05T11:05:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the long hiatus. My computer monitor broke down last week, and just got it back yesterday.

We are going back home to Indonesia this Saturday (YAY!). So, I probably won't be posting from there. But I'll prepare some posts about some FOs and baking/cooking stuff.

Ha det!
(bye in norwegian)

What's goin on in the baking world?

2009-10-20T10:27:00.002+02:00

Here's some of the stuff that I baked this week:

Recipe: Old Fashioned Ginger Snap
Modi: Didn't have molasses, so used dark syrup instead. I also reduced the sugar to 1.5 cups.
Verdict: Quite good when fresh. However, after a few hours, it loses it's crunchiness. Is this common? This is my first time baking ginger snap.

Recipe: Apple cake
Modi: As usual, i reduced the sugar to 1 3/4 cup. Next time will reduce more to 1.5 or 1 1/4 cups.
Verdict: OMG! This is one of the best cake that I've baked. It is REALLY REALLY GOOD!

Recipe: Banana cookies
Modi: none
Verdict: Don't let the name deter you off. This is more like a banana bread in cookie shape or banana muffin top. It's pretty good, and a nice break from the regular banana bread.

That's all for now folks!

JD's new toy

2009-10-15T10:07:00.004+02:00

Starting last winter, whenever JD eats a little junk food (candy, burger, fries, etc.) she coughed. She coughed when she's laying down, and this cough can lasts for months. Finally, her doctor recommended us to see an asthma specialist. After waiting for a long time, finally we got an appointment time. And 2 weeks ago, we went to there. JD was diagnosed with a mild asthma. The doctor puts her on inhaler twice a day for prevention, because winter in Bergen is terrible for asthma.
At first, JD was afraid of it. But now, she loves her inhaler. She even wants to do it herself, and takes it wherever she goes.

It's a bit sad that she has to undergo this. But after a few days of using it, her cough's gone. She's been coughing for 2 months, and we've tried everything! Well, I guess we can wean her off it later in spring. But for now, HIP HIP HURRA for no coughing :))

Trellis

2009-10-11T19:45:00.000+02:00

So, I knitted Trellis cardigan for JD when she's 1.5 yo. I made larger size using larger needle, and heavier yarn hoping that it'll fit her until she's 2 yo.
Apparently, I made it so big, that it fits her just right right now. At the age of 3.5, and right when it starts to cool down too :))

Ravelled here

Do they look the same?

2009-10-09T10:26:00.003+02:00

My friends thinks I cloned my girls :)
I managed to snap a few pics of Kai posing almost the same way like JD did when she's small. In the pic, JD was a few weeks older, and look they even wear the same shirt!
What do you think?

Kids stuff

2009-10-08T10:58:00.003+02:00

Some pictures of da kidz.

JD and Kai sitting on the windowsill.
I think JD carries her sister to sit up there.

We all sleeps together in one room. Not because da kidz don't have their room and beds, but because they don't wanna sleep in their own room and beds. So, Kai sleeps on my bed, and we brought out a spare bed for JD. This is actually quite cozy and works better than all 4 of us sleeping in 1 bed like our previous arrangement. And since it started to get cold here, our room become quite warm and packed.
One night, I heard Kai fussing a bit, and went over to check on her. JT found them like this. Apparently, Kai moved around and fell into JD's bed (good thing it wasn't the floor).

JD helping me rolling the pie crust for pear tart

Food recap

2009-10-05T19:33:00.002+02:00

Things that I've been baking/cooking in the past week.

Recipe: Deep, dark rich brownies
Vote: Really good. JT even loves it. It's rich, and very satisfying.

Recipe: Herbes de Provence bread
Vote: Taste-wise, it's good. However, the dough was really sticky, and not rising well (on the first rise). And on the second rise, it's more like rising to the sides, and up. Resulting in a bread that's more like a fluffy pancake, as JD (my oldest) said.

Lamb Curry with white and red rice

Recipe: my own

Recipe: Oatmeal cakes
Vote: Pretty good. JD loves it. And it's healthy too. So yay!

Baby gifts

2009-09-30T15:29:00.003+02:00

JT (dh)'s colleague is expecting a baby this November. This is a perfect opportunity for scrap busting projects.

Project no. 1:

Pattern: Pixie hat
Yarn: about .3 ball of Schachenmayr nomotta Punto in blue
Needle: US7
Ravelled here

Pattern: BSJ baby booties (rav download)
Yarn: about .3 ball of Schachenmayr nomotta Punto in blue and light blue
Needle: US6
Ravelled here

This time I tried to make it professional looking by adding gift tag, and kinda arrange it in a bag.

Whaddaya think?

Yipiii...

2009-09-25T12:46:00.001+02:00

Kai's playing with a bag of cheerios

Pear pie

2009-09-24T11:19:00.006+02:00

I bought a bag of pear for really cheap a few days ago. The pears were really ripe and need to be used right away. So, I used some of the pears for pear pie.

Pear Tart
Preparation time: 20-25 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Serves 4

Pastry:
200g of plain flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
140g of chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk

Filling:
2-3 ripe pears pealed, cored and sliced thinly
1 apple, pealed, cored, and sliced thinly
1/2 cup of blueberries (it adds tartness to the pie, but you can omit it if you want)
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of plain flour
Cool whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and a little powdered sugar to serve

Add the flour, sugar, salt and butter to a bowl.
Using your fingertips, combine the dry ingredients with the butter, until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. This can be a little worrying, but don't worry the mixture will come together.
Add the egg yolk and milk to the mix and form the dough using your hands.
Cover the dough in clingflim and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30-40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Place the fruits in a bowl and toss with the sugar and flour.

Remove the clingfilm and place the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll out the pastry until you have a large disc (about 30cm in diameter).
Transfer the pastry disc to a baking tray and remove the top sheet of parchment paper.
Add the filling to the center of the pastry and using the sides of the greaseproof paper fold the sides up and over the filling.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Serve with a dollop of thick, cool whipped cream and dust with a little powdered sugar.

Recipe adapted from Donal Skehan's rustic pear pie.

The pie in the oven. Please pardon my dirty oven window.

This is my first time making tart. And the result is really really delicious. I think the recipe is very easy and forgiving.
So...what are you waiting for? Make this pie NOW!!
:))

xia se thou (raining gravel)

2009-09-23T12:10:00.000+02:00

A breeze of newness

2009-09-23T11:18:00.004+02:00

Hi all, I'm going make some changes to the blog. You can already see that I changed the template and add some stuffs to the side bar.
I will also add some more stuff to the blog such as crafting, and my baking/cooking journey. Hopefully, you guys like it, and we can have more fun together.

Ciao,

Yuliana

lokie lookie

2009-09-22T10:18:00.000+02:00

Kai is mowing the grass :))

Kai

2009-09-18T16:35:00.000+02:00

Kai n' da doll

Kai: mmmm....you look yummy...I'm gonna eat you now...
Doll: HELP! HELP!

Kai: AAmmm...mm...pretty good :))
Doll: NOOO...not my hair...yucks...now I'm wet...

Kai n' da Beret

ZZZZZZZ.....

Lookin' funny

Ugh...this ribbon doesn't taste that good...

JD

2009-09-17T16:25:00.000+02:00

The beret

Upside down (Tee-hee)

Eating lunch at Sletten Center

JD's favorite spot to spy on the neighbor's cats

JD's favorite animal

2009-09-16T14:21:00.000+02:00

Baby Snails!

Ema

2009-09-15T15:15:00.000+02:00

Eating Steaks

JD eating Angler fish's bone

Family Pic

JD's photos

2009-09-14T12:39:00.000+02:00

This is what happens if you leave the camera with JD :)

Click to make it big

Da kidz

2009-08-13T12:38:00.000+02:00

Copenhagen

2009-08-11T12:05:00.000+02:00

My new in training nanny :)

The bloody-far away-at the end of the world- mermaid

Tivoli
We didn't get on any rides because JD was too scared, and the lines was very long. There we ate lunch at Wagamama. It was the first decent food we had since we got there.
JD was so happy eating edamame, and Kai was happy too eating the shells :)

We got too tired to walk back to the hotel, so we got on a rickshaw. The guy that drove it was high. He kept on giggling and confused. Good thing we got back okay.

This is Kai sleeping peacefully for 20 min, after 30 min of screaming and crying combo in the taxi ride home. She hates seating in the car seat.

july 11th, 2009

2009-07-15T20:41:00.000+02:00

Heiho

2009-07-14T10:11:00.000+02:00

Mmmm....banana muffin's good...

Happy Prisoners!

2009-07-13T10:08:00.000+02:00

Obviously I need to be strapped down :))

2009-07-12T10:05:00.000+02:00

July 9th and 10th, 2009

2009-07-11T09:59:00.000+02:00

Misc. 3

2009-07-09T09:51:00.000+02:00

Hmmm....

I wonder what's in here?

Zzzzzz....

Play together

2009-07-08T14:29:00.000+02:00

From 1st til 8th of July, 2009

2009-07-08T14:17:00.001+02:00

Misc. 2

2009-07-07T09:45:00.000+02:00

Misc. 1

2009-07-06T09:39:00.000+02:00

Swing..swing

2009-06-29T09:19:00.001+02:00

Even Jerry had fun :))

Look mama look what I can do...

2009-06-19T19:17:00.000+02:00

BarnaFest (Children Festival)

2009-06-14T17:17:00.001+02:00

Last Sunday we went to BarnaFest at the Nygardsgaten Park. It was quite fun.
They had concerts, children games, dukketheater (handpuppet teather), and many other stuff.
JD had fun getting her face painted and feeding the ducks and fish in the pond.

Ulrikken

2009-05-01T14:52:00.000+02:00

So, a few weeks ago we hiked to Ulriken . We planned on just hike a little bit to take some pictures, but there's an overoptimistic person (namely Jerry) that thinks we can do it; we hiked all the way up. It turned out to be a 6-7 hours journey (up and back). And we were totally tired but proud and amazed of our eldest daughter's stamina.

This is the top of Ulriken.

We started near JD's barnehage. The path was very easy. Lots of beautiful little streams.

Then the path became a little bit rocky.

Stopped for a bit to reenergize ourselves (halfway there)

Then we had to stop for lunch, and apparently changed Kai's diaper. I think we were the only one that bring baby to hike and change diaper :) We got "are you crazy" look from passerby. By the way, see how beautiful the view is behind the family pic?

After this stop, the road started to become really really hard and dangerous.

Finally, we made it! YAY!
(This pic was taken behind the antenna and JD was sporting her new jacket)

We celebrated it by:
First, rest.

Drink coffee (well, at least JD did. She drank most of our coffee)

Doing silly poses.

Taking pictures

Was it worth it?
We think so. The view was amazing!
(It looks a bit washed out from the pics, but believe us, it really is amazing :))

And JD was really happy there. Not tired at all. (I think it's the coffee talking :))
Proof:

The end.

Kailynn

2009-04-28T16:24:00.000+02:00

Yummy...yummy...

2009-04-20T10:24:00.000+02:00

Photos of the kids

JD's eating jello with cream mmmm....yummy

One fine afternoon when both are in good moods :)

Chocolate milk mustache

What are you doing momma? Scratching head

A moment of love before the naughtiness resumes

Wacha lookin' at?

Sunbathing

Pick me up!! I hate it here..

Laugh

2009-04-13T21:07:00.000+02:00

Shrieking Kai

2009-04-07T11:07:00.000+02:00

JD's 3rd birthday

2009-03-09T10:19:00.001+01:00

Kai

2009-02-23T14:00:00.000+01:00

Photos of Kai from birth til now.

Happy 3rd Birthday JD!

2009-02-21T19:22:00.000+01:00

The transformation of JD from an innocent little baby to a playful (read: naughty) independent little girl :)

Me-look-a-like-meter

2008-08-06T12:41:00.000+02:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree diagram - Free genealogy

Dinner at the (our) garden

2008-07-28T16:29:00.000+02:00

Beginning of Spring

2008-06-11T16:05:00.000+02:00

Party

2008-06-01T16:45:00.000+02:00

Yole´s BBQ Birthday Party

Vienna pt. 4

2008-05-25T21:30:00.000+02:00

Schonbrunn Palace

Vienna pt. 3

2008-05-21T21:20:00.000+02:00

mmm...corn on the cob

2008-05-20T12:49:00.000+02:00

Vienna, Austria II

2008-05-17T12:29:00.000+02:00

Danube (Donou)

upil!

2008-04-28T12:14:00.000+02:00

Vienna, Austria I

2008-04-22T12:24:00.000+02:00

On the Giant Ferris Wheel

yum yum ...

2008-04-10T13:20:00.000+02:00

JD's eating leg of lamb

Misc pics

2008-04-01T14:05:00.000+02:00

Snowday II

2008-03-12T11:39:00.000+01:00

Mmm...frosting...

2008-03-06T12:01:00.000+01:00

Yesss..I can do it by myself!

2008-03-03T12:32:00.000+01:00

Snowday

2008-02-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

2nd Birthday!

2008-02-25T13:35:00.000+01:00

Paris

2008-02-23T15:27:00.000+01:00

I'm going to Kindergarten!

2008-02-22T12:08:00.001+01:00

Dada's new lens

2008-01-28T17:49:00.000+01:00

Reading

2008-01-25T15:12:00.000+01:00

Sorry it's sideways. Don't know how to fix it :)

Weekend before moving out

2007-10-18T20:17:00.000+02:00

Talking to Ema on the phone

ROARRRR