Kevin's Chicken Rice (Claypot Style)

The LONG awaited recipe from my husband. YY, I know u'd been waiting for this. BUT, BUT, BUT, let me make myself clear, I do not know the exact amount for the condiments added (nor does K "p), so use your own discretion and marinate according to taste.

Ingredients (2-3 pax)
*2 Chicken thighs (cut in chunks)
*1.5 cup uncooked rice (washed and left to dry on plate prior to use. Rice must be DRY b4 cooking)
*Few slices of ginger
*2 tbsps Minced garlic
*2 clove Shallots (sliced thinly)
*1 sprig spring onion (optional)

Marinade for chicken (overnight, min 2 hrs)
*Oyster sauce (use the dried scallop version if u want better taste)
*Shaoxing/ Huadiao wine
*White pepper
*Light soy sauce
*Sesame Oil
*Corn flour

Seasoning
*Oyster sauce
*White pepper
*Sugar
*Salt
*Light soy sauce
*Dark soy sauce
*Shaoxing/ Huadiao wine

Directions
1. Heat some oil in pan and stir-fry shallots, garlic and ginger slices till golden brown. Add uncooked rice, salt, white pepper, light soy sauce and sesame oil to fry till all the grains are evenly coated and the rice is HOT.

2. Pour rice mixture into rice cooker (claypot for more traditional flavour) and add water as per normal cooking. ON UR COOKER.

3. Stir-fry minced garlic till fragrant. Pour in chicken and spring onion and fry on high heat till the chicken starts to brown. Add oyster sauce, salt, light soy sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce and water. Simmer for 2 mins. Sprinkle a tsp of Shaoxing/ Huadiao.

4. Once the water in rice cooker is about to be completely absorbed by the rice, pour chicken and gravy over rice and leave to cook.

5. Leave in cooker for a few minutes after rice finished cooking to allow rice to "burn" a little for the crisp and punch.

6. Ready to serve.

I assure u - THIS IS A GREAT RECIPE! It's something I can't resist and don't mind eating over and over.

Something to note, be GENEROUS with your seasoning.

Fishoil

Why do I write an article about Fishoil?

First of all, I started seriously taking fishoil when I conceived En. Like all parents out there, I wanted my baby to be smart(with all the hype about DHA, EFA etc) n healthy. So I picked one off the counter and brought it to the gynae. When he gave the green light, I went ahead.

True enough, she was rather early on many of her developmentally stages, especially potty training haha (she dropped the diaper both DAY n NIGHT when she turned 2). But I stopped taking fishoil sometime after childbirth cos I figured my breastmilk is good enough for her (besides it's quite costly, u get what I mean??).

However, as she got older, I decided to give fishoil a try again, by feeding it to En directly (ya, I'm talking about the capsule type, not the syrupy sweet stuff). Trouble! Cos En has a very sensitive sense of smell (she would feel nausea smelling her own poo, even the smell of SNOW was too much for her when she 1st came to Utah). Of cos it didn't work, not even with mixing into her food. Luckily, Mummy was still breastfeeding her, so she could still get it if I took them (kills 2 birds with 1 stone :)). Ha! Soon after, we decided to force weaned her (she was 21 mth already leh), so.......

Now, thank God! I'd managed to re-introduce to her fishoil, re-formulated with lemony taste. Now she's enjoying her rainbow fresh milk, Milo(occasionally) etc. She knows it's her super drink and it'll make her STRONG like Inuyasha (a manga charactor "p). Now she gets the DHA, EFA she needs and I do not have to lug tins n tins of milk powder (guess many believe formula milk is better all bcos of the big D n E). Besides BREAST, FRESH is certainly best haha!

BUT, don't make the mistake I made, i.e. simply picking any fishoil u find off the shelf. If u had been following news reports, u would know that many of the commercial brands carried high level of heavy metals, if u r not careful, u may essentially be poisoning your precious ones. I was LUCKY I picked one of the safe ones initially.

The link below provides more info on fishoil n recommends u to a reliable source:-

http://www.simplygoodhealth.org/fishoil/z.php?id=3571880&eid=blog

(If anyone is keen to introduce ur children to a safe and reliable source of fishoil, feel free to let me know. I can help u get a good price :))

你的选择会是什么？

“是没钱让枕边人看病悲哀，
还是心痛他（她）花你的钱看病悲哀？”

这是一个用心回答与用脑回答，结论可能会不同的问题。

前者，心有余而力不足。后者......

曾经有人说过，钱能够解决的问题，就不是问题。可是，并不是所有人都能看透。

有些人，当他有500块，他烦。当他有5000块，还是不够。即使给他50000、500000、5000000......结论还是一样。我想，那不仅是人的贪念，而是他已经忘了什么才是钱的本质。

钱（货币），原本就是为了方便物品的交换，只有当你用它的时候，它才有价值。有一种人，只能看到银行帐簿数字增长，当数字往下跌时，那种痛可以是撕心裂肺的，即使是一般生活的开销，账目的进进出出。他的借口可以是冠冕堂皇的：我必须把屋债还清等等等。之后呢？当然还是会有许许多多，永无止尽的新“债务”......

这应该就是T Harv Eker所谓的“穷人心态”吧（多谢KH的教诲）！此等人可能会得到许许多多的钱，可是他永远追逐不到真正的财富。因为他无法从分享中得到快乐，他的钱永远都“不够用”。当他意外得到一笔钱时，脑子里浮现的不是“感恩”，而是为什么我必须为这笔数交上所得税？别人养我，我养别人，如果我付出比较多，不也意味着我有能力付出，这不是可喜的吗？

是的，我是“住家妈妈”，养家糊口的重担并不落在我身上，但这并不意味着我对钱财没有概念，只懂的花，不懂得赚，说的都是满口大话。正因为我得伸手跟人拿钱，如何善用这笔“别人的钱”更是一种压力。

朋友，下回当你收到一笔医药费时，你会感恩自己有能力负担，还是埋怨多了一笔帐要结？

（当你失去了感恩的能力，你也同时失去了拥有的快乐，和被施与的权利。）

Is it Too MUCH?

How much effort can a person put in for his work?

How much effort can a person put in for his friends?

How much effort can a person put in for his father/ mother/ brothers etc?

How much effort can a person put in for his wife?

How much effort can a person put in for his child?

110%, 110%, 110%..... for the last two, any value is TOO MUCH. (perhaps the numbers may not be that accurate but the message is clear - that it's easy to be taking your closest ones for-granted)

At the end of the day?

How many actually self-reflect on the consequences? Touch your heart. When things happen n your child is not close to u, is it easier to simply push the blame on others or to take heart and really think what should be done? Years go by, till this day, probably I'd told myself hundreds of time that I'd given up, but deep down, I hope for a change.

How long can this turmoil last, before the heart really dies and every hope fizzles off???

郁金香的季节

好美丽的花朵，象征了春的到来，美中不足的是，还有许多花儿还赶不及接受阳光的洗礼。我会再来与你们约会！

Hogle Zoo

The Hogle Zoo at SLC is a great place for families. Though it's not as impressive as our Mandai Zoo (bearing in mind we have a world-class zoo), it's more spacious and we can get close to the gentler animals. There's also a mini train ride which I'm sure the kids will love, though it's a tad too short. If u're an avid fan of primates, this is THE PLACE!

When we got to the penguin section, they were all standing with their faces to the door.... strange. Perhaps waiting for food?? The Giraffe holding is the best. U can really get sooooo close to them. Of cos the children will love the playground as well.

Dream Sandals

My DREAM SANDALS!! Had been eyeing it for at least a yr, when I was still back home. Was just too EX. Abt $150. Managed to find this online for less than half the price. Best of all, negotiated a sponsorship from K. Yeah!

What do I have to say about this pair after test-running it? The best I'd ever gotten! No 'bites' and blisters like ALL other new pairs of footwear did (I have a pair of “坏脚”). Believe it will definitely serve me well for my impending trip.

En's 3rd Birthday

En is definitely a fortunate gal to celebrate her birthday here in the States. I should say she has been blessed all this while - her first trip to Japan when she was 4 mth old (courtesy of Kevin's ex-company. Happened to be a training stint too. And yes, we met with our 1st earthquake, 2nd one being the one we encountered here). Though she's only 3, she will be covering her 3rd Disneyland soon (",)

We celebrated her birthday 1 day earlier, as did her pre-school (as the actual day falls on a Wed, when she's not attending school). They call it the Spotlight Session, where Mummy will show some pics about En and talked about them. No cakes, parties etc, as they stick to a strict curriculum.

After her school ended, we went over to IMFT to fetch Kevin. Then we proceeded for dinner at HoHo Gourmet in SLC. Was planning for a crab feast, however no crab that day, so we had Roast Duck instead.

How can we not have a birthday cake?? Mummy had went over to Marble Slab Creamery to get her an Oreo Ice Cream Cake earlier. She was lucky as they had ran out of small ones, so she got a BIG cake (which we still have some leftover in the freezer more than a mth from her birthday).

Happy 3rd Birthday
Dear Baby En!

妈妈

我的妈妈很啰嗦，性格急躁，有点敏感，还相当“迟钝”。

由于本尊也是火爆派（全家的女人都一样），经常会发生口角，感觉好似永无宁日，所以在成长时期，刚踏入社会之际，最想有的是自己的家，快快搬出去。或许因此，成就了之后所犯的种种错误。

犯的错越多，却越能感受到妈妈的爱，妈妈的包容，妈妈所给予的力量。特别是当了母亲后，被孩子“整”，更能体会为人母的辛苦，所要付出的心血。妈妈是职业妇女，以前的女人没现在的“好命”。下班后还得回家当女佣，全家的衣服（包括几位小叔的）都得一手包办，夜里还得忍受我这个“小魔鬼”起来“唱大戏”。

身为长女，本该负起照顾家庭，替父母分忧的角色，但我却是让他们最劳心劳力的那个。不但不带分文回家，还经常得让他们出老本。即使现在人在美国，也还得靠他们寄东、寄西的。所以我经常都会抱怨，好的东西轮不到我的父母，就留那些又破财，又麻烦的“屎”让他们去捡。那又如何？别人的心我无法掌控，唯一能做的是靠自己的力量，有一天，我会让他们过好日子。

妈妈对我的支持是没活说的，无论我选择的是哪一条路，即使她未必认同。她是我最大的“客户”，我相信也是我最忠实的。

我很庆幸，我父母很有人情味。不仅对人，对小动物也是如此。当初我带furfur回家，主要是因为K很喜欢小狗。他说小时候他父亲也买了狗给他，所以他们会让他养。我家就不同。当我跟父亲提要养狗时，他第一时间对我说：“不要把狗带回来！”结果，事与愿违，K一把furfur带回家，迎来的就是黑脸。我就硬着头皮带她回我家，结果一住就是六年。养狗狗不是一件容易的事。Furfur不知闯了多少祸，破坏了多少家具，制造了多少不便（父母喜欢旅行）。他们不是没有抱怨，但始终是说说就算了。妈妈还经常会带furfur去散步。Furfur是我和K的，结果呢？嗨。。。。。。

小时候，不懂事，会羡慕别人的父母较富裕，有汽车接送，可以经常出国旅行。长大了才庆幸，父母是脚踏实地的人，会为退休后的日子打算，我才能过得如此无忧。是的，父母的爱是伟大的，但有多少能做到真正的无私，不求回报，不认为孩子奉养是理所当然的（我不是说我们不该奉养父母，只是觉得当我们为孩子付出时，是否应该把这点当作先决条件，以后要连本带利收回来）？看过太多父母与子女因钱财反目的例子，也听说过父母把金钱摆第一，不顾子女是否负担得起的事件。我父母做到了真正的无私。

妈妈的生日快到了。我想让你知道，我懂得你的好，虽然还是会对你大声说话，但这只是急躁的反应。有些话很难说出口，我要让你知道：“我很爱你！”爸爸，我也很爱你。

妈妈，生日快乐！！

（妈妈和妹妹的生日在同一天--4月18日。Ah Bee，也“顺便”祝你“黑皮 Birthday！”）