FurryMaisy

I have a very non-traditional recipe for spaghetti bolognese. My recipe uses minced pork instead of beef. This recipe feeds 4 to 5.

Ingredients for sauce

• 1 can of sun-dried tomatoes, alternative is 3 large tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 carrot
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• tomato ketchup
• Lea & Perrins worchestershire sauce
• herbs – oregano, basil, paprika, thyme, ground black pepper
• salt
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil

Finely chop onion, carrot and garlic. Heat olive oil in pot, cook chopped onion, carrot and salt in the pot. Let the onion sweat a little, then put in garlic. Once onion has softened, add canned tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes, finely chop them first). Stir once in  a while to avoid burning the bottom.

Add 3-4 big dollops to tomato ketchup, 3-4 tablespoons of basalmic vinegar, and 5-6 shakes of the worchestershire sauce. Continue stirring the sauce for 10 minutes. At this point in time, boil water and start cooking the pasta. Add herbs to sauce to taste.

Add minced meat to the sauce, stir well and let cook for another 10 minutes. Sauce is done.

Pour sauce onto cooked pasta, shave some parmesan cheese on top, and spaghetti bolognese is ready to be served.

My very unscientific recipe for pork ribs in taucu (fermented soy beans in salt) and plum sauce. I made this without taste testing, as I am still recovering from chicken pox, and cannot eat any soy-based products.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 strips of pork ribs, cut in pieces
• 2 tbsp taucu
• 1 tbsp sugar
• garlic, 5-6 cloves
• dried chilli
• plum sauce

Heat some oil in a frying pan, sautee finely chopped garlic with taucu for a minute. Remove from heat, spread all over pork ribs.

Add sugar and dried chilli. Mix 2 tsp of plum (asamboi) into hot water to get plum juice, pour over ribs. Marinate for 30 minutes.
Steam pork ribs for at least 1 hour.

Pork ribs are now ready to serve.

I have a big rice cooker (hand-me-down from my grandma) and I always find it a hassle to cook rice for two people  in it. Half a bowl of rice sticks to the bottom of it, or the rice dries out too quickly. Then one day I found out that I can cook rice in my microwave. I always thought you need one of those fancy containers to microwave rice in, but in truth, any microwave-safe container will do.

First, wash the rice like you always do, then add rice and water into the container. Rule of thumb is one part rice, two parts water. To flavor the rice, you can add olive oil or butter.

Cover the container, and place into microwave. Suggested guidelines for cooking time are:

• 1/2 cup rice, 9 minutes
• 3/4 cup rice, 12 minutes
• 1 cup rice, 16 minutes
• 1 1/2 cups rice, 23 minutes

When the microwave stops, let the rice sit inside for another few minutes to let the steam finish the cooking. Remove from microwave, fluff rice with a chopstick, and it is ready to serve.

Some time ago, I attempted to make Ondeh ondeh, a snack made from glutinous rice flour and gula melaka.

Ingredients: 

• 250 g glutinous rice flour
• 200 ml pandan Juice
• 150 g gula Melaka, chopped
• 100 g grated coconut
• A pinch of salt

To make pandan juice:

First, cut pandan leaves, about 10 strips into small pieces. Grate into fine pieces.
Add water to the grated pandan, mix well and squeeze juice into a bowl. Tadaa, pandan juice!

Prepare the dough:

Combine glutinous rice flour with pandan juice, and knead well. Pinch a small piece of the dough (about the size of a chupa chupps) and drop it into a pot of boiling water. Once the dough cooks and rises to the surface, remove the cooked dough, try it a little and mix it back into the dough. Knead the dough again.

To make ondeh ondeh:

Pinch a small piece of dough and flatten. Place chopped gula melaka into the center of the dough, and roll the dough to seal the gula melaka in and form a smooth ball. Make a batch of them. Next, cook the balls in boiling water. When the balls rise to the surface, they are cooked, so scoop them up and shake off excess water. Roll them in a plate of grated coconut mixed with a pinch of salt.

Your ondeh ondeh is ready to serve.

Most might find idling at home for 2 weeks an idea to salivate over. Not when you are riddled with itchy pockmarks all over your torso, face and scalp. You can’t scratch them, they’ll scar.

Stupid chicken pox. I hate you.

The little bastards started to appear on Friday. Had a big one right in the middle of my back, which I thought was a pimple. Head felt a bit warm too, but did not tie the two together. At night, ask the hubby to check out the pimple which bothered me the whole day. He lifted up my shirt, took a look, and exclaimed that there were a few more small red spots on my back. The humongous one was filled with clear liquid. I hate you chicken pox!

To the doctor’s I went, picked up anti-viral medication, calamine, paracetamol, and anti-itch pills. The calamine felt good, i tell ya, but dries up the skin like a snake in Death Valley. The fever subsided by Saturday evening. Each day more spots appeared to taunt me into scratching them. Did I say I hate chicken pox?

Today’s day 5 since the doctor’s visit, and no new spots seem to be appearing, some are drying up, and some still content to sit on my skin with a bag full of water, daring me to squeeze them. A couple days more, and I’ll get to pick on dry scabs.

Can’t believe I’m saying this: I can’t wait to get back to work!

Gotta ciao, X-factor USA’s coming up on TV!

It’s only available in the US, but I managed to get my furry paws on a Nook Color for US$199, with shipping costs & a separately-purchased holder, it came up to S$300.

New toy

It’s heavier than your standard paperback, but it’s slimmer, and I have nearly 600 titles in it to choose from. After I Auto-Nootered it, it’s also a decent Android tablet; good for times when I just want to do a quick check on the internet at home without the need to whip out the notebook. Yes, it may not have a camera, 3G, or GPS, but that’s what my phone is for. With my phone as a wireless hotspot, I can also surf on the go with my Nook Color.

Decent toy for a decent price. iPad? I don’t need one.

Have not had dinner with bro & his wifey for quite a while, although we see each other every day. Went to one of his favourite haunt, a small restaurant in a park next to the beach. They served standard fare like steaks, chops, pastas and german sausages.

Highlight of the night: Draught Hoegaarden at $9.90 per pint for happy hour 🙂
Draught Hoegaarden tastes a little sweeter, and doesn’t turn bitter even if it’s not cold. I like.

I gotta say, I got tipsy after downing that pint…. I blame it on alcohol on an empty stomach!

For 2 weeks at the end of August and early September, FurryHubby & FurryMaisy embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe, specifically, to England, France, & Netherlands.

We took lots of useless pictures, ate lots of bread, washed clothes in hotel sinks every other night, and looked at more paintings that we thought was humanly possible.

In the next few weeks, I’ll try to pen down our humble adventures through well-trodden cities of Europe, and maybe relive the experience in my head as I do so.

Hubby and I rarely sit down together for a nice dinner in a restaurant. Our meals usually come from food courts prepared by mainland Chinese cook and wait staff.

Once on a while, we get sick of bak chor mee or chicken rice. That’s when we will hunt for food seldom eaten or new dining places, usually on Fridays.

This time, we went to s small restaurant that specialized in German pork knuckles, sausages, and stews. Prices are reasonable, and though the tastes are not earth-shattering, they have a homely, comfort-food feel to it. We had the pork knuckles served with a side of mashed potatoes and acar(!), sausages, garden salad, and mushroom soup. By the end of the meal, our stomachs were thoroughly satisfied.

We treasure these little food excursions; it’s one of those things we promised to do to add a little variety to our oft-monotonous days.

These little things are part of what keeps our life together interesting.

I talked about the need for a bookshelf in my last post.

Well, yesterday, hubby and I decided to buy the darned bookcase and ferry it across the causeway no matter what. So off to IKEA we went. Seems like 1/4 of Singaporeans were at IKEA; all payment counters were at least 5 deep, with some trolleys filled to the brim with mugs, lamps and assorted furry toys. Bought the Billy with an extra shelf , and loaded into the car.

I can now confirm that a Honda Fit, with the backseat and front passenger seat down, can fit a 2m Billy flat pack box comfortably.

Whilst on the TPE/SLE heading to the checkpoint, we rehearsed on potential answers to inquisitive customs officers…

“Company lucky draw dapat”,

“Christmas present”,

“Pindah rumah, ni lama punya”,

… and so on.

When we reached JB customs, hubby was a bit worried, cos there was a lot of cars, which means the officers may be checking the green lanes too. As cold sweat started to creep up, we entered the green lane, and saw officers chatting away at a distance. Don’t look at them! Keep going! Exit coming up…. in 10m…5m…. 100% check passed……hallelujah!

Will assemble this weekend.