I can’t believe it took me so long to post another bloody entry in this blog.  What’s that, 8 months?  If I were pregnant last time, I would’ve given birth by now.  How’s that for procrastination!  I should try to post at least once a month (haha, yeah right).

Anyway, just to make things easy, I’ll be putting on some recipes that my kids like me to cook.  I have to say this: I now really hate to cook.  Especially since it’s just me & Rhett here with the kids in the UK - it’s always a case of "if I don’t cook, we’ll starve - so no choice".  However, darling Rhett has been surprising me this past several weeks or so.  Since he’s been working from home lately (in-between out-of-town projects), he’s suddenly discovered an interest in cooking.  Not bad for someone who’s previous cooking contribution to this family is boiling water for tea. Or coffee. 

But now he’s cooking something nearly everyday, from beef stir-fry to lumpiang shanghai (his mom’s recipes).  He’s also baked apple pie, apple crumble, oat flapjacks with golden syrup, and has made Brit pancakes (crepes) with fresh strawberry and custard for our after-school snack the past few days.  I definitely don’t mind doing the dishes at all instead of cooking.

But on the days he doesn’t cook, I get called on to whip up the relatively easy dishes that my two boys also like.  It’s especially hard to find a dish to get Nathan (who turned 5 last Sunday) to finish up, aside from Birds-eye frozen fish fingers. 

I got these recipes off the web - I don’t remember the original websites anymore, sorry!  I adjusted them for available (and/or HEALTHIER) ingredients. Please note: we choose to cook with little or now salt, and use healthier oils/tub margarine, & wholegrain choices (wholewheat flour, rolled oats, etc.)  Try cooking with little or no salt yourself, and just season (lightly!) at table.  Eventually, your own tastes will adjust to the lower levels.  It’s better for your kidneys & heart.

Tuna And Broccoli Pasta

(serves 4)
225g (9oz) pasta twists (fusilli)
175g (7oz) broccoli florets (or frozen peas & corn)
400g (16oz) canned tuna in brine  (you can replace 1 can with mackerel instead)
50g (2oz) tub margarine (sunflower, etc)
50g (2oz) wholewheat flour 
600ml (1 pint) milk (semi-skimmed is healthier) 
75g (3oz) half-fat cheddar cheese or 50g (2oz) mature cheddar (grated)
25g (1oz) wholemeal breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6
Cook the pasta in boiling water for 5 minutes, add the broccoli and cook for a further 4-5 minutes until just tender.  Drain.
Flake the tuna in an ovenproof dish (I use 2 dishes. One to serve, one to save for another meal)
In a separate pan make the white sauce.  Melt the margarine.  Stir in the flour and cook for one minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk, a little at a time, taking care to stir well between additions.  (tip: use a wire whisk to really dissolve well) 

Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring continuously.  Cook gently until the sauce thickens. Add half the cheese and season to taste. (I never add salt to the sauce because the cheese is salty, esp. if you’re using processed cheese like Kraft, etc.  I normally add 1/8 tsp. nutmeg & 1/8 tsp. ground white pepper so the kids won’t see.  If you/the kids aren’t picky, freshly ground black pepper is better.)
Spoon the pasta and broccoli mixture over the fish, (in stages), cover with the sauce & mix carefully.
Mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining cheese and sprinkle over the top.
Bake for 15-25 minutes until golden and crisp on top.
Serve with sliced apples, salad and crusty bread or breadsticks on the side.

Short Pasta with Salmon and Walnuts - - Pasta Corta con Salmone e Noci – for 2

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

4-5 walnut meats, chopped

2-3 ounces (50-75 g) smoked salmon, shredded

1/3 cup double cream

Salt & pepper

Flour, for thickening (optional)

2 tablespoons minced parsley (I use fresh basil from my little window pot instead)

1/2 pound (200 g) short pasta, e.g. farfalle (bow ties), fusilli (twists).

PREPARATION:

1.      Bring pasta water to a boil and while the pasta is cooking sauté the garlic in the oil in a skillet, discarding it when it has browned.

2.      Add the nutmeats, cook them for a few minutes, then add the salmon and season lightly.

3.     Add the cream and heat through, (thickening the sauce with a little flour if you want). Drain the pasta and turn it into the skillet. Toss over a brisk flame for a minute, stir in the minced parsley, and serve.

My tip:  To give my kids one of their 5-a-day fruit/veg portion, I add 1/2 cup of frozen peas (thawed in boiling water for 2-4 mins), just after the pasta has been added.  Anthony & Nathan love this dish.  I hardly have any leftovers to keep in the ref.  It’s also a great dish for special occasions (candlelit dinner, etc).  It’s supposed to be a traditional Italian dish for Valentines Day.

Hot Cake Specialty

Ingredients
3/4 cup rolled oats (quick or old-fashioned)
1-1/2 cups (375 mL) whole milk (don’t use evap or reconstituted powdered milk!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/4 cups sifted wholewheat flour
2 Tablespoons sugar (I use muscovado)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Combine oats and milk; let stand for 5 minutes.

Mix together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients. Add to oat mixture along with eggs/oil/vanilla mixture. Stir only until combined.

Spoon onto hot griddle. Wait until bubbles appear. When undersides are lightly browned, flip hotcakes over and again cook until undersides are browned. Put a small pat of butter over each hotcake.

Makes: 12 to 16

My tip: You can also add 1/2 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon to give it a nice aroma. 

We serve with real maple syrup (absolutely sinfully gorgeous - can’t go back to fake!) or with nutella/peanut butter smeared on top.  It’s just as fluffy & soft as Pancake House’s - I’m not kidding!

Enjoy! 

I’m getting too lazy to update my frigging blogs properly. I think my brain doesn’t know how to work anymore, or I’m just too tired from doing household chores. Who would’ve thought cleaning up and taking care of kids is such hard work? Lots of praise to my mom and to all the stay-at-home moms out there. And the lot of working parents must be even worse! The following blog is mostly from an email I sent to my family last June 14th.

Nathan’s also starting to learn how to play board games, and also how to be a good sport. We played a counting book board game to help him practice reading numbers and counting until 100. He lost his temper and threw off the toy knights we were using as pieces when he got stuck in a trap and had to roll 6 before moving on. I persuaded him finally to finish the game, and he was very happy when he beat me in the end, fair and square I ought to add.

This blog is from my write-up of the activities of June 8-10 for Nathan’s class. It was his turn to have Spencer Bear over for the weekend. Spencer Bear is the nursery class’ pet teddy bear. We included him in our regular activities with the kids, and we had to write in his diary. I learned later that the teacher, Mrs. Salmon, read our diary entry to the whole class. Cool!

Last Friday, Spencer Bear came home with Nathaniel to spend the weekend with him. Spencer Bear rode in Mommy May’s backpack while Nathaniel and Kuya (which means big brother in Filipino) Anthony held both her hands while walking home.

Nathaniel was thrilled to have Spencer Bear stay over for the weekend. The first thing he did was to let him meet Hammie the squirrel (from the movie “Over the Hedge”), and little Mowbray Bear. Nathan and Kuya had cereal for their snack.

Mom started cooking dinner. Nathan and Spencer played with toy dinosaurs while they watched the BBC Walking with Monsters DVD, and Kuya practiced his typing skills on the CBBC website. Nathan also read the book Prehistoric World to Spencer, and showed him the creatures which were on the DVD they just watched, like Anomalocaris, giant sea scorpions like Brontoscorpio and Pterygotus, the giant spider Mesothelae, and the mammal-like reptiles Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon.

Daddy Rhett came home from work, and they all had tuna pasta with broccoli, and apples, oranges, and bananas for dessert (since bears like fish and fruits).

The kids packed away their toys and books, brushed their teeth, got ready for bed, and prayed before going to sleep in the bunk bed. Spencer stayed with Nathan and Hammie.

On Saturday morning Dad and Mom used the rowing machine while the kids played with the balloons from Erin’s birthday loot bag. After breakfast, everyone watched Avatar on the CITV channel.

Since Dad had to work on the car the whole day, they couldn’t go to the Natural History Museum. Nathan and Anthony did some drawing and coloring while Spencer watched on. Nathan made a sketch of a Pterygotus for Spencer to paste in his diary.

After lunch of baked fish fingers, cod fillet and mashed potato, Daddy called Lola Tess and Lolo Rey on the phone. The kids told their grandparents what they did at school, and asked how they were doing in the Philippines. The kids said they missed them all very much and said goodbye.

Later, the kids took out their paint sets and aprons. Nathan made a painting of a Triceratops (with funny spines on its back) for Spencer, and Kuya Anthony painted some knight’s shields, a racecar, and a Filipino Flag. Then Mom hung their paintings up to dry while they watched the stories of Little Das the Daspletosaurus and Alpha the Saltasaurus on the Dinosaur Planet DVD (by Discovery Channel). Since there was a lot of leftover paint, Mom made a quick painting of the kids on the sofas, watching TV with Spencer Bear and Mowbray Bear. It didn’t really look like them in the end because the black paint and ink smeared, but that was okay.

They had a typical Filipino dish of TAPSILOG - short for Tapa (marinated beef) with SInangag (fried rice) and itLOG (fried egg) - for dinner. Instead of beef, Mom had made the tapa with turkey.

The kids packed away their stuff, brushed their teeth, and dressed for bed. Instead of a bedtime story, Dad took the laptop to the big bed and showed them old photos of them from the last few years in the Philippines before going to the UK.

On Sunday morning, the kids woke up and started playing with rocket balloons before breakfast, having Dad blow them up and let go. They laughed while the balloons zoomed and buzzed around the room.

They had breakfast and everyone was in a hurry to take a bath and get dressed to go to church. They were a little late for Mass, and Spencer Bear got left behind at home in the rush. They went to Treaty Centre (shopping centre on High Street) after church to return books to the library and buy some stuff. Lunch was Tuna Pasta from Friday night.

In the afternoon, Dad went to the recycling center, and Mom did the laundry. Anthony read his library books while Nathan and Spencer played with toy dinosaurs and cars. Then they all watched Cat in the Hat on VCD.

When Dad came home, everyone had a snack then dressed up to go to Lampton Park. They couldn’t bring Spencer with them, though. Nathan rode his yellow bike and went off with Dad to fly a kite. Anthony rode his red and black bike and Mom jogged beside him. They had a really good workout.

At home, Nathan and Spencer played again with the dinosaurs while Anthony read his experiments book. Mom cooked salmon Teriyaki with buttered veggies for dinner, which was a little late because they spent time at the park. Then they all went to sleep.

Monday morning, Nathan and Mom walked with Anthony to school, and then pasted up the artwork in Spencer’s diary. Nathan and Spencer read the library book Rosie and the Tortoise, and learned the song Never Smile At A Crocodile while Mom played the keyboard. Then it was time for lunch and get ready for school.

Nathan loved having Spencer Bear with him this weekend, and he hopes that Spencer had fun too.

Hi guys!

Just want to say we’re back in Singapore for now.  Our transfer to the UK didn’t work out but I would dearly love to go b ack there soon.  Funny, I’m not homesick for Manila at all, but for the UK.  Maybe it will wear off after a few months.

This is a photo of me and the kids in front of Windsor Castle.  I hope I can find time to post our 5 months’ worth of photos soon, which will probably be once I can find a childcare/daycare center for Nathan, and/or once Anthony starts going to school in August.

Till then,  cheerio!

Just want to say we’re all ok and having a great time here in Surrey, UK.  It’s spring now, but the weather’s not much different from last winter. Still chilly, and much colder than this time last year.

We’re all having a great time, especially the kids. The place is amazing. We’re so close to nature here. The place we’re staying (check out tilfordwoods.co.uk) is so lovely and charming. There’s a duck pond/brook just out front with real wild ducks, which we feed with bread crusts every so often.  There’s a duck couple who even waddle up to our porch every early evening, and Rhett & Nathan have taken to feeding them.

We’re probably staying here until at least July.  I’ll try to fix my blogs & photos so you guys can see what we’ve been up to.

Miss you all!

It’s 3 am and I’m wide awake. Nathan’s been waking me up for the past year or so at around 1 or 2 am for various reasons: milk! (any wonder he’s 2-1/2 years old going on 20 kgs when he should only be 13 kgs max???), when he’s all sweaty (even with the aircon on - hazards of being a fat little piglet), and in the past week, to throw up (mostly phlegm - he’s had a cough for 4 weeks and is on his 2nd round of antibiotics now).  My apologies for my squeamish readers  (is anyone reading my blog anyway?), but once you become a parent, this scene will become all too familiar.

One of the nice things about being a bum is that I can sleep in once Elena (the midwife/nanny) arrives at around 8 am.  I’m developing bad habits though.   I try to stay in bed and fall back asleep, but my meditation techniques just haven’t been working (must…try…harder… ooohmmmm…). 

This is my chance to have quiet time to myself, you see.  Kids are sound asleep and I can go online to check my email (free dialup from midnight to 8 am!) and go on Friendster and fix my profile.  Problem is, I’ve only started blogging, and that isn’t going to help me sleep better.  But this blog is my personal Pensieve (Harry Potter fans know what i mean) and a diary of sorts. 

Or I catch a bit of TV to try to get sleepy, and of course that doesn’t work either. Funny things you see on TV at these odd times.  I can catch some good shows like CSI (AXN), Ed (ETC), replays of Rockstar: INXS (but that’s gone now), Conan O’Brien, Leno, and Mad TV (Jack TV).  But last night was really pathetic. Jack TV was showing this cartoon that looked like a spoof of Batman.  The bad guy reminded me of the Penguin.  But the next scenes were set in a strip club (complete with blurry stuff in front of the stripper’s t*ts.  And, the superhero was a Blonde busty lass named Striperella. Funny, sick, and reminded me of some famous blonde bimbo.  I finished the show to check the credits, and I was right!  Striperella was voiced by (and probably, based on) Pamela Anderson!!!  Hilarious.

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I also finished catalouging my video collection  last night.  I’ve been unable to pass a "VCD SALE: P99 only" sign for the past several months with out taking a few (or more) titles home.  I’ve got a total of 154 videos now, mostly originals, thank you.  I was ecstatic when I found some really good films from my youth recently. Check this out: The Princess Bride, The Little Prince, A Fish Called Wanda, E.T.  I’m still looking for Strictly Ballroom, Labyrinth, Never-Ending Story, Flight of Dragons & Noises Off. 

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I was supposed to write about some other stuff, but it’s really 2 or 3 blog’s worth of topics.  I’ll save those for tomorrow and just upload this one first.  Nathan just woke up again. Time for me to sleep

I’m going to miss watching Rockstar: INXS.  I would catch the replay at 3 am or live at 9 am just to get blown away by MiG’s sheer talent and amazing performances.  And to thrill at the fact that he was never in the bottom three. Never mind that weeks before the finale, I already knew that it was going to be only just between JD & Marty. His lack of a bad boy edginess & lesser song-writing skills may have lost him the INXS gig, but I believe MiG could have one hell of a career ahead of him if he handles things right. Definitely looking forward to more of his music. 

Glad that I remember music again, because of him, and because of Chicago (the movie). 

Bought the vcd on sale and on the sly last week (am on a BUDGET! Sorry, Rhett, but I simply couldn’t resist.)  I watched it at 2 am Monday on yet another insomnia bout (thanks to Nathan, as usual).  I couldn’t believe how awesome a performer Catherine Zeta-Jones is, with her lush voice and impressive dancing. I was surprised also that Renee Zellweger & Richard Gere could both do more than just carry a tune.  They were quite good, though not as Broadway star-quality as Catherine.  I can’t believe it took me this long to watch this Oscar winner. 

It seems strange that although music is so important to me, and singing is like breathing, my life and work does not revolve around music.  And now, with the loss of my singing voice for nearly a year and a half, you who know me can well imagine my frustration.   I could never resist a waiting microphone, whether there be an eager or indifferent audience, a back-up band and an excellent sound system or a simple coin-operated videoke.  Or none. Never mind all of that. My voice & spirit would soar when I could lose myself in my music.  I remember the UP fair, the sunken garden. Tuck and Patti, Everything but the Girl, Basia, Sting, Joey Ayala.  My friends and sometime guitarists Tinnie and Dempster.  My band Protege, Randy Newman and Niels Have, Forevermore my TV commercial. Jamming at Aileen and Bob’s, and an endless succession of Christmas parties & karaoke moments.

I never had the courage to truly make music my life.  And now, with the loss of my voice, I am left with only memories, and what might have beens.  Every time I try to croon my baby to sleep or simply sing because I have to at that very moment, I just end up croaking and frustrated.  But not devastated, not empty.

I have other things to sustain me, and there’s always hope that whatever ails me can someday be fixed.