Hubby doesn't take steam fish except for Salmon. Sometimes, if I cooked cod or snapper, he would take a tiny bite to try but most of the time, he simply says "NO". Maybe I am not good at cooking fish ba!Never know what kind of fish to buy or what type of fish to cook with.

Last week, as i was browsing other people's cooking blog, I came across the "Steam fish Rolls" (click for recipe) by using fish paste. The dish is easy to make and the cooking method is by steaming which is healthy. So wanted to give it a try..

~da da~ the outcome looks so beautiful.....

Baby Bok Choy & mushroom...

Hubby says the dish not only look beautiful, it also taste great. He kept asking what ingredients I used... I just refused to tell him until he finish his dinner. HAHA!

Our conversation:

Me: Hubby, is fish paste lah!

Hubby: are u sure? it taste like meat ley

Me: no lah... is fish... u like ma?

Hubby: love it! no fishy smell at all. should cook more often.

Good News for our car!!!!

Today, Hubby received a call from our car insurance, USAA. They declare Hubby's car a total loss. Based on the current market value, they offered him USD$4.5K. At that time, we bought the car @ USD$5.4K. Is so unbelieveable that shortly within 1.5years, the car value has dropped so much. Hubby says that this is very normal.

After discussing with the current workshop mechanic, Lewis, we decided to take the offer. Lewis also recommended us to buy back the car from USAA instead of purchasing a new car. After checking the price from USAA, they only charged us USD$950, which we find it very reasonable and it comes with a clean title too! In the end, we can still manage to save about USD$1.6K after buying the car and repair the damages. Hubby will need to call & confirm with USAA tomorrow!

The car accidental had happened so long le (since 18 Aug), we are puzzle and shock on how USAA come up with such decision. Hubby & I think that it might be the help from Lewis.

Hubby not feeling well

Hubby woke up @ 7am, feeling backache and cold. His body feels a little feverish. Took the temperature, 37.7 degree C, slightly above normal. Hubby took a warm bath while i get ready our breakfast.

No more coffee for him today. I brewed "Yang Shen" for him, hopes this "Liang te" helps! I also did a little message on his back with the medicated oil (recommended by my dad). Now he is feeling much better le! Later in the afternoon, will prepare chrysanthemum with Lo Han Kuo for hubby.

All these stuff are all from Singapore... all thanks to mummy who prepare for me!

Busy Monday!

This week, hubby is working morning shift. I woke up @ 7am, 15mins earlier than hubby, to prepare breakfast for him, butter toast bread with coffee. Simple! We always make it a point to have our breakfast together. Hubby always says "having his first meal with his beloved wife always makes his day and definitely is a blessing to him". HAHA! So mushy rite!

While hubby is @ work, I started to prepare the ingredients for Sambal Belacan paste (recipe here).Bought a large piece of belacan (shrimp paste) from Yuei mei,cut and mashed into pieces before pan fried it. In moments, my whole house was filled with the pungent smell of belacan and it can be extremely repulsive. It took me almost 2.5 hours (include preparation) to get the paste done. But unexpectedly, it came out great. Hubby tasted it and says is good too! Hooray!

Tonight's dinner & tmr packed lunch is spaghetti in tomatoes sauce and cheese. Is been a long time since we had spaghetti. Hubby requested this dish to be included in this week menu de.

After cooking, I boiled a pot of water and squeeze some limes in. Heard from Angel that limes are very useful to remove the oily smell. Very soon, the whole house is filled with Lime aroma instead of the pungent Belacan smell le. Thank you!

Now is already 1.30am. Going to dreamland now. Will have to wake up @ 6.45am to prepare breakfast for hubby.

A usual Sunday!

As usual, Sunday is always a day of coupon shopping and marketing. Our itinerary was to go to CVS & Walgreens to grab for good deals, marketing at Yue Mei and KTV session @ YY's house.

We woke up 8am, had our breakfast at home, borrowed car from yy & headed to CVS then to Walgreens. That's was kinda early rite! So Kaisu hor!No choice ley... got to grab the promotion items before they ran out of stock. I paid $0.22 (CVS) and $1.96 (Walgreens) after coupons & in returned i got $15 (CVS) & $7 (Walgreens) extra bucks. So satisfied! These are all the free stuffs:

As it was still early, we drove home and took an hour rest. While waiting for yy to get ready for marketing, i plan for the next week menu (subject to changes):

Sun - Handmade noodles aka Mee Hoon Kueh

Mon - Spaghetti in tomatoes sauce and cheese

Tue - Steam fish roll & baby bok chay

Wed - pipa tofu & roast chicken fermented red bean curb/ curry chicken

Thur- Sambal fried rice

Fri - Mui Fan

For the sambal belacan paste (recipe here), I wanted to cook on my own instead of buying those prepacked paste. This is my first attempt, hope will turn out well! Hubby love spicy food so I can use this paste to cook with any type of curry dishes,chili dishes like seafood and vegetable... I spent $25 for this week's grocery.. kinda cheap rite!

We had a hard time searching for fresh red chillies, went to a few places also could not find. In the end, yy suggested to go India Bazzar... then found it. They were in the frozen aisle only $0.79. Cheap!

After back from marketing, I started to prepare our dinner - Mee Hoon Kuey (recipe here). This is a kinda easy dish but needed lots of work to knead the dough. It took me an hour to complete it. My hands were super tired. To take a rest, we went over to yy's place for a 2hours KTV session. Hubby sang mostly songs from Li Shen Jie & Tao Ze (his favourite) for me mostly from Fish Leong and Zhang Hui Mei.

After KTV ended, i started preparing the noodle soup base. The soup was easy. By the time, we finished our dinner was already 9.30pm le. We watched 1 episode of the HK drama then hubby went to bed at 11.30pm. I was on the internet till 1am.

Saturday

Weekend always passes so fast! ~Sian~ Shall blog about what Hubby & I have done ba!Yesterday, we went shopping with Hubby's colleague, Mr YY at Galleria and Grapevine. Thought of going there, makes my hand real itchy... Forever 21 & VS! Here I come! HAHAHA..

My sis wanted me to help her buy shower gels and body lotions from Bath & Body Works. But, the current promotion Buy 3 & get 2 free was not consider the best deal yet. So, I will help her to monitor the sales closely.

Next, went to VS. They were having promotion for their pantie (buy 7 for $25). However, I was able to buy 10 for $25 cos I got a printable coupon from PINK. In addition, I also received 3 PINK cards from Victoria Secrets (to get free pantie with no purchase required + $10 off full-priced bra). In the end, I grabbed a total of 13 panties at $25, which means $1.90 each only. So Happy!

The last stop was Forever 21. I was browsing through their website a few days ago. I saw a jean baby doll dress having sales @ $11.99 original price was $24.90. Hubby also says nice and ask me to get it. But when i went to the website again, the dress was already removed. Kinda sad de!!! So, yesterday went to F21 to try my luck, see whether I can find the same dress. Hooray!!!! I found it at the sales corner, only 2 left, both medium size. Quickly brought it to the counter and paid for it... feel pai sieh to let hubby and YY wait for me.

Went walmart to buy our daily groceries e.g. sunday paper with coupons, milk, eggs, breads and yogurt etc. I save a total $6 for using coupons. Thanks to whoever "invented" the coupon system.

YY sent me home to do my homework for my sunday coupon deals @ CVS and walgreen. As for Hubby and yy, they headed to the gym at St Marin. After that, we had dinner together @ Waffle House.

MY PRECIOUS

I knew hubby as a friend since year 1997. After 6 years of friendship, we came together in year 2003. I knew him pretty well by then. He is a nice guy who don't really good at expressing himself, seldom sweet talk, not romantic, not good at giving surprises. Chinese has a saying - just like a piece of "wooden block". But, that's how he caught my attention & love about him. Whenever I'm with him, I just feel comfortable and always has a sense of security which was the first criteria I am looking for in a husband. Whenever he makes promises, he will always fulfill them and he never fails to give me lots of love and affection.

In marriage life, it will not always be smooth sailing. There were times we squabbled over little things and had "cold war" for a few days. When we were so engaged in our arguments, we would even say cruel and unkind comments at each other. When we calm down and look back what has happened, always find ourselves silly. But sometimes, quarrel is also a form of communicating and it tends to give us a greater bond and connection to each other. From this, we also learnt to be forgiving, to respect each other and most importantly is trust.

On 8 Nov, we will be celebrating our 6 years anniversary. can't believe that we have been together for so long. A few weeks ago, we were still talking about our ROM party and browsing the photos. Our memories were so clear and felt just like happened yesterday. Oh my gosh, it was 6 years ago le. Time really flies......looking forwrd to this day!!!!!

Places we have visited....

Hubby & I were browsing through all our road trip photos, these were the places that we have visited so far in USA:

In year 2008:

Aug - San Antonio

Oct - Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Arizona

Nov (with sis) - Colorado, Missouri

In year 2009:

Jan (with sis) - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam

July - Houston, Corpus Christi & San Marcos

Sept -Montreal, Niagara Falls, Washington DC, New York City


Places in mind to visit before going back home in May 2010:

New mexico for skiing - target by end of 2009

Florida DisneyWorld - target by Feb 2010

Hawaii - target by May 2010 when transit back home



Hope our plans can come true!!!!

Fall season

Yesterday was the first day of Fall. The weather was super cooling.. Love it! After hubby back from guard duty, we decided to go for a walked. Borrowed car from Weiqiang, hubby headed to the salon for his haircut then to grapevine. As usual, I went to F21 & VS but did not buy anything. Next, went to Chloe's house to combine our road trip photos. We took more than 3000 pictures, we were so shocked. LOL!

Reached home at 4pm, we were super tired so took an hour nap. Woke up at 6pm to prepare for dinner. Cooked Sambal with potatoes leaves & Braised chicken in Ginger. Excellent dishes in cold weather.

After dinner, we continued watching HK drama. Love watching with hubby so can snuggle in his muscular arms. LOL! In our dreamland at 1am.

Busy Sunday!!!

Just got back from NYC & Canada Road trip yesterday. Thanks Eric from fetching us from the Airport. We reached home at abt 11pm. The first thing we did was to do our laundry... while waiting for it to be ready... we watched our favourite Taiwan 超级星光大道. By the time we finished hanging the clothing, was already 3am le! We were super tired!

Today, we woke up @ 11am. Borrowed yy's car for marketing @ Yue mei, Walmart & Hmart. Hubby will be on guard duty tomorrow morning at 8am. So have to prepare Lunch and dinner for him to bring to work. Cooked - (1) egg with hotdogs (2) Garlic dou miao with shrimps (3) Baked Salmon with cheese.

(*Updates on my car*)

Our insurance had decided to pay us the damages amounting to $1400 instead of getting the workshop to repair for us. After discussing with hubby's colleague, found that this is a kinda good deal cos the repair cost (replacement of the dented dumper and spray painting) definitely falls within $1K. So, tomorrow hubby will arrange with the current workshop to tow our car to our preferred workshop near to hubby's workplace. Hope this time, will get it done.

Below are the things that we bought @ woodbury outlet @ New York:

Got this drawing on the way back from Statue of Liberty. The uncle is from China and he charged the cheapest. We paid $25 for 2 person, colour with frame. Look so funny rite...

Will post our road trip photos once I done with my editing.

Hey, everyone... Tomorrow will be my last day in NYC le!!!

Will be departing NYC (LGA airport) at 7.30pm

estimate time to reach Dallas at 10.30pm ba!!!

Hope it will not delay

9 Days of Holiday really passed too fast

Really had a great time

We also took many photos

Going to bed soon... will continue to blog when i'm back !!!

Our Road Trip will start in 10 hours time. Getting super excited le! Our flight is at 6.40am, so will be leaving home at abt 5.15am. Hubby's colleague, Wai keong will be sending us to the airport (Thank U!)

In the afternoon, hubby called the car workshop to check out the status of the rectification works. To our surprised, after a week plus, they have not even started on the repair works yet. We were kinda angry de. We were told that they found a lot more damages that amount to $7K (previous estimates only $1800) which they were currently seeking our insurance company for approval before the commencement of the works. We were shocked at the amount. We probed further, then understand that these additional damages were probably from the previous accident which happen before we bought our car. According to them, they were unable to repair the current damages without doing up the old ones. We also called the insurance company to check out the status, apparently the adjustor who is handling our case, is not sure at all. We expressed our disappointment in the way they handled the case and there was no followed up as well. After checking through all her records, she found the new estimates from the car workshop. By then we were super pissed off le... but still have to keep our cool. We were told that the estimates of $7K is considered as total loss of a vehicle (which means $7K to be returned to owner instead of repairing the vehicle). However, our case, is not as simple as that. The damages caused in this accident only amounting to $1.8K however due to the previous damages the repair cost had to increase to $7K now. So the adjustor is still looking into the issue. Hope that they could be resolved by the time we returned.

We forseen that by the time when we returned, our car might not be ready yet. The insurance company only allows us to get rental car for a period of 30days or $900. So we decided to return the rental car by today and rent it again if necessary. To settle the rental car, Hubby left for work kinda early @ 4.45pm.. luckily managed to get our lunch and hubby's packed dinner ready by then.. Simple dishes - chow mein & Sweet corns soup.

Counting Down....Just One more day to our road trip! Yippee! We were packing our luggage yesterday then realised hubby got lots of new clothings. So do I. Most of them were still in the paper bags and the price tags were intact too LOL! As we packed, we did a rough calculation... Oh my gosh the figure really look scary! We have to control our shopping from now onwards le!

Wat's our lunch today? We had chicken wrapped in pandan leaves (recipe here). Instead of using tumeric Powder, I replaced it with chicken curry powder. It turns out really nice! Love the sweet smell from the pandan leaves!

Stir-fried pea sprouts with garlic... this time i added more sugar and reduced the light soy sauce.. Hubby loves it!

I also prepared a traditional sweet dessert- Red bean soup with Sago and Glutinous rice balls (recipe here). This is a simple and yet yummy dessert.

After hubby left for work, I also walked to Walgreens to grab for free stuff again! Spent $1 for all these items!

For this week

Hubby is working night shift

He just left home

need to report to work by 7pm.

Our lunch and hubby's packed dinner is:

Cereal Prawns - Click for recipe

Cabbage fishball soup &

leftover fried tofu.

Lovely Monday!

Today is Labour Day

Holiday for all of us

Just don't feel like going out

So we spent our lovely day at home

singing KTV & playing PS3

so fun!

We had dinner at home (porridge with fried tofu & vegetables)

Simple yet delicious...

After dinner, hubby brought me to Walgreen's to grab freebies

I got a few good deals..

Great Sunday

We slept at 5am in the morning so by the time we woke up was already 12noon. Hubby knew I was tired and he wanted me to rest. So instead of cooking @ home, Hubby suggested to have brunch @ VIP buffet. . He is always so thoughtful. Love u!

I planned to cook my favourite dessert " Bubur Pulut Hitam" aka "Au Ju". I bought the glutinous wild sweet black rice and let it soaked overnight. Before we left, I placed the soaked rice into the slow cooker. Set to low heat and left it for 5hours. By the time we reached home, the dessert was ready. It tasted so good. I even offered to my Majong kakis... everyone commented that it was nice but was not sweet enough. Hubby and I don't really like sweet stuff so instead of putting 1 cup of white sugar I reduced it to 3/4. This is also Liyi's favourite dessert. So I prepared her share too! Now waiting for her to comment le!

We also make a trip to CVS and bought the extra bucks items! All these are all free!

Happy Day!

Before we set off to Allen, I printed a online coupon for Coach (additional 20% off for all clearance items) just in case there are good deals. Actually, I'm not a fan of Coach, will only buy if there are really nice designs and the price is reasonable.

We reached there in the afternoon, Coach outlet was very crowded and everyone was just grabbing as if everything was "FREE". I spotted a canvas Hertiage pouch (50%+20% -final price $60) and hubby also grabbed a men's wallet (final price $60). I think these are consider very good deals. But hubby hesitated a long time and in the end we walked out. We decided to give ourselves some time to think about it. Don't buy on impulse. As we walked, we were discussing. In the end, we still can't resist the temptation and went back to get it. LOL! I also bought a pair of flats from Aldo (30% off - final price $15).

After that, went marketing @ Yue mei. Bought Kai Lan, snow peas & shrimps. Also, drop by Walgreen to grab for free stuff (2 toothbrushes & 2 Pantiliners).

Then, went home for dinner. Cooked a very simple dinner (porridge with "Cia po" egg & Kai Lian with Oyster sauce)

Champ Champ

Our majong session yesterday, Alex brought champ along

I have not seen him for quite some time le... kinda miss him de

The moment he let off champ

He dashed straight into our living room & started to get super excited le

Oh... he is getting bigger & bigger

Champ is weighing 90Lb now!

He is a really smart & handsome dog!

Just can't stop snapping... think he must be feeling irritated ba! LOL!

Weekend Finally is here!

Have to plan for next week what to cook for hubby's dinner. Only need to cook for 3 days then off to our road trip Yeah! Have to clear most of the stuff in the fridge so this week do not need to do much marketing again....

Today

Laksa

Saturday

Lunch: Porridge with dried scallop & Left over String bean with grounded pork

Dinner: Dine-out

Sunday:

Dinner: Bok Choy with Taofu & Carrot & Fried Tao Fu with Sweet sauce

Monday

Dinner: String bean with Mushroom & Butter / Cereal prawns

Tuesday

Sweet corn, tomatoes, carrot soup & Pandan Chicken

Wednesday

Hokkien Noodle/ Char Kueh Teow

Thurday

Japanese Chicken Curry

Saturday, will do marketing @ Yue Mei. Just need to buy 1 vegetable and Prawns and flat noodle... then go shopping at Allen then at the same time to return Polo stuff.

6 more days to our Road Trip!!!!!!!

6 More days to our holiday in New York & Canada. We take this opportunity to celebrate our 2nd year wedding anniversary (the 1st year was at LV). I'm so excited... It has been a long time since we went on a road trip. Our last road trip was a 3 days short trip to Houston & Corpus Christi, together with Liyi & Chongthye and that was in early July. For this time, we will travel from 11 Sept till 19 Sept (9 Days).

Finally booked our Washington DC & New York hotel through Priceline. It was a kinda good deal. Total we spent on air tickets, car rental, 4 different hotels, Niagara & NYC adventure pass is $1330 per couple. That was cheap and was far within our budget.

After discussing with Liyi & CT, we come up with the itinerary:

Day1

(A.M.) touch down NYC - EWR

Drive from NYC to Montreal, Quebec

Check in Hotel

Day 2

Visit famous Notre-Dame Basilica Church

Set off to Niagara Fall

Check in hotel

Day 3

Niagara Falls & great gorge

Skylon Tower- observatory ride

Fireworks @ Niagara Fall

Day 4

(A.M.) Explore Toronto, Canada by car

Set off to DC

Check in hotel

Day 5

Explore DC

Day 6

Set off to Hershey Chocolate World

Woodbury Premium Outlet (not confirm yet, depend on timing)

Return Car @ EWR

Take Subway to NYC hotel

Day 7 -8

Explore NYC

Day 9

(A.M.) Explore NYC

(P.m.)Deaprt NYC to Dallas

Check the weather forecast for Niagara & NYC... by then the weather will be much cooler... especially @ Niagara fall.. at nite the temperature can be as low as 15 degree.. so will have to bring along a pair of jean and a light weight jacket. We have not even started to pack yet...We plan to stay home on Monday (Labour Day-is a holiday hubby don't have to work) to do the packing....

Received Aeropostale shipment today

hubby ordered 2 polo and 1 graphic tees

2 v-neck graphic tees for me

Last week, they are having online sales

with additional 25% off for all clearance items

final price for each top is only $9.00

cheap! cheap!

These few days, have been sleeping kinda late and waking up early

So now having headache le since back from Agnes's house

Took an hour nap but don't seems to improve

prepare a simple dinner

herbal chicken & Long bean with grounded pork

Just don't feel like having dinner

So later will have some yogurt and have an early nite....

Went Agnes's house together with Adeline & Alice at around 11am

We are the 1st to reach

Then, within minutes, the wives started to flood into Agnes's house le

There are so many different types of food.. just like a mini buffet

One that I like most is the nyonya Green Kueh with glutinous rice at the bottom

Is so tasty ... reminds me of Bengawan Solo

Today, Yanwen also brought her little one, Velle

She really doll velle up... just like a little princess

after milk, velle fell asleep in mummy's arm

then I carried her so Mummy can have some food too!

At first I was worried that Velle might feel uncomfortable or irritated and cry lor!

Luckily, she likes me... allow me to carry her!!!

Went off at about 230pm...

still have some left over food so everyone brought some back

Thanks Agnes for organising this potluck session

Will definitely miss such gathering after u leave!

Gonna to have potluck gathering @ Agnes House tomorrow

Will be making Asian dessert

Sweetened Bean curb, barley & Ginko nuts

click HERE for recipe

Already started preparing the dessert

Soak the dried beancurb in water to soften it since morning

Then cooked the sago too

Now waiting for hubby to be back with the pandan leaves

(Thanks Angel for giving me some)

Will start cooking at 10pm

Took an hour to cook this dessert .... Kinda long rite cos need to simmer at least 35mins for the barley to be fully cook. I gave a small bowl for hubby to try... everything seems ok.. but don't know why the beancurb is not as soft as what it should be. Anyone can help? is it the type of beancurb that i buy or i did not simmer long enough? Will try to improve...

Wats for tonight's dinner?

Pineapple Fried Rice

Click HERE for recipe

Apart from the recipe, I also added raisins and pork floss.

Yummy!

Prata for breakfast

Yesterday night , hubby requested to have prata for breakfast

So I have to wake up half hour earlier to prepare

this time we bought the frozen prata from Hmart

Prata with onion de (Singapore brand)

Looks delicious... but hubby still prefer the one from India Bazaar

more crispy and it taste better...

Yummy! hubby got a very satisfied look... LOL!

I was kinda happy today

Hubby told me that the Hor Fun is really delicious

even his colleagues also praise me (>_<)

really boost my confident to try out more new dishes

& hubby is definitely looking forward to that....

We had a simple dinner today

Left over Hor fun gravy over rice &

Bok choy with carrot and mushroom

As for hubby's tomorrow lunch

I prepared "Fried Carrot Cake"

And a refreshing dessert

"cantaloupe sago summer Drink" (click for recipe)

It is nice to have dessert on a hot and humid days

Having this is just pure heaven

It's not too sweet, thick and with huge chunky fresh cantaloupe in it.

My fridge ran out of Ham, cheese and egg le

Yesterday after dinner, hubby had to bring me out to buy

if not, i can't prepare nice breakfast for him le LOL!

Before heading to Walmart, flipped through my coupon folder

managed to find a coupon for Ham (buy 1 get 1 free)

the price is reasonable $1.50 each after coupon

Read the reviews, many people say nice

So have to give it a try!

Love the packaging too.. can reuse the container....

Breakfast for today - Turkey breast sandwich...

Hubby loves it..

Is much more tasty than the usual brand that I buy! Yeah!