Zita

We have now semi settled into a routine. I still wish I had more sleep and more energy to do more things in the day. But we all make do with what we have. So I should not complain... for now. J is feeding well about every 3 hrs at night, during the day... well I lost count. I find that having a second child you are less worried about little gurgling noises the little one makes.
I have realised that mum's shouldn't be critical about other mothers in general....

Cupcake seems to be the best way to celebrate  the occasion, much to P's delight.

On the 5th of October at 1:49 pm J was born. I was assisted by a midwife and a student at the RBWH. H was with me at the birthing suite. The labour was much shorter this time around. About 3 hrs, that's because we didn't go to the hospital till late (when it was to painful to bear and that the contractions are 5 minutes apart lasting for a minute each).  Earlier in the day I had mild contractions, like period pain, but I opted to stay home and do my chores. Waiting for a baby to come can take a long time, it's much better being at home where one can relax. At about 9 pm when I had a bigger bloody show then everything just happened. We were lucky that D agreed to babysit P for us, even though it was late in the evening. I just wanted him to be at home in his own bed. If we had brought him with us, he might have become distressed because I was in soo much pain, plus H was preoccupied by moi screaming at him and anything I can think of...

Overall the birth went smoothly (morphine did not kick in for J came out right after they gave me the needle) my midwife let me screamed my head off, she was not pushy (being in your face "yey push push, now stop" kind). Just like our previous birthing experience H cut the cord (he said it felt odd, cutting through flesh) and he was able to go home at 4 am and be there when P woke up. My boys took the day off (work and school) and they visited us later in the day. It was more than I can ask for...

According to Wikipedia a muffin is somewhat like a small cake, and though it does resemble a cupcake, in that they both have cylindrical bases and rounded conical tops, they usually are not as sweet as cupcakes and generally lack frosting.

Once September kicks in it's strawberry season. I love buying them for they are cheap as chips and P loves them too. You do have make sure you get the really red ones as they are naturally sweeter and you wouldn't need to add sugar when you eat it.

What do you do when you have far too much strawberries? Bake them, puree them, make fruit salads and anything else you can think of. In this case I decided to try a new recipe that I found from the container of strawberries.

Strawberry Ricotta Muffins

Ingredients:

• 250 g strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
• 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup of castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup ricotta
• demerara sugar (to sprinkle)
  

Preheat oven to 180 C. Sift flour and cinnamon into large bowl, add castor sugar and stir to combine. Place eggs, butter and milk in a bowl, whisk to combine. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir till just combined. Add 3/4 ricotta and strawberries into mix, stir lightly. Fill 12 muffin cases and top with strawberry and a dollop of ricotta, sprinkle with sugar, bake 20-25 minutes.

I remember eating this dish when there's a special occasion, fiesta, birthday parties and all sorts of parties(actually anything that needs celebrating this viand was on offer).  Recently P and I have been lucky enough to be invited to such Filipino gathering. Birthday party of a 10 yr old girl from P's school. Her dad happens to be a cook, great one too. I especially like his banana spring rolls with caramel sauce. So now I have tired to make the same dish at home, as with everything that I cook, memories often influence me on how to make them. But there are certain ones I don't even dare try, knowing fully I won't be able to do them justice.

Pininyahang Manok/ Pineapple Chicken

  Ingredients:

• 1 kilo chicken pcs
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium capsicum
• 1 tin pineapple pcs
  
• 2 tin of light evaporated milk
• 2 garlic cloves
  
• 1 medium onion
• salt and pepper
  

Roughly cut carrots into cubes, same with the capsicum. Bash garlic cloves and dice the onion. In a medium pot, put chicken, garlic, onion and 1/2 cup of water, once the water boils add the tin of evaporated milk. Let it simmer and add the tin of pineapple pcs, and carrots. When the carrots soften add the diced capsicum and let it simmer again. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with hot steaming rice and side dish of your choice.

The need to eat crustaceans has been diminished by the fact they are heaps expensive. When I see a moderately priced one at the Asian markets I really would have to think twice if it's worth all that moolah (in fact they are, compared to Sammy's Girl or other fish mongers). If I had it my way, I'd just steam them and have them as is, very simple yet mouthwatering. But since I wanted it to be different, I tried to remember the taste when I had coconut chilli crab ages ago.

Coconut Crab

  Ingredients:

• 2 Mud Crabs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 small knob of ginger
• 1 can of coconut milk
• salt and pepper

Bash the cloves of garlic, chop onions, and julienne the ginger. Saute onion till soft, add garlic and ginger. Then add the coconut milk. Let it simmer, then add crabs. If the sauce is too thick add some water (I just eyeballed it). Salt and pepper to taste. Add a little bit of fish sauce to give it a punch.  It does go well with chilli, fresh chillies are better but if it's not available dried chilli flakes would suffice. Again, just gauge to your desired hotness. Serve with steaming rice and salsa, and enjoy.

It's been a while since I updated this blog. Suffice to say we have been busy... I suppose we'll be flat out in a month or so. But I'll try to keep posting as we go along. As you might have heard by now, we are expecting baby # 2, yesterday, I and Q hosted a baby shower for us.

The best part of it, I get to EAT my fave Filipino snacks!!! It's a shame a few of our friends couldn't make it, but we soldiered on. It's soo nice to see G and M whom, I have not been able to catch up with since we got back from Shanghai! I am glad that N's Mum and sister came as well and that they all enjoyed the spread. We weren't sure if they would like the snacks, they were up for it and ate with much gusto, Thanks.

Filipino tardiness can be such an annoying trait though... we should have said to arrive at 1 pm for a 2 pm start, alas, they arrived at 3 pm! Typical!

Many thanks to I for hosting the do, making the sandwiches, baking the cake, and making sure that I was taken cared for! Q for helping out as well. Tita Z for her lovely Ginataang Halo Halo, J for making my Turon and caramel sauce, Ate I for her Biko, G for the yummy brownies, N for the cookies.