I joined Blogrush a few weeks ago with just a vague idea of what it actually was for. Supposedly, the widget will flash recently updated blogs of similar topics with my blog which I could visit while my blog will be similarly flashed elsewhere. Or something like that.
Trust me when I wrote in my previous blog (titled 'I have an admission to make..') that despite using the internet and computers on a daily basis for my work, I am practically clueless when it comes to the nitty gritty details of blogging and URLs and all the alien sounding initials. So it is the same when I sign up for things like Blogrush, Technorati and PayPerPost.
Maybe it's because I am too lazy to read through all the explanations and whatnots - not to mention short of time since I am mostly doing this at work... but I am beginning to wonder what's the point?
It is not as if I need to generate an income from my blog (though it would be an added bonus if I do get any) . So, does Blogrush actually drive traffic to my blog? Your guess is as good as mine. Sure I can check the figures with Blogrush but figures are just that, numbers and stats. Does it really reflect the actual readers instead of those flitting past on their way to find something interesting?
Oh well, if you really want to try it out, you can click here.
Alternatively, you can just Google blogrush and you will find it.
Thursday
Finding the perfect recipe
Okay, so the title is extremely misleading. There is no such thing as a perfect recipe. There are tons of different recipes for main dishes, starters, salads, soups and desserts but no ONE perfect recipe for a complete wholesome meal.
Unless of course we are talking about baby food here.
LR is a really finicky food critic who expresses his dissatisfaction with any food presented to him with a simple sound, ***gag*** bleaaggghhh!. Then he would throw it all up. So, to satisfy his extremely choosy palate, I try to prepare meals which would not elicit the gagging and vomiting response.
Cooking for LR is actually much simpler than it sounded. LR has a thing about textures especially that of any kinds of meat (because it is considered too stringy for him no matter how tender it is to us adults) but he loves vegetables.
Before I go on, let me explain that we are not vegetarians but we do eat a lot of fresh vegies and fruits on a daily basis. So, the moment LR turned six months old, the first few things I introduced to him are vegies and fruits. Perhaps it is early exposure to these vitamin rich, high fibre foods but till now, LR will immediately sit and wait at the dining table the moment he sees me cutting up cooked vegies for him.
He also loves soft and easy to swallow food such as porridge, congee and boiled potatoes. And each meal must be accompanied by a clear broth of any choice or he will certainly make his demand very clear.
So, I came up with a combination of all that he loved and used to make it on days when I do not feel like preparing three to four different dishes although all of us eat the same food. Yep, mummy and daddy sometimes eat baby food too just because mummy do not want to cook separate meals for two adults and a toddler.
But I digress. Here is the recipe I came up with for the little gourmet at home.
Chicken and vegetable rice congee
1 cup washed rice
3 cups water
Minced chicken
2 carrots, chopped
Broccoli, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
2 small potatoes, skinned and finely chopped
Some garlic, diced
First, season the minced chicken with some salt and pepper so that it would not be too bland. Then, place all of the ingredients (except the broccoli ) into a slow cooker or rice cooker and press start. Let it cook. Check on it occasionally (if using rice cooker) and if it appeared too dry (the amount of water needed depended on the cooker you use), add hot water but if it appeared okay, then let it be. It should be ready within an hour. Just before you serve, microwave the broccoli till tender and sprinkle it on top. Add a few drops of soya sauce for taste.
You can also use the 'cook congee' function if you prefer to use the microwave to cook this dish.
That’s all. Simple, easy and healthy. For the health conscious, just replace white rice with brown rice and replace chicken with fish. If using brown rice, more water is needed.
I usually add a lot of water because I use brown rice and LR prefers it watery and smooth. The measurements I mentioned are just estimates as I often cook by instinct and rarely measured the stuff I cook. So, feel free to experiment with the portions until you get the perfect combination.
Unless of course we are talking about baby food here.
LR is a really finicky food critic who expresses his dissatisfaction with any food presented to him with a simple sound, ***gag*** bleaaggghhh!. Then he would throw it all up. So, to satisfy his extremely choosy palate, I try to prepare meals which would not elicit the gagging and vomiting response.
Cooking for LR is actually much simpler than it sounded. LR has a thing about textures especially that of any kinds of meat (because it is considered too stringy for him no matter how tender it is to us adults) but he loves vegetables.
Before I go on, let me explain that we are not vegetarians but we do eat a lot of fresh vegies and fruits on a daily basis. So, the moment LR turned six months old, the first few things I introduced to him are vegies and fruits. Perhaps it is early exposure to these vitamin rich, high fibre foods but till now, LR will immediately sit and wait at the dining table the moment he sees me cutting up cooked vegies for him.
He also loves soft and easy to swallow food such as porridge, congee and boiled potatoes. And each meal must be accompanied by a clear broth of any choice or he will certainly make his demand very clear.
So, I came up with a combination of all that he loved and used to make it on days when I do not feel like preparing three to four different dishes although all of us eat the same food. Yep, mummy and daddy sometimes eat baby food too just because mummy do not want to cook separate meals for two adults and a toddler.
But I digress. Here is the recipe I came up with for the little gourmet at home.
Chicken and vegetable rice congee
1 cup washed rice
3 cups water
Minced chicken
2 carrots, chopped
Broccoli, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
2 small potatoes, skinned and finely chopped
Some garlic, diced
First, season the minced chicken with some salt and pepper so that it would not be too bland. Then, place all of the ingredients (except the broccoli ) into a slow cooker or rice cooker and press start. Let it cook. Check on it occasionally (if using rice cooker) and if it appeared too dry (the amount of water needed depended on the cooker you use), add hot water but if it appeared okay, then let it be. It should be ready within an hour. Just before you serve, microwave the broccoli till tender and sprinkle it on top. Add a few drops of soya sauce for taste.
You can also use the 'cook congee' function if you prefer to use the microwave to cook this dish.
That’s all. Simple, easy and healthy. For the health conscious, just replace white rice with brown rice and replace chicken with fish. If using brown rice, more water is needed.
I usually add a lot of water because I use brown rice and LR prefers it watery and smooth. The measurements I mentioned are just estimates as I often cook by instinct and rarely measured the stuff I cook. So, feel free to experiment with the portions until you get the perfect combination.
Wednesday
TT # 8
In my line of work and also in my personal life, I have come across really annoying people whom I would like nothing better than to bash his/her face into a bloody pulp but instead, I am forced to smile and be polite to them. In order to do that (the smile and be polite part, not the bashing part), I do these:
1) Take a deep breath
2) Tuck both hands deep into my pockets (if any) to make it harder for me to raise my hands, or else link it behind me
3) Take two to three steps away from the offending person
4) Count to ten to let the anger cool
5) Think of the horrible conditions in jail and how I do not want to end up there because of the offending person in front of me
6) Solve a complex mathematical problem in my head (since I am lousy in Maths, this could take me hours and will have me forgetting how offending the person is within seconds)
7) Think of all those starving, poverty stricken people in the world (to put me in a 'softer' but sad mood)
8) Think up 100 ways to torture the offending person
9) Actually picture the 100 ways of torturing the offending person (which usually elicits a genuine smile, though it is far from a pleasant smile)
10)Imagine the offending person in a ridiculous outfit such as a macho man in a pink polka dot frilly dress (this often had me trying to suppress my laughter)
11) Update and double-check my to-do list in my head including house chores and work schedules
12) Always have a nice manicure (so that I will be less tempted to use my hands and break a nail)
13)If all else fail, abruptly walk away on the pretext of answering my cell phone.
So far, I have not inflicted harm on anybody...yet. So, these steps obviously works for me!
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Friday
I can't stand my in-laws!
There, that's so much better.
Well, not really. Hubby knows about it but I don't expect him to understand or do anything about it because they are his parents after all.
Perhaps it is the way I was raised. Or the amount of freedom I was given in my childhood. Or that my dad is more of a strict and stern disciplinarian than a nagger while my mom is more or less a free spirit who allowed me immeasurable freedom. Even the years I spent with my grandmother (whom I truly loathed but that is another story) seemed like paradise compared to the agony of having to stay with my in-laws just several years ago before we finally moved into our own place after much begging on my side. (and several cold wars between yours truly and the in-laws).
Over here in Asia, it is the norm for children to continue staying with their parents even after they are married and over here filial piety means staying with your parents until they depart this world. Since, hubby is an only child, it was assumed that we would continue living with his parents till the end of days.
Oh, it was indeed the end of days. FOR ME! I was stifled, suffocated and literally tied. I could not step out the door without having to explain the whys and wherefores. Sure, I have often been told to be a good and obedient daughter-in-law but heck, if I was never an obedient daughter from the start, how could anyone expect me, of all people, to be obedient to a pair of strangers who became relatives through marriage??
My father-in-law nags. A lot. He is worse than a fly buzzing incessantly in your ear. Much, much worse. If ever there is a mission to get a spy to talk, he will be the perfect candidate to grill the spy as I am certain the spy will definitely buckle under all that non-stop droning of his nagging.
So imagine the torture. I think I would have enjoyed tearing out all my hair, rubbing salt in the tender scalp and scalding myself with hot boiling water more. So, in light of all his nagging and negativeness (oh, he also specialises in being Mr Wet Blanket of the World as in everything will eventually turn out wrong or bad and the glass is always empty, not half empty), my seemingly normal mother-in-law seemed, well, normal.
The two of them don’t get along. If not for some archaic notion that divorce is taboo, they would probably be staying on different sides of the globe by now. But too bad, that is not the case. They would quarrel over the littlest thing and it amazes me how they managed to stay together, sleep on the same bed, for so many years!
Anyway, the mother-in-law would treat me as a confidante and complain about her good-for-nothing husband and how he never contributed anything to the household. I listened and felt like shaking her and telling her to just get a divorce but wisely I kept quiet. I thought she liked me. I even sorta liked her (after all, we sorta share the same ‘enemy‘) and tolerated her complaints about her husband and even her gossips about her relatives. Until I found out she had been complaining about me behind my back to all and sundry. Why, that insidious, obsessive compulsive witch! Hubby is the one who tipped me off. When I asked him why she couldn’t just tell me face to face instead of complaining to the whole wide world, he said she told him that she didn’t want to ‘spoil’ her relationship with me.
Fine, I tried to forgive her. The last straw was after LR was born and she all but told my other grandma (the one I simply adore and not the one I loath) to get lost. We have already moved out by then and I have arranged for my grandma to stay with us for the first two months after LR was born to help us take care of a newborn. The witch, no doubt, became green with envy. She felt that since LR carries my husband’s family name, LR is her grandchild while my grandma, who is by right the great grandmother, is considered an 'outsider'. She actually went up to my grandma and told her to get lost and stop ‘keeping’ LR to herself. My grandma was hurt and initially she did not tell me. She packed and gave some excuse that she wanted to go home. It was only later that she told me (after much badgering from me) the whole sordid truth.
My mother-in-law is no longer in her youth. She is nearing 70 for goodness sake! And my grandma is nearing 90 so couldn’t she show at least some courtesy to my grandma? What she did was unforgivable. It made me realized that she is the type of person who will not stop at anything to get her way and that includes bullying her son and back-stabbing and hurting everyone around her.
Yep, I can’t stand both my in-laws and having to call them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ is the worst thing I was forced to do in my life. Now, I avoid them like the plague and prayed that we do not ever have to stay with them again. I would rather drink rat poison, scrape my eyeballs out with a blunt fork and slowly pull my fingernails out one by one.
Well, not really. Hubby knows about it but I don't expect him to understand or do anything about it because they are his parents after all.
Perhaps it is the way I was raised. Or the amount of freedom I was given in my childhood. Or that my dad is more of a strict and stern disciplinarian than a nagger while my mom is more or less a free spirit who allowed me immeasurable freedom. Even the years I spent with my grandmother (whom I truly loathed but that is another story) seemed like paradise compared to the agony of having to stay with my in-laws just several years ago before we finally moved into our own place after much begging on my side. (and several cold wars between yours truly and the in-laws).
Over here in Asia, it is the norm for children to continue staying with their parents even after they are married and over here filial piety means staying with your parents until they depart this world. Since, hubby is an only child, it was assumed that we would continue living with his parents till the end of days.
Oh, it was indeed the end of days. FOR ME! I was stifled, suffocated and literally tied. I could not step out the door without having to explain the whys and wherefores. Sure, I have often been told to be a good and obedient daughter-in-law but heck, if I was never an obedient daughter from the start, how could anyone expect me, of all people, to be obedient to a pair of strangers who became relatives through marriage??
My father-in-law nags. A lot. He is worse than a fly buzzing incessantly in your ear. Much, much worse. If ever there is a mission to get a spy to talk, he will be the perfect candidate to grill the spy as I am certain the spy will definitely buckle under all that non-stop droning of his nagging.
So imagine the torture. I think I would have enjoyed tearing out all my hair, rubbing salt in the tender scalp and scalding myself with hot boiling water more. So, in light of all his nagging and negativeness (oh, he also specialises in being Mr Wet Blanket of the World as in everything will eventually turn out wrong or bad and the glass is always empty, not half empty), my seemingly normal mother-in-law seemed, well, normal.
The two of them don’t get along. If not for some archaic notion that divorce is taboo, they would probably be staying on different sides of the globe by now. But too bad, that is not the case. They would quarrel over the littlest thing and it amazes me how they managed to stay together, sleep on the same bed, for so many years!
Anyway, the mother-in-law would treat me as a confidante and complain about her good-for-nothing husband and how he never contributed anything to the household. I listened and felt like shaking her and telling her to just get a divorce but wisely I kept quiet. I thought she liked me. I even sorta liked her (after all, we sorta share the same ‘enemy‘) and tolerated her complaints about her husband and even her gossips about her relatives. Until I found out she had been complaining about me behind my back to all and sundry. Why, that insidious, obsessive compulsive witch! Hubby is the one who tipped me off. When I asked him why she couldn’t just tell me face to face instead of complaining to the whole wide world, he said she told him that she didn’t want to ‘spoil’ her relationship with me.
Fine, I tried to forgive her. The last straw was after LR was born and she all but told my other grandma (the one I simply adore and not the one I loath) to get lost. We have already moved out by then and I have arranged for my grandma to stay with us for the first two months after LR was born to help us take care of a newborn. The witch, no doubt, became green with envy. She felt that since LR carries my husband’s family name, LR is her grandchild while my grandma, who is by right the great grandmother, is considered an 'outsider'. She actually went up to my grandma and told her to get lost and stop ‘keeping’ LR to herself. My grandma was hurt and initially she did not tell me. She packed and gave some excuse that she wanted to go home. It was only later that she told me (after much badgering from me) the whole sordid truth.
My mother-in-law is no longer in her youth. She is nearing 70 for goodness sake! And my grandma is nearing 90 so couldn’t she show at least some courtesy to my grandma? What she did was unforgivable. It made me realized that she is the type of person who will not stop at anything to get her way and that includes bullying her son and back-stabbing and hurting everyone around her.
Yep, I can’t stand both my in-laws and having to call them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ is the worst thing I was forced to do in my life. Now, I avoid them like the plague and prayed that we do not ever have to stay with them again. I would rather drink rat poison, scrape my eyeballs out with a blunt fork and slowly pull my fingernails out one by one.
Wednesday
Morphing into a pack rat
I have so many handbags and purses stashed in a storage box stuffed into an obscure corner somewhere that I no longer remember the exact number of bags inside. My bookcase is stuffed full of books, toys, bookmarks, odds and ends and some weird looking thingy that if I move anything, everything will probably come crashing down. Our spare room is a complete mess with storage boxes full of news clippings, old clothes, toys, things that ‘I may need someday’ and knick knacks I picked up while on our travels.
I have long discarded my pack rat syndrome after having to move to so many places in my younger days but alas, it is now back with a vengeance! I have been in denial of this fact for quite awhile but now I have to admit that I am a pack rat.
No, not just any pack rat. A real pack rat queen! Rummaging through the mess in our spare room made me realized how much junk I have gathered in the last two years. It is amazing how I could transform back into a pack rat within the space of only two years.
I mean, before that, I practically live out of my luggage and my boxes of books. As in, I could move anywhere by just packing my luggage and my books but now, the idea of moving boggles my mind.
How in the world did I morph into a pack rat without realizing it? Shiissshhh…and there I was, acting high and mighty, looking down my nose at my in-law’s cluttered apartment as both his parents tended to ‘keep’ things for ‘just in case’.
Still, I believe I am leagues behind them, yet, as they have a 30-year-old pot inside one of their kitchen cabinets and all my stuffs are below two years old.
You see, we will not be moving from the current place anytime in the near future. We bought this place and unless we suddenly strike it rich and could afford a bigger place, we are probably here to stay for years and years. The spare room brimming with junk is not a very good thing. In fact, it is all wrong.
Okay, so the luggage full of maternity clothes is not that wrong, after all LR will not be an only child. So, I may really need it in future. And the luggage full of pre-baby clothes (my skinny small size clothes from ‘back then when I do not have stretch marks and loose skin’), well, I am sure I can fit into some of them by now after losing most of the baby weight . It is just that I do not have the time to sort through it all and get rid of the moth eaten ones and the mid-riff baring ones. (with beautiful silvery, almost glowing in the dark, stretch marks on my tummy, I think it is not a good idea to bare it for all to see now…).
As for the news clippings, well, someone once told me that I should keep my published articles for reference in future. Since I am unsure whether that meant all of my articles or just a few really good ones, I kept all of it. Every single one of it. Hundreds of it (or is it thousands?), I dare not even go through the stacks of clippings to count, much less sort through it all to find the 'really good ones'.
The handbags and purses...well, I love accessories and well, I may just need them someday...err...I think... The toys are mostly Ty Beanie Babies with their tags intact. Hey, they are collectors items and I will not get rid of it. Even LR does not get to touch the ones that I really like.
Oh heck, I am no where near clearing out all that junk with all my excuses, am I? Well, one thing at a time. I will first throw out hubby's unwanted stuff...
I have long discarded my pack rat syndrome after having to move to so many places in my younger days but alas, it is now back with a vengeance! I have been in denial of this fact for quite awhile but now I have to admit that I am a pack rat.
No, not just any pack rat. A real pack rat queen! Rummaging through the mess in our spare room made me realized how much junk I have gathered in the last two years. It is amazing how I could transform back into a pack rat within the space of only two years.
I mean, before that, I practically live out of my luggage and my boxes of books. As in, I could move anywhere by just packing my luggage and my books but now, the idea of moving boggles my mind.
How in the world did I morph into a pack rat without realizing it? Shiissshhh…and there I was, acting high and mighty, looking down my nose at my in-law’s cluttered apartment as both his parents tended to ‘keep’ things for ‘just in case’.
Still, I believe I am leagues behind them, yet, as they have a 30-year-old pot inside one of their kitchen cabinets and all my stuffs are below two years old.
You see, we will not be moving from the current place anytime in the near future. We bought this place and unless we suddenly strike it rich and could afford a bigger place, we are probably here to stay for years and years. The spare room brimming with junk is not a very good thing. In fact, it is all wrong.
Okay, so the luggage full of maternity clothes is not that wrong, after all LR will not be an only child. So, I may really need it in future. And the luggage full of pre-baby clothes (my skinny small size clothes from ‘back then when I do not have stretch marks and loose skin’), well, I am sure I can fit into some of them by now after losing most of the baby weight . It is just that I do not have the time to sort through it all and get rid of the moth eaten ones and the mid-riff baring ones. (with beautiful silvery, almost glowing in the dark, stretch marks on my tummy, I think it is not a good idea to bare it for all to see now…).
As for the news clippings, well, someone once told me that I should keep my published articles for reference in future. Since I am unsure whether that meant all of my articles or just a few really good ones, I kept all of it. Every single one of it. Hundreds of it (or is it thousands?), I dare not even go through the stacks of clippings to count, much less sort through it all to find the 'really good ones'.
The handbags and purses...well, I love accessories and well, I may just need them someday...err...I think... The toys are mostly Ty Beanie Babies with their tags intact. Hey, they are collectors items and I will not get rid of it. Even LR does not get to touch the ones that I really like.
Oh heck, I am no where near clearing out all that junk with all my excuses, am I? Well, one thing at a time. I will first throw out hubby's unwanted stuff...
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