Master Manipulator

Evan's school teacher told me that he is a smart kid. That he sees things that kids his age do not see.

We have realised that. The boy is bright and sharp and we are constantly floored by his comments and observations. His fascination for observing how things work has led us to think that something in the engineering field might be up his alley.

But today, we discovered also the side of him that has led us to conclude that our son could do well in politics too. Whether that is a good thing, I really don't know.

This was the conversation that led to the conclusion.

Papa: Evan, Papa is going to drop Mommy off in town, okay?
Evan: Why is Mommy going to town?
Mommy: To look for things that I need for our holiday.
Evan: Can I go to Ah Ma's house while you are in town?
Papa: Yes, you can go to Ah Ma's house, but no iPad.
Evan: Papa, are you going with Mommy?
Papa: No, why?
Evan: I think you need to go with Mommy. If you don't go with Mommy, Mommy will have no one to help her. And she will take so long that the shops will close.
Papa: Do you just want me out of the house?
Evan: (pauses) Yes.
Papa: Do you just want me out of the house so that you can have the iPad?
Evan: No, you must go and help Mommy. Mommy needs your help.
Papa: Okay, but I am telling Tita (our helper) that when we are not home, you cannot have the iPad.
Evan: Oh! If Tita doesn't give me the iPad, I will look for it and show it to her! And Papa and Mommy will not be home so I can play with it!

So, instead of telling us directly that he didn't want us around because he wanted some iPad time, he made it out to be of benefit to me. Him having the iPad was just something unexpected that came out of the Papa being out helping Mommy.
























Fast forward thirty years, it wouldn't be all that much of a stretch for him to be doing this on a larger scale than just to his parents!


Technorati Tags: twins, words

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Grand Vacation 2011 pt 1

I am taking a break from the 7 meals that I promised to come up with. Reason being I have been far too busy to photograph the meals that I plan to. I promise I will get back to it once things are less crazy.

Things are crazy now because we are a day and a half away from embarking on a mega 24 day long vacation with the extended family. This has meant the desperate rush to tie up loose ends, picking up stuff to pack (we are going to different states in the USA with different types of climates which has meant massive, massive packing) and the actual packing for 5 people, 3 of whom are under 5 and require a large number of things, ranging from diapers to formula to milk bottles.

Thankfully, the twins are hyped up about it in a good way. They really cannot wait to go. Every morning, Evan asks what day it is and has figured out how to count down to Tuesday. I have managed to convince him to go easy on ginger bread cookies because he doesn't want to be fighting a cough on the plane. He willingly traded a ginger bread cookie for a bowl of apples after confirming that apples were good for him.

Jordan hasn't taken quite as academic an approach to counting down her days as her brother but she asks every morning if it is the "twenty- two of November" yet. She has taken very seriously the preparation for it. In a bid to get them involved, we brought down their trolley bags. Evan will just run around with it but is quite content to board the plane with an empty trolley, just as long as he gets to board the plane and the plane takes him to the US. Jordan however has obviously given packing a lot of thought and packed and unpacked several times.

This evening, when I decided it was time for me to actually pack her trolley bag, this was what I found in it.
1. A jacket.
2. A beanie
3. Some of her art work.
4. 2 books - That's Not My Fairy and Fuzzy goes to the Moon.
5. A box of flash cards.
6. A Princess Pillow Book.
7. A stuffed toy cat which she can decorate with the relevant fabric markers.
8. A pair of binoculars.
9. A Barbie cell-phone.
10. A whistle.


















It really does make me smile because when you ask her, she explains very clearly why she needs everything. The cell-phone is of course for emergencies. The whistle, so that Mommy will know where she is. The binoculars, to see into the sky and see America from the plane. The drawings are to show Princess Aurora and Cinderella when she sees them in Disneyworld.

Packrat asked me to respect what she has packed. I would love to and have kept some of the things in, but the toys and stuffed cat and pillow have had to make way for extra clothes (which she didn't think to put in).

Now, that was the fun bit of the packing. The real packing is not as entertaining and considering the fact that internal flights charge luggage per piece and it is beyond me to pack light; I am stressed beyond belief.

All those out there who believe in prayer, please pray for us! Nobody gets sick, Muffin doesn't cry from Singapore all the way to San Fran and cause himself and his family to be put on the black list and we come back with the same number of people (12!) we left with. No more, no less!


Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, vacation

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Favourite Foods 3- Fried Rice Paradise

Rice is a staple in the house. The kids like it. Packrat sees it as a comfort food. Steaming hot rice. Most of the time, the kids eat plain rice with steamed something and soup. But we do variations because I figure that if I can't eat plain rice every day with dishes, I shouldn't expect that of the kids.

So, one of the variations is fried rice. Even though fried rice is usually a dish to help clear the fridge of left over food, the kids' fried rice is cooked fresh. The first time we did it, we had grilled lemon grass chicken and used that. That was a hit. Evan had 2 plates and Muffin polished off one bowl by himself. Jordan was blase about it but Jordan is not a good gauge of what is good food.

Anyway, we've repeated it a few times since and it has always been well received. The trickiest bit is doing the lemongrass chicken. This is the chicken that we use to make Vietnamese baguette sandwiches from scratch.

To make the chicken.
Chicken fillet
Kikkoman Light Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Lemongrass
Garlic

*For children, I'd go easy on the Kikkoman and Oyster sauce.
Once chicken is marinated, grill at 180 degrees till cooked. (This is about 20 minutes)
Leave it to cool and then dice. Whether the skin is left on depends on how healthy the dish is meant to be. :)

Before even cooking the chicken, rice should be cooked and cooled. We use a mixture of brown and white rice for this. This is regular rice in our house unless the dish specifically asks for white rice.

Anyway, on top of the rice, what goes into the fried rice is really up to the individual. I enforce the 3 vegetable rule here, even with fried rice.

Carrots
Spinach
Young corn/ Parsnip/Broccoli
Fried omelette for garnishing.
Minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt dissolved in water.
Dark sauce for colouring

Minced garlic fried with olive oil.
Carrots and young corn or whatever hard vegetable is thrown it and sauteed till soft.
If minced pork or raw meat is used, this is the point where it should get tossed in to cook too.
Once all the ingredients are cooked, rice gets tossed in and fried till loose and in separate grains.

I sprinkle salt water over the rice to wet it and give it a bit of flavour. And then I drip a few drops of dark sauce into the rice and mix it in just because the twins like 'brown' fried rice.

I usually add on soup because I grew up having soup at every meal and a meal feels incomplete without soup. The soup in the picture was simple pork rib, carrot and potato soup. Evan thought the soup was a waste of time because it made him go to the toilet more. His words, not mine.
























I really should not blog about their meal recipes before dinner because I get hungry just thinking about it.

Technorati Tags: child friendly recipes, pre-schoolers

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Favourite Foods 2- Pasta Casserole

This is one of the more sinful meals that I like to make for the children. But the added advantage of this meal is that both Packrat and I like it too so it's a one dish, everyone can eat meal.

I love pasta. There's a comfort element to eating pasta. I can eat mountains of the stuff. So can the kids.

Why is it sinful? The sauce is a tin of Campbell's cream soup of the chicken or mushroom variety. But one tin for a huge Corning Ware pot of pasta with no added salt, I guess is not so bad. But is tasty yummy goodness.

Anyway, what goes in it?

Ingredients (all this is to make a pot big enough to feed about 6-7 people. We keep the leftovers)

Diced chicken (I usually use 6-7 chicken thighs and cut the meat off the bones. Save bones for chicken stock)
Loads of vegetables.
1 whole Zuchinni
Broccoli
2 packets of Young Corn
2 medium sized Carrots
1 packet of Mushrooms
1 stick of Celery (diced thin so that the kids don't complain)
Potatoes (if you want it more starchy. I don't usually do it with spuds though)
Garlic
Big yellow onion
All sliced or diced evenly
Chicken stock (boiled from the bones of the chicken thighs)
Pasta ( I use the tri-coloured spirals or shells for the kids and wholemeal spirals for ourselves. The pot is big enough to do a half and half)
Campbell's Cream of Chicken/ Mushroom soup. Can be replaced by healthier versions if desired.


Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Cook pasta al dente (not too cooked) bearing in mind that it is going to be baked after.
Drain pasta and run it through cold water and set it aside.
Sear chicken (flash cook and have pieces brown- don't need it to be cooked). This prevents chicken from flaking and falling apart when cooked again.
Saute garlic and onions in olive oil.
Add in hard vegetables to saute. Saute till relatively soft- not mushy!
Warm up chicken stock in whatever pot is going to be used to bake the pasta. Once warmed, pour out chicken stock.
Use warmed pot for pasta, sauteed veg and chicken. Mix well.
Slowly mix in tin of cream soup, making sure it dissolves. Slowly add it one cup of chicken stock as well to form moist consistency for the gravy.
If pasta is not wet enough, slowly add in another half a cup of chicken stock.

How much chicken stock is added depends on how wet you envision this dish to be.

Once you are satisfied with the consistency of the dish, put it in oven till pasta is bubbling and chicken is cooked.
The surface of the pasta will be crisp.
























We've had it two nights in a row. Well, Packrat and I, that is. And to make it fiery, we add some dashes of Habanero Tabasco.

We tried it with melted cheese but it made it too rich and lemak and I didn't like it. At all.

Technorati Tags: child friendly recipes, pre-schoolers

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Favourite Foods 1- Shepherd's Pie

A friend asked me to blog about the food that the twins and Muffin eat. It was to give her some idea of what to feed her kids.

It would also serve as a record for the kids of their favourite meals as young kids so I thought that it wasn't too bad an idea.

I'm hoping to be able to come up with 7 easy to cook meals that they like.

This one is Shepherd's Pie. For the record, only Evan and Muffin like it now. Jordan has decided she is not keen on it. The boys like it because of the copious amount of potato and beef in it. Jordan likes her food more Asian and noodle-ly.

Shepherd's Pie is what we make if we need to boys to eat in a hurry. And the added advantage is that it is an easy meal to make as well.

Ingredients:
1-2 Russet Potatoes. (Only russets because they bake well and are not too sweet)
Carrot
Parsnip
Broccoli
Pumpkin/ Squash
Celery
Tomato
(I usually pick what is in the fridge and what needs to be cleared out. Usually it will be 3 vegetables)
Minced beef (100-150gm)
Minced garlic
Fresh milk
Oregano and other herbs (optional- dependent on whether children are open to eating herb-y food)
Shredded cheese (if available)

1. Quarter potatoes and boil till soft.
2. Set aside and use pot to cook the other ingredients.
3. Fry garlic with olive oil and then add in other vegetables to simmer till soft.
4. A minute before the fire gets turned off, add in minced beef to cook. Turn off fire when everything is cooked.
5. Mash potatoes with a fork, mixing in some milk to make it creamy and smooth.
6. Lay ingredients on a baking dish and plaster the potato on the top. Use fork to rough up potato so that there are peaks and it will crisp.
7. Sprinkle the cheese over the potato and bake it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius till brown.
8. Keep warm in oven till ready to eat.























The shepherd's pie that was remaining in the container after Muffin finished his lunch was polished off by an Evan who eats adult sized portions. He follows his father, in terms of appetite and love for meat and spuds!

Technorati Tags: pre-schooler, twins, food, child-friendly recipes

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Rules are (not) meant to be broken

Someone called me a Tiger Mom. I gazed at her in amazement because I don't do the Amy Chua thing. The drill sergeant with a cane, sit and write or whatever for hours on end. Then she said she meant it in the traditional way instead of the Amy Chua way. Meaning that I was very strict and particular with my children. Ah, that, yes.

Some have actually suggested that I should ease off a bit and let the children be children and enjoy childhood. It's hard for me to be an easy going parent because my parents weren't entirely easy going with me. Very big on early bed times and manners, that has translated to my style of parenting too. And I don't really see it as depriving them of a childhood.

The Rules that govern the Tan children are as follows (and I am sure grow as they grow)

1. You must always love each other, help each other and take care of each other. So, no shoving, hitting or biting (for the case of Muffin). If one falls down, you must help comfort. If one gets told off and is upset, the rest console (not us, the one who inflicted the punishment)
2. Saying a loud hello with eye contact and a hug to all grandparents is a must. If deaf Bob Grandpa cannot hear you, you haven't said it loud enough. When Papa leaves for work, everyone must kiss him, give him a hug and say good bye.
3. You are always to be helpful. So, you have to set your own table and come get your food from the kitchen. You must clear the table after their meals. You are not to expect everything to be put out for you. You are to bring your milk tumblers back to the kitchen in the morning and dump your rubbish in the bins and dirty clothes into laundry baskets. If you can't get whatever you need, you are not to demand but to say please and thank you, nicely.
4. Whatever mess you create in the house, you are to clear it up. Even though we have a helper, you are to clear up. If you don't clear up, you don't get to go out. Remember how we called Evan's bluff and left him at home because he didn't clear up his blocks. And we have given away your toys after we threatened to give it to children who will love the toys more than you will since you leave it all over the floor.
5. If you break a toy or have lost it because you have been careless, do not expect a replacement. No number of "But I want!" is going to get you a replacement.
   
6. Dinner is to be eaten at the dining table. Not on the floor and not on the coffee table, in front of the television. Unfortunately, this rule often gets flouted by those who also feel that with the television on, eating is a fast and painless process. I will refrain from commenting.
7. Eat whatever is put in front of you. Do not ask for noodles if rice has been given. Do not chuck a fit because the broccoli can be seen. If the meal is not eaten, do not expect something else to be made in its place.
8. No sweets or chocolates if Mommy's permission is not sought.
9. Television is only to be watched for half an hour on weekdays after dinner if there is time. It is not an entitlement. It is a treat.
10. Bed time is non-negotiable. 1900 hrs means all activity is to be stopped, toys to be put away, good nights and thank yous to be said before all retreat to the bedroom.

It's strict and hell to stick to. It's easier to give in to them, especially when they become loud and unreasonable and tantrumic and you just want the screaming to shout. But we are seeing the fruits of sticking to our guns. More independent, responsible children. Even though it requires a lot of nagging and policing.


Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, rules

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