Winter Fireworks

I went to the last fireworks show this year held at Nagano city with my cousin and his wife from Singapore. Shun stayed at home with daddy as I was concerned about the cold and crowd after reading that more than 32,000 people attended the show last year.

The fireworks show started at 6pm and lasted for more than an hour. It was freezing cold (3-4 degrees) but we were burning with excitement..I think you can catch some of our excited voices in this video.

Meddling with meat

Shun didn`t like his minced meat meals until my neighbour taught me her siew mai recipe. The trick is to mix the minced meat with cornflour in order to create a smoother texture.

My baby siew mai recipe is simple. Just mix chopped onions and mushrooms, minced pork meat, cornflour and a little soya sauce. Then, wrap in siew mai skin and steam for about 10 mins. If time allows, I will add some toppings (eg grated carrots in the photo)to make it look more appetizing. By the way, daddy likes it too with some chilli sauce.

Autumn walk in park

I wanted to take some quick photos of Shun at the park but we ended strolling about an hour there. Shun was totally engrossed in his little world, exploring and walking on the yellow blanket of fallen leaves. I think he liked the crunchy sound that the leaves made when he walked on them.

Boy had so much fun till he didn`t want to leave. As it was getting chilly, I had to grab him to the car despite his strong protests of screams and struggles.

Let me share his little autumn walk with you.


Do I look good in this cap?


Playing peek a boo with daddy.


I found daddy!


Definitely enjoying himself. Look at his satisfied grin.

Apple Ring Bread

1 apple down. 26 more to go.

We Love Autumn

Embracing the colors and wonders of nature.

My first apple pie

This is my first apple pie! Its hassle free because I used ready made pie dough.

Filling
3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
10g butter
3tsp sugar
80ml water
1tsp ground cinnamon

Pastry
2 sheets of ready made pie dough(to be thawed)

My pie was embarrassing easy. I just stir fried the apples in butter and added sugar water. Stew for about 15 mins till the apples are tender and leave this mixture to cool down completely. Then I rolled the pie dough big enough to fit into my pie pan. Poured the apple mixture onto the pie pan and laid dough strips on top.

Glaze the pie with egg before placing in the oven. Bake for about 3o minutes at 200 degrees or until golden brown all over.


Voila! My sweet pie.

Dinner tonight

Nothing beats having hot soup on a cold day. I cooked veggies and beef soup today using my reliable slow cooker. I love my slow cooker because I can set the timer and go take care of other things. It allows me to mutli task and the the ingrediants get soft enough for Shun to eat too.

Here are my ingrediants:
500g cube beef
1 onion
2 carrots
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 pcs of laurel leaves
salt or 1 beef cube

I didn`t do anything much. Just toss everything into the cooker and added hot water. We had a simple but delicious hot soup after 4 hours of cooking time.



Shun had some of the beef soup with his rice which I made with my new moulds. The bear`s eyes looked awful because Shun interrupted while I was cutting the seaweed.

Little boy digged into the bear`s ugly eyes first and ate them up. Then, he happily finished all his dinner.

Apple Picking

Takashi`s colleague bought an apple tree for S$300 last year. He was kind to invite us to harvest the apples together today.

The weather was a bit chilly but luckily there was no cold wind blowing.

Farm was packed with families and kiddos, busy harvesting their red goodies in cartons.

I had visions of making apple pie or apple jam, but never got around to it. Good reason to experiment this year because we received 30 apples. Need to search for a good recipe. Let me know if you have any....



Basket is full.


Don`t touch my apples.

To the castle

Hey ,that`s the castle!


I took Shun to the Matsumoto castle last week on a fine morning. He had just recovered from his cough and I thought that some fresh air will do him good. The castle trip was a little adventure as it was the first time I brought him out alone to the town.

My little boy enjoyed his morning watching the swans and the ducks. I had a good time enjoying the beautiful celebration of autumn with red and yellow colours everywhere around the castle.

Though the taxi trip costed S$30(two way ride), we had a happy day which made the money spent worthwhile.


Shun watching the swans and ducks.


Matsumoto Castle