Borliao

So pweety. Changed my watch face from Kiki to this. 

Japanese cooking II

16th Sep

Missed posting this. Haiyah! Everytime have bits and pieces of pics in my phone. So I end up needing to post them in here before deleting them

One out of the dunno how many dishes I cooked that day. I must have either removed the pics from the phone or I didn’t take any 😬

There’s a QR code behind the packet that linked to this website CLICK HERE

 

From this website, I found more ways to cook using this premix. So interesting. I want to go back to Japan and buy more premixes. 

6th Oct (Mon)

Need some jipun inspiration

Using this recipe

I grinded the panko into finer pieces

with the kushikatsu sauce che-che bought on her solo trip

It’s yummy if you eat it once it’s out from the fryer

Cooked Japanese style. Dumped chicken, veg (the Japanese frozen pack), mushrooms into the pan and fry. Want meat got meat, flip the dish and want veggie got veggie. Haha! Simple and good. On other days maybe I’d be able to clean up the kitchen faster, today was slower coz I deep fried earlier on. 

27th Oct (Mon) 

1 of the 4 dishes cooked for dinner. The rests were chinese cooking. Oh! I cooked chawanmushi too. 

My unappetising teriyaki fish coz spring onion and sesame seeds will be pushed aside so I save my energy, no need nice presentation. Anyway feed my family who cares!

31st Oct (Fri) 

Katsu curry

Desperate to being happy 💁

There are days when I can get overwhelmed with emotions. Already have some stress, then need to get more stress and things to be upset about. Sometimes I really wish I can just run away from home; away from all these problems. 

Lately with mom .. more upset. I needed something to make me happy. I mean if I’m upset I’ll need to find something to make me happy so that I won’t go mentally crazy. Nobody can help me, my friends - I don’t go about telling them when I’m upset so I must learn to 自己救自己. 

Dropped by Sing See Soon in Punggol otw home from Waterway. I haven’t been there for a long time. I remember there was a fresh flower section, smaller than FEF but as long as there’s flowers who cares. I’m not going to go all the way to Thomson, I’m so tired now. Throbbing head pain, bodyache, mental ache + the heat.

Seeing the potted plants also so gian. I have some works I need to do in PES, how? 

Inside the chiller room. I didn’t take pics of the whole place but not a lot of flowers inside. Not much selection. I needed red flowers to brighten up my mood (no subtle pinks or sweet colours), red flowers for good wishes & energy in the house like CNY. Then somehow even tho as my eyes panned across the room I kept telling myself to choose other flowers my brain asked me to stop when I saw tulips. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It was that AUTOMATIC. I really dunno why. Altho I love all flowers but I just love tulips the most. 

I paid $22/bunch no GST, definitely much cheaper than FEF

chiller room

I think I chose a good colour combination. Really how a mood affects the way I choose my flowers. Red and orange. Orange - When I desire for happiness and warmth fitting for my shitty feeling now. Just as I checked the meaning for orange tulips, it’s BINGO!! Energy level went up a little with the red double-petal tulips 

Taking pics, editing takes up time but it helps me to divert my attention somewhere else. 

while editing .. listening music to make me happy. I sound  as if I’m in depression. Probably I will be so when mom …

Chocolates on standby. Boost up my endorphins and my weight. 

If I don’t feel good by tomorrow, I’m going to whisk my matcha. Stand there and slowly whisk whisk. 

A panicky state of emergency

The current laptop I'm using now - Lenovo Ideapad 710s was launched in 2016. It doesn’t belong to me, it was hubby’s and then I ziam the laptop and downloaded printer, Picasa, Photoshop, Lightroom, all my clip arts etc…and then it became mine 😆. Anyway, at that time he had another laptop for gaming so he hardly use this. 

I’m quite a sentimental person. This laptop has gone through many itinerary planning, scanning to keep all the girls fantastic well-done exam papers (like real!) over the years, all the favor designs, blogging and whatever bots. 

This laptop has probably gone through one servicing many years ago. Just yesterday (28th), after a month later, I turned it on wanting to transfer some photos from SanDisk to the hard disk and THIS BLUE SCREEN OF DOOMSDAY came on. 

Then followed by a BLACK screen to BOOT system. OMG!!!! I press button and nothing moved, I searched for Mr Google and can’t find any help. I panicked coz I have some Documents in laptop which I have yet to transfer. Not knowing what to do, hubby bochap me, decided to bring it down to the servicing centre. To see what can be done, at least help me re-start so I can quickly transfer the Documents and whatever handsome men pics I have inside laptop 😂 over before it really KAPUT! 

Went down to CT Hub today. Bloody hell! Make me go all the way there and the laptop managed to turn on. Actually I should be happy right? The staff laughed at me. I felt so dumb. No time to lose, I reached home 3+pm and had to do work before settling the transfer. No time to visit mom in hospital coz I think the laptop is more important than her 😂. Don’t say I’m heartless, I did call her when I was driving otw home from CT Hub then coz she wanted me to help her get something from medical hall so I ended up diverting my route and reached home later at 3+. 

But where is my extra new hard disk?? I thought I have a 2TB hard disk? Ahh…. Cannot find so will have to drop by Challenger tomorrow. Torlong Torlong please don’t die yet. Let me quickly transfer my stuffs over. 

Back at home asked hubby if he has any laptop to pass to me, he says no point for each of us have a laptop at home. Yah! That’s why I asked him right? I thought he had two at home but he got rid of one I don’t know when. Now left with his humongous ugly black thick gaming laptop. Yeeeeee…… but I like thin dainty laptop. I feel so unfair why everytime I need to use somebody’s stuff? Why can’t I have my own? 

Sunflower

Been some time since I stepped into flower dome 😂. Missed out two displays. Have no idea but just 忙忙 until now to remember about this. 

Finished everything within less than hour. A diversion to have my uncle wanton at Roxy, packed their dinner there and then head back home. All done in 3.5hrs. 

Ground floor woes

Living on the first floor for the past 10 years, I have seen more cockroaches within one year compared to 13 years in Pang-gol. What invaders have we come across all these 10 years in this house? Not much actually, we’ve had a black cat who strolled into the house. And prior to that we had monitor lizard / monkey (our condo is like a zoo 😂) in our compound. I was honestly afraid that monitor lizard might crawl into my PES. During the time when we were told of intrusion I kept my living room door closed.

Recently have noticed wasps flying into the house from the yard area, I suspect there’s a nest somewhere at the back area. For the last one week I didn’t open the windows but merely flipped the louvres to allow air in. Told hubby I will need to do the insect netting coz I really need to open the yard windows for cross ventilation. 

Today, decided to open the windows again coz the house air feels so stale. Whole day was rather uneventful until dinner time hubby exclaimed “ a bird 🦅 in the house! Where it came from?” The moment he said that the bird panicked (maybe from my scream?), I panicked and screamed coz it was flying next to me 😱 from the main door to the living room to and fro in a frenzy. And I was having my dinner so worried about hygiene if the bird came to the dining table where the girls have yet to have their dinner. Luckily neither girls were there if not hubby will hear three squeaky high pitch screaming 😂. I briefly saw it was black and asked if it was a bat and ran off to the rooms. Instinctively usually if there’s any intrusion, I would run to close the room doors, toilet and kitchen doors so it will be confined to just that space to fly/walk/crawl (🐈‍⬛ 🪳🦎) around. The man was trying to chase the bird out of the house with the sofa arm cushion (quite a comical sight actually but I must applaud his bravery coz I was so afraid) but uncle just open the living room door to PES so small 🤦🏻‍♀️. I told him to open the main door so it can fly out also but with the bird panicking and flying so fast, he also can’t make his way to the door lest he get wing slapped in the face 😂. I could have been more brave if I had something in the house, he with cushion and I with another silly armour to battle with the bird together. Alas! If only I didn’t remove the flattened boxes to the recycle bin in the day time. 

How come he didn’t think to turn off the fan? The worst is if the bird panicked fly into the fan - kamikaze itself - feather 🪶 fly; blood splatter in the house (as if the other day’s yucky sight wasn’t bad enough. No thank you, I don’t need another within a span of few days)

A while later the bird was exhausted and stayed on the door. Wait! How did the bird stand on the door? Was it a bat? What the f was that? He wanted to move towards it but I stopped him. Asked him to help me lookout and tell me where to duck if the bird or whatever shit it is flies towards me when I have my back on it. Can I trust him he will do that? Coz usually when I’m driving he doesn’t tell me “left” or “right” but just “there there.” Confirm if I fight with him in warzone, I’d be left standing there for enemy to shoot me. I had to ensure that the space is wide and no blockage for it to fly out, unlock and pushed the grille door to one side wide and open the sliding door wide. Ran towards the aisle and it took less than 30 seconds before the bird flew out of the house. And the bird or whatever it is lived to tell its momma the adventure it had in our house. 

After the drama, he asked where the bird came from. I suspect it must have flew in from the yard as our living room doors are closed. 

Looks like I really need to start doing the insect netting soon. Sigh….. seems like an easy task but it took me super long last time to do the two toilets windows, what more now the yard area window is super high. Or should I ask the pros to do a sliding mosquito netting? Haiyah! End of the day I also gotta think about cleaning, only add more jobs for myself. 

How about living room? Really want to do so that we can open the door without worries but ….. how much will it cost? Need to 省钱 ley…

Slap head moment

N was talking about Method laundry detergent just the other day when I mentioned I switched to eczema friendly laundry for che-che recently. I suddenly recalled that I was using my last handwash bottles that I use in both toilets. 

Should I finish my hand gel? I have another 2 refills bottles that I use as a handwash in the kitchen. But I do not have any dispenser bottles left to transfer the handwash. Both bottles in the toilets are the foamy foamy kind. 

In master room bathroom: Not a fan of this fragrance but I got this FOC with my huge haul purchase of house cleaners so using this. 

I used to not like this smell (I prefer foresty, citrusy, oceany smells) but after using this for a long time [we bought the huge refill packs from US] and finishing it to the last drop I kindda like it. 

Took these pics on Sat after returning home. Then I totally forgot all about it. Until when I did it was a day plus later. Quickly made the purchase before I forget.

Alamak! Blame my tired eyes, my non-existent brain and fat fingers. I only realised I pressed wrongly today after checking thru my emails. I wanted the green tea + aloe foaming handwash not waterfall. Now my hands will start smelling like my mirrors and glass and windows 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

After every grocery trip

Usually after every grocery run that involves raw meats, I will pack them into portions coz I know my family don’t use up the whole packet at one go, except for cod. I’m not very environmental friendly, I use up a lot of sandwich bags, a lot of labels and scotch tape. 

淘宝 sells these cute small ziploc bags but I won’t have the time to wash them. I prefer to open and throw the plastic away, less heart pain 🤣. 

Ever considered getting small little boxes but eh….. no space in freezer. Sometimes my portion is really so small coz I only need that little bit for porridge or whatever. Putting them into boxes will really take up the space altho I must admit it will look very neat in the freezer. 

*************

This grocery was done 4 days ago after my 🏃‍♀️ class but I didn’t have time to pack them. Took the mince pork and mince chicken out today to do this. 

Step (1) after washing all the same meat is to put them into different bowls and marinade them. This grocery trip I only bought one packet of mince pork coz it’s a new one from Taiwan and I’m not sure if it’ll have that yucky odour. 

(2) pack them individually and weigh them. 

even the plain non-marinated meats, I put corn starch first so when I’m cooking I just throw them into the pan. 

For the mince chicken, I marinade 3 different styles - teriyaki, oyster sauce + sesame oil and the other Japanese style

Needed to keep this pic in here coz I keep forgetting what I used to marinade the chicken, the one that lil’ one likes. 

Step (3) Packed them into a Toyogo box in the freezer, keeping everything organized. (4) Updated the list on the fridge to remind myself what I have in the fridge. I cancel out once I use them. Currently I’m using whatever paper I can find at home to write and stick on the fridge with the list of items in freezer. I’m so tempted to buy a magnetic board. Honestly I wish I have a neater system to do things, perhaps a digital stock-taking on the fridge 😂 (coz my handwriting is so ugly)

I’ve seen a lot of insta account where the person would (a) bulk meal prep, some even mixed veggies together with meat in the box 😱 (Can we even mix those together?). It looks very organized means I’ll need to meal prep (meaning I have to cook daily. Argh! No no!) However in my household sometimes I don’t cook if I was out of the house for more than half the day, I’d rather pack food home. (b) Some would marinade their meats like I do. Their portion is huge coz I suppose the family is normal. My family is abnormal, I cannot cook too much. I need to count eg. maybe lil’ one will eat 3-4 chicken, che-che 1 chicken etc…then I cook what I counted coz I don’t want leftover. BUT GUESS WHAT?! SOMETIMES SOMEBODY WOULD DECIDE THEY DON’T WANT TO EAT so I’m left with leftovers 😠. It’s not coz they’re full but they would go and open a canned food (as if the dishes are not enuf) OR eat snacks to fill up the remaining stomach space. You say cooking for the family frustrating or not?! 

Jap eggs

Oops! I totally forgot we have this. When people just put things and push things to the back, I don’t see it and I forgot all about it. Bought this in Meidiya on 18/9 😂. Never mind I will poison my family only. Anyway coz I’m a day late past the 賞味期限, decided to steam it or fry it. Didn’t want to risk eating raw egg yolk

I love this egg, so big and beautiful and clean unlike the previous one I bought and used on 15/8 as written in the first “Japanese cooking” post 

Salute!

I really salute all nurses. How do they tolerate cleaning patients’ poops 💩 and pee? How do they tolerate cleaning patient’s vomitus without they themselves feeling 🤢?

When mom vomitted on Thu night, I gagged. I don’t think I’ve ever cleaned her before, maybe a long long time when I just happened to be at Tampines (?) If she ever vomitted before, it would likely be bro or sis who cleaned her. 

When I was cleaning up the vomitus on her, on her bag, on the blanket I wanted to vomit myself. Even when I hold my breath, my eyes cannot unsee the vomitus. Twice I vomitted into the plastic bag when I was cleaning. I used to be able to do this. Onboard and even when dealing with the girls’ vomitus long time ago, but still will always feel like committing myself. This time, I couldn’t tahan n my own stomach churned 🤭 next minute I vomitted. Haha! So useless! 

Then lil’ one told me che-che vomitted too when they were cleaning up her bed. 

Makes me hold nurses in high admiration.how they tahan huh?  

😢 Xmas markets

Why these keep popping up in my Instagram? 

I really want to go to the Christmas markets. Sob sob

From another Instagram account - Christmas markets in Europe

Link to previous post, CLICK HERE

Towels

Was tidying up a section of my walk-in when I saw these towels that Mio gave me. 

For the Japanese, thoughtful gifts are chopsticks and towels. When giving chopsticks, it means wishing happiness and good relationships. It’s the same for Chinese when gifting chopsticks. 

However there is no similarity good wishes when giving towels. 

In Japanese culture, giving a towel as a gift represents wishes for lasting relationships as towels are woven from threads and symbolize a strong, lasting connection. 

Giving towels in a Chinese context is generally negative because they are often associated with funerals, representing death or misfortune. 

Given this towel or rather it feels like handkerchief many years before, probably when she was here in Singapore with the family in 2017.

She gifted us these Imabari towels in 2022 when our family met her before driving to Kumamoto. 

Imabari towels are widely considered synonymously with high quality towels 

For some reason I don’t know why this ads keep appearing in my FB. Look so interesting, I might get some for the kitchen next time

Of course as always I like to make comparisons 

** edit : not about the towels but since I took the pics with these coasters, I’ll just photo dump them here.

Hakata-ori coasters 

About Hakata-ori textiles