How can it be the most irritating noise a guy makes when you are trying to sleep, But the cutest little sounds when it comes from your kid. Or pet cat in my case. Which I think of as my kid anyway.
Eating crabs is a messy affair. Bits of meat flying all over the place, sauce splattering. What if you wanted to wear a low cut top while cracking those chilli crab claws? Relax, CamiSecret to the rescue!
I am so proud of her. A rather odd statement since it's usually said the other way round. But this is the exact sentiment that's making my heart swell.
My mum is a traditional person. She never imagined in a million years that her only child would not be by her side or at least on the same island. And I never imagined in a million years that she would be alright alone. With no one, not even my dad, by her side on Mother's Day. I felt such pangs of sadness when I called home to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Even more so when she told me she was making a simple dinner of soup and watching TV on a day when we should be celebrating together. Yet, she was so filled with joy at my call I could hear it miles across the oceans. It broke my heart and made me smile at the same time.
She worried about me when I was young but the tables have turned now. I often wonder what would happen if she did not have a job to occupy her time. She has little friends and didn't relish travelling by herself. But she is stronger than I expected. When she was told to stop work for 6 months, she strolled around the neighbourhood, cleaned the house from top to bottom and to my great surprise, found a part time job. It paid peanuts but it made her happy to be busy. Consequently it made me happy too.
I'm glad we have gotten to this point together. I miss you and Happy Mother's Day.
N invited me and J to visit and enjoy home cooked Mee Rebus. I was on the phone with N to arrange a lunch date the next day when she received a text from J who decided to take up her offer right there and then at 11pm!
Since J would pass by my house on the way to N's, I jokingly asked if she would picked me up. The result was this delicious supper!
Mee Rebus was followed by a depressing Kate Winslet movie, The Reader, at 2am. I do highly recommend it. After that, we chatted till 7 in the morning!
Did I mention that it was a Thursday night? J's boyfriend had accompanied her for supper . While we all didn't plan on staying up all night, there wasn't a single complaint from him even when he hasn't slept for more than 24hrs. He even went into work without sleep. Iron Man...
During supper, N's very smiley baby woke up for his feed. Maybe he wanted Mee Rebus too.
I hate vegetables with a passion. Growing up, you couldn't get me to eat anything green. Over the years, I've become more sensible. As long as they are cooked with meat or flavourful spices to mask the taste like sambal belacan, I'll eat it.
I decided to make lamb saag for dinner one day and the recipe called for 2 full bowls of spinach to be shredded into ribbons.
To save the extra step of plucking leaves off a bunch of spinach stems, I did the easy thing of buying pre-packaged spinach leaves. Though the box says 'washed and ready to eat', I don't trust industrial cleaners of doing a thorough job. For a very good reason. Look at the number of bugs I found while washing the vegetables!
Still have appetite for lamb saag?
All packaged vegetables states they are 'washed and ready to eat', which would be great if I wanted extra protein! My regular brand was sold out so I bought the store's in-house brand thinking it wouldn't matter. This was the worst cleanup job I've seen. Even with the soiled bunches of spinach from Asian supermarkets, I've never encountered bugs. I'm never buying the in-house brand again.
Strong winds last week snapped a huge branch off the oak tree growing behind our house. It landed on our roof which was impeccable timing since we were expecting fire inspectors to show up anytime.
Every year in May, the LA Fire Department sends out inspectors to check if your house is free of debris that can start fires. If you fail the first inspection, a letter of warning arrives to tell you to clean up before the second inspection. Fail again and you will have to pay a hefty penalty.
We urgently called our handyman to help remove the offending branch. It was so big that he had to saw it into smaller pieces before he could toss it off the roof.
All the pieces lining the street, see how big it is? We don't even have enough bins to throw them out. Since garbage collection takes place once a week, it will take us a few weeks to clear this green mess. That's not the end of it. The branch didn't split off cleanly and its remaining part looks like it might break anytime. If it doesn't, we will have to chop it off once we have empty bins. Poor tree is going to be botak for a long long time.
