mercredi, mars 28, 2012

Spring time

It is spring time. We spent the weekend at the grandparents'. The kids went for a stroll with their grandmother and toddler A1 picked these flowers for me. So sweet of him.
With the good weather, the boys spent their afternoon outdoors shooting balls into the basket. Toddler A2 enjoyed playing with balls. He could play by himself with a ball for long hours. At one point, he missed the basket a few times. He then tried to adjust the basketball stand hoping to lower the basket. Smart boy. We told him no as we prefered the boys to stretch themselves a little.

After many months of cold, this sunny time is so welcomed.

mardi, mars 27, 2012

Ricotta and courgette Quiche

I am never a cream and egg mixture person. So quiche is the last thing I would order for lunch. I have been thinking of cooking new dishes for the kids. And everyone told me that quiche is really easy to do and well accepted by kids.

I checked out a vegetarian recipe and indeed, it was not difficult. I bought the pastry crust, cooked the courgette and mixed it with fresh cream and 2 eggs and some cheese. Poured the mixture into the pastry crust and baked for 30mins. That was it.

The verdict? I did eat it and found that it was not too bad. A1 won't touch it. A2 ate it. The thing is, I think I started A1 too late on western food. He did not like lasagne which I had started to make since last month. A2 took it well.

A1 is going to school come Sept. I hope he will get used to canteen food as everyone is served the same food (western food). Unlike in Singapore where we can choose from many stalls what we want to eat.

So here's a pic of the quiche before going to the oven.


And here is the one when it was baked. I think my oven was too hot.

mardi, mars 13, 2012

Crabby

Each time I go to the chinese supermarket nearby my place, I would see these little crabs in a big tall bin. And there would always be people bending over the bin to select some crabs.

Well, these little things seemed to be so popular with the mainland chinese that I decided to take 4 to try last weekend. And they were as expensive as durians. 1kg was going for 20.60€. Wow. A china man told me these crabs worth gold in China. Even with money, they couldn't find it. So he was happily selecting them. My 4 crabs cost me 7.50€.

I washed them a little and put them in a pot of water and boiled until they turned red. The verdict: I was conned. There was hardly anything to eat from these little things. I really wonder what is all the hooha about this chinese crab.

samedi, mars 03, 2012

Mixed languages

Things have been quiet over here. The boys are sleeping well, playing togather and just growing. Life is such a routine thus there is not much updates over here.

This morning, I went into A1's room when I heard him calling for us. He shitted and I could smell it once in his room. I picked him up and asked "What did you eat, man?" referring to his stinking poo. He replied me "Ge ge no pas encore eat". I burst out laughing. This was the first time he actually made a sentence. Usually it was just adjective and noun. Like "big tree", "big bus", "small ball" etc...

OK. It was not a complete correct sentence. There were a mix of 3 languages. Ge ge = big brother in chinese which he was referring to himself. Pas encore = not yet. So he actually meant that he had not eaten anything and was pointing his finger to his mouth.

Just yesterday, the nanny told me that she commented on A1's socks saying they were very nice. The nanny only speaks chinese to the boys. A1 replied "mouse" as that was the design of the socks. The nanny does not understand english and thought that A1 was saying "moche". Moche is ugly in french. I explained that A1 did not know about this word yet and was saying mouse. What a misunderstanding. Actually, he finds the socks nice as he wears them and does not want to take them off even for bedtime.

Come Septembre, A1 will be going to school. I hope the teacher will be understanding with him when he starts mixing languages.