Chicken Lollipops for Dinner?

Another cool find here. Zing Chicken Lollipops. In the freezer section and appear to be dinner food rather than dessert as I would think of as a lollipop.

Belgium Waffles

I'm making some waffles to sell at a Bazzar to raise money for the workers in the compound. I planned a dry run test night yesterday for dinner. 

Then there were some hiccups and we had to have leftovers. I finished cooking them about 9:30 last night and we are having them for breakfast this morning but in all my mess yesterday I was told that this recipe is a dessert waffle not so much a breakfast or dinner waffle. 

We told the kids they were special waffles and didn't need syrup or sweets on top because it was baked into them. Jacob pondered only a few seconds before declaring, "That's okay. I want it to be a super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super sweet waffle so I'll still put syrup and nuttella on it."

Halawa Food Experiment of the Day

I've seen this on occasion around but never in force like here. Halawa seems to come in all varieties so of course I decided halawa with chocolate was a good way to test it out.

Not having a clue what it was puts one at a disadvantage for sure. (I once served mango sticky rice as a dinner rice dish to guests in Singapore. Later I learned it only shows up on menus at a restaurant in the dessert section. Oops. My kids should have been saying, "THANK YOU MOM!") the halawa packages show it spread on bread and also cut into slices and served like a cake with tea. The whole thing was under $5 USD and about the size of a hockey puck in cake form. Mine was the size of a 8 oz cream cheese block. 

I expected to spread it on bread so took a knife and a loaf of bread to the table. Nope. It is a big chunk and way too dry to spread. The taste is very nutty and consistency of those orange fluffy marshmallow like peanut candy. 

What Was That?

Jan 25, 2014

We had lunch today at a play place for a birthday party. I told the kids it was quesadillas for lunch. Served them up and had one myself though just a nibble. It tasted perfectly fine but later I found potent was pizza. That's REALLY sad when a person cannot tell the difference between a pizza and a quesadilla. Time to up the quality. Kinda hilarious if you ask me. I'm sure a part of it just lost in culture between what an American and a Singaporean would expect. 

What Was That?

We had lunch today at a play place for a birthday party. I told the kids it was quesadillas for lunch. Served them up and had one myself though just a nibble. It tasted perfectly fine but later I found potent was pizza. That's REALLY sad when a person cannot tell the difference between a pizza and a quesadilla. Time to up the quality. Kinda hilarious if you ask me. I'm sure a part of it just lost in culture between what an American and a Singaporean would expect. 

Chop Stick Wizard

Ben has mastered the art of the chop stick. Brian was pleasantly surprised when Ben made quesadillas today using his chop sticks to move the flavored chicken chunks into the tortilla. We are living some mutant sort of Chinese American Tex-Mex culture here at our house.

Vegetable Troubles

June 13, 2013

At dinner Jacob gets pouty lipped and asks a genuine question, "Now HOW am I supposed to eat my vegetables without TASTING them?"

Lentils

My kids would eat a lot more lentils if this is what I bought for them. Some things are just different here like food labels. I never expected to see candy coated chocolates marked as "lentils."

Bangkok Day 1: Silver Shopping and Harmonic

Today we flew to Bangkok. Just three moms and three little babies, 7 months, 6 months and 4 months. After the flight, clearing immigration and the taxi ride where lane lines are a colossal waste of paint we relaxed at the hotel for a few minutes while we surveyed the city map. We decided to get the important things done first and went to the silver shop. Brian and Santa bith vicariously did a little shopping for my birthday in two weeks and a little something for Christmas.

Then we got dinner at Harmonic. It was fantastic food and beautifully displayed. The restaurant was down a tiny street a little walk and the place is a bit old and run down. Really it's just an old building they shoved tables and chairs into and packed with decorations like the a fountain and the cart looking shelf withy they put the statues of their gods. It felt very authentic for sure and the owner was at our table multiple times through dinner to engage us in conversations like, "I know everything take care babies. My sister-in-law have many I take care them." She was a hoot and had pretty good command of English I thought. Despite us ordering smallish portions of seven different things Ashlyn stuck with rice cereal. I tried to give her a bite of squished up mango but it came right back out with a sour face. She missed out!.

As usual caucasian kids are adored here in Asia. Yesterday in Singapore i had all my four kids at the bird park and the Indians were taking pictures of the birds. They saw Jake and stopped watching the birds and started photographing him. He wasn't having it that particular day. Ashlyn was great today though. She smiled and cooed at any and everyone. She had her picture taken a number of times and the hotel staff dote on us three women with our three white babies.

Just because Jake and Maddie love them I made sure to get a picture of a PINK taxi tonight.

When we got back to the hotel we planned the Saturday schedule. Looks like JJ Market, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace. It was a great day in Thailand. I hope my family had a great day too. I love you guys.

Question of the day for the Zufelt kids: Which picture shows Ashlyn's dinner and which ones did mom eat for her dinner? Can you name any if the foods? Anyone who gets the right answer can have one trick or treat.

Answers: Ashlyn had rice cereal
Mom had cashew chicken, steamed rice in flower shaped bowls, pumpkin cheese deep fried muffin things, spring rolls, chicken satay, pad thai and mango sticky rice. Yummy!

Yoshinoya

I got yoshiniya and no one whined about it one bit. Because I was alone. Great dinner for me and good luck to Brian with all four monkeys at home.

Durian King of Fruits

I did it. Today I bought a durian. The fruit that is so stinky it is literally banned from being carried on the train here. It is reputed to be completely repulsive. If its any clue, it is wrapped in plastic just to contain the smell in the store and I have never before seen it in the store. In fact there is a nasty smell around the market where I do lots of my grocery shopping. There is a durian stand there all day everyday. It's yucky and I try to stay away from that side of the plaza. Now that I have it I just have to work up the nerve to split it open and take a bite.

Idaho Potato

Just wanted my sister in law to see that her potatoes are worth lots more than regular potatoes even in Singapore.

Some Things Take a Minute to Process

Sitting across the room reading blogs I hear Brian walk out of the kitchen and holler, "Maddie come here so I can cut your face." Uh. What? I look up to see her smile and skip across the dining room. By the time she arrives I realize what's going on so I play into the game.

"STOP! Maddie! Don't go by your dad! He's a dangerous man! He's going to cut up your face!"

She just laughs and smiles at me. "He just wants to cut my pizza face."

When we first arrived in Singapore I didn't get my mixer for three months, then a transformer to run it for another two months. An American family simply cannot live without pizza so we started buying the frozen premade crusts and they are a total hit. I might be converted. It's so easy!

My kids are totally predictable though when it comes time to make their own. Maddie always makes a face out of whatever ingredients we have around the house that day. Ben loves breadsticks so much that he always makes half a cheese pizza and the other half becomes breadsticks. Jacob always makes the huge one that Brian and I share. (We give him pieces of Maddie's because, well, she never finishes hers anyway.)

Passports, Black Socks and Orange Julius

On Monday I had to report to the US Embassy to claim my passport. I count myself as incredibly lucky that it was found AND returned to the embassy. I didn’t even notice it was gone. I would have freaked out next time we tried to travel and I couldn’t find it. I put it in the drink holder of my backpack after we returned from Hong Kong. Somewhere between the visa checkpoint and the parking lot it fell out. We didn’t even check luggage, just walked straight out. Inside the passport was my Singapore Dependent pass too so that is gone. I feel like an idiot.

In any case Brian came home from work early to take the kids to swim lessons since the pickup window is only open from 3:00 – 3:30 pm. I got my passport and then hit Toys R Us for diapers for Jacob and searched for black socks for Ben. Apparently there is a law here in Singapore that I didn’t know about. Thou shalt not wear black socks. Or maybe it’s a commandment. I had previously looked at three different stores for black socks he could wear to church with no luck. Right outside the Toys R Us is an entire level of specifically children’s clothes. I went into eight different shops (I counted). I looked myself and then asked each and every clerk for black socks. Nope. Only 3 of the stores even had navy blue socks. In the end, I paid $30 for three pairs of navy blue socks which I hope will pass for black. Rip off. Note to self. Only buy navy blue dress pants from now on.

The weather being as it is here, I was parched and as I went down six levels of escalators to get back to the basement any and everything cold seemed to be calling my name. Finally on the last level I caved when I saw a Dairy Queen/Orange Julius stand. The classic Orange Julius sounded cold and fantastic. I placed my order at the counter with the twenty something employee. He looked a bit surprised and repeated my order. Yep. Orange Julius, but now I was doubting myself and asked if they had that. He said that they had real, fresh juice if I would prefer that. It’s made of real fruit. Still confused I asked if they had the original orange Julius drink. Yes they do, but it is made of milk powder and sugar syrup. The juice is real fruit. Ummmm…. Okay. Kid, you have no idea the history I have with powdered milk. If you only knew. Let’s just say I don’t really have a problem with powdered milk. I was raised on it almost from birth and only just recently stopped drinking it because I can’t import that quantity of food into your lovely country. Yes. Gimme my drink kid. I’d like one sugary syrup, artificially flavored orange drink with milk powder. More power to you if you wanna be organic. It’s just not my cup of tea.

It was really good!

Dinner Conversation

At dinner tonight Jacob pointed to the pasta and said, "I want protein dinner." Then he let us know that he needed some applesauce to put on it, the stroganoff sauce. I told the family that I had run into a gal today that had never in her life had a Goldfish cracker. I had to snicker just a little bit since they are almost at the point of qualifying as their own food group in the States. She was visiting from London, doing her "looksie" to see if they really want to move here so she came with us to playgroup so she could ask the more seasoned moms all those vital questions that she needed to answers too. Brian's comment was, "She's lucky." Too funny.

Bread Bowl Fanatic

About two years ago, we came across a great recipe for bread bowls (a glorified dinner roll large enough to scoup out the middle and fill with soup). Angie found the recipe in Heather Gillespie's blog and decided to make it for our family dinner. She filled the bowls with our favorite Baked Potato Soup (which should be the subject of an upcoming post). Ben immediately fell in love--the bread was delicious and his favorite part was when he found out he could eat the bowl after eating the soup inside. Later, when we invited friends over to share in this wonderful dinner, Ben made a point of telling the guests that they wouldn't have to clean up their bowl because it would be gone. Since that time, every time we have soup Ben asks if we are going to have bread bowls. His favorite bowl comes from Heather's recipe. However, if we have not had time to make the "official" bowls, he looks around for a reasonable substitute. This past week Angie tried out a new potato soup recipe. Of course, Ben asked if we would have bread bowls. He was not deterred when we said no, but just looked around and saw a bag of dinner rolls on the counter. He selected a roll, hollowed it out, and filled it with soup. The roll was not very big--just large enough to fit only a couple of spoon fulls of soup. Ben quickly emptied the roll and asked for more soup. After repeating this pattern several times, I just set the pan of soup next to Ben and let him do the filling. Angie and I watched as he continued to fill and empty his bread bowl about a dozen times before he finally ate the bowl to complete the meal.

The Eleventh Commandment

Today Jacob broke the eleventh great commandment. "Thou shalt not waste potato salad from Claudia." I was horrified. This stuff is to be treasured about all things in this world. It is amazing. I asked for recipe once. It was something along the lines of..."a bit of this and some of that until it tastes just right and then you..." and I knew I was sunk. The phrase "to taste" translates to mean "Angie need not attempt this recipe." Claudia's potato salad is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I will never be able to replicate it, but I can relish every last bite. Jacob wanted to try it, so I gave him the tiniest little potato chunk. He liked it, so I gave him a second small bite. He promptly tried to spit it out and wipe off his tongue making a mess all over his face. All I could think was, "Don't WASTE IT!!!" It has the perfect zest, exquisite blend of mayo and mustard, a bit of crunch and tender, soft potatoes. Thanks, Claudia. You made my day today with your gift.

Adios Pam. We love you.

We had Chilean night the other day. When Pam moved, we got her fridge leftovers which included authentic Chilean empanadas and filo dough. I called Pam the other day to chat and find out how to actually make the empanadas. She recommended not trying my first attempt with the hard to work with filo, but after searching the fridge for other options and looking at the clock that read 5:30 pm and considering my children who kept asking for snacks, I just went for it. Now I'm sure they could have been prettier, but they weren't half bad for a beginner. Besides, they tasted great! Thanks Pam. We'll miss you!

Honey. I Lied.

I've maintained for our entire marriage that I don't like the taste of honey. Brian loves it. I'm a 100% red jam fan. PB & J sandwiches leave a weird taste in my mouth and I don't like it drizzled over anything. Uhhh...except scones. I've wanted scones for about two years now. In Utah you can go to Sconecutters anytime. Seems like their drive through window was open like 24 hours a day. Anyway, I bet it's been ten years since I had the pleasure of sinking my teeth into a light and fluffy scone delight. A year ago last July I even bought some apple butter with the intent to make scones, but it sat in my counter for months, then in the cupboard. Then Mali left me a deep fryer. Yesterday I got a hankering for scones and now I had a way to make them myself. I found a recipe from my favorite recipe website, All Recipes.com. Ben and I mixed the dough and let it rise while Jacob and Maddie napped. Okay. While Jacob napped and Maddie went back and forth from her bed to the kitchen telling us she had finished her nap and me sending her back upstairs to try again to sleep. When the dough had risen to fill the entire mixing bowl it was time to start and we heated the oil. The kids enjoyed rolling the dough and cutting the scones out with a plastic cup. They weren't really interested in the final product. That is until they tasted it. I suppose the best way to sum it up is that we didn't have much room for dinner. So I forgot that I do love honey after all. There is nothing better than a hot scone dripping with honey. Sorry I lied to you Brian. And to the rest of you all, if Brian and I die next month, you'll know it is because our blood turned into vegetable oil. It's just too hard to resist corn dogs, french fries, scones and donuts are on the menu for next week.

Random

I don't know what happened or why, but I was a grouchy mom tonight. The day went well, there just weren't any breaks and I was done with the day about 90 minutes early. So here I sit on the couch with the laptop reading blogs and detoxing from my bad mood. Feels good with a fan blowing on me and silence has finally settled in with three sleepy heads snuggled into their pillows. Random thing happened today that I've been kicking myself about since noon. The bay window has been cracked for a year or so now and we finally got it replaced. After three reschedules, they came today to do the work. When it was all done, the guy told me not to touch the caulk for 12 hours (with all three kids at my feet listening in). I repeated and clarified to the little people NOT to touch the windows until tomorrow. Nods of agreement and understanding all around. Happy mama. I signed off and the guy was leaving when I hollered at him to put a little more caulk in one spot that had a gap larger than I would have liked to see. He said it didn't need it, but he would. As he ran to get the caulk gun from his truck, I leaned over to check it out and see if I was just being stupid and stuck my thumb right into the new, beautiful, perfect caulk. Idiot. I was so embarassed when he came back. He attempted to fix it as best he could, but it just can't be fixed. Again, Idiot. Oh well. Such is life. In some weird way, I know it's good for my kids to see me screw up and admit "Mommy made a bad choice" or "Mommy had an accident." So we'll chalk this one up to my stupidity and let it go. (Except that I'll see it everytime I come home for the next 20 years.) Dispite my foul mood today, I have to award ten points for Brian for rocking Jacob to sleep when I gave up and decided to let him cry himself to sleep. Plus ten more points for making homemade french fries for us tonight. I'm in love with Mali for bequeathing her deep fryer to us before she moved. Of course, now I can blame her if I get fat. I'm feeling random tonight.