The modern parenting

Babies needs are rather marginal...however modern marketing has made parents think that babies need everything! New gizmos and gadgets that never even existed when we were babies or when our parents were babies! I have to admit I've taken into some of the marketing hype in regards to baby products...right now I'll be happy to have the basics when the baby is born :). I am out of energy just looking at those baby things. Yeah they are cute and great but my brain can only absorb so much at this point.

At first I was only looking for things for the first few months...and come to realize how fast babies actually grow and outweighing the price of items :S. I'm taking in any baby clothes used...I've also purchase a few of my own and will purchase something I like the baby to wear when we're going out or visiting. I'm just trying to figure out if I REALLY need everything I'm going to buy or thought of buying. So I'll make a list and strike them out depending on how much these things cost.

In the meantime surfing the net for baby items is just giving me a migraine (which I already have without doing so). Now for some phood... ^___^

Mah Curry Puff

Ingredients

Water Dough:
350 gm of flour
about 3/4 dl of oil
about 1 1/2 dl of water
pinch of salt to taste

Grease Dough:
180-200 gm of flour
100-130 gm of margarine/butter (I prefer margarine it's easier to work with and doesn't taste too heavy, plus you can make this ultimately vegan without using any form of animal product)

Filling:
2-3 Large potatoes diced to about 0.5 cm cubes or smaller but not minced. (preferable all purpose potatoes, the hard ones take too long to cook and the mashed type...well you know <_<)

Other:
1 litre of oil for frying

Method:

Let's start with the filling since it takes a bit longer to prepare. Put oil in a large wok or frying pan and heat until medium hot. Reduce the heat and add in garlic and onions. Fry until soft. Put in the curry paste and curry leaves and fry until fragrant in low heat (about 3 mins should be enough to avoid drying). Now increase the heat to medium -high and throw in the potatoes and a bit of water at a time and keep frying until potatoes are cooked. Towards the end add the sugar and salt. Taste and adjust to your liking. (Note: I use sugar to bring out the taste of the potatoes, you may reduce the amount as this filling is not meant to be too sweet or else it'll be curry dessert and it's not that nice <_<).

Water dough: Mix all ingredients together and knead into a firm dough.

Grease dough: Pinch melted margarine into flour and mix into a firm dough.

Split both water dough and grease dough to equal amounts of little doughs (around 4 balls?). Water dough is approximately 1 1/2 times bigger than the grease dough.

O - size of water dough (not to scale :P)
o- Size of grease dough (not to scale :P)

Wrap the grease dough inside the water dough and seal them and leave under cling wrap to avoid drying until all dough is completed.

Now take one of the dough balls and flatten it into a long oval sort of like a flat loaf (or shape of naan bread with even ends) avoid breaking the dough so that the grease dough reveals. Now roll the dough like you would a swiss roll tugged in tigthly avoiding air in between. Use a sharp knife and cut the roll into 1 cm cookie like slices. After all the rolls are cut, flatten the cookie like slices into a nice round pastry crust and put about 1-2 tsp of filling in each, fold in half and pleat the sides to seal. Avoid stretching the dough too much since broken dough makes holes that would cause hell while frying as the filling touches the oil and POPS!. Otherwise wear a biohazard or space suit while frying to avoid oil burns.

Peanut at 19 weeks and 2 days!!!

Here are some crooked pics of Peanut...but in any case look how much it has grown! It didn't like being peeked on very much but anyhow we manage to take some measurements of the legs, head and arms...everything seemed normal except that it was still rather big!

My beautiful new watch and more!!!

Yay... Jani gots it for me as a Valentine's day gift ^___^ It's so pretty in real...I have to take really good care of it as it's not like my plastic swatches that comes with those protectors....This is soooooo pretty!!!! :) Will take some pics of it later ^__^.

I will put up more ultrasound pics of the baby kicker... Peanut has grown so much that he/she starts to look more and more like a baby :)

I found something I like!!!

I was browsing my ebay for sometime last evening and came across some watches...Normally I'd buy those bulky Baby G's as they are somewhat cool in my opinion. Lately I think the clothes I wear to work with a bulky Baby G just doesn't cut it anymore. So I started to look for watches that could be passed off as jewellery. I use to be quite a Swatch fan but not having too much money I only collected a "few". Here's where I found the watch "Buysawatch.co.uk". I'll try to look for it in Finland if I don't find it then I might look for this in UK :). Have to test the strap as I have fat wrists >__<

Ready for another disappointing Valentine's

Finnish guys are not normally best known for their Romanticism...but more of their boozing talents. I got a guy who is some what not into boozing and as for romantic...well it depends... Year after year this day has gotten somewhat significantless. Apart from it also being dear hubby's birthday which would mean extra work for me to make this day special...and getting less in return...Sometimes I just wonder if it's even worth the effort if I get nothing in return...It only seems that I'm the only one making an effort for this day. I just want to say screw it this year it's nothing special! BUT IT IS!!! I'm also bloomin' pregnant and for some reason I feel that this year it's going to be another BIG BIG BIG disappointment... I'm not making anymore efforts... I'm too tired of it. I'll just think of it as just another birthday and be done with it.

It would be nice to hint what you would like for once...and also to be remembered not to remind. It's freaking frustrating when you have to keep reminding someone it's a special day...It loses some meaning or even the element of a special day just becomes a day of nagging disappointment. I always feel a bit sad approaching Valentine's Day...especially the last 9 years...OH YES....you hear me right.....! So don't tell me I'm over-reacting...okay ranting off now I need to be sleeping before the Tummy-tenant wakes up and spoils my sleep. I'll get through this in one piece... I hope :)

One more recipe

I took some pics the first time I made gyoza it was a success but we had too much to eat hence we were both (hubby and me) exploding from gyoza's. Never the less we had quite some leftovers *ahem* so I froze them until I found the gyoza wrappers again from the Japanese store. I must say using the 'Wo Tip' wrappers give a different taste... Since 'Wo-tip' wrappers may not contain eggs (read 'MAY NOT') depending on the recipe they use to make the wrappers. I wouldn't go as far as to use wanton wrappers for Gyoza as it would be an utterly big mistake plus it tastes different...

This week is my sick week...I have too many doctors appointments this week that I barely have time to sort myself out. One appointment I'm looking forward to is the ultrasound appointment to see the baby cow. At this point I couldn't be bothered if it's a boy or girl...Just have to be grateful for what you get huh? Of course I've always wanted girls but boys can be fun too....right? Anyways, I'm planning to make phad thai today but since I had left over nasi-lemak I decided to eat that first....Jani is craving for the double chocolate mousse I made him (last time was about 1 1/2 - 2 years ago *crikey*) I got the recipe from some BBC magazine but changed the recipe a little as I can't find 1/4 the ingredients in Finland. Nevertheless chocolate mousse is something Jani absolutely cannot keep his hands off :P I'll make only two glasses of it....let's see what gives :D

My My Gyoza!

More or less like Japanese version of the Chinese 'Wo- Tip' instead of just steaming it's sorta grilled then semi steamed.

• 400 grams ground pork
  
• 2 - 2.5 dl chopped cabbage (boiled and cooled)
  
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying, or as
• 1 small green/yellow onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger (REALLY minced)
  
• 1 egg
• salt and white pepper to taste

In a bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked cabbage, onion, minced ginger, egg, soya sauce, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Mix well until all ingredients are well combined to avoid having saltier spots.



Place gyoza wrappers in front of you. Wet the edges with water. Place a teaspoon or two of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the sides up to form a semicircle, and then pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the rest of the gyoza wrappers until the filling is gone. (I'm lazy so I bought meself a gyoza clamping thing-a-me-bob)

To cook, heat 2 tablespoon oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high to high heat. Add 12 - 15 of the gyoza and cook for 2 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom (Eh, GOLDEN BROWN not BURNT!).

Add 250 ml of water to the frying pan. Cover the dumplings and cook until the water is absorbed (8 minutes). Repeat the procedure until all your dumplings are out.



Tip: I usually buy the frozen wrappers from the oriental store/asian store. I have a recipe to make those wrappers too but when you make them yourself, the wrappers tend to become thicker than the ones made from the store and the size...don't even let me start! <__<