someone is turning two

Oh, it's July again and my baby boy is turning two! How fast he's growing:) Therefore, I'm planning to throw him a party. Can you guess what the theme will be from the pictures below? 

They said it all, eh? He's in love with the toy and he can name all the cars living in Radiator Springs :) So, it's only fair that I surround him with his 'muse' with a little twist. It's two weeks till his birthday and ideas are racing in my head. Let's see how it all turns out :)

images from google

good buys

I'm loving what I bought this mid-year. And one thing in common from all three: I got them all for a loving price :)

The Eames Fiber Dinning chair bought at Informa. It's price had just been reduced. Yayy! It would be one nice chair to sit at my garage sale dining table. Still dreaming when I can place them in my own house ;) 

Dreamesh Living's medium sized pouf. It is meant for the kid, but I also found out it makes a good pad for your laptop when you work sitting down on the floor. Perfect height. Thanks, Amesh!

Gold summer sandals I shopped online here. Do you know the 'Splurge VS Save' segment on Rachel Ray's show? Well, this is definitely the Save version. The Splurge version costs nearly four times as much! 

simple home-made lasagna

It didn't last long, eventhough the pasta wasn't as soft as I thought it should be and I should have put in some more tomato puree. Speaking of it not lasting long, that's why the picture above is not my original lasgana pic, but I swear it did look something like this! :D It wasn't the red kind of lasagna because I used fresh tomatos and not ready-made tomato puree, and the mushrooms were domninant so it made the sauce kind of dark in color. The camera battery was low and the handphone pics were awful, and we were starving and couldn't wait to try ;) Enough of the excuses, here's the recipe!

ingredients:
- 6 ripe red tomatos, chopped finely (I would use 10 tomatos the next time)
- 1/4 kg minced beef
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 galic, chopped
- 1 pack champignon mushrooms, chopped
- tomato sauce
- salt, pepper, oregano
- lasagna sheets
Mix all together in a frypan, onions and garlic first, beef, mushromms, tomatos. Leave it cooking for a while so the juice from the tomatos come out. Season with salt n pepper n herbs, mix and let it sit for a minute or two.

white sauce:
- milk
- flour, dilute with hot water before pouring into the milk
- cheese, grated
- salt n pepper for flavorPour the milk in a pan and let it bubble on the stove. Mix in the flour paste, cheese, salt n pepper. Done.

Layer the lasagna sheets, white sauce, filling in a pyrex bowl, and repeat layering. Make sure you leave a bit of white sauce for the very top and add some grated cheese before you put the dish in a preheated oven. Bake for at least 30 minutes. Cool for a while before serving :)

a heart for japan

My prayers and thoughts for Japan.

Card can be bought here. Image found via print & pattern

www.smolies.com

I'm blaming this for the lack of posts (my bad!) :p To make a long story short, I have made my mind up and am now running my online shop www.smolies.com , an online shop for baby and kids apparel. So other than writing, I'm also selling branded clothes, from bodysuits, tops and bottoms, to shoes, socks, and other cute stuff for babies, girls and boys. Therefore, the last two months I have been doing a whole lot of research, collecting products, dealing with wholesale dealers, photograping the products, editing the pictures, uploading them, and getting the online shop spick and span ready to run. The last bit I got a lot of help from the husband (thankgod).  I would have never knew how an online shop works and that they are that sophisticated. A lot to learn but do-able. And because what I'm selling are cute kids stuff, it doubles the fun. Last week, I launched smolies.com through its fanpage here and twitter account here. To suit its tagline, hopefully it shall be a little place for cute goods, only for your smallies :)

Below is a capture of www.smolies.com homepage. Come take a look and shop if you must ;)

classic pasta in tomato paste

This classic recipe can use any kind of pasta and meat. I used spiral pasta and minced beef. Tuna also tastes great with this dish. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: 

- Pasta, cook according to the instructions. Put aside.

- 4 large red tomatoes, diced and mashed

- 1 large onion and 3 garlic, finely chopped 

- minced beef

- salt, pepper, sugar, oregano

- a handful of parsley, chopped 

1. Pour in 2 lugs of oil in a hot pan, saute the onions, add beef until brown. 

2. Add in the tomatoes and spices (all to meet your taste, I don't use any measurements), stir until all the juice from the tomatoes come out.

3. Throw in the parsley and mix for another minute.

4. Mix in the pasta and stir til the sauce is thoroughly mixed with the pasta.

Add some chili sauce if you want yours more spicy. I didn't add any coz this is also my kids' menu for lunch ;)

happy (late) new year 2011

 

 This is a picture of the fireworks we took from the rooftop where we spent our new years eve. So you see, I didn't quite catch the works but instead I think this picture shows how my 2010 went - like the speed of light. Dead fast! Many happy moments and dreams came true for my family last year and am hoping many more goals to come true in 2011. I wish everyone the very best for 2011. Hugs and kisses.