I'm a full-time mummy

Last Saturday was my 1st baking class conducted by my 1st SIL. She came prepared with her ingredients and equipments (she even brought a spare portable oven in case the one she gave us recently didn't work). The entire lesson last for less than 2 hours and consists of 3 recipes using oven. 

I'm so sorry there are no pictures taken at all because everything is rushed and I also had to quickly scribbled down the instructions that I managed to remember and also pay attention to my SIL (and also watch out for Ben). So before I forget, here are my notes:

1. Roasted Chicken Wings

Seasonings:

* Little bit of honey, soy sauce & thick soy sauce (Can use other types depend on your taste bud)

Instructions:

2. BBQ Pork (Char Siew)

Ingredients: Pork cut to strips

Seasonings: 1 tsp ginger powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tbsp sesame seed oil, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp white pepper, 4-5 tbsp sugar, Lit bit of honey, red coloring & thick soy sauce

Instructions:

3. Muffins

Ingredients: Pre-mix muffin pack, 2 eggs beaten, 135ml oil, 135ml water

Instructions:

I'm sorry if the instructions are pretty blur and not detail enough. I have tried my best to jot down everything but it's really not easy, especially when your teacher is measuring things based on her rough estimation.

And the muffin recipe, although it's using pre-mix, I was told I should start with easy ready made ingredients to get used to baking. And I'm not experienced at all in writing down recipes so I'm not sure I'm jotting down the right words and baking terms or not :P

I hope to be able to take pictures the next time I start baking on my own!

So there you go, my 1st baking class!

Oh well, it's summer all year long in Malaysia anyway, so everyday is a perfect day for summer!

In any case, here are some of the recent photos of Ben which I'd say described

a picture perfect summer!

Ben pouring water from the mini water sprinkler to a mini pail...

Ben trying to smack some air bubles using his mini water sprinkler...

Ben walking around with his colorful mini windmill at our porch...

Ben practising his coloring at our porch...

Ben looking out and enjoying the rain...

This post is written as part of this week's Writer's Workshop.

I was feeling pretty upset this morning. Decided to try to use the oven for the 1st time by baking a ready-made pizza dough. Just required a few instructions to follow along using the oven and you can have the pizza ready to eat in about 15 minutes. Thought I'd give the oven a try, and also give me a mini boost to conquer my fear of baking first.

The pizza calls for the following instruction:

1. Preheat oven to 220℃

2. Take out pizza dough from box and internal plastic wraps

3. Put pizza dough right in center and bake for about 8-10minutes, or until cheese melted and you see the crust is golden yellow

4. Ready to eat!

Simple right?

I thought this is just a mini warm up start for me to get used to following instructions on baking and using the oven... But, the moment I got ready the oven, I hear this coming from my MIL:

"What? You are going to start using the oven already? Sigh... you all just do things for fun because it's a new thing" (I'm translating this from Cantonese to English.. the words in Cantonese were harsher... it's actually 'San Si Hang' which practically means new toilet seat.. something which Chinese like to say to represent people getting excited for the first few moments over new stuff and then forget and stop doing it when they get bored of it)

So anyway, yeah.. those 3 Cantonese words goes to my ears and stabs right in my heart. Maybe you think I'm over-reacting but it hurts.

Baking things IS a new thing for me. Is it wrong for me to get excited over this new thing?

But who is she to assume this excitement is going to pass? And I'm still wondering what else I did that made her assume that?

I told her nicely that "If everytime someones tries to attempt something new and you go telling the same 3 words to people, how will they get encouraged to continue on? You already branded people that way and assume people is going to stop doing it. Can't you be more encouraging?" She kept quiet after that.

Sorry for venting out but I reminded her that she is the same person who told me 'Guns and weapons won't hurt people if you leave it there, but a mouth can turn a gun and weapons to hurt someone. A mouth can tell someone to get a gun or weapon and hurt someone'.

So why is she doing this?

Nevertheless, I grit my teeth and continue on with the pizza thing and now that I'm typing this, I'm more determined to prove her wrong. I thought to myself.. why am I letting her discourage me? True, it's her mouth and I cannot tape it shut and I've got no control over what she wants to say but I got control over my ears.

I can choose to ignore and NOT listent to those negative words. Read: Ephesians 4:29 (NIV), John 14:1 (NIV)

My 1st SIL is coming this weekend to show me some demo on a few of her baking recipes. Wish me luck with my baking adventure!

Read: Mark 10:27 (NIV), Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV), Philippians 4:13 (NIV), Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)