My Most Successful White Bread

I decided to bake for my parents today as they are coming to visit.  Usually, the white bread that I bake had one minor imperfection.  That is the top is very white while the other sides are nicely brown.  Something like below.

My first attempt to making rosemary bread

Anyway, the ingredients to the bread I made today using the bread machine as follows:-

235ml warm water

25g     white sugar

7g       bread machine yeast

60ml   vegetable oil

410g   bread flour ( I used high protein bread flour)

6g       salt

30g     mixed goodies (psyllium husk, flax seed, oat bran, buckwheat)

The directions as below....

According to my dad, weighing directly inside the mixer is the most accurate.

Activate the yeast by putting in water, sugar and yeast.  Wait for 10 minutes and the result will be like above or at times even more bubbles.....

After activating the yeast, add the remaining ingredients ( I forgot to take a photo) and just put it in the machine and start the cycle.  The above photo was taken after the machine started kneading.

3 hours later......

Nice and yummy bread!

Waiting for it to cool

Top View of the bread

Side view of the bread

Another side view of the bread

I will try to bake some buns once I can find a tray that can fit in my convection oven.  Otherwise, I will need to get a new oven..** Hint Hint hubby**

The "Love" Virus.....

While I was enjoying my "woo hoo" holiday in Singapore, my little baby came down with a fever.  I was not even aware until I came home.  Anyway, grandmama and grandpapa noticed that Aston is having fever.  Grandpapa even felt a little paranoid because he took him for a quick dip in the pool just hours before and thought he caught a cold.

Anyway, grandmama was worried that his temperature may go very high in the middle of the night and decided to bring him to the doctor and have him check out.  The doctor said that the fever is very mild and is due to teething.  Grandmama gave Aston some Neurofen and the fever subsided.  Grandmama noticed that once the medication wears off the fever will return.

On the way back from Singapore, I started to feel my throat a bit sore.  I knew that I'm falling sick and told grandmama to bring along her Manuka honey.  During my pregnancy with Aston, I fell ill once and because I couldn't take any medication I tried Manuka honey and it worked.  However, this time round the virus was too strong.  I felt horrible the next day maybe due to lack of sleep.  I couldn't sleep well as I kept waking up to check on Aston's temperature.

Aston had a high temperature in the middle of the night and I had to wake him up to give him his medication.   The next day I told papa that we need to go see the doctor as I am feeling very horrible and Aston is coming down with some cough.  Doctor told me that it's viral and no point giving me any antibiotics.  He prescribed some vitamins to boost my antibody and let my body fight the virus instead.  Aston also caught the virus and I suspect is from papa because he was sick before the trip! Anyway, Aston too was being told that he needs to fight of the virus on his own.  Aston also developed congested nose and had trouble falling asleep.  After we came home from the clinic, Aston fever shot up to 39 degree and I quickly administer the suppository as advised by the doctor.  Initially, I was a bit worried on how am I going to administer it but when the time comes I just did it! I ended up letting him sleep on my bed and on my pillow so that I can immediately attend to him when he starts coughing or couldn't fall back asleep as his nose was congested and also easier for me to take his temperature.

So, both Aston and I was so sick and that's how we welcome 2012....by spending time in bed.  It was so bad for Aston that we even look high and low for a pediatrician but none was open due to public holiday.  We ended up going to Pantai and got a medical officer to check him out.   After one week, we finally recovered well not 100% but 99%.  We still left with a bit of phlegm that just refused to go away.

Aston's sickly look...

Not a very happy boy....

Waiting for the Medical Officer in Pantai Hospital

Still waiting.......

And waiting.......

Can't wait no more..let's explore!

Hmm... Aston suddenly felt much better...

Daddy felt sad for Aston's discomfort

This is how Aston sleep due to his congested nose

 

Ahhhh......Money Well Spent........

Hubby and I went for a one night trip to Singapore after Christmas.  Actually, the purpose of the trip was to drive hubby's aunt back to Singapore.  So I took this opportunity to take a short break and spend some quality time just the two of us.  

After I settled Aston, we drove him to my parents' house before picking hubby's aunt in Subang.  I thought I will feel very heavy hearted after leaving Aston at my parents' place but somehow I was looking forward and couldn't wait to reach Singapore just like a small girl going for a holiday! Perhaps deep down I am desperate for a break.  Or maybe the idea of staying in St. Regis even for just one night overpower my heavy heart.

We arrived Singapore quite late because we decided to stop over in Malacca for lunch.  We were hoping the GPS will bring us to some authentic Nyonya food but unfortunately the GPS bring us to a restaurant that cannot be found! We spend nearly 1 hour looking for restaurant after restaurant listed in the GPS but all no where to be seen plus the heavy traffic in town we lost our patience and decided to just park around Jonker's Street and grab whatever we can find.  We ended up having Wanton Mee that all 3 of us agreed does not resemble Wanton Mee at all.  

We dropped by aunt's house and had dinner before driving to St. Regis.  We were a bit phobia with the GPS after our incident in Malacca.  Anyway, surprisingly it was very accurate and we arrived St. Regis without any error.  The moment we arrived St. Regis we were greeted by the porter.  We were asked whether do we want to valet the car and being a 'kiasu' hubby asked whether can we parked ourselves.  At the back of our mind we were thinking it must cost a bomb for it to be valet parked at St. Regis....but surprise..surprise... it's complimentary! So of course being a typical 'kiasu' we immediately said OK to the valet.

The porter helped us with our bag and brought us to the reception area for check in.  Suddenly we felt like some rich and fabulous.  The check-in was a breeze and we were being showed where we can have our breakfast the next day.  The porter then brought us up to our room.  And this is what our room looks like...ahh heavenly!

Entrance to the room from the inside

To the left of the foyer in the room.  There's no coffee/tea making facilities in the room as we have 24hours butler service  that will make us coffee / tea on our request

Another view of the bar.  In the drawers are tidbits and mini fridge

The elegant writing desk.  Flat screen tv and Bose hi-fi system to the right.

Our King Size Bed

The sofa by the window with automated blinds

Wash Basin for Him

Free Standing Bath Tub with TV

Wash Basin for Her

Shower with Jet and Rainfall shower head....ohh How I miss you!

I am a terrible photographer.  I have actually missed the walk in wardrobe and the touch screen telephone.  So anyway, the bed is just perfect.  Not too firm or too soft.  There's also a pillow menu which again I have missed out.  Only found out minutes before we check out.  Roughly went through the list there's all sorts of pillow ie down feather, firm, U shape etc.. The sound system was excellent! There were two jazz CD given and the music makes the room even more romantic.  We even get to choose the lighting to set the right ambience.  

The breakfast served was really good as well especially the eggs station.  They even served eggs benedict.  Hubby said that the 'har gow' was really good because it was whole prawn inside.  Anyway, we had a long breakfast to enjoy as much food as we can because everything was so good.  

Overall, it was money well spent! No regrets and I wonder when we will ever get a chance to indulge in such luxury again......

Aston's Progress @ 9months

I just realised that I have not blogged about Aston's progress at 9 months.  Frankly, the month passed by so quickly that I have no idea what to blog about Aston's progress!? Oh...yes let's start by Aston's recent statistics.  Aston now weighs 8.8kg and 70cm in height.  It seems that Aston had dropped from his current percentile in both his weight and height but the doctor assured us that he is still very healthy and I should continue what I'm doing.

Aston now eats 3 solid meals a day and he has progressed from being a vegetarian to a meat eater.  Yes, I have finally started introducing white meat to him.  He doesn't seem to enjoy it as much maybe because the meat is not as tender as it should be and caused him to choke occasionally.  I tried my best to make the meat as fine as possible from using commercial mince pork to even chopping the meat myself but somehow  some of the meat still turns out quite chunky for Aston.  Again, I am in such a dilemma because the doctor did mentioned that I should be introducing lumpy food to Aston but what consist as "lumpy" food? I noticed that even soft carrots that I chopped instead of mashed he will still gag.  Anyway, I still continue to puree the vegetables especially vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage before putting into the porridge.  I am still waiting for hubby to buy me a handheld blender so that I can make more variety for Aston such as chicken & vegetable stew, instead of porridge every lunch and dinner.

Well, in terms of development Aston can crawl a little bit now but loves to try standing when holding onto a bolster or our body.  Anyway, here are a few of Aston's latest photos.