Play Play With Play Dough

Playdough is one of Elgin's favourite games. He received a set when he was 4-year old. The problem with play is it sticks to surface of table when dried up. I would have a hard time cleaning up. Eventually the playdough will harden and Elgin would start bugging me to buy him new ones again. It was rather costly to get the child proof type as I was afraid he was tempted to put it into the mouth since the colors looked temptingly edible. So eventually I decided to make a playdough with safe ingredients myself.

Found some "recipes" for making playdough using flour. Basically 3 main ingredients are needed. Flour, salt, oil and baking powder. Then you just have to mix it with enough water and "cook" it using microwave. The salt, oil and baking powder function as preservatives together it will make the playdough stay fresh, soft and pliable for at least 2 weeks. In fact, we can keep the unused playdough in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for longer than a month. I was so glad that I finally discovered a safe and cost-saving solution. This is a perfect game for him as he can play alone.

Elgin loves to shape the playdough into all sorts of things he sees and the common ones are food items, animals or kitchen utensils. As he always observed me preparing food or making buns in the kitchen. His favourite shapes are rolled buns, plates and cups.

The playdough that I prepared is always plain as I do not want him to stain the table. When he was six, I sent him to art class and he started to learn using water colour to paint the playdough. One day when I reached home, Elgin showed me all his shaped playdough completed with paints which he placed on the table to dry up. I was so astonished to see that at this tender age, he already had a wild imagination.

Curiously, I point at the shaped dough one by one and ask him, "what is this babe?"

Take a look at the pictures below.

According to Elgin, it is (clockwise from top left to right)

A bell

A mug

A hammer

A hat

A snail

Need a close up? This second pic was taken with a flash light and from a different angle. What are you imagining about?

Baked Seafood Pasta

I love to play play with food. This recipe is similar to macaroni cheese baked. Except that you add in some seafood to call it seafood pasta. You can replace seafood with any other ingredients available from your kitchen. eg. ham, bacon, sausages, mixed frozen vegetables or even any left over cold meat. For a more extravagant treat, just replace shrimps with Lobsters and crabs and you can call it "seafood au gratin". Simple recipe and quick to make. Cheese lovers will love it !

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of colourful shell pasta (i mixed shell pasta with fetucine)
2. 1/2 can Campbell Cream of Chicken and Mushroom soup mixed with equal amount of water
3. Some seafood:shrimps, calamanri slices, white fish fillets, crab sticks and etc
4. 1 beaten egg
5. 1 onion, sliced
6. Few cloves of garlic, chopped
7. 1 capsicum, cut into cubes
8. 2 tomatoes, cut into cubes
9. 1 cup milk
10. 50 g of Edam cheese/cheddar cheese/any other strong flavoured cheese
11. Some parmesan powder or mozarella cheese slice (basically you just add any cheeses and amount according to your own preference- you can call it 3-cheese pasta if you add 3 varieties)
12. Chopped fresh parsley /basil/ cilantro/oregano (whatever herbs you preferred, dried mixed herbs are okay too)

Methods:

1. Cook pasta in boiling salted water till tender, drained.
2. Heat up a little oil in the pan, fry onion and garlic till fragant, add in pasta and the vege and stir fried for 5 min.
3. Transfer all the ingredients including the seafood into a baking dish.
4. Pour in the egg mixture with Cream of Chicken and Mushroom Soup and enough milk to cover the pasta.
5. Stir well with the mozarella cheese slices
6. Top with more cheeses
7. Sprinkle the top with mixed herbs
8. Bake covered for 15 min at 220 degree celcius. Then another 15 min uncovered to brown the cheese topping.

Korean Village

Went with my sis in law to look for her friend at Korean Village yesterday. This is a little Korean residential in Ampang. A popolar place to hunt for authentic Korean restaurants and stuff. My sis in law recommended to look for Korean-made ice creams which she claimed really delicious. As I was craving for the 3-in-1 Korean coffee beverage sticks which are not easily available. So thought it's a good idea to just hop into one of the Korean mart to get it . There are more than 4 groceries marts in just few rows of shoplots. We hopped into one shop which was situated at the corner to look for ice creams. I was fascinated with so many made-in-Korea stuff. I made the mistake for not comparing prices. Some items are sold without price label so it is always wise to check the price before paying. When we got into other shops later, we realised that the prices for the groceries sold in the corner shop seemed much dearer compared to other outlets in the intermediate lots. Also, goods at the smaller outlets are cheaper too. Despite these are all supermarts, the price from one shop to another may vary in a region of 10%-30%. For example one packet with 100 sticks of 3-in-1 coffee in one shop costs RM65 and in another shop only costs RM40. However when comparing with Jusco and Cold Storage, some of the Korean stuff here are relatively cheaper, according to my sis in law, some items are more cheaper here than paying it in Korea. For example my favourite Korean noodle (pic below) costs RM13.90 at Jusco but only sold at RM10.00 in one of the marts.

This is a watermelon shaped ice cream- are you tempting to get a bite?

The honey dew ice cream is creamily yummy with mildly sweet and refreshing honey dew flavour. It is a must-try! Bumped into one Middle East shop, the punget smell of the Middle East spices really kick your senses up. Met the eyes were many more unique items, for example this one "garlic shampoo" in the pic below. Dare to try?

It's soon passed noon time and our stomach started to rumble. So we decided to have our lunch at one of the Korean restaurants. I decided on Nak Won since I have not tried this one before. Ordered a set of BBQ Pork Ribs, Kimchi Pancake, and Bibimbap(pronounced as "Pibimpap"). The order exceeded RM35 and a bowl of steamed eggs (taste like chawan mushi) was given on the house. Later we realised we have ordered too much food for 3 person and have to get the waiter to bungkus half of the Kimchi pancake for take away. Total food bill came to RM66.00. Service charge was waived as we paid by cash.

This Bibimbap resembles our claypot rice with crunchy vegetables.

Look at the groceries I bagged home from 3 shops!Below is my favourite Korean coffee!