It all started with a chemical induction on 31 May 2012 at 7.30am in the morning. Gosh were the contractions unbelievably unbearable, and increasingly so. By 3pm I was begging for the epidural. All the antenatal and natural child birth classes where they teach you to breathe your baby down flew out of the window. It was hard to see how the breathing could have eased the two contractions per minute that were coming hard and fast. I suspect it was due to the induction and Hector did not have enough time to turn. At 4pm approval for epidural was granted and by 5pm I was happily sedated, but boy was the process difficult! I would describe it as an ordeal. While they were threading the epidural down my spine, I was enduring a contraction after another and my waters broke. I was shivering and shuddering violently and no amount of practiced breathing helped, and I began to hyperventilate. The anaesthetist was puzzled as to my hyperventilation. In fact, I shivered during the whole of the cesarean operation due to the epidural drugs. I had to have an emergency c-section because Hector wasn’t turning and his heart rate was quickly falling. My ob said my placenta was breaking down, and by the time they pulled baby out, there was little or no amniotic fluid and he had done a poo, so they had to ventilate the meconium out of his lungs when they took him out. He didn’t cry. My boy didn’t cry when they pulled him out. I was surprised and rather worried. Kept looking over my shoulder to see if he was alright while they sewed me up. He was already holding his head up when he came out, and looking for food 🙂 Unfortunately because it was a cesarean I couldn’t feed him until an hour later when I was wheeled into the room and he immediately latched onto my breast. Poor chap. Hubby said he kept wanting to eat looking for my breast all the time from when he came out. The epidural did provide a lot of relief, but what I didn’t like about it was the helplessness I felt – the catheter for instance; when I bled the nurses had to clean up after me; and I could not feel my lower half of the body and my right upper thigh. I suspected my baby did not have time to turn due to the fast and furious contractions. In fact, I was dilated at 10 cm but he could not come out in spite of my efforts at pushing. Did I imagine I would have a cesarean and it came true? The difficulty with a cesarean (especially an emergency one) is the emotional and physical toil post operation. I kept going over in my head whether it was because of the choices we made earlier on to hold off the inevitable induction hoping that somehow my body would birth naturally at 40 weeks and 5 days. The physical obstacle was of course breast feeding. My milk took a really long time to come in, and when it did, I didn’t make enough. This became a major problem in the weeks to come when I had to confront my ability to breast feed and the confinement nanny’s snide remarks about my baby not eating enough, but this is another story for another post. We couldn’t figure out why he was always crying at the hospital. We had to be there for 5 days. In the end after my parents arrived, they pointed out that it was because he was cold. The hospital air conditioning was really cold, but I couldn’t feel it because I was heated up all the time post operation. One of the nurses saw how hungry Hector was and suggested we supplement with a bottle of formula. It became a nightly affair until we were told by another nurse whom I really didn’t like that we had to bring our own formula, which left me almost in tears. It was only when I explained to her my situation (the emergency c-section and my milk supply) did she appear sympathetic and said it was alright, but the negative first encounter was already established. I would never forget this moment when we first met. She came in and took one look at my chart and said that this was the day when most women get postpartum depression – was I alright? If I was before, I sure wasn’t anymore. She had a very witchy look about her with a sharp nose and fake looking teeth. She stood really close to me when she was talking to me, which was rather unnerving. When I was changing Hector and using a nappy rash cream, she chided me – why are you using that? When I took so long to put on the nappy, she brushed me aside and demanded, ‘here let me do it’ she said. When he dirtied himself, she used water to wipe his already fragile skin causing him more distress. I was pretty unhappy and traumatised by her demeanour. i guess the overall cesarean birth left me feeling somewhat disempowered, a feeling which was compounded and magnified by the arrival of my parents with the confinement nanny in tow. But that’s a story for another day.
Meatballs Mexican-style ~ from SMH 16/05/2012
This recipe looks delish! Should try it some day… yum yum yum!
In love with brown rice
Brown rice… the cornerstone of every nutritious dinner 🙂 Yes… hubby and I are quite inclined towards brown rice these days. The only small difficulty is that brown rice is better cooked (and eaten) after it has been soaked. My mum says you should soak it overnight and some websites say 20-30 minutes is sufficient. We try to soak it as much as we can… but the tricky part is that sometimes, you don’t plan in advance whether you are going to have rice for dinner or not. In that case, I just read that the water can be drained and the rice can be stored in the refrigerator. Brown rice is healthier than white rice! Just google the benefits of brown rice. Though I sometimes miss eating white rice or maybe just rice in general. In Singapore my mother tends to mix both brown rice and white rice for us. She has a way of cooking both somehow. The proportion of water for cooking brown rice also differs from white rice. The general rule is 1:2; so 1 cup of brown rice takes 2 cups of water to cook. My rice cooker specifically stipulates that 1 cup of brown rice should be cooked in 1.5 cups of water. I guess that’s the convenience of rice cookers. Though I know some people who swear by boiling rice and I do think that there is some merit to boiling rice over the stove – it turns out better? I haven’t tried and I don’t think I will in the near future! I am open to feedback what works for you.
Simple Oxtail Soup
My husband loves this version of oxtail soup 🙂 So I thought I’d share this recipe on my blog. It’s not an original recipe as I lifted it from another blog but I’ve innovated it and make little changes here and there. I’ll type it out from memory to see if I can remember… it’s really very simple. I bought the oxtails from the supermarket, there are usually six pieces. Some of the pieces are really small but they are really bone sucking delicious (oops does that sound a tad offensive?!) The only downside of this soup is that its a little too oily after the boiling is done and dusted, after 2 hours. I think it comes from the oxtails. So I try to scoop the top layer of oil out and cook something else in it. Last night I used the oil to fry the onions and garlic for lamb curry.
You need
6 – 8 pieces of oxtails
1 clove garlic
1 onion diced
5-6 or 6-8 tomatoes (diced) or tinned tomatoes
1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste
Beef stock or water
White wine or if you’re preggers like me, I added a splash or two splashes of apple cider vinegar (which is also a good substitute to wine) to tease out the bone minerals
200 ml of cream
A bunch of coriander roughly chopped
Method
1. Dice onion, garlic and tomatoes (I just put them in a blender and blend blend blend!)
2. Coat oxtails in flour and brown them in some oil, take them out or leave them in if you like
3. Add onions and garlic and fry until fragrant, then add oxtails back in again (because sometimes the oxtails stick to the bottom of the pan like mine did when browning them, and it’s hard frying the onion and garlic when that happens)
4. Add tomatoes and tomato paste
5. Add some stock or water until it just covers the oxtails or as necessary
Boil for 2 and a half hours. Finally, add cream and boil for a little while more… and you can either puree the soup or serve as is with the chopped coriander, which is what I did 🙂
34 weeks
I’m 34 weeks and counting today… YIKES?!! Hah hah no it’s great. All this anticipation is killing me! Can’t wait to stop reminding myself to:
Not to sit with my legs crossed
Sleep on my left side
Drink more orange juice (as opposed to coke)
Stay away from the occasional glass of wine
Not feel bad for missing out on social occasions
Not feel bad when my career is going to be placed on hold for the next couple of years
Not feel bad when I feel like a dumb cow
Isn’t pregnancy (or should I say, having a child) great? ALL that self sacrifice is supposed to be worth it – so they say. To be honest, I’m a mixed bag of thoughts. On the one hand, it’s the next step in life so it makes sense. It’s going to be wonderful, some people say. On the other hand, it’s going to be SUCH a drastic and dramatic change in lifestyle that it will take some getting used to. Especially the things women have had to sacrifice – their careers, financial security and those sorts of selfish material things you’re used to when you’re single, they say it’s all worth every penny. So ‘they’ tell you. They also make you feel bad when you want to return to work or chastise yourself for deciding to have kids. Why do it when you obviously are not prepared to make the sacrifices? In a patriarchal world, that reasoning sort of makes sense. But in a society when joint parenting is increasingly popular and share of sacrifices and household chores means that both parents make equal sacrifices (some more some less), and even so, it is usually almost always (sometimes) the women who end up on the back foot (compared to their male counterparts) most of the time. Though I happily stand corrected.
How is one going to climb up the career ladder if you have to remain jobless or the better option, part time, for 2-3 years? If you choose to climb and climb mightily as you can, then you face.. what is put forward like a threat.. the option of parenting by nanny, grandparent or child care centre.. none of which, to be honest, sound desirable. So the answer is probably one can’t have the cake and eat it at the same time, but men can?
Aside from my cynical doubts about parenthood, I have to say it might turn out to be the best decision ever. My self doubt and pessimism are certainly uncalled for. This is a time for celebration, excitement and joy… loads and loads of joy for that one single bundle of joy I’ve been carrying for the last 8 months. Again, so they say. I say it’s all very confusing. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel which way they tell me to. For most part, I’m rather concerned, sometimes happy, other times suffering from pangs of guilt for leaving my writing behind and enviously watching others climb out of their postgraduate status to become lecturers while I succumb to the pressures of motherhood. I comfort myself with my ‘planned’ imaginary projects for the future when in reality, I doubt I will ever achieve anything anymore. The thesis will probably be my last achievement and funnily, it doesn’t even feel like I’ve done much now that the top-of-the-mountain-feeling has long dissipated. The glittery cloud of dust that has been suspended for so long has now gathered at the bottom of my feet which I can no longer see from the vantage point of my ballooning stomach. Though, I can feel their powdery residues that remind me once upon a time the world felt like an oyster for which anything is possible. Now, the walls are closing in but the flowers to their credit are still blooming and you’re really not sure which is more true, or are they the same delusion of the one very imaginative dreamer.
Hot Cross Buns and Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone! I used this recipe from http://www.taste.com, see http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7695/hot+cross+buns. But as all my spices were mixed up on my spice rack, I used Chinese 5 spice powder instead of mixed spice and added extra cinnamon and probably cardamon powder. If you read the reviews at the end of the recipe it does say add more spices would benefit the buns greatly and they were right ! These buns are awesome! My hubby loves it and we made 12 buns, gave 4 away and now there’s just one bun left. Should we wait until next Easter for another round? Here is the recipe taken from the website with my tinkering in colour 🙂 Hope you find it as easy as I did, though time consuming (a little)! It was worth all the effort !! (which wasn’t a lot btw)
Ingredients
- 4 cups plain flour
- 2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
- 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice or Chinese 5 Spice (my addition) or additional spices like cinnamon, cardamon etc.
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups currants
- 40g butter
- 300ml milk
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
-
Flour paste
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 4 to 5 tablespoons water
-
Glaze
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- Teaspoon or two of cinnamon powder (my addition too!)
Here is a picture of how it looked before it went into the oven. I don’t really know how to make bread but I have to say that I am proud of myself that this experiment was a success. Kneading wasn’t very hard. I felt I got a feel for it in that you have to make sure that the dough is smooth at the end. So I didn’t time myself how long I kneaded the dough and to be honest, I just went with my intuition. Later when the buns were in the oven (haha pun not intended!) I realised I didn’t know how to tell when bread was cooked. Apparently, you can tell when bread is cooked when you knock them and they sound hollow!
Learn something new each day 🙂
Meatball curried pasta
This was one of the few days when I wanted to try something different. I saw a recipe for curry meatballs on the Sydney Morning Herald at work and decided.. Hmm… why not meatballs and curry with pasta? Instead of beef, I used minced lamb and leftover champagne ham chopped into tiny squares. Mixed them with the lamb and added one finely chopped onion, 6 cloves of finely chopped garlic, a chilli finely chopped and you probably could add some coriander. If you’re too lazy to chop everything and have a blender… just blend them all together. Then, add a tsp of each spice you feel like. I added: a tsp of cumin; coriander ground; salt; turmeric (optional). The fun part is digging your hands (after washing of course) into the mince and mixing everything up, and then forming them into golf sized balls. While they sit and marinate, I made the curry by first frying some of the chopped onion, garlic and chilli, then add 3-4 chopped roma or any type of tomatoes you can get your hands on. This is followed by another round of spices: curry powder, turmeric and maybe a cinnamon stick and a couple of bay leaves. Add a good squeeze (2 tbsp) of tomato paste and some leftover stock if you have or else, water. Let boil until it generates a good simmer then add the meatballs. In the meantime, I boiled the pasta. After about 20 minutes or less, I added a dollop of leftover greek yoghurt, a cupful of mint peas and squeezed a lime into the curry and let simmer for another 5 mins or so before serving it over the warmed pasta! Here was how it turned out.
Sunday scones
Ahh the joys of scones with cream and butter and jam… not strawberry this time but marmalade and quince jam on a Sunday brunch. Too atrocious to comprehend?! It was an easy recipe from Taste, see: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/8163/basic+scones. The best part is I made them with no eggs, as there weren’t any eggs at home today! And the 1 and a quarter cup milk and 80g butter were all we had left in the fridge. The scones turned out absolutely delightful! Did I do anything different this time? Nah I don’t think so. Except for the strawberry jam of course which we did not have. It was one of those days when we had to make the best of what we have.
Lime Butter Cake .. with love
I felt like making boiled raisin fruit cake this morning instead of having the supermarket blueberry muffins, which were not very nice 😦 But we didn’t go to the supermarket to get the necessary dried figs, apricots and raisins. Instead, I dug deep into our fridge and found a chug of butter.. so why not a butter cake for tea time? Also saw a left over sad looking lime on the microwave and decided to combine to make lime butter cake 🙂 I was careful not to be over zealous with the lime as I was with the cheese cake (which was rather limey I have to say). It turned out really nice! Light and fluffy with a tinge of lime. Also I ran out of self raising flour (I got until 1 and a half cup). So for the last cup, I used 2 tsps of baking powder to 1 cup of plain flour. The photo is all mine but the ingredients and links are courtesy from the websites, and the sentence in pink is what I did different from the website recipe – hey creativity right? 🙂 Hope you enjoy your Sunday afternoon tea.
Ingredients (serves 12)
- 250g butter, softened
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
- 2/3 cup milk
Recipe is courtesy from taste.com: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19421/butter+cake
Also check out Exclusively Food’s version: http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2009/11/butter-cake-recipe.html
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and line an 8cm-deep, 19cm (base) square cake pan with baking paper.
- Using an electric mixer, cream butter, caster sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating to combine. Add half the flour. Stir to combine. Add half the milk. Stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk. The only thing I did different was to squeeze half a lime and grated lime rind after adding the first round of four and milk.
-
Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar (optional). Serve.
Updates
Brilliant news and happy times. First I passed the PhD! Hip hip hooray. Although I don’t graduate until November because our son is going to be born in the same month as the earliest graduation – in May 2012. I passed with minor revisions in spite of the fact that majority of the reports came back with the best result – pass with no further changes. To celebrate this intensely personal achievement, my husband bought me a timeless classic, a Longines watch to forever, and I mean, forever, remember and freeze this moment. It made sense. It didn’t feel like I’ve won the Oscars or anything like that. Instead I remember the pain, the anguish and hard work, and all the sacrifices put into getting to this phase. I guess I could compare the feeling to conquering Mt Everest or something of that sort.
A day to remember
As quickly as the feeling came, it went.
I took some time to reflect and sent flowers to those who mattered most. I thought about how nochalent persons whom I thought would be proudest of me who were not upon hearing the news. I saw that no one can ever understand the sacrifices I’ve made to get this far. I learnt the hard way that no one can tell me what I can and cannot do, or which mountain to climb or which to fall from. In fact, those who proceed to inform me of my limitations were usually wrong in spite of their perceived ‘high’, ‘moral’ standing. Those who were happiest for me, who were few and far between, understood what it took to get here or have gone through it themselves. My husband, for one, was truly happy for me and genuinely cared and celebrated with me.
Then, life carried on while the news is still sinking in.
Before I know it I am bombarded with class preparations to lecture and convene this second year subject, but without a ‘real’ job. So as pregnant as I am, I have to begin my first hour and a half long lecture this Thursday to an auditorium of 300+ students. How intimidating is that?! I can’t say that I am a natural lecturer. Lecturing is a learned skill. I can admit that I have a phobia of public speaking. With my baby brain now, I can’t imagine what it will be like to be honest. One has to just bite the bullet and take the hit.
For the past month, I have been asking myself which is more intimidating? Giving birth or lecturing? Yet, I am happy for the opportunities I have had. I should be so lucky navigating through narrow and twisty paths in the last year.
I am still standing!
So I have decided to revitalise my blog and continue my earnest recipe collection / creation, as well as to keep writing.
In the end, my supervisor was right. Writing will stay with me whether I like it or not. It has become a part of me, and I have to continue to dedicate to it, cultivate it and keep improving it because nothing else, I will now find, will give me greater joy.
P.s. I noticed that almost exactly a year ago (have a look at the archives on the right column) I began this blog! What a journey! To date this blog has seen at least 1,000 visits. That is an achievement! Happy (belated) birthday Overstuffed Jalapeños blog!
Yet another happy moment *smile*
New York Baked Lime Cheesecake Recipe — The Cake Mistress
New York Baked Cheesecake Recipe: From Jamie Oliver’s America — The Cake Mistress.
Had a craving for NY baked cheesecake. I was a little concerned that the cheesecake should be baked because I am not supposed to be eating raw ingredients. Found this recipe online which looks good! Made it and it’s going into the freezer for the next two hours!
Ingredients
350g Digestive biscuits
120g Unsalted butter, melted
900g Cream cheese, softened (can use light or low-fat, but NOT fat-free)
150g Caster sugar
5 large eggs
125ml Fresh Lime juice (5-6 limes)
The directions are pretty straight forward. Summary: Blend digestive biscuits then mix in the melted butter. Spread evenly over base of the 24cm spring foam pan. Place pan in fridge to allow base to set. Mix cream cheese with electric mixer until silky soft. If cream cheese still firm, place the mixing bowl in sink of hot water and/or mix it in a sink of hot water, which was what I did. Then add caster sugar, mix well. Add eggs one by one and mix after each addition. Finally mix in the lime juice (I probably added too much lime juice because it ended up tasting like lime cheesecake!). Pour into pan and stick it in the oven to bake for 45 minutes. I didn’t add the meringue topping because I don’t like meringue but the cheesecake looks good as is.
Just baked from the oven!
A slice of lime & heaven!
Spiced Roast Chicken
It has been AGES since I last posted a recipe. Now that I am fast approaching my third trimester, I anticipate that things are going to change and soon, I’ll be back blogging again. Though first I have to survive three months of weekly lectures and tutorials which are by far more intimidating in my mind now than labour. But this is not the topic for this post is it! Today I decided to roast a whole chicken! I find that the easiest way to cut up a whole chicken is to use a sharp scissors. Cut it down the middle, separate the wings from the body and the thighs from the body and then you’ll have to cut by finding the breakable bones which will make the whole process less violent. I can’t say that I am an expert on this… just trial and error. I am sure that there are better ways of serving up chicken by slicing them up or chopping them… but for me, the amateur, scissors is the best.
The original recipe for this dish comes from an African cookbook! It’s called East African Roast Chicken, but I’ve reconstructed some of the ingredients because I don’t have everything for e.g. it calls for coconut milk which I don’t have. So I’ve improvised! Hubby likes the end product – said it’s the best ‘East African’ chicken he’s ever tasted! That’s all that matters I suppose 🙂 Try it for yourselves and see!
Spiced Roast Chicken
Blend the following in a chopper or blender if you can or just do lots of chopping and mix them up:
Bunch of coriander stalks and leaves
One onion
6 cloves of garlic or more (up to you)
2 chillies
4 tomatoes (or use tomato paste)
The above should be blended into tiny pieces. Once that is done, mix in:
Sour cream (I had half a box left which is about 3 tbsps);
1 tsp coriander ground;
1 tsp chicken masala powder (or if you don’t have, use ground cumin and garam masala as substitutes);
1 tsp of turmeric; and
Slice of butter (about 20g or less).
Add salt and pepper.
I ended up blending everything again together. Then generously spoon marinade over the chicken. I also stuffed another onion into the chicken 🙂 you know where…
The recipe called for the chicken to be marinated overnight. I didn’t have that luxury so I spooned everything on the chicken. Lay the chicken on top of a bed of leftover celery stalks and 3-4 pieces of chillies (which were about the disintegrate in my fridge unless I used them). I then placed chicken in the oven at 100 degrees for six hours.
Technically you should cover the chicken with foil and cook the chicken at 190 degrees of 200 degrees in an hour and turn it over when it’s brown or until juices run clear. I removed the foil six hours later and let it brown over 200 degrees turning it once after 20 minutes. This method is probably only good or should I say, useful, for times when you want to prepare dinner early and want to have the day free to do other things. I get really tired preparing dinner in the evenings. So this works best for me.
We had this for early dinner served with hubby’s kenyan style spinach and garlic blend. It was yum.
Already cut roasted portions in baking tray (with scissors of course!)
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