Survival Class 2

Survival Class No. 2

So we found ourselves in the jungle again...this time with long pants tucked into long socks, after getting several leech bites the class before....especially the bite right in the belly button!

Our first job was again to harvest Paku for lunch. For wrapping food this week, we used Daun Bemban and Banana Leaf. Raman taught us that to lessen chances of tearing the banana leaf during wrapping, place leaf over the fire first. This changes the texture of the leaf a little, making it easier to work with.

Always skewer  chicken pieces right in the middle of the skewer so it can sit nicely on top of the fire. Skewer chicken pieces length wise, and make sure they are packed together.

Instead of rice, Jumima taught us to make traditional OA food. Basically mix flour with lots of brown sugar and water. Paste must be quite thick. Then wrap in banana leaf or daun bemban.

Can you tell which is banana leaf and which is daun bemban? Once wrapped, slot them into a bamboo to be placed into the fire. Make sure not to squish them tightly.

Wrap paku with a bit of salt and chilli padi in leaf and place into bamboo to cook over fire.

Children were also taught to make own bamboo shavings to use as fire starter.

Below: Just a week ago, this very log was used by the children as the throne of the fairy queen. Yup they had lots of play time in between and invented lots of stories. Children were surprised to see that a week later, lots of mushrooms have sprouted on the very same log. Raman said that he too had never seen mushrooms of this sort before. Hmmmm....must be all the fairy stories the children invented that brought magic to this log. :)

The flour dough cooked. And of course, we had it with delicious chicken and paku.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

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Survival Class with Raman

My kids especially Jo, has been really, crazily, interested in the topic of  survival. She's bought lots of survival books, and has read My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George at least 5 times! So to satisfy her "thirst" we signed up for several classes with Raman in Gombak.

At our first meeting, we were greeted by Raman's wife on the road side. She then walked us pass an Orang Asli Village, and then through the tunnel below.

After trekking a short trek uphill, we finally arrive at our first rest point, where most activities are conducted.

On our first day, the kids were taught how to cook rice in bamboo. First rice is divided into tiny portions and wrapped in Daun Bemban.

Once wrapped, the wrappings are placed gently into a bamboo and then bamboo is filled with water and placed over the fire.

While bamboo is placed over the fire, the children were asked to skewer marinated chicken onto skewers made of bamboo too. Then chicken is slowly cooked over fire. The fire must be watched at all times to make sure chicken is not under cooked or burnt. Raman told us that for extra delicious flavour, to use wood from Rambutan trees.

While Raman looked after the fire, his wife, Jumima took the children into the forest to look for Paku leaves.

This is how the edible leaves look like, and only young shoots can be eaten.

Later after a great and delicious lunch, Raman taught the children how to start a fire. Below- Bamboo shavings are used as a starter.

He told the children that best to create triangles with hollow spaces between for the fire. Twigs are placed above bamboo shavings. Once the fire is stable, a larger log is placed above and another platform of twigs or branches on top.


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Our delicious lunch of chicken cooked over firewood. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. Yumm!

Cooked rice which the children prepared earlier on.

p.s wear rubber shoes if going, some slipper paths. Bring mozzi repellant, and most of all, must NOT be squirmish of leeches. Lots of hungry ones there!

Before we left, he showed us the leaf below, Selaput Tunggul, when crushed, its juice can be used to treat minor cuts or to stop bleeding from leech bites.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

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Was just feeling totally tired today...no energy and I asked Jo, "Could you please cook today? Feel free to use anything you find in the fridge."I heard the fridge opening and shutting....Several times she ran out to the hall and lay flat on the floor coz her eyes were burning from chopping onions.....I heard the stove going click....and then some time later, walla she served out two dishes with rice. 

I asked Nel, when she would cook me a meal. At first she replied, "She hoped rather, to find a man who could cook." Cheeky answer. But the next day she surprised me with this, baked beef with cheese which was really delicious!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

Ginger Bread House

Dec has been busy, jolly and wonderful for us. It's come and will be gone way too soon. A dear friend who reads this blog reminded me that I should still take more time to rest. Thank you for the dear reminder Jen, your voice rings in my head when the days get too busy. :)

 Anyway, just a short post to wish everyone a very beautiful and blessed Christmas. Also to upload this year's Christmas craft. Last year we attempted figurines made of bread dough and ginger bread men. Well, this year we decided to try a Ginger Bread House. It certainly was a lot of work, from making the dough, to measuring and cutting out the wall and roof pieces and then making them stick together and decorating.

 Both Nel and Jo helped me throughout, coz which kid doesn't love playing with dough. :) As for the decoration, they did it on their own. Our house looks like an olden house from Bethlehem, simply coz I cut the sides wrong, and totally forgot the triangles, thus a flat roof. haha..

Decked with marshmallows, candy, chocolates, jelly beans, skittles and sprinkles of sugar.

The other side of the house

As you can see, errr....the decorations started off well...but soon they were more focused on eating the candy rather than sticking on the candy. haha... Still, a house done from scratch. :) We'll be sharing it with family and friends during thanksgiving reunion on Christmas day.

Blessed Christmas all, and a Happy New Year! :)

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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Bits an pieces from Dec

A brief post. Lots have been going on here, mostly catching up with good friends and family. Though I told myself that we shall take it easy this Christmas, it looks like it's gonna be a busy one again. We kicked off this season by visiting the Hospice with the Start Children. My children were privileged that they got to come along. We spent time singing songs to the patients there, and making Christmas crafts with them. The encouragement certainly went both ways. Our songs cheered them up, while we were encouraged to see their strong positive spirits despite all they're going through.

We cut out Christmas decorations together with the patients at the Hospice. Working together in joy and sharing.

I also celebrate my birthday in December. I awoke to find this beautiful flower from hubby. He intended to get my favourite which is the Sunflower, but alas, there are no sunflowers this rainy season so this was the closest substitute :). More lovely than the flower was the touching message that came with it. I am blessed with a wonderful husband.

My children sent me on a treasure hunt and I found a new pair of sandals. Jo decided to recycleby wrapping up a bag I hardly used and presented it to me. haha...:) She also made a big Happy Birthday Banner which she stuck over my bed.

What else. Today I began spring cleaning (*atishooo!!!!*) While I was cleaning, the girls  went ahead and baked cream cheese brownie for an upcoming party. Looks a little lumpy but tasted good nevertheless. :) 

Finally to end this short post, we'd like to sing two songs. Actually...we were singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and the kids thought "Dorothy of Wizard of Oz lives on a farm, surely the song must have animal sounds." We had a good laugh mucking about with the song and decided to record it.
So here's our rendition. Hope you enjoy it. :) [p.s pardon the monkey that somehow appeared on the farm....]

Finally Merry Christmas. Forgive Jo for continuously putting animal sounds still. She couldn't get away from Dorothy and the farm. :) haha....

Till my next post, Blessed Christmas all. :)

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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Baking

With holidays here, the girls have been baking/cooking more than usual.

Nel and her cousin made these delicious scones for tea last week. Well, it was a wee bit harder than the ones we've had at restaurants, but I think great for a first attempt. As soon as it was fresh out of the oven, we gobbled these warm scones down with some melted butter and raspberry jam. Jo served us some lemonade she made. Altogether it was a lovely tea time. Yumm.

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Jo's been at it too. She bugged and bugged her daddy to get her to the groceries. Their intention was just to get ingredients for some pancakes, but father and daughters (Nel tagged along too) ended up buying several bags of groceries for further experiments at cooking. Will blog about it as they experiment. Items in the bag included several cartons of milk, different sorts of cheese, wild forest ham, bacon, maple syrup and all sorts of delicious goodness. "My goodness, exclaimed dear hubby upon returning from the grocery store. I didn't expect to buy so many things!" haha. But well, hubby didn't have to work hard. It was Jo, Nel and their cousin Lyd who did all the searching, running from aisle to aisle while hubby just stood in a corner with the cart (so I heard from the children.)

Well, Jo made these entirely on her own. They were golden, and simply delicious. We had these with maple syrup and some iced chocolate drink.

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Just last weekend, Nel still very inspired in the art of baking, baked Savoury Parmesan Puffs. She's really happy with the outcome, and we had it over dinner together with some beef stew I made. If you love cheese, this is delicious and takes so little time to make.

The recipe is really easy and we got it from the following book which we borrowed from the library.

The Great Big Cookie Book: Over 200 Recipes for Cookies, Brownies, Scones, Bars and Biscuits 

Although the title says The Great Big Cookie book, it contains tonnes of mouth watering stuff to make, from savoury scones and puffs to sweet brownies, and even includes baked gift ideas. Nel REALLy loves this book, and I will have to look into purchasing one, since ours is borrowed from the library.

 The recipe to this simple puff was so easy. -Basically first sprinkle baking tins with parmesan.
-Then in a separate bowl beat 2 eggs, 1 cup milk and 1Tbsp butter, add 1 cup flour and some salt till smoothly blended.
-Pour batter over the parmesan. Bake at high for 15 mins, sprinkle with more parmesan and bake further at lower temperature for about 20 mins. So simple, and really delicious.






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Best Friend Wanted

Do you remember the time, when you thought you'd finally found the truest ever, truest Best Friend? Then one day your new best friend's bff walks in.  Your new best friend then suddenly forgets you exist, leaving you  with an utter feeling of dejection. Remember what that felt like?

I've been having struggles with Jo for some time now, regarding the issue of best friend. We've told her that best friends will come and go,  best friends can hurt, and that it is best to just have one to two best friends who are true friends. The problem is, despite all the friends she has, she thinks that she hasn't found that special best friend yet. Very often, she comes to me, laments, cries and says "Nobody likes me. Everyone hates me." 

Jo tends to get along with boys, much older teens and adults. She's not easy to describe. She's usually a chirpy lil girl, highly inquisitive and full of crazy imagination. But she's also sometimes too frank with her words, and sometimes overly emotional. Sometimes reclusive, sometimes aloof. She's got friends, but problem is, her friends already have other best friends. And then when she starts acting aloof, naturally people stray away from her, seeking easier/calmer characters.

I used to feel for her regarding this issue. I used to seek playdates, in hope that she'll find that perfect best friend. Now I've given up, and just pray "God, bring that best friend to our doorstep." You know, like how a stork drops that newborn baby into the chimney.  :p

As for Nel, she doesn't bother with this issue, although I wonder if she thinks about it. Nel's not very good conversationally, especially with making new friends, just like me when I was her age. When I was Nel's age, my answers to people's questions always came out in one to 2 words, preferably in one syllable (yes/no) . When I see my own weakness in Nel, I get frustrated.
She too prefers older girls (early 20's) for a friend, or younger children. Which means, both she and Jo fight over older children, and that all play dates I arrange for Jo, end up being Nel' friend. See the dilemma, thus the increased intensity in prayer for a best friend. haha..... Anyway...I give up. I suppose, with time, this issue will settle itself....yes? 
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Anyway, yesterday Jo bugged me and bugged me about baking. Having a headache, I grumpily, reluctantly got her the ingredients, opened the recipe book (with a thump and bang!), took out the mixer grouchily and left her in the kitchen giving her strict orders not to ask me for help. After a while (feeling guilty), I went to check, and that lil fella was following instructions from the book pretty well. She needed a lil help with the mixer, and then she was on her own. So she pretty much did everything on her own, except for putting the tray and removing the tray from the oven. Proud of you Jo!

Jo's first ever muffins (butter cake), baked entirely by her.

They were really moist on the inside, simply delicious. Her grandma, cousins and I gave her full thumbs up.

Her future ambition for now, is owning a restaurant. This explains her craze for calculators. To date, she owns about 5 calculators and is begging for a real cash machine. I'll have to look out at second hand stores.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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Kids making Aloo Paratha

My kids have developed a love for cooking.  Just yesterday as I was teaching in the evening they decided to cook their own dinner. I heard clinking and clanking. When I was done teaching, dinner (part dinner), was ready. They had cooked a pot of rice, and later scooped it out, mixed it with a dash of vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt and wrapped it in seaweed. Simple Korean food. Wonderful isn't it?

I believe these are important skills that allow a child  to feel empowered. Seriously, it's not always about math and science you know (although yes they are important too). Life skills enable a child to feel confident as they are able to do stuff usually done by adults, they are able to contribute to household duties and responsibilities and feel proud about it.

Ok, before the ramble gets longer, here's today. Back in the USA, I lived with a wonderful roommate who's Indian/Ceylonese. I recall days when I would cook Chinese cuisine,she would do Indian cuisine, and we'd sit down and have a feast! I wanted my children to experience making Paratha today. Something I learned back then. I know, my recipe may have been greatly warped by my failing memory *grin*....but whatever, here's close to what I remember, and what we did today. Well, actually the kids did everything, except the dhal.
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1) First we boiled some potatoes, mashed them and added Indian spices and salt. We also made dough out of wheat flour, mixed with a bit of olive oil and yoghurt. Kneading is always great fun for kids, and therapeutic I think. We let the flour sit for about 15 minutes. In the mean time, I cooked some dhal. I wanted to make Chickpea curry, but the grocery shop nearby had no chickpea so we settled for dhal.

Potato balls and dough

2) Then kids took turns in rolling their own dough out. I only had one instruction for them, keep turning the dough to create a nice round shape.

3) They then added a ball of potato in the center, and pinched the dough up, adding just a touch of olive oil on the top.

4) Again, they rolled this out, so now there's a nice flat bread with potato on the inside.

5) Nel and Jo fried their own parathas on the pan....not perfect or beautiful as the ones you find on cooking sites, but I think, great achievement for them. :)

So here, above and below for lunch was our version of Aloo Paratha with home made dhal. :) This dhal recipe, I learnt by watching my friends cook (lots of tomatoes, onions, some dhal, spices, cilantro and yoghurt.)

Yup, so lunch was delicious. . :)

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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More on Simple Machine and Jo's Garden

 We've been studying Simple Machine through books and online sites (read post- Simple Machine) . Well today we decided we'd take it a step further by inventing a really simple one first. Since my girls have friends over for a few days we decided to do it together. The project was a really simple one, a balloon popper and we had great great fun over it! :)

 Well, it starts with a car going down and incline plane. The car hits a lever which is attached to a string. The string pulls up, causing another car on a different lever to move forward hitting some blocks arranged in Dominoes styles. The largest block hits another lever which releases the bowl attached to a pulley. There's a needle attached to the bowl, so when the bowl drops it pops the balloon.



Sounds easy??? Huh....well the kiddos had several plans before they tried this one, and no it wasn't really easy..because sometimes the car didn't hit the lever, sometimes the dominoes did to topple correctly etc etc etc. There were lots of screams, sighs, jumping while shouting "You LouSY Machine!!!" hahaha.... but we didn't give up. There was also lots of laughter! :)

Here's a video of the final outcome.


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Apart from that, my girls have been working on their garden again. Today with the help of Dy and A, they weeded the garden, loosened the soil, made fresh beds for the seeds and planted. Jo chose the seeds, and we ended up planting pumpkins, radish and pak choy (vegetable). Let's hope they'll get to reap the fruits of their labour very soon. :)

Making Ginger Bread Man

 Cousin E, who's just a little older than Nel is here to stay over for a few nights. The girls are having much fun. Following our yearly tradition, we made some Gingerbread man cookies,using a recipe we got from taste.com.au. The gingerbread men came out pretty tasty, a little crumbly, but just nice for kids. We tried a different version last year, and the children found it too "spicy."

The wonderful thing about this year's baking is, I hardly lifted a finger. I drove the girls to the store, gave them a challenge of finding the ingredients in 20 mins. They made it just on time. (well done girls!:) )At home, I gave them the recipe, left the kitchen and told them they were on their own. So the entire batch of cookies were made totally by them. From preparation to baking, to deco to eating. Well..I did decorate a few and ate some too. :) That's after all the fun part.

Cleaning was done by the girls too. :)

Look! Mr. Impossible decided  to join in the fun session! :)

DD piping on the icing. Jo liked hers mosty pink, Nel liked hers mostly green.

Jo's pile

Ahem....my attempt at decorating some of the gingerbread

Some of the final product

Finally we also spent time watching this spider build its web today. Fascinating. It worked pretty quickly! :)