The Little Artist

The boys have picked up a new hobby, cultivating a new talent. Aside from collection little lego man, they have started drawing them! Sanju, in particular, has an eye for detail, and he remembers the unique feature from each character and puts them on paper.

Here's presenting Spongebob & Patrick. A while later Sanju even drew Squidward, but I did not catch a snap of it.

Here is the family heirloom workbook from late 90s that Sanju inherited from my sister, proudly wrote his name over it. This book has now been honoured to house doodles by Sanju.

Can you guess this? This guy's hands and head are on fire, and his bike too, is on fire.

Yes, it is the Ghostrider. And this is the antagonist of the Ghostrider, notice the gothic kohl-eyed look?

This is the black Spiderman from the third sequel.

And here is the octopus-look-alike villain from the Spiderman movie. Notice the goggled eyes?

 Here is Green Lantern, but don't ask me about the hair.
*Note: I showed this post to Sanju and he corrected me. This guy is actually Loki, hence the fancy illustrations on the head.

Wolverine is next, check out the wolf-like ear details, and the claws, man!

And the Incredible Hulk!

The blond Thor, and his hammer, and check out the packs.

And this one is no brainer, Ironman!

And here is Captain America, with some sort of antenna.

While Sanju draw all kinds of superheroes, Jeev is in his own world writing random word he learns everyday. And he gets very intense in it too.

And proudly writes the title of the movie, PK.

While the kids are at it drawing and coloring, mummy has to be on her feet every time cleaning the mess, especially from vigorous erasing that I had to procure workhorse heavy-duty minimal mess erasers. Happy kids make mummy happy.

Homemade Granola Recipe

Welcome to another episode of I-can-make-it-at-home-for-nothing. Today we will be making nutritious and yummy granola right in the comfort of your home. By the end of this blog you will realise how easy it is to make healthy snacks or breakfast on-the-go right at home, for nothing, well not exactly nothing. With ingredients price going up (plus GST & inflation) this is surely not that cheap but for sure cheaper than buying outside. Also you can avoid unnecessary preservatives and artificial flavours. 

Now, spoken like a true Aunty! I don't know if you are familiar with the British TV comedy show Goodness Gracious Me. It's a hilarious show on the integration of Indian and British cultures, in short, of NRIs! There is always one Aunty who pops out of no where and tells 'I-can-make-it-at-home-for-nothing', and lately I have been feeling so much like her, minus the white hair and haggard suit of course!

So here is the long & proper recipe for the granola by Chef Michael Smith. I had shared this before on my blog, but this time I realised how boring and lengthy it gets to read a well formatted recipe. 

Over the times, I have stopped bothering over the recipe though. I have come to devise my own formula for it. I substituted the vegetable oil with virgin coconut oil (you can never go wrong with it). 

The wet ingredients are 1 part VCO, 1 part honey (or more if you like it thicker), 3-4tsp of brown sugar, half tsp of cinnamon powder. Mix this in a saucepan over low heat till it dissolves, and turn off the heat, set aside. Then mix in a mixing bowl whatever nuts/flakes you have. I like to go with almond flakes, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, corn flakes, cashew nuts, peanuts, walnut and rolled oats. Pour the wet ingredient over and mix it well.

Then line your baking tray with baking paper, and pour the mixture over it. Flatten and compact it nicely. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 30-40 minutes. Once done bring it out and let it cool down and harden up. Or if you can't control yourself with the lovely aroma, just pig-in right from the tray itself.

Here is a short video of the said aunty in case you are interested. And let me warn, you might get addicted and end up watching the rest of the episodes on Youtube!

Homemade Kimchi With Easy To Find Ingredients

I am a BIG kimchi fan. Ok let me correct this, WE are big kimchi fans, my better half and I. We love it with plain instant noodles, or with pasta to instantly perk up some monotonous flavours. I love the sour & spicy nature of the vegetables in kimchi, which is no surpise considering I can eat radish as a snack, all raw!

I usually get our mat kimchi stock from AEON nearby, but often it just slips my mind while I am shopping there. I come home with big regrets... and make sure I put it into the shopping list next.

In fact, due to the trouble of buying (yeah rite!), I have considered making kimchi at home, for nothing (that's the auntie in me talking). I got the hold of some recipes online, but seeing all those special Korean ingredients just puts me off. Like I have to go out shopping just for that one day and then get it done. Neh, ditched the idea, going out to buy mat kimchi is much simpler - that too I forget!

This week I was making some chilli sauce for chicken rice purposes. While doing my QC (ie licking the blender off) I realised it tasted a whole lot close to kimchi, given some cabbages.

And there I went digging into my cabbage, washed and cut em. Added into the sauce. Some spring onion too. Then I thought I would check online to see if any other 'essence' needed to cover the kimchi taste, so I splashed in some fish sauce and voila! Then I felt it needed more spice, so I added one packet of dominoes chilli flakes. Just perfect!

On the first day I was tasting it every hour, then I realised I need to 'forget' about it and let it ferment longer. On the fourth day, that is today, I could not hold myself. I ate a good chunk of it and may I say so myself, the kimchi passed with flying colours!

And now my friends, the time has come that I bestow my accidental recipe to you and let this chain of kimchi making continue for the best of mankind & our tastebuds, too! 

You Need:To be blended:
100g red chillis, deseeded
20 gram ginger
50 gram garlic
100ml white vinegar
some salt
half tsp sugar

a splash of fish sauce
chinese cabbage - cut small
radish - grated
spring onion
some chilli flakes

Method:1) Blend the ingredients together. Keep aside
2) Put the vegetables into a container you want to ferment it in. Pour the sauce over and try to compact the vegetables in. Don't worry if they still stick out, they will eventually soften and get submerged, or perhaps you will get impatient and start eating during early stages of fermenting.
3) Leave it on counter top for 2-3 days. Chill it another 4 days and you are ready to eat it!

The common practice is to let the cabbage sit in a large bowl with salt to soften it up, for up to 12 hours. Clearly mine is a shorter version, but hey the taste works, and I don't mind the crunch!

Also you can add or reduce the red chillies according your taste, for me this has been just perfect! I can safely say I will not be buying kimchi from the stores for a while. My auntie-meter is current flashing at the highest level. I can make it at home for nothing! Lets hope this passion burns for a while, with that amount of chilli, I don't doubt it! And thanks to GST, we sure have to find more homemades than just one.

Our love for kimchi budded from those Korean BBQ. We love Korean BBQ with all those amount of meat, and free flow condiments, including kimchi. We can spend a whole afternoon slowly finishing our meal for 4 - just the two of us!

You don't believe me? Check out the spread.

Before:

And after, this is following numerous refills (yay to refills!):

Pictures of our happy bellies are not included, but you sure can imagine how happy! Neh, no soju needed to give the sam gyap sal high! Note to self: try to recreate Korean BBQ at home.