Cooking Class by Marche

Marche Restaurant usually organizes cooking classes during school holidays for kids. There are cooking classes every weekday except on public holidays.

Evan had the opportunity to attend a cooking class  yesterday. The class costs RM27 nett and participants get to bring back their culinary creations, an attendance certificate and a voucher for a free kids meal at the Marche valid for 3 months.

I enrolled Evan in the baking class. Other classes available were cupcake decorating, gingerbread cookies and pizza. About 10 kids attended the 2 hour class. The actual baking took about 1 hour and the rest of the time was for briefing and waiting for the buns to bake! Evan made a new (girl)friend while he was there!

Renovation

After a month of slow progress, the reno works are now moving at full speed ahead - I'm scratching my head at such a baffling phenomenon. My interior designer doesn't seem to have a sense of urgency regarding the reno works but now she appears to be rushing everything. I've got lots to complain but I'm just closing one eye and hoping the renovation completes in 2-3 weeks time and we can move house and settle in - just in time to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Framework for plaster ceiling. 

Plaster slabs up

 Plastered the ceiling to conceal the seams/gaps

 Hacking of the kitchen tiles - before

 Hacking the kitchen tiles - after

Re-wiring at the yard

A Very Blessed Christmas!

Little Lambs Christmas Party

I brought the kids to DUMC's 2nd Little Lambs Christmas Party. We attended last year's one but this year's party was much better organized. Hubby had a meeting in church so he didn't make it with us.

Upon registration, all families queued up to get their pics taken by a photographer at the backdrop above. We were one of the earliest so the photography was done quite fast. Then we proceeded to the craft center on the other side of the hall to collect our craft item which was a photo frame.

Joseph came to lend a helping hand with decorating the photo frame. Scissors and double-sided were provided. We had to get creative and decorate the photo frame with ribbons, stickers and felt cut-outs.

Evan did most of the decorating and this is the result. At the end of the party, our photo was ready and we get to frame it up immediately and keep it as a souvenier.

Talented children from Little Lambs performed on stage! Then it was a great time of singing praise and worship songs. Evan participated with the other kids but Marissa clung on koala-like to me cos she was already very tired.

After Pastor Nancy gave her speech, Uncle Billy the Clown entertained everyone with magic tricks and shared the Christmas message. Yummy lunch was served but with 2 kids in tow - we only could manage some finger food. Hubby picked us up soon after and Marissa - who was cranky already - KO'ed in the car. We ended up tapau-ing KFC on the way home. 

Anyway, the take home message of the day was - Christmas is not all about presents but in gift-giving, we are reminded of God's greatest gift to all mankind - Jesus.

Cooking Class by Dish Deli

More school holiday fun! Cooking class at Dish Deli! 

Evan joined the Little Cooks cooking class on 9th December from 3-5pm. RM70 per class inclusive of snacks i.e. orange juice/burger/french fries during break time.

He made scones, mini pizza, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate krispies. He was on his own as hubby sent him there and stayed just for awhile before leaving. Apparently, he gave witty remarks and comments throughout the entire class. Anyway, the food he prepared tasted good!

For more info on the cooking classes, check out Dish Deli's facebook page.

Here are more pics from the cooking class that day:

Hello Kitty Cookies

The kids had a little school holiday fun - coloring Hello Kitty cookies! One box contains 4 Hello Kitty cookies which are ready baked and coated with icing. There are also 4 edible food coloring pens with different flavors, for the kids to color and decorate the cookies.

 Marissa trying her hand at coloring

Evan colored his Hello Kitty cookie very nicely - and finished eating the entire cookie!

Lego Christmas Tree

The Lego Christmas tree on display at Bangsar Village II is made from 850,000 Lego bricks! and it's 7ft tall!

Toys 'R' Us is having a Lego clearance sale for Starcard members. Selected Lego sets are selling at 40%-50% discount. There are also special Lego items eg keychains, magnets, mugs and umbrellas for sale and for each item sold, RM10 is donated to charity.

There's a Lego Duplo play area for kids to unleash their creativity. There are also 2 contests for shoppers : Guess the no. of Santa minifigs on the Christmas tree and Guess the Lego creations characters.

 The kids had a fun time! 

Specs for the Girl

Marissa furrows her brows like this when she watches TV or the computer. 

Dr. Koe referred her to see an ophthalmologist : Dr. Tan. 

Upon consultation, both kids were given sweets! And both of them took the sweets (but didn't eat them though). 

She was then prescribed atropine eye drops.

At the 2nd appt, Dr. Tan offered them sweets again but this time, the kids declined politely (or rather, we parents said no, thanks)

After the eye checks, Dr. Tan prescribed pilocarpine eye drops. She's got longsightedness and most likely astigmatism as well. Follow up scheduled on 25th Jan 2011. Hopefully the glasses will help to correct her vision.

New pair of pink specs from Focus Point.

Pasta Zanmai

We've been eating out at Japanese restaurants and Pasta Zanmai is one of our favs. Pasta Zanmai is located at 1 Utama, Old Wing and Mid Valley Megamall.

This was what we ordered for dinner at the 1U branch.

Ebi tempura 'temaki' but with a tortilla wrap instead of the usual seaweed. Dipping sauce : sesame. 

 Crabmeat & Avocado 'temaki' - again with tortilla wrap and sesame sauce. 

Miso Soup, Green Tea and Strawberry Milkshake for my boy who loves all things strawberry

Pasta in sesame sauce with crabmeat and avocado. Extremely delicious. I would recommend any pasta from the menu that has the sesame sauce.

Eel with garlic rice wrapped in egg ala pattaya style - also very delicious. Evan ate the eel and said it tastes like chicken fish! Marissa ate the egg cos Pasta Zanmai does not serve chawan mushi which is her favourite.

Green tea is on the expensive side RM3 each but it's free refills. order the iced green tea and you get a jugful of it. If you order the hot green tea, it comes in a teapot. The strawberry drink costs RM12 - again not cheap. However, the pasta and rice and miso soup came in a set for RM23 which was a decent price. Temakis cost RM5 each - pretty standard.

The Cooking House

This is The Cooking House - a cooking studio located in Desa Sri Hartamas. I went there recently to attend a complimentary cooking class from Panasonic. I bought an oven from Harvey Norman and got to know about this promotion which is still on-going.
There are a few classes to choose from and I decided upon 'All About Pies'. The cost of the class is actually RM120 per pax! Upon arrival, I registered myself by handing over the Panasonic Oven's warranty card and filling in my details.

Total 11 participants on that day. Chef Collin Edward Lim was on duty. We were divided into 4 groups. Each group had to tackle 1 recipe. 

My group's recipe was Seafood Pie. We had to prepare all the ingredients for our recipe and when we were ready to cook, everyone came to observe. Chef Collin gave pointers and answered questions.

The other recipes include : Shepherd's Pie, Mediterranean Vegetarian Pie and Chicken & Mushroom Pie.

My fellow group member cooking the creamy seafood filling for the pie.

Chef Collin demonstrated how to make the shortcrust pastry. He also showed us how to place the pastry in the pie cups. I really felt like  a frog under a coconut shell during the class but the majority of ladies there were also first-timers at a cooking class!

More pastry needed to cover the pie.

Chef Collin demonstrating how to seal the pie using a fork

Yummy seafood pie : filled with prawns, mushrooms and dory fish!

After baking in the oven!

Everyone had a break - drinking tea or coffee while waiting for the pies to bake. Indeed the pies were delicious! So happy with all the hard work! Chef Collin also gave lots of cooking tips to all of us there.  Very informative and hands-on class I must say. I would definitely go for another class next month and would recommend these classes to anyone who's interested.

In the mean time, I need to go buy a digital kitchen scale, a rolling pin and a kitchen brush and then, try out the recipes! Hopefully will be able to bake some pies for makan makan at the new condo!

 

And the Award goes to............

Best Improvement in 5 Aster class 2010!

We went to Evan's kindergarten on Saturday to meet up with his class teacher : Teacher Cindy and to collect his progress report and exam results. Teacher Cindy said he is much more focused now and is more disciplined, hence the award. Other awards given out to students on the Awards Day (on the 2nd last day of school) were Best Handwriting, Best Conduct, Best Helper and Student of the Year.

Academic results are OK - am surprised that he scored 98% for his Chinese language - with a careless mistake of counting the number of strokes in a Chinese character. His handwriting and coloring has improved a lot as well from C's last year to A recently. Am most certainly proud of his improvement!

The Last Day of School

The last day of school a.k.a. party day! The kids came dressed in their concert costumes. As with all parties, the children had a whole lot of food and snacks to eat! They also had Super Fun Time.

Photos above were taken by Buffafly cos I couldn't make it to the school. I am sure the school will take loads of photos too and include them in the DVD that I've ordered. The DVD contains pics of school life and the bienniel concert as well.