Homemade fingerpaint fun (Part II)

We did this activity on 30 April... and little Alicia had great fun - I think she preferred stamping with the lotus root compared to the shanghai green...

Setup as shown below and make the paint:

Line the floor with newspapers to minimise cleanup

Get the lotus root with that 'stalk' so that it makes stamping easier

Telling her daddy she's having fun... :P

this was before she destroyed her work... as you can see, the lotus root makes a lovely stamper!

there she goes with her hands...

... and feet (check out the big handprints - they're mine!)

rubbing her hands in glee

'lotion' time again with the fingerpaint...

Even her legs she didnt spare... :)

After this, it was off to a good bath followed by her afternoon snack of sweet potato soup! :) 

All that painting made her hungry! lol

Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

I cooked this super simple yet delicious dish last Saturday and just had to share it with you! 

I adapted the recipe from my friend, Pauline's blog and all I can say is that I'll be cooking it more often since it's so convenient (great for me, the pregnant woman!) and so nutritious. 

This can be a 1-dish meal but since I had some nai bai in my fridge that day, I just cooked it as another dish. :)

Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

 

Ingredients:

• 500g pork ribs (original recipe calls for pork belly but I don't like that so I substituted with ribs and they turned out wonderful!)
• 300g chestnuts (I bought them in a pack at the vegetable stall at the wet market)
• 1 bulb garlic 
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Boil the chestnuts (with their shells already removed) in water for about 3 min. The skin should come off quite easily when you peel them when the chestnuts are still warm.
2. Wash the bulb of garlic, individual cloves separated, skin intact, and lightly crush them.
3. Blanch pork ribs.
4. Add some oil to the wok and stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add the pork ribs and fry for 2-3min before adding in the chestnuts.
6. Finally, add the light and dark soy sauce and mix well.
7. Transfer the ingredients to a slow cooker.
8. Add enough hot water to just barely cover the ingredients in the slow cooker.
9. Once you see the water bubbling in the slow cooker, turn it to autoshift and let it stew for about 2 hours.
10. Add rock sugar 15 min before serving if desired.

Alicia loved this dish too! :)


For tot's consumption:


Using a spoon, cut the chestnut into smaller, bite-size pieces to prevent choking.
Pork ribs should also be prepared in bite-sized pieces so that it's easier to chew (and swallow) and look out for any small pieces of bones (just in case).

Homemade fingerpaint fun (Part I)

I've been wanting to make fingerpaint for Alicia for the longest time and finally got down to it last Wednesday!

Here's the link to the recipe for making the paint (I used the recipe for the cornstarch fingerpaint).

It just so happened that I was preparing Shanghai green for dinner that day and Alicia came running to the kitchen at that point when I chopped off the base of the veggie. She asked me what I was doing and I told her I was preparing vegetables for dinner and handed her one of the 'beautiful roses' (don't you think it looks like a rose?). It was then that it struck me that this was a perfect day to finally make the fingerpaint!

And so I got to work and made about 3 porcelain soup spoons of 6 colours (total 18 porcelain soup spoons worth of fingerpaint):

 Set up as above

And the painting begins!

Happy girl smiling for the cam

Engrossed...

Posing again, upon mummy's request

And after she got tired of the veggie, she started to use her hand.... one hand at first...

Check out my hand!

cute?

ok, I wrote her name...

And when she got really comfortable with the paint, she started using BOTH hands....

Look at the glee in her expression...

Slathering the paint on herself as if it's lotion...

Totally enjoying herself...

You can see that she had much fun with the fingerpaints - I guess it's the texture of the paint which is different from say, poster colour. The cornstarch really does make it feel oh so squishy and almost like a lotion - no wonder she started applying the paint on herself! LOL.

Have fun, and don't be too bothered by the mess - it really is very simple to clean up - took me less than 5 min to wipe the table after giving her a good bath. :)