eHomemakers Malaysia

Hello everyone! How was your Xmas? I had a wonderful one! I invited family over to my place on Xmas day and boxing day. It is so great to catch up with family. Everyone is usually too busy during the year to catch up properly. I suppose quality time spent with loved ones over the holiday season is always magical.  Now that Xmas is over, we have 2012 to look forward to. Have you made any resolutions? I have stopped making them for a long long time. But this year is different. I shall make some resolutions that I intend to keep:  (1) I shall successfully make a career transition now that I have decided to leave my previous job.  (2) I shall be motivated and focused in whatever I do. (3) I shall never let myself down in whatever I do and always reach for the stars.  Me At New Year's Eve Countdown 2010 In Tokyo. Can You Spot Me? These resolutions give me a reason to look forward to a brand new year. They also help me shape my vision for myself for the coming year. If you have a

Hello everyone :) Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? I haven't. Oops.  ( This photo is taken by Hiking Artist and registered under a Creative Commons License ) Anyway, I have been MIA for a bit because I am cramming my head with a lot of learning. For those of you who don't know me, I really like to learn new things. Hah! It's like a hobby gone wrong (?) as I have this burning desire to learn all I can about things which interest me.  Things which interest me these days - personal development, website creation and writing. After so many years, I have finally found things which truly inspire me. It's yaye all the way!  However, there's always the truth to face at the end of the day - interests vs reality. If I can't find a way to make money from my interests, I will have to face reality and go back to work! Well, I am giving myself another 6 months to swim in my interests.  What about you? Do you face the same problem of having to balance your int

In my earlier post, I recommended taking a break from work.  Here are its benefits:  1. clears your mind and allows you to find your purpose in life;  2. you become more aware of why you do certain things in life and you find meaning in doing them;  3. you learn to eliminate certain things you have been doing in life, which do not serve much useful purpose for you and your family; 4. you have the time to do all the things you have always wanted to do but never had the time to do; and  5. you get to spend more time with your family!  Yaye,  The Modern Homemaker 

I recommend taking a break from work. "Sabbatical" as some call it.  But I don't recommend taking a break from work if you don't have a fallback plan and you are usually an organised and systematic person.  If you are usually orgnanised and systematic and you are suddenly left with no routine to keep you occupied, you may feel very unsettled and unhappy.  Thus before you make that decision to take a break from work, perhaps look around for a fallback plan first. It need not be in the form of work. It can just be a routine. Perhaps volunteer work a few times a week. Or indulge in a hobby on a regular basis.  Sometimes keeping yourself occupied can be harder than it seems.  Yours truly,  The Modern Homemaker  ( The Modern Homemakers blog ) 

               A study has found that Malaysians are  throwing away up to 930 tonnes of unconsumed food daily.        Ironically, we Malaysians love food so why waste the one thing that we are known to love most?  The regular flurry of news reports on food shortages and the global food crisis have failed to alert us on the importance of being thrifty and humble to contribute towards sustaining global food supplies.       The multi-racial of Malaysian food is simply glorious.  We are blessed with such diverse food options that spice up our daily food consumption. Perhaps such diversity has led to our insatiable appetite for food at one sitting which eventually leads to a huge costly waste. At any time of the day, any type of food is easily available.       We now have more restaurants that serve fusion food, making us more impulsively greedy in making our selections. Go to any of these restaurants and you might have a hard time making up your mind on whether to have a plate o

Hello, this is The Modern Homemaker again. Ordinary Woman In An Extraordinary Situation I hope you now know a bit more about me after having read my first blog entry here. I am a rather ordinary woman who now find myself in a rather extraordinary situation. Haha, what do I mean by that? I drew this on my chalkboard at home. It is from a Yoshitomo Nara painting.  Previously, when I was working, life was all about work, work and work. However, since I stopped work to follow my husband to Beijing, life is now all about household chores and projects I love. Why do I then say I am in an extraordinary situation? Well, this is because I suddenly find myself in the privileged situation of having lots of free time to do all the things I have always wanted to do. I should be happy right? Yes I am now. But I wasn't doing so well initially... The Nightmares I started having nightmares every single night (almost) for nearly 3 months since I stopped work. I would often dream of ghost(s)/

Hello everyone, I am so excited to be given the chance to talk to you and be your friend on eHomemakers.  Who am I?   My name is I-Ping and I am a 31 years old Singaporean lady. These days, I divide my time between Beijing and Singapore due to my husband’s work. Each is home to me. I love Beijing for its history, culture, optimism, space and vibrancy. I love Singapore because I grew up here and my family and friends are here.     Chef preparing the famous Peiking duck at Dadong     restaurant in Beijing, famous for its Peiking duck.     The famous Peiking duck with thin crispy skin.     The condiments for the Peiking duck served in a nice     minimalist plate.  Sculpture at the famous 798 Art District, Beijing  Scribblings left on The Great Wall of China by visitors.  Bride and groom posing on The Great Wall of China.  They have Durian cheesecake in Beijing!  Muar, My Mother's Hometown        I suppose you could call Malaysia my home too as my mother's f

       This was totally accidental. I had a few friends over and had to make a dessert (never been happier seeing guests plunge their fork into it till the very last bit). My initial plan was to make a cream cheese-based dessert but sadly, there was no cheese left in the chiller. So with cream, leftover cakes and fruits, I had to whip up something. I grabbed my trifle bowl and began making what I had in mind...layers and layers of creamy fruitty cool dessert. What you need: 1.  Any leftover cakes or sponge cakes . I used chocolate swiss rolls. Slice them. 2.  Fresh strawberries 3.  Chocolate cream  : 1 egg yolk, 40g caster sugar, 100g cooking chocolate/bittersweet finely chopped, 50ml water, 1 1/2 tsp gelatin powder, 250g whip cream (I normally used Rich brand) - Sprinkle gelatin over water. - Whisk 1 egg yolk + 40g caster sugar until pale and creamy. Double boil and keep whisking. - Add chocolate and gelatin mixture to the bowl and stir until all is melted. Let coo

     Salam Merdeka Raya to all readers! May this joyous season bring us the best of everything a festival could offer, especially the food. It is my family's tradition to have a special thematic cake on the table each year. That cake would sit in the middle of the table, untouched and uncut until the third or fourth Raya. I could sometimes see kids drooling over the cake and left our house pretty disappointed for not being served any of it. We had cakes like a log, a house, a book and other shapes and sizes, all made using pound cake recipe. Trying my very best to preserve such tradition, I too would make one special cake that sits on the dining table each Raya. I used the simplest yet the best butter cake recipe for my mosque cake this year. Thanks to Peggy Porschen. You will love it too. Ingredients: 400g butter 400g caster sugar 8 eggs (lightly beaten) 400g self-raising flour 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or butter vanilla Method: Preheat oven to 170C.

         Salam Ramadhan and Happy Fasting to all my Muslim readers. May this month full of barakah and blessings brings joy to everyone regardless of race and faith.       In this holy month, Muslims all over the world fulfil the third pillar of Islam by fasting, which is a challenging means to learning self-restraint and self-control particularly the desire to drink or eat during daytime. The healing power of fasting is tremendous. It purifies, cleanse and detox the body system.       Personally, I would take this chance to rejuvenate my mind and body. However, I find the temptation is far greater than my own diet self-control when it comes to visiting Ramadhan bazars in the evening where the food stalls would normally take up almost all area.       Looking at the variety and array of food makes me wonder how possible can our body sustain the process of cleansing from that one particular day if any of those food gets to the system.        Worse still, many end up buying

An all time favourite dish prepared in a breeze....sweet and sour fish, and for today, it's grouper from the market - fresh, shiny and metallic. I would have preferred Asian sea bass because of its chunkier and firmer flesh but it was out of season.  Sweet and sour fish is served at almost any Thai or Chinese restaurant in the East Coast region. It is a dish not too hot and not too fancy for anyone's palate. Whether it's Thai, Chinese or Western sweet and sour dish, the ingredients are almost the same. The good thing about this dish is that you can prepare the sauce way ahead, and reheat it when it's time to pour it over the fish, just in time for lunch or dinner. Simple, yet delicious. For 1 big fish: For the sauce, p reheat 3 tbsp of oil in a pan. Then a dd 3 crushed garlic and  2 shallots finely chopped.  In a processor, blend a cup of water, 1/3 cup vinegar, 2 medium sized tomatoes, 1 tbsp cornflour and a slice of pineapple ( about 20