Abby's first porridge

This is my maiden attempt in preparing porridge for my girl. My SIL handed me a packet of baby grains during my last visit to her place after my course sometime in March 2015. I first introduced her to puree when she was in her 7th month. And, she had her first taste on porridge at 9th month old (May 2015). After much research and read ups, I finally feel motivated and decided to start her on plain porridge before introducing meats or other vege in her diet. This is how I cooked her porridge (after asking around/ doing researches from the Internet on how to cook porridge in a small portion):

Baby grains containing organic calrose white rice, organic pearl black rice, organic Thailand brown rice, organic long grain rice and sweet millets.

The recommended consistency is 1:5 (rice : water) ratio. Thus, I measured a half of a 2/3 cup with 5 halves of water of the same cup.

Rinse the grains and soak them with filtered drinking water, best for an hour before cooking. But I skipped this stage after 10 minutes or so due to time constraint.

Since I didn’t soak the grains long enough, I used boiling water to soften as well as to accelerate cooking process.

 Once cooked, I pureed them with my Ladyship essence extractor, which to me was a gem. It is not only sturdy but safe to blend even when the porridge is still piping hot. 

Verdict: I didn’t expect my girl to take the plain porridge so well. I am a happy mommy! I will make it a point to restock after this :)

My first bake

This is my first bake with my new oven and I think I have never successfully baked for once with my mom’s oven except for a failed attempt, once long time ago. I have been coaxing the boss to get me an oven and he finally agreed to redeem one for me with points accumulated with his credit card. The oven arrived when I was still pregnant with Missy so it has been sitting on the shelves like a white elephant for months before my aunt in law offered to teach me in baking my current favorite blueberry cheese tart after seeing me ordering them several times from my colleagues for church activities and home services.

We quickly sealed a date on a public holiday and I brought my oven to Ah Tai’s place so I could get myself familiarize with the functions and temperature of my oven. The result was good, but not as appealing as expected. I even tried to make a batch on my own to be brought to the church for Sis Nancy’s farewell party. I was flattered that it was among the fast-going food and as witty as she is, Nancy commented that the tart isn’t pretty but taste as good as those outside bought and patted me on my shoulder and said ‘you have passed’ Lol :P The recipe isn’t anything mind-blowing and is available with just a click a way with Mr Google. From what I have gathered, they are pretty much alike from one to another. But, on a personal note, I am still not very satisfied with the crust and I am still figuring out on how to make it crispier to a perfect crumble, and of course to improve the appearance of the tart :P