First days of solids.. yay!!

Yesterday was the first day Rafael started on solids, and as recommended, I mixed a little fortified iron- baby cereal with his milk. He took it on almost immediately, apparently interested with the bright-colored eating utensils, and he latched onto the spoon quite eagerly even though he didn't quite know how to eat yet... I found it very amusing... taking a picture was a pain though, while trying to feed him at the same time... but all mothers are multi-tasker, no? *grins*

No pictures, please!!

So, in short, he ended up eating, or more aptly, eating while 'blowing' about 7 teaspoons of his porridge-like cereal before he seemed contented, and within the next half hour, he fell asleep. You wouldn't believe that the nap that followed was almost...3 hours? he only yelled out for a nappy change in between, and was sleeping quite soundly until his next feed, which didn't happen until almost 5 hours later! - I was a little worried there...

No dramas and no fuss, his first day of eating solid (though he didn't do no.2 due to less quantity of food), was a breezy affair, I almost regretted not starting it earlier, he he heh.. but apparently it's better not to start too early if the bub has skin allergy or some sort; and my boy does have quite a sensitive skin.. he got eczema, followed by mild rash that seems to linger around most of the time, due to his excessive finger-eating habits. But his skin is getting better; I'd say we hardly ever touch the cortizone cream a few days after the eczema worsened. Then it took an upward turn for the better, thank God!

Anyway, him eating cereal got the planner in me quite excited, so I did up a whole month of menu planned for him, even going as far as scheduling when to buy certain variety of fruits and vegetables for him. Premature perhaps, but I couldn't help it... ^_^ 

While I was at it, I got my multi-steamer-blender for baby food, and it's not Avent's. (Avent's is very good, I hear, though the price tag is a little steep at around $280?) I ordered mine online, it's called Cherub baby, an Australian brand, and costs around $125. The brand itself doesn't really matter as long as it delivers, so, I'll see if this works well. At the moment, since I haven't got the multi-blender yet, I'll plan for easy to puree veggies & fruits. Banana, avocado, apple and pear are high on my list right now..

Crumbed stuffed squid

A's birthday celebration continued on the next day (the potluck dinner was on Friday, but the actual birthday fell on the Saturday). It was a mini feast with just us & A's mom. She cooked an awesome noodle dish and I managed to cook a few dishes and baked another cake. Lunch consisted of corn & crab meat soup, seafood noodle, braised spring vegetables and tofu, crumbed stuffed squid (A's favourite), and mini baked cheesecake decorated with fresh fruits. (I really was pushing myself for time this time around!!). Talking about over-eating... :P

Crumbed stuffed squid - serves 4

Ingredients

500 g medium sized squid tubes w/ tentacles intact (about 15 pcs)

3 cloves garlic

1/3 brown onion

1-2 stalks spring onion, chop finely

5 pcs large raw prawn

1 tbsp cooking wine

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 heaped tsp corn flour

1 large egg (for crumbing)

1 1/3 cup breadcrumbs

oil for frying

Method

1. Wash & take out the insides & tentacles. Soak the squid tubes with cooking wine for at least 15 mins in the fridge. Meanwhile, pre-heat a steamer.
2. Wash & peel prawn, process with squid's insides & tentacles along with garlic  &onion in a food processor.
3. Mix the processed prawn+squid with spring onion, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper & corn flour.
4. Take out the squid tubes from the fridge & drain completely. Fill with the stuffing.
5. Place stuffed squid into the pre-heated steamer for 5 minutes.
6. Whisk the egg & dip each squid into it before rolling them onto the bread crumbs. 
7. Heat frying pan with enough oil to cover the squid. Deep fry for a minute or until golden brown.

I found that it is better to double crumb the squid tubes so that the result is a more even golden brown pieces. Also, only deep fry the squid as close to serving time as possible so that they stay crispy. 

Potluck dinner & birthday boy

This weekend is a particularly busy one, as we're hosting a potluck dinner, which coincides with A's birthday. I wanted to bake him an x-box cake, since he's been wanting one, but the real thing is so costly, so I'd rather give him an artificial one.. ^^, and as if keeping it from him for a few days while I was at it wasn't tough enough, I had to work around Rafael's sleeping times (which, during the day, consist of a few short naps at best), But at the end, thankfully everything worked out well enough. I even got to choose a perfect hiding place for it. (the oven, obviously! hahaha)

The dinner itself was enjoyable. There were 11 of us gathering on our dining table, and since neither A and myself didn't have time to take out another table from the store room, everyone squeezed into this 6-8 seater table; though that didn't affect the appetite, it's winter after all so we were ravenous!

We had lots of food, and everyone's cooking were so yummy, I had trouble choosing what to try first :P. We had home made loh bak (our friend's family secret recipe, nice!!), stir fried seafood, crispy chicken wings, fish maw soup, szechuan soup (hot&sour), shiu mai, an attractive veggie dish, and a steamed pork dish. holey-canoley, we can barely fit the rice bowl in the middle of the table! I'll have to update the food photo later though...

When we came to the end of the dinner, I took out the cake for everyone to enjoy. (and accidentally broke the figurine's arm.. -_-...) Everyone sang a loud happy birthday and A cut the cake before he blew the candle! hahaha, I guess the birthday wish wasn't as effective then! I was glad A was surprised and everyone helped themselves to seconds and thirds. (really can't go wrong with chocolate cake! This was Milo chocolate cake - served with a little vanilla butter cream) At the end of the night, we had only three pieces left; great stuff! I was afraid there'll be lots of leftover...

the knife's inching to get to A,, creepy!!

Well, suffice to say that we went to sleep a fitful sleep with full stomach that night.. Thanks everyone for a great night!