Cherry Pancake

Here is the recipe of cherry pancake I made on Christmas day.  You can prepare the mixture ahead and keep in the fridge until needed.  Try adding different fruits instead of cherries for a variety!

<Cherry Pancake>  makes about 6 

• 1 handful of cherries, pitted
• 1 egg
• 25g sugar
• 150ml milk
• 30g butter, melted
• few drops of vanilla extract
• 150g plain flour
• 5g baking powder

Third Trimester – Week 28~　40

babycentre.com.au

Believe it or not, I’m on the third trimester already!  I’m at week 29, and the baby can be born at any time now (with lots of help by hospital if he is born now, of course).  People started to ask me when my due date is (finally!) because my belly is obviously big.  

I had the glucose test this morning. I had to drink sugar water (it was like soda) and wait for 1 hour to get my blood taken.  While waiting I felt so sleepy…  too much sugar!  Now, I feel little fainting too.  I think I will eat beef steak tonight to boost up my iron level.

It’s just 10 weeks to go, but I realized I haven’t prepared everything for my baby’s arrival yet.  Time flies…  Am I really going to be ready?  I haven’t applied for the paid parental leave to Centrelink yet.  Am I aware of all the medical expenses?  Am I getting enough exercise everyday?  Is my baby doing well?

On my last visit to my OB, my baby was in a breech position.  OB told me that baby will move around, so I didn’t really worry about it.  But now, I don’t know if he is still in a breech position or in a head-down position.  As he grows bigger he won’t be able to move his body around anymore, and if he stays in a breech position giving birth will be difficult.  Just in case he is still in a breech position (which I will find out on my next visit to OB) I found some tips I can do to help my baby into an anterior position (the best position for an easy labour/birth)  

• When sitting, make sure your knees are always lower than your hips (My work involves lots of sitting, so I added a couple of cushion on my chair to make my knees lower than my hips)
• Scrub the floor.  When you’re on all fours, the back of your baby’s head swings to the front of your belly.
• Move around during the day, and take a good night’s rest

And, there are few things I need to do after the baby is born : I need to do both Australian and Japanese birth registry, need to apply for his Australian and Japanese passports, etc etc.  I write down what I need to do, but am little worried that if everything goes well.  … thinking about all these things makes me have headache.   I think I’d just better worry about giving birth to a healthy boy at this stage! 

Christmas Holiday

Christmas cookie tree.

In the morning of Christmas we woke up with sweet delicious pancake.  I added cherries to the pancake, but D didn’t want any cherries.

After breakfast we sat on a sofa and watched tv for awhile…  It was too hot to go outside!

D started to act weird…  and I knew he was preparing to give me a Christmas present!  We didn’t talk about present until today, and we didn’t even mention about giving a present to each other, but I prepared one and I knew he prepared something for me secretly too.  So, I went outside to get his present ready…

We were trying to act normal, but I couldn’t help laughing.  He gave me a 2011 diary that I wanted!  And, a watch!

A baby bonsai I gave him…  I only prepared one for him

The wind was still warm in the evening.  It was really tiring day…  I wouldn’t be able to survive without air-con.  After dinner (inari sushi and chicken karaage), we drove to a park near Swan River for walking.  It was 9 PM and quite windy, but the heat was finally off.  It was very hot Christmas…

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Cookies for a Christmas Tree

Baking cookies is one of the fun activities you can do for Christmas!  You can create them in any shapes, and decorate with your favorite color.

Poke a hole on the cookie dough before baking so that they can be hung on your Christmas tree.    Make sure the hole is big enough as the hole will go smaller after baking.

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<Cookies> makes about 30~40 of 5cm Christmas trees

• 160g butter, unsalted
• 120g sugar
• 1 egg
• 320g plain flour
• a drop of vanilla extract

<Icing>  makes enough for 60 cookies

• 1 tsp vanilla yogurt
• 4~6 icing sugar (adjust the consistency: hard, but soft enough to pipe out)
• coloring 

1. Cream butter in a bowl using a whist or hand mixer until whitish color.  Add sugar, and mix until the butter is fluffy.
2. Add
3. …
4. Mix until the dough comes together.  Wrap in plastic, and rest in the fridge for more than 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough into 5mm thick.  Cut the dough into decorative shapes, using cookie cutters.  Arrange cookies on lined oven tray, and bake at 180℃ for about 10 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookies are golden. 
6. Once the cookies are cooled down, mix the ingredients for icing and put it in a small piping bag, or plastic bag.  Make a tiny hole on the tip, and decorate your cookies.
7. Leave until the icing is set.  

Merry Christmas to you all !! (^0^)-☆

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Yakiniku

I need red meat!! Great source of protein and iron.  Craving for chunks of meat sometimes happen to me, especially on Friday/Saturday evenings when I smell BBQ from neighbors houses.

I went to out to a restaurant the other day and ordered steak.  I told waitstaff to make sure the meat is cooked well-done.  But, when I cut the steak the meat inside was slightly pink.  It may be just because of the lighting at the restaurant (the lights were red-ish color which made everything look red).  I wasn’t sure if I should eat it – it maybe ok, but it maybe not.  In the end I asked waitstaff to cook the meat more.  I should have ordered chicken or pork instead of beef, so that I know the meat is fully cooked at least.  From the experience, I only eat steak at home now.

Last night I made yakiniku at home.  It’s one of the easiest meal because what I need to do is prepare meat (and some vegetables, rice and soup to accompany).  This time I marinated the beef with grated pear to give additional fruity taste.  It also softened the meat.

Cook meat in front of you while watching tv, and enjoy the freshly cooked meat with sauce and rice!  Yum.

In Japan, beef and port for yakiniku is normally sliced into about 5mm thick.  You can buy a bulk of meat and slice by yourself too.  It is more economical.  After slicing the meat, marinate in the home-made sauce, and keep in the fridge until you  start your feast.  Don’t forget to cook rice too!

<Yakiniku>  for 2 people

• 500g beef
• 40ml soy sauce
• 10ml sake (cooking wine)
• 40g pear, grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp minced ginger

• cabbage, capsicum, pumpkin, onion etc 
• steamed rice / soup
• sauce (ponzu, yuzu juice with salt, or try making this sauce ↓↓)