I'm not always around to cook for the boys, but I make it a point that they have something to munch on and not let them go hungry. Although we don't live far from places where we could easily buy food, it's still good to have something ready or quick to prepare at home.

Over the weekend, we prepared this dumpling recipe from Lettuce Spoon and kept it in the freezer. I cooked it while cooking rice by placing the steamer attachment, coated the inner portion in sesame oil, on top of the rice cooker. The steamed dumpling can be eaten as is, but I opted to toast the wrapper a bit by searing the wrapper on a pan. This gives it another texture dimension to it.

As for the dipping sauce, although Lettuce Spoon's recipe already has the dipping sauce included, I opted to try for another one. I found a copy of Martha Stewart's Soy-Vinegar Dipping Sauce and went for it. 

After a few whisks, I ended up with this:

Overall, the taste reminds me of gyoza. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of gyoza. So far, the only gyoza taste that I like it that of Osaka Ohsho's and that of our helper, Yeng. A liked it, which is the more important part since it's his emergency food.

It's been a while since I've posted on the site. Juggling work, motherhood, and the rest of the household is not an easy feat. I think, based on how things are moving along, I can safely say that I've got it sorted out enough to have some more available time. That being said, I've returned to my playground in the kitchen.

A has always appreciated Japanese food. It's been a while since we've been to one. The past couple of weeks, he's been looking for sukiyaki. So, I thought, why not make him one?

We actually had his first haircut done on his birthday last year. Scout has so much hair that we were able to use his first trimmings in a number of ways. Apart from the usual practice of inserting it in books (we actually used tow books), some was used in his First Haircut Certificate. This one is the ultimate memorabilia...

The idea was first presented to me when I had my first meeting with Ms. Penk Ching of Pastry Bin for Scout's first birthday cake. Shifting the topic a bit, here's what the cake looked like: