Ben already ripped out the tomato plants that occupied the other two beds, so this row is the only one left standing. There are still some tomatoes on it, so this gets to stay in the ground a little while longer. I totally forgot to show you how our tomatoes did this summer, but they did so-so. We are getting to know how to tend to them on this side of the yard, so in the beginning they were getting too much water. Of course, spider-mites came in to live among them, and then busy life happened, thus some plants were cared for more than others. We did get to enjoy tomatoes, but our harvest wasn’t as plentiful as previous years.
There is this one last row left, but soon it will gone just like the others to make room for a winter garden. I’m not sure what Ben has planned, but I will be sure to share once it all gets underway.
I’m a little late in sharing this, but if you were in the D.C. area this summer, they had this cool BIG maze exhibit at the National Building Museum. It was a little pricey, especially since most D.C.museum things are free, but it looked like a lot of fun, so in we went. Ben did put up a slight hissy fit about how expensive it was, though I think the fun was well worth it. We got a little lost inside, and it feels a bit dizzying and claustrophobic to be lost in there. Ben was the first to spot the way out, so we let him lead the way. The girls were loving it so much they went through it again, but I stayed out and went up to try and get an aerial view of them going through it. If you live near there or were visiting this past summer, did any of you get a chance to go through it?
Kimchi Udon.The whole family loved this recipe. I changed it up slightly to add more vegetables in it and seafood. In the past, True didn’t really like udon noodles, but in this dish, she did. Also, since learning she is no longer allergic to shellfish, this is the first recipe she’s tried with shrimp in it. She pretty much stayed away from the seafood, but it’s a start. She used to like it, then had an allergic reaction, so we haven’t given her any. We had her tested recently, and it came out negative (along with eggs and dairy).
Spicy Korean Pork Taco. I changed this up slightly by putting the sauce in a crockpot and letting the meat cook in there, and of course using a leaner meat. It was good, but not great, so I probably won’t make this again.
We love Korean dishes, can’t you tell?! I’ve been kind of tired of cooking lately, so we went out to dinner once last week. It was nice to get a break.
Curious about what I sound like? I’m on a podcast with Jennifer from Craftsanity and we’re chatting about blogging, projects, and my book, Let’s Sew Together. Get the podcast here.
Thankful it’s fall even though it’s been over 100 degrees over here. This weekend is supposed to be cooler, so I hope the cooler weather is here to stay.
Mer Mag’s new book, Playful, looks so perfect for kids! My girls would love those projects.
I think we’ll make an indoor hopscotch with washi tape this weekend.
Brave started reading Nancy Drew books and has begun dressing like her, or what she thinks Nancy dresses like based on details in the books. She still wears her glasses to channel Peter Parker, but she wears a skirt and shirt (not in blue and red), wears a watch, and carries a “handbag” like Nancy Drew.
Every time my sister writes a new blog post about her adventures on World Race, my heart is encouraged and rebuked, and I am brought to tears.
There are few changes going on in our lives. We are excited for them, but nervous at the same time. We are trying to be prayerful about it and the decisions we have to make.
Good thing is that while it looks insanely crazy, since everything has a place, it’s not too bad to clean up. It does look overwhelming though, and when mess stress strikes, this would definitely make me go bonkers. I love wooden toys and we much prefer that for our kids, but as the kids have gotten older, wooden toys don’t always cut it. We give in from time to time, especially when it comes to My Little Pony, but the grandparents give in often. We’ve learned to take a chill pill, and the grandparents even know that sometimes things get taken away. HA! And of course, there’s a whole lot of Spiderman because that’s just Brave’s thing and everyone gives her Spidey stuff.
We often do a whole lot of purging and donating to help limit our kids from becoming hoarders, but our kids are regular kids and while I don’t like all this stuff, I’ve learned to be okay with some of it. If you look closely, you’ll also see how they infuse their own creativity into their play, so even though the room looks out of hand, they’re making memories together and I’m cool with that. Plus, I’ll make sure they clean it after. I’ll definitely have to share some of our favorite toys in another post, as well as what this room looks like cleaned up.
Warning: this is the longest food post of life. Seriously. When we went to Singapore, we wanted to dive into as much of the culture as possible, and one of the best ways is through food, right?! So we tried everything and anything! Stingray, cockles, mutton (you’re probably saying, “Say what?!”), and the list goes on and on. I’m going to share with you what we tried and some of what we thought. I couldn’t remember what I thought exactly about every dish, but if I didn’t like it, it sticks out, and I mention it below. Otherwise, I liked it! If you ever happen to find yourself on that sunny little island, this should help you navigate what to fill your tummy with, but like we tell our girls, don’t ever knock it until you’ve tried it.
Masala Thosai (Dosai) from the Tekka Market in Little India.
Wonton Noodle Soup from the Golden Mile Food Centre.
Bak Chor Mee from People’s Park Food Centre.
Clay Pot Chicken Rice from Golden Mile Food Centre.
Wanton Mee from Golden Mile Food Centre. Another delicious noodle dish.
Chwee Kueh from Tiong Bahru Market. This was the one dish we weren’t fond of. We had a bite and that was all we needed.
Soon Kueh from Tiong Bahru Market. My friend Abby brought us some for breakfast and I devoured it!
Chendol Cupcake from 40 Hands Cafe. It was different, not moist, but still tasty. There aren’t many desserts I don’t like though.
Tom Yum Seafood Soup from Golden Mile Food Centre.
Carrot Cake from People’s Park Food Centre. It’s not your American carrot cake, this is a vegetable dish, not a dessert. Ben and I both liked it and I’d like to try and recreate it at home, probably with a little less oil though.
Durian Ice Kachang, Cheng Tng, and Bo Bo Cha Cha from People’s Park Food Centre. They all tasted good, but my favorite might have been the durian one. Durian is strong, but after the initial taste, you get used to it. The burps that ensue afterwards isn’t as nice though, fair warning.
Teh Halia and Teh Masala from Tekka Market in Little India. It was hot as heck, but it didn’t stop of us from having these warm drinks. I loved the spices in them!
Otak Otak from Katong Laksa. Yes, this was delicious! It has a little bit of spice, and yes it looks a bit like spam; it is made from fish (a sort of fish cake) and has a totally different flavor from spam.
Roti John from People’s Park Food Centre.
Halwa from Tekka Market in Little India. Interesting flavor and texture, but I found it a little too sweet, and I love sweet, so this tells you this was really sweet.
Mee Goreng from Tekka Market in Little India. I pretty much loved all the noodle dishes we had in Singapore. This wasn’t saucy, but it was very flavorful.
Fish Nasi Briyani from Tekka Market in Little India.
Kambing Soup from Tekka Market in Little India.
Pulut Hitam from Island Creamery. Even ice cream in Singapore is so good!
Satay from People’s Park Food Centre. I love satay! But I guess you can already tell from this post, that I love a lot of food.
Laksa from Katong Laksa. We actually had this twice, so I can’t remember if this was from the first place or second, but both were so good. This was by far my favorite dish in Singapore. Well, it was tied with the Singaporean Ramen from Noodle Story. I have a couple packets of boxed laksa, so I can try to recreate it at home.
Ondeh Ondeh from Maxwell Centre. I wish I could have brought boxes of this dessert home with me! It’s type of a rice flour cake (I think) covered in coconut flakes. I just love how Asian desserts aren’t overwhelmingly sweet like American desserts tend to be.
Fresh Coconut from Chinatown. This was so refreshing to drink while walking around in the sweltering heat.
Ah Balling Soup from Golden Mile Food Centre. This was so good! I loved it so much that I now go to the local Asian market to stock up on frozen peanut balls to have it when I get the craving. My friend Abby shared a recipe here and I want to try it!
Chili Crab from Jumbo Seafood in the East Coast Lagoon (I think). I love crab. Give me crab, rice, and butter, and I’m in the zone, so this dish hit the right spot.
Singaporean Ramen from A Noodle Story at the Amoy Food Centre. The presentation and the flavors totally won me. I really miss this dish so much. If I ever find myself in Singapore again, I would head to the Amoy Centre as soon as I was able and get another bowl of this delicious dish. We wanted to go back on our last day there, but they were closed that day.
Dim Sum from Tim Ho Wan. We went to Tim Ho Wan for lunch this day after walking all over the place, and we were starving. I texted my friend Abby our location to see what would be the best place to eat, and this is what she suggested. I love dim sum and this did not disappoint!
Chicken Rice from Maxwell Food Centre. This was Ben’s favorite dish. I think he had it two more times when he went off by himself as I taught classes.
Sambal Sting Ray from Makansutra Gluttons by Bay. It’s similar to fish, but denser, and we love the flavors of the paste on top.
Hokkien Mee from Makansutra Gluttons by Bay. I thought it was good, but Ben didn’t like this so much.
Roti Prata from Chinatown. I would love to try and make this at home.
Obviously, we ate a lot. Looking at the pictures again, I notice there were some other dishes we ate that I didn’t get pictures of. We had 7 full days in Singapore and we enjoyed every bit of it. Ben, who is really picky with food because he likes to make sure he eats healthy (all the time), was totally game for anything, and he tried everything too! There’s only one dish above that we really didn’t like, but everything else was pretty good. We came home craving some of the food, so I immediately started recreating some of the dishes (with a healthier slant of course).
We were lucky enough to have the Bloesem team to get us started on our food quests, and our friend, Abby, was our personal tour guide 90% of the time, and she took us all over the place. When we did venture off on our own, this blog helped guide us (along with some tips a few of you shared too!). Oh Singapore, how we miss your diverse and delicious dishes!
Dear Singaporean friends,
If I got any of the dishes wrong (or spelled wrong), please correct me.
Love, Ruby
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
Ben already ripped out the tomato plants that occupied the other two beds, so this row is the only one left standing. There are still some tomatoes on it, so this gets to stay in the ground a little while longer. I totally forgot to show you how our tomatoes did this summer, but they did so-so. We are getting to know how to tend to them on this side of the yard, so in the beginning they were getting too much water. Of course, spider-mites came in to live among them, and then busy life happened, thus some plants were cared for more than others. We did get to enjoy tomatoes, but our harvest wasn’t as plentiful as previous years.
Durian Ice Kachang, Cheng Tng, and Bo Bo Cha Cha from People’s Park Food Centre. They all tasted good, but my favorite might have been the durian one. Durian is strong, but after the initial taste, you get used to it. The burps that ensue afterwards isn’t as nice though, fair warning.
