Moomy & the O'Bayley Boys' 1st Halloween!

 Happy Halloween, everybody!! 

Its an exciting day for us today because tonight will be the boys' very 1st time going trick-or-treating!

They've been pretty anxious about it, especially lil Tommy. He's even been practicing his line "trick or treat!!" these last few weeks hehehe

We've wondered where we would get their costumes this year and what characters they might want to be but while surfing online, I noticed that the costumes can get pretty pricey.

Plus, they're only going to wear it that one evening, y'know. (I'm not stingy, OK? I'm just trying to be a practical Mommy.)

So we checked around and took a gamble at browsing through the rails at our local Goodwill store. Lo and behold, we found a Green Lantern outfit for Tommy and an Alligator outfit for Aidan. Together, the costumes cost us under $12!

Awesome!!

The Green Lantern legs needed a wee bit of hemming and after a quick wash, the costumes are good as new!

I cut a superhero mask out of felt (re-purposed from an elf hat from the Dollar Tree!) and ta-daa!! Let us introduce our lil Tommy as Green Lantern:

And here's Aidan our Grouchy Gator:

I must add that these boys were ready by 3pm this afternoon. It wasn't their fault hehehe - their Mommy was equally excited too (and I was going just as me, sans costume!). My darling hubby said he'd be back early so we can go trick-or-treating so … we don't want to be late now, right?

3:30pm: Aidan was already tugging on his costume's zipper.

FYI, they got out of their costume about half hour later hehehe

by 5:15pm, I got them ready, this time round with

socks and shoes on and candy baskets ready! :D:D:D

Anyway, by 5:30pm, we've already got a couple of knocks on our door:

One of the neighborhood boys dressed up as Woody from Toy Story!

But Daddy said it's still a wee bit too early to go around:

Daddy was scouting the street for any early trick-or-treaters ...

Aidan the Grouchy Gater was just itching to get out and collect candy!

Trust me, I was getting antsy too HAHAHA but we scribbled a quick note to say we're out trick-o-treating and we're out the door by 6pm! WEEEEE!!

 The boys knocking on a neighbor's door: "Trick or treat!!" 

We were so proud of them and their "Thank you!!" after getting a piece of candy!

 Check out those tomb stones on our neighbor's front yard!

 … and lil mini not-scary ghosts in the tree hehehe

OOO!! This was my fave prop at a neighbor's house.

I seriously thought this was an electrical mannequin 

with some kind of sensors that made its arms move when a kid come by …

It turns out he's REAL!! LOL creepy but o, he got me! Hehehe

Here's another cute one: a neighbor put a lit-up skeleton in his car!

Awesome!! :D

We were only out trick-or-treating for about half an hour (it got darker and cold pretty quick now!) and then it's back home to receive fellow trick-or-treaters!

 Lil Tommy enjoyed giving out candy to the neighborhood kids ...

 Can you see our family of Jack-o-Lanterns and the not-so-scary ghost? Hehehe

Here's a better close-up of our pumpkins. From left to right:

Tommy Pumpkin, Mommy Pumpkin, Aidan Pumpkin and Daddy Pumpkin!

My darling hubby did the carving!

 The boys even got a couple of plastic spider rings in their pumpkins! :D

But before we start eating them, Daddy did some QC on them -

anything squished or slightly-opened packs get tossed out.

Thankfully, nothing was opened. Just a couple of candy bars

were a wee bit mooshed up …

But boy o boy … the boys collected quite a pretty yummy loot!

10pm: we ran out of candy hours ago but here in the O'Bayley household, the boys are still in their costumes and sharing a small packet of M&Ms with Daddy hehehe

Sharing is caring … hehehe ;-D

Before I sign off tonight, let me share with you a sweet throwback pic of my darling hubby as Green Lantern many many Octobers ago:

As my darling MiL said, like father like son, huh? :D:D:D

10:40pm: And the boys are out! :D It must have been all that walking ...

And with that, sleep tight my dear readers :D:D:D

Moomy Stomps Out Bullying!

Do you know, my dear readers, that October is National Bullying Prevention Month?

I didn’t know that too until just recently.

You know how it goes: something bad happened and you think/wish/pray that it will not happen to you & your loved ones.

But it did.

About a week back, I was laying in bed awake thinking of a dear loved one who was bullied in school.

Is it me or is school now no longer a happy, safe and cheerful environment for our children to grow up and learn the basics that will help mould them into fine human beings?

Is it me or are there just more and more YOUNGER kids being exposed to weapons and drugs?

Back in my school days (in Singapore), the problems our teachers had to deal with were minor - a pack of cigarette, a tiny compact powder, truancy.

Nowadays, even teachers fear for their lives or get gunned down just trying to protect their ward.

As if “real life” bullying ain’t problematic enough, bullying extends its ugly fingers into cyberspace as well – cyberbullying.

I hate to point it out but statistics have shown that 75% of school shootings have been linked to harassment and bullying against the shooter*.

That’s such a frightening figure, isn’t it?

Just last week, Americans were shocked, yet again, by another unfortunate and tragic shooting in a Marysville high school in Washington State. This time round, the student targeted his circle of friends, 2 of whom are his own cousins.

The fatal count: 3, including the gunman.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, there was quite the debate for gun control in the Unites States. Sandy Hook went into the history books as the deadliest primary/school shooting with 20 children (all under the age of 8!) and 6 staff members dead.

The perpetrator had also gunned down his own mother before making his way to school. He later turned the gun onto himself.

Somewhere, somehow, there has got to be something that can be done to make schools a safer place for our children.

Be it stricter laws on gun control and a universal background check or educating our children about bullying and its effects, I strongly believe that it should all start at home.

My darling hubby and I have already started teaching our boys, Tommy and Aidan, not to fight with one another. They still squabble over their toy trucks and who gets to hug Elmo at night but we taught them to love and hug the other brother when they’ve wrongly hurt each other.

We love watching them play and get into mischief together ...

… but equally important is the act of saying "I'm sorry, bro!".

Kiss & make up, that's the best way to go after a squabble.

Besides, who doesn’t love to be hugged?

Its sad and such a shame that the (young) generation lately has no respect for teachers and the learning institution. Or life for that matter.

There are lots for me to read still on this bullying issue (I've included some links below). For now, I pray and hope that God Almighty keep our loved ones safe and sound, no matter what their occupation may be.

And my dear blog-loving friends, wherever you may be, if you don't mind helping me with this one tiny favor: please help SPREAD THE LOVE. Let us all be more loving toward one another. Stop Bullying. 

Thank you.

* Source: nobullying.com/bullying-statistics-2014/

www.stompoutbullying.org

nobullying.com

#StopBullying365 

Moomy & Her Goa-Inspired Fish Curry!

With all that rain we’ve been having this past week, I guess its safe to say that Fall is officially here.

Its amazing how fast the year has gone by, huh?

The temperature has dipped considerably, night comes a lot faster (early 6-ish!), and lots of leaves are falling!

And with all that cold comes the need for lots of comfort food - food to soothe and warm the belly during the cold evenings.

I also love how the sautéing of spices, onions and garlic fill up the entire house that it sort of became a welcoming fragrance for my darling hubby when he comes home from work.

It always tickle me when the first thing he said the minute he stepped through the door was “That smells good, honey. I could smell it the minute I open the garage!”

Anyhoo, my in-laws had given us a wonderful cut of albacore tuna and I’ve been meaning to cook it in a different way (besides grilling it). A quick Google and I found a curry recipe, which I just had to try!

 Being here in the States makes me appreciate fish so much more!

You would think being near the beautiful Oregon Coast

and seeing all those impressive fishing boats, that there

would be plenty of fresh fish markets around right? Not exactly!

My in-laws said most of those fish caught are shipped overseas!

Here’s what I did for my Albacore Tuna Coconut Curry with Cashew Nuts & Butternut Squash:

Into my Magic Bullet, I measured out 2 teaspoons each of coriander seeds and cumin. I blitz it till the spices are finely ground and poured that into a bowl. Set this aside.

Next into the Bullet: 1 whole onion (roughly diced), 2 inches of fresh ginger (roughly chopped up), 4 cloves of garlic, a third of a cup of roasted salted cashew nuts, 1 and a half teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 heaping teaspoon of sambal oelek (bottled ground fresh chilli paste) and a wee bit of water to help the blending process. Once the mixture is nicely blended, pour it out into another bowl and set it aside.

Turmeric is good for you. It is a natural 

anti-inflammatory and antioxidant product and it fights off

those nasty colds and flus!

The next item to go into the Bullet is a medium tomato: I peeled off its skin, chopped it up roughly and blitzed it for a second until the tomato’s all smooth. Set this aside.

Before I start putting the curry together, I prepped these items:

Half an onion – finely sliced,

Red & yellow peppers (1 of each) – cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch squares,

Half a butternut squash – peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes,

1 generous pinch of tamarind paste – add a splash of water to the tamarind paste and work the water into the dried tamarind to get about 1 tablespoon of tamarind juice,

A generous handful of fresh cilantro – chopped.

It wasn't until my first visit to the States back in 2007 that

I tasted butternut squash for the first time. I loved it!

Into a big pot, heat up a quarter cup of vegetable oil over medium heat. I know it sounds like a lot but you need the oil to sauté the blended spices properly. Cooking/sautéing that curry mixture takes some time because if you don’t cook it properly, your curry might taste raw.

Anyhoo, once your oil has warmed up, pour in the blended onion + turmeric mixture. Stir it continuously while it cook for about 2-3 minutes. Then add your chopped peppers into the pot; let it cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Cook the blended onion + turmeric mixture first …

… then add those colored peppers …

… before finally working those blended spices into the mixture.

Don't rush the cooking process, OK? Let the spices

work its magic together with the other ingredients.

The end result will be worth the wait, I promise you :D

Next, pour in your blended spice mixture. Stir the mixture continuously for about 2 minutes before adding these: the blitzed-up tomato, half a can of coconut milk, tamarind juice, 1 packed tablespoon of light brown sugar, 2 heaping tablespoons of Sriracha chilli sauce (this is optional. I wanted some added kick to the gravy hehehe) and a third of a cup of water. Stir the mixture; add a wee bit more water if the curry seems a little thick. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, uncovered.

Add those chopped cilantro into the pot and stir it into the curry. Then gently tuck your cut tuna pieces into the gravy; let the fish simmer gently for about 3 minutes, covered. Turn the fish once and let it simmer for a couple more minutes. Give it a couple more minutes if your fish is still not cooked through.

The tuna steaks simmering slowly in the curry mixture …

Once your fish is cooked, all that's left is to stir in 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice into the curry and season it with salt. Ta-daaaa!! :D:D:D 

And there you have it: Goa-inspired

Albacore Tuna Coconut Curry with Cashew Nuts and Butternut Squash

I've never been there before but for some reason, the color of this curry just reminded me of Goa, India!  The curry was so creamy with all that richness from the coconut milk and the cubes of butternut squash gave a nice sweetness to the beautiful cut of albacore tuna. 

My darling hubby loved it - he had seconds! :D:D:D The curry wasn't too spicy too. Perfect for mild-curry lovers :D

There's nothing like a steaming plate of rice and curry to warm your cold evenings, y'all. Till my next post, keep warm and stay dry! :D:D:D

Moomy & The Easy-Peasy Banana Muffins

I don’t know about you, my dear readers, but I absolutely hate it when my bunch of bananas turn brown even before I could eat my way through half of it.

It was only just recently, through Pinterest, that I discovered a brilliant tip on how to make those bananas last a wee bit longer.

And Pinterest taught me all these interesting facts about bananas too!

But first, let me share with you the Why: why do bananas turn brown quickly?

I must have fallen asleep in Science class when the teacher was teaching this but apparently, bananas happen to be one of those fruits that emit ethylene.

Ethylene is basically a plant hormone; it is released in the form of gas and it comes off the (stems of) bananas as they ripen (turning from green to yellow). Don’t worry; ethylene is harmless to humans.

It is, however, important to note which fruits emit ethylene as putting bananas together with ethylene-sensitive food like cabbage and sweet potatoes will cause the cabbage leaves to shed and the sweet potatoes to become brown and discolor.

Now back to them bananas and that trick to keep them yellow for longer: split them up!! Don’t keep them together in a bunch but keep them separated by their own individual stem.

If you wish, you can wrap each stem in a piece of cling film but I have kept my bananas without the plastic and it worked just fine.

Amazing, huh, the tricks you can pick up from Pinterest? *winks*

Now that my bananas at home are keeping for much longer, I thought it was ironic that I could hardly wait for them to turn brown just so I could whip up a batch of Banana bread Muffins! LOL!  

The more brown spots a banana has, the more sugar it contains

and thereby, the banana tastes a lot sweeter.

And yes, it's still good enough to eat!

But brown they did (eventually!) and this was what I made:

Preheat the oven to 350degF and prepare a muffin tin with paper cases.

In a big bowl, mash 3 ripe bananas with a fork until its smooth. Then pour a third of a cup of melted butter into the mixture and stir until it has nicely come together.

First, you mash 'em …

… and then you add melted butter to the mashed bananas!

Then you add these: 1 teaspoon of baking soda, a pinch of salt, ¾ cup of sugar, 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. Stir everything together to combine.

 Because the bananas are already sweet, I only added 3/4 of a cup of sugar to the batter. 

Next, carefully fold in 1 and a half cups of all purpose flour.

All you really need is arm power to whisk it all up!

Once your batter is ready, spoon them into your paper cases. (Alternatively, you can use a loaf tin; just be sure to grease it generously.)

For some added crunch, I sprinkled some light brown sugar on top of each muffin.

 I love it when my muffin-tops are crunchy! :D

Pop your muffin pan into the oven and let it bake for about 1 hour. When tested in the center with a skewer, the skewer should come out clean. If not, let it continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Once its ready, remove from oven and cool it completely on a rack.

 I had my mug of tea ready even before the muffins were out of the oven! *winks*

 And that is, of course, lil Aidan's finger trying to nudge

the muffin closer to me so that I could feed it to him ...

 Its nice and moist inside too and you can always warm it up

for breakfast the next day. If there are any left, that is ...

Now ain’t that an easy peasy recipe? And I didn’t even use my electric hand whisk! 

So if you have any brown bananas lying around the kitchen, make these quick lil muffins for tea! :D:D:D Until next time, stay warm and keep dry, y'all! :D:D:D

Moomy Fixes A Leek-y Bowl of Soup!

OMG it’s OCTOBER already!!

‘Tis the season for those orangey pumpkins, Halloween costumes and treats.

This was our first pumpkin my darling hubby carved back

when we were living in SG. There were no kids coming around

for trick-or-treating but it was so cool to have our own Jack-o'-lantern!

‘Tis the season to bring out those long sleeves as the temperature drops even more. Goodbye summer!!

‘Tis the month of birthdays for my 2 BFF in this world! :D 

Happy birthday to my darling best buddies, Farah & Ayu!

‘Tis the month before I really start freaking out about hosting our first proper American Thanksgiving this year!

I have actually started writing out my Thanksgiving menu a couple of weeks back. Laugh if you must but I think for such a special meal, one just can’t do this at the last moment, y’know.

I'm even flipping through magazines for Thanksgiving inspiration!

Now that we’re here in the States, I thought it would be nice for us to host some of the special American holidays and have my darling in-laws over. So we talked it over and the plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner at our place and then my in-laws will do Christmas.

And if you haven’t been to any of her dinner parties, you ought to know that Mrs Carolyn O’Bayley pulls out all the stops for her special dinners – from the food that she made to her table setting.

If you can look past that gorgeous cake (it was mine,
for my birthday in 2007!), you can see that my MiL's table was set with a

Christmassy theme - candles, tablecloth, placemats, the works!

Its not just the table; she placed lots of ornaments

all over the house too! Pretty!! :D

I swear my MiL prolly has Martha Stewart on speed dial!

O boy, what did I get myself into? I barely own a proper tablecloth! 

Good advice! :D

Anyhoo!! I recently discovered that with the change in season/weather, that brings about a ‘change’ in produce. Funny how I never quite realize that when we were still in SG …

But then again, we were in the middle of a dense concrete jungle so what do I know …

As I was saying, we had enjoyed plenty of fresh blueberries, raspberries and sweet corn this summer. And now that fall is here, I notice there are more pumpkins and squashes being sold at supermarkets!

 The fresh selection of local veg at Newport's Farmers'
Market in October 2011. That was our first visit to such a
market and boy, I was stunned by the colors of the vegetables! 

I have never been that adventurous with vegetables before; every time I shop, I will always reach out for the same ol’ mix – broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms. And the odd bok choy or Chinese lettuce.

I have never tried kale or Swiss chard or parsnip before! So this year, I aim to try something new each season and who knows …? I might just fall in love with a new veg!

So not too long ago, I was watching The Barefoot Contessa cook for her mystery guest. She chopped up some leeks and sautéed that and made a beautiful pot of wild mushroom soup!!

I’ve never tried leeks before and I loveeeee a good hearty bowl of mushroom soup so I just had to try her recipe out: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cream-of-wild-mushroom-soup-recipe

 The recipe called for 2 leeks but my darling goofy hubby bought

2 big bundles of this veg! *rolls eyes* In the end, I split the bundles

with my darling MiL, who was visiting us that

weekend! :D All's well that ends well :D:D:D

First on my list: chop chop chop mushrooms!! I used 3 different types (about 15 ounces) - fresh shiitake, giant Portobellos and good ol' browns/creminis.

Do you know that you shouldn't wash mushrooms, my dear reader? I used to do that and boy, they felt icky when they're wet! Anyway, I learnt that unless they're super grubby, then all you need to do is to wipe off the wee bit of dirt with a dry paper towel. 

If the mushrooms are just swaddled in dirt, then you can rinse those shroomies quickly and dry them. And use them pretty much immediately.

Mushrooms.

Some people love them, some people don't. 

If you haven't tried Portobellos before, you should.

They are great grilled as a vegetarian burger patty.

Seriously. Check out Paula Deen's Portobello Mushroom Burger. 

So for all these mushrooms, I separate the stems from the caps. With the stems, I roughly chop them up.  Set the chopped-up stems aside as you'll be using these to make the mushroom stock. Here's how:

Into a big pot, I added 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and butter. Let that melt for a bit over medium-high heat. To that, I added: the chopped-up stems, 1 cup of diced yellow onion, 1 carrot (diced), a sprig of fresh thyme, 1 teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Cook this mixture for about 10 to 15 minutes till the vegetables softened.

Then add 6 cups of water to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn down the heat and let your stock simmer, uncovered for about 30 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a sieve; what you want is the beautiful mushroom stock. This recipe should give you about 4 and a half cups of stock. If you don't have enough, just add a wee bit more water to what you have.

And now, let's build the soup: starting with the mushroom caps, I sliced them about a quarter-inch thick. For the bigger Portobellos, I chopped them up into bite size pieces. Set these aside in a big bowl.

With the leeks, what you'll need is the white and light green portions. So chop the darker green bits and ends off. Cut the leek into half, length-wise and then chop these up further into little C's.

Have a big bowl of cold water ready by your cutting board; sweep up all these chopped-up leeks and let it soak for a bit in the water bath. This will help clean the leeks of any dirt that's trapped in between them layers. Give the water a quick swirl and scoop up the floating bits of leeks; set it aside.

Into another pot, I warmed a stick of butter over medium-high heat. Add the leeks to the melted butter, turn the heat down to low and cook them for about 15 to 20 minutes.

A leek-y pot ...? Hehehe ;-D

Then add all those mushroom caps and let the mixture cook for another 10 minutes.

Hehehe all those steam kinda fogged up my phone camera LOL

Add a quarter cup of all purpose flour to the pot; stir the mixture and let that cook for 1 minute.

Then add 1 cup of chicken stock; use your wooden spoon to scrape all the bits on the bottom of the pot.

It doesn't look much right now

but the end product is just fantastic, I assure you.

Next, add all that lovely mushroom stock you had made earlier, 1 teaspoon of minced thyme leaves, 1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Stir the mixture and let it come to a boil.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes.

All that's left now is for you to add 1 cup each of half-and-half and heavy cream, and half a cup of minced fresh flat-leaf parsley. Stir the mixture, season if necessary and let it heat through (do not let it boil).

And there you have it :D:D:D A beautiful concoction of earthy goodness that is the Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup!!

Our dinner that evening: 

Grilled Albacore Tuna in Teriyaki Sauce, 

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup and No-Knead Dinner Rolls!

I made this soup to go with the beautiful fresh Albacore Tuna which my darling in-laws had brought for us that weekend; the tuna was marinated in teriyaki sauce and then grilled quickly so it's all nice and seared outside yet pink in the middle.

My MiL also helped me prepare some fresh no-knead dinner rolls for the soup. There is just nothing better than some buttery, flaky rolls to dunk into that bowl of goodness.

When the cooler weather comes a'knocking,

I just love simple dinners of hearty soups and dinner rolls!

The above recipe made enough soup for 6 adults and a lunch leftover for 1 hungry Moomy. 

And y'know what ... I love leeks! It smells like onion but when cooked, it has a wonderful sweetness to it. I enjoyed it so much I actually looked for another recipe to cook noodles with leeks ...

But let's save that for another post, OK? :D

So go ahead ... make this pot of soup for dinner tonight. You'll enjoy it just as much as we did :D:D:D

Toodles for now, y'all!!