Showing posts with label Pampered pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pampered pets. Show all posts

Friday, May 1, 2020

[garden to table] EASY Quail egg tart recipe.

Hi all! Hope you guys are holding up well during this Covid period.

Too many productive quails but don't know what to do with their eggs?
You guys can try this simple recipe at home with your kids :)

Pastry Ingredients:
- Plain flour 145gm
- Chicken egg x 1 (you need 1 egg yolk and half portion egg white)
- Butter 75gm
- Icing sugar 1 teaspoon

Custard Filling  Ingredients:
- Sugar 70gm
- Warm water 130ml (to combine with sugar and stir well)
- Quail eggs x 9
- Fresh milk 125ml
- Vanilla essence x 1 teaspoon







Pastry method: 
- Mix 1 teaspoon Icing sugar into 75gm Butter, add 1 egg yolk + half portion Egg white and mix well using hand-whisk.
- Pour in 145gm plain flour and knead using fingers until pastry is formed.
- Wrap in ziplock bag or clingwrap and put in fridge for 15min while you prepare Custard fillings.


Custard method:
- Using handheld whisk, mix well the 9 quail eggs with the cup of Sugar warm water (70gm sugar stir well with 130ml Warm water)
- Add in Fresh milk 125ml and whisk evenly.
- Add Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon.
- Pour this mixture through a sieve to prevent any lumps in the eggs mixture.

Preheat oven 190deg for 10 Min while you work on the dough.
Mould the dough into your casings and use a fork to poke holes on the bottom of pastry.

Pour the custard fillings into your pastry moulds.

Bake in oven 190deg celcius for 25 minutes.
Then leave the egg tarts inside for another 10 minutes before removing.




Before Covid-19, I used to think that I didn't need to bother learning cooking or baking as in Singapore, whatever you want to buy or eat is readily available and easily store-bought.
Now it's a real wake-up call for us to start thinking about going back to basics (kampong days if you may) and start investing in self-grown/ self-raised/ self-taught/ self-made, and being more self-sufficient.

It is extremely rewarding to have food harvested from garden to table.
We spend a lot on quality feed for our pets and thus we know what goes into the food we eat from the garden.

Hope you guys enjoy making this delicious tea-time snack at home!




Friday, May 27, 2016

My kids and their fids.

Some friends and colleagues have been asking me about our PARROTS after seeing their funny photos and a video of Yoda jailbreaking from his cage, so here I am dedicating a post just for these marvelous and colourful creations of God!

As an introduction, we have Yoda, our Congo African Grey (sometimes referred to as CAGs) hatched in Feb 2016.
We also added a Yellow-sided conure, aka YSC, just last Saturday 21st May 2016.

Recently, Adam had asked for a pet parrot again after the demise of our foster-turned-adopted Border Collie, Sky.
Long story short - before Sky came, we had a pet Sun Conure (in the early months of 2015) whom the kids named Joker.
Joker was a great parrot - playful, loves to rough it with the boys, tame, and a great clown.
However, he didn't get along with Sky after we fostered/ adopted her. They were often fighting, so eventually I had Joker rehomed, despite the protests from Adam.

Several months later, Sky passed away from food poisoning and for a few months then, our home had no pets.
Until, that is, Adam started asking for a parrot again around his 7th birthday.

He said he hasn't forgotten about me selling Joker away without his knowledge/ permission, and horror of horrors how could I do that to him/ his pet?!

So in the end, after some bargaining from him and also from me, Hubby & I gave in to his request and got him an African Grey parrot for his 7th birthday.
We made countless visits to different petshops, talked to the shop owners, Googled and asked around on the internet.

Finally, from the recommendation of a fellow bird enthusiast on Birdcraze, we finally got our African Grey baby from Chua bird shop at 154 Serangoon North.
The owner, Dion, taught us how to handfeed our new baby and gave me her personal number, and armed with the new cage, food, and accessories, we drove home with Yoda.

This is Adam, at 6.20AM on school mornings, handfeeding Yoda.
He kept his promise of being a responsible pet owner.


Yoda's mugshot when he just came. Still a silly, pigeon-looking baby.
I remember I took time off work to bring Adam to choose his parrot. Chua's petshop just had a new shipment of CAGs and we could go down to take a look.
After some choosing, Yoda was actually the one whom we had the most affinity for.

This is our red-butt chicken now.
With his diet of fresh fruits, pellets, vegetables like corn, choy sum, french beans, carrots and cooked brown rice, he has grown a nice plumage.

Yoda is not particularly fond of cuddles, or loud noises and sudden movements from the kids. He is quiet and not a screamer or destroyer, making apartment living very suitable for CAGs.
Because of their less demanding activity levels, they also make wonderful companions for older folk.
They are excellent talkers and masters of mimicry and usually start talking at 1 yr old.
I highly recommend watching "Alex african grey" on Youtube as you will likely be bowled over by the wits and cognition of Dr Irene Pepperberg's CAG Alex.

Yoda has a new friend, Happy the Yellow-sided conure.

While CAGs prefer a more dignified and less physical relationship and is usually a one-man-bird, Conures are more friendly and get along well with most in the family, especially children.

Conures will always have a special place in my heart for being the clowns and entertainers they are.
Despite being one of the smallest types of parrots, they more than make up for their size in their colours and personality.
They love to cuddle and are such clowns.

Happy's arrival story was a bit different, because we had gone to Goodwill petshop to buy toys and treats for Yoda, and definitely buying another parrot wasn't on our list of things!
She was just there, hopping around the perches of other parrots, and she was unchained.
When she saw me, she just matter-of-factly hopped onto my finger and then to my shoulder, as if she was meant to be mine!

We then walked around the store with Happy on my shoulder.
At first, I thought she was someone's lost parrot because she was the only YSC around, and the only parrot not leashed or in a cage.
In the end, the petshop guy came to talk to me and said this little bird has chosen us and I managed to bargain and bought Happy for a discount :P

Adam chose the name "Happy" for her (he usually names the parrots) as he wishes everyone in the family to be happy.

Happy's arrival was so spontaneous and she followed us home on my shoulder, we didn't even have time to prepare her cage!
She lived on the perch in our deck for a few days before her cage was delivered.





If you're thinking of getting a Yellow-sided conure, be prepared for lots of cuddles and cuteness!

Our balcony is slowly transforming into a parrot haven, with plants and crops for them to forage among in the day.



My kids enjoy being silly with their fids.




Advantages of keeping parrots:
- Require lesser time, money, and energy than dogs.

- They don't need to be walked twice daily.

- They don't shed.

- Many types of parrots can talk and mimic sounds.

- They are amusing and funny.

Disadvantages of keeping parrots:
- They are not easily toilet-trained like dogs and cats.

- Compared to dogs and cats which have been bred for their companion and working qualities for more than hundred of years, parrots are relatively new in the pet industry and many of them are from wild parents or only a few generations of tame parentage.

- If they aren't bonded to you / your family members, they can bite. Those beaks can pack a punch.

- Depending on the species, some parrots can cost a limb!

- The exotic bird trade is causing a decline in these birds' populations in the wild by poaching.

(However in Singapore, "according to parrot breeder Puah Leong Heng, 57, to legally import a protected bird species into Singapore, the bird has to be at least from the third generation. This means that if a parent bird is caught from the wild, only chicks bred from its chicks can be imported." - source: Flights of Fancy Straits Times SG)



Disclaimer: this post about parrots is based on my personal experience and not in advocacy of any trainer or vet.
I am in the opinion that with the correct research, time and energy, parrots will make wonderful pets for the young and old.
Please spend time joining bird groups on Facebook (Birdcraze.SG, Birdies and Family SG etc) asking for help and Googling on the breeds of the parrots you're interested in, and well as their personalities, noise levels, and children compatibility.
Depending on species, parrots live up to 40-80 years, so there's a good chance you might have to include them in your will!



Thursday, September 27, 2012

My first baby

I thought about this the entire day and I just didn't know how to put it in words. Tonight, I lay in bed weeping until my hair is wet from my tears and thought I have to write this eulogy.

I used to have a Shetland Sheepdog named Alice.
I say "used to" because I rehomed her. This post wouldn't be completely understood without you reading these:
1) Why I had to rehome her.
2) Her rehoming story: who she was rehomed to.




Years before kids entered my life, Alice was my first baby and the centre of my universe. My world simply revolved around her. My days started and ended with walks with her, and weekends meant trips to petshops and dog runs.

On the afternoon where she leaned on my bump and I made a promise to her.

When I was pregnant with Adam, I remembered hugging her one afternoon and promising her that things will never change. However, from the moment Adam was born, everything for Alice has changed. Her pecking order was demoted, I sometimes forgot to fill her bowl, walks became far less often and she peed on the floor from being unable to control her bladder. Weekends were then spent bringing the human baby out. She was clearly neglected, but she had never blamed me. She greeted me every time I came home with the same enthusiasm as before.

One fateful day, Adam went to see the doctor for a chesty cough that wouldn't go away. The doctor diagnosed it as bronchitis and suggested that we give Alice away. You see, Alice had severe skin problems that required medical attention often. For a large part of her life, she needed steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs to control her skin problems, which would never be cured. She shedded a lot of fur and dandruff, and Adam, who just started being mobile, was going to ingest all of those.
Left with no choice, I rehomed Alice to my ex, Alan, whom I adopted Alice with.
The promise I made to Alice that afternoon became my biggest lie to her.

Yesterday , I received a text from Alan. He said Alice has been admitted to hospital for vomiting and was later diagnosed as having pancreatitis.
We were prepared for the worst, she was 11.
The inevitable topic of euthanesia came up and Alan & I both agreed we wouldn't play God, and that his family would take care of her if needed.
I discussed with Andy and he said I could bring her home to nurse her if I wanted, but later my gfs Charmaine & Meena knocked sense into me and said I simply didn't have the capacity to take care of a newborn, a toddler, and a sick dog. My girls were right. I thank them for their honesty.
The next thing I know, Alan informed me this morning that Alice has passed away in the hospital .

Alice always had a sweet temperament. I believe perhaps she chose to leave on her own and spare us the painful prospect of having to put her to sleep or watch her suffer.
It was too sudden and I didn't get to say Goodbye. I begged Alan to send me her last photo but he refused, and reasoned that he has to respect her even in death and he did not want to take a photo of her in that way. I respected his decision.
He then sent me some photos of her in the past year that he adopted her.
Here, she has clearly put on weight and her fur grew so thick.
So different from that day she had to go to her new home.




Suntanning was her favourite past-time and she got to do it daily in the backyard.
She was definitely living the life at Alan's place
.


I am thankful that Alan let me "be with him" every step of the way in Alice's last journey since I was not physically there with her.
He Whatsapped me photo after photo of Alice when she was alive, and he updated me what he was doing - he mentioned about saying Goodbye to Alice on my behalf, about asking me to pray that she would go to Heaven, about making payment to the hospital, about filling in a blue form with choices on what to do with the body - he ticked on the box which says to have her ashes back.
An hour later, he told me he was still there with Alice's lifeless body because he couldn't bear to leave her. He said she just looked like she was sleeping.
After that, another Whatsapp came in, he told me they had brought her to the cold room.

I know it must have been harder for Alan than it was hard enough for me.

We have made arrangements with the hospital for her to be cremated and have her ashes collected.
We do not know what we are going to do with her ashes yet but she hated water and baths so we would likely not sprinkle them into the sea.
Good bye my baby girl, and thank you for not letting us having to make the painful decision for you. You are my first baby and will always live in my memory.
12 July 2001 - 26 Sept 2012.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Adam's first fishing experience

It was the beginning of a long weekend (Hair Raya) so on Saturday we brought our little munchkin to Angler's Paradise in Punggol and let Adam do some longkang fishing while Andy and his friend Raymond fished in the real pond.

After an hour of catching longkang fish, Adam decided to join Andy at the big pond.
My son is taking after my husband in more ways than I can imagine.
Whether I like it or not, I now have a miniature version of my annoying Husband running around.




Like father, like son.


Uncle Raymond (Daddy's friend)


We are gonna give these fishes a new home! Adam caught about 5 or 6, the rest were caught by our helper Dwi.
(I hope Adam doesn't start asking for more pets for the next 5 yrs at least, because I suspect I'm gonna be the one to do everything from procurement to disposal of the dead bodies.
As it is now, the household inventory is at [soon-to-be] 2 kids, 1 dog and 12 kois. It should be sufficient for a long long time.)


At first when we were handed this small tank and net, I was thinking, it's Ok, the waddling pond is too big and fishes swim too quickly. If we don't get any catch we will just buy him a terrapin instead so as not to disappoint the poor kid on his 1st fishing experience.
But by the time the hour is up, we caught so many! Ok, credit goes to our helper for her agile kampong skills and also to Adam for his perserverance which resulted in catching a few fishes himself :)
Me? I cheered him along the side of the pond like a very sexy (39-weeks pregnant) cheerleader, clapping and Yay-ing! and the occasional jumping.
Andy and Raymond? Zero catches for the day. I told Andy we should do prawning next time.

Adam wins his Daddy hands-down!


UPDATES ON THE BUN IN MY OVEN
I'm 39-weeks now. but nothing is happening on the labour forefront.
Went for my weekly checkup and everything seemed fine. Just. No. Action.
The only exciting thing happening all week was when I felt a bad cramp which resulted in a (big) bowel movement.

Since I cannot be induced due to my previous C-sect, we have scheduled for another C-sect, for next week. I'll be 40-weeks by then and my baby still doesn't wanna come out!
Adam was straight-forward. At his own preferred timing, my waters broke, he was breech, I had to have an Emergency Csect. That was it.

No wonder they say every pregnancy and each child is different. I couldn't agree more.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

East Coast Park with my boys

Went to East Coast Park today with my boys to soak up the sun.Thankfully, it wasn't too hot. It was cloudy and windy and threatened to rain.I love weather like this :)


Adam learning how to throw a decent Frisbee









My 8 yr old Border Collie is still working well, though signs of old age are surely creeping up on him.He used to sprint like the wind and how he can only run. But that's fast enough for Adam otherwise the kid will be bowled over.At home, he has also mellowed down alot. He naps most of his time away, when he used to always look for a ball game or something to play with.And he's also put on so much weight! He sometimes snatches food from Adam's hands, especially if he's holding a bun/cake/bread.
Time is not on my dog's side, but he's taking everything in his stride :)

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Lazy Sunday




Maverick just turned 7 this July but he can't get enough of being a puppy!!

The house is in a mess - Adam was playing Fetch with Maverick near the fish pond, wet paw prints, wet dog, wet kid, spilled drink and food bits on the dining table..... But I just can't be bothered today. Zo tiredzzz....

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Say Hi to our new pets!





After a rather long and painstaking process, we finally added 8 happy swimmers into our pond.
They are: 3 Kohaku's, 1 yellow Ogon, 1 Sanke, 1 Showa, 1 Ginrin Chagoi, and 1 Tancho Showa, which is my favourite because of the red blotch on its shapely head, white body and black flecks.





Have a zen & happy long weekend folks!



Saturday, January 29, 2011

more lomo

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lives

a stinky lassie


the wise border collie


the overindulged Prince


and the sybaritical Queen




Now, where is the King of kings!