Sweets from my sweets

My hubby was so sweet. This time he just returned from Scotland, where he went for training. He had had a hard long trip, where again I spent being his telephone therapist.

He came home with so much of Choco-licious goodies for me. He wanted to impress me with a red, heart-shaped tin full of rich dark chocolates. Normally, I would get really excited and start to take a slow savor of the chocolates. But my preggy instincts inside that I read the back of the tin. And the bad news was it was filled with cherry liquor. So that would be a no no for me. Poor sweetheart was so upset that he didn't realize that. He is so sweet, and I am so touched.

The Scars of the Tornado will remain

When you lose your child to autism, you may have him physically with you, but you will always mourn the loss of that "lost" child.

I have read in books, that parents of children with such situations, mourn the loss of the perfect child. And although I don't mourn the perfect child, I still find myself mourning the loss, of what could have been...

As I await for Ivan's transport to drop him off, I watched children heading home from school. Most of the kids I saw were from the same school Ivan was in, when he had mainstreamed. I then thought to myself, that if Ivan did not have autism, he would be in primary 6 this year. He would be sitting for his PSLE and soon to go into secondary school. How our lives would have been so different?

But as I mentally slipped back into reality, I realized my wishful thinking and sadly hope that he is happy where he is now. Every parent has hopes and dreams for their unborn child, only to see them manifest as the child grows.

I didn't even want to go down that road with the conception of this baby that I am carrying, in faith I trust the Lord knows best.

My two boys are heading into the era of teenage-hood. I am very proud of them so far. Even though they each exhibit their versions of teenage rebellion, I can see their heart leading them well.

I think it's the hormones that contributed to this blog entry. A couple of days ago, when I had lunch with my sister, I shared my challenges with this pregnancy. She told me that I should be blessed to have these discomforts as they were normal.

But she was wrong, I was blessed with two blissful pregnancies before. As I had a full time job, I don't recall stopping to realize my aches and pains. Furthermore, I never stopped to think about things that could go wrong. I had not personally known anyone who had a child with special needs.

Now with this pregnancy, I am blessed with the fact that I can stay home. But the down side is that, I can't help but notice everything. After autism invaded out lives, nothing would be that simple anymore. But I encourage you, if you have similar fears, to get your mind off things. Try to relax and enjoy that time of innocence you have. When baby comes, there is much to do.

Sizzling Black Pepper Prawns

Lately, my hubby has been doing most of the heavy lifting in the domestic department, at home.

I am now in the sixth month of my pregnancy and have a pretty good appetite. Like most couples, we find that it's important to do things together. And cooking is one of the many things we enjoy doing together.

Upon the last visit to the market, he had bought a nice bunch of tiger prawns. He helped me to clean, shell and de-vein them for me. The next step was what to do with them???

Not all recipes go with all kinds of meat/ seafood. And sometimes, you will find that with larger prawns, after cooking, they seem very hard and they don't gel well with the recipe.

But by looking at this bunch I immediately knew that I had to use this recipe, Black Pepper style.

 

Sizzling Black Pepper Prawns

And here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

12-13 large prawns

10 curry leaves

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp butter

2 tbps oil

For the sauce:

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 tsp homemade chilli paste

1 thumb-sized ginger, finely chopped

1 tbsp sweet sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsps cracked black pepper

1 cup chicken/ beef stock

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp chilli sauce

Method:

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add in the butter.

Add in the garlic and curry leaves. As it fragrance, add in the prawns.

Once the prawns are cooked, remove them from the heat and set aside.

Start with the sauce, heat up oil and fry the ginger, garlic and shallot.

Add in the butter and stir until fragrant.
Add in the chilli paste, stir to fry a little.

Add the sweet sauce, oyster sauce, black pepper and stir.

As it bubbles, add the stock in.

Allow it to bring to boil.

Toss in the praewn mixture fried earlier and mix well.

Dish out and serve hot.

Yummy Yum...

Do ensure not to over cook the prawns. 

They should be pink all around, yet maintain their succulent moisture within.

Also if you make extra sauce, you can store them in a jar into the freezer to be used for any other dishes.

Crayfish would be another great alternative with this sauce too.

Should you like the raw spicy taste you can add in more black pepper. Since I cook for the whole family, including my children, I added in the chillli sauce to mellow the spicy fire. 

I do hope you try this recipe and enjoy it with your loved ones, just as I have with mine.

-Cheers-

 

Yoga is a great way to go

I just had another lesson today. I am glad that I took up prenatal yoga. It's really helps me to keep my calm and hold onto the little bits of sanity that I have.