A Homemaker’s Diary

Have you tried dating online using dating site such as True.com, eHarmony, Plentyoffish or Yahoo Personals etc? Usually all these dating site will charge you for certain fees.

I have tried eHarmony just to see what features they have. But after a while they no longer provide free service and start to ask for your credit card details. Of course if I’m still single and need to find perfect option for companionship online, I would be willing to give it a try..hehe. But in my case, I have found my knight in shining armor 9 years ago and have been married for the past 4 years.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to find your love of life online. I met mine online, yeah in a way it’s true since he did not have the courage (or was it lack of chance? ) to talk to me in person when we first met, so we ended up chatting online and exchanging emails for a few weeks before we finally went out for the first time.

That’s one old college love story. Though till now we still do chat online using Gtalk or Yahoo Messenger during day time when I’m at home running my SOHO biz and he’s at work.

So for those who feel positive about finding your Mr or Mrs Right online, you might give it a try at JustSayHi.com since they offer a quality and totally free online dating and matchmaking service.

I think I found a guy that suits my requirements. Read what he wrote on his profile,

“I’m quiet by nature, but I open up to people when I can connect with them. The person I’d like to meet reflects who I am. I am looking for a person who is very smart, has a good sense of humor, doesn’t take anything too seriously, likes books and movies, and focuses on a few close friends in life.”

I’m sorry that although I fulfill your criteria of your dream woman, (I’m smart, like books, have good sense of humor, bla bla) I’m taken though..hahaha..maybe in another life another time, but honestly I like quiet guy, not the silent type but the one who only talks when the occasion calls for it. They look wise that way. 😛

Go on and check it out at JustSayHi. Maybe this year the wedding bells will ring for you after all.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”
Rebecca- age 8

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”
Billy – age 4

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”
Karl – age 5

“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
Chrissy – age 6

“Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”
Terri – age 4

“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
Danny – age 7

“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss”
Emily – age 8

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”
Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,”
Nikka – age 6

“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”
Noelle – age 7

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”
Tommy – age 6

“During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.”
Cindy – age 8

“My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.”
Clare – age 6

“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”
Elaine-age 5

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”
Chris – age 7

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”
Mary Ann – age 4

“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”
Lauren – age 4

“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.”
Karen – age 7

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.”
Mark – age 6

“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”
Jessica – age 8

I was reading the recipe from RasaMalaysia.com early this morning (I slept early last night and woke up at 6am on Saturday) and she wrote about stir fry chicken with scallions. At first I could not make it in my mind what the is scallions? huhuhu..too early for my brain to digest food name. I even have to Wikipedia what is scallions…now I know..it’s daun bawang..hahaha

When I first read the recipe, I was thinking about scallop..duh..yeah, we are talking about chinese recipe here and scallop is the famous ingredient. I think the recipe of stir fry chicken with scallions is quite common. When I worked in Cyberjaya, we used to eat at Penang House and usually I will order stir fry beef with ginger and scallions. I ate the ginger but never the scallions as I hate onion and all its relatives..

If you feel like cooking Chinese style, maybe a quick glance at this ChineseFoodDIY website will give you some tips or two. I feel like making spring rolls with whatever leftover ingredients in my fridge. I bought wonton and spring roll wrappers with the plan of making some Chinese snacks and yet they were left frozen unused for ages now.

What to get for an almost 30 year old guy for his birthday party? A pull and push caterpillar won’t do…hahaha..

We bought this caterpillar for our friends’ son when they migrated to Singapore almost a year ago. We have never seen the boy real life because they always say that it’s not a good time for the boy to meet people. Well, they are Ukraine-Russian couple so maybe they have different perception with babies and care.

However in this coming May, the caterpillar boy will be coming over to my small party. I’m going to do a double celebration for hubby and his friend (who happened to be in the same clique and celebrate his birthday 2 days after hubby’s). I’m sure by now the boy will be big enough and lost interest in the pull push caterpillar toy..hehe..

First of all, taucu is needed in this cooking. Taucu is a fermented soy beans in salt. I tried to find pictures of taucu in the Internet but could not find get one that accurate to show how taucu looks like.

Check the tiny black, brown color beans in the picture above, well, that’s taucu. In my place, it is sold in bottles. NVM, next time when I buy a new bottle I will snap the picture. I used Tamin brand for this dish. Tamin is a quite well-known Malay family manufacturer in soy sauce related products.

So to cook this, you can choose any kind of fish you like. I use kembong and cencaru for this. Fry the fish as usual with salt and turmeric. Cut the shallot, garlic and ginger. When the oil is hot in the pan, fry those shallot, garlic and ginger till they turn fragranced. Then you put the taucu. Use about 3 tablespoons but make sure you rinse them first, or otherwise your dish will be too salty.

After a while, put 1 1/2 bowl of plain water inside, throw in everything else – the fried fish, red chili, cucumber, onion and don’t forget, the magnificent asam gelugur. Add your seasoning to it and let it simmer. Actually this dish will taste better if you cook it the day before, or if you’re serving it for lunch, cook the night before. All the herbs, the salty taucu and the sour asam gelugur will mix well and when you pour the gravy into your plate of rice, emmm..yummy! If you need more zest, eat with sambal belacan.

My mom used to say that this taucu dish is usually cooked during Malay wedding preparation days in Perak. Maybe it’s true since Tamin soy sauce products started in Perak. I’m not sure whether they still serve this to people who come and help for weddings since most of the weddings today hire caterers for the reception. No more gotong royong to slice the onion like in the olden days.