Day: August 15, 2017

Pan-Fried Soy Sauce Prawns

Today I wanted to teach Cass to be responsible at home by helping to clear and clean the table after lunch. If Alycia and Drama Queen are around, they would be the ones to clear and clean the dining table after every meal. They are normally not around for lunch on school days. After lunch, the little spoilt brat with a cavalier attitude would leave the table and dash straight to the bathroom. Today, I decided that Cass is old enough to take on the duty.  She should start to be responsible just like her 2 older sisters. As there were plastic takeout boxes with watery gravy inside, I warned her specifically to be extra careful before she brought the boxes to the bin, lest she dropped them onto the floor.

Me: Cassandra, be VERY, VERY, VERY careful when you bring the boxes to the kitchen. First, close the lid tightly so that the gravy won’t spill out.  Be very careful NOT TO DROP THE BOXES on the floor, else the gravy would splatter and it’s going to be a big big mess. Understand?

Cass: OK!

And what do I know? The second she turned her back from the table with the gravy-filled takeout box, SPLAT!!  Her butter fingers dropped the box with gravy onto the floor.  Oh. My. Goodness. I can’t believe her!! That scatty girl.  I was seething!!

I made her clean up the floor and showed her how to clean up while berating her.

Does this sound familiar? Do you have a child like this too? That “I can’t believe you” anger can really send you a few years earlier knocking on Heaven’s door. Right? Right?

OK, moving on to the food scene!  Just a few days before the mil returned from Hawaii, I discovered that there was still a packet of prawns in the freezer. It was sitting in the freezer for over one month. She bought them just before she left for Hawaii.  What would she say when she returned and saw the packet of prawns?  I didn’t want her to have the impression that I hardly cook. Truth is the girls and I are not fans of prawns. Thus, I hardly buy them.   So I quickly cooked the prawns  the same evening that I discovered them.

This soy sauce pan-fried prawn recipe is the mil’s signature dish. And it’s SO easy to cook that you’d think I’m not revealing all the ingredients and steps.

Don’t you just love the vibrant colors of the prawns, broccoli and tomatoes? I love traffic colors on my plate 😀 I am utterly enamoured with this colorful dish that tastes as good as it looks. Even the ‘fussy king’ (a moniker the girls and I give the hubs, HA HA!!) loved it and had no criticism darted at it. Being a perfectionist caterer, the fussy king is VERY VERY critical of the food people cook, his mum and I inclusive!

Ingredients:
Medium / large size prawns – devein the prawns with a pair of scissors
Cooking oil
Soy sauce
Sugar – I used organic muscovado sugar
A dash of Chinese cooking wine
Spring onions and Chinese parsley cut into 10 – 15cm length (as this was a last-minute dish, I didn’t have the time to buy spring onions and parsley, thus omitted them)
Cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, whatever vegetables you have to decorate the plate.

Method:
Heat up oil.

Pan-fry prawns until they turn orangy in color / thoroughly cooked. That will take approximately 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of the prawns. Be very careful not to over cook the prawns or they will be rubbery and dry and that’s the last thing you want. You don’t want the prawns to end up being ‘recycled’ in fried rice the next day.

Dish out the prawn and leave aside.

With the remainder oil in the wok / pan, add in soy sauce and sugar. Mix well. You can add a little water if you wish.

Add in the spring onions or Chinese parsley and a dash of Chinese cooking wine. Let them simmer for about one minute. Do not overcook the spring onions and Chinese parsley.

Pour the sauce over the prawns

Decorate the plate with the vegetables.

This is a perfect dish for Chinese New Year or any Chinese festival celebrations and is a total crowd-pleaser.

Do give this one a try, it’s a winner! Bon Appetit!

 

 

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Depression – The Silent Murder Tool

While the number of unexpected death of patients with mental health issues increased by 20% in the last three years, a lot of people remain silent on their depression. Why? At first, let’s have a look at how we react to someone talking about his or her depression. If the person speaks calmly about his or her past experience of successful struggle with depression, we are close to applaud him or her. But we stop listening to someone who is in the state of depression, whose story is emotional and lacks coherence. So, it makes no surprise that people prefer to keep their depression to themselves, no matter how severe the consequences may be.

You May Not Know That You Are Depressed
Depression is not your typical guest who would kindly knock on your door and introduce itself. It gets into your life in a way that you won’t notice it until it’s too late.  First you get the feeling that everything in your life has lost its taste and scent. You lose appetite. Then you stop eating regularly, because who cares, the food is tasteless anyway.  Many people with depression report disturbance to their sleep patterns. Some find themselves sleeping too much due to constant fatigue, but wakefulness is more common.

The scariest point is that most of your friends won’t be a great help to you. You are most likely to crack jokes about your state and they will take it as nothing more than just a joke. Only few of them may try to tell you that it looks like that you are having some problems, but you won’t listen. As a result, you may end up in a mental health facility.

Depressed Woman

You Keep Silent Because No One Likes To Hear What You Have To Say
Depressed ones know that most of their friends wouldn’t like to hear their complaints about their state of mind. Depression often forces us to say strange things like “ I wish I was dead” or “ I wish I had cancer”, which a lot of people would consider to be scary.
Sooner or later suicide thoughts may develop, and it’s another topic that none of your friends and acquaintances would like to discuss with you. So, you remain silent, until your suicidal thoughts stop being just thoughts.

You Keep Silence For Dignity
Everybody knows that depression is something ugly and unattractive. Why talking about it? It’s almost the same as telling someone that you have shitted your pants, while this story may be much funnier than your story about your depression and your slowly declining mental health.
You bed sheets are rather grey than white, you apartment is a mess, and all you do is lying face down feeling that you’re vanishing. You may still not admit the fact that you are suffering from severe depression, but you know that you look and smell bad. That’s why you prefer to hide from your friends and loved ones.

Depressed people keep silent about their depression to save their dignity. And when you are feeling better, as depression has bright days from time to time, the last thing you would like to discuss with your friends is your problem.

Lack of interest and enjoyment
Anhedonia, as psychologists call it, is another very common symptom of depression. In this state you no longer get pleasure from things you once enjoyed, and struggle to make any kind of effort.

Anhedonia is a feeling of being listless, feeling totally flat, as if the world is colourless – everything is rubbish. This can extend to relationships, with the result that people with depression often become isolated.  People who are depressed tend to find a sanctuary. They don’t want to be around people, they don’t go out as much. They spend more time at home.

What To Do?
Silence is depression’s murder tool. When you keep silent, it has all the chances to take over you. Forget about dignity, forget about people around you being scared of your condition. Whenever you have a feeling that your life is flat and has no sense  – seek help.  Professional help may be your savior.  Thanks to our friends from Romance Compass for providing this article.

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HEALTH FREAK MOMMY