Same Old Same Old

The Guardinia bread had been sitting on the kitchen counter for a few days so I decided to use it up.

As usual, the girls enjoyed it. In fact, they wanted more but there was not enough eggs so they had to make do with extra 2.5 pieces of french toast each instead of 3 each.

Cadence asked for oyster sauce chicken and 豆苗 with mushrooms

She decided to make another attempt at sunny-side up. The one at the far-left bottom was hers. We are all egg-lovers! 

Over the dinner, the girls talked about their cooking experience. Coco said that she and her Home Econs partner were terrible at cracking eggs and they never had 2 full eggs for their dishes or pastries. Each time, at least half an egg would fall onto the kitchen counter as they would crack the egg so terribly. Baby was appalled at their incompetence. She asked me to get the oven fixed after 13 June when the Covid situation is better so that she could try baking.

One doesn't want to cook. The other is eager. 

Quick and Simple with Fried Bee Hoon with Canned Pig Trotters

Decided to go simple for a quick lunch when I saw I was left with some mid-joints in the fridge. The girls can't get enough of chicken wings anyway.

Baby wanted to try making a sunny-side-up. She ended up with an omelette (first try) and a broken sunny-side-up (2nd try). 

Fried bee hoon with canned pig trotters was my favourite dish when my mother cooked. I had done it before but I must have done it with just one can. This time, I poured 2 cans of pig trotters into the wok. I found it too salty. The blander mixed vegetable dish was the saving grace.

Recipe from Super Easy Canned Pig Trotter Beehoon Recipe.

Ingredients:

400g of bee hoon (soaked for 5-10 min in cold water)

1-2 cans of pig trotter

2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce

2 cups of water

Instructions:

Pour pig trotter into the wok and add 1-2 cups of water

Cover the lid and let the mixture boil 

Pour bee hoon in and mix it till the colours get onto the bee hoon evenly

Cover the lid and let it simmer for 7-8 minutes

Open the lid and add the oyster sauce and dark soy sauce and mix the bee hoon with the sauces

Add 1 capful of shaoxing wine around the wok (optional)

Serve

Of Braised Spare Ribs and Mixed Vegetables

I felt like eating some instant mee goreng so I checked with Baby if she would like that. It was a resounding 'Yes!'.

She asked me why I didn't let her cook

She has been interested in making her own food lately. Lighting up the stove is a challenge for her though. It's a 16-year-old stove that requires the user to 'turn, press down and light with a light stick'. Finding the spot to press down is a little tricky for the girls.

Come evening, I decided to cook braised spareribs as I wanted to give the girls some variety for meat. Although this is fuss-free without the need to marinate, I prefer marinated meat. Broccoli, cauliflower and carrot with swiss brown mushroom for a change in the type of vegetables we eat. Threw in a cod fish for Coco as she loves it.

Sparerib recipe is from Super Easy Braised Pork Ribs in Oyster Sauce

She made another omelette for herself. Mighty pleased with the result.

I call her an 'Egg Expert' and she graciously accepted the grand title.

Coco's C and Baby's Perfect Omelette

Every time I have macaroni, I am reminded of Coco saying,"We ate C!" when I asked her what she had during meal time in her kindergarten.

Baby is also a great lover of macaroni. Seeing that I still had 1/3 of a packet of macaroni, I asked if she would like some for lunch. She gave a resounding 'Yes!' immediately. Using Swanson Pork Bone broth again, I whipped up a fuss-free dish with tiny broccoli florets, fishballs and chicken mid-joints. Baby had two helpings and so did I! We finished the 2 cups of macaroni in a jiffy!

This time, I decided to use a proportionate amount of the broth and water to cook the macaroni. I was surprised to find that perhaps it was better to leave the broth as it was. Adding salt and light soy sauce altered the taste and made it taste more sour.

The girls told me they were famished after my lesson at 7.15pm. I got Baby to cook a can of mushroom soup to placate their empty stomachs while I rushed out to buy the ingredients and returned to cook. I ended up spending some time frying 5 sunnyside-ups! 3 for Coco and 2 for me. We simply love eggs!

Baby was eager to fry her own egg and she was proud to see her omelette turn out to be 'like what you have at the restaurant'! She wanted to try her hand at a sunnyside-up but I told her she would have to fry her own since her sister and I wouldn't take pleasure in having a non-sunnyside-up. She changed her mind and said,"Next time then."

We had our dinner while having a good laugh over Baby's recount of the boys who professed their liking for her. When Baby mentioned that she had her first crush at P3 and her crush told her that he liked her, Coco and I were stumped for a while before Coco burst out laughing,"You were just babies! How can a baby have a crush on another baby?" 

Dinners ought to be that way. Filled with laughter, casual talks and connection. Not endless lectures, reproaches, reprimand and dressing-downs. 

My Old and Faithful Favourite Fusilli

Every time I miss the fusilli dish my bestie taught me, I would refer to my little attic. I am so glad I jotted the recipe down!

The carbo-rich dish was our lunch. Baby wanted colours for novelty but Coco was flabbergasted that the green fusilli looked mouldy! This dish works best when it has been some time the girls last had it. They loved the creaminess of it and how easy it was to have wholesome goodness in a bowl - chicken meat protein, broccoli fibre and Swiss button mushroom taste with fusilli carbo.

A few hours later, Baby was hungry again! I fried a few left-over mid-joints and her favourite vegetables for a quick and simple meal! 

The Fastest Way to Use up a Loaf of Bread

Recently, Baby has been a great fan of the coffeeshop kaya-butter loti. Although the counter lady told me that they have a cut-off time at 10.30am, I learnt that they could run out of bread before 10.30am and would have to turn away customers who try to buy bread from them. It so happened that it was such a day today. I decided to do French Toast for breakfast to make up for the disappointment.

This was the second plate I served. Baby finished all but 2 pieces of the first plate.

At lunch, I was so inspired by yesterday's success that I decided to change the broth to Pork Bone Broth and see if it tasted better. I actually much prefer this!

I was so excited with the 'discovery' of an ingenious creation that I took pictures of the food and what it took to cook it to show my family and friends!

Everybody's a Chef during Covid

Last year during the Circuit Breaker, I was in some sort of depression. I was gripped by fear that it would be indefinite. I was left with one student whose parent suggested having lessons on Zoom. The rest of the parents had a culture shock of the inordinate amount of screen time that their children were going to have in view of the schools' closure so they were reluctant to have additional lessons on Zoom. I felt extremely helpless seeing the drastic drop in my income. Like many, I developed a sense of hopelessness that the situation would never improve. 

This year, as we enter yet another soft lock-down, I am more confident that it will come to an end. Saved for 2 or 3 parents who had suspended lessons, the rest proactively suggested having Zoom lessons! Although I do see a reduction in my income, I am not so afraid, or even paralysed, like last year. With more time on my hand, I decided to cook for the girls, without giving myself pressure.

Not the best picture but I just wanted to capture my first attempt at cooking udon to show a friend!

I have always wanted to cook udon. In fact, I bought a few packets of udon but I didn't know how to cook them and had to throw them away in resignation.

However, for some reason, when my eyes were set on the packets on udon at NTUC today when grocery-shopping for lunch ingredients, I was inspired by the whole idea of cooking simple. I decided to use Swanson Chicken Broth as the soup base and added my own ingredients ie. button mushrooms and chicken mid-joints. I threw in a dish of greens for Baby as the vegetable-loather doesn't have many favourite vegetables.

She finished up both dishes with me. Both of us enjoyed the dishes very much as it was the first time I tried my hand at cooking udon and it was a success! I only had one 250ml packet of chicken broth but I needed more. So I added two packets of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of light soy sauce to 'salvage' the flavour. The result was quite a flavourful broth (to us, at least!)

Applying for GTIN Exemption

I am blogging this to journal my GTIN exemption and listing creation experience  so that I may refer to it again when I need it. 

I applied for GTIN exemption so that I didn't have to use or buy UPC.

I had bought 5 UPC barcodes for 5USD from SnapUPC thinking it would save me time, but I realised that the barcodes from SnapUPC is not recognised by Amazon. It may work for now but you never know when your listing would be taken down due to the use of 'illegal' UPCs. Currently, Amazon only accepts UPC from GS1. I heard that it's expensive and requires monthly subscription so I decided to try GTIN exemption.

Steps for applying for GTIN exemption:

1) Go to www.sellercentral.amazon.com/gtinx/browser to get to this page 'Apply for GTIN exemption'.

2) Select the category you wish to have GTIN exemption for eg. Home and Garden, Office Products and Pet Supplies.

3) Key in your brand as you wish to appear on your future listing on the right under 'Brand/Publisher'.

4) Click 'Check for eligibility'

5) You will be taken to the next page where you will click 'Continue to submit proof'.

6) On the next page, key in your brand and product name as per your packaging box. They must be exactly the same as what you have on the packaging box, down to the spacing in between and capitalisation of the letters if any.

Then, upload 3 to 4 images of:

- your hand holding your product with your brand name printed on the product or its packaging box

- top view of the packaging box

- side view of the packaging box

- your product

7) Click 'Submit request'

8) Check your case log to view if Amazon has replied or approved of the GTIN exemption. It's almost instant approval if it goes through. If it's going to be a little challenging, Amazon will send messages or emails stating that it's 'Pending Amazon's Action'. For my first application, I had to close the case and reapply two times in order to get it approved.

The first time it rejected my application, it stated 'Your request has been denied, as the brand name on the product images provided by you doesn't match the brand name provided in the correspondence.' 

I applied for it again and typed in capital letters as per the packaging, with my brand name without a spacing as that was how it appeared on the packaging.

The second time it rejected my application, it stated 'Your request has been denied, as the required information below is not provided:

- Support letter for Brand:

- Sample product for Brand:'

I had a customised sample done earlier by a supplier so I used that picture, and I downloaded and filled up a sample brand-support letter from an Amazon Facebook group and created a digital brand stamp at https://mystampready.com/en/constructor/

Then I printed out the letter to sign and wrote the date before scanning it and PDF-ing it.

Then I sent in the letter and sample image via a link in the reply from Amazon.

The GTIN Exemption approval looks like this:

So I thought all was well and good and I could creating a listing already. However, unbeknownst to me, although my main category was approved, I still needed to get GTIN exemption for my sub-category, which nobody had mentioned.

I spent two days trying to create a listing not knowing that an 'Add a product' page with GTIN exemption ought to look like this:

Product ID field ought to be an optional field. 

Instead, my page looked like this, with the Product ID being a mandatory field:

I was unable to create a parent-child listing. I wrestled with the information, misinformation and the lack of information on the internet and I trawled through the internet to no avail. 

I kept trying to create a listing and kept thinking why it's not possible for me. Then I read about someone trying to create a listing for baby clothes. Although she had GTIN exemption for 'Baby' category, she still needed another GTIN exemption for 'Clothings and accessories'. That turned on the light for me.

So I typed an unfinished title for my product to select a different sub-category, and I realised that I could create a listing with the Product ID as a non-mandatory field like the last image above!

I went on to create a parent-child listing without using a UPC and manage to churn out a FNSKU, which is the Amazon barcode.

However, I am paranoid that my sub-category may not be a 100% fit for my product, so I decided to apply for GTIN exemption for my sub-category using the exact same images I have used for my main category.

It was approved instantly! However, I have to wait for 24 hours after that before I can create my listing.

Let's see how it goes.

 It was a play date that was pre-arranged some weeks ago. 

Huiling knew that we haven't been to church for quite a while and asked to meet up and give Baby some exposure to her daughter's youth group activity.

I wanted to make some cupcakes for Huiling's family but the under-utilised oven conked out on me when I was getting the ingredients ready.

After checking with Huiling that she had a seldom-used oven (too) but did not have a mixer, I decided to make 3 batters (1 for icing and 2 for cupcakes from different bloggers' recipes) before heading over.

The girls, like usual, were a bit shy at first when they first met up. After a quick snack of sushi, they went online for the youth group activity, which was a bible study.

While the girls were listening in, Huiling and I baked the cupcakes. Pleased that they turned out well.

Recipe from: A Lazy Girl's Easy Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

After the lengthy youth group session (2.5h!), the girls were all excited to do the icing. 

It had been some time since Cadence laughed so heartily.

Icing recipe from: Easy Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Huiling's husband was highly inspired by Twelve Cupcakes. 

He took out different ingredients to ask his daughter to try eg. raspberries and cornflakes.

We had a great time spending time with one another even though we didn't do much. Friendships become more precious as you age. It was just a day shy of the soft lock-down. Like it was meant to be.

Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour/cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk

Instructions

1. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together eggs and granulated sugar. Once combined, add softened butter and vanilla. Mix until creamy.
3. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Alternating with the milk, add dry ingredients to egg and sugar mixture in three equal increments. Mix well, but only until incorporated. Do not over-mix.
5. Scoop cupcake batter into the lined muffin pan, filling each cavity about 2/3rds of the way. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked through the center.
6. Remove your tasty, easy vanilla cupcakes from the oven and let sit for about 2 minutes. Remove each cake from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
7. NOTE: if making mini cupcakes, please reduce the baking time to 12-15 minutes.

VANILLA FROSTING

• 1/2 cup (112g) salted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (95g) shortening
• 4 cups (460g) powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2–3 tbsp (30-45ml) water or milk
• Instructions
• 1. To make the frosting, combine the butter and shortening in a large mixer bowl and mix until smooth.
  2. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
  3. Add the vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of water or milk and mix until smooth.
  4. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
  5. Add remaining water or milk as needed and mix until smooth.
  6. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.