Archive for the Category »Parents «

Feb

“Mom, can we invite my friends over for a playdate?” 11 year-old.

“Sure.” I said without giving a thought.

“Can we have cupcakes for the playdate?” 11 year-old.

“Sure.” me.

Again, I replied too quickly, and without thinking. I am a hopeless pleaser to my kids.

Cupcakes are easier said than done these days. My baby has Celiac disease. I would have to drive a great distance to buy the gluten free versions, and dough out a huge amount of money.

Why not make them myself? Great idea! I decided to make them from scratch.

Though I am an inexperienced baker, my first batch of gluten free cupcakes came out of the oven looking beautiful, and smelling like cupcake heaven.

Homemade gluten free cupcakes

Do you know what’s the difference between homemade cupcakes and store bought ones? Well, it is the icing on the cake!

Instead of smearing icing on top of the cupcakes with a knife, I bought this icing bag.

Icing bag

I carefully piped the icing on top of the cupcakes, and showered them with colorful sprinkles.

My cupcakes were a huge hit.

Cupcakes + icing

As I was cleaning the icing bag, a new inspiration popped into my brain. The opening part of the bag looked like a churro shape. I should make churros with this!

Churros were a favorite food of my 11 year-old, and she could no longer eat it since being diagnosed with Celiac a year ago.

How hard can it be to fry some dough, and toss it in some sugar and cinnamon…

Next day, I went about to make churros.

I got a batch of gluten free dough, I put the dense dough into my icing bag, with the biggest star shape tip.

Churro dough in icing bag

I piped a 4 inch length dough straight into the hot oil frying pot, and within a few minutes, they turned nicely golden.

frying the churros

I coated them in my sugar and cinnamon mixture.

freshly fried churros tossed in the sugar and cinnamon mixture

I proudly present my first batch of delicious (and gluten free!) churros.

My gluten free churros

Category: Parents One Comment

Feb

My Un-Valentine

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On Valentine’s day, I got a card from my 14 year-old with this nasty note written all over the envelope.

Un-Valentine message

I may have done something to deserve this wrath…

Earlier that day.

“Hey kids! You got Valentine’s day cards from Nai Nai.” I shouted out, as I drop the mail on the kitchen island.

14 year-old promptly walked over and tore open her card. A ten dollar bill fell to the floor.

“Ha! MONEY!!!” 14 year-old.

That got my 11 year-old’s attention. The baby dropped the book she was reading, and ran over excitedly.

My two children are always money hungry these days.

I eyed the baby, and said, “Just because Nai Nai give Thee ten dollars, doesn’t mean you will have ten dollars in your card too.”

The baby crossed her arms, and gave me that don’t be silly look.

14 year-old ran upstairs with her money.

11 year-old opened her card, and sure enough, she waved a ten dollar bill at me.

That’s when my head grew a pair of horns…

I took a clean twenty dollar bill out of my wallet, and swapped it with the baby’s ten dollar bill.

“Go upstairs, and wave this twenty dollar bill in one hand, and your card on the other hand at your sister.” I whispered.

A big mischievous smile appeared across the baby’s face. We were in cahoots.

Soon enough, the expected growling and gleaming voices were heard upstairs. The baby is good at acting!

I ran upstairs, pretending to investigate their little crisis.

“What’s going on?” me.

The baby showed me her twenty.

I took the bill into my hands, and gave it a good look.

“I thought you said you got a ten?” I said to my 14 year-old.

“I did get a ten!!” 14 year-old, looking slighted.

“But this is a TWENTY!” I said incredulously.

“Nai Nai gave you a ten, gave your sister a TWENTY?!!” sounding even more incredulously.

14 year-old nodding her head up and down, looking all sad.

“This can’t be right. I don’t believe this. You must have looked wrong. Nai Nai must have given you a twenty too.” me.

14 year-old ran back into her room, and came back with her ten dollar bill to show me.

“Wow, wow…” me.

The baby was conducting her happy dance all around us, waving the twenty.

“Well, Nai Nai is getting old, she must of made a mistake. I am sure she meant to gave you each a ten or each a twenty. I am sure she didn’t mean to give your sister twice more than you.” I tried not to laugh.

“I thought Nai Nai is my homie, but she is not…” 14 year-old pouted sullenly.

“Nai Nai likes me more than you.” 11 year-old was piling it on.

14 year-old looked even more crushed.

“Well, maybe because your sister has Celiac, and Nai Nai knows that her gluten free snacks cost twice as much as your snacks. So, she gets more money than you.” I offered a new theory.

14 year-old shook her head. She rejected my words of comfort.

After torturing my teen for a good 10 minutes, I had to come clean. I wouldn’t want Nai Nai to get into unearned trouble.

I took the ten dollar bill out of my pocket, and swapped it with the baby’s twenty.

“We got you!” I said, as my baby and I melted onto the floor laughing.

“THAT’S RUDE!!”, protested the teen.

Later that night, she handed me a Valentine’s card, it came with a nasty message all over the card envelope. Inside the card, under each word “LOVE”, she written “Bacon” under it. She was professing her love for bacon on my Valentine’s day card!

LOVE Bacon

That little pig.

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Category: Humor, Kids, Parents One Comment

Feb

Get in Shape, Squid!

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The crispy rings and tentacles known as calamari starts its life looking like this beast.

Squid

Ever since my baby was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a year ago, we found that the poor child is unable to eat most of her favorite foods in the restaurants. Old favorites such as French fries, onion rings, and Calamari are totally off limits. Very few restaurants offer gluten free fried food, and even if the ingredients happened to be gluten free, even fewer restaurants have dedicated gluten free fryers.

I will just make these restaurant foods at home. How hard can that be?

Gluten free onion rings

So, on most Sunday afternoons, I pair myself with a glass of my homemade Sangria, cook up a storm, and make the house take on the aroma of a restaurant.

calamari in marinate

I have never prepared calamari before. So, I found this helpful Youtube video on how to clean and prepare it.

I quickly gutted and peeled off the outer layer of thin skin like the video taught me. It wasn’t hard, though it wasn’t a pretty process.

Gutted and cleaned

Cooking Method:

1) I cut up the cleaned calamari into rings and tentacles, and treated them with salt and pepper, a dash of lime, and some cooking alcohol.

salt, pepper, and seafood seasoning

2) For the dry mixture, I used about half a cup of cornmeal, a half cup of gluten free flour (you can use your regular flour), about a teaspoon of baking powder, and a splash of pepper.

GF dry mixture

3) I threw the calamari pieces into the flour/cornmeal mixture, and gave it a good toss.

Ready for the fryer

4) I heated up cooking oil in a fryer. I used a small pot to minimize oil usage.

5) I dropped a few pieces into the hot oil one at a time.

6) Each piece is only in the fryer for 1 to 2 minutes, no longer!

7) I served it with the appeal of a restaurant dish. A couple wedges of lime, basil, and a gluten free Chipotle Mayo sauce. (Store bought!)

GF Calamari is served!

Very easy indeed.

Category: Parents 2 Comments

Feb

A Rendezvous with Gluten Free

admin

Move over photography, we need to make room for the arrival of my newest obsession.

Our Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker

Meet our bread maker. It arrived just last week.

Now, why would a self respecting Chinese woman need a bread maker?! Rice is not filling enough these days?

Well, this bread maker’s key beneficiary is my baby’s American stomach.

Our baby loves bread!

This bundle of cuteness loves bread!!

My 11 year-old was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about a year ago, just 3 months after she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Celiac and Type 1 diabetes are both auto immune diseases. So Celiac disease is more prevalent among Type 1 diabetics than the general population, and this double whammy fell into our lot.

There is no cure for Celiac disease, and the only treatment is to follow a very strict gluten free diet. This is not easy. Gluten is EVERYWHERE!!

Gluten is a protein from wheat, barley, and rye. If my baby ingests even a trace amount of gluten, her over active immune system will attack the heck out of it, wreaking havoc on her small intestine, damage the villi on her small intestine, and render her unable to absorb nutrients into her body. This helped to explain why she didn’t grow even an inch in about a year.

So, we have been that “trendy” gluten free band wagon family the media has complained about so much recently. Except this band wagon is no joy ride in a shiny BMW, this band wagon is one endless bumpy ride, driven by an old donkey!

Foods we have taken for granted such as bread was a major challenge. We were able to quickly identify Udi’s Gluten Free bread as our favorite. However, it is almost always kept in the freezer section of the grocery stores, and the baby only liked two types of their GF bread. The only way to eat fresh baked bread was to drive over an hour away to a dedicated GF bakery, called Mariposa’s.

I have decided to liberate the baby from her frozen and boring breads misery. I am going to make her fresh GF bread myself!

“But you don’t know how to bake!!” my husband.

This is true. So I bought a bread maker with a gluten free setting on it.

Gluten Free baking setting

I also decided to start with the simplest GF bread recipe.

The recipe

I went out and bought a list of unfamiliar ingredients, and I met a couple of them for the first time.

GF ingredients for bread making

I was determined to follow the recipe to the letter. Rather than simply measure each of the ingredients with the various cup sizes, I weighed each of the key ingredients down to the exact grams on my kitchen scale.

Carefully weighing the GF flours

My 11 year-old got all excited and joined me in the kitchen. She happily poured 3 tablespoons of honey into the batter mixture, and felt certain that this bread was destined to be delicious.

Adding honey to the mixture

I put the batter mixture into the bread maker, pushed a few buttons.

Loading the batter mixture into the bread maker

A little over two hours later….

Our bread is done!

Oh! Beautiful, further enhanced by the heavenly smell of the freshly baked bread filling the entire house.

A big 2 lb loaf

Our first loaf of gluten free bread did not play victim to any of the typical gluten free pitfalls, such as too dense or too crumbly or too off tasting.

Slice and serve

The four of us enjoyed our first loaf of gluten free bread for dinner. My baby was so grateful to finally be eating fresh, warm, fluffy, and delicious bread.

It was a huge success. I am in love with our bread maker.

I plan to bake a loaf of bread every week. My unhinged ambition and impatience will have me attemping a much more complicated bread recipe this coming Sunday. I can’t wait!

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1st Diaversary

Category: Kids, Parents 2 Comments

Jan

Darkness Exposed!

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Behold….

SF Golden Gate

Last weekend was fun.

Instead of idling away a Saturday in my usual comfortable but predictable fashion, my husband sent me away on an all day on location photography class in San Francisco. What a sweet man!

I spent the day with a fun group of photography hobbyists, two professional instructors, and we snapped away with our cameras from morning until night.

The class

I learned many new tricks with my camera.

See this picture.

Not a clear day

The day was barely sunny, the clouds were grayish, and the bridge was hazy. I had no idea that in my camera bag, there sat a polarizing filter lens. I never knew what it was for!

I learned to simply fit it over my camera lens, and by turning it, I could manipulate the sunlight to give my image a more colorful look, and even turn the sky into nicer shade of blue!

The Golden Gate

“WOW! I don’t have to photo shop anymore! You just saved me lots of time” I shouted happily to Alley, one of the two instructors with us that day.

Ha, ha, Alley walked away laughing.

Oh, I especially love this picture.

The dark room at Fort Point

This used to be an impossible picture for me to take.

You would not be able to tell, but this image was taken from an incredibly dark space. In fact, so dark, I could barely make out the barrel sitting in the corner. I learned to control the shutter speed to allow in a great deal of light to take this picture. (No flash, no bringing in extra light). Some of the shots actually turned out too bright!

Hooray for shutter speed control!

Here are additional long exposure shoots I took that day.

Fort Point

Fort Point Hallway

The beach

Beach near night time

The Golden Gate at night

I came home from the class late at night.

“How was the class?” hubby asked.

“It was awesome. Loved every minute of it.” me.

“What did you learn?” hubby.

“I learned that I need to take more classes, and I need a better camera.” me.

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Dec

The Backyard Struggle

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Our backyard

Yes, this is the sad state of our backyard…

The ground cover

Agreed. Our backyard could use a comb over.

Why is our yard in such a curious state?

We have this great big hill as our backyard. The top of the hill can look over our roof. We decided wisely that we needed a ground cover that is low maintenance. No one would enjoy mowing a lawn on such a slope.

We found the perfect ground cover known as the Red Apple (Aptenia cordifolia). In addition to being green year round, the red apple has these pretty little red flowers.

Pretty tiny red flowers

We quickly discovered a problem. These pretty flowers attracted bees in the summer. These bees put everyone on edge during our summer BBQs. We decided to take the red apple ground cover out.

We didn’t immediately take up rakes and shovels to get them out. Our laziness convinced us to just turn off the water and let the great California drought to take our plant out very slowly.

Our patience was paying off. Sort of.

The left side of our yard has rid itself of the plant completely, but the red apple on the right side of our yard has survived its ordeal. It is rapidly making a comeback, aided by the start of our raining season.

I stared at my backyard often and shook my head in puzzlement.

The mystery was solved on a Sunday morning.

A loud sounding of gardening work woke me up on Sunday morning. I was annoyed at whichever inconsiderate neighbor. I peeked out the window, and saw that we were that inconsiderate neighbor. It was our gardeners making all that raucous mowing the lawn and blowing the leaves. Our gardener rarely showed up on the weekends, they usually do their yard work unseen on a Monday or Tuesday morning.

I decided to go down and get some coffee.

I looked out the kitchen window, and saw the boss gardener standing steady on our hill and spraying generous amounts of some liquid all over the condemned ground cover in a very systematic manner.

I ran out into the yard, and asked, “What are you doing?”

My gardener turned, and replied, “Fertilizer!”, then announced with a big smile,”Your plant was dying. I saved it for you!”

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Category: Humor, Parents One Comment

Dec

1st Diaversary

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1st Diaversary dessert and candle

What is this diaversary, you ask.

Well, it is the first anniversary of my baby’s diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes.

WHY would anyone want to celebrate a disease!! You ask.

Well, no one asked if we wanted this disease, but no one said that we had to be sad about it either!

December 4th, 2013 was a date that my family will never ever forget. The diagnosis was earth shattering, emotionally traumatic, and mixed with sky high anxiety. Life was never the same again, and it took us a long time to find our new norm. But we learned to be comfortable, and even happy again with our new norm.

When December 4th, 2014 loomed close, I knew it was to be an important date that we can’t just pretend to forget. I have told my children that if they get to chose between being sad or being happy, always choose happy! So, we celebrate.

We went out and splurged on a fancy dinner at our favorite Steak House. We didn’t stop here either.

The following Sunday, we invited the baby’s close friends over for a Christmas party in honor of her 1st Diaversary.

Sweets!

The healthier table

The kids played games, painted each other’s faces, rode skateboards out in front of the house, then they made sugar cookies, cut them into Christmas shapes, baked, and painted them with icing.

Home made Christmas cookies

As I watched these kids all giggling and smiling, I looked toward the future. I pictured my child away in some college campus, and on a perhaps cold December day, she would hold a hot drink in her special cup, and will look back on her memorable Dec 4th date, and find something to smile about.

Cup with engraved diaversary date

Category: Parents One Comment

Nov

Any Tourist’s Favorite Destination

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There is an unpleasant place called “Mùdì (Mùdì=墓地=burial plot)” in Chinese, best pronounced as “Moo” by the likes of my 80 year-old father, and best heard as “Mall” by the likes of his 75 year-old Chinese friend visiting from New Zealand.

Auntie Tan had been a special visitor. She is not only the widower of my father’s best friend from China, she was also our neighbor when we lived in China over 30 years ago. Her second son was my classmate, and her daughter was my sister’s best friend in grade school. We go a long, long way back.

Auntie Tan lives in New Zealand with her daughter, and was here on a solo trip to fulfill her long cherished dream of seeing America.

Last Friday, I took a day off of work, and took Auntie Tan and my father to Monterey Bay for a day trip.

We had sat down in a fancy sea-view restaurant for lunch when my father left us briefly for the men’s room.

Our Sea-View restaurant.

I asked Auntie Tan if my dad took her anywhere interesting during her week long stay in Los Angeles.

“Ah! Only TOO interesting.” Auntie Tan, and proceeded to tell me about a most fascinating misadventure with my father.

A true story told by Auntie Tan – The conversation was all in Chinese, with the exception of a few English words, such as “Mall”.

I was telling your father how after living in New Zealand for 12 years, I really consider New Zealand home now, and have decided to be buried in New Zealand after I die.

A few minutes later…

Your father said to me, “We have Moo here. My Moo is the world’s 5th largest!!”

I told your father, “I didn’t know you have the world’s 5th largest Mall here. My daughter didn’t tell me.”

Your dad said, “Your daughter wouldn’t know that!”

And then, he asked, “Do you want to go see it?!”

“Yes! I want to go see the big Mall.”

So, we got in the car to go see the Mall.

Along the way, I said, “Why is it that on the way to such big Mall, there are hardly any cars or people among us?”

Your father explained, “Today is not any holiday, you will see very few people there.”

I thought to myself, even in New Zealand, we always have people at the Mall.

Then an open lawn with beautiful huge garden came into view directly ahead.

I grew even more puzzled. “Shouldn’t there be tall buildings at the Mall.”

Your dad said, “Why would Moo have buildings?!! We don’t bury our dead people in the buildings, we bury them under the earth.”

Your dad gave me a tour of his American cemetery.

Ha, ha, ha, only someone like my father would think it fit to give his old friend a tour of his future eternal home.

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Category: Family Travel Blogs, Humor, Parents Leave a Comment

Oct

Sweet for Your Money

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Medical science has yet to find the cause for Type 1 diabetes, but I know exactly why my baby has type 1 diabetes.

This child is super duper, ultra SWEET! That’s why!

My baby with the Candyland hair.

Two Saturdays ago, on Oct 18th, my family joined thousands of others in Great America to participate in JDRF’s walk for a cure event.

Great America is the biggest amusement park located in the heart of Silicon Valley Bay Area.

The event took place before the park was open to the public, which meant we had to get up unnaturally early for a Saturday.

When we arrived at the event entrance just before 8AM, a loud an upbeat pop music could be heard over the large parking lot.

Upon entering the path to the event, two lines of cheerleaders from 4 local high schools shook the yawns out of my head with their pom-poms waving in the air.

As soon as we got ourselves a cup of coffee, and breakfast from under the food tents, the kids went off running to play with the numerous activities set up to keep them happy.

A round of games before the walk

Just before the walk kickoff set to start at 9AM, a few event speakers took the mic and gave us a prep talk. Then our proud T1D DJ took over the stage again, and with the help of more cheerleaders, they initiated a dance warm up routine to keep the crowd excited and cheering.

The warm up dance

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, the air was brisk and cool. The walk through the park was fun and cheerful.

Volunteers line the walking path with noise makers and cow bells ringing, they shouted out encouragements, and the team names.

A very nice walk

The walkers ourselves were all in a happy and cheerful mood. Many walkers were dressed up in fun outfits, and we had the cutest T1D fairies and super heroes among us.

T1D fairies

Okay, I am a bit embarrassed to mention that our walk was only 1.5 miles long…

Arriving at the finish line

So, it didn’t talk long to arrive at the finish line, where we were greeted with more pom-pom waving cheerleaders, congratulating us as if we had just finished a marathon.

We ended up in the food tent again, and this time, they had set up lunch there waiting for us.

Yes, they managed to feed us a breakfast and a lunch sandwiching a 1.5 mile walk. When the park officially opened at 10AM, we got to spend a fun day at the amusement park.

We are SO doing this walk again next year…

Last but not least, we exceeded our fundraising goal. A big heartfelt thank you to all our donors. Thank you!

Team Natasha

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Category: Kids, Parents One Comment

Sep

Walking Can Cure…

admin

I discovered that there is a fine line that separates healthiness and illness.

We crossed that line on Dec 4th, 2013, when my baby was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We went from a small medicine cabinet with some vitamins and a couple of bottles of likely expired cold syrup to a home filled with vials of insulin, syringes, insulin pens, glucose meters, test strips, glucagon, and glucose tabs, while continuously learning and adding more medical products and devices to our medical arsenal to manage the rascal named T1D.

A great deal of anger and depression came with the initial diagnose. Our anger known no target, as no one yet know the cause for the disease. We were just mad that such a lot has been dealt to our baby, subject the poor child to a daily routine of finger pricks and insulin injections. T1D not only traumatized our child physically, but shattered our entire family’s emotional well being.

I directed the bulk of my anger at a backpack. A backpack we filled with T1D medical supplies and a T1D log book where every meal with its associated carbohydrates, and insulin dosages must be written down. The backpack was a monstrous eye sore, a constant reminder of the disease. I resented it, and resented to be forced to carry it with us everywhere we went.

T1D Backpack

There is also just a fine thought that separates despair and hopefulness.

One day, I was reading an article about how Dr. Frederick Banting and a team of scientists discovered insulin in 1922. It had occurred to me then that prior to 1922, a T1D diagnose was a sure death sentence.

I eyed our T1D backpack, all of sudden, realized that all the supplies in our backpack are the medicine advances that are keeping my child alive–enabling her to go to school, to participate in sports, and to do all the things that she likes to do.

I felt grateful towards our backpack.

There have been many medical advancement in T1D treatment and technology since 1922. We have been very fortunate to be able to take advantage of some of them in just the past months.

In March of this year, we got an insulin pump, which is a device that my child attaches to her body to deliver insulin. We still count carbohydrates on all the food she eats, and she still have to finger prick several days a day, but the pump took away all the daily injections by syringe, and made our lives easier.

In April, we got a Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitor), it is another device that my child attaches to her body, and it monitors her blood sugar 24 X 7, helping us to better manager her blood glucose level, to avoid going low or high, and improves her overall long term health.

My baby with insulin pump and CGM sensor

Looking back, that initial dark period seemed like a distant past. I am no longer bitter and angry. I count my blessings instead.

I am grateful to have the best medical technology available, grateful to call an amazing group of medical professionals as our diabetes team, grateful to be a part of a most dedicated and compassionate T1D community, and I am grateful for an organization called JDRF.

JDRF is a worldwide non-profit organization dedicated to funding type 1 diabetes research. Since its inception in 1970, it has funded more than $1.7 billion in diabetes research, dramatically advancing the T1D technology frontier and greatly improving the lives of those living with the disease.

It currently supports several clinical studies worldwide, including the much anticipated Artificial Pancreas Systems and Beta Cell Encapsulation Therapies, these are the two leading “almost cure” treatments already in human clinical trials.

JDRF’s largest fund-raising event is its annual JDRF Walk to Cure event. Our local version of this event will take place this year in Silicon Valley on Oct 18th. It will be my family’s first time participating in this walk to cure event.

As we count our daily blessings, a cure is in our daily prayers. I hope you will join our cause.

Below is the link to our fund raising page, donations in any amount will be appreciated:

Our JDRF Walk to Cure fund-raising page

Previous related post: A Bad Ass Sickening News

Category: Parents 2 Comments

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