Some time back, Eric aka Stomper Dad asked his kids 23 questions for one of his posts and since then, I have been inspired to do one but never quite got around to doing it. 

That’s about to change because *drumroll*, I finally did it. I have finally, finally finished this post which has been in draft for the longest time for as long as I can remember,  replicating the same questions Stomper Dad asked his kids from one of his earlier series.

One of the reasons this took so long was because the kids got bored with questions. Squirt was not responsive and Spud has the attention span of the goldfish. So I had to do it over time with Spud. Here’s the “interview”:

Child’s Name: Spud
Age: 5+
 

1. What is something Mama always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes Mama happy?
Sleeping

3. What makes Mama sad?
Screaming

4. How does Mama make you laugh?
Tickling me all over

5. What was Mama like as a child?
(silence) Talk a lot?

6. How old is Mama?
37 (Close! But I’m not 37 anymore…)

7. How tall is Mama?
5 (she did not specify the measurements…just “5”)

8. What is Mama’s favorite thing to do?
Baking

9. What does Mama do when you’re not here?
Works a lot

10. If Mama becomes famous what will it be for?
Hiking (I have no idea where she got that idea from!)

11. What is Mama really good at?
Baking yummy food

12. What is Mama not very good at?
Driving (Sigh! Disclaimer here: It’s not that I’m not very good at it because I’m a bad driver. The fact is that I cannot drive because I don’t have a driving license! Big difference.)

13. What is Mama’s job?
*Tap..tap..tap* on the computer all the time

14. What makes you proud of Mama?
She eats spicy things (I never knew the ability to eat spicy food is something to be proud of! Now I know!)

15. What is Mama’s favourite food?
Prata. (Oh yes! I love prata. Egg Prata to be exact.With curry. Amongst other things edible. Prata is an Indian Roti that looks like the picture below. Yum!)

16. What do you and Mama do together?
Chatting before going to bed

17. How are you and Mama the same?
*Grunts* We sit in the car. Same side!  (We were in the car when I was asking her these questions and she was getting impatient with the questions)

18. If your Mama was a cartoon character who would he be?
*Grunts* Mama, I quit. No more questions

19. How are you and Mama different?
You are bigger and I’m smaller. You wear a necklace and I don’t have any. (kids are so literal, aren’t they!)

20. How do you know Mama loves you?
Because she kisses me and hugs me a lot. 

21. What does Papa like best about Mama?
She helps do dishes. (What?!)

22. Where is Mama’s favorite place to go?
The swimming pool. Mama, that’s enough questions.

23. How old was Papa when you were born? 
Tired, Mama. No more questions. *Grunt*Grunt*

Spud has got no patience with the questions… still, she did OK for someone with such short attention span. Maybe I’ll see if I can try to annoy Squirt with some of the questions instead. 

If you don’t already know, this “Questions I Ask My Kids” series by Stomper Dad has evolved to a weekly series and he recently upped his ante with “Go Ask Your Father” weekly series too. 

All in A Dad’s Work has been one of my regular reads which I try not to miss. And,  I’m telling you Stomper Dad has got some awesome blog content. Do go mosey over if you haven’t already!

It’s Songkran over in Thailand this week and like many Songkrans in the years we’ve been living in Thailand, we are hardly ever here to celebrate the traditional Thai New Year. 

That’s because it is usually a long holiday.  It is the only time we can be away for a longer period without wasting our annual leave days to go back to Holland.

Songkran is a festival celebrated in April and marked by the throwing of water everywhere. It is also the time when traffic accidents are at its highest and even if we had stayed behind, we don’t venture out very much to avoid the dousing. Because, when you are out on the streets, you will not be spared from staying dry.

Like the previous years, we are away again this year. This time, back in Singapore for our last trip back before we would be able to come back again to my home for a long time. At least not for another year. In a way, with so many people to meet (and I had to go to work at our Singapore office too), the countdown has begun…

There really is no better way to honour the Thai New Year by dishing out a dish that looks festive, colourful and befitting of the Songkran spirit without the dousing of water by creating my own Grubbecipes in the form of Songkran Butter Rice.

This was actually made this last week in conjunction with the school’s request for parents to bring along a dish for their kids to celebrate Songkran on the last day of the term. It was the usual fare.

I have actually forgotten about the request;  I had worked late and it was not until I got home that I remembered I had to cook something for the kids to bring to school the next day. So this was not planned at all. I had to whip it on a fly with whatever I could find in the fridge.

Luckily I’ve got some ingredients stocked up. We have mushrooms and lots of it. I also found potatoes, crab meat, squid balls and prawns which can all be used as the main poison and as long as there are onions and garlic, it would be easy to make the base. With some butter and  spices, we can make magic!

The colourful rice is just for the hell of it really. And that’s because Spud has specifically asked for the dish to be in rainbow colour.  For something that should be so simple, I still ended up being on my feet for at least 2 hours in the kitchen. The cooking was only done close to 10 p.m. and when it was all done, I thought it was very apt to call it a Songkran dish. 

My thought after cleaning up was: Bloody hell! The kids and the teachers better finish up this rice dish I have painstakingly made. And they did as both Spud and Squirt brought back empty Tupperware containers. That’s enough to make me happy.

Here’s what this dish is all about. Enjoy!

Songkran Mushroom and Seafood Butter Rice

2016-04-08 04:06:25

A bastardised version of aromatic saffron rice and fried rice without the use of saffron. Topped with rolled omelette

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Prep Time

20 min

Total Time

1 hr 15 min

Prep Time

20 min

Total Time

1 hr 15 min

Ingredients

1. 4 cups of white rice
2. 3 tbsp butter
3. 2 cardamoms, crushed
4. 2 cloves
5. 1 star anise
6. 3cm ginger
7. 1 clove garlic
8. 4 shallots, minced
9. 1 onion, sliced
10. 3-4 tbsp dried parsely
11. Half cup evaporated milk
12. 1.5 cups of mushrooms, minced
13. A handful of squid balls, cubed
14. 6-8 sticks of crab meat
15. 6-8 pieces of fresh prawns, cut
16. 2 potatoes, cubed
17. 1 tspn salt or to taste
18. A few drops of colouring of orange, yellow, green and blue
19. 5 eggs for thin omelette

For the rice

1. Pound or blitz garlic, ginger and onions together. Set aside.
2. Heat butter in a wok. Add in minced shallot and fry them till golden brown.
3. Throw in the spices into the pan and fry for a few minutes.
4. Add in the mushrooms. Stir well and cover for 5 minutes.
5. Then add in the squid balls, prawns and crab meat. Mix well and cover for 3 minutes till all of them are cooked.
6. Add in the pounded ingredients. Fry till it gets aromatic. Add in evaporated milk. Mix well.
7. Add in the drained rice into the pot. Mix well like you would fry fried rice. Cover for 1-2 minutes
8. Add in parsely and salt to taste. Mix well
9. Lastly, add in the colourings, one colour by one colour and loosely mix to coat the rice randomly.
10. Turn off the fire and set aside.

For the omelette

1. Crack egg and whisk each egg individually
2. In a hot pan, spread the beaten egg around the pan so that it flats out like a pancake. You'd want to make this very thin.
3. Remove when both sides are cooked.
4. Do this one by one and set aside
5. Then roll each egg from end to end and use a scissors to cut. This would give it a round circular shape like you see in the picture.
6. Enjoy!

Notes

1. The mushrooms really did make a difference to the taste in this dish! Use of colours is optional.

Adapted from Spiced Saffron Rice

Adapted from Spiced Saffron Rice

Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/

This recipe virtually came out of nothing. The fun bit for me was using mushrooms as a new addition as I hardly use them simply because I am not a big mushroom fan. This dish still turns out great. Playing with the food colouring was fun too!

The thing is this: Got ingredients, can cook! 😀