One of the big projects I planned last year was to give our backyard a major overhaul. Here’s an overview of how it looks like now after the overhaul! When we first laid out the garden, we had envisaged a sort of zen-inspired landscape … Over the years, our family grew and evolved. Things got added into the backyard to keep up with the changes. Various plants and a few fruit trees. Outdoor toys and play equipment. A sandpit. Even more so since I started my family day care . We tried to make the most of the existing landscape and work with it to accommodate the various add-ons. But it was hard to stay on top of the mowing and the weeds. The original landscape just got lost in the midst of all the changes. So I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business. I did up a plan and list of materials. I applied for a small grant from the local council and got a modest sum of money to supplement the cost of materials. I found a great guy to do the heavy lifting with digging up the whole backy...

Nian gao or sticky rice cake is a classic Chinese New Year treat. The cake was featured in one of our favourite reads last month ‘ The Nian Monster ’ by Andrea Wang, where the notorious monster was defeated by the super sticky cake made from glutinous rice flour. The kids were curious to know what this cake tasted like. I’m not really a big fan of the traditional steamed version of nian gao . Then I remembered a baked version that one of my aunts used to make every year for my family’s Chinese New Year reunion dinner. So I tracked down the recipe and found the recipe surprisingly uncomplicated. It was so simply that I decided to whip up a monster load of the cakes to give away to friends. If you’ve never tasted this version of nian gao before, I highly recommend it. This cake tastes best freshly made, so you will unlikely find it being sold in the shops. Here’s the recipe if you are interested to give it a try… Ingredients 400g glutinous rice flour 1 tspn baking powder 2 ½ cups mil...