It is Quarantine Day 8 (MCO Day 13) and this staying put is starting to get to me. The daily routine is the same, day in, day out.
I wake up, I eat. Then I prepare lunch. Then we eat. Taking a breather I carve. Then I snack. Throw in some house chores in between.
Then I prepare dinner. Then eat again, accompanied by a stiff drink or two or sometimes three. Then as I get ready for bed, I think about what to cook for the next day. This routine is then repeated the next day and the next and the next.
See the pattern? It’s always revolving around eating and food. No wonder the waistline is expanding!
I shouldn’t visit the kitchen so often or rather, shouldn’t sit all day at the island in the kitchen surrounded by food. Seriously, the MCO should be applied to the kitchen area to prevent all this food temptation. During the past two weeks, the living room has been replaced by the kitchen as the most used place in the whole house.
It is Day 5 of our quarantine period but if I include the MCO period, it’s actually ten days being at home. I think both hubby and I are still doing okay but I suspect M2 may be a bit restless, cooped up in her room. All the way home but not quite home, no different from before because we are using the phone to communicate despite being in the same house.
We’ve been sending her food in a Bento box, leaving it outside her room. Almost like a hotel’s room service but this is where the service stops. No housekeeping provided so she has to take care of this chore until the quarantine period ends.
The various Bento box mealsBesides meals, there’s Snack Boxes too
Sometimes I even forget she’s back because she’s been so quiet in her room. Of course being out of sight, she’s out of the mind! But as she has online classes everyday, we leave her alone.
I guess I’m still not used to having her back, sooner than the original plans. Oh well, I’m not complaining. Better to have her here than afar with the ever changing situation of the pandemic.
However once the quarantine period is over, the situation remains except that M2 can leave her room. The government of Malaysia had announced on Wednesday, a further two weeks extension of the MCO! So we still have to stay at home until 14th April. It is with fervent hope that this drastic measure will flatten the curve to fight the Covid-19 spread.
Every other day, a new Whale is carved and completed
And until then, my cooking skills have been improving, my carving has yielded more Whales than ever and my waistline has been expanding much to my dismay. How can it not when I am constantly thinking of all these delicious food that I am now able to cook—because I have the time—instead of design work? In truth, the 16/8 diet has long since been thrown out the window at the start of this.
The situation has changed. As of Monday evening, both of us started a 14-day quarantine because M2 returned from Ireland and we were in contact, hubby directly and myself indirectly. He went to the airport alone to pick her up. The Arrival Hall was eerily quiet devoid of people which was good given the circumstances.
She can’t be missed coming out from the Arrival Hall
M2 will of course do the 14-days quarantine without question having flown back on Qatar Airways and being exposed during the 13.5 hours flight plus a three-hour transit in Doha. We are doing the same too (staying quarantined) as a precaution with almost zero contact with her. She will be confined to her room during this period and the first 72 hours will be critical.
We are thankful that our baby is finally home after the official announcement that classes are ending earlier for the Spring semester. With the onset of Covid-19 spreading so rapidly in Ireland and Europe, you’d never know what would happen next.
The situation is very unpredictable, being so dynamic and constantly evolving. As it is, flights are being suspended to/from Ireland and it would have been impossible for her to come home had we had acted later. Shudder… thank goodness we didn’t.
So for us now, it’s a reset of our situation of staying put. Today being Day 7 of the MCO, it is now reset to 14 days.
Let’s hope we stay sane. One thing’s for sure, my cooking skills will improve by leaps and bounds now that I will be cooking for three!
It is Day Six of our partial lockdown and I must say, it’s been surreal. Everyday felt like a Saturday until we lost track of the days. But we have not been bored which is good.
This month alone, I completed four, one in progress and more to come!
Everyday I carved and cooked two meals whilst hubby tended to the garden. And every now and then, house chores were thrown in and the days passed by albeit slowly.
For someone who has not cooked for the last 12 years because we had a lived-in maid to do this, I find myself still quite adept in the kitchen. Thank goodness because eating out is not an option. For the record, our maid went back for good this year in mid-January and so we’ve been “help-less” for the past two months. But we’ve managed well.
And so far, the lockdown menu has been impressive and varied because I have more time now to plan than the last two months. And mind you, it’s none of the easy way out of opening a can of whatever and just warming up. I must admit, this cooking task is rather enjoyable. A nice change from carving, keeping me occupied to pass the time quickly.
As for our movement, it’s been controlled. The last five days, we went out only two times each. Briefly on all occasions – once together to the office to copy some work files home, then only hubby to the pharmacy for some supplements and just myself to replenish some groceries.
When I was out to the nearby grocery store, I was early. So I stood in line, far apart, with the rest of the shoppers waiting for the shutters to open. Senior citizens, allowed to go in half an hour earlier before the crowd, certainly took advantage of their allotted shopping time without stress.
The half hour wait outside felt rather long and when it was time to go in, I took merely three minutes to get in and out, picking up only what I needed. I was second in queue, so it was a fast turnaround.
People were more disciplined and I noticed less panic buying. Most just picked up what they needed. I guess by now, most people know what to do compared to the initial days when there was so much confusion and some level of fear.
We have another eight days to go until this Movement Control Order is lifted and this is if the public continues to be disciplined in following orders. However the situation keeps changing and staying put is best and for our own good.
We have been under Movement Control Order (MCO) as instructed by the government and today is Day 3. I must say it has been good so far. I wake up when I am done sleeping. Then I have my tea at a leisurely pace because I don’t have to get ready for work to face the challenges ahead.
The number one worry-free plus point from this experience: no stress over the car next to our reserved parking lot at the office. The lady driver always, without fail, parks her car very close to our lot (and not in the center of hers) whenever she arrives before us, thus giving me very little room to get out of my car. A two weeks’ break from this daily annoyance is certainly welcomed.
We’ve been enjoying the comforts of home as I spent most of my time carving whilst hubby would be out in the garden tending to his plants. In between, I have been preparing meals and doing some light chores around the house. So domesticated. Hahaha…
My daily routine now: carving Whales
After lunch, I carved. And carved and carved. Then I would get dinner ready. The best part, we have been having pre- and post-dinner drinks more often than before. Whiskey, gin, wine and beer… we’re doing it all.
Then it’s Netflix all the way until bedtime. And this routine will be repeated day in, day out until the end of the month.
The downside from this partial lockdown: no golf until the end of the month as well! We contemplated taking walks in the evenings to address the exercise portion of our lives. Hmm… then again, doing house chores is exercising too.
The upcoming weekend may see a break in pattern or most likely not. Everyday feels like a weekend now. And so far so good, we are still sane.
It was drizzling and gloomy when we got home. And I had dinner to prepare in the kitchen, so I got things going. Hubby went to the garden and our adopted pet, the Golden Retriever from next door heard him somehow.
The adorable fluff ball dashed out of his house for a quick love pet and exchange.
However the fleeting moment was interrupted. His mom called out to him and reprimanded him for the sudden escape into the drizzling condition. I guess she doesn’t know he’s sneaking out for love pets from us. Heheh… So the poor fella had no choice but to go back indoors. Awww…
But he got his happy love exchange, hubby did too and I didn’t. Shucks.
The baking bug seems to have gotten me. After the success of the carrot cake, I itched to bake again! And so I did. This time I picked up two boxes! A the Zesty Orange Cake Mix and a Banana Honey Muffin for various reasons.
Green’s baking mixes make you look good in the kitchen!
The main reason being I had leftover milk and butter from the last baking episode. They are food that I don’t usually consume, so baking was the only option to use them up.
Reason number two: the brand’s website showed an orange cake with poppyseeds choice but our regular grocer did not have this, only the one sans poppyseeds. And because I love poppyseeds—I used to eat poppyseed bagels whenever I could when I was living in New York City dinosaur years ago—I went out of the way to buy a pack of poppyseeds to add to the orange mix. Clever, ain’t I?
Reason number three: I actually have a muffin tray. Yeah… I know, for someone who doesn’t bake, my baking gadgets seems to be quite comprehensive. Previously, the tray was used to make mini quiches for M2 to bring to school. But now with her being away in college, the tray has not been used.
Back to my baking novelty, this time I was super efficient and needless to say, the Orange Cake was simply delicious as it now comes with poppyseeds. Next week, muffins! With poppyseeds as well.
I skipped the icing topping and the cake is just right with a slight crunch of the poppyseeds
I must attribute the baking success to the brand, Green’s Baking of Australia and not so much of my skills in the kitchen. It’s the mix that makes me look good and feel good. Forget the 16/8 diet for the time being until this baking novelty wears off.
I gave up the idea of baking with my Kenwood Rapid Bake but not baking itself. So another box of cake mix I bought and another attempt.
This time, I opted for a carrot cake that comes with icing! An improvement because there’s another step involved instead of just adding eggs, milk and butter to the cake.
The cake itself was easy – this time, an egg with water and oil instead of milk and butter to add to the mix. And for someone who doesn’t bake a lot, if not at all, I have a fair bit of baking essentials, like the loaf pan that I found. So I didn’t have to use the round pan.
Top: straight out from the oven; Bottom: drowned with icing
After 40 minutes in the conventional oven, my cake was done! Excited I literally drowned the cake with the icing that was mixed earlier, a separate fun task I must say. Maybe I’m not supposed to drown the cake like this? Hmm… but the overall taste was good, not too sweet and just right.
Maybe I can bake after all if I put my mind to it by using the correct equipment, that is the conventional oven and not a bread maker. Having said that, true baking skills come from doing it from scratch and not from a ready-mix box. What I have attempted the last three times was simply novelty and I’m far from being a pro at baking.
If I truly want to pursue baking to hone my kitchen skills, I should keep trying. But do I really want to? Hubby says we will gain weight from having to eat all the cakes, muffins and what nots. Given that we are still at the 16/8 diet, I think this baking novelty will be short-lived.
So I attempted to bake again, on Saturday. And you wouldn’t believe the process of this second attempt. It’s simply incredulous.
I bought the same brand of cake mix but this time Vanilla instead of Butter. Despite this little flavor difference, the ingredients needed were the same – eggs, milk and butter to add to the mix.
Like a pro, I put everything into the pan efficiently and switched on all the buttons and my Kenwood Rapid Bake came alive. It was put to work to churn the ingredients before baking. Oh yay I thought, let’s hope it works this time.
But no, that’s when all the problems started!
It went straight into Mode 1 before I could even select Mode 7 for cake. Then it was user problem because somehow, I couldn’t press the buttons—any button or all the buttons—in a semi-panic state to change the setting. After that it was machine problem as it went into overdrive mixing because it was in the bread making mode. Quite a comedy…
Finally hubby had to help me and he managed to change the setting. By now, the ingredients were thoroughly mixed which was probably good. Or maybe not… I don’t know.
With Mode 7 selected, the machine started another round mixing the ingredients all over again. Gosh! Can a cake mix be over mixed? Suddenly several funny knocking noises could be heard…
The next thing I knew, there was a power outage!!! My Kenwood Rapid Bake in cake mode setting tripped a fuse in the house. Amazing or is it just me being totally hopeless?
As for the thoroughly mixed cake mix, into the round pan again and into the conventional oven again. Thirty minutes later, the Vanilla cake was done but a little bit more crusty on the edges and more brown than the first cake last week. The taste? Quite nice I must admit in spite of all that crazy problems.
A little burnt, a little brown but yummy
If I had known baking with the bread maker can be so hazardous, I wouldn’t even attempt. But will I bake again? Hmm… it’s hard to say because both cakes did turn out okay. It’s the idea of using the bread maker that was problematic.
So if I do want to bake, the easy way of course, I should just bake the conventional way and leave my Kenwood Rapid Bake as an extension of the upper kitchen counter.
I have a Kenwood Rapid Bake machine sitting on my lower kitchen counter and all these years, it’s used more as an extension of the upper counter to put things than to bake. It was a house warming gift when we moved in ages ago rather than a purchase on my part. As I’m really hopeless when it comes to being adept in the kitchen, the appliance hardly saw any action all these years.
Somehow over the weekend–out of the blue–I decided to bake a cake! I don’t know why but there was an unexplainable urge. Not from scratch but to use the machine which I thought was a brilliant idea.
Apparently my bread maker can also bake a cake at setting number seven. So I did some homework to make sure this idea was feasible before I even began.
To make things easy, I bought the easiest box of cake mix that called for just eggs, milk and butter to add to the mix. I can do that, right? Yep.
So Sunday morning was the big bake day! Everything went into the bread maker’s pan and all I had to do was even out all the ingredients and let the machine mix ‘em up and bake. Easy…
But when I put the pan into the machine and switched on the main power before pressing the ON button, nothing happened! Oh no!!! Has the machine kaput? It’s been left unused for so long. Why didn’t I think of testing the machine first before embarking on this ambitious attempt?
As for the mixed ingredients, what a waste if I left it unbaked; so I transferred the mixture into another pan and baked the cake the conventional way. In the oven…
After 30 minutes, the cake was done and it actually turned out pretty good for my first attempt after so long. A little crusty on the edges but moist on the inside.
The butter cake which turned out good!
Later as I was cleaning the counters, I was mulling over what I should do with my bread maker. Do I still leave it as an extension of the counter or get it fixed? Then when I was putting the cable away, I discovered another power button! Hey… I didn’t see that earlier!
Somehow I missed this!
I plugged the machine in again, switched on the main power and flipped this newly discovered button and voila, my bread maker came alive! Hahahaha… what a major dork I was.
I simply did not realize there’s a power button hidden behind and thought the worst of my bread maker. Now you know why I don’t bake or fuss around in the kitchen that much. I hardly know my appliances!
But having said that, I think I’d want to bake another cake again just to try the Kenwood Rapid Bake in the cake mode setting number seven.
Angieneering 
Remarks