Oven baked Toulousain sausages

I love sausages! So naturally,  now that I'm in Toulouse France, I must try their Toulousain sausages. I tried the one at a restaurant when I first came to find a place to stay. I must say it's really good. The sausages are pork with salt and pepper. You can have it grilled or in a cassoulet. Some people find it even more enjoyable served with red wine. I'm an alcohol person but I prefer drinking beer more than anything else. Haha. 

Today, I decided to cook one in a different version.  I wanted my sausages to be oven baked and with some sauce to go with. I don't like it to be too dry.

Ingredients

1. 4 pieces of Toulousain sausages (I bought mine at a supermarket) 
2. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3. 1 onion, chopped
4. A handful of cherry tomatoes ( I love to add more tomatoes but I run out of it as Erica keeps eating it
5. Olive oil
6. Balsamic vinegar
7. Coarse salt
8. Black pepper

Methods

1. Pre heat oven to 190 degree Celsius
2. In an oven baked tray, threw in garlic, onion, tomatoes and sausages 
3. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar 
4. Mix well and then place sausages at the top of all ingredients
5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
6. Oven bake for 20-30mins
7. Done! 

Yes, I chewed off abit of the sausage as I could not resist the temptation. *sheepishly*

I served it with steaming hot white rice! Yum!

Work and breastfeeding - can it be done?

A friend talked about her breastfeeding days to me today. She fully breastfed her baby for 3months and partial (breastmilk and formula milk) till 6 months. During those time, she has people who 'condemned' her for giving up breastfeeding. My story is opposite from her, I gets 'condemn' for breastfeeding my 15 months old child till now. I breastfed my older child till 18 months old. In France, most mothers breastfeed their babies until 6 months old. It is extremely rare to find a mother still breastfeeding a baby beyond that age.

Now, I don't convince anyone to breastfeed their child. I only offer advise on breastfeeding if my friends come to me for help. It is entirely the mothers' choice and decision on how they want to feed their child.

When I used to be working, I pumped at work every 2-3hrs. You need very understanding colleagues and bosses who are 'open' with you missing from the office to do your pumping. Of course, sometimes it's better to let them know so they don't think you are off to go shopping somewhere. Hah! How I wish. Some companies offer a nursing room but my previous company do not have one so I used any empty rooms that were available (meeting rooms, empty office cubicle, toilets, storerooms).  I always have this black bag that I lugged around.

I was very fortunate to receive a hand-me-down Medela Pump In Style from a cousin. So I save money from buying an expensive pump. It's cost about SGD$600-$700 at that time. It's a very expensive investment but it definitely save a lot of time pumping and very effective in getting your breastmilk out without the pain. At that time, my pumping schedule was like this:

• 6am - Pump milk for 15-30mins. Prepare for work. 
• 7.30am - Breastfed baby before leaving the house.
• 10.30am - Pump milk
• 12noon - Pump during lunch time.
• 3pm - Pump milk 
• 5.30pm or 6pm - Pump milk before knocking off
• 8pm or 9pm - breastfed baby

Sometimes, I have meetings or have to travel outside of office, I will have to change my pumping schedule or even brought my pump with me if I'm not in the office. Yes, I do get engorgement when meetings overrun or even fever when I did not empty out the breastmilk a few times when I am rushing for time. During those period of time, I drank a lot of water, ate oatmeals and mother's milk tea - traditional medicinals to increase my milk supply. I still continues to eat my pre-natal pills and especially calcium supplements. 

Good luck to breastfeeding mothers and want-to-breastfeed mums out there. End of the day, even if you can't breastfeed, you are still your child's best mum in the world!

How to cook mussels - quick and easy

Recently, Ken has been craving for oysters and mussels. And today, we bought 2 big packets of muimat a grocery shop. They were really cheap at 4 euro a pack. Woohoo!

My method of cooking are usually fast and must still taste reasonable. Luckily, the man is not a picky eater. 

Method:

1. Washed the mussels
2. Chopped up some onions and garlic 
3. Put the mussels, chopped garlic and onions in a wok (you can use a pot too, as long as there is a lid to cover it)
4. Filled the wok with a 1/4 cup of beer (hehe, I have a lot of beer in my fridge. You can also use water or wine. Do not immerse mussels in water like how we do potatoes, as the mussels will not be cook this way. The steam will open the shells instead)
5. Heat up the stove and steam the mussels on high heat for 5mins or until you see steam coming out from under the lid. 
6. Once you see that the shells are all open, it's ready! Try not to overlook the mussels. Finally, I gave the mussels a stirred with a spatula to make sure there are coated with the beer, garlic and onions. 
7. Serve.

Ready to eat! Yummy!

From tthe photo, it doesn't seem to have alot of water (or beer); at the bottom of the mussels. In fact, there was lots of water (from the mussels) so do not put too much water, 1/4 cup will do. Enjoy!

Relocating - being the expats in Toulouse France - Part 3

Before I left Singapore to go to France, a good friend advised me to do some 'networking' and sourced for other Singaporeans or English speaking  people in Toulouse France. That's what I did. I went to some expat blogs and starting searching... And yes! I was really fortunate that I found one and she started introducing me to other Singaporean friends here. I  am really grateful for that. It definitely make me feel better and not so home sick.

I also started to go to some indoor plays or parks to find English speaking mothers like me and hopefully we can do play date with their children. Imagine eavesdropping on people's conversation to see if they are English speaker. Haha. Well, I just got to be thick-skinned - if not I have no friends here and I'll go insane.

I heard about a website call mom & tots. They are groups of English speaking mothers who meet often,  together with their children. One day, I'll go join them... Once I could drive well in Toulouse. Oops!

The well-behave kids in France

I always find it amazing and yet curious that French children are very well behave. What I'm saying is that they know how to sit properly at the dinner table,  speak softly and politely,  say 'thank you' (or 'merci' in French), use the word 'please' (or sil vous plait in French), etc. Even babies could sit quietly in their stroller for 1.5hrs - 2hrs while the parents eat in peace.

Alright, it make my children seem like monsters in France public area. With their shouting,  screaming,  crying, runnning and walking around during meal time, make me want to bury my head in the ground.

In Singapore,  I felt completely at ease when I bring them to restaurants, even with their loud voices or walking around after they finished their meals. Nobody care or seem aware of it.

When I arrived in France, I brought my children to a restaurant. BIG mistake. Stacy talked loudly (young children can't control their excitement)and Erica was crying (as she wanted her nap). Everyone in that restaurant were staring at us! Not sure whether they pitied us (Ken and I) or we were disturbing their peaceful meals. To make matter worse, food served to us were by courses, appetiser,  main course, dessert and then follow by coffee. That 1hr seem like forever! !! We quickly finished our food and left, not forgetting a little bit more tips.

I asked my friends who have children in France about how they get their kids to behave in public. Some said that the misbehave kids used to get spanked (now, they told me French people don't spank their kids due to child abuse regulations, how true I don't know) . Babies, they use the 'cry it out method'. Parents don't pick up their crying babies the instant they cry but they adopt the 'wait and see' method. Which means babies learn to smoothe themselves to sleep.

Ok, cry it out method doesn't work for my children. I thought I tried once to see whether Erica can smoothe herself to sleep when she was a baby. For that half an hour (which seem like forever) she never stopped crying. So loud was her crying, I think police might come knocking on our door. And I felt so bad, I think babies cry because they need something and they can't talk so crying are their communication to us. I also read somewhere that babies who cry and who their caregiver pick them up to comfort them, they grew up feeling more secure. I stand by this theory.  I can't bear to see any babies cry and not being pick up and finding out what has cause the discomfort.

So there are really no misbehave French kids? Another friend told me, there are definitely the misbehave kids, its just that we never see them. Their parents never bring them to a restaurant till they are older. They engage a babysitter for a few hours so the parents can enjoy a nice meals together.  The well behave kids he told me, the parents start teaching appropriate behaviour when they are really small and are always consistent in how they want them to behave. Well, easy to say that,  but it's really not the same with every child, right.

I'm still struggling with my kids. I just see that the older Stacy is, she seems to control her temper melt down better. And also before entering a French restaurant,  I would ask whether they are ok with having children dining there. Please note that most restaurants do not have a high chair for babies and toddlers. Either you bring your own booster seat or a stroller. Sometimes these are what I miss in SIngapore - child friendly restaurants.

Playmobil house - model no. 5302

I chanced upon this playmobil house on the internet and thought that these will be a great investment for the children. My mind was on one thing when I bought the full sets - only when the children are good, I will add in characters and other house themes (one at a time). This is one of the methods that I use when they demonstrate appropriate behaviour. Please note that the house only comes with 2 characters, flowers and some small accessories.  The rest of the characters have to be bought separately.

They really love the house very much. It took me 2 nights to build the house. The instructions given was easy to follow. I didn't give them those tiny accessories as I'm afraid Erica would swallow it.  The playmobil playhouse is actually for children aged 4 and above. I will wait until Erica is around that age and then give them the smaller accessories.

Well, I love the playhouse too.

Relocating - being the expats in Toulouse France - Part 2

We took KLM airline to Toulouse France as we wanted to 'break up' this long haul flight to stay a night in Amsterdam and to recover from jet lag (for the sake of our young children). We never regret it. The place is nice, friendly people and they speak English!

The next day, we arrived at a service apartment in the downtown of Toulouse to meet my in-laws. They flew in a separate flight. Yes, they came with us to help us with these difficult time for 6 weeks. I really appreciate them!

Staying downtown helps, as you get to see so many things, so many people and learn how to use the public transports. The only bad thing is that it can get really noisy , especially when you want to sleep at night. We didn't move straight into the rented house that we choose as the house has not finished its renovation. So we ended up staying in the service apartment for 2.5 weeks. The saddest and anxious days of my life! My in-laws we're be flying off in another 3 weeks time, our shipment have not arrived and we are running out of money!!!

Well, you may wonder, didn't the company give us any settlement allowance before hand? Yes, they do but really not enough when you actually convert base on the exchange rate.

Tips - before you relocate, ask for these from your company (if you can. Certainly the requests are not greedy):

1. If you have to put up in a service apartment for a while, make sure your company pays for it first. We got a nasty experience, we thought the company will handle the service apartment fees but we got a shock when the hotel staff asked us for money and said if we do not pay up now, we have to leave by tomorrow. Two weeks of stay for 2000 euro!! It's not a fantastic apartment mind you. We cleaned the apartment ourself (cleaner comes once a week). 
2. If your house is not furnished, make sure your company give you the cash first to buy the necessities. Do a calculation on the average cost of the furniture and household appliances in that country. If you pay first using your money that you brought with you ( which you are not going to bring so much hard cash) and then claim from your company, it can take weeks to pay you back. 
3. Open up a bank account in France once you are here. It's easier than trying to do it from your county. This also helps to speed up your company to pay you back the money for claiming purposes. French people prefer to pay using a debit card, so having a bank account set up, will definitely be more convenient. 
4. You need a car, France is big and calling a taxi is very very expensive. You can cry by just staring at the meter. If you have children, it's good to have 2 cars. One for the husband to drive to work. And the other for wife to send the kids to school and for emergency purposes. Please note that certain places are not safe even if there are public transport available. If the company could pay for the cost of a car will be good or have them to pay you the car allowance first. All these paying, can really eat up all your savings. 
5. If no car, the public transports are good too. You need to purchase their bus or train tickets. The funny thing is that you need coins to buy a ticket from the ticket machine, they don't accept cash notes. We like to buy the 10 trips tickets for 12.90 euro (so you need 12.90 euros in coins) Or if you have a France bank account, you may use your debit card to purchase the ticket for a trip or you can also buy an annual ticket. But when you just arrive in France, you might not have set up any bank account yet.

I will add in further notes if there are other important things that I think of. Of cos don't ask for the sky and want to live like a king. Be reasonable and what is needed for your family. This is more important. 

Relocating - being the expats in Toulouse France - Part 1

I keep telling myself that I must put up this post for people who are relocating , especially to France. I am not an expert but I just write what I went through or want I know.

When Ken got offered a position in Toulouse France, we only have about 4 months to prepare and go! I got to quit my beloved job, transferred our maid ( which truly upset her), packed up and told friends we are leaving, learn french language(crash course), etc etc.

The thing that come to my mind was to buy things that maybe France won't have. I mean, you will definitely be homesick, you need to have something from your hometown to keep you sane, right? I went crazy with shopping, online shopping too. I bought chinese herbal soup in packets form, winter clothes(Singapore is hot, you don't need them), chili sauce, noodles, 3in1 coffee if you like to drink coffee(very important!!), chrysanthemum tea, red tea, similac milk powder (we could not get the same brand in France so I bought 6 big cans for Stacy, merries diapers (I swear merries diapers is the best) etc etc. mostly food and household items. I did not buy any household appliances except to bring what I already have, as France uses 2pins plug, we uses 3pins plug.

The challenge came when we have to pack what we need for the luggages. The rest of the items (which we think we might not use that much), we shipped it. Shipment took 6weeks to reach France. So do not ship over important documents which you will need when you arrive in that county. Unless your shipment comes almost the same time, you reach France. We got not much time so we only managed to ship our items 1week before we were scheduled to fly.

 We have 5 luggages and 2 hand carry for 2 adults and 2 children. We arrived during the colder months in Autumn.
In our luggages,
- mostly long sleeves clothes
- winter clothes (shawls, gloves, beanies, winter shoes, etc)
- jeans /long pants
- children toys (we have to bring quite a few as 6weeks they will have no other toys until the shipment arrive)
- English books (children books, your favorite books, very important!)
- phone chargers
-universal plugs
- baby and toddler's food and snacks (we brought quite abit as France did not have those from USA but their own brands)
- diapers
- milk powder
- toiletries
- medications (for children and babies especially. France have their own brand but if you prefer your own
- documents ( children's birth cert, our marriage cert, and you need them to be translated to French, etc.)
- I will add the list if I remember anything important

In part 2, I'll blog about when we arrived in France and things we need or do.

Dinner in France

After my bad experience of bringing my kids to a restaurant in France, I told myself I would not bring them to a restaurant (except asian restaurants and fast food joints) here anymore till they are older. When we first went to a restaurant here, as usual my kids talked loudly, cried, laughed and wanted to walk around - we got stared at by other patrons (disapproving stares actually).

Ken and I felt embarrassed. You mean it's not normal for children to do that!??  Somehow, the children in France are really behaving well at the tables or we see no children at the restaurants. Really? I guess l'll do more 'research' and talk about it on my blog later.

Anyway, my friend invited us for a dinner last night at an Italian restaurant. I'm like ' you sure? I think I better don't bring my children'. She insisted and said that the restaurant is open by her Italian friend and it is perfectly ok to have children running around and making noises. I felt better and I am glad I went with my children.

Amazingly, my kids behaved (with some hiccups of cos'). Or maybe we are less stressful. I am really happy that my friend made these arrangement and so Ken and I got to be in a nice restaurant with the children again!

Easy peasy Nutella cupcakes

I love chocolate! I could eat them everyday but I got to watch my weight too. Agh!
Today when the children were taking their nap, I decided to make some cupcakes for their tea time later. And I need to make them real fast! Once they wake up, means no time for me, I got to read, teach, play and cook their meals. Busy busy.

I searched the net and found this receipe which only require 3 ingredients!
- 2 eggs
- 1cup of Nutella (I used a table spoon to measure instead, about 16 scoops)
- 10 tbs of flour
Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius (I preheat to 165 as my oven is force-fan). Whisk the eggs until smooth. Add in flour and Nutella till well blended. Scoop into cupcake moulds. Oven bake for 12mins or until toothpick comes out clean.
Voila!

Yummy! My kids love it and that's more important!

kiddos' telescope made from empty milk bottle

Everyday or every other day (if I'm lazy), i will tried my best to do arts and crafts with the children. Today, we made a telescope using stickers!  Stacy has alot of stickers and she keeps asking me if she could use these stickers on cupboards, walls, etc and I won't let her. Haha.
Its an easy task for her, she peeled off the stickers herself and sticked it on the bottle. I tied some strings around the bottle to decorate it as I don't want it to be too bare.

Tada!

My breastfed children

I breastfed my 1st child till she was 18months old and I am still breastfeeding my 2nd one. She is now 15months old.  I think I could continue breastfeeding Stacy but then I got Preggy with Erica and the milk might have changed.  Stacy weaned off on her own. I read an article saying that if a child wean off on their own, they will be more independent.  Well, we see...

Breastfeeding has never been easy. You can ask any bf mums. Dealing with engorgement,  fever, pressure at work, disapproval, etc, etc. when I am struggling with Stacy on her latching and getting enough milk to feed her, I searched the net, helpline for breastfeeding mums, consulted friends who bf... I cried a lot. It was really a struggle and not many people understand. Others asked if it is so tough, just give the bottle. Sigh.. I don't know, why I never give up and I see my efforts and perseverance pays off. It gets easier and easier. I even gave advises to friends who want to breastfeed and were successful!

Some people say after the child is 1year old, should not breastfeed anymore as breastmilk has no nutritional value for them. I prove them wrong. I did my homework of cos'.  It's my decision. http://sg.theasianparent.com/extended-breastfeeding-need-to-know/

My intention is to breastfeed Erica until she could hold a cup really well and I will let her drink powdered milk.  So need to worry about have a milk bottle when traveling!!