So I had an idea, combined from various idea, be it a story about dream that I heard from my friends, my own experience and some theory that I came up with, on a night before I fell asleep (whatever)

So while I don't know if my story telling is up to a standard, but I'll start writing it - as a training to my imagination :P

Done for myself and my sis - let's hope new month (Lunar Calendar) is always a brand new start :)

How to obtain it? In every 1st and the 15th of the month according to Chinese Lunar Calendar, you go to those Chinese florist, and ask for mandi bunga material.

What's included? Pomelo leaves, Kaffir Lime and some flowers.

Apparently, exercising after a pint of beer wasn't a good idea.

I felt very very tired at that point of time.

If you don't believe me - try it next time :P

Few things to be ironed out before I call it a 'small milestone'

1) Getting rid of the stupid smoke alarm sound at the background
2) Stop the stupid laptop fan noise
3) Add some back vocal
4) Individual instrument mastering
5) To consider whether to get rid of guitar portion
6) Cross my finger on the proper mixing technique
7) Better singing

Then... et voila!

Fig 1a. the "ingredients"

Impressed by the taste of Leffe Brune (at a rather affordable price for Belgian dark ale), I did some research and found that some people use it to marinade meat ball.

I got some recipe and felt lazy (that's the 1st one), so I did research again.

I found that people used it to make the meat sauce for spaghetti.

I got the recipe from Ron and Winne, however, got lazy again.

Btw, this morning when I woke up, I had the urge to try out.

So went to supermarket to buy the ingredients. Fig 1a shows the ingredient I bought.

At the supermarket, I felt the laziness bug, bugging me again.

So instead of buying canned mushroom, I bought the alfredo portobello sauce (with mushroom) and cheese & cream sauce - then mix them.

I didn't feel that scared cos I know at home there are 3 other victims/guinea pig to enjoy or suffer together.

So I cut the chicken breast into pieces, and marinaded with Leffe Radieuse (Jusco only has that, but well, it's 8.2% ABV, so even better?)


Marinaded for 1 hour

Then, stir-fried with olive oil.

After stir-fried it, I mixed all of them with (another mixture of) the spaghetti sauce.

Now the spaghetti part - I forgot the how much time is it needed, so I tasted the noodle 2 times to call off the cooking session.


Here comes the result, did not look so tasty I know, but that's because I only remembered to take photo when my sister ate it half way!

So the objective of this random cookery session is mainly on the marinaded meat.

My verdict:
The taste of the beer is not evident. You can only say it's a chicken with a hint of beer.
Maybe I should use pork next time.

As for my family members, they didn't particularly find it great, but comments from them:

Sister: The spaghetti is just nice (i.e. not too soft nor too hard)
Mum: So what do you plan to cook for dinner? (my reply in my heart: dream on [I know i'm not a good son])

So that's all about my random cookery session.

Sekian.

It'll be a challenging one as I've never done such a 'complete thing' before.

It'll be a great achievement if I'm able to do it.

A milestone, to be exact.

So, after two months of testing, the person said it helped to 'reduce the menstrual pain' to a certain extend.

So, I take that this is a good investment.

For details of the product, read here

So there's this first test result from my colleague - who inspired me to start this project.

The result - he slept soundly (he's got insomnia problem too - I only learned that when he told me the outcome) but the baby was still wide awake.

His wife gotta wake him up by beating him with pillow.

My colleague's comment "It's too comfortable to listen to the music. Unfortunately it won't work for the baby"

So the good news is, at least it works for the adult :)

Initially a failure, but I managed to saved it at last!


The sacrifice: 5 pieces of the pig coccyx, 10 pitted red date, 2 jujube (蜜棗），sliced lotus root - fortified with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 table spoon of soy sauce & 3 table spoon of fish gravy.


Pour everything into the water, and boiled (with medium flame) for 40 minutes


If you realise, I still die-die added more water into the pot

And as usual, I cooked in slow flame for the rest of the 3 hours.

After that, no more photo cos I was a bit panicked cos again - thin taste!!!

I cooked for 3 hours but after that, I realised, actually my mum would normally cook for 3 hours, but she would put the pot into the "thermos" like stuff to keep warm - in a way, it's still cooking!!!!

So after the lunch, I cooked for another 30 minutes in medium flame.

Added another half teaspoon of salt and half table spoon of soy sauce, too.


OK la, this time, even my sis said 'It's a pass' (yah, FYI, her mouth is quite choosy)

So yes, success, finally!!!

Winnie shared with me the improved recipe, and I shall try it in the next attempt.

I modified some in step 2 (for bigger portion) & 5 - basically, the longer you cook the taste will be richer (but no more than 3 hours pls)


1) Short-boil the pork bone for approx 1 minute...and discard the water
2) Put the pork into clean 3L of water...together with 5 medium sized dried oyster
3) Add the cut gourd with the seeds removed.(remove the seed from the gourd by using a toothpick)
4) Boil with high flame for 10-15 mins
5

a) Switch to medium... continue cooking for the next 2 hour

or

b) Switch to low flame ...continue cooking for the next 2 hours 45 minutes

Last but not least, thanks, Winnie :)

Today, I tried a new soup recipe - and I failed.

Nevertheless, I'll still document it

What I used was 1/4 of the shark's fin gourd (魚翅瓜）, 5 pieces of the pig coccyx, 10 pitted red date. Instead of soy sauce, I'm gonna use only fish gravy - a secret weapon that my late granny often use to make the food tasty.


Put all the ingredients into the water


Cook until the water is boiled (approx 15-20 minutes)


Cook with slow fire for the next 2 hours 45 minutes



And the result - FAILED

Reason was because I miscalculated the water needed - the marrow would release water (since majority of marrow is water-based) when it's cooked.

So, the result was - thin-tasting soup.

I shall cook again with slow fire, and see how it goes.

And tomorrow, lotus root soup.

Stay tuned.

Now, the rest will be the testers :P

Background
The aim of this project is to help the babies or even the adults to fall asleep easily during the night time.

I, for one, suffer the occasion insomnia - randomly.

(Hence the usage of aroma therapy product, just FYI)

What motivated me to find this particular music was when I found my colleague came into office in an exhausted look - asked for the reason why - it's because the baby would wake up and crying in the middle of night, frequently.

Project sort of started on 26/10, when I collected some Bach's music to test(detailed post, here)
Then, in the second week, I found that it wasn't quite useful, so I used Google to search for alternative, and found this album - The Mozart Effect: Music for Babies, Vol. 2: Nighty Night

It has 4.5 /5 stars on Amazon, so I thought of giving it a try.

So by logic, the music that works for the active babies in the middle of night, should work for adults, too.

Testing and Filtration
A week of listening test was given, with me as the tester - in non-good sleep environment.

In 5 out of 7 days, these things were refrained to aid my sleeping:
1) Air conditioning (means, only ceiling fan was used)
2) Aroma therapy product (such as pillow spray & burning essential oil)

And I had even tried to go to bed earlier than usual (normally it's 12.30am++). I slept at 11PM+- in 5 out of 7 days.

Test Summary
Day 1
Slept @ track#5

Found that track#4 Symphony No. 11 in D Major, K. 84: Andante was louder than the rest of tracks.

The album from the next day onwards reduced to total of 8

Day 2
Slept @ 1 album cycle + track#7
(With the aid of pillow spray + aircon, cos I drank caffeine drinks before I slept)

Day 3
Slept @ track#4

Day 4
Slept @ track#5

Day 5
Slept @ track#3

Day 6
Slept @ 1 album cycle + track#3
(With the aid of pillow spray + aircon, cos I had 3 hours of nap in the evening + I was awaken by a text message)

Day 7
Slept @ track#3

How I Did the Testing?
I playback these MP3 using my handphone's loudspeaker - not at very high quality but hey, the point here is to make you sleep, not music review, right?

Summary

Final Tracklisting
1. Don Giovanni, K. 527: Deh! Vienialla Finestra
2. Piano Sonata No. 11 in a Major, K. 331: Andante Grandioso
3. String Quartet No. 10 in C Major, K. 170: Adagio
4. Divertimento in D Major, K. 131: Adagio
5 Oboe Quartet in E Flat Major, K. 407: Andante
6. String Quartet in B Flat Major, K. 174: Adagio
7. Divertimento in B Flat Major, K. 287: Adagio
8. Clarinet Quintet in a Major, K. 581: Larghetto

Total Playtime: 45minutes

So I thought the test was quite ok. Further testing will be done by my friends, but I guess, the important thing is, we can have better sleeping quality.

Yep, insomnia is frustrating. I know and hence I did this :P

Limited time download: HERE

P/S: Oh, and another tips from my friend, Sherry: she let the baby drink the milk @ 11PM, then the baby would sleep till 7AM (i.e. the next day).

Hope this will help for the insomnia-er too.

Thanks, Sherry :)

As a followup to the previous post, the testing was commenced last Saturday, and it will take one month to see the outcome.

Until then, I can't conclude, yet :)

Stay tuned