Apple Crumble and our 20-month-old

Dylan turned 20 months yesterday.

Also, for the first time since we arrived in Australia, he spent an hour away from mommy when mommy placed him in a home-based day care. The little terror - in the space of that hour - managed to cause a boy to cry by hitting and kicking him after he failed to "return" a coveted toy, which just set our dear brat off into a tantrum fit, causing him to regurgitate some of the morning's eggy breakfast. Poor caregiver!

On the bright side, I'm really thankful that this little boy is now starting to eat more at mealtimes, and taking to full-fat cow's milk pretty well too.


"Something seems stuck in my ears..."

All in all, a little celebration was in order, so we used the Seah's bak kut teh sachet with about 1kg worth of chicken wings for dinner, and I made apple crumble.



On a cold day, there is nothing quite like slow-cooked chicken in herbal soup, with its meat just falling off the bone and melting in our mouths!



This was my 2nd attempt at the dessert, using the recipe from Video Jug. I'm so glad I found this website - the great thing is you get to see how the dish is made step by step. Real easy, and yummy too!

The first time, I over-stewed the apples, and it became too soft, almost like pureed. So although the recipe calls for 30 minutes of stewing the apple together with the suger in a covered pot, I will say about 20 minutes of gentle stewing will do. When you bake it in the oven preset to 150 degrees for 30 minutes, that's more than enough time for the apples to get softer.

Another variation to the recipe - instead of stewing the apples with a stick of cinnamon, I just sprinkled a dash or two of powdered cinnamon both into the stew and into the crumble mix.

Best served with just cream, though hubby still prefers it with good ol' vanilla ice-cream! To ease on the guilt factor, we had it with 98% fat free ice-cream, of course.