Recipe #1: Lamb Shepherd's Pie..

Allergy Free Recipe for Kids

The first time I know about Shepherd's Pie is when Ben Starr made it in MasterChef US 2. I bet it must be very tasty since chef Gordon Ramsay chose it to be a winner of mystery box challenge.

Having browse some of my recipe books, I found out that making the Shepherd's Pie is quite easy. So, I decided to make one for Deniz. 

I thought Deniz will not like it because the texture of the lamb are difficult to chew. But apparently he loves it very much! Therefore I want to share the recipe so you can make it by yourself. Good luck! 

Ingredient:
Stuffing
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 small red pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
500 g minced lamb/beef
300 ml chicken/beef stock
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
175 g mushrooms, sliced
Mashed Potato 
1 kg potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
45 g butter
4 tbsp milk
salt and white pepper 

How to make:
1. Warm the oil in a pan, add the onion, red pepper and garlic, and saute until softened. Add the meat and saute until browned. 
2. Add the stock, parsley, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, and mushrooms. Cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until tender, then drain and mash with butter and the milk. Season to taste.
4. Arrange the meat either in one large dish or in individual ramekins, cover with the mashed potato. Cooked in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Tadaaaa! It is easy, isn't it?

PS:
If your child seems to be allergic with tomato, you can omit it  from the recipe.

Who Am I as a Parent?

Sitting in front of the window while watching the traffic, tied me one afternoon with my mother. At that time, we were relaxing over a cup of tea in the gazebo next to the house. It feels like a wonderful afternoon indeed! Among lot of topics that we discussed, there is one thing I remembered which made me smile today. My mother said to me, "Sier, if you have children, please take care and love him/her sincerely without expecting anything in return ".

At that time, I said yes to her, but thought to myself, "It won't be a matter! Who can't take care and love their own children sincerely." That seems odd to me.

Back to reality.. I am a mother of a son now. Thus, I start to aware the intention of my mother's words. 

Often, as parents, we are not aware of our weakness. Being a parents make us feel that we have freedom and power to set the 'fate' of our children. Which of course resulted misconceptions about the roles, responsibilities and rights as parents. This is so true. Why? There is no school to be good parents. If anyone of you can recommend a school to be good parents, I will register shortly.

After married, newlywed couples wants a child. There will be many reason such as, age (like me), children lover, or have already rushed by his/her parents who wanted to have grandchildren (sounds familiar?). Heheheh.. 

Without any warning of the risk of becoming parents, they become a father or a mother for a child. Their job descriptions are to educate and raise children. How can they do that? Read books, ask other parents, ask friends, joined the seminar, and so forth? Sometimes it works. But is it sufficient? Since our children are individuals who are unique. 

Now I will focus to comment on my mother's word.

For those who already have children, was it ever occur to your mind the following things:
"Oh, how her son's weight bigger than mine?"
"Well, how come his son become so clever?"
"Great, your daughter can walking since 9 months while mine is not?"
And so on. If not, congratulations, you are a GREAT parents! 

To be honest, I experienced that feelings sometimes. As a mother, there is a mischievous desire (or perhaps obsession) to have a super son. In my mind, I EXPECT Deniz can quickly roll over-crawling-walking, could be easily teaches the toilet training, eat a lot, and can be proud of in front of another mother.

If reality did not match my expectation then I get panic. To get rid of my panic I will then "force" Deniz to learn to roll over-crawl-walk, "force" him to eat, and so on. Though maybe Deniz have his own stage to roll over-crawl-walk or he did not eat because my cooking taste so bad. O my God! What a shame.

In connection with my mother's word, I think this is what she meant by take care and love our children sincerely. Love them sincerely by limiting our expectation and let them grow with a proper stimulation and give them a joy in their live by letting them do what they can do rather than they have to do! 

I can not imagine that this is the first year of Deniz's life and I have a bunch expectations on him. How about later? I might give him a 10 lessons in a week, I could choose the best school that I think is best for him. Moreover, I may choose the subject that he was going to take in a college just because I thought he will get a good job from it. Sadly, this can caused several negative impacts for our child. They can be depressed and demotivated which lead them to drugs, drinks and possibly grown with unhealthy emotional development (e.g. bad temper). 

I have to sit back and relax. Thinking of who am I as a parent. Then I can start to analysis of whether what I do for him is a form of stimulation or an obsession. I also try to aligned my expectations with Deniz's ability.

For you who have teenager, try to build a good relationship through a two-way communication. Give your children rights to talk freely to convey their deepest expectations. You might also convey what yours. If both are not aligned, you should have discussion what works for you and your children. That is what we called "musyawarah". 

If you do several mistakes back then in the past. Please, do not be ashamed to apologize to your children. Because, it is never too late to change to become a good parents.

Let's recognize ourselves as parents for a better future of our children. ;')

It is about courage..

Horay! This is my first time writing in a blog. My very own blog! Haha..

I read an article from a magazine published in Jakarta as saying that it is never too late to learn, and to do something never done before. In the article mentioned, there is a 47-year-old housewive who is just learning to drive a car. There is a 58-year-old man learned to cook. And others. I think, I have not done a lot of things just because I feel I am too old or too late to do it.
The article was very inspiring to me. Which in turn, made me the courage to create this blog. 

Now, I'm proud to declare:
"Sierra, 30-year-old, create a blog and put all my stories in it for the first time."

Just before, I thought I knew how to take care babies. Just because I have experience with my niece and nephew. Taking care of Deniz made me realize that it is not as easy as I thought. But also, not as difficult as you may think. Hence, this blog is intended to sharing stories about Deniz and his daily life. The story of how I was crying because Deniz did not want to eat, the story of how I laughed and was touched when Deniz show new ability, a story that hopefully useful for other mommies. 

I also wanted to share some recipes that have been tested in the Deniz's Kitchen, to provide inspiration for mommies who have run out of ideas for making meals for their children.

I am Indonesian, but this blog will be in English. Why? Not because writing in Bahasa is not cool. It is more because I wish to have a better English writing skills since I do not have much chance to do so in my daily life. Therefore, you may find many grammatical errors in this blog. You can laugh! I may slap you. Hahahah.. *kidding*

That's all for the beginning. I will be back with interesting stories that I hope you all get pleasure from reading it.

In the end, I want to say thank you to Gembul (read: beloved husband) who has supported me to create this blog. Hehehe.. Love you so much mbul!

Ciao,
BundaDeniz