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Eggs are my last resort whenever I need just that one more dish to make the meal complete. Plain old omelet is the quickest but sometimes it’s nice to have it a bit more fancy.

I’ve recreated my own version of the one we eat at Indian restaurants and although I don’t use the same exact veggies, my kids seem to love it. My loaded omelet has only 2 veggies – fresh tomatoes and onions – in it. It’s so simple I can whip it up even in a tiny kitchen, say if we went on holiday in a motorhome. Just sayin’. The recipe is here if you’re interested.

Personal Assistant to CEO is now officially in my job description. Aside from all the other positions that I already hold as Mom, I also play Steev’s trusty personal assistant at business events he attends. Being that Steev is only 18 with his own little business and no driver’s license yet, I’m kinda stuck with the job (well, at least you can’t say I’m not gainfully employed).

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing well-dressed pea-brained assistant to a good-looking hunk of a CEO who on one occasion, forgot I wasn’t supposed to be his mom, and walked into an event holding my hand . Luckily, people like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have set the stage so it’s not like it’s such a biggie, right ?

Anyhow I’ve been attending these events with him with no problems so far. Last night though, there was a little hiccup. Steev had neglected to confirm with the organizers that there would be two of us attending the dinner party. They assumed only Steev would be attending so I couldn’t get in at the door. My first rejection. Of course, I was devastated .

Good thing it’s the weekend and I managed to contact Hip2bDad who brought the girls to meet up with me and have dinner nearby. Actually it turned out to be quite a rare Balinese treat at Ole-Ole Bali (check out what we ate there last time). Just one of the perks of being married to the father of the CEO .

You know me. I’m always thankful for a chance to hang up my steering wheel and have the kids home with me. Usually I’d be thinking where to eat and shop but this time, I was unprepared. totally. The school break slipped in so quietly I hardly noticed.

Suddenly here we are! Just happy for the break from insanely long school days. Still, we have a whole week ahead of us. Last Saturday was kind of the cooling-off day when the kids were just happy they didn’t have to stick their heads in books all day.

The weather’s so incredibly hot we’ve all got scratchy throats and dry coughs. So we’re hibernating for the rest of the week. Such interesting people we are. My teens are happy to entertain themselves in our indoor arcade. All their computers are linked up to our home network and they’re busy fighting zombies and monsters .

As for me, I’m busy in the kitchen rummaging through my fridges trying to figure out what to feed my little army. So far, we’ve had a nice little chicken and shrimp linguine, our all time favorite, and grilled lamb chops and salad, and lots of cooling iced drinks like chrysanthemum tea and lychee juice.

And every night is movie night. So far, we’ve watched New Moon – for the first time and as expected, the movie was a really bad joke . ’nuff said! We also watched the Inglorious Basterds which had my head in a whirl of French and German the whole night. Can’t believe it even inspired me to tweet in bad French .

So that’s where we’re at this week. We’re so hip we’re just staying home, stuffing ourselves and watching movies . If you have any good recipes or movies to recommend, I’m all ears. I could use some bright ideas.

Mine would be, hands down, iced lemon tea. First off, it’s very refreshing on a hot day and it’s something I can easily whip up at home before the kids get home, all sweaty and thirsty, from school.

And of course, it’s the next best thing to punch cigars (nah, I’m kidding, punch is okay, not cigars!) and definitely a healthier choice than soda. When I’m eating out, iced lemon tea is what I usually order and make the kids order as well.

What’s your favorite iced drink?

We were having a super laid-back week last week… for a change . No school, no taxi runs, no hurry. So me and the teens decided to mosey on over to Tony Roma’s. Huge big lunch orders. This yummy onion loaf on the house.

Lots of laughs. Good service. Um, a little too good apparently. The maitre’d came over (surprise, surprise!) and asked about our meal. Good. Hmmm. Great. Hmmm. Yep. Hmmm. Those were my responses answered with my mouth closed. Well, almost.

On any other day, I would’ve flashed my big ol’ smile and rattled away. But not today. Even though the service was really quite good and deserved a big smile of satisfaction! Darn that parsley in my teeth !!

What would you do? Use it to scare away an over-zealous insurance marketing agent? I would !

Admittedly I’m not a very good Chinese chef. Blame it on me not being very Chinese-y, I’m actually much more confident cooking Western food than I am Asian food. I would’ve loved to bring my entire brood out to Friday’s for pasta and pizza, but I have to instill some appreciation for Chinese customs and traditions in my young ‘uns, don’t I?

So this being Chinese New Year and all, I have to at least pretend to whip up a few simple Chinese dishes to make my ancestors proud . So here’s what I cooked for our CNY reunion dinner lunch (find out how our dinner became lunch) today.

Stir-Fried Kai-lan with Crispy Scallop Bits

An everyday dish of stir-fried Kai-lan (Chinese kale) funky-ed up with crispy dried scallop bits became a big hit with my say-no-to-veggie teens .

Claypot Pork Ribs and Tofu

My kids are big fans of Claypot Tofu (recipe is at my food blog) and I cook this quite often. But Claypot Tofu and Pork Ribs with carrot flowers and a sprinkling of wolfberries? Now that’s something different. Raine loved this and said it’s a brilliant idea to use pork ribs.

Spicy Thai-style Crispy Chicken

And my very popular Spicy Thai-style Crispy Chicken (recipe is on my food blog) with shredded carrots, cucumbers and onions is a hit with the kids as usual.

Braised Mushrooms with Phoenix Claws

And then we have Hip2bDad’s and my favorite Braised Mushrooms with Phoenix Claws. The name itself is enough to invoke sheer horror in my kids’ eyes. Phoenix? Actually there’s nothing pre-historic about this at all. Phoenix Claw is just a nice name for chicken feet !

Lotus Root Soup with Japanese Baby Scallops

And finally, we have my Lotus Root Soup with Japanese Baby Scallops which turned out so sweet and flavorful I would’ve hidden the entire pot to savor when no one’s watching .

There! Are we going to need diet pills later? I doubt it since there’s nothing very fattening here. And I think I might just have saved us a couple of hundred bucks cooking at home.

Here’s wishing all who are celebrating, A Happy and Prosperous Year of the Tiger. If you’re traveling out of town, have a safe journey. And to those who are not, have a Happy Valentine’s Day and a great weekend   .

Okay, so Chinese New Year is just around the corner and it coincides with Valentine’s Day this year. This time every year, we’d be trying to catch every lion dance performance in town. But not this year! Seems my teens have finally outgrown the obsessive lion chasing though we’ll still be picking a few spectacular ones to watch.

As usual, we won’t be traveling out of town like most folks. We prefer to avoid the rush and just visit some friends and relatives here in town. Now if we were going on vacation in Orlando, that would be a different story.

I’ll be cooking a simple reunion dinner at home on New Year’s Eve. Customarily daughters having been married out of the family are not welcome to have the reunion dinner with their side of the family because it’s believed that it’ll impoverish the family. Hahaha, I call it poppycock and fiddlesticks!!

They could, of course, ignore the superstition but my Dad celebrates it with his ‘new’ family and I’m technically an ‘orphan’ who never gets invited so… That leaves Hip2bDad’s side of the family where we’re customarily supposed to be having the reunion dinner with. But since his Dad also celebrates with his ‘new’ family, us ‘orphans’ decided to heck with all this nonsense and just have our own reunion .

On the first day of Chinese New Year, we observe a vegetarian diet. On the second day, I’ll be cooking the first meal of the year. As usual, we’ll be avoiding Chinese restaurants like the plague for the 14 days of CNY, away from the crowd and having to pay through our noses.

And that’s about it. Got a whole stash of festive cookies, mandarin oranges, drinks and flowers for the altar. Not much left to do except finalize my two menus. We don’t traditionally decorate the house with festive symbols, plants or lanterns. The kids have some new clothes which we bought over the Christmas holidays. Hip2bDad and I don’t bother with new clothes. No trips to the salon for any of us either, yay!

And we’re set for a whole week off school, that’s all we care about . Call us boring, call us weird but we’ve always done our own thang much to the horror of our extended families. We’re not your typical family. So the way we celebrate Chinese New Year shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone !!