Changi Terminal 3

2008-12-10T00:00:00.000+08:00

Here's another gigantic area for us folks to walkabout. Read all about it here in the link ...

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/310697/1/.html

First impressions ..... it's huge, it's new .... it's cold and where is the passenger crowd?

Whenever we visit airports, the viewing gallery where planes land and take off is a must to see.

I was disappointed cos' I prefer the one at Terminal 2 which is so much nearer to the planes.

Our favourite food .... we are in the middle of an inflation, so pricing at the Food court and Swenson's seem to be above the rates of their branches in the heartlands. And of course the foodcourt on a weekend is perpetually crowded.

Marina Barage

2008-12-09T00:00:00.000+08:00

We paid a visit to the latest Singapore icon here. The Marina Barrage is the newest freshwater catchement area in this urbanised city. Read all about it here in this link http://www.pub.gov.sg/marina/Pages/default.aspx

Dd had a great time here eventhough it was a hot afternoon. The water play area is huge and of course it will be the children's paradise here. The only setback is that this place has no showering facilities for the children. Other than that it's a good place to take a walk in the late afternoon to soak in the view of the sea and feel the wind in one's face. The place however is not easily accessible by public transport at the moment.

20 Years Wedding Anniversary

2008-12-08T14:06:00.003+08:00

It's another simple celebration this year with just the two of us after the bewitching hour of midnight. We headed down to an eatery call Kim's Place which sells seafood and had a Thai crab tang hoon supper. The eatery is located at Yio Chu Kang Road and has quite a nice ambience.
At that hour of the night there was only one other couple who looked like they were having their dinner. The crab was big and firm in the flesh and the supper was good! I don't mind having another go at this place but I believe the parking would be a challenge if you have your meal during the normal hours in the daytime. By the way this eatery closes after 2 am.

Souperlicious

2008-11-18T00:00:00.000+08:00

Dh and I had R&R at Suntec last weekend and was surprised to see this new eatery that was just opposite Carrefour. It served mainly soup, salads and sandwiches. There were about 8 varieties of soups, 4 variations of sandwiches and salads. A combo of a half sandwich and a soup came up to about $12. I ordered the wild mushroom soup and had a tuna sandwich while dh ordered beef goulash soup and had a Waldorf salad which mainly had fruits in it. If you like soup, salads and sandwiches ...then I would say ...go for it!

This was the ice lemon tea drink I had. Notice anything that's unusual in the drink ... dh said that it's the first time he saw ice lemon tea served without ice and I didn't even noticed it LOL

Henderson Waves

2008-11-13T00:00:00.001+08:00

I was recovering from a cough and a flu during the Deepavali weekend and was house bound for the entire week. Feeling that I needed some fresh air to cheer me up, dh suggested we make our way to the the Henderson Waves to sink in the latest and newest happening in Singapore.

Here's the link to read all about the Southern Ridges and their LINKs ....

Pasir Panjang Heritage

We parked at the Telok Blangah Hill Park and took a short walk to the bridge before the rain came pouring down. It was a refreshing walk for me to greet the wind, the rain and the sun too.

Xin Wang at Kovan

2008-11-07T00:00:00.000+08:00

It was one of those rare weekend that the whole family of six got to eat together. So we all headed towards Kovan to eat at Xin Wang ,a Hong Kong Cafe. Ambience here is pretty good and we got to sit at a cushioned bench at the window seat. The food variety served us well enough as the variety allowed us to eat dim sum and western food together. So here you see ham and egg sandwich, baked pork chop, curry chicken, wanton mee and dim sum like har kow, siew mai, prawn paste chicken, glutinous lotus rice, spring roll and fried chive dumpling.

For dessert we ordered a mango ice cream ice kacang to be shared by three of us. The bill came up to be $90. It is a tad expensive eating dim sum here but it was comfortable and the ambience was good! The service was good too as we went there early before the lunch crowd. I won't mind going there again once in a while as a family.

Steamed Leather Jacket in Hot Bean Paste

2008-11-06T00:00:00.000+08:00

I found this paste being sold at the supermarket recently and used this to perpare a steamed fish dish. It is really convenient to use this as I just needed to get a fresh fish , put in 2 tbsp of oil, some sliced ginger pieces and added a quarter cup water to dilute the paste before pouring the paste onto the fish. I let the fish marinade in the paste for about an hour before popping the dish into the microwave oven to be steamed. For the fish, I used Leather Jacket cos the fish is meaty and smooth and has minimum bones.

Here's a pic of the fish. It is an ugly fish but the meat is very suitable for steaming. Usually it's sold in the supermarket with the head chopped off.

Banana Oatmeal Loaves

2008-11-05T16:08:00.007+08:00

For the past two days, I had the chance to supply some of my bakes to a food kitchen in Upper Serangoon near the Nativity Church. A friend of mine volunteered to give her bakes for the week to the charity and I became her baking associate LOL (that's what she calls me :-))

Tried out this recipe from the website Recipezaar and it was good. The two loaves here plus fifty vanilla honey cuppies made their way to the centre.

Here's sharing the recipe for a loaf ....

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup mashed banana mixed with 1 tsp of banana essence
1/3 cup UHT milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 nos. medium eggs, beaten

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C and grease a 8x4 inch loaf pan.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine all the wet ingredients together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir till the batter is well mixed.

Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove pan and leave on wire rack to cool.

Remove the loaf from the pan and cool thouroughly on the wire rack before storing.

Vanilla Apple Cake

2008-10-01T00:00:00.003+08:00

Here's another challenge from Sweet and Simple Bakes and here is the recipe . I found the sugar content to be too high and reduced it by 50 g. As the batter I got was pretty stiff, I added about 4 tbsp of Irish Cream Bailey's before topping the batter with the sliced apples.

Here's sharing with you what I did .....

Ingredients:

250 g unsalted butter, softened
200 g raw sugar
4 eggs, beaten
250 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
2 green apples, cored and cut into wedges
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

Pre-heat oven at 180 degree C , greased and line an 8" round springform pan.

Beat the sguar and butter together till light and fluffy .

Add in the eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla essence and Bailey's and stir till a smooth batter is obtained.

Lay the cut apple wedges on the top of the batter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar onto the apple wedges.

Bake for about 60 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake from pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting the cake.

Keep cake in air-tight container and refrigerate cake if keeping it for about a week.

Please click HERE for this month's round-up.

F1 Grand Prix Sunday in Singapore

2008-09-29T20:41:00.000+08:00

It was Sunday evening and dh and I were down at the Padang this time to watch the race live in front of the big screen set up near the Cricket Club. Armed with a mini TV we were able to barely hear the commentary given live. The crowd here watched the race with the thundering roar of the twenty F1 engines blasting at the back of us. Here now to enjoy and relive the race again ....

Let me have the videos here do the talking .....

The race here began with all the cars jostling for better positions. It was great to see how the cars bunched up and then scrambled out. Massa lead the pack here.

A chance to see Lewis Hamilton face to face or should I say face to helmet LOL. See if you can spot his eyes through his helmet. He was leading the pack with 51 more laps to go.

What made the F1 race more exciting for the evening were the thrills and spills of several incidents happening which upset the top favourites and resulted in the underdog to win.
Here was the crashed car from Piquet and the stalling of Barrichello's Earthdreams car.
As a result the two were out of the race.

The Team Ferrari blunder at the Pitt Stop that dashed Massa's hope of ever winning the race in Singapore this year. When watching this I could feel the hopelessness of the driver who couldn't do anything except to wait and wait ... a good whole couple of minutes before his Pitt Stop mates arrived to remove the fuel hose. And even then when they arrived, they struggled for sometime before they could remove the jammed fuel hose. All that precious time lost and his race seemed at this moment to have stalled till the end. I felt so sorry for him.

With the last 4 laps to go Kimi lost concentration and therefore lost control of his car and crashed out of the race. This incident finally sealed the fate and dashed all hopes of Team Scuderia Ferrari winning the race here.

The winner of Singtel Singapore Grand Prix 28th September 2008 is .....
Fernando Alonso from ING Renault F1 Team

He was the underdog who started last in the grid position because during the qualifying round his car stalled and he had no timing. He went into the race saying that his race was already lost at the last grid position as chances of him overtaking in the Singapore Street Track was tough. For him to win at his position a miracle must happen in the form of the appearance of the Safety Car. And the miracle did happen for him .... three times during the race!
So do you believe in miracles? I do! I do! I do! :-)

F1 Racing in Singapore

2008-09-27T17:04:00.018+08:00

Dh managed to get tickets for the event and mind you, they were costly. Three days walkabout tickets for 2 persons at $320 would not be affordable for people below a certain income group. Anyway, dh and I spent the Friday night having our ear drums almost blasted away. Thanks to ear plugs which we managed to buy at the gates, the noise for the night became more bearable.

As we parked our car at the Golden Shoe carpark, I could already hear the deafening sounds of the sports car blasting and screeching away. It was already a deafening experience LOL.

Here you see evidence of my existence at the race LOL. A night race with a city circuit and daylight lighting condition. Many of us just stood behind the barricades to watch the cars zoom past and I had hardly any time to make out who was driving that car.

For those who are braver, you could book a standing spot at the dangerous turns and here the drivers have no choice but to slow down their cars to avoid collisions into the wall barricades. Only at these turns did I have a chance to at least make out the color combination of these sports cars.

Here I managed to snap some cars zooming away and maybe one of them could be driven either by Lewis Hamilton or Felipe Massa or even Kimi Raikkonen. A chance to also be in the driver's seat? Just look up into the gigantic screens near the grand stands which were projecting information about the race live!

Hands up ..... steady .... listen .... shoot! Here's the most common stance of the species with cameras during the night!

The fire fighter standing and hoping that the unexpected will not happen!

And finally what is attending an F1 Race without a sports car parking next to our car LOL.

Ice Monster

2008-09-24T11:45:00.006+08:00

This was the eatery we visited at Plaza Singapura when dh and I went for our R&R. There were many customers there when we had our dinner around 9 pm. It's a simple meal for us and the food is passable. However I find the sitting is really too close for comfort. I believe the food offered is mainly Taiwanese fair.

Taiwanese Beef Brisket Noodles ..... it was good with the meat being tender and tasty and the gravy too.

Fried Gyoza ..... the dumpling skin just had two folds over the meat and it came as a shock to me cos' I've never seen fried gyoza wrapped this way. Even though the meat was tasty I found the skin too thick for my liking.

Mango Salad wraped in egg crepe ..... the mango salad had a tangy and sweet flavour and as I ate it, the juices oozed out.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

2008-09-19T13:26:00.004+08:00

This cheesecake is one of my boys favourite teatime and supper snack. I got the recipe from the book titled Fantastic Cheesecake by Alex Goh. I would definitely be baking this a couple of more times for the family.

Here's sharing with you what I did ....

Ingredients:

160 g cream cheese
25 g butter
120 g milk

40 g flour
30 g cornflour

4 nos. egg yolks

4 nos. egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
100 g sugar
pinch of salt

Method:

Line the bottom of an aluminium 8" square pan and grease the sides with shortening.

Place cream cheese, butter and milk in a mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until thick. Remove from the double boiler.

Add the flour and corn flour into the mixture above and then the egg yolks and stir till well blended.

Whisk the egg whites together with the cream of tartar, sugar and salt until soft peak is attained.

Fold the soft peak egg whites into the cream cheese mixture till well incorporated.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake it in a water bath at a pre-heated oven at 160 degree C for about 40-45 mins or till the cake tests firm or golden brown.

Remove the cake from the oven and then remove the cake from the cake pan immediately.
Set aside to cool. Refrigerate when keeping cake overnight.

Jurong Fishery Port

2008-09-03T00:00:00.001+08:00

Dh and I had the chance to visit one of the two fishery ports in Singapore. The Night Tour had us reached the Jurong Fishery Port at 3 am. It was bustling with activities with people unloading crates of fish, displaying lots of fish, selling and buying fish, packing and weighing baskets of fish.

The sights and scenes were mind boggling and not to mention the purine smell of fish too LOL

Let me have the pics do the talking ....

This is the auction area where buyers and suppliers gather. We the visitors were ushered to the viewing gallery which is at the left side of this photo. Visitors walk above the hall and we had a bird's eye view of the myriads of fishes there displayed mainly on the floor and also in baskets and some in boxes too. Most of the workers here wear yellow boots :-)

A fish merchant here displaying his fish for the buyers to make an offer. See the many kinds of fish .... can you name most of them? :-)

Another fish merchant displaying his fish. See the weighing scale in the centre? It's huge! And this is the first time in my life I see this many kinds of fishes lying on the floor LOL.

Here we have the fish merchant collecting his money after a successful deal was done. See his books to record deals and his calculate to punch out bargained prices ....

It was a good experience to have seen this fishery port. I was surprised to see quite a number of foreign workers coming into the port to buy fish. Many of them go home with at least a 2 kg fish in a red plastic bag. I can imagine that if I bought my 2 kg Thread fin fish here, I would need to pay only half the price that I had to pay at the Giant supermarket. But then who will help me process the fish, clear the innards and fillet them nicely for me? I am thankful that the fresh fish section of the supermarkets exist today :-)

Rosemary

2008-09-02T23:18:00.003+08:00

Dh and I had the chance to go on a Night Tour with our Catechist community. We arrived at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Vegetable Market at about 4 am. I managed to get this lot of rosemary all for $3. Usually I would have to pay $3 for about six to eight sprigs of these rosemary at the supermarket.

I think I can make maybe eight roast chickens with this lot of rosemary I bought from the wholesale market LOL. I gonna keep some of them in the fridge vegetable compartment and freeze the rest.

Victoria Sandwich Cake

2008-09-01T00:00:00.001+08:00

Here's another challenge from Sweet & Simple Bakes and the original recipe is given HERE .

I baked this for dh's simple birthday celebration at home and he liked it. I baked the sponge cake in a single 8" cake pan and sliced it into two instead of baking two sponges. I also added in a quater cup Irish Cream Bailey's for that special flavour.

Ingredients:

For the sponge:
175 g unsalted butter at room temperature
175 g caster sugar
4 medium size eggs, beaten
175 g cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder sieved together with the cake flour
one quarter cup Irish Cream Bailey's

For the fillings:
enough sweet strawberry jam to cover the cut surface of the cake.

Buttercream:
75 g unsalted butter at room temperature
175 g icing sugar
1 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's

Cream the buttercream ingredients together till you get a pale, fluffy and light texture.
There should be enough to cover the cut surface of the cake.

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar till the mixture becomes pale, light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs and the flour mixture a portion at a time till all are blended in.

Add in the Bailey's till well blended.

Pour batter into a lined 8" cake pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree for about 35-40 mins. or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake pan and cool for about 10 mins before removing the cake from the pan to cool further.

When the sponge is fully cool, slice it into two parts equally and spread jam first and then buttercream before placing the other half on top.

I added icing sugar on the cake surface to get the birthday prints and also added some red sanding sugar to make the cake more festive looking.

Please click HERE for the round-up.

Mascarpone Cheese Pound Cake

2008-08-31T00:00:00.003+08:00

What can I do with my reconstituted frozen Mascarpone cheese? It would really be such a waste to have to throw it away as I can't possibly use it to make my tiramisu. I searched the net desperately for a recipe that made use of mascarpone cheese to bake a cake. There were not many but I did happen to chance upon one which I adapted it to make the cake you see here.

I also sprinkled some mozzarella cheese on top before baking and found that the cheese gave the cake top a rather crispy texture when the cake was eaten warm. However when I kept the cake in the refrigerator and microwaved it before eating , the cheese top became chewy. At a friend's suggestion I put the piece of cake for about a minute in the oven toaster after microwaving it for about 30 secs. This way gave the cake a crispy top as good as the day I baked it.
The cheese gave the cake a rather moist texture and it is also quite dense with the aroma of the cheese flavour. It definitely will go down well with a hot cup of lemon tea :-)

Ingredients:

250 g unsalted butter, soften
150 g raw sugar
50 g caster sugar
450 g mascarpone cheese
3 nos. egg, beaten
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
300 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
a handful of mozzarella cheese

Method:

Cream butter and sugar together till light pale in color and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, Bailey's , flour, baking powder and cheese in three portions and stir till well blended.

Pour batter into a lined 9" round pan and sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on the top.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 50-60 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Macadamia Nut Choco Chip Cookie

2008-08-30T00:00:00.001+08:00

This cookie recipe had been in my to-do list for the longest time. Finally I had the chance and baked this for Teachers' Day. So I baked this and packed them up for dd and ds J to bring to school for their Teachers' Day celebration.

Ingredients:

250 g salted butter, soften
1 cup caster sugar (225 g)
1/2 cup brown sugar (90 g)
3 nos. medium size eggs, beaten
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
340 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
300 g macadamia nuts, chopped
300 g chocochips

Method:

Cream butter and sugars together till you get a light and fluffy texture.

Add in the eggs, Bailey's, bicarbonate soda and flour in three portions.

Add in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts and stir till well mixed.

Refridgerate the dough for about an hour before distributing them on the baking sheets.

Drop 1 teaspoonful of the dough onto a lined cookie sheet and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 10-12 minutes or till they become a golden brown.

Cool the cookies on a cooling rack thoroughly before storing them in an air tight container.

Cookies can be kept for about a week without refrigeration or for about two weeks with refrigeration.

Banana Chocolate Maple Ice Cream

2008-08-29T11:08:00.002+08:00

I used 4 frozen ripen Dole bananas in this recipe. The maple syrup also gave the ice-cream a googy kind of texture and it's characteristic taste. You may wanna reduce either the sugar or the syrup if you find it too sweet for you.

Ingredients:

4 nos. ripen bananas, mashed
250 mls UHT milk
250 mls dairy whipping cream
50 g caster sugar
100 g bitter sweet chocolate
1/2 cup maple syrup

Method:

Blend bananas with the whipping cream and keep them refridgerated.

Heat up the milk in a pot and add in the maple syrup, sugar and chocolate.

Stir the above mixture till all have blended together.

Pour the above milk mixture into the prepared cold banana cream mixture.

Stir till all have blended together and leave the combined mixture in the refridgerator for a couple of hours.

A couple of hours later, pour the mixture into the freezer bowl with the paddle attachment running.

Allow mixture to freeze until desired consistency is reached.

Keep the ice-cream overnight.

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

2008-08-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

Here's another way to eat this delicious mushroom.
Wipe the mushrooms clean with a wet cloth. Cut off the stalk of these mushrooms. Lay them on a baking tray. Sprinkle some pepper and olive oil over the mushrooms. Spread some mayonnaise over each mushroom and then place a tsp of smashed up luncheon meat onto each mushroom. Sprinkle some mozarella cheese over each mushroom and then bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 20 minutes. Once the cheese browns, the mushrooms are ready to be eaten.

Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Cream

2008-08-19T19:01:00.006+08:00

Here's a yummy one which I did without the ice-cream maker. I adapted the recipe from HERE
Thanks L for sharing it in her blog.

Ingredients:

400 g fresh strawberries
400 g strawberry flavoured yoghurt (2 tubs)
100 g sugar
200 g non-dairy whipping cream

Method:

Blend fresh strawberries with the strawberry flavoured yoghurt till smooth.

Whisk non-dairy whipping cream with the sugar till thick.

Mix both the above ingredients together till well blended.

Pour the above into container and freeze overnight till the mixture is firm.

Omurice, my version.

2008-08-13T11:14:00.006+08:00

In between chasing a couple of Korean dramas I also watched this Japanese movie called
Lunch Queen . In this movie, the dish called Omurice, when eaten by the lead character (who had a very hard life) enabled her to feel the emotions of love and she survived and existed because of the many good food she could eat.

Omurice, my version is rice fried with chicken meat, chopped garlic and tomato sauce and then wrapped with an omelet made from 3 eggs. I was game to try making it cos' it looks interesting enough.

I searched the net and managed to get a video showing me the intricacies of getting the rice wrapped in the omelet. HERE is the Japanese chef showing you how it's done. I can tell you that it's not easy but I managed somehow but the omelet was a little bit overdone LOL.

Dh tried my version of Omurice and said he liked it LOL. As for myself, using three eggs for this dish is a little too overwhelming cos' I usually use three eggs to fry a tub of rice which can feed the whole family of six LOL.

Award Time

2008-08-12T18:38:00.012+08:00

I made some new friends when I participated in the Sweet and Simple Bakes Challenges.
There is Sowmya from Creative Saga who surprised me with this Brilliante Weblog Award.

From the title of the award, I guess it has to do with some kind of "brilliance" in the way I share about my cooking and baking LOL. Actually, I do very simple writing and recipe sharing. Anyway I do wanna say "thank-you, Sowmya" for this award.

I managed to find out the lovely gesture that's given behind this award from HERE.

I will pass this to some of the blogs that I enjoy reading .....

Peony of http://myculinaryjournal.blogspot.com/

Jo of http://www.karlsfoodie.blogspot.com/

Joyce of http://jthorge.blogspot.com/

Edith of http://www.preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/

Rosie of http://rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/

Ellena of http://www.ellenaguan.blogspot.com/

Zuraini of http://quickneasytreats.blogspot.com/

Banana Chocochips Muffin

2008-08-01T00:00:00.002+08:00

This is the third challenge at Sweet and Simple Bakes and the recipe is found HERE .
When the muffins were fresh out of the oven, my dd couldn't keep her hands off the cooling rack LOL. The fragrance and sweetness of the bananas made the freshly baked muffins yummylicious and moist. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Click HERE for the round-up.

Baked Yoghurt Chilli Chicken

2008-07-31T00:00:00.003+08:00

I baked the original recipe from Cuisine Asia but the family found it too bland for their liking. I had another go at it cos' I still had another cup of yoghurt sitting in the fridge. This time I adapted the recipe and added a couple more ingredients. Here's sharing with you what I did ....

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken parts

1 cup/tub plain yoghurt

1 tbsp chilli powder from Baba's

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Juice and zest from one lemon

2 nos. potatoes, sliced

Method:

Marinade the chicken parts for an hour or more with all the ingredients from above except the potatoes.

Place the sliced potatoes on the baking tray and sprinkle some salt and pepper over it.

Lay the chicken pieces over the potatoes and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for about 30 minutes or till the chicken skin is golden in colour.

Serve the chicken with the potatoes and the gravy.

Mixed Fruits, Cream Cheese Buttercake

2008-07-30T00:00:00.002+08:00

I came across this recipe from Yochana's Blog and decided to give it a try. I adapted it and the result was a less oily, moist and soft cake. This was what I did ....

Ingredients:

125 g butter
125 g cream cheese
185 g caster sugar
3 nos. eggs, slightly beaten
200 g cake flour sieved together with 1 tsp of baking powder

150 g mixed fruits of cranberries, golden raisins, orange peel, ginger peel soaked overnight in Irish Cream Bailey's

50 g chopped walnuts

Method:

Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar till creamy.

Add in the eggs, one at a time together with a little of the sifted flour and baking powder.

Mix 2 tbsp of the flour into the Bailey's soaked fruits to prevent them from sinking in the cake batter during baking.

Fold in the rest of the flour, together with the fruits and the nuts.

Pour batter into an 8" square cake pan.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 45 minutes. or till the skewer comes out clean of the cake.

Remove from oven and leave cake pan to cool on wire rack.

Cut cake when the cake is cooled or refridgerate cake before cutting.

Baked "BBQ" Chicken

2008-07-29T17:56:00.012+08:00

I have been collecting all the little packets of chilli and tomato sauces that came from our MacDonald's delivery orders. I adapted a BBQ chicken recipe to make use of these sauces. So here's sharing with you what I did .....

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken parts

1 tsp chopped garlic

2 tbsp ginger juice

3 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

4 packets of garlic chilli sauce

4 packets of tomato sauce

Method:

Marinade the chicken parts with all the ingredients above for at least an hour.

Place them on a lined baking sheet.

Bake the chicken parts in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for 30-40 minutes or till the chicken skin turns golden brown.

Baked Rice 2

2008-07-18T18:22:00.004+08:00

I had a tub of left over cooked rice and decided to do a baked rice with it. This recipe was easy cos' I used cooked rice instead of raw rice. It was good and dh also liked it.

Here's sharing with you what I did ......

Ingredients:

a tub of cooked rice enough to fill a 21 cm square corningware casserole
a tbsp of chopped garlic
3 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of light soya sauce

a packet of Kelly's garlic sausage, sliced
a packet of Fairprice honey baked ham, sliced
a packet of Italian Mozzarella cheese, shredded
a can of Campbell Cream of Mushroom soup

Method:

Heat up oil and fry garlic till fragrant.

Add in the sausage, ham and cooked rice and stir till well mixed.

Add in the tbsp of light soya sauce and stir well.

Scoop the rice mixture into the casserole.

Pour the canned soup into the frying pot and dilute the soup with a can of water.

Simmer the soup for about 2 mins.

Pour about half the soup onto the surface of the rice mixture in the casserole dish.

Sprinkle the shredded cheese on the surface of the rice mixture.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 30-40 mins or till the cheese browns.

Serve dish hot with a nice and refreshing salad.

Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry

2008-07-15T20:49:00.014+08:00

Over here is the final result of the Masak-masak challenge #3 organised at M4M Forum .
As I very seldom work with puff pastry, I had to do some research over the net to get an easy and workable recipe to bake with. This is the third time in my entire life handling puff pastry.

I baked the above to include the ingredients of puff pastry and a meat which is chicken here and also made a salad using canned peaches.
The salad is simply a bunch of Romaine lettuce, half a shredded carrot, a handful of chopped canned peaches and some chopped strawberries. The salad dressing is a combination of mayonnaise, honey mustard and relish with a tablespoon of honey.

Here's sharing with you the Chicken Pot Pie recipe.....

Ingredients and method:

One packet Sunshine Puff Pastry thawed out 2 hours before use.
Sprinkle some plain flour and roll out the puff pastry to 2 mm in thickness and then use the pie dish to trace out the surface. I managed to get 4 pieces and there were some extra left.

500 g fresh chicken thighs, cubed
Season this with half tsp salt , a tsp sugar, some pepper and a tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
Leave the chicken meat to marinade for about half an hour to an hour.

1 can of Campbell Mushroom soup
1 no. onion, chopped
1 small can of button mushroom, sliced
1 tbsp of garlic, chopped
1 cup of frozen mixed vegetable, thawed
3 tbsp of vegetable oil
3 nos. tomatoes, chopped

Heat up the oil and fry the onion and garlic till fragrant.

Add in the tomatoes and stir fry till all the tomatoes, soften.

Add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry them till 3/4 cooked.

Add in the canned soup and a little water, add in mushroom and mixed vegetables.

Simmer all the ingredients for about 5 minutes.

Scoop the pie ingredients into the pie dish.

Allow the pie ingredients to cool a little and then place a piece of the puff pastry over the pie dish.

Egg wash the surface of the puff pastry and then poke some holes on the surface using a fork or a knife.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for about 20 minutes or till the puff pastry turns a golden brown.

Remove and serve.

Taiwanese Kimchi

2008-07-05T00:00:00.002+08:00

I was blog surfing when I came across this kimchi. I was game to try making it cos' it seemed so easy to do and the ingredients were readily available. It's yummy and crunchy especially after a few days of refrigeration. The taste is simple and very asian.

Here's sharing with you the recipe ....

Ingredients (A)

half a medium size cucumber, shredded
1 no. red chilly, deseeded and julienned
half a medium size carrot, shredded
one quarter of a medium size white cabbage, shredded

Ingredients (B)

3 nos. cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp fried white sesame seeds ( I left this out)

Method:

Combine ingredients (A) and (B) and refrigerate for a day before eating.

Chilled Oreo Cheesecake

2008-07-04T20:37:00.003+08:00

Inspired by Hugbear in her blog when she made this I too went ahead to make one to celebrate my ds A's birthday. It turned out well and he liked it. The recipe is HERE .

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookie

2008-07-01T00:00:00.003+08:00

I attempted another challenge from Sweet and Simple Bakes and the recipe is from HERE .
This cookie is a winner in my home cos' my boys fell in love with it and couldn't keep their hands off the cooling tray. This is my first time baking such a dark chocolate cookie and I used some heart shape quinns to decorate them. It's a soft and sweet cookie. I believe I'll be baking this many times in the future :-)

Here's the ROUND-UP of these yummylicious cookies ....

Coleslaw

2008-06-28T23:40:00.002+08:00

Thanks to Sri who shared her take HERE on the perfect coleslaw I managed to adapt the recipe keeping the all important sauces shown here.
I used half a medium cabbage and one carrot to make the vegetable base and I used sunflower seeds and melon seeds instead of almond bits. The resultant coleslaw actually had almost a similar taste to the KFC coleslaw which I love but it's even better according to dh's opinion. I am happy and this recipe is defintely a keeper.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

2008-06-26T23:00:00.004+08:00

I found the recipe HERE and it was really good. My boys couldn't stop eating. The recipe uses the egg custard method to make a smoother and softer ice-cream. And they are asking me to make more LOL.
Here you can see my scoop of vanilla ice-cream sitting on top of my piece of banana cake and it has started melting away even as I was snapping the photo. It has really been hot these few days here.

Beef Bulgogi with Buna Shimeiji Mushroom

2008-06-23T00:00:00.003+08:00

I bought the frozen shabu-shabu beef slices from the supermarket and used the pre-mixed bulgogi sauce to cook this. Also added a packet of the buna shimeiji mushrooms to make the dish a little less meaty. It's a good and tasty dish which I would do again :-)

Banana Sourcream Cake

2008-06-22T15:52:00.003+08:00

Since I had a couple of large bananas overripening, I baked this for teatime. Oh I really love this cos' it's so moist and soft. I adapted the recipe from HERE and used a tub of sourcream for the bake.

Ingredients:

180 g salted butter
180 g caster sugar
3 nos. medium eggs
250 g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
100 g mashed bananas
1 tub Bulla sourcream

Method:

Cream butter and sugar till light , fluffy and creamy.

Add beaten eggs, mashed bananas and sourcream till all blended.

Add in the cake flour mixture with the baking powder and soda bicarbonate.

Pour the batter into a lined 8" round cake pan.

Decorate with sliced bananas if you like.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 60 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Homemade Yam Ice Cream

2008-06-21T00:00:00.003+08:00

I came across a blog Mike's Table organising a Frozen Dessert Challenge and decided to submit this entry.

Since I spotted yam being sold in the supermarkets these days, I decided to make yam ice-cream. This is also my dh's favourite ice cream flavour.
I was looking through many ice -cream recipes at IK and KC and finally gathered enough information to come out with this recipe which uses glucose syrup. I understand that this ingredient would help to make the ice-cream smooth and less icy. The sweetness of this ice-cream was also reduced so that my dad , being mildly diabetic could have a chance to eat it.

Ingredients:

300 g steamed, mashed yam
300 ml UHT milk
150 ml diary whipping cream
50 g caster sugar
3 tbsp glucose syrup
2 tsp yam essence paste

Method:

Process the yam in a blender with the milk and the whipping cream.

Pour the mixture into the freezer bowl of the ice-cream maker with the paddle running.

Add in the glucose syrup, sugar and the yam essence paste.

Allow the mixture to churn for about 30 minutes or till the mixture thickens considerably.

Transfer mixture into container and freeze overnight.

Click HERE for the round-up at Mike's Table.

Kong Bak Yam

2008-06-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

This is the week I bought 1 kg of yam and used one third of it to make this dish. The recipe was adapted from HERE at KC. I followed the recipe and did not use the spices knowing my family members are not fond of them. Dh, ds A and I enjoyed the dish as the yam made the fat pork belly less oily to taste.

Baked Shrimp Paste Chicken

2008-06-19T19:23:00.005+08:00

This is a variation of the Grilled Shrimp Paste Chicken I had done previously. It tastes just as good without the Crispy Fry Mix.

Ingredients:

1 kg frozen chicken thighs
4 tbsp shrimp paste powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp sesame oil

Method:

Mix all ingredients together and marinade chicken parts for an hour or more.
Lay out chicken parts on aluminium paper lined tray.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for 35-40 mins. or until chicken parts turn golden brown.

Masak-Masak Challenge 2

2008-06-16T19:12:00.000+08:00

This challenge came from the M4M Forum HERE

I've completed mine this evening for dinner ..... Cost of meal $ 14.70

Breakdown .....

Baked Shrimp Paste Chicken .... $ 6.00 (chicken $5 and Shrimp paste $1)
SF Green vege with garlic .. $ 1.30 (vege $1 and fresh garlic 0.30cts)
SF Ham and Eggs ..................... $ 3.90 (Ham $3 and 3 eggs $0.90cts)
Five bowls of white rice ............. $ 2.50 ($0.50cts per bowl)
2 Gala apples, sliced ................. $ 1.00 ($0.50cts each)
Total Cost of meal S$ 14.70

Flapjacks Again

2008-06-15T00:00:00.000+08:00

I baked the flapjacks again using the recipe HERE.
This time I halved the sugar to 50 g and used chopped apricots instead of cranberries.
I'm addicted to them again :0)

Oreo Buttercake

2008-06-14T00:00:00.002+08:00

This cake was baked for the Confirmation Camp participants to enjoy their supper with after their praying over. I used this RECIPE and then sprinkled into the batter half a packet of chopped oreos and another half a packet of chopped oreos for the decoration on the surface of the batter.

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

2008-06-13T00:00:00.006+08:00

I've ever made chocolate ice-cream before but it turned out icy-like and different from those that we buy in the tubs. This time round I managed to find a recipe from HERE and adapted it a little to make the steps simpler. Also there was talk about how good tasting homemade ice- cream is at the forum which I frequent that I was encouraged to try making it again using a different recipe.

In the previous ice-cream making attempt the eggless recipe resulted in an icy ice-cream. However this time round, the recipe required eggs and the ice-cream turned out smooth and milky. And of course I also had some help from my Kenwood Ice Cream Maker :0)

Thesevi

2008-06-12T00:00:00.000+08:00

This is one of our favourite haunt for roti prata. The roti prata has also shrunk considerably over the years but somehow we still patronise this place although not as often .
So on this night the whole family gathered here for dinner and surprisingly the crowd was thin and we had a breeze of a time ordering and enjoying our meal here.
We had the roti prata kosong with the curry chicken, chocolate prata, mee goreng, fried chicken, mutton ribs curry, bandung and milo dinosaur.

Bulgogi Chicken

2008-06-11T00:00:00.000+08:00

Dh and I visited Square 2 at Novena and chanced upon a shop that sold Korean goods, food stuffs and seasonings. I was looking through the shelves when I saw this bottle of seasoning. The lady who was packing the shelf recomended me to buy this as I saw the label stating it as Bulgogi sauce for chicken and beef.

After asking the lady how to use the sauce, it seemed very easy to do.
For about 500 g of chicken thigh meat, I used two tablespoon of the sauce and half a teaspoon of salt and marinaded the meat for about an hour. After that I stir-fried the meat with some freshly chopped garlic. Added a little water to ingredients to make the gravy too. I garnished the dish with some green onions.

The boys tried it and said it was good. It was also not too spicy although the label did say it was Spicy Bulgogi Marinade.

Cedele

2008-06-10T00:00:00.000+08:00

Dh and I spent my birthday treat at this place in Novena Square. Heard quite a bit about the walnut carrot cake and that all their cakes used raw and unrefined sugars as their ingredient.
So here I was with dh and we ordered the Spicy Moroccon Carrot soup and we had to take our bread from the bread bar. There was only the "focassia" looking one and half a bagel. The bread was hard and really nothing to shout about. As for the Walnut Carrot cake .... I must say it was good and I won't mind eating it again.

Hock Lam Beef

2008-06-09T22:45:00.003+08:00

Dh, ds A and I visited the branch at Upper Serangoon one Sunday evening to have our dinner there. We ordered the dry beef noodles, the soup with beef balls and the noodles and another dish with the mixed beef noodles which had the tendons included.
I preferred the soup version to the dry version and also the lean meat to the mixed meat. On the whole, it was a good meal and of course we would go back there again. What made the evening meal special was that ds A joined us for the meal and it was one of those rare and special time with him alone without his siblings.

Flapjacks

2008-06-01T01:00:00.009+08:00

I knew of this challenge at Sweet and Simple Bakes.

Since I have most of the ingredients ready in my cupboard I baked this without really knowing how it would turn out. I followed the recipe ... as close as possible. I used brown sugar instead of demerera sugar. Since I only had 200g of butter, I added in another 50 g of margarine as I ran out of butter. The result was a very sweet, chewy and oily kind of granola bar. I used a bitter chocolate ganache to offset the sweetness and also to decorate the top.

When cutting the flapjacks into squares, I had a terrible time trying to remove the pieces from the paper lining. I must have used the wrong paper for baking...sigh! As a result my flapjack pieces became distorted squares with the rolled oats practically falling out from the inside while I cut ... LOL.
Taste and texturewise, I need to eat a couple more pieces before I would really grow to like it LOL.

I've eaten a slice after the batch cooled down and refrigerated the rest to be eaten for the next couple of days. I must say now I like to eat them cold from the fridge because the slice gave a chewy texture without it being too oily. I must say they are addictive. I'm glad I took part in this challenge cos' now I'm into thinking of the number of variations I can use to bake flapjacks again :-)

Here's the ROUND-UP.

Ds J's Birthday Cake

2008-05-23T16:43:00.009+08:00

Ds J will be celebrating his birthday this coming Monday. I had discussed with him the kind of cake he wanted.We came up with this Chocolate Creamcheese Cake covered with buttercream icing and had created the Patapon pics and wordings together using the Paint software. This PSP game is his favourite for now.

I had to order from Z the icing image specially made and collected it a week before. This piece of icing image cost me $10. Ds J was especially excited when he saw how the cake turned out in front of his eyes.

This is one of the easiest decorated birthday cake I ever made. Now will have to wait till Monday for the taste test with his cousins and grand parents.

Osmanthus Cake

2008-05-22T14:04:00.003+08:00

This is the Imperial Osmanthus Cake which J created as her signature dish at Imperial Kitchen.
It's a cooling kind of jelly cake using water chestnut flour and osmanthus flower which gives the jelly cake it's distinctive flavour. However the osmanthus fragrance and flavour is an acquired one. When I first tasted this cake I liked it straight away, however my dd refused to taste it saying she didn't like the smell. LOL. I'm not sharing the recipe here as J is selling it.

Chinatown Food Complex

2008-05-12T14:12:00.009+08:00

The food stalls at the Chinatown Food Complex are back. Dh and I paid a visit to our favourite food stalls on Sunday and it was crowded as usual. The place had been thoroughly renovated and it seemed to have many more tables than previously. Gosh .... I definitely would not be comfortable walking with my tray of food over people's heads.

So here's introducing our favourite stall where we ordered fish slice soup noodle without fail whenever we visited the stall. They seemed to have changed their stall name too! It used to be call Chen Ji if I remembered correctly. Dh said that he recognised that it's the same people manning the stall even though the name was changed. I would rate their fish slice soup noodle better than the one at Ka-Soh LOL. We also ordered their Cereal Prawns and of course it's yummy.

For dessert we had Ah-Balling from this stall here .... we could see him making them at the stall using the different fillings he had displayed at the stall. The plain soup base had a very strong fragrance of pandan. The ah-balling was soft and the fillings were not too sweet. A bowl of five different pieces of ah-balling cost $2.50 .

Happy Mothers' Day!

2008-05-10T22:23:00.006+08:00

Mothers' Day Celebration has been happening since last week. Dh had given an Adam Cheng Concert Treat to his mum and elder sister, my mum and my dad too. And he surprised me this week with this ....

Well this little robot has been working quite a bit for the last couple of days and the floors are definitely less dusty. My poor back which was acting up again had quite a bit of rest too LOL. Now dh is asking me if I want a robomop too ;-)

Wishing all mothers who read my blog ..... to have a Happy Mothers' Day too!

Ka-Soh

2008-05-05T23:15:00.002+08:00

This particular zi char place is in Amoy Street and is famous for it's fish head noodles. We were there for dinner early before six pm and managed to get a table quite easily. We ordered the fish slice noodle, prawn paste chicken, stir-fry chilli kang kong vegetable and a pot of chrysanthemum tea. The bill came up to about $50 for two persons. The place has quite a bit of history and the walls were decorated with yellowing photos of HK stars who ate at the place.

The lady who served us spoke Cantonese and naturally we replied in the dialect too. She thought that we were tourists from HK LOL.

Singapore Flyer and Kokon Tozai

2008-05-05T21:58:00.005+08:00

Had the chance to visit one of the newest attraction on this sunny island. The three of us went there during off peak hours on a weekday and it was a breeze to ride this. We shared the capsule with one other family and the ride was absolutely captivating; capturing the Singapore skyline at such a height. The air-conditioned capsule helped to cool down the sizzling heat of the afternoon and towards the end of the ride after the initial high I suddenly have the urge to fall asleep. LOL
I must blame this sleepiness on the carbohydrate effect that I had after the sugar high tea I took just before the ride, the cool air-conditioning and the half an hour of distant staring into calming seas and peaceful greenery of the surrounding views.

This Japanese cafe is hidden from view and is situated right inside the Japanese fashion shop that is in the building of the Singapore Flyer. The shop sells kimonos and high quality T-shirts and fashion accessories and handbags made of kimono material. They were really beautiful. I didn't dare to take any photos cos' there was a sign that said "No photography allowed".

We ordered a piece of chocolate fudge cake, a chocolate cheese cake and two white coffee.
$16 for two sets of tea-time yummies ..... We just ate up and drank up everything LOL.
Dd was given a cup of hot chocolate FOC.

Rosemary Garlic Lemon Roast Chicken Thighs

2008-05-01T20:53:00.008+08:00

I got the recipe somewhere from the net and had been searching for it for half an hour. I can't seem to find it to provide the link ... Will provide the link when I am able to find it at a later date.
Yes, I've found the link and it's here .....
http://www.cuisine-asia.com/master_class/MASTER080121.asp

It's a recipe that resulted in a tangy lemony flavoured roast chicken. I liked the flavours cos' it's quite refreshing to taste a chicken with tangy flavours. I adapted it a little by adding in a tablespoonful of honey cos' I couldn't accept the fact that this recipe didn't have any sugars in it.

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thighs
3-4 springs of rosemary herbs from Cold Storage (use the leaves)
2 whole garlic bulbs, with skin, smashed
2 lemons, sliced into 8 pieces
2 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Wash and place chicken thighs in a roasting pan.

Add in all the above ingredients and mix them well with the chicken parts.

Arrange the chicken parts with the lemon pieces in between them.

Pre-heat oven to 220 degree C and place chicken in the pan to roast for about 30 mins.
Then turn down temperature to 200 degree C to continue roasting for another 30 mins.

Once the chicken skin turned nicely browned the dish is ready. Reserve some of the gravy to drizzle on the chicken before serving.

Serve dish with salad or white rice or mash potatoes.

A Very Handy and Useful Food Guide

2008-04-28T13:41:00.005+08:00

I got the information below from a friend who emailed me. Thanks a million friend ;-)

Here is something to share with all Food Lovers. You can plan where to have your makan outing with this comprehensive and informative web site. The Internet "Best Food Guide" is a site that gathers all the best, delicious and tasty food which are all favoured by Singaporean foodie fans. It will help you to navigate your makan trips via 5 different regions.Here is your chance to search and try out all various food to fulfill your appetite. Do enjoy your meal and remember to tell your friends, colleagues and relatives about this Food Paradise Web Site.
Click on the area you want to view for the food outlet.

http://www.sbestfood.com/

Shokudo

2008-04-26T23:03:00.003+08:00

Three of us went down to Raffles City Shopping Centre to visit Shokudo today. It's a Japanese food bazaar following the concept of Marche. We went there with the intention of sampling the creepe there cos' dd had the cravings for creepe.
The verdict .... she still preferred the creepe at Marche.

Of course dh and I had our lunch there. We ordered yakitori, pizza, tempura, miso beef stew and orcha. The bill came out to be almost $50 for the three of us. After that I had the most unquenchable thirst for the entire afternoon. Dh also felt it. Looked like the food we ate had been given a too generous helping of MSG by the cooks. If we go back there we would try eating something else.

Bulgogi Beef Flank

2008-04-25T20:47:00.002+08:00

I discovered a new range of Korean seasonings from Asian Home Gourmet at the supermarket recently. I picked this up and cooked the evening meal with it. It's good and I will be buying a few more packets to try the seasoning with chicken and pork too.

Playdate April 08

2008-04-24T17:57:00.003+08:00

It was on a Friday when dd's kindy had no class because the K1 children were having an excursion. Dd had been bugging me to let her play with her friends in class. So I came upon this idea of a playdate and let dd invite about eight of her friends to the house to play. Eight invitations were handed out and four of her friends responded to the invitation. Her friends were pretty excited cos' they kept telephoning each other to talk about it.

On the actual day, I prepared a simple lunch of fried rice with egg and sausage, chicken nuggets, fried fish balls, kaya sandwiches and cut apples for the group. The children played with the dolls, played dressing up, did some drawings on their own, played cooking with the kitchen sets and plastic foods and decorated chocochip cookies with quinns.

I'm sure they all enjoyed their time here and dd was sad when it was time for her friends to go home. It was also a good time to make the aquaintance of her friends' mums. And of course dd was asking when will be her next playdate with her friends.

Pepper Lunch

2008-04-24T17:33:00.002+08:00

Last weekend, the family ate at the boys' favourite joint. Cut Combo Steak, Pepper Steak, Pasta Bolognaise and Kurumitsu ice cream will always be on our order list. If ds B came with us, he will definitely order the Teriyaki Chicken Steak as well.

I love to eat the pasta here because my pasta keeps warm up till the very last strand when the linguine is slurpped up LOL.

Chocolate Creamcheese Cake with Choco Ganache

2008-04-15T11:09:00.003+08:00

Baked and decorated this for my younger brother. He loves all things chocolate. I forgot that the cake should be flat for decoration and happily left it dome shaped with all the fissures there when I poured the chocolate ganache over....sigh. I think I need more practise decorating cakes again.

BBQ Eat Out

2008-04-13T23:30:00.002+08:00

Dh and I had the chance to have a dinner date at our favourite coffeeshop tonight. From our usual BBQ stall we ordered the big angka prawns and the sole fish this time. Both were BBQ with the chilli and sambal paste. We ate them with white rice and the chinchalok chilli sauce. Topped the dinner off with a cup of kopi for dh and hot chrysanthenum tea for myself.

Tempra Chicken

2008-04-13T21:41:00.003+08:00

This recipe was shared by Sylvia Tan and was published in the Straits Times in the Eat To Live Section. I've cooked it twice already cos' it's very easy to do. I used most of the ingredients but left out the kaffir lime leaves. I also liked to marinade my meats for an hour before cooking them. The first time I used the black soya sauce and the chicken dish came out a tad too dark for my family's liking. Somehow my boys don't seem to think that black soya sauce on chicken is palatable ....sigh. The second time I cooked it, I used light soya sauce to marinade the meat with a little black soya sauce and the dish came out looking sort of golden in color. This time they tugged in heartily to the chicken LOL.

Meal at Ikea Tampines

2008-04-12T15:44:00.003+08:00

At this stage in my life, I find it difficult daily to gather everyone together even for a simple home cook meal. The very reason being that dh works till way past dinner time and by the time he comes home it would be past 10 pm. So on this particular Saturday, we all made an effort to have lunch together at Ikea Tampines.

Here's sharing some of our favourite food .....

Cranberry Sourcream Loaf

2008-04-11T22:12:00.005+08:00

Another soft and moist loaf using sourcream. I plumed up the dried cranberries by soaking them in Irish Cream Bailey's for about an hour before loading them into the mixture with the rest of the ingredients. The cranberries gave the extra zing to the loaf.

Ingredients:

300 g unsalted butter, soften
200 g caster sugar
3 nos. eggs, beaten
300 g plain flour
one and a half tsp baking powder
one quater tsp baking soda
75 g UHT milk
150 g dried cranberries soaked in 5 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
one tub sour cream (200 mls)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degree C and line two loaf pans ( 8"x4"x2").
Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the sourcream and mix till well blended.
Add in the sifted flour mixture and the beaten eggs and milk together in three portions.
Add in the soaked cranberries and the Irish Cream Bailey's.
When the mixture is well blended pour the batter into the loaf pans.
Bake for 55 minutes or till skewer inserted comes out clean.
Remove loaf pans from oven and cool them for about half an hour before removing loaf.
Cool loaf completely before storing.
Refridgerate loaves before cutting them.

Have A Very Happy Easter Day!

2008-03-23T21:09:00.002+08:00

Wishing one and all ..... may this Easter season give you new beginnings and blessings!

Seder Meal

2008-03-20T23:25:00.006+08:00

This is the second time I have prepared this meal for the family on Maundy Thursday to celebrate the Passover meal which was and is still being traditionally celebrated by the Jewish community. As it is the season of Lent, I try to share with the family some of the Faith traditions and hopefully we learn to deepen our Faith and knowledge in the process.

We shared the reading from the Bible and as we ate the meal, I explained the symbolism of each items in the meal.

You may want to refer to this link for more information .....

http://www.catholicculture.org/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1038

Butterfly Cookies

2008-03-20T23:04:00.004+08:00

Baked and decorated these butterfly cookies for dd's classmates to celebrate Easter. The recipe was gotten from the Straits Times shared by Sylvia Kang for Mind Your Body. The recipe is true to what the article suggested .... High in flavour, low in sugar :-)

Ingredients:

100 g unsalted butter, soften
50 g icing sugar
150 g plain flour
100 g corn flour
2 pinches of salt
orange zest, finely chopped
lemon zest, finely chopped
6 tbsp UHT milk

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 175 degree C.
Cream butter and icing sugar together till light and creamy.
Fold in the rest of the ingredients and mix well till a dough is formed.
Cling wrapped the dough and place in the fridge for about an hour.
Roll the dough out between two pieces of cling wrap to about 3 mm thin with a rolling pin.
Cut out the desired butterfly shapes and place them on the silicon paper lining the cookie sheets.
Bake them for about 20 minutes.
Cool the cookies completely before decorating them with colored icing.

Colored Icing for decorating cookies.

1 no. egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 to 2 tsp lemon juice

Stir all the above ingredients till well blended.
Divide the icing into different portions and add in a drop of food coloring.

MeMe 2

2008-03-09T12:37:00.008+08:00

I've been tagged by two fellow bloggers to do this.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
My ds J

2. What were you doing at 0800?
I just woke up and looked at the clock.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
I was up dating my bloggie.

4. What happened to you in 2006?
I started this bloggie.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
Urggggg .....

6. How many beverages did you have today?
So far .... one cup of coffee and 2 cups of plain water.

7. What color is your hairbrush?
Black.

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
Roti Prata for last night's dinner.

9. Where were you last night?
Having dinner with ds A and dh at a coffee shop near my house.

10. What color is your front door?
Brown.

11. Where do you keep your change?
In my wallet.

12. What’s the weather like today?
Fair and cloudy on a Sunday morning.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
Ben & Jerry's Strawberry.

14. What excites you?
Food pictures.

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Yes.

16. Are you over the age of 25?
Yes.

17. Do you talk a lot?
No, I'm rather reticent.

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
Not any more.

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
Yes.

20. Do you make up your own words?
No.

21. Are you a jealous person?
No.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
Angela.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
Katherine.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
I do not have such a list.

25. What does the last text message you received say?
"How are you?"

26. Do you chew on your straw?
No.

27. Do you have curly hair?
No.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
St .Anne's Church for Mass.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
I can't recall.

30. What was the last thing you ate?
Hotcakes sausage for breakfast this morning.

31. Will you get married in the future?
I have been booked for life :-)

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
I haven't been to the movies for ages. Watching from mysoju.com counts?

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
Like my friends.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
This morning.

35. Are you currently depressed?
No.

36. Did you cry today?
No.

37. Why did you answer and post this?
rei & kwf ...my blogger friends tagged me.

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.
Since the blogs that I usually read have already been tagged, I'll just tag 3 persons.

http://aimummy.blogspot.com/2008/03/nurse-cookies.html
http://jthorge.blogspot.com/
http://feedmyworld-sri.blogspot.com/

Chocolate Sourcream Loaf

2008-03-09T11:41:00.006+08:00

I noticed that when a cake uses sourcream as one of the ingredients, the cake tends to have a rather moist interior. So here I adapted the recipe for the Chocolate Loaf using the previous recipe of the Lavender Loaf. I have no regrets as the chocolate loaf turned out to be moist. I even topped a slice of the cake with lemon glaze and lemon zest when eating it. This gave the chocolate slice a zing to the tangy taste of the lemon glaze.

Here's sharing with you what I did ......

Ingredients:

240 g plain flour
60 g Varlhona dark chocolate powder
1 tsp baking powder
half tsp baking soda
220 g salted butter (Golden Churn brand)
220 g caster sugar
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey
4 eggs, beaten
1 tub sour cream (200 mls)
quarter cup UHT milk

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C and line two loaf pans (8"x4"x2").
Sieve the flour,chocolate powder, baking powder and baking soda together.
Beat the eggs and add in the salt and Irish Cream Bailey.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the sour cream and stir till well mixed.
Add in the flour, egg mixture and milk in three portions and mix till well blended.
Portion the batter into the two loaf pans and bake for 55 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.
Cool loaves on a rack and remove cakes from pan to cool completely.
Drizzle the lemon glaze icing over the cooled loaf and sprinkle some lemon zest on top of the loaf.

Lemon glaze

3 tbsp of lemon juice
3/4 cup icing sugar
Stir the above two ingredients till well blended.

Grilled Chicken In Fish Sauce

2008-03-04T23:29:00.004+08:00

This was what I did with my bottle of fish sauce .....

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken parts

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp sesame oil

3 dashes of white pepper

1 tbsp chinese wine

Method:

Marinade the chicken parts with all of the above ingredients for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven at 200 degree C and bake the chicken parts for about 35 minutes or until the chicken skin has a golden brown color.

Drizzle some of the baked gravy on the chicken parts after dishing out the chicken parts on a plate.

Stew Pork with Dried Mandarin Orange Peel

2008-03-04T23:15:00.005+08:00

Ingredients:

500 g twee bak (with pork skin trimmed away)
1 piece of dried orange peel (broken into smaller pieces)
1 piece star aniseed
1 tsp szechuan peppercorns
2 slices ginger, juliened
2 tbsp corn oil
4 tbsp chinese wine
half tsp salt
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
a dash of white pepper
200 mls hot water

Method:

Cut the pork into cubes.
Heat up a heavy base pot with the oil and fry the ginger slices till fragrant.
Add in the pork and wine and stir- fry for about 3 minutes.
Add in the rest of the seasonings and then the water and let the pot boil for about 5 minutes.
Cover the pot and turn down the heat and simmer the ingredients for about an hour.
Stir the ingredients in between simmering.
When the meat has softened, the dish is ready to be served.

Lavender Loaf

2008-03-04T23:08:00.007+08:00

Baked this over last weekend. It has the texture of butter cake with the fragrance of lavender. The loaf tasted even better when a slice of the cake was eaten with the sugar lemon glaze and lemon zest sprinkled over the slice.

Before baking this cake I had prepared lavender sugar and lavender icing sugar about a week in advance. I just sprinkled a tsp of the lavender flowers into each of the red cap cookie plastic bottles which I stored the sugars. This is to allow the lavender fragrance to infuse into the sugars. I used these sugars to bake the loaf and make the icing glaze.

Ingredient:

300 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
half tsp baking soda
half tsp salt
1 tsp dried lavender flowers
220 g unsalted butter
200 g lavender caster sugar
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey
4 eggs, beaten
1 tub sour cream (200 mls)
quarter cup UHT milk

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C and line two loaf pans (8"x4"x2").
Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
Beat the eggs and add in the salt and Irish Cream Bailey.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the sour cream and stir till well mixed.
Add in the flour, egg mixture and milk in three portions and mix till well blended.
Stir in the tsp of dried lavender flowers.
Portion the batter into the two loaf pans and bake for 55 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.
Cool loaves on a rack and remove cakes from pan to cool completely.
Drizzle the lemon glaze icing over the cooled loaf and sprinkle some lemon zest on top of the loaf.

Lavender lemon glaze
3 tbsp of lemon juice
3/4 cup lavender icing sugar

Stir the above two ingredients till well blended.
You may want to add a little purple color to make lavender color glaze.

Shrimp Wanton

2008-03-04T23:02:00.001+08:00

This is what I depend on when I run out of soup or when I need a dish on no meat days. It's very easy to do. I just need to boil about 500 mls of water and when it boils I'll just dump in the 12 shrimp wantons together with the seasonings provided in the box.. When the wanton wraps become transparent, the dish is done and I'll just add in a teaspoon of sesame oil and sprinkle some fried shallots or fresh green onions. It's actually quite yummy if you don't mind eating frozen shrimps.

Hua Tan Zhi Ke Cha

2008-02-27T18:02:00.002+08:00

Dh came back from Japan and had been coughing badly for more than a week already. He had seen the GP thrice, taken antibiotics, cough mixtures, anti-phlegm medicine, lozenges and all of them don't seem to give him any immediate relief. The cough is really bad ... when he coughs it's as though he is coughing his lungs out and sometimes he retches out all that he had for lunch or dinner which is also not much.

I had a chat with the GP and she said that the kind of viral infection that's going around seems to be another kind that takes a longer time for the body to recover from. Also as we age our immunity is also taking a beating. So it seems the body will also take a longer time to heal.

Since dh's appetite is so poor, I had to cook soups for him. So here I chanced upon this chinese herb soup from Chwee Song which was good for clearing phlegm and for relieving persistent coughs. All I had to do was to empty the entire contents of the package into 500 mls of boiling water and simmer for about an hour to get the soothing soup out. Give it a pinch of salt and dh readily drinks this to get some relief from his wretched cough. I've made this many times now.

Dh is on his way to recovery as I can hear he is coughing less. I'm sure by the end of this week he will be well again.

Chocolate Dates With Almond

2008-02-27T17:46:00.003+08:00

J called me one evening and told me that she was going to send some dates from Dubai over for me to try.
So here they are delivered to me in a white package. I am happy dancing now because I've never tried this kind of dates before. It's a date covered with chocolate and it also had an almond embeded in it. The sweetness of the chocolate and the date together is quite overwhelming but the almond nut and the flesh of the date together gives an interesting texture. If they had used bitter chocolate instead of milk chocolate to cover the date .... it would have been perfect.
Thanks J for sharing them with me :-)

Valentine's Day Cake

2008-02-27T17:39:00.004+08:00

I baked this simple buttercake for dh before he left for his overseas assignment on Valentine's Day itself. It's his favourite recipe :-) As he was fighting a flu before he left we kept the celebration simple as in just gathering the family together to eat the cake before he left for the airport.

Flowers to brighten your day :-)

2008-02-16T10:01:00.005+08:00

I braved the busy flying bees to take this shot at the flower show at Sentosa. I was so afraid that one of them might sting me while I took a shot. Luckily I got away with this precious moment and went away unscathed.

I love looking at fresh flowers. They really can do wonders at lifting my mood up.

I took more pics and had saved them in the slideshow below. They all look so beautiful naturally under the strong sunlight that afternoon. I hope they do wonders to your mood too :-) Enjoy!

http://cecsum03.multiply.com/photos/slideshow2/2

Friendship Ball

2008-02-15T19:49:00.008+08:00

I got a friendship ball from E sometime ago. Thanks E for this! I know it's not easy to form friendship and maintain the relationship. It has to go both ways I guess. I only got to know E through the cyberworld and met her a couple of times too. She's a very energetic lady, very intense and passionate about what she does with her cooking, baking and her family and friends.
I on the other hand am very laid back and very lazy in the way I make friends and maintain my relationships LOL Maybe there's still hope for me to make more friends once I get my lazy butt off the couch LOL. So now I will pass this ball to some of my blogger friends. It is in these blogs that I read about what they cooked and baked for their families and friends and also shared their recipes so generously.

http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/
http://www.hutofcranberry.blogspot.com/
http://jthorge.blogspot.com/
http://eastmeetswestkitchen.blogspot.com/

Marche at Vivocity

2008-02-15T19:31:00.002+08:00

Dd had been bugging us for sometime to eat her chocolate crepe at Marche. We promised dd that we would visit Marche at Vivocity again to eat her favourite crepe after we visited Sentosa to see the flowers.
So here we ordered her chocolate crepe and dh and I shared a bowl of calamari for tea time. It was here too I drank a gigantic cup of coffee ... my first time seeing such a huge cup of coffee LOL. I like the eating experience here on a lazy afternoon too when it's not the lunch time crowd.
Now I wonder where can I get chocolate crepe besides at Marche. Would really appreciate it if some kind soul would let me know :-)

Chicken in Sesame Oil

2008-02-11T21:45:00.000+08:00

Sharing this lovely and yummy recipe here taken from The Chinese Pregnancy & Confinement Cookbook by Ng Siong Mui.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken parts, seasoned with some salt

50 g old ginger, sliced

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp chinese rice wine

Method

Heat the sesame oil in a wok.

Fry ginger slices till fragrant.

Put in chicken parts and stir- fry for a couple of minutes.

Cover wok and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add in the chinese rice wine and stir-fry for another couple of minutes till the chicken is done.

Munchy Donuts

2008-02-11T21:37:00.003+08:00

Had this during the weekend. They look so good and taste just as good too. This must be the third time I bought this from the Hougang Mall Stall. Prices have also gone up by 30%
One of these donuts used to cost a dollar and now I have to pay $1.30
For a dollar thirty I can buy a loaf of bread to eat for three breakfasts LOL.

Chocolate Butter Cake

2008-02-11T21:31:00.002+08:00

I received this recipe from a friend and adapted it to make a more moist cake. It's a good recipe if you like the butter cake kind of texture. Here's sharing it with you .....

Ingredients

250 g butter, softened
200 g caster sugar
4 nos. large eggs ( or 5 nos. medium size)
2 tbsp Irish cream of Bailey's
120 mls UHT milk
60 g Valhorna Chocolate/cocoa Powder
150 g Self Raising flour

Method

Sieve together the flour and the cocoa powder. Set aside.

Line a 9" round cake tin with greased proof paper.

Pre-heat oven at 180 degree C.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in beaten eggs with Irish Cream and milk, a portion at a time.

Add in the sifted flour cocoa mixture, a portion at a time.

Stir till all mixtures are well blended.

Bake for 50 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake on wire rack and cool completely before cutting up and storing.

Reunion 2 CNY 2008

2008-02-11T19:56:00.001+08:00

Reunion 2 was at my MIL's place. She cooked all her children's favourite food. I contributed my share of Baked curry chicken wings and the Blueberry cake with crunchy nut topping.

My BIL bought duck and SIL bought roast pork. MIL cooked mushroom, beef, steamed white chicken, battered prawns, fried Ngoh Hiang and watercress soup.

I've always preferred this way for family gatherings with everyone contributing something to the lovingly prepared home cooked meal.

Xing Nian Kuai Le !

2008-02-11T19:39:00.000+08:00

Wishing all who read my blog to have happy CNY celebrations!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wan Shi Ru Yi

Nian Nian You Yu

Long Ma Jing Shen

And for those who do business ......

Shen Yi Xing Long

You Shui Duo Duo

Jin Yin Man Wu

Man Di Huang Jin

Reunion 1 CNY 2008

2008-02-11T19:20:00.000+08:00

We had the first reunion dinner at Wah Lok at Carlton Hotel. It is a classy restaurant that served Cantonese food. Eversince mum had her fall last year, she had no confidence of cooking anymore. Her mental strength needed quite a bit of a work out. So it was decided that we would eat out this year to give her her chance to get out of the house.

So here you see some of the dishes that were served. The bill came up to a whopping $600!

These were the dishes from a set menu we ordered.

Actually I would have preferred to eat at home or to eat at our favourite Zi Char stall in Hougang LOL.

Chinatown CNY Grabs

2008-01-31T21:58:00.000+08:00

Dh made a date with his mum to help her with a CNY shopping. They made a trip to Chinatown and also to this shop named Tai Chong Kok. For the last couple of years we had been buying the nian gao from this shop. Dh also bought the pineapple tarts from the same shop.
From the street hawkers dh bought two sets of CNY decorations , some traditional coconut candy strips and sugared water chestnut sweets.

Lavender Cookies Galore

2008-01-31T21:44:00.000+08:00

This year I got orders from my dear brother for sixteen bottles of Lavender Cookies. I had no idea how much baking I needed to do. On top of this order I also had to do my own baking for family and friends. My small table top oven could only bake twelve cookies at a go. After many, many hours and also many kilograms of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and lavender flowers I realised the life of a home baker with a small oven is really tough work LOL. Up till this point, I still have not completed my baking yet ...haiz.
Well to look on the positive side, I still have another weekend to complete the baking and then I'll rest for the rest of the year till near Christmas LOL

Wu Xiang (Ngoh hiang)

2008-01-31T18:56:00.000+08:00

I was watching a segment of a programme when this caught my attention, the name Lao Zhong Zhong ... a famous wu xiang stall at Macpherson. The stall is in the coffee shop also named Lao Zhong Zong. It is next to Siang Kuang Avenue. Although I've come across this famous wu xiang stall several times on tv, I've yet to taste the wu xiang there. So finally during one of the rare mornings when dh was home, I made a lunch date with him to eat at this stall.

Wu Xiang is actually minced meat mixed with different vegetables and seasoned using five spice powder and other spices. The minced meat vegetable mixture is then wrapped in bean skin and then deep fried in hot oil. The outcome is a crispy and tasty fragrant roll.

This particular stall owner makes his own 14 varieties of wu xiang every day. You can see some of the varieties of wu xiang that we ate and they tasted good. The chilli sauce that went with it also had a unique taste. Dh also commented that he liked eating the wu xiang here even though the chilli sauce was a bit too hot for him. We will defintely eat wu xiang from this stall again.
:-)0000

Carrot, Maize and Tomato Soup

2008-01-18T21:14:00.000+08:00

This soup is another of my dd's favourite.
Using 500 g of meat to 1.2 litres of water, I just added 2 nos. tomatoes, quartered ; 1 no. carrot, 1 no. maize and a handful of kei chi with 4 slices of ginger and simmer the pot of ingredients for about 2 hours. Season with a little salt and it tastes yummy.
She even loves eating the meat when they are dipped in black sauce.

Blueberry Cake with Crunchy Topping

2008-01-18T21:03:00.003+08:00

I baked this for my dad's birthday. The recipe was from Cindy's Kitchen published in The Straits Times sometime in November 2007.
It is a good and wholesome cake with fresh blueberry fruits and a macadamia nut topping.
I would definitely bake this again.

Here's sharing with you the recipe I adapted from Cindy's Kitchen ....

Ingredients and Method

Crunchy Topping
130 g flour
100 g brown sugar
100 g unsalted butter, chopped
100 g macadamia nuts, chopped.

Prepare the crunchy topping first by rubbing together the flour , butter and sugar till they look like coarse bread crumbs.

Lastly add in the chopped nuts and stir till they are well mixed.

Cake Layer
130 g unsalted butter, softened
130 g caster sugar
2 nos. eggs, beaten
1 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
250 g self-raising flour
120 mls UHT milk
one and a half packets fresh/frozen blueberries

Pre-heat oven at 180 degree C.
Line a 9 inch baking pan.
Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the beaten eggs, Irish Cream and milk in three portions.
Stir in the flour in three portions too till the mixture is well mixed.
Pour batter into the baking pan and place the blueberries on top of the batter.
Place the crunchy topping over the blueberries.
Bake the cake for 50 minutes or till inserted skewer comes out clean.
Remove cake from baking pan and completely cool before cutting and storing.

Spreader of Love Award

2008-01-17T11:32:00.000+08:00

This came as a surprise and timely for me. I was losing my mojo to blog since the preparations for christmas gatherings.Fighting tiredness and also running a fever for almost a week and then after that trying to recover from a wretching cough, I almost wanted to take a permanent break from my blog.
Thanks to precious moments this award became a motivation for me to continue posting in my blog again.

I guess many of us somehow will come to this stage at one time or another. Sometimes an encouraging comment at the right time will surely lift the spirits up. I remember that I blog to leave this legacy behind so I will continue as much as I can.

Thanks E for sending me this award.

And I will pass this award to clumsy pig. A fellow blogger whom I've met a couple of times during IK gatherings.S bakes and spreads her love for baking to her families and friends.

Beef in Red Wine

2007-12-29T23:15:00.000+08:00

I remember watching David Rocco's Viva Dolce when he shared this recipe in the programme. It seemed so easy to make. Just need to add lots of purple onions with garlic and then season the red meat with pepper and salt and stew the whole pot with a whole bottle of red wine called Chianti for about 2 hours.

I found Chianti a bit too expensive for me and decided to get what you see here based on the recomendation of the promoter at Giant.

By the time the dish was ready I had dh to do the taste test. He took one look at the dish and commented, "Why is the meat purplish black in color? Gosh ...are you going to serve this for our gathering? Maybe you better not serve this." Calmly , I said, "What about the taste? You think it's passable?" He replied in half jest, " If I close my eyes to eat, it's actually quite good if you like the red wine taste." What went on inside my head was what a waste it would be to throw away a whole kilogram of beef chunks after spending so much effort to cook the dish.

So what you see in the photo was my attempt to make the color of the dish more appealing by adding in the colored peppers after frying them with garlic. The verdict at the gathering was... some liked it and some did not. So I guess, the taste of red wine is an acquired taste. I think it's better to cook this dish with Carlsberg beer instead since my family hardly drink red wine.

Dd's Birthday Cake

2007-12-29T22:53:00.000+08:00

I did this using the vanilla cupcake recipe from IK and frosted the cupcakes with buttercream.
Must say that there's still a lot of room for improvement for the whole works.
My dd loved them even though the cuppies were half baked LOL
I'm still wondering what went wrong that day when I baked the cuppies.

Almond Cranberry Walnut Qbread

2007-12-29T22:51:00.000+08:00

I baked this quickbread recipe too as a gift during Christmas. Here's sharing with you what I did ....

Ingredients:

250 g butter
200 g sugar
3 nos. eggs, beaten
200 g AP flour
100 g ground almond
2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp evaporated milk
100 g dried cranberries soaked in 2 tbsp Bailey's
100 g walnuts, chopped

Method:

Cream soften butter and sugar together till white and fluffy.

Add in the beaten eggs and stir in the flour, ground almond and baking powder.

Mix till well blended and then add in the milk and the cranberries and the nuts.

Batter can be spooned off into 4 aluminium loaf pans and baked in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 40 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Blueberry Orange Oats Qbread

2007-12-29T22:45:00.000+08:00

This was one of the three quickbreads that I baked as a gift.

Dry Ingredients:
206 g AP flour
40 g quick cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
200 g caster sugar

Wet Ingredients:
120 ml orange juice and zest (2 large oranges)
120 ml vegetable oil
2 nos. eggs, beaten

Fold into batter 140 g fresh/frozen blueberries

Topping: 2 tsp caster sugar + 2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Pour all the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Stir till they are well blended.

There's enough batter to fill up to 4 aluminium loaf tins till 1/2 way.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 45 mins or till skewer comes out clean.

IK Gathering Dec 07

2007-12-29T22:11:00.000+08:00

This time round we had a small group gathering at the newest joint at Keong Saik Rd ....
25 Degree Celsius Pte Ltd .... a joint that sells fusion food and cook books too!
I had a good time there chilling out with the regulars and new members too. Vi from the US and Chin from Australia joined us.
After doing so much cooking and baking during the week before Christmas, it was really good to just sit back and relax and enjoy the food the joint cooked LOL

Here's sharing with you the gals and the food there .....

Some of the main courses that were eaten .....

The yummy desserts ......

The gals ..... and a gentleman and a pre-teen :-)

My Gifts of Quickbreads

2007-12-26T22:22:00.001+08:00

My gifts of qbread this year for my sil, mil, aunties, uncles, tuition teachers and friends.
I made three recipes this year .... Pumpkin Pecan Quickbread, Almond Cranberry Walnut Quickbread and Blueberry Orange Oats Quickbread. I hope they like them.

X'mas Gathering 2

2007-12-26T21:40:00.000+08:00

Here was what we had for the 2nd party.

Baked Pasta
Bacon Roll
Beef in Red Wine
Sausage/Fish Ball Platter

Curry Chicken
Assam Pork
Smoked Chicken from CS
Honey Baked Ham from CS
Vegetable Salad

Brownie Muffins
Mochi
Cookies
Lime Jelly Cheesecake

Uncle W bought Steamed Crab and Chilly Crabs .
Dh bought Oatmeal Prawns, Salted Yolk Crabs, Peppered Crabs and Chilly Crabs too.
Because of dear Uncle W's contribution, we ended up with 5 kinds of crabs this year.

It was a night of catching up with the extended family members, lots of food when everyone had a chance to 'ta pao' something home. Good memories were formed when the younger ones had a chance to play with one another. My dear SIL helped me out with the washing up after the rest left and I'm so thankful for having her do that for me. GT 'xie xie ni'.

X'mas Gathering 1

2007-12-23T22:41:00.000+08:00

This year I will have two family X'mas gathering at my home. So for the last week I had been kept busy planning the menu for the two days, marketing for the party food as well as cooking and baking. It is tiring but I always feel joy when I see family members enjoying the food I prepared for them.

The Menu for this gathering .....

Curry Chicken
Sausage Platter with Fish Balls
Baked Hickory Chicken Wings
Black Pepper Roast Beef from CS
Honey Baked Ham from CS

Rice and Bread

Peach Agar-agar
Orange Jelly Cheesecake
2 Kinds of Cookies (Chocochips and Lavender)
Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies

Vegetable Salad
Seedless Black Grapes with Strawberries
Chickpeas

My SIL also contributed Sushi from Sakae Sushi and dh bought butter oatmeal prawns and peppered and chilli crabs too.

There was a lot of food ... more than we could eat and everyone had lots of ta pao food to bring home.