Help with Bad Credit

In the United States, a good credit rating or report means a great deal as it helps you to get a job, rent an apartment, buy a car and even owning a house, etc. But what if you have a bad credit credit cards and thus a bad credit report and you want to rent an apartment? It would be fairly difficult with your bad credit rating. Luckily, there are lenders who are willing to give you that second chance and help you rent that apartment. They are also lenders who are willing to help those with bad credit loans to pursuit and build a better future for themselves and their families by working with them. One can browse through the bad credit offers and pick the one that is right for you and start renting your dream apartment or start rebuilding your credit towards a better financial future (by making the payments on time). So, start taking charge of your own credit now!

House Brand: Chinese Mabo Tofu Sauce

I decided to product testing this House brand of Mabo Tofu sauce. I actually got to sample this at H-Mart last year and thought it tasted pretty good. I didn't buy it then but two weeks ago while I was grabbing some Jap. curry, I decided to grab two of this to try.

Verdict: Not as good as I remember. It's only so-so and not hot at all. My little Edda finished everything I put on her plate, she ate it just like that with a little rice. Good thing is my girls can eat this kind of mabo tofu. If you asked me to cook my own, it will sure be too spicy for them.

Shhh...P, if you are reading this, it's better to buy the LKK hot bean sauce instead of this, cheaper that way.

*Verdict is by my own opinion*

CNY Gift from a Friend :o)

Less Sweet Teh Tarik 3 in 1 and Pandan Kaya.


Assortment of Delicious Looking ChanHong Brand Products. BTW, I loved this brand!


OK, this is my favorite group because I'm a cookies & snack junkie!! Can't wait to try the Beloved Biscuit because it looks so different. But first of all, need to open the Chicken Biscuit now!


Hmmm...first time seeing this type of Chicken Biscuit! Had a bad experience with the previous chicken biscuit that I ordered from myTOA.


So fat fat one!


WOW! I Loved it! I loved this type too, very fragrant and even my hubby gave a thumb up. Ok, only got six in a packet, so order more if you like this biscuit. Hubby said, "3 for me and 3 for you". I said, " Then what about the kids?" LOL!




Thank you so much for your generous gift. You got the heart, we got the tummies! :P

For my readers, you can always order it online at myTOA.com. Just a click away to sample all these M'sian goodies yourself at home! ;o)

Butter Cornflakes Cereal Shrimps

Ingredients:

15 large shrimps, deveined
Cornstarch to coat the shrimps before deep-frying
4 Tbsp. butter

(A)
3-5 bird eye chilies, sliced
A handful of curry leaves (omit this if you can't find it)

(B)
1 cup of cornflakes, lightly crushed
3 Tbsp. non-dairy creamer (powder form)
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chicken stock granules (add more salt if omit this)
Dash of white pepper

Method:

1. Measure and mix (B) in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Coat the shrimps with cornflour and deep-fry in hot oil until golden and cooked. Dish out and set aside. Throw away the oil.

3. Heat wok, add in the butter, stir til it melted and add (A). Fry til fragrant. Then add (B), stir continuously to mix (be careful not to burn the creamer) and add the shrimps. Mix well and dish out to serve. Enjoy!

This dish is spicy from the chili and infuse with the fragrant of butter, curry leaves & milk and crunchy bite from the cornflakes and a tad sweet from the sugar, definitely worth a try!

Steamed Pandan Cassava Kuih

When I saw this kuih at Snippets of My Life. I knew I just got to make it. Since I really want to cut down on coconut milk consumption in my family, the kuih I had in mind is without the white salty layer on top. Since the package of frozen cassava I got is 1 lb/ 16oz/ 454gm, I made some slight adjustment with her recipe.

I like the steamed version of cassava kuih too. Next time I will try it with gula Melaka like she suggested for different fragrant and taste. I think I cut down too much coconut milk as my kuih turned out a bit hard at the bottom. :P Thanks Gert for sharing your recipe! :*

Tagged: Before I was a Mom and An Award!

I got this meme from East Meets West Kitchen. Here it goes.

The rule to the e-mail was that, once you have been hit, you have to hit 5 pretty Moms, including the one who thought of you today & sent it to you. The idea is that if you get hit again, You will know you are really pretty!

So I thought lets just turn this into a tag instead. But that “hit” part won’t work very well in a tag. So instead of giving a “hit” to the one who tag you, you add your name at the bottom of the tagged persons list, and without bumping the person at the top or bumping anyone off and let the list grow. Hit 5 pretty moms on your list to let them know they are pretty!

Before I was a mum; I went to the cinema with my hubby every other weekend.

Before I was a mum; I had ladies day/night out.

Before I was a mum; I shopped for myself.

Before I was a mum; I didn't know I am going to be a strict mom!

Before I was a mum; I got to go to the toilet alone.

Before I was a mum; I always wonder what our life would be like with kids.

*Hope I didn't scare anyone to become a mom! LOL! Seriously, it's rewarding and fun too!*

The first chain of tag:

1. Lovelymummy
2. Pek Imm
3. Momisodes
4. Ling that’s me
5. Janicepa
6. AnnieQ
7. Allthingspurple
8. Montessorimum
9. clumsy mommy
10. Sandra
11. KittyCat
12. VivianZ
13. Sweetpea
14. Sasha
15. Giddy Tiger
16. Wen
17. Jo-N
18. Janice Ng
19. ViEmwk
20. Little Corner of Mine

I would like to tag the following pretty moms :
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa
Ling's Passion
Retno's Kedai Hamburg, Germany
Baking Fiends Unite!
Beachlover's Kitchen


~:AWARD:~

I totally agree with her 'peace above love', but then again you have to love in order to find peace. If everyone can 'love thy neighbour as thyself' ( Leviticus 19:18) as the scripture says, there will not be wars in the world.

I received this Peace award from Singarishgirl. Thanks girl! :* And I would like to pass it to:

Lily's Wai Sek Hong

Soy and Pepper

Beachlover's Kitchen

Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa

Chap Goh Meh, 2008 Dinner

My last day of CNY dinner spread. I told my hubby I'm going to cook something special tonight to celebrate the last day of CNY. I added one more dish into my usual two dishes.


Steam fish fillets, nothing special, I cooked this all the time, but this is one of my hubby's favorites.


Stir-fry Sweet Snap Peas with Chinese Mushroom, Baby Bamboo Shoots and Carrots. Hmm... I cooked this all the times too but not in this combination.


Butter Cereal Shrimps. Ha! this is something special as I normally don't cook so much shrimps for ourselves (I always sanction 3-4 for me and 4-5 for him, just want to be in moderation). But since this is the last day of CNY and it was my first time cooking butter cereal shrimps from scratch, what the heck right? Better enjoyed it! My hubby was actually shocked and asked me how many shrimps did you cook? HAHAHA.... So, I had to explain to him and also tell him don't expect any shrimps from me next week. So, we indulged! I will share my version of Butter Cereal Shrimps recipe in another post, if you want my recipe, stay tuned! :P If cannot wait, just do a search on Google lah, so many recipes on the net wat. :D

Online Business

My husband is actually thinking about creating an online business. He used to buy and sell through Ebay while he was in college so the interest is there. You know, as an extra income for our family. With an online business, he would have to register for a shopping cart software. With ecommerce software, the prospective buyers would be able to place their items in the shopping cart and facilitate the order. It is user friendly and easy to use. So, I was telling him about this Ashopcommerce that I was researching. With it 's award winning shopping cart software, I told my hubby why are you still hesitating? Wait no more, let's get the ball rolling and start earning money online! It is web based (no installation required), affordable, accept credit cards online, customized designs with easy to use features. Let us create our online store and start making money! If you are thinking of owning an online business, check out Ashop shopping cart software too!

Sweet Red Beans + Tang Yuen Soup

Time flies, it's already the end of CNY. Today is the last day of CNY where we called it "Chap Goh Mei", the 15th day. Usually people will have a feast on this day and eating tang yuens to signified "tuan tuan yuen yuen", or togetherness, unity in the new Lunar year.

Since I wanted something different from my usual brown sugar ginger syrup, I made red bean soup to go with it. Added some mini tapioca pearls, dried orange peels and glutinous rice as well.



Also reserved some to eat with my favorite peanut + sugar coating. Evy really loved it, she "sapu" (finished) all below, asked for more and later ate her daddy share!! I think I managed to eat three balls only! Later I served her the red bean soup with tang yuens and she finished all the tang yuens in the bowl and asked for more but left the red bean soup basically untouched.



I am glad that I got to meet all my girlfriends this CNY. :) Extra big hug to V for purposely drove all the way down to "pie nian" with me, I am really touched and it showed what a great girlfriend she is. Wait for me to make the "kuih kapit" okay? :D

Dinner Feb 13th, 2008

One of my special CNY dinners.


Soup with bamboo fungus, dried beancurd sheet and enoki mushroom.


My "Mung Kwan Char" (stir-fry jicama). Not "Ju Hur Char" because no dried squid was used. This is a traditional CNY dish for us but I slightly adapted it my way. This dish is delicious and tastes better the next day. We used to eat it wrap in lettuce, with a piece of baked chicken and spread with homemade chili sauce (sambal), wrap it and enjoy! Delectable! I'm traditional like that, I need to eat my "mung kwan char" every CNY.


Emperor Baked Chicken. My house smelled absolutely divine when this chicken was baking.


Can see the crispy skin or not? Baked with my vertical roaster stand. Tigerfish, here's the pictures I promised you. Moist and juicy chicken with crispy skin, my hubby's favorite!

London Almond Cookies

Cooling on rack.


Covered with white chocolate and sprinkles.


Covered with semi-sweet chocolate and almond bits.

I saw this cookies at Rainbows and it really got me interested. I have not seen this kind of CNY cookies before because I have been living in the States for a very long time. Thus, I only familiar with the traditional CNY cookies. Luckily, I know how to bake and can always make whatever cookies that strike my fancy. So, here is it, my first ever London Almond Cookies. As I was lazy, I melted the chocolate using the microwave and perhaps that's why my melted chocolate was fairly thick and it won't spread nicely like the one in Rainbow's blog. She said the skill of making this cookie is in melting the chocolate. Guess I can't really do a short-cut if I wanted my cookies to look like her. Tastewise, no different but for the presentation itself, huge difference. LOL! :P

Verdict:
This cookies is on the sweet end, as the white chocolate is sweet. However, this easily can be any children favorite, but very messy when given to toddlers.

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao

I decided to make this red bean nian gao to bring to Lily's party and to serve at my party. This recipe was shared by Lin, and it is so worth a try. Thank you Lin for sharing this fantastic recipe. :*



This is seriously good. Tasted so much better with the added red bean, I will make this again next year. Oh yeah, have you spotted my mistake yet? I forgot to swirl the red bean paste around the batter when I dropped it in and thus some part had red bean while other didn't. Not pretty too but look can be deceiving! ;) Anyway, I learned from my mistake.

Need a Domain Name?

Ever consider a domain name for your blog? A domain with your own name, an address you can called your own? My husband is someone who wants to reserve a few domain names under his name. He even has a domain name for Evy and his parents besides his own and some others that might be the domain for his online business. He is afraid that the domain names he has in mind are going to be taken by someone else if he doesn't act fast. If you are interested in getting one for your website, blog, online business, why not try the pay less domains as it will help you to register your domain name for less. You can also transfer your domain here (from another Registrar) easily to benefit from the competitive prices, 24/7 email or fax support and personalized customer service. Australian domain registration is as easy as 1-2-3, reserve one today that you can call Home before it was taken by someone else.

Tagged: 10 Things about Little Corner of Mine

I got tagged by Daphne to do this meme: 10 Things about Me.

1. Little Corner of Mine loves to : travel.

2. Little Corner of Mine hates to: socialize (homegirl by choice).

3. Little Corner of Mine loves to: hang around with best friends.

4. Little Corner of Mine hates to: clean the bathroom.

5. Little Corner of Mine loves to: try new recipes, either cooking or baking.

6. Little Corner of Mine hates to: cook everyday. (Thus I'm having days off)

7. Little Corner of Mine loves to: cuddle her daughters.

8. Little Corner of Mine hates to: do laundry.

9. Little Corner of Mine loves to: spend more time with her parents and siblings.

10. Little Corner of Mine hates to: live so far away from Malaysia.


Now, I would like to tag:

V's East Meets West Kitchen
Ling's Passion
Big Fish
Tigerfish - Teczcape
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa

Remember to link back to me when you do the tagged ya.

My Yi Lu Fa Cai

This is my copycat dish of Chef. Steven "Hou See Fatt Choy". I added some wolfberries for extra color effect. Whether it's a good idea or not, I don't know but wolfberries is good for us, so why not? Why I didn't name mine "hou see fatt choy" you might asked. That's because I couldn't find any dried oyster here. Nada...not one in sight. So, have to make mine without the dried oyster and gave it a new name which I read at Tigerfish's blog. This is the dish I brought to Lily's house.



Does this dish looks appertizing to you? I would really love to know because my hubby thinks this dish is soooo unappealing that he didn't even bother to try one. *Sorta pissed to learn later that he didn't even bother to try one of my CNY dish creation because to him it looks unappertizing, my own hubby!* You tell me!

Lastly, I want to wish my readers a "Happy Valentine's Day" !
Hubby wants to bring us out for dinner and so no cooking for me. :)

CNY Potluck Party, 2008

I had a potluck party at my house on Feb 10th. Sharing some food pictures here. It turned out to be a good gathering. Great food and met some new faces too.


The spread.

Highlight some of the dishes here:

My mixed vegetable with fa cai.


My sambal cutterfish and shrimps.


Y's store-bought good looking roasted duck.


Am's homemade yummy jiaozi (she is from China).


M's delicious dry chicken curry.


Su's Mushrooms with Bok Choys.


Sh's Fried Noodle.


T's store-bought orange chicken.

The below came late thus didn't make it in the 1st. picture:

Sa's oyster sauce veggie.

Sa's potstickers.

Sh's yummy egg tarts, my steamed cassava kuih and red bean nian gao.

My Nian Nian You Yu Agar-agar.

Su's Kuih Salat.

You guys should recognize this right? :P

Snack containers.

Look at all the shoes!!!

My Golden Rats

Since I am making another batch of pineapple tarts. I decided to play with the dough and made these six little rats to welcome the Rat Year. I got this inspiration from aunty Yochana's blog. Let me tell you, these are not easy to shape at all and really have to kudo to those that have the patience to shape so many rats, or the rose shape pineapple tarts. This was not my best job as I had to do it fast as little one was crying (wanna sleep), thus some turned out looking more like pigs. LOL!

Baked Pork Floss Mini Puffs

I saw the mini peanut puffs at Lily's blog and it gave me an inspiration to make mini pork floss puffs. Reason being I have a bottle sitting in my pantry ready to be used. Since I have no plan on making any deep-fried CNY cookies this year, I decided to experiment with the basic pie crust recipe for my baked puffs. The resulted pastry is buttery, crispy and flaky!



The crust/pastry recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Ingredient:

Pork floss
1 beaten egg, for glaze

Pastry:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup or 1 stick of cold butter, cut
3 Tbsp. ice cold water

Method:

1. To make the pastry: In a food processor, add in flour, salt and cut butter. Pulse until it resemble crumbs. Then, add in the cold water and pulse until a dough is formed and pull away from the food processor. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

2. Roll the dough thinly, cut it out with a round cookie cutter and place the round dough in a mini puff maker, place the pork floss filling inside, close it and take out the mini puff. Place on parchment paper and brush the top with egg glaze.

3. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 20 minutes. Let cool completely on wire rack before storing.

~Yield about 40 mini puffs.


I used the mini puff maker above. It came in three sizes, the ones I have are medium and small sizes.

Note:
If you have the time, it's better to pleat the puffs by hands as half of my puffs split open when baking in the oven. But for own eating it's fine I guess. This mini puffs is so good it won't last long at all.

Kuih Bangkit II, 2008

I baked my 2nd batch of kuih bangkit this morning. Ahhhh, practice makes perfect (I also didn't use frozen coconut cream). I achieved the light, crispy and melt in the mouth texture that I like. I'm going to make my 3rd batch next week using the Pandan extract like I did earlier and let my brother brings it back to M'sia for my mom.


Playing with the different cookie cutters.


Are those pineapple and pine tree designs? What do you think?

For my kuih bangkit recipe, click here.
For my step-by-step-pictures guide, click here.

Tagged: 5 Facts About Myself & Award

I got tagged by Ling's Passion to do this 5 facts about myself. You are supposed to list 5 facts about yourself, link back to me and tag 5 more blogs.

Fact 1:
I got married at age 24.

Fact 2:
I am soooo not a vain person. My mom even told me to at least wear a lipstick when I go out! :P

Fact 3:
I have two degrees.

Fact 4:
I don't own a lot of shoes, just the essential. Unlike most women, right? :P

Fact 5:
I am practical and sometimes emotional.

Now, I would like to tag:

Baking Fiends Unite!
V's East Meets West Kitchen
The Art and Science of Food
Edith's Precious Moments
Retno's Kedai Hamburg, Germany

AWARD:



I received another award from Retno's Kedai Hamburg, Germany. Thanks Retno! Now, I would like to pass this on to the above blogs and the following:

My Kitchen Snippets
Beachlover's Kitchen
Daily Affairs
Daphne- More than Words
Big Boys Oven
Ling's Passion
Rainbows
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa
Jadepearl's Play-Play in The Kitchen
Tigerfish - Teczcape
Big Fish

Get Paid for Blogging?

As my readers know I am a stay at home mom who loves to blog. And since I am already spending few hours a day blogging, so why not make some money while doing it right? I found a Smorty banner while browsing through my friend's blog and finally decided to click on it. For a very simple reason, I want some extra allowance!! Smorty.com is a place where they link advertisers and bloggers together. Blogger get paid to blog while the advertiser gets to advertise on blogs. Sounds like a great place to hang out and for me to blog for money. All I need to do is to write some blog advertising posts and I get paid for blogging. As simple as that! Why not try it yourself? Click on my Smorty banner on the right of my blog as my referrer so that I would get a little commission okay? :o)

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xin Nian Kuai Le!

I would like to wish all my readers who celebrate CNY:

Sorry so blur because Evy kept saying "Gong Xi, Gong Xi" and Edda kept moving her hands.

Happy Lunar New Year! Let's the feasts begin!

Early Reunion Dinner ~ Steamboat

My brother is in Denver for three weeks. He is here for training. And since he is here, we had an early reunion dinner with him. I prepared Tom Yam steamboat as this was very easy and satisfying. :o)


Vermicelli, napa cabbage, shrimps, fish fillets, marinated chicken breast slices, cutterfish, straw mushrooms, babycorns.


Chai Hsin, romaine lettuce, tofu, DoDo fish balls, fish cake, assorted fish cakes, tofu pok.


Tom Yam soup for steamboat.

I prepared too much again. Left with quite a lot of soup and ingredients. Guess would make Tom Yam Udon noodle with the leftover.

Green Bean Cookies

My modified version of Green Bean Cookies adapted from Rose's Kitchen. This is a crunchy and melt in the mouth kind of cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. cornflour

3/4 cup green bean flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg yolk, for glazing

Method:

1. Cream butter, powdered sugar and salt until creamy.

2. Mix in sifted flours and hand knead until a dough is formed.

3. Pinch a piece of the dough and roll into ball. Finish the rest of the dough. Brush the top of each cookie with the yolk glaze.

4. Bake in preheated 300'F oven for 20 minutes.

~Yield about 90 cookie balls.

More CNY Bakes 2008 (2)

Peanut Cookies ~ Another of my favorite! I have great childhood memory with this melt-in-the-mouth peanut cookies. I remember I always sort this out at my late grandma's house to eat (oh yeah, my late grandma used to make kuih and sell, she was a great cookies and kuih maker).



Cornflakes Cookies ~ Didn't use a cookie scoop this time, as I wanted a smaller cookies.



Sugi Cookies ~ After few batches of CNY bakes, the last cookies I made looked like this. LOL! I only wanted an easy way out and too lazy to shape the cookies into balls, let alone the presentation of it. Just roll into cylinder and cut, Evy helps with the pattern on top. Uniquely me right? :P

For peanut cookies, click here.
For cornflake cookies, click here.
For sugi cookies, click here.

Siew Mai II (Pork Dumplings II) & Award

Need to take a break from posting my CNY bakes to post this and to pass on this lovely award to fellow blogger friends. :)





I made siew mai again last week, this time using Nilmandra suggestion of adding a pea on top of each siew mai. How was it? Look nicer, right? I didn't have cilantro this time, so I made this without it. I found that the siew mai was more fragrant with the added chopped cilantro. Anyhow, it's still tasted good. Oh by the way, Evy helped me to put the pea on top of each siew mai. She is at this age of wanting to help in the kitchen.

~Forever Friends Ball~

I was given this Forever Friends Ball and The Spreader of Love awards by Retno at Kedai Hamburg. And since I already have the spreader of love award, I only going to claim this forever friends award. Thanks Retno for thinking of me and passing the awards to me. It's very sweet of you and I truely appreciate it. :)

Now I would like to pass this on to:

V's East Meets West Kitchen
Daphne- More than Words
Daily Affairs
Beachlover's Kitchen
Baking Fiends Unite!
Tigerfish - Teczcape
Edith's Precious Moments
Jadepearl's Play-Play in the Kitchen
Big Boys Kitchen
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa
The Art and Science of Food
Rainbows