Sesame Wheat Cookies

I saw this cookie posted in auntie Yochana's blog and quickly asked her for the recipe. It looks very good eh? I was delighted when she posted the recipe and I have all the ingredients on hands. So, waited no further, I made her sesame wheat cookies.



You can get auntie Yochana's recipe here. I'm not sure how to describe this cookie. It's neither sweet nor salty. Kind of light and "song song" ( pronounce in Hokkein) with butter and sesame seeds flavors. I think it is suitable to serve this as cookie for cream cheese spread or jam. We just eat it like this though and surprisingly both my girls like it. I gave a bottle away to my friend and the rest my girls finished it in two days!

By the way, I baked mine in 325'F for 20 minutes.

Brand Name

Brand name that has been build up for years is a very powerful marketing tool in a business (such as Coca Cola). They are people who buy solely branded products and overlook other brands. So, if you are a newly founded business who is trying to take a certain amount of market share or have a piece of the pie, how are you going to compete? Or if you are already in the market but wanted to increase your market share and increase your brand awareness, how are you going to do so? Branding your product or services might be easy, the difficult part is how to make an awareness out of it. How to stick it in your consumers mind and how to make them remember and buy your product/services next time. Brand Identity Guru (BIG) that based in Boston might just be the advertising company for you. They are focusing in pumping up your brand, decrease the gap between the brand identity (the brand/name itself) and brand image (the image people associated with the brand/name) and let you increase your market share. They will conduct a brand audit and analysis and later provide a detail marketing strategy and marketing plan for all levels and layers of communication, both internal and external for your company. Their goal is to make your brand stand out among the so many, build a long-term relationship with you and providing powerful results.

Triangle Spring Rolls

Evy has been asking for my seaweed spring roll. Every time she sees my blog and saw the seaweed picture at the title of my blog, she has been asking, "Mommy, I want to eat that, can you make it again?". After numerous requests from her, I finally made her some. Reason being I tried to stay away from deep-fried food if I can, deep-fried food is delicious but can't really eat it too often. This time instead of the wontan wrapper, I used the spring roll wrapper and make it into the triangle shape. I provided a step-by-step pictures guide for those who doesn't know how it was made. Remember to seal it with cornstarch+water mixture (it acts as a glue).



As for my recipe, it's really simple.

Ingredients:

Ground pork
Chopped Scallion/green onion
Chopped carrot
White pepper
Salt
Chinese cooking wine
Sesame oil

1 nori sheet (for making sushi), cut into squares as shown above
Spring roll wrappers (use as needed)
Cornstarch + water mixture (as glue)

Method:

1. Marinate the ground pork, carrot and scallion with the above seasoning for an hour (keep in refrigerator).

2. Cut each spring roll wrapper into three long pieces. Place one piece on a cutting board. Put a nori sheet on top, place some marinated pork filling on top, add another piece of nori and brush the spring roll all over with the glue. Wrap the spring roll as shown above.

3. Deep-fry the spring roll in medium heat hot oil until golden brown and filling is cooked through. Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce or tomato ketchup.

Excellent Award

I would like to say a big THANK YOU again to Rainbows for awarding me with this Excellent Award. Now I would love to pass it to:

Lily's Wai Sek Hong
Soy and Pepper
Beachlover's Kitchen
Camemberu - Blogging Food from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan!

for the excellent job they did and still do on their blogs, great job ladies!!

Cost Saving Dinner

With the high gas prices these days, home cook dinner is the way to safe. Due to the hike in gasoline, the grocery we buy at the store is more expensive too. Cooking dinner at home can be easy and it doesn't need to be TV dinner or frozen pizza. Just throw a Tilapia fish fillet (about $0.65 each, $2.50 a pound at WalMart frozen seafood section) in 450'F oven for 10 minutes and you get yourself a delicious dinner. For us, I prepared a simple eggs fried rice to go with it. Another suggestion is, you can make some instant white rice with mango salsa to go with the fish too.

For preparing this fish, I just lined the baking pan with a piece of aluminum foil so that after we done eating, I just threw away the foil. No washing necessary. First, I sprayed the fish with cooking spray. Then, I seasoned the top of the fish fillet with Bay seasoning, a little mixed peppers and lastly some homemade bread crumbs (yup just the top). Then it went into preheated 450'F oven for 10 minutes. Viola, you have yourself a healthy, cheap, delicious, fast and easy dinner.

Rose Flavored Konnyaku Jelly

What these three ingredients combine into? A pretty in pink Konnyaku Jelly with kiwi seeds. As for konnyaku powder goes, I still very much prefer the Red man brand. The texture provided by this brand is more chewy as opposed to the other brand that I had tried. I bought these Red man kiwi seeds and konnyaku powder on my last trip home. I always fascinated by the kiwi seeds and so glad that I saw it on the shelf. Now that I have tasted it, I can let you know that this seed is for decoration only. You can't really taste the seeds while eating the jelly. But it sure add a little something to the jelly and makes it very pretty.



I made this rose jelly before and really loved the flavor it gave. So, I decided to share it with my readers. Of course you can omit the kiwi seeds if you don't have it. For the above, I just wanted to showcase the new Konnyaku jelly mold that I acquired at Ng Ming Huat, JB. I simply love the bears and turtles! I heard so much about Ng Ming Huat that while I was in JB, I just had to ask my hubby to bring me there. Luckily he still know the way after these many years. One thing I like to say about this shop is, it seriously needs expansion (or a bigger shop) and organization. The way I had to dig through some products, walked through that shop and came out with dirty hands, I also don't want to say more.

Ingredients:

Kiwi seeds (1/2 tsp. kiwi seeds and follow the package direction)
1 pkg of Red man Konnyaku powder
1 cup of white sugar
1/4 tsp. Rose essence (preferably the brand above)
950ml water

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the konnyaku powder and sugar together. Set aside.

2. In a pot, add in the water and stir in (1) and the kiwi seeds. Turn on the heat and stir continuously until it boils. Turn off heat and stir for 5 minutes more or until no more bubbles.

3. Pour into the desired mold and let it set in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

For those who are unfamiliar with Konnyaku jelly can read about it here.

Online Dating Affiliate Program

Want to earn money by affiliated to the Online Dating Affiliate program? All you needed to do is to sign up and pick from several Niche Dating Sites to promote in your website. As you bring traffic and money to them, you will get pay, just as simple. There is a promotion going in July for just signing up. Online dating is a fast growing business as many Internet users are single or divorced and are looking for love online. With the niche dating sites available, you can find specialty online dating sites for every taste and interest.


*This post is sponsored*

Braised Chicken with Dried Bean Curd Sticks

I love to cook this dish for my family because it is healthy and delicious. This is one of my home cook dishes that I think is also one of yours. I think this dish is pretty common in a household that cook every day. The only different is I used skinless and boneless chicken breast instead of the whole cut out chicken. Sharing with you my way of cooking this dish.

Ingredients:

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, sliced and marinated with soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, white pepper and cornstarch.

4 dried bean curd sticks, soaked in warm water until slightly soften, cut into 2 inches length.

1 star anise

2 Tbsp. Light soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Dark soy sauce

1 1/2 cup Water

1 tsp. brown cane sugar (or brown sugar)

Method:

1. Heat a saucepan with some oil. Fry chicken until half cooked. Add in star anise. Fry for a little while. Add in bean curd sticks and water.

2. Add in light and dark soy sauce. Let it boil and turn the heat to low, covered and let it simmer for an hour or until the bean curd sticks are completely soften.

3. Add in the cane sugar and give it a stir. Do a taste test to see whether you need to add more salt or sugar. Serve hot.

We really enjoy this dish and I hope you like it too.

Is Lasik for You?

Lasik surgery is very common these days. Even my hubby had his eyes fixed by lasik few months ago. One of his eyes now is 20/15 and the other is 20/25 (which he will fix again in two months). He likes his vision very clear at 20/15 you see. He chose lasik because of the sports he involved in. He skis, swims and plays table tennis and he really prefered the convenience of not wearing glasses. Is having lasik considered cheating in playing sport? I don't think so because to me it is purely for convenience and ease. It is really a pain to wear a ski goggle on top of glasses when we go skiing, same thing applied to swimming. What about athletes who used lasik surgery to have an edge over his vision in playing sports? Can you say Tiger Wood is cheating in golf because he had lasik done? I don't think he chose to have lasik because of the edge but mainly because of the ease. If you are looking for Lasik in San Francisco area, you can take a look at LaserVue. LaserVue is offering doctors that have been certified by the nonprofit USAEyes.org Lasik patient advocacy. LaserVue surgeons have also performed more than 25,000 procedures. Lasik is not for everyone, request a FREE lasik consultation to determine whether you qualify for one or not.



*Sponsored by LaserVue.com*

Stomach Flu

What is a stomach flu? I have no idea before until it strikes my daughters. Out of the blue, Edda started to throw out one night. We thought it was a one time thing, cleaned her up and put her to bed. Then, the next morning the same thing happened again. Whatever she ate, out it came, even my breast milk! So, the next day we made an appointment and brought her to see her pediatrician. Then, the pediatrician explained it was a stomach flu, it was a virus that has been going around. Asked me not to give her milk, ice-cream and greasy food. Just something light and mostly water or Gatorade, just let her body cleaned or cleared itself. So, I mainly gave her fluid the next day and no vomit from her. The following day, she started to show interest in food again so I gave her a little here and there and watched what happen. Well, it turned into diarrhea, so she had been diarrhea the whole day. On the third day, she was back to her normal self again. And then it was her sister turns to throw out. Luckily we knew the pattern already, so only fluid for Evy the next day and she did well, no vomit. The following day, she started eating and she diarrhea the whole day and on the third day, she had recovered. I guess I got infected as well because I too got diarrhea for a day and felt like vomiting the next. This stomach virus flu is indeed infectious and messy (as in cleaning after your little ones). Too bad I have no idea how to prevent it, washing hands all the times?

How to Kill Bed Bugs

Is your house infected by bed bugs? How did you know? Please visit Bed Bugs Guide for signs of bed bugs and on how to kill bed bugs if you do have them. It also have pictures on people who got bitten by bed bugs so you can have a visual as to how it was like. This site will tell you everything you need to know about bed bugs and how to get rid of them.

*Sponsored by Bed Bugs Site*

Scramble Eggs with Sweet Snap Peas and Preserved Veggie

I was left with some sweet snap peas, not enough to make a dish, just enough to use it as a side to a dish. So, I was cracking my brain again and decided to try it in scramble eggs. I love this crunchy snap peas and thought it would be great in scramble eggs or an omelette. I also have some preserved veggie (chai por) that I needed to finish so it went into the scramble eggs.

Ingredients:

3-4 large eggs, whipped with soy sauce, white pepper

1/4 cup of preserved veggie (chai por)

1 cup of cut sweet snap peas

Cooking oil

Method:

1. Heat the wok with cooking oil. When heated, add in the chai por and sweet snap peas. Stir-fry until the snap peas are cooked. Then, add in the eggs. Scramble until the eggs are cooked and dish out to serve.

Note: Instead of scrambling the eggs, you can do an omelette.

Birthday Present

My nephew loves to skateboard. Before that I have no idea that there are a wide selection of branded products designed for people who love to skateboard. Until I started hearing about this DC brand from him, and started seeing him wearing the DC shirts, pants, backpack, shoes, and hat that he asked his parents to purchase for him. He loves to show off his attire with his skateboard to me (that's how I know). Well, my beloved nephew's birthday is approaching and I really like to surprise him with a DC Skate Shoes that he has his eyes on for awhile (oh yeah, he can't stop mentioning it to me). I bet he will be delighted when he opens his present on his birthday.

*Sponsored by BuySkateShoes.com*

Healthy Baked Donuts

Chocolate chips baked donuts, simply divine and oh so healthy! Made with yogurt and just 1 Tbsp. of oil!!


Closer look!


Coconut flakes baked donuts, want some?


Hello pretty!

I bought two donut pans recently at a trip to the outlet mall. It was at a steal for $4 each, it was buy one gets one free deal you see, so without any hesitation I just grabbed the last two. I have been eyeing baked donut recipe for awhile and so glad that I finally got to make it. The original recipe is from My Culinary Journal. Thanks Peony for graciously sharing her baked donuts recipe. Below is my modified version with my signature twist to the usual baked donuts with icing topping. Each of my topping gave a little something special to this soft baked donuts and it was so easy to put together too. By the way, it would be delicious with peanut butter chips as well. Do not bake with any sprinkles or color coated chips as the color would run and the donuts would turn out looking ugly. See, why the other four of my donuts went missing? I used the color coated peanut butter chips and I learned a lesson out of it. *wink*

*Click here too see more variety of my baked donuts*

Ingredients :

(A)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

(B)
1 egg
1 tub (150 gm ) plain yogurt
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings: sweeten coconut flakes & semi-sweet chocolate chips (or peanut butter chips)

Method :

1. In a big bowl, combine (A).

2. Push the flour to the side and in the center, add in (B). Mix (B) well with a spatula and mix the flour in to just combine. Set aside.

3. Spray the donut pan with nonstick cooking spray and divide the sweeten coconut flakes and chocolate chips at the bottom of each of the donut tube pans. Divide batter among pans. Place the batter only half full so that you will see donut hole when baked. 3/4 full will not be able to see any donut hole when baked.

4. Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack.

~Yield 12-18 baked donuts

Note: Still soft the next day but best eaten on the day it was baked.


The above is the donut baking pans that I used.

Win Free Pizza for a Year

Dr. Oetker June feature's Ristorante Pizza Mozzarella is a beauty to behold. Made with fresh Mozzarella cheese and herbs and cooked in 12 minutes, it is sure to woo your taste buds and lover's heart. The slogan here is 12-minutes to romance, while the pizza is baking in the oven, you uncork the wine, make the side dish (recipe provided in the website) and take it outside (either picnic style in the park, or your backyard) to enjoy it with your special someone. Take off your shoes and relax on the blanket or shaded patio seat and enjoy the delicious pizza while gazing into your lover's eyes. Not forgetting to serve up a delectable dessert to end the sweet night.

You can also sign up for the monthly Ristorante newsletter where romance tips would be given. It would show you how easy it is to create the right vibe, food and drinks for a magical night with their selection of pizza in 12-minutes.

Want to win free pizza for a year? Please visit Ristorante Contest for your last chance to sign up. Dr. Oetker is offering the opportunity to win free pizza for a year with the Ristorante.ca site re-launch. This contest is opened for Canadian residents only.

Stir-Fried Bean Sprout with Fried Beancurd

This is my all time favorite way of cooking my bean sprouts. As I don't buy salted fish, I substitute it with dried anchovies. I posted my recipe in 2006 and now I re post it again by adding dried bean curd. It added protein to this delicious dish, very suitable as a vegetarian dish as well and it combined protein with fiber.

Ingredients:

~ 1 big bowl of bean sprouts

~ 2-3 cloves garlics, chopped

~ 2-3 Scallion, cut into 2 inches length

~ 1/2 pack of fried bean curd, cut into thin slices like shown above

~1/4 cup dried anchovies, washed and drained

Seasoning:
Salt to taste, 1 tsp. chicken stock granules & 1/4 cup water.

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. When hot, add in dried anchovies, stir-fry until anchovies turned crispy and brown then add in garlic. Stir well and add in the bean sprouts. Give a few good stirs and add the fried bean curd, seasoning and water. Let it simmer a little while and then add scallions in the last few seconds. Stir well and dish out. Serve hot.

Note: Do not overcook the bean sprout. It should remain crunchy.

Earn While You Blog

Few months ago, I came across a few of my fellow blogging friends' blogs who did some posts that enable them to earn money. As I saw more and more blogs that did this, I started to get curious as to how they did it. Started to ask a few questions here and there and did some research on the web to get a better understanding as to how it was done. Then, I got really interested because all I needed to do was to write a post about a certain product or service and I get paid for it as long as I have met the requirement. I noticed that most of my blogging friends did payperpost. According to them, this site gave the most opportunities for you to write and thus you can make more money for yourself. They can earn up to hundreds of dollars by writing paid posts. Upon hearing this, I quickly signed up and hopefully I can start earning some money through this site. So, if you are interested to start make money though your blog, why not check it out? All it needs is a little of your time to write up a post and you will get paid, as simple as that.

Strawberry Toast

Strawberries are abundance these days. In fact all the berries are in season and all are on sales. If you love berries, this is the time to buy and enjoy until you drop. With the strawberry tarts and mixed berries tarts popping every where in the supermarkets and blogs, I got inspired to make my easy Strawberry Toast.

You only need four ingredients to make this delicious toast.
1. Whole wheat or whole grain bread
2. Nutella spread
3. Philadelphia whipped mixed berries cream cheese spread (or other flavor)
4. Strawberry, cut into slices


1. Toast the whole wheat bread in the toaster until toasted. Slice off the sides.


2. Spread generously with Nutella spread.


3. Top with whipped cream cheese spread (flavor to your liking).


4. Top with slices of fresh and sweet strawberry. And then enjoy each bite of this delicious toast.

I served this to my parent in-laws and got rave reviews. Do give this easy morning breakfast or afternoon snack a try.

8 Million Clicks Needed.....

This is an urgent tag I recieved from a blogging friend of Rainbows. It is an ongoing campaign in The Breast Cancer Site to get as many clicks as possible by end of June to reach their target of 8 million clicks in order for their sponsors to donate $10,000 more for free mammograms.We can do our part by just clicking at the pink button as many times as you can. Remember each click you gave will give hope to a poor woman in getting free mammogram. I would like my buddies here to help out by spreading word about this campaign and link it to The Breast Cancer Site.

Babe in the City KL

Baking Fiends Unite!

Mochachocolata-Rita

Retno's Kedai Hamburg, Germany

Soy and Pepper

Summer is Here!

Summer is here. It is a time for traveling, sight-seeing, camping, bird watching, hunting and so on. Summer hobbies are a fun way that people looking forward to. With these hobbies, we need to get the best gear that suited our needs. Opticsplanet is such a place for you to explore and buy the necessary gear that is best for you. Not only it offers a huge selection of hobbyist gear and tactical gear but also huge selection of discount Designer sunglasses. The bonus of this site is it provides free UPS ground shipping, 100% satisfaction guarantee and best price guarantee on all it's products.

*Sponsored by Opticsplanet.com*

Scallops Mapo Tofu

I was trying something new. Instead of the usual ground meat, I replaced it with chopped sea scallops. I know I shouldn't use sea scallops in this dish, a bit wasted to cut the beautiful big scallops into small pieces. But then again, everything still go into the tummy, so it didn't really matter. But of course it's cheaper to use bay scallops as you don't even have to cut it into small pieces but to just use it as it is, cost wise, it's so much cheaper too.

I bought the LKK mapo tofu spicy bean curd paste recently and decided to give it a try. Hmm... I haven't gotten use to the paste yet and it needed more to make it tasty. I added some sugar, sweet dark soy sauce and some spicy chili bean paste and still find the flavor not to my liking. I will post the recipe once I perfected it. First time using this paste and I still need to play around with it.

Daily Blogger Award

Recently I received a Daily Blogger Award from Jthorge's Kitchen.

"This award is to be given to blogs that have at least 3 posts per week. I appreciate their kindness and generousity of sharing their wonderful recipes with us rain or shine". Quoted jthorge.

I would love to pass it along to:

Daphne- More than Words

Beachlover's Kitchen

Daily Affairs

Rainbows

My Kitchen Snippets

Mochachocolata-Rita

Tigerfish - Teczcape

SueSue - Cooking Momster

Please do pass it along and share the love ya!

Trip to Pikes Peak

We took our parents (my in-laws) to Pikes Peak recently. I really experienced shortness of breath while at the summit. The oxygen here was less and I could really felt it. And my father in-law had painful ears (because of the air pressure). Thus, we didn't spend a lot of time at the summit.


View from the Summit. It was very windy and COLD! We wore an extra fleece and a winter jacket and still felt the chill because of the strong wind.


My in-laws with Evy. This was taken on the way up to the summit. We also spotted two skiers ski down the thinly snow packed slope at the side of the mountain. See, no jacket here because it was not as cold yet.


On the way down, we stopped by the reservoir. Beautiful isn't it? A lot of people fishing here. They caught a lot of Trouts.


Evy posting for daddy by the reservoir!


Edda took a little snack at the reservoir rest booth.

Friends Around the World

Start Copy HERE.

Rule:

1. Copy from ::Start Copy Here:: through ::End Copy Here::.

2. Add your blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. Just make sure to post this to each of the blog you added in the list.

3. Tag other online friends you know.You don’t need to be tag in order to join. If you want to join just post this one in your blog.

4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list.That way, everyone is happy and can meet new friends too!

5. Come back once in a while to get the master list! Let’s see how this makes our Technorati and PR goes up! :D

6. DO NOT REMOVE THIS: scrap page made by Yen. Using alphas and tapes from Kate H., flowers from Ida,paper by Catrine.

1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.ChatterBin 4.Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6.Because Life Is Fun 7. Piece o’Kaje 8. Mon a Bric 9. Bearandberries 10.My Journey11. Deeply In Love 12. Pink and Brown Diaries 13. Happyheart 14. Wilstop 15. FunFierceFab 16. Dancing in Midlife Tune 17. Celebrate Life 18.Little Peanut , 19. BloggingInMyPyjamas, 20. Baby Shern 21. Rainbows 22. Little Corner of Mine 23.YOUR-BLOG-HERE

Would love to invite My Kitchen Snippets, SueSue - Cooking Momster and Teczcape to play along.

More Evy Drawings

As promised, here are more recent drawings of Evy. I think she did all these when she just turned four.


She tried to draw some ants. Not sure why she wrote SHEEP at the bottom, doesn't look like it connects to the drawing.


Don't ask me what is VVLLA because I have no clue!


Her garden of flowers.


I see flowers and possibly a Caterpillar, no idea about the rest.


She knows how to draw shapes and said it correctly.

Back in U.S.

We safely arrived in COS yesterday. I had to dress Evy in long pant, long sleeve shirt, socks and also covered her hands with socks all the way home. We got a scare in the Hong Kong airport as the officer asked us to remove her socks on her hands. Luckily when my husband explained that it was some rashes, she didn't pursue it. *wipe sweat* Evy was still having painful throat and mouth sores on all the flights home, thus she hardly eaten anything. Luckily Edda was feeling better and able to eat and sleep. My parents in-law came with us and they will be here for two weeks. Right now we are all suffering from jet lag, some more severe, some just mild. After this update, I need to go get some sleep too, I woke up at 5am this morning and I don't think I get enough rest. I can't cook because I cleared my fridge before I went back, so later we will have to do some grocery shopping. Edda is back to her usual self again and happily eating and requesting for food. She is able to play and run around again. Evy is getting better, at least her throat and mouth is not painful anymore. However since she is getting hit hard on her hands and feet, it will probably takes a while for her scars to disappear. Right now all her sores, blisters, red spots were turning dark red and dried up, and very scarely looking. I hope it won't leave her with ugly scars!