Dry Roasted Edamame

Look what I found while browsing through Cosco. A lightly salted dry roasted Edamame!! For those who don't know Edamame is the green soybeans in a pod commonly eaten in China and Japan. Actually my Chinese friend introduced me to this Edamame. She boils them in lightly salted water and then open the pod and eat it just like that. Edameme is healthy for us as it is high in protein, fiber, vitamin A, B and calcium. She is a vegetarian and thus she eats this for the protein. She also used it in stir-fry.


I only seen frozen Edamame here. But I was too lazy to boil them in water and then open each and everyone of them to eat so I never buy it before. Not until I saw this dry roasted Edamame. All cooked and peeled and even salted for me. Such convenience and I just had to buy it. This indeed turned out to be a good and healthy snack for me! Edda loves it too but not my picky Evy.

Fancy Dress

One of my girlfriends was invited to a fancy dress costume party. She was asking me for suggestion of what to wear. I referred her to this largest Fancy Dress online store where it has over 7000 costumes. I told her she should be able to find what she was looking for, if not for sure one dress would strike her fancy when she browsed through the vast selection. True enough, she found a fancy dress that she liked. It also sells kids costumes suitable for the coming Halloween.

Edda Update

Edda is 22 months old and she is still hardly speak. All she is good at is mama (妈妈) and baba (爸爸). Since she is bilingual, I do expect her to be a little late. But she should start saying more words after she turns two. She loves to mimic her sister, almost in every move. Her sister laugh, she laugh, her sister dance, she dance, her sister climb stairs, she also climb stairs, basically everything her sister does, she wanted to do it too. So, we have been asking her sister to teach her words. So far the only incentive to make her speak in word is a bribe of sweet dessert/candy/ potato chips (basically any junk food that kids like). We will ask “你要不要吃?” Say “要”. And then she will say “要”. We will of course take the opportunity to ask her to say more words, like “我爱你”, “ABC”, “1-10” these sort of things. With the bribe in sight, she is willing to say anything. If not, she prefers not to say any word. Most of the time she will use sound and action to let me know what she wants. A little strange right?

Steamed Tilapia Fish Recipe

From where I am, in the middle of no way, fresh seafood is hard to come by. But I do get to buy live Tilapia fish and catfish at the Asian grocery store. More live seafood is expected to arrive like lobsters, shrimps and crabs. At the meantime, I just be happy with the live Tilapia fish because I don't really fancy catfish. And what do we Asians do with live and fresh fish? We steam it! One can really taste the sweetness through the flesh of the fish when the fish is killed alive. I like to steam my Tilapia fish with shredded ginger, scallion, soy sauce and drizzle of sesame oil. It does not need to be complicated, just the usual easy seasoning will bring out the goodness of the fish. This is one easy to prepare at home dish that all of you should try. You can be creative and come out with a recipe of your own as well. I think this dish would be a great contender for the Great American Seafood Cook off. What do you think? *wink* I think it would introduce American to the idea of eating whole steamed fish. I know a lot of them are not used to eating a fish with an actual head and tail, especially for us who live in the mid-west/mid-east. All we are familiar with are fish fillets. You should go to your local Asian grocery store(s) and buy a fresh live fish (you can ask them to kill and clean it for you) and try to cook it at home. You will be delighted at how fresh and sweet the fish tastes. Your local Asian stores do supply fresh and live seafood, do check them out! I am really excited for this year cook off actually as I will get to see who will crown the King/Queen of American Seafood 2008 and I am voting for the chef from Colorado of course. Go Colorado!!! Can't wait to see who's home cook seafood recipe realms supreme!

*This post is sponsored*

Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Non-spicy one for the kids.


With chillies in oil added, extra spicy for the parents.

Ingredients:
1 (13.25 oz) box whole wheat spaghetti
1 cup imitation crab meats
1 skinless & boneless chicken breasts, cut
10 asparagus, cut into 1-inch
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
6 sun-ripened tomatoes, sliced
Olive oil
2 tsp. chicken stock granules
Salt & black peppers

Method:

1. Cook spaghetti as directed by package, drain and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, heat up olive oil. Add garlic and chicken breasts, fry until chicken is almost cooked. Add in asparagus and carrot and fry until the veggies are cooked. Lastly add in the sun-ripened tomatoes and imitation crab meats, stir-fry for a minute and add in the cooked spaghetti. Season to taste with salt, chicken stock granules and black pepper. Mix well to combine. Taste test and season to your liking. Serve warm!

3. Optional: Top with chillies in oil, chili oil or dried chili flakes for the extra kick.

I'm serving this up at Presto Pasta Night. This week the host will be Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.

Medium Vistaprint Coupons!

Oh yes, I have a coupon code for VistaPrint t-shirts. High quality t-shirts is a great way to market your business, create awareness, sell your blog or product or purely as gift. A note to Foodbuzz, do you want to give your featured publishers free t-shirt to promote your website? Hahaha...just a suggestion! VistaPrint stands for best printing and best price. Currently the short-sleeve white t-shirt starts at $9.49 a piece. And the more you order, the cheaper it gets. If you order more than 201 t-shirts, it's $6.99 a piece and that is without the coupon. You get an extra 20% off all custom t-shirts by writing this coupon code at check out: TShirts25. It does have an one time uploaded fee if you want to use your own design or logo. And all t-shirts are 100% preshrunk cotton t-shirts and available in sizes S,M,L,XL and XXL. It is very easy to design and order. You can either browse through all the available designs and pick one that you like or upload your own design or logo and lastly make sure to double check the spelling before you submit your order. VistaPrint stands behind the quality of its products and services. If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, simply contact VistaPrint customer service within 30 days from the date you receive it (or the date it was scheduled to arrive) and they will refund the full price of the product(s) in question, excluding shipping and processing costs.

*This post is sponsored*

Chinese Scallion Pancakes

Actually I was embarrassed to say I never eaten a scallion pancake before. Not until I made it myself recently using the recipe provided by My Kitchen Snippets. Not sure how the texture is supposed to be like because mine was not fluffy like roti canai, but crispy and savory. Guess will have to buy a packet at the store to truly know the answer.


Hmmm...mine turned out to be the mini size pancakes! :P So no slicing required!


I made 15 small scallion pancakes and it was not bad. We ended out having it for dinner. I also noticed that there is another type of scallion pancake (while browsing through U-tube) which was made with flour & eggs batter (softer version) which I would love to try in the future.

A Gift Idea

Are you looking for a gift idea? What about Gourmet cookies as gift? I am sure anyone would be please to receive a box of delicious San Francisco Cookies as gift. A base dough cookie recipe that has been passed down from generations and has been adapted to include other flavors for today's market. These are all natural cookies that made with all natural ingredients. They used a San Francisco's favorite chocolate for their cookies: Ghirardelli chocolate. Your choice of cookies include Milk Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Toffee, Oatmeal Raisin, Dark Chocolate Walnut and Peanut Butter. These cookies are packaged in a classic gift packaging or keepsake gift crate and ready to be sent as corporate gift cookies, they even customize the cookies with your company's logo and personal message to make it unique. Sure makes a great Christmas gift too!

What about if you just want the cookies without the packaging for a party or event? You can do so if you are in the San Francisco bay area, just call and order and they will deliver the cookies free for you.

Work Boots

My parents in-law came to visit recently and my father in-law was looking for a work boot to wear to work. He needed a shoe that was tough enough to handle all the abuses at work. A steel toe shoes with waterproof leather and membrane to keep him dry. He also wanted a shoe with the protective electrostatic dissipative feature designed to keep him safe. Of course the most important feature is that it has to be comfortable and fit nicely. I went searching online and found this website Work Boots USA that provides free shipping on all orders over $50 in the US. Found this one Timberland work boot that he likes and was happy to order it for him.

*This is a sponsored post*

Chee Cheong Fun with Sweet Sauce (Steamed Rice Rolls)

When I saw Lily's chee cheong fun made using a skillet, I decided to try it because it looked so easy. Oh yeah, look can be deceiving because something that she made so easily turned out to be a disaster in my kitchen. I couldn't get mine to cook before I burnt the bottom. Frustrated I tried steaming them and the same thing happen, it felt raw on top. Ended out in the trash it went. I was convinced that I would have chee cheong fun for tea time that I already made the sauce. So, I was left with my delicious sweet sauce that I wouldn't want to waste. So, I went on the web again and found another recipe to try. Making chee cheong fun definitely needs skill since we wouldn't want it to be too thick nor too thin. My first few batches were too thick but I got the hang of it in the end. I definitely need to practice more. But I do love the sweet sauce I came out with, perhaps it has shrimp paste ( hae kor) in it, it's just like the one I remembered. :)


I made my chee cheong fun with this recipe provided by Sinner. Thanks Sinner for sharing!

My Sweet Sauce Recipe:

(A)
2 heap Tbsp. of CKC rojak sauce
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. sugar

Garnishes:
Toasted sesame seeds, fried shallots and Sriracha chili sauce.

Method:
Boil the above (A) ingredients in a small saucepan until sugar dissolved and thicken.

To serve:
Cut some chee cheong fun, add some sweet sauce on top, garnish with some Sriracha chili sauce, lots of sesame seeds and some fried shallots. Yummy!

Online Banking

With the two girls these days, sometimes it is a pain to go to the bank to do anything. Like the simple money deposits or the necessary monthly payments. So, I have been thinking of opening an online saving and checking accounts so that I can do everything at home, like checking the balances, pay bills, etc. I came across WaMu while browsing the Internet and the name attracted me. It offers two types of Savings Accounts in my area: Statement Savings and Online Savings. The Online Savings fitted me well and it only takes 7 minutes to sign up and $1 to open. And when I open the WaMu free checking account online along with this savings, it will waive the monthly $5 fee on the saving account and offer 3.30% APY on my online savings instead of 1% without the free checking (% APY quoted in my area). I needed an online checking account anyway so that I can make payments so that just fit my situation plus I will have more APY. One important thing about this bank is it is FDIC insured, so if the bank gone bankrupt, you are covered up to $100,000. And since what I am doing is all online, what about the online security? I want all my transactions to be saved and secured and WaMu offered just that. In addition to that we are also backed by the Online Baking Guarantee. In which WaMu will provide a full reimbursement for the amount of any fraudulent or unauthorized transaction which occurs on our account during an online banking session at wamu.com. So, we are liability free on any unauthorized activity acted upon our account. It also has online CD which I would be happy to look into as well. Anything for convenience right?

Crisp Lemon Cookies 2

Still not quite satisfied with my last attempt, I played around with the previous recipe and came out with Crisp Lemon Cookies 2. I like this recipe better because this cookies turned out to be real crispy. It would be great with some added lemon zest to kick up the flavor even more. Since the previous cookies I made it really kids friendly (bear shape with color sugar and sprinkles), I decided to try another pattern on this. Great with a cup of coffee!


Ingredients:

(A)
1 1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
(B)
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter, softened
2 tsp. Pure lemon extract
1/2 tsp. Pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. milk

Method:

1. In a food processor, add in (A). Pulse to combine.

2. Then, add in (B) and process until a dough is formed. Take it out on a lightly flour surface and give it a few kneads. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a cookie cutter or pastry crimper. (Note: the dough will be soft, you need to transfer the cookie with a scraper or you can refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 mins. before rolling.)

3. Place on a parchment lined baking pan and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15-17 minutes or until lightly brown on edges.


I am also submitting my recipe to the Original Recipe event hosted by Lore at Culinarty.

Mee Rebus

I had my mee rebus with pan-fried firm tofu, shrimps, boiled egg, chinese green (choy sum), chopped scallions and lots of fried shallots.


Glad to say I finally tried the well talk about Prima Taste Mee Rebus! Excellent recommendation as I certainly enjoyed it. The gravy for this was fairly thick (can dilute slightly more) and I liked that the flavor tasted great.


Update on the Prima Taste products at Viet Hoa Supermarket in Denver: I went there few weekends ago and they no longer sell the wide range of Prima Taste products. I only found few packets of Prima Taste Bak Kut Teh (must be the leftover) and that was it. Hmmm...could it be possible that it was priced at the higher end and thus the demand was not great and the store decided to stop ordering it? Definitely a possibility!! Anyway, let see whether they restock again. I go there probably once in two or three months so I might be a bit updated.

End Alzheimer's Disease

Do you know anyone suffering from Alzheimer's disease or being touched by one? Alzheimer's Disease is a brain disorder resulted in loss of memory or a.k.a dementia and other intellectual abilities serious enough to affect everyday life. Right now it has no current cure but with the right services and support plus the treatments for symptoms, it can make living with Alzheimer's easier. Do you know you can do something to fight against Alzheimer's? Let's us join together with Alzheimer's Association to fight against Alzheimer's by creating awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. Alzheimer's Memory Walk is the nation's largest event to raise fund and awareness as it calls on volunteers of all ages to participate in this memory walk against Alzheimer's. A typical memory walk is a 2-3 miles walk held on a weekend morning in the Fall. Right now there are walks in 600 communities. With this, you walk with a purpose, a move towards a world without Alzheimer's. As long as you have a team going, you can get this started. If you are in a company, you can certainly organize this event to increase employees morale, build team spirits and at the same time creates awareness and wellness in your employees. Let's us walk together to end Alzheimer's Disease!

Whole Roast Chicken

Just want to show a picture of my roast chicken on the vertical chicken roaster. Another of my cost saving and easy to prepare dinner. I always buy the whole chicken when it is on sales and one of this chicken can last us for two meals. I will stir-fry the other half in soy sauce for dinner the next day. For the above chicken, again I marinated it with the A1 Emperor Chicken Spices and baked it in my convection oven.

Roast chicken is very easy to prepare. All you needed to do is to clean and trim off the fat of the chicken and then marinate the chicken with your desired sauce or spices. Preheat the oven at 350'F and bake it for 1.5 hours or 325'F convection oven for 1 hour 22 minutes. Before baking, I spray my chicken all over with canola oil spray to ensure crispy skin result.

Roast chicken is so versatile, you can eat it with rice, sandwich it with burger buns, or eat it with salad and mashed potatoes or etc. I love to buy rotisserie chicken at the grocery store too, that's when I'm too lazy to make dinner, or when I have guests and don't have time to cook lots of dishes.

Crisp Lemon Cookies 1

When we were at our friend's house, her little girl arranged a little tea party for my girls. Oh yeah, a real tea and lemon cookies that she made herself, even served in a real tea set. Luckily my girls didn't knock over the tea or break the tea cup! The most memorable thing about this tea party for Evy was of course the lemon cookies. She couldn't stop telling me how tasty the lemon cookies were. So since she loved it so much, I went online and made her some lemon cookies. I would say the first batch that I tried, I didn't like it because the cookie was soft. I preferred my cookie crispy. Nevertheless, both my girls finished all the lemon cookies in a day. Since I was dissatisfied with the online recipe, I tried to create my own crispy lemon cookies. So, I came out with this recipe that I thought was pretty good. And I hope you will like it too!



Ingredients:

(A)
1 1/2 cup. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. powdered milk

(B)
1/2 cup butter, softened (or 1 stick), cut into 4
2 tsp. Pure lemon extract
2 Tbsp. milk

(C)
Decorating color sugar or sprinkles (optional)

Method:

1. In a food processor, add (A), pulse to combine.

2. Add (B) and process until a dough formed around the blade. Take out the dough and give it a few knead to combine.

3. Roll into 1/4 inch and cut with a cookie cutter. Arrange on a lined baking sheet (with parchment paper) and decorate the cookies with (C) as desired.

4. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack. Keep in air-tight container.


This is my first batch of (failed) soft lemon cookies.

Don't forget to check out my perfected Crispy Lemon Cookies 2.

Cheap Rechargeable Batteries & Table Tennis Products

Are you a Table Tennis player and looking for some table tennis products? What about some cheap rechargeable batteries? Come check out JBStore.com!! We strive to provide best pricing and best customer service for your shopping convenience.

Use of Leftovers 2: Stir-fried Rice Cubes

Remember my leftovers from the satay dinner? I cut the compressed rice into cubes. Added 3 stalks of scallions (cut into 1.5 inch), an egg, 5 extra large shrimps, half a carrot (sliced), plus the leftover shallots and turned it into a bowl of yummy fried rice cubes with shrimps.


This bowl was for my hubby's snack after he came home from work.



This was my lunch box for the next day. This rice cubes fried rice turned out to be delicious. As for the seasonings, I used sweet dark soy sauce, black bean in chili oil, dark soy sauce, a little salt, white pepper and sugar. I got the inspiration from fried radish cake, since they look almost similar when cut into cubes.

So next time, when you have some leftover compressed rice from your satay party, you know what to do with it. To me, it tastes better this way then making more satay sauce to eat it with. Another option is to make some Rendang chicken or beef to have with the rice.

Have you been in a car accident?

Have you been in a car accident that wasn't your fault? Do you know you can re-coupe the diminished value of your vehicle up to four years from the accident? What is diminished value? Diminished value is the loss in market value of a vehicle that has been in an accident and repaired. Hence, if you are the victim of the accident, you can claim the diminished value of your vehicle from the at-fault party's insurance company in 50 states. However, if you live in Georgia, you can also claim Diminished Value from your own insurance company even if you were at fault! Want to find out what you are owed instantly for free? Click here for the free instant estimate of your diminished car value.

Mooncake Mold for Sales

Mooncake Festival is approaching and for those who want to try their hands in making their own mooncake but without the mold, here's your chance of getting one.

The size of the mold is 3.5" x 1.5", made of hard plastic material. This is suitable for making snowskin mooncake. The open cover ensures the easy release of the mooncake. Quantity is extremely limited, so first come first serve. Ship any where in the U.S.A.

If interested, please e-mail me (littlecornerofmine@gmail.com) for pricing and shipping information. Thank You!

Update @ 6pm: Thank You for your business, it's all sold.

Are You Financially Fit?

What is your Bills IQ? I chanced upon this free bills IQ test recently and decided to test out my bills IQ just to see whether I am financially fit. This test only took a few minutes of my time and at the end of the test, it gave me a score. Mine was 90% A which was not bad at all. After that, I got to read about the personal tips and advice associated to each question, to help me understand more about my financial profile. Through this test I learned that I really need to start contribute fund for my daughters college education and which plan to look into, which was great as I am pretty clueless about college fund plan. At the end of the test, I also get to compare my BillsIQ with the demographic to see where I stood. Lastly it also provided some links for us to check out our credit report for free, and where to refinance our mortgage if need to. It was a fun test for me. However, if your billsIQ turned out to be not as good, you can check out the credit counseling services to seek help. Credit counseling can review your finances, advice you about budgeting and devise a program to help you get out of debt and improve your credit score.

*This post is sponsored*

Edda's Dinner Plate

Stir-fry Chinese green with carrot, Pork Rendang (pork dry curry), and Japanese rice ball with filling (onigiri).



Got this idea from Peony and coincidently I have the pork floss and furikake and the Japanese rice mold from D. So, wait no further, I made this for my daughters. Evy didn't want hers with furikake so I omitted that for her. They loved it so much that they wanted this for lunch tomorrow as well. Thanks Peony & D! :)

Method:

Press some warm rice into the mold, add a layer of pork floss, top with more warm rice, use the cover provided by the mold to close it, press slightly. Turn it over and push the rice out from the hole. Decorate the top of the rice ball with some Furikake. Alternately, you can shape the rice ball by hands and use less filling.

My Brother Came Here for Training

Recently my brother was sent to Denver by his company for a week of training. Upon arrival, he would need a car to drive to his hotel, training center and around town. He asked me to help him to look for an affordable car rental company which I gladly did. I forwarded him the website and told him to check out their featured specials and other special offers before booking. And mentioned to him about the up to 50% discount on the luxury and convertible cars offer if he ever feel like driving a week of luxury car while here. He checked the rate and made the reservation online and picked up the car at the airport when he arrived. He was self-efficient and even drove down to pay us a visit. Of course we were happy to see him and even received some goodies from my mom.

*This post is sponsored*

Use of Leftovers 1: Cucumber Rojak

This is the leftovers from the satay dinner the other day. Some homemade compressed rice, tiny bit of shallots and a small bowl of cut cucumbers. For the cucumber, it was fairly easy to turn it into another dish of it's own. Scroll down to see what I did with it.



I turned it into a cold and refreshing cucumber rojak with the ready made CKC satay sauce. I always have some toasted ground peanuts and sesame seeds in my freezer. So making this dish is as easy as 123. I do love to store some ready made rojak sauce in my pantry just in case I have a craving or some leftover cucumbers. Of course you can now order this sauce at the convenience of your home, in front of your computer at MyTasteOfAsia.com.

Stay tuned to see how I transform the compressed rice and shallots into! Part 2 coming up!

Cheap Vacation

Do you need a vacation? I think all of us need a vacation sometime. Even though I just came back from Malaysia, I want to go on a vacation again. I never been to the Mediterranean and I always dream of going there one day. I am dreaming of the white sand beaches and a place to rest and relax. As we did not get to visit any beaches while in Malaysia. Vacation can be expensive and with the additional two kids that I have, I really looking for Cheap holidays. Right now I am just looking because who knows I might find one that is really affordable, right? If you are looking for a cheap holidays some where in the Mediterranean, feel free to check out this website. They offer the most popular resort destinations with a wide range of resorts for you to choose from. You might be able to find and book your dream holiday for much less with this low cost holidays. And because they are so sure of their pricing, they even offer the low price guarantee. For example, if you find a cheaper price offered by another company within 24 hours of booking, they will match the price for you. They even have the late deals and advance booking discount.

The Triangle Number Under Your Water Bottle

Are you guys aware that the triangle number under your water bottle actually means something? It tells us what type of material the plastic bottle was made of. And the recent studies suggested that the most popular hard, clear and durable plastic bottle that we used was made of Polycarbonate and one of the key components of this is the endocrine-disrupting bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA can leach into the liquid and making the water toxic and can cause breast cancer in women or prostate cancer in men and some other illnesses. This bottle has numbered (3), (6) or (7) in the triangle. So, I would advice all my friends and family members to stop using any water bottle that has a number (3,6,7) under the bottle. The most common plastic bottle that we have seen everywhere has a number (7) in the triangle. I just threw away mine, all six of them. I know this bottle looks nice but it can kill also!

I guess the best re-usable water bottle would be one made from stainless steel as they don't leach any chemicals. But it can be expensive. The other is aluminum as it is BPA free and very reasonably priced. Other alternative is to look for water bottles that contained number (2) (high-density polyethylene), (4) (low-density polyethylene) and (5) (polypropylene) if it is plastic made.

If not, just drink from the glass or coffee cup. Use glasses while at home and only use the plastic water bottles with number (2), (4) and (5) in the triangle while going out. Number (1) water plastic bottle is safe to use but it was not meant to be re-used.

For updated information, click here. Looks like water bottle number (1) is safe for one time and repeated use, as long as you wash it with soap and dry it nicely each time after use.

Zenni Optical was on FOX news!

I mentioned about this affordable prescription glasses, ZenniOptical.com in my previous post and now Zenni Optical was on Fox news! I guess when it is cheap, the news spread fast. You will find a huge selection of stylist frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens from as little as $8.





*This post is sponsored*

Pandan Kuih Bahulu (or Kuih Bahlu)

I bought a light non-stick kuih bahlu pan at my recent trip back in Malaysia. This was not the traditional heavy kuih bahlu pan because I certainly wouldn't want to carry those. Since I got the pan, I wanted to test out the pan and I found the kuih bahlu recipe at Rainbows. I added pandan paste into mine because I was curious of how it would taste like. In my first batch, I sprayed the pan with some butter spray and all the pattern disappeared. So, I learned a lesson there. I didn't spray on my second batch and above was what I got. The pattern was not as clear cut because the indentation in the pan was not deep compared the the traditional mold.

Since I have not eaten any store-bought kuih bahlu or any kuih bahlu made with the mold for ages, I couldn't tell how this was. Thus I purposely made this to bring to my friend's house and let them be the judges. According to the hubby, it's better than store-bought and it was pretty good, he said the store-bought one was really dry. According to the wife, it's still a bit dry compared to the one her MIL made. I thought it was kind of chewy. How is it supposed to taste like huh?

Update: I did some research on the web and the texture of kuih bahulu is supposed to be dry, crispy outside and slightly spongy inside and best eaten with coffee/tea because of it's dry texture. Ha! Now I know for sure I got it right.

YUM - YUM Blog Award

I would love to thanks My Kitchen Snippets for giving me this YUM - YUM blog award. It was so sweet of her and I really appreciated it. I would love to pass it to the YUM-YUM blogs below:

Soy and Pepper
Kedai Hamburg
The Adventure of my cooking diary
Rainbows

Police Gear

Are you looking for police gear? Check out LA Police Gear for the wide selection of tactical gear, tactical vest, footwear & boots, Galco holsters, Maxpedition gear and more. They are selling it to anyone who is interested in buying and strive to provide the customer with fast shipping, low cost and outstanding service.

*This post is sponsored*

Satay Dinner Again!

While replying to Cooking Ninja regarding my satay sauce and compressed rice, Evy walked by and saw the satay chicken. She loved satay chicken and of course requested that I make it for her. I was salivating looking at the pictures and reminiscing how good the satay sauce taste, so I told her I will make satay for dinner the next day.


Yummy and moist satay chicken! Help yourself ya!


My homemade compressed rice, seedless cucumber and shallot.


Peanut satay sauce. Dipping sauce for the satay chicken and accompaniment.



And guess what I ended out using? The Rasaku satay marinade & sauce mix!! I was pleasantly surprised with this brand because I was quite skeptical when I saw the satay sauce that came in the packet. It was in powder form and all I needed to add was water and oil. I was contemplating of making my own sauce or using this powder and decided to give it a try. The sauce looked okay when thicken, so I did a taste test and it was not too bad. But I wanted more flavor out of it and creamier in texture, so I added some creamy peanut butter and toasted ground peanuts into the sauce. Now it looked really good and tasted superb. I won't be hesitating in buying this brand again, just for convenience and it's authenticity in taste. If you want to try it too, you can buy it online at MyTasteOfAsia.com. I just checked the website and now this paste is on sales for $1.95! Grab it before it's gone!

Weight Loss Pills

Hmmm...what do you think? Maybe the weight loss pills is more suitable for me huh? Since I wanted to lose the weight quick without doing much of the hard work. But they are so many pills out there so how do I determine which one is the best for me? I have no knowledge of any weight loss pills in the market and can consider myself totally clueless. So, where and how do I begin? Again, I logged on to my Internet and did some research on the web and came out with this WeightLossPills.net where they did the hard work of researching and examined each weight loss pills in the market and write a comprehensive review about the pills. They even provided us with their top five recommendations and rated each with a score. In addition to that, click on the review to read about "The Good", "The Bad" and "The Skinny" on each pill so we the consumers can be well informed and made the right choice for ourselves. Sounds good huh?

Foodie Blogroll and Friendship Award

After seeing so many of my blogger friends joined the Foodie Blogroll, I finally joined the blogroll myself. It is a list where all the food bloggers are and it has expanded a lot since the last time I'd seen it. Feel free to join if you haven't done so and wanted people to know about your blog. You may join by simply clicking the "Submit your blog" link in the Foodie blogroll itself on my right hand panel.




I also want to thanks Beachlover for passing me this beautiful friendship award. Thanks ya! Friendship can be found and bond through blogging and is even sweeter with friend like you. I would love to pass this along to:

East Meets West Kitchen
Daily Affairs
Precious Moments
Saucing Around, Jo's Deli
Kedai Hamburg
Rainbows

Assorted Baked Donuts

I wanted to bring my bakes to share with our good friends in Broomfield. And since I really like this healthier version of baked donuts, I decided to make some to share with them. The variety of toppings I can put on these are endless. I managed to make some savory baked donuts this time by included pork floss and cheese. Added a little crunch with some cereal crunch with almond. I like it both savory and sweet. Of course this donut is still best consumed on the day it was baked.

Anyone wants to order a dozen assortment of baked donuts from me or not? ;)

Diet Pills?

I surely need to lose some weight! I have a stubborn five pounds that I gained from child birth and an additional ten pounds that I gained while visiting in Malaysia. Oh man, all the delicious food that I couldn't stay away and thus all the extra pounds that I packed back as souvenir. How! I tried to eat salad for lunch and do some walking in the neighborhood during the evening and still the pounds stay. Then, I thought of the magic pills, is there any Diet Pills out there that can solve my problem? A hopefully quick fix to my problem before the holidays start? There are so many diet pills out there so which one is the best for me? I did a quick research and found a website with a listing of the top 10 diet pills in the market and with the cheapest online price that they found for us. They did the researching work for us and all we needed to do is to look through the list and find the best one that suited us. Hmmm...maybe I should order some diet pills and give it a try.

Twice Cooked Pork

I bought some family size pork recently. It turned out some pieces had more fat than the other. I noticed some with three layers of fat too. Normally I would cut away all the fat, but how to cut when it had three layers of fat in between? So, instead of spent too much time slicing away the fat, I just cut them into pieces. Since these were some fatty pork, I thought of preparing them like in twice cooked pork.


First, I boiled them in boiling water until cooked. Then, drained and set aside. As for the ingredients, I used red bell pepper, scallion, dried red chili, garlic, LKK premium dark soy sauce, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper and sesame oil.


Can I say YUMMY!

Do you know what this is good with, a bottle of ice cold beer!

Affordable Eyeglasses

I wear glasses and I often find the eyeglasses here are expensive without the insurance. But since I found this website, zennioptical.com buying eyeglasses has never been so affordable. You can get a pair of 1.57 high index lens complete prescription eyeglasses from $8 and shipping cost is only $4.95. Why the low cost? Because Zenni Optical only sells their own manufactured brand~Zenni directly to you without any advertising cost or middlemen. They do have a wide range selection of frames and they strive to provide you, the customer with a fashionable and stylist product. Do check out their variable dimension frames that aids you in choosing the frame that fit your face!




*This post is sponsored*

Salad with Sun Ripened Tomatoes and Dried Apricot

I need to lose some weight that I gained in Malaysia. So what is the best healthy choice for me to do so? I thought salad for lunch might be just it (of course plus exercise too). So easy to prepare and sure look like a healthy meal. I received two bottles of free Kraft salad dressing from Kraft Food. So it sure comes in handy for my salad. I used the Light Raspberry Vinaigrette with reduced fat dressing with the prewashed iceberg garden salad that I bought in the grocery store. My added touch would be the sliced sun ripened tomatoes and dried apricot in my salad.

By the way, anyone knows the difference between sundried tomatoes and sun ripened tomatoes? When I did the purchase I thought I was buying the sundried tomatoes until I saw the name on the packet later. Are they the same thing?

p/s
Dear Readers,
Happy 4th of July and Happy BBQing where ever you are and enjoy the Fireworks!

Singapore Style Mee Siam

I just realized in the recent years that Singapore mee siam (rice vermicelli) is completely different from Malaysian mee siam. I grew up eating Malaysian mee siam which is dried and spicy. So imagine my surprise when I learned that Singapore style mee siam has gravy in it and it's a combination of sweet, sour, spicy and made with fermented yellow beans. I was really curious of how it tasted like that my good friend V, from East Meets West Kitchen who is from Singapore purposely cooked this mee siam for me. That was quite a lot of work that went into preparing this mee siam from scratch and she really spent the whole morning cooking. I was really appreciated of her effort and 爱心.



I always heard about how tasty this Prima Taste mee siam is that I just need to grab one to try. Since my readers know that I'm not really as hardworking as preparing paste from scratch, this kind of ready made paste has suited me the best. I can have a bowl of delicious mee siam in 30 minutes or less. One thing is, this brand is not cheap. It's about US $6 per box and serves two American servings and three Malaysian servings. Compare to other brands that range between $2+ to $3+ and serve more servings, you do the math.



This is definitely a yummy bowl of Singapore mee siam that you can make your own in less than 30 minutes. Just a bit on the pricey end. Prima, Prima, if any of you are reading this, can you lower the price you set for US consumers so that we can enjoy this paste more often (can't blame me for trying right? ;P)?

Ingredients:

1 box of Prima Taste Mee Siam Paste
2 boiled eggs
1/2 cup of taufu pok (deep-fried soy bean cake), cut in half
6-8 Shrimps
1/4 cup chopped scallion
Half packet of dried rice vermicelli (mee hoon), soaked in hot water until soften

Method:

1. Follow the packet instruction for the mee hoon, set aside.

2. Follow the packet instruction for the soup, while boiling add in the taufu pok and shrimps.

3. Cut the boiled eggs.

4. Divide the mee hoon into two bowls. Add in the soup with the taufu pok and shrimps. Arrange the sliced boiled egg on top and sprinkle with scallion. Top with sambal and lime juice provided in the packet to serve.

I am serving this noodle to this week Pesto Pasta Night and sharing it with Ruth and her readers.

Thank You FoodBuzz!

Look what I received in the mail. A care package from FoodBuzz to welcome the Summer! I totally loved it!


Look, it has my blog name on one of the pins! Cool right?

Thank you FoodBuzz, I will proudly wear around town and create some buzzzzzz for you and me! :)

Gift for Bachelorette

One of my oldest girl friends is finally going to tie the knot. We have been speculating when is she going to get married since she and her beloved have been together for years. And one fine day I finally heard the great news from her and I was so happy that they decided to walk down the aisle. I have been thinking of what to get her for her bachelorette party and it came down to a sexy lingerie made with 100% silk chemise with stretch lace bust. Along with that I am going to include the Forever New combo pack so that she can wash her delicate lingerie in it. Forever New is an organic fabric wash that has the best formulas ingredients to keep your lingerie and other delicates fresh in appearance and fit. I will have to enclose a card for her so that she can order more of this fabric wash in the future. For us ladies who love to shop, it has a wide range of European designed bras and panties too.