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.

Ingredients:

(A)

1/2 pound ground pork

8 large shrimps, minced

1 tsp. Ginger juice or 1 Tbsp. minced ginger

1 green onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. sugar
Dashes of white pepper

(B)

1/4 cup of minced carrots for decoration

Some frozen green peas for decoration

Round wontan wrappers, as needed

Method:

1.  Add (A) in a bowl and stir in one direction until blended.

2.  Take a piece of the round wontan skin and place a sizable amount of filling in the middle, hold the skin up to cover the filling.  Decorate the top with some minced carrots and place a green pea in the middle (optional).  Finish the rest of the siew mai.

3.  Steam in boiling water for 15 minutes, using a bamboo steamer or any steamer that you have.  Serve with chili in oil.

More CNY Bakes 2008 (1)

Pandan Kuih Bangkit ~ Decided to add some pandan paste for a change. Don't think it's green enough...haha... Anyway, not very happy with this batch and I think I know why. I used the frozen coconut milk (curdled coconut cream!) instead of opening a new can of coconut milk, didn't think it would make a different but it did (ended out needed more coconut milk). It's not as crispy & light, more towards crunchy and melt in the mouth. Oh well, lesson learned!



Melt-in-the-Mouth Pineapple Tarts ~ Everyone favorite! I stick with the same old pattern because it yield more tarts for me. I didn't use a lot of pineapple filling too, so the sweetness is just "gam gam hor" (just nice).

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

Green Bean Almond Cookies

My first CNY bakes after much procrastination. I bought a packet of green bean flour thinking of using it to make some cookies for CNY. Did a search on the Internet and found this recipe here. Easy enough for my liking and thus got the recipe printed out to try later. After seeing few of my frequent blogs came out with their CNY bakes, I finally got motivated to start baking. LeeLee (Hugbear) said once my engine starts, I will keep going...hahaha...



This cookie is crunchy and melt in the mouth. It has the green bean fragrant as the almond is used for decoration only. Next time I would probably omit the almond, shape the cookie differently and make it a green bean cookie instead. Evy and Edda both adore this cookies as they couldn't resist themselves to ask for it everyday. Evy prefers it without the almond on top as she would pick it aside.

I sure think I made pretty and yummy CNY cookies, anyone wants to buy from me (provided you are willing to pay $12-$16 per bottle plus shipping)? LOL!

This is the Green Bean Flour that I used. Since many have asked, I posted a picture here for reference.

INA Oriental Seafood Pan Mee

Usually Sat & Sun are my days off from cooking. We combine dining out and Chinese take out for these two days and I just glad that I don't have to think of what to cook. But sometimes in order to save money, I would cook for Sunday dinner. The above is an example of those days. I wanted to try this new product that is offered at Mytasteofasia.com. INA Oriental Seafood Pan Mee that is flavored with abalone and scallop definitely sounded attractive. So, I grabbed the noodle and told my hubby let's try this noodle tonight. I took out some prawns, assorted fish balls, tofu and baby spinach and I was all set.

This INA pan mee is the thin version as you can see from the picture above and I totally loved it!! I actually much prefer this thinner version than the original wide version. It really smooth to the throat and the soup was tasty too. It came with dried seaweed, dried corns, etc and thus when you eat the noodle, you can taste the flavor of seaweed too.

A cheap dinner for us. If we dine out, it would be $40-$50. Order Chinese take out would be $20. So, this $5 dinner is considered cheap. Satisfying nevertheless.





This is the picture of the noodle which I grabbed from Mytasteofasia website. For those who already ordered from that website, please give this noodle a try next time. For those who are living in the U.S. and misses M'sian food, this website really is a one stop shopping heaven for you, provided you couldn't find these products at your local Asian markets. Please go support my friend R online store, okay? :) As you can see, I love to help my friend promote his online store. :P

Vermont Curry (House's Curry Sauce Mix)

The other day I asked my hubby to buy me 2 boxes of Korean instant noodle bowls (12 bowls per box), one shrimp flavor and one Kimchi flavor and you know what he came home with? He came home with 2 boxes of shrimp flavor and 3 boxes of Kimchi flavor and two packets of House sauce mix. That's a lot of noodle bowls I tell you! As for the curry mix, I think he couldn't resist the pretty girl that gave him the sample of the curry and thus bought the sauce mix. He said it's really good so he buy (but who knows! LOL!). He paid $2 each and it's on promotion I think.

This Vermont Curry (it's Japanese curry basically) tasted pretty good and healthier because no coconut milk needed and everything cooked in 30 minutes. For $2 it's actually pretty cheap considering it has two packets inside and one packet alone can serve a big pot of curry.

My lunch today.

Closer look of the curry.

I added mixed vegetable instead of potatoes since we are not really a fan of potato. I really like this House brand and next time would probably seek out other flavor curry to try. Cheap, healthy and so convenient, that's my way of cooking.

Golden Prosperity Soup

This soup has:

Dried bean curd sheet
Dried bamboo Fungus
Dried lily buds
Tofu
Tang hoon (Bean Thread Vermicelli)
Egg drops

I cooked them in Swanson chicken broth for ease. You can use homemade chicken stock of course.



One bowl of this can serve as lunch already, as it is quite substantial. I love this soup so want to share it with my readers, now you have one new soup to cook for your family. I think this soup is great to serve during Chinese New Year. You can substitute dried bamboo fungus with dried fish maw or simply put both. Hmmm...would be good with crab meats, imitation crab sticks too huh?

Steamed Siew Mai (Pork Dumplings)

Decided to use the leftover filling from the Wontan Rolls with Nori Sheets to make Siew Mai. Serve with my homemade Chili in Oil. Everyone loved it! Guess next time I would have to make more.



Siew Mai is an item commonly served in Dim Sum restaurant. Some more expensive one added one whole shrimp in the siew mai. Homemade siew mai is healthier because the restaurant added lard in the siew mai to make it tastier. Not sure whether they still use lard in preparing their siew mai these days? Because of this we always order the Har Gow (Shrimp dumpling) instead of siew mai.

Wontan Rolls with Nori Sheets

I got this inspiration from Tigerfish. She used nori sheet in this recipe and at that time I thought what a great idea. Never realized I can wrap a sheet of nori seaweed in the usual spring roll wrapper, wontan wrapper, egg roll wrapper or like her, beancurd sheet before deep-frying before, what an excellent idea don't you agree? I promised Evy to make her some egg rolls because her daddy was quite reluctant to order it from outside because of the unknown oil used in deep-frying the egg rolls. He is scared of trans fat.


Cut the nori sheet into the appropriate size for the wontan wrapper. Place filling like above and roll it. Seal with water.


How the rolls look like when done. Remember to pinch and seal the edges with water too.


Deep-fry in low-medium heat canola oil until golden brown.


Ready to serve with Thai sweet chili sauce!

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! Love the extra bite the nori sheet provided.

Thai Pineapple Rice

I received a packet of Asian Home Gourmet's Thai Pineapple Rice ready made paste from a friend who returned from Singapore. She gave me a few other ready-made pastes too. Last week the pineapple was on-sales for $1 each, down from the usual $5 and thus I bought three of them. Thinking of just eating it fresh but then I remember I have a packet of pineapple rice paste that I needed to use, and therefore this dish was created.

This pineapple rice is selling for $9.99 at the M'sian restaurant here. Now I can just buy the paste and make it myself for less, the paste is selling for $1.69 in Denver and actually tasted very good. Furthermore, I can serve a family of four.



I wanted to present my pineapple rice in the pineapple shell because it is how it was presented in the restaurant. Little did I know, cutting out the pineapple fresh was not an easy task at all. Now I am wondering whether the restaurant charges more because of this extra work of preparing the pineapple shell for presentation?

Cornflakes Cookies

I finally test out this cookie by baking a batch since this is one of the cookies I wanted to make for CNY. Glad to say I like it and it's so easy to make too. I used the small cookie scoop to scoop the cookies and hence the even shape. This way I don't even have to dirty my hands.

The Spreader of Love Award

I received this award from the lovely Rainbows. This is also my first award on this new year. Thank you Rainbows for passing this award to me. :)



This blog has been awarded The Spreader of Love Award created by The Love Blog, for an outstanding demonstration of blogging love.

Now, I would like to spread the love by forwarding this award to my fellow blogging friends:

V's East Meets West Kitchen
Daphne- More than Words
Big Boys Oven
Daily Affairs
Beachlover's Kitchen
Edith's Precious Moments
Tigerfish - Teczcape

Fellow friends, now it's your turn to spread the love! :)

Good Old Bowl of Chili

I decided to make a pot of Chili today. It's non-traditional but very easy to make. I don't have a specific measurement simply because I hate to take out the spoon to measure everything. I used pork slices instead of ground pork/beef. Again too lazy to ground the pork with my cleaver. Why Chili? Because it's freezing cold over here and I'm dreaming of a bowl of hot Chili!



First, I browned the pork in extra virgin olive oil. Dish out and set aside. Then, I add in one chopped yellow onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Brown those in the E.V. olive oil, when brown, I pour in 28oz. of whole tomatoes with juice (break it out) and 15oz. of red beans in Chili, add in the pork slices and some water. The seasonings I used were garlic powder, onion powder, cumin powder, paprika powder, cayenne powder, oregano, parsley, a little cane sugar, salt & pepper to taste. Covered and let it simmer at low heat for 2 hours. Serve with shredded cheese and rice on the side.

Note: Add 2 cans of red beans in Chili or any beans you fancy if you like lots of beans.

Birthday Month Personality Tag.......

I got another tag from Rainbow....by looking at your birth month......you get to know something about yourself..........just like your zodiac sign........here is how you do it........


Rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged you and create a link back to them.
2. Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (see below).
3. Pick your month of birth (see below).
4. Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!



I am a August baby...............



THE MONTHLY FLAVORS, WHICH ARE YOU?

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.

FEBRUARY:Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizes dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

MARCH: Attractive personality. Sexy. Affectionate. Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented. Loves special things. Moody.

APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people’s problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving. Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest. Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

MAY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

JUNE: Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Able to show character. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.

AUGUST: Loves to joke. Attractive. Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadership qualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic. Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit. Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Careful and cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead and to be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense. Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns to relax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to make friends.

SEPTEMBER: Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to point out people’s mistakes. Likes to criticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal but not always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn’t pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

NOVEMBER: Has a lot of ideas. Difficult to fathom. Thinks forward. Unique and brilliant. Extraordinary ideas. Sharp thinking. Fine and strong clairvoyance. Can become good doctors. Dynamic in personality. Secretive. Inquisitive. Knows how to dig secrets. Always thinking. Less talkative but amiable. Brave and generous. Patient. Stubborn and hard-hearted. If there is a will, there is a way. Determined. Never give up. Hardly becomes angry unless provoked. Loves to be alone. Thinks differently from others. Sharp-minded. Motivates oneself. Does not appreciate praises. High-spirited. Well-built and tough. Deep love and emotions. Romantic. Uncertain in relationships. Homely. Hardworking. High abilities. Trustworthy. Honest and keeps secrets. Not able to control emotions. Unpredictable.

DECEMBER: Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egotistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

Don't find this to be accurate in my case, but did it just for fun. Feel free to do this tag if you want, I'm not going to tag anyone. :)

My Yong Tao Foo Sauce

What I did with my leftover fish paste from making the you tiao? Make yong tau foo of course. I only have taufoo poks and red chilies so that would do. But the main purpose of this post is to share with you this yong tau foo sauce. I created this sauce by chance at my friend A's house when she suggested me to make a sauce for her yong tau foo. I have been using Rasa Malaysia soy bean paste sauce all this while but my friend soy bean paste has turned bad so had to throw it away and left me to think of an alternative fast. And thus this sauce was created.

Green Tea Milk Loaf

No bread at home but want to eat bread with the pork floss I bought so how? Have to take out my breadmaker and start making bread. Since it's freezing cold over here and I'm too lazy to shape and prove my bread, the easiest way is to let the breadmaker do everything. Yeah, I don't want to wash the extra pan nor turn on my oven!



I decided to play around with the recipe again and turned this milk loaf bread into Green Tea flavor. This is the recipe I used because I'm out of heavy cream and I really like milk loaf. I used 1 whole egg instead of 35g of egg, what am I going to use with the leftover half an egg huh? I also used 2% fresh milk instead of skim. In addition, I also added 1/2 tsp. green tea powder and 1 tsp. bread improver. Set my breadmaker to Basic, Light Crust and 1.5 lb. and have my bread ready in 2.5 hours.



Not bad at all. It's soft and fluffy with green tea flavor. My girls ate half of the bread while it's still warm so only got five pieces left for tomorrow breakfast. By the way, I find cutting the bread is a challenge, when do you supposed to cut the bread, when it's still warm or when it's cool down completely? The bread is so soft so I basically have to squeeze the bread to cut it with my serrated knife when it's still warm (the side crust is still a bit hard so I can grab hold on it). I'm afraid when it's all soft I will have no way to slice it. So, I sliced my bread when it's still warm and put them in an air-tight container. When and how do you normally slice your bread?

Hmmm...should have used the timer so that I can wake up with a fresh loaf of bread huh?

Fried Fish Paste You Tiao

This is what happen when a craving strike! I really like the one that stuffed with sotong paste like commonly served in M'sia. But since I don't normally buy squids and also I think it's healthier with fish paste, I tried it out with the ready made fish paste. I seasoned the fish paste with sesame oil, white & black peppers and chopped scallion. Stuffed it in the you tiao and spread some sesame seeds on top and deep-fried until cooked.

Oh, do forgive my clumsy job with the mayonnaise! It's not supposed to be like this, supposed to be thin strips over and across the you tiao and made it really pretty. Little did I know that my mayo cap is the wide type and can't really do any pattern on it. Thus, look so ugly! LOL! My failed attempt on presentation. :P

When I tried it, only then I knew it's the wrong Mayo! Did they use the Japanese mayo in M'sia? Because it's certainly not the American mayo. The mayo served supposed to be on the sweet side and really compliment the fried you tiao well. Not the American mayo though, it just didn't suit and I resorted to eat it with the Thai sweet chili sauce instead. I was thinking either the Japanese mayo or they added honey or other stuff in the mayo. Anyone care to enlighten me?

It turned out crispy and good but it can be better with perhaps ground pork + shrimp paste. Fish paste is not as sweet in my opinion.

Here's to my last post of 2007. Tomorrow will be a new year to look forward to.

May the New Year brings us much joy, health and wealth!!

A Moment Captured!

I was busy preparing dinner and Edda came looking for me. She wanted me to carry her but I told her, mommy cannot carry you now because she needs to cook dinner, why don't you go where your daddy is. And when I turned around and I saw the scene below. I though what a moment and quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots.

How sweet right?

I am really amaze at how much she understood me. Even though she only know how to say mama, papa, paopao (carry) and make the sound of lion roar, sometimes dog and cat but she can really understand me very well. Whatever I told her to do, she will do it for me. For example, when we were at my friend's A house, I was telling her Edda seem to understand what I said and to illustrate, I took out a jar and a cup from the playset and asked Edda to pour me some water (this was at 13 months). She would take the jar and pretend to pour the water in the cup and set the jar down. Then I told her to bring the cup for me and she did just that. How impressive was that for a 13 months old to do? My friend A said Edda is the most advance toddler she had ever seen, because not only she understood, she acted upon it with precision. I was like really, that's good to know. I was complaining that she hardly say much and then someone said the 2nd one would speak later because the 1st one tends to speak it on her behalf and thus making her least likely to talk. It does make sense or because this mommy didn't read for the 2nd one, that's why! *blush*

Edda, look here! As for daddy, need to censor a little bit....LOL!

Vertical Chicken Roaster

I wanted to show Beachlover my stand rack for roasting chicken. I bought this ages ago, probably with me for 10 years already and I have been using it to roast my chicken. So, not sure whether you can find this in the market these days because the one I have seen on the market now is the one Beachlover's got for herself.

With this, I have to use my own Pyrex pie plate, covered with foil for catching drips and easy cleaning. I also spray my rack before placing the chicken in for ease of cleaning too. I use my convection oven to roast my chicken and each time the skin of the chicken is crispy which my hubs loved. Since the chicken is standing up so the skin is crispy all over and making the chicken really tasty.

So, arm with this great tips, go buy a stand rack if you happen to see it. :)

Almond Mixed Fruit Scones

I made some cream scones again. I have a little of the heavy cream left and I wanted to use it before it expired. I remember this cream scones recipe is very easy and yummy, no beater needed, just a fork/spoon to mix the dry ingredients and lastly pour in the heavy cream (or use a food processor). Form a dough, cut and bake, very easy.



I added raisins and candied pineapples in my almond scones this time. Oh mine, this scones are just so delicious, so good when it was still warm and also very good when it's cold or days later (if it can last that long). I offered my hubby a piece when it was still warm, he refused to eat it. I was like this is a very tasty stuff, still he shakes his head, oh well more for me and the kids then. Guess what, he came home today and decided to try one, less than 3 minutes later he came out from the studies and took the whole container (only 2 left), I had to yell at him, you got to save one for me ya, don't finish all! LOL! It is that good, can even convert my hubby!

Pumpkin Cake

I happen to try some delicious store-bought pumpkin cakes at my friend's house recently which prompted me to make one myself. Since now is the season for pumpkin, the Libby's 15oz canned pumpkin is on-sales for $1 each. So, I grabbed some. After some research, I decided to try the Pumpkin Cake I posted at allrecipes.com.



The alternation that I made was I cut down the sugar to 2 cups. It turned out just nice for me, not overly sweet. I omitted the allspice because I don't have any and I also omitted the walnuts, easier for the kids to eat.


This cake is delicious, best eaten the next day when the crust has soften, easier to slice too. I store my cake in air-tight container.


Just want to show how moist and soft this pumpkin cake is! The spices are not too overpowering, just nice. A very festive cake indeed!


Lastly, while presenting you with this Pumpkin Cake, I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year! For those who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to you too! :)

Nasi Lemak II

Nasi lemak again but this time I wanted to try the Chan Hong sambal ikan bilis that I bought earlier. I read so much great review on this that I just got to buy one bottle and try. And the reviews never failed, this is indeed good and way too convenient. I just pour it in the microwave safe bowl and microwaved for a minute and served with my ever easy nasi lemak side dishes. I sprayed my ikan bilis with canola oil spray and microwaved for 2 minutes, learned that from Lily. I toasted my peanuts in my toasted oven for 8 minutes, cut out my English cucumber (long seedless cucumber) and boiled eggs to serve. Easy!



This is the picture of the bottle. This product is one of the best sellers at mytasteofasia.com so grab some to try. This is not a sponsor post okay, I just want to introduce or recommend a product that I have tested and loved it to my readers. I think this is best for someone who doesn't know how to cook sambal ikan bilis or doesn't have time to cook. Or someone like me who is just curious and wanted to try something new or maybe lazy too lah. :P Oh BTW, new products are in stock now. Even has belachan powder!

This sambal tasted like the Malay nasi lemak bungkus with banana leaf sambal at mamak stalls. Medium spicy.

Christmas Cookies

Butter cookies

Made some cookies as a gift and these were some of them. You can use a basic butter cookie dough , add peanut butter chips for color effect. And below, I added green coloring and pure peppermint extract for the season. As for me I used my melting moment recipe, added more flour and make it into a crispy cookies. All with the feel by hands, so don't ask me for recipe ya. But you can certainly experiment with it. I did this few years back with the same recipe and I played around with it and created 5 different cookies.

Only when I wanted to make Christmas cookies did I realize that I don't even have a Christmas tree, snowflake and ginger breadman cookie cutters! Guess now I will have to look for those to buy when it's on sales or cheap to keep for next year! I really thought I have this common cookie cutters! *Duh right?*

Peppermint Cookies