Stir-fried Spinach with Garlic

I am going to share a very easy stir-fry spinach dish here. I love to buy the packet prewashed baby spinach when it goes on sales for $1 each. It comes cleaned and cut so all I have to do is to throw the whole pack in. However, even though it said prewashed, it is still best to give it a rinse under running water. As sometimes they might missed a spot of dirt hidden under the leaves. I had it happen to me before so I know, we definitely do not want to ruin a whole plate of vegetable because we keep eating dirt. So, I still recommend you to rinse it first before throwing all in a wok to stir-fry.

Bakuteh

Some like the Singaporean version of white pepper bakuteh (pork ribs soup), some like the Malaysian version of dark herbal taste bakuteh. As for me, I prefer the Malaysian version and thus I decided to give Tean's Gourmet Bakuteh a try. I bought few packets from mytasteofasia.com as I hardly shop at Denver anymore. Oh yeah, MyTOA is going to close down its' business for the unknowing time being and the last day to take your order is Nov. 26th. So, go grab whatever you want before it's too late (if you haven't done so already!).



This is how the packet looks like. Overall, I still prefer Yew Chian Haw and A1 bak kut teh premix. If you are buying this, don't follow the salt amount indicated in the packet because it will turn out too salty.

7 Facts About Me

I have been tagged by Happy Cup for 7 facts about me. Gosh, I haven't done any tag about myself for quite some time so here it goes.

1. My life is pretty routine and non-challenging at the moment. Except to invent recipes or come up with something interesting for my blog (ok, that can be challenging as now I am in the blank!).

2. I love to be a stay at home mom.

3. I never held a full time job in my life before.

4. I started this blog to share my food pictures and never thought that my blog would earn me money one day.

5. I have a sister who is a year older than me and people always asked whether we were twin.

6. I am glad that I learned to ski before my first child was born. Those skiing years were sure fun and now it gets expensive. :(

7. I love watching Korean and Taiwanese dramas. :P

Here are the rules for tagging:

1. Link to my blog (tagger) on your blog.
2. Give seven facts about yourself.
3. Tag another seven bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and letting them know they were tagged and listing them (and their blogs) on your blog.

I am just going to tag two bloggers and who's the lucky ones?

Smell & Taste are my memory
Beachlover's Kitchen

Seafood Nyonya Assam Curry

Assam curry or sour based curry is normally cooked with seafood. Most commonly is assam fish or assam prawns. Since I didn't have any fish fillet at home, I opted for shrimps, bay scallops and fish balls. I also threw in some green beans and fried tofu.



I used the Singlong Instant Curry Nyonya Assam Mix (Spicy) that was given by a friend. I added a little whole milk for extra creaminess. Overall it was pretty good but it was too spicy for the kids.

Halloween, 2008

I think I haven't updating you all with the pictures of my girls for some time, so here it is. Their recent Halloween pictures. Evy totally loved this day because she will get to eat the candies afterward (1 or 2 per day if she finishes her lunch/dinner). It was the first time for Edda and I think she liked it too.


My little cat lady.


My little bee China doll.


Both of them can't wait to go trick-or-treating.

Char Kway Teow Malaysian Style

Since I haven't cooked fried kway teow (fried flat noodle) for awhile, while shopping at the Asian grocery store recently, I picked up the necessary ingredients and cooked it at night. The Asian restaurants here serve this noodle in a different way, they called it beef or chicken hor fun (炒牛河 or 鸡炒河). It is cooked differently from our Malaysian kway teow.



This is my hubby and daddy favorite dish. I don't normally eat this dish while I was in Malaysia. But once I came here, all these hawker style noodles, like char kway teow, hae mee, curry mee, mee rebus, mee goreng, or lam mee became something special. I guess the saying is true, you don't know how to appreciate when there is in abundance, but you will see the value when it is scarce.

Steamed Glutinous Rice with Mushroom & Chicken

My steamed glutinous rice with Chinese dried mushroom and chicken. I will cook this dish once in a blue moon when I miss eating some glutinous rice (sticky rice). This is like a substitute for "bak chang" (wrapped rice dumpling). They also called glutinous rice sweet rice here. You can look for sweet rice from Thailand in the Asian grocery store to make this dish.



I like mine steam instead of cook it in the rice cooker.

Spicy Mee Siam

One of my Friday night noodle dishes: Spicy Mee Siam.



This fried mee siam recipe I invented years ago, as I was not (and still) someone who flip through cookbook for recipe. Sorry won't be sharing this recipe so don't bother to ask me for the recipe. Just enjoy the food porn. :P

Kreativ Blogger Award

Thank you Smell & Taste Are My Memory for passing me this Kreativ Blogger Award. You know I love to display all the awards I received from my blogging friends, right? ;) Now, I would love to pass this award to my fellow blogging friends for their creative juices in coming out with a recipe or in their writing style.

My Kitchen Snippets

Kedai Hamburg
Saucing Around, Jo's Deli

Noob Cook

Mochachocolata-Rita

More than Words
Beachlover's Kitchen

Rainbows

Soft & Chewy Oats Raisins Cookies

I always prefer crispy cookies, if you have read my blog or a long time reader, you would know most of my cookies are hard and crispy in nature. However, once in a while I do enjoy some soft and chewy cookies, especially those oatmeal raisin cookies. Since I was in some experimental mood today and have some roll oats and raisins at home, so why not? So, I experimented with this recipe that I figure should work and hope for the best. Well, it turned out great, soft and chewy and even passed my hubby taste test. Now I have another new recipe in file whenever I feel like some soft and chewy cookies. My girls couldn't stop asking for and raving about this cookies too.

Chicken with Chili Paste with Holy Basil Leaves

I was recommended by aunty Lily with this Chili Paste with Holy Basil Leaves. Since I could not find it at my area, she got me a bottle to try. This paste is not spicy at all so if you wanted more kick just add some chili or sambal or chili paste when stir-frying. I should have added a little fish sauce as well (I just followed the direction from the bottle and found it a little bland). I cooked it with chicken breast, celery, carrot and onion.


This is how the paste looks like if you are interested.

Check out my review on Lee brand's Chili Paste with Sweet Basil Leaves.

Chicken Alfredo Spaghetti

We have a favorite Italian restaurant (Zio's) that we go to for our Chicken Alfredo. I tell you their chicken Alfredo, either the spicy one or the regular really hit the spot. The creaminess and flavor is just right, perfect!

So, for my Friday night dinner, I decided to cook this dish but with whole wheat spaghetti and store bought Alfredo sauce. Of course the store bought Alfredo sauce is nothing compared to the restaurant standard. I will still go back to that restaurant for the real deal.

Korean Spicy Tofu Stew

Remember the other day I bought lots of bay scallops and finding way to use them? Since I also bought some imitation crab meats and tofu, I just combined them into my spicy Korean soup. The key ingredient here is Gochujang, Korean red pepper paste. You can easily buy this at any of the Korean grocery store. This paste alone is pretty spicy but I always want an extra kick and added a few dashes of cayenne pepper powder. Guess who besides the parents loved this soup?



My little Edda enjoyed this spicy soup very much. Even me the mother thought this soup was spicy and yet this little fellow finished a bowl and requested for more! I had some leftover for the next day so ladled the rice with this soup and some tofu and crab meat for her and she finished everything in her bowl. WOW right? As for the big sister, she won't even dare to touch the soup!

For recipe, click here. Oh, I also added an egg into the soup this time.

Best Ever Pumpkin Cake

Like many others, I don't really like my pumpkin cake with a lot of spices. But I do like the fragrant of cinnamon powder but not too much. So, I created this recipe to suit my personal taste. This pumpkin cake is moist and soft and totally delicious. My keeper pumpkin cake recipe thus far. Bonus is very easy to make and absolutely divine.

Seafood Veggies Curry

On lazy day, I love to cook easy, throw everything in one pot meal. I love to add a lot of vegetable in my seafood curry because I love veggies. With Claypot curry mix, I don't even have to worry about preparing coconut powder or coconut milk because it has been included in the packet. However, I don't really like this Claypot fish curry mix as compared to it's rendang beef. I preferred Delimas vegetable curry paste better. That's solely my own opinion okay. This big pot lasted us for three meals!

Ingredients:

1 packet of Claypot Nyonya Fish Curry Mix (also available at mytasteofasia.com)
3 fish fillets, cut
1 bowl of shrimps
8 fish balls, cut into half
1 bowl of fried beancurds (taufu pok), cut into half
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup of frozen green beans
1/4 of head cabbage, cut

Method:

In a big pot, add in oil in medium heat, fry the spice mix until fragrant. Add in the recommended coconut milk and all the vegetable. Simmer until the cabbage has soften, add in the seafood and fish balls, simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with white rice.

Cheap Sushi Lunch

Want to eat some sushi but too lazy to make your own? Want to save some money instead of going to the restaurant? Well, you can buy this at Cosco for $5.65 each at my area. It is definitely double the amount that we found at other supermarket. Furthermore, it is very fresh. If you look closely at the picture, my hubby already stole a piece of the sushi before I could take a picture. LOL! Beachlover, told you you made me want to eat some sushi the cheap and lazy way. :P

Instead of eating out, sometimes we just buy this prepared meal at Cosco, like sushi, pizza or rotisserie chicken. It is way cheaper than dining out in a restaurant these days.

Healthy Cookies

Twin towers



A glimpse of the healthy cookies I submitted for the Home Food and Garden magazine March, 2009 contest. I can't publish the recipe now but will share this wonderful cookies recipe with you all next year. One of my best cookie recipes yet, bonus is very healthy and crispy and delicious! Can't wait to share this recipe with my readers.

I will be off this weekend to spend a night at my friend's house. She organized a little get-together "makan" (eating) session with my fellow friends living up north since we haven't met for quite some time. I was thrilled and really looking forward to meet all my friends again. I baked her some of this cookies to show my gratitude, hope she and her husband like it. (^.^)

The recipe of this cookies is posted here!  Enjoy!

Stir-fried Bay Scallops in Thai Green Curry Paste

I bought some bay scallops when it was on sales for buy one gets one free. I loved to buy it to substitute for chicken breasts. I was thinking hard on how to cook the bay scallops and came out with this dish. The deep-fried tofu was a great addition in this dish as it soaked up the flavor and sauce of green curry and went very well with rice. Now I am curious, how do you normally prepare the bay scallops since it's so small?

Green Tea Flavored Baked Donuts

Adding green tea powder for a change. You can add cocoa powder for a chocolate flavored donuts as well (recipe won't be the same as you will need more cocoa powder to bring out the flavor).


I split it open to share the texture of this donuts. It's still soft the second day.

Butterfly Award

I would love to thanks Family First for awarding me this Butterfly award. I am happy to know that you think my blog is one of the coolest blogs out there. *smile* Congrats on your blog as well.

As per the rules of accepting this award, I wish to now award my fellow bloggers which I think have one of the coolest blogs!

More than Words

Noob Cook

Kedai Hamburg
The Adventure of my cooking diary

Beachlover's Kitchen

Soy and Pepper

I sincerely hope you will accept this award from me, so, please :-

1. Put the logo on your blog;
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you;
3. Nominate 10 other blogs; (or only to those deserving ones???)
4. Add links to those blogs on yours;
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Congratulations!

Curry Chicken

Curry chicken, a very common dish in Malaysia. In Malaysia, every where you go, coffee house, night market, street food, restaurant, you will see curry chicken, weather it's Indian, Malay or Chinese, we hardly go without curry. As you see my curry chicken has no potatoes in it because none of my family members like it. And since potatoes are mostly starch, I prefer not to buy it as well. My lazy way of preparing curry these days is to use the drumsticks. I hate to chop chicken into smaller pieces, drumstick is cheaper than breast meat and I don't have to cut it. So, why not? A delicious curry chicken is super easy to cook with a premix.

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks
1 ChanHong instant rendang mix. (available at mytasteofasia.com)
1 packet of dried coconut powder (available at mytasteofasia.com)
Cooking oil

Method:

In a big pot, add in oil. Turn to medium heat, when heated, stir-fry the rendang mix until fragrant, add in drumsticks. Stir to coat well and add in the coconut milk. How diluted the coconut milk is depended on you. More coconut milk used like me, you will end out with a curry chicken (we love the gravy for rice), less coconut milk used, you will have your rendang (dried chicken curry). Simmer for 2 hours.

Stir-fried Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Friday night is noodle night for us. I will cook rice with two dishes sometimes plus soup on Monday-Thursday. On weekends, we eat out or takeaway/to go. What meal I cook depends on what grocery I buy, so sometimes we will have something different, most time we will have something familiar. One can't be creative all the times right? What happen if I ran out of creative idea to prepare dishes and I have nothing interesting to post in my blog? I saw a Chinese cooking show before where he was asked the same question and he said a cook will never run out of ideas to cook, if you give him the ingredients, he will cook the dish for you. If you are a cook, when you step into someone else kitchen, you will still be able to come out with a delicious dish with the ingredients at hands. Right or not? Anyway, above is my Friday noodle dish: Stir-fry whole wheat spaghetti with asparagus and chicken.

Asparagus with Chicken

Oh mine, how lazy I am getting these days! I didn't even bother to place it on a plate before taking picture. After this picture then I realized that it will definitely looks better if I serve it on a plate first before taking picture instead of taking it straight from a wok.

Another of my home cook dish: Stir-fry asparagus with chicken in shrimp paste sauce. You can add chili sauce (sambal) and season with fish sauce and a little sugar. I didn't bother to add chili sauce here because of my kids, even though they can eat spicy food but still not too spicy.

I started watching Korean drama recently. Just finished Full House and Goong, they were nice and very cute. Next K-drama would be Coffee Prince (lots of recommendation), but before that I want to watch the Taiwan drama first, so that I don't have to concentrate real hard to read the subtitle. LOL! Sometimes I missed it because I didn't read the subtitle fast enough. Adoi!

I started on Ying Ye 3 + 1, I found this drama very funny and with the exaggerated Kung Fu scene, very funny indeed (of course I like Ming Dao too)! Gigi, if you haven't watched this, this is another of my recommendation. (^.*)

Green Tea Yogurt Cupcakes/Muffins

Looks like I am addicted in baking yogurt cake right? Actually it is also I bought a big tub of plain yogurt so I have to finish it. This time I tried adding green tea powder into the yogurt cake. This cake has a slight fragrant of green tea and not too sweet.

Orange Cookies

Actually I wanted to make my favorite Crisp Lemon Cookies but I didn't have enough lemon extract so I changed it to Orange cookies instead. We were given a packet of Lemon cookies by a friend and it was coated with powder sugar and tasted really yummy. Thus, it had given me an idea for my next cookies.



I made this orange cookies using my Crisp Lemon Cookies recipe with one modification. These cookies were really crispy and all of us loved them and it tasted great with the added powder sugar.

Eggs Zucchini

Another of my newly created eggs dish with zucchini. I never cooked this dish before because this version of the eggs were more soggy and soft. But I wanted to try something different again. I think I really converted my hubby from not eating zucchini to eat zucchini because he never liked it before. Now I used it to stir-fry and even in cooking curry and he ate it all. This simple dish turned out to be surprisingly delicious. I will sure to cook it again.

Dark Chocolate Yogurt Cake

Because I liked this healthier version of yogurt cake so I decided to play with the recipe. So, I created this chocolate yogurt cake. Mine turned out to be black in color like a black cake, hahaha.... Reason being I was using the Special Dark cocoa powder and thus created this specially dark cake. :)



The texture of this cake looked different than my Pandan yogurt cake. It looked spongy but in reality it was soft and moist and packed with chocolate flavor. My daughters loved it and asked me to make it again.

Deep-fried Chicken and Drama

Here sharing with you a picture of my deep-fried chicken drumsticks using the Seah's Spicy Fried Chicken Spices that I bought in Singapore. The packaging looked so good that I just had to buy one and try. I coated the drumsticks with cornstarch before deep-frying, thus provided extra crunch to the drumsticks. Then again I would say we don't really have to waste money on fried chicken spices because it is easy to make one at home.

And for the Anon who recommended me to watch 命中注定我愛你, I would love to say Thank you very much because it was really good! 谢谢你哦, 真的很好看哦！Any other good recommendation? I am watching "Tokyo Juliet" now. Also, I would love to try the Korean drama since you all said it's better than Taiwan Idols drama, any good recommendation that is completely downloaded? The list is so long that I don't know where to start! Thanks in advance ya! :) Oh preferably not those sad ones, I hate to cry like crazy.

Stir-fried Green Beans with Bell Pepper & Carrot

I created this dish because I was tired of eating the green beans cooked in my usual way. I wanted to slice it differently and cook it differently for a change. A fresh dish to serve on my dining table instead of the familiar dish that we used to. So, I thought cutting the green beans into smaller pieces would be a start. Then followed by carrot and red bell peppers. I added minced garlics and minced sweet salted turnip (chai por) for extra flavor. I kept the seasoning easy because I wanted it to be light. So, I seasoned it to taste with salt, chicken granules and sesame oil. The green bean was crunchy and infused with the fragrant of sesame oil. I like it and will be cooking this dish in future for variation.

What is your favorite way of stir-frying the green beans?

Pandan Yogurt Cakes

I was inspired by Peony to make yogurt cake. Using yogurt and oil instead of butter to make cake do sounds healthier. Also I can use the leftover yogurt to make baked donuts so it is a win win situation.


It actually turned out pretty good. The sweetness was just nice for me and the texture was soft and moist.


I slice it open to let you see the texture of this cake.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious. Yield 10 large papercups (a dozen for the normal one) as shown above. Of course you can play with different flavor of your choice.

Deep Fried Imitation Crab Legs with Dessicated Coconuts

This dish was created because a reader asked me to come out with a dish which had imitation crab meat, coconut and preferably deep fried for her party. This was what I suggested for her and thought I would share it with everybody as well. Did you know that imitation crab legs can be deep-fried into such a great looking appetizer before? Now I know deep-fried imitation crab legs actually tasted divine especially with the added dessicated coconuts. My recipe is super easy too as I don't like complicated recipes. So, everyone can make this!

Blog LOVE Award

Thank you Beachlover's Kitchen for giving me this award. I will help you spread the LOVE! :)

(Pls. don’t remove)Credits: Elements/Paper by Dani Mogstad/ Layout by JennyL
Rules:

1. Don’t remove the credits when you post the image
2. Please link back to the person who tagged you and pass this tag to many of your friends
3. If you have more than one blog, please post this to all of your blogs so your other blogs can be listed to the master list too.

4. Remember to come back here at A SLICE OF LIFE (pls. don’t change this link and leave the exact post url so I can add you to the master list to help increase our rankings and improve our Technorati Authority. 6. Spread the BLOG LOVE FEVER!!

BLOGGERS:
1.Jenny Said So2.Simply Jen3.This and That4.Bargain.Sales.Deals.5.A Slice of Life6.Aussie Talks7. When Mom Talks8. Me and Mine<9. Creative in Me10. For the LOVE of Food11. Little Peanut12. Pea in a Pod13. It’s Where the HEART Is14. Around the World15.SugarMagnolias16.kathycot17. buhay misis 18. when mom speaks19. walk on red20. kathycot cooks21quicker822. Eds Mommy Life23. My Precious Niche24. Just Me.. Eds25. Can of Thoughts26. Designs By Vhiel27. Vhiel's Corner28. Anything and Everything in Between29. Good things in life...30. Precious Moments..31.Beachlover 32.beachloverkitchen. 33. Little Corner of Mine. Your blog is next.

Now I'm going to spread the Blog Love to these wonderful bloggers from all over the world:

Rainbows
Kedai Hamburg
More than Words
Noobcook
Teczcape - Escape to Food -recipes, cooking, reviews
Smell and Taste are My Memory

Saucing Around, Jo's Deli
KookyCulinary

Ling's Passion

Spaghetti with Chicken and Shrimps

I love this easy one dish meal. I usually cooked this dish when I was tired of eating rice or when I ran out of idea of what to prepare for dinner or just plain lazy. I always keep bottled spaghetti sauce, canned mushroom and whole wheat or whole grain spaghetti in my pantry for a day like this. However, instead of the usual ground beef or ground pork, I love to use chicken and shrimps. I actually got this idea from a friend who gave us some of her spaghetti to try. I love this combination and have been cooking my spaghetti this way most of the times.

Sweet and Sour Pork Meat Balls

I love to make my own meat balls. Is it just not for soup, sometimes I make it to cook dinner like in this case sweet and sour meat balls. Baked meat balls are good as afternoon snack. But for dinner, I wanted to add some vegetables to go with it to make it more balance and colorful.

Making Pork Meat Balls:
1 lb. ground/minced pork
Season with salt, white pepper, sesame oil and Worcestershire sauce.

Method:

Mixed the above together and stir with a spoon until the mixture turned gluey and sticked together. Either use your hands or a melon scoop to create pork balls. Place on alum. foil lined baking sheet and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes or until cooked. Set aside to cool.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or any type of vinegar)
2 Tbsp. tomato ketcup
1/4 tsp. salt

*Mix the above in a bowl, stir well and set aside*

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 red onion, cut
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 zucchini, cut

Method:

1. Heat wok with oil. When heated, add in garlic and zucchini, fry until zucchini is almost half cooked, add in carrot and onion. Fry for a while. Add in pork balls. Stir-fry until pork balls are heated.

2. Add in the sauce mixture. Stir to coat well with the pork balls. Stir for a second and dish out to serve.