Evy's First Halloween

I'm determined to get myself some candies tonight!


Oh wow, look at the candies I got!


Yum..Yum... Mommy I can't talk, I got a mouth fulled.

We decided to take Evy for her first trick-a-treat this Halloween. What else to dress her in but the traditional Chinese costume and made her the China Doll for the night. Does she looks like a China Doll? :) For added effect, I painted her cheeks with some red lipstick. She looked so adorable walking by her daddy side, holding hands and went trick-a-treating door to door. She even held her own candy bag and waved and said bye-bye to those that gave her the candies. She certainly seem enjoying the whole experience. We went to about 20 houses and looked at the candies she got!

Green Tea Melting Moments

I have been wanting to make this cookie ever since I saw how easy the recipe was early this year. However, I was just not motivated enough to really make it. What did it for me was the picture of Connie's melting moments at KC. She reminded me of this melt-in-the-mouth cookie again and thus the result of this afternoon labor. Sometimes all it took was a picture to snap me into action. Okay, now who wants to help me finish all the cookies? ;o)

Coconut Melting Moments

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/3 cup + 1 Tbp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Method:

The method is the same as green tea melting moments, except for this I used vanilla extract instead of green tea powder.

Shape the dough into 1- inch ball and packed it with coconut flakes and baked in preheated 325'F oven for 15-17 minutes. Remove to cool on wire rack. When cooled, placed the cookies in small paper cups (for decoration only, can be omitted).

Verdict: Taste better the day it was baked.


Sparkle Sugar Sequins Melting Moments
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As for this, shape into balls, flatten it with a fork and sprinkle sugar sequins on top. A favorite for kids!

Soy Braised Whole Chicken

I posted the recipe under Soy Braised Cornish Hen, for the whole chicken, just double the recipe. I slow boiled it covered for 30 minutes on each side and then I uncovered it and simmer it further for about 10-15 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the chicken. Dish out the chicken and let cool. Thicken the sauce by simmering it down or add some cornstarch mixture to it. Later use the thicken sauce to pour on top of the cut out chicken to serve.

Sambal Belacan Sweet Potato Leaves

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. This is my shortcut version of sambal belacan vegetable. Keep a canned of shrimp paste at home and you can whip up a belacan veggies anytime. :)

Ingredients

Sweet Potato Leaves
1/4 cup of dried shrimps, washed & drained
2-3 sliced shallots
2 Tbp. Caravelle shrimp paste in bean oil
1 Tbp. my homemade chillies in oil
1 tsp. belacan powder
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Method

Heat oil in wok, when hot, add in the shallots and dried shrimps. Stir well until fragrant, then add in the sweet potato leaves. Stir-fry until the veggies soften, add in the shrimp paste, belacan powder & chillies paste and a little water. Stir around and season with salt and sugar. Dish out and serves hot.

Note:
Good with kangkong, ladies fingers (or okra), Chinese long beans, esparagus and even Japanese eggplants.

Kung Pao Chicken

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

I cooked this chicken all the times. Love it while in M'sia, thus when I came over, I just have to crack my head to come out with this dish. Over the years, it becomes one of my master dishes. No exact recipe for this, all agaration. But here's what I use.

Kung Pao Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 Onion, sliced.
1/2 Carrot, sliced.
2-3 Scallions, cut into 2 inches length.
Chicken pieces from 1 chicken breast (marinate in soy sauce, dark soy sauce & cornstarch).
6-8 Dried chilli peppers.
1 inch piece of Ginger, thinly sliced.

Sauce Mixture:
Soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
sugar

Thickening:
Cornstarch + water

Method:

Heat oil, add ginger, when fragrant, add chicken pieces, stir-fry until chicken is half way cooked, add in dried chilli peppers. Stir-fry until chicken is cooked, add onion and carrot. Stir to mix then add the sauce mixture. Let it boil for a while and add in the thickening. Serve hot!

Stir-Fried Udon Noodle

I love fresh Udon noodle. It's delicious eating it in soup or stir-fry. It's a quick lunch to prepare in soup, just add in some marinated chicken pieces or shrimps, fresh vegetable, tofu pieces and fresh mushroom and top it with fried shallots or garlics and fresh cilantro. Serve with a bowl of chilli padi in soy sauce, can I say yum?

Of course it's delicious in stir-fry too. Just add in your favorite ingredients and for the sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce (if you prefer it dark), a little sugar and sesame oil.

Meme: Childhood Food Memories

Carrying on the baton from Lily's Wai Sek Hong

1. The giant shrimp cracker that I used to buy for 10 cent in my primary school. And then I dipped it in a special chilli sauce and enjoy it by hand. I bet a lot of people who came from that school will remember this giant chilli dipped shrimp crackers! :)

2. Everytime when the roti man rang his motorcycle horn to signal the arrival of him. And my mom would go out and buy the roti for tomorrow. Me and my siblings would go out with my mom and of course asked for little packets of snacks that were hanging on the containers at the back of the motorcycle. If my mom was in a good mood, she would buy those treat for us. Not sure whether they still sell roti this way?

3. My late grandma (dad's side) was a very good kuih maker. She used to make kuih-muih and sell when she was young. However, by the time we knew her, she was no longer in the selling business. But we got to enjoy her kuih everytime she came down to see us or when we visit her during CNY. She would make a variety of steamed kuih for CNY and it were always very good. Now, I really miss her yellow steamed radish kuih. She usually made it in big block and cut it into smaller pieces to pan-fry and serve it in the morning of CNY. YUM! I think all her knowledge and recipes of the kuih she made died with her as I don't think she copied her recipes down and passed it on to her daughters.

4. My mom's lettuce wrap that she made for CNY reunion dinner. I always enjoyed this dish, bite into a fresh crispy lettuce with stir-fried jicama, slices of soy sauce chicken and top with homemade chilli sauce, where juices dripped down on my fingers and I got to lick it off, such a fond memory. Not sure whether this is the authentic way to make the lettuce wrap, but it was how my mom made her.

5. Help to make CNY cookies at my grandma (mom's side) house. I was pretty young and anxious to help and they were making the kuih kapit (love letters) and kuih bunga (honeycomb cookies). You learned while you help and glad to say that I did. What was best was we got to take home big tins of cookies home with us. Hehehe... always a plus.

Now I would have to pass the baton on to,

Rantings from a Solitary Reverie

Glutinous Rice

Made this last week using Amy Beh's recipe. I made this using the rice cooker and added too much water and thus the rice was too soft. I usually steamed the rice and the texture was just perfect. I have no idea where I boxed my steamer and thus the used of the rice cooker.

Lynda's Lor Bak

Thanks Lynda! The recipe is from her sister in-law Ah Soh. Thanks Ah Soh! :D

Abalone with Chicken Soup

Look at the Abalone slices! They are not stingy about it.



This is the packet that I used. Strongly recommended. :)

I tried to cook chinese herbal soup once a week. I will alternate different type of herbal soup to cook each week so that it's a new flavour every week. I just dump two chicken drumsticks and the packet above and slow simmer it for few hours. What a yummy and nutricious soup to drink. The abalone was so soft and got such a nice bite to it. My mother in-law sent me those from M'sia.

It's Snowing!!

Her cheeky face!

It's a snow day today and very cold. This kind of day just make you want to curl up in bed and keep warm. Hmmm...a warm soupy noodle, beef stew sound very good now. Since it's the first snow of the season, we dressed her up and took her outside to snap some pictures. She sure love cold weather, not sure whether it got anything to do with she was born in cold weather??

Chinese Red Bean Paste Cake

Finally I made my long awaited Chinese Red Bean Paste Cake! :D I got motivated after I saw it at SeaDragon blog. Since I have some red bean paste in the freezer and all the ingredients in the boxes, what the heck, let's do it. I adapted the recipe from Revised Chinese Snacks by Huang Su-Huei, published by Wei-Chuan's Cookbook.


Red Bean Paste Cake (Yield about 5~6 cakes)

Note: I modified this recipe to yield more thin pancakes. (updated Nov. 8, 2005)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup water

Red bean paste
Oil for frying
Plastic wrap for handling red bean paste

Step:

1. In a bowl, mix egg + water well. Add sifted flour and mix into a thin batter.

2. Grease a non-stick frying pan in medium heat. Add a scoop of the batter and rotate the pan to form a thin sheet. When cooked, remove and set aside. Do the same with the remaining batter.

3. Use a plastic wrap to press the red bean paste into square and transfer it to the center of the cooked sheet, remove the plastic wrap. Fold the sides of the sheet to the center to form a square shape. Seal the edges with some tapioca flour + water mixture ( 1 tsp. tapioca flour + 2 tsp. water). Do the same with the remaining sheet(s).

4. Heat the frying pan with 3 Tbp. oil and pan fry the square cake until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat for the remaining cake(s). Cut the cakes into pieces and serve hot.

Note:

1. When making the thin sheet, make sure you wait until the sheet is set before attempting to remove it. If not, it will break apart. Since it's so thin, you don't even have to flip it over. When set, just remove it.

2. Make sure the red bean paste you use is sweet enough.

Moved In

After 3 days of moving, glad to say that we finally settled down in the rented house. We closed our house on Friday morning and passed over the keys to the new owners. It was our first time meeting the new owners as well and they sure seem excited. We were tired out from all the moving and cleaning, furthermore had to wake up early in the morning to go to the title company. All in all, we were glad to sell our house because that's mean we will get to move into our new house when it's done. :D

The rented place is actually pretty nice eventhough it's a 30 years old house. It has new carpet, countertop and new paint so it's pretty decent looking. I like the backyard because it's open space so no one can look inside the house and I could open my blinds 24 hours a day. Love to sit on my patio while watching Evy plays in the backyard, privacy is bliss. Better enjoy it while the weather permit. :)

Well, I'm not going to unpack most of the stuff because we will be moving again in 4 months. Thus my living room and front entry are packed with boxes, sure serves as a storage area for now. But if I feel like baking, I sure know where to dig those boxes.

Evy

Evy at 17 months. In a few days, she will be 1- 1/2 year old, yup...time sure flies on you. She can say 32 words already and what a fast learner she is. She understood a lot of things we said, so can't really say certain thing in front of her. As an example, her daddy said, "Don't give her the pensil, after she would poke it into her eye." And sure enough after hearing what her daddy said, she tried to poke it into her eye (she never know how to do that before). And she tried to do that again when her daddy said the same thing few days later. As you figure, I gave her pensil to express herself in writing and drawing, she knows how to write 1 and said it correctly at the same time. As for drawing, she can draw straight lines and circles already.

Will be MIA

Good news! We bought a new house which is currently being build and won't be ready until Jan next year. We just sold our current house and have to move out by end of this month. So, at the meantime, we will be staying in a rented old house until our house is ready. I'm very excited about my new house and can't wait to move in. :)

I have been spending the past few days packing my stuff. Oh lord...the stuff I have in the kitchen...one can faint. So not looking forward to packing but have to do it! Have to set aside certain items for Goodwill and giveaway too. I will move out of this house on the 28th so I probably won't have any Internet connection for these few days. And of course no cooking or baking or posting food pictures for some time until I'm settle down.

Chocolate Coffee Topping Mexican Bun

Made Mexican Bun with chocolate coffee topping the other day. I used coffee emulco & some instant coffee and found that I couldn't taste the coffee flavor. Perhaps the cocoa powder was over powering the flavor of coffee? Still need to experiment more with the topping. But here's the chocolate topping recipe.

Chocolate Flavor Topping

1/3 cup sifted cake flour

1/4 cup sifted icing sugar

1/2 stick of soften butter (or 1/4 cup)

1 egg

2 Tbp. Hersey cocoa powder

Steps:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until all blended and put it into a piping bag and pipe spiral on top of each bun. Bake in 375'F for 8-10 mins.

For the buns:

Use any basic sweet bun recipe. The filling will be salted butter straight from the fridge. Cut into cube to use as filling, about 1/2 Tbp. for each bun.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I made Pandan Chiffon Cake for Lily's grandson one month old party. I had tried several recipes that used different quantities of eggs and found this recipe is the best. It used 6 eggs and always produced very high chiffon cake unlike the others that I have tried. I have used this to make almond chiffon cake, orange chiffon cake and lemon chiffon cake before. 

The above is the picture of the Pandan paste that I used, usually selling for 99 cent at the Asian grocery store.  This is the brand and paste that I recommend to produce a fragrant cake, essence and powder form are not recommended. 

Lily's Grandson One Month Old Party

I got invited to Lily's grandson one month old celebration on Aug 27th. Her grandson is so cute and such a good baby. He won't mind being pass around and could even slept through all the noises. Yeah it was pretty loud on that day as Lily and Sandra invited a lot of friends and neighbors.

Look at what Lily cooked!! She cooked a lot and we all had a full tummy. I just love being around this family, makes me feel at home. And I just love homecook meal, so satisfying!

Lemon Biscotti Dipped in Chocolate

Made this for a friend's daughter. I used a basic biscotti recipe and added lemon zest, fresh lemon juice and lemon essence to make it a lemon biscotti and then dipped it in Baker's chocolate.

Ingredients

(A)
1 stick of butter or 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. lemon essence
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

(B)
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

(C)
4 cubes Baker's chocolate, melted
~microwave for about 1 min 15 or 30 seconds or til melted.

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375'F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together (A) until well blended. Add in (B) and stir to form a dough. Divide dough in half and roll each roll into the length of the cookie sheet. Then move each roll to the cookie sheet and press down to 1/2 inch thickness.

3. Bake for 20-25 mins or til golden brown. Remove to cool on wire rack. When it's cool enough to handle, slice each one crosswise into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Place the slices cut side up back to the cookie sheet and bake each side for a further 6 mins. Remove to cool on wire rack while preparing the melted chocolate.

4. When cool, dip each biscotti into the melted chocolate and let rest on the wire rack. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 mins for the chocolate to harden. Store in an air-tight container.

Note:
This recipe is very versatile, you can play with it to come out with any combination or flavor biscotti that you like. Like add in nuts, raisin, chocolate chips, etc.

If you want the lemon flavor to be stronger, use zest of 2 lemons and 1 Tbp. of lemon essence. The dipped in chocolate step may be omitted.

Potluck Picnic

A friend and I organized a potluck picnic with the theme Nasi Lemak last weekend. We found a really nice shaded park with a duck pond near downtown where we host the picnic. The turn out was great and everyone was enjoying themselves and the food. We had nasi lemak, sambal ikan bilis , nasi lemak ganishes, curry veggies, curry chicken, curry lamb, beef rendang, otak-otak, sambal prawns, fried chicken, mee goreng, spring rolls, pickled veggies, agar-agar, cakes, cookies, fruit salad and drinks.

Black Sesame Seeds Bun

Made this when I was out of bread. Used the basic sweet bun dough recipe and sprinkle the top with black sesame seeds. Easy to make and my daughter loves it, just the bun not the sesame seeds though.

A Way to Eat French Bread

My hubby took me to an Italian restaurant last week. This restaurant served a kind of bread, looked like french bread but only about 6 inches long. And the way they served it was to present you with a plate of some dried herds and then sprinkle some extra virgin olive oil on it. You ate it by tearing some of the bread and dipped into the olive oil mixture. Oh man, can I say good! I saw people dipping bread in plain extra virgin olive oil on TV, but never really though of eating a bread in that way, you know what I mean? But after this, after I got home I have to make my own since I have lots of dried herbs in my pantry anyway. So, I came out with this mixture (not sure whether it's the same, but it was pretty good).

Simple Dip for French/ Italian bread

A few sprinkles of dried basil
A little salt
A few sprinkles of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1. Place the dried basil and salt on a plate and sprinkle the EVOO on top and serve with the bread.

So easy and yummy as well. And EVOO is good for your heart!! So, do try it and let me know whether you like it or not.

Homemade Ground Chillies in Oil

My friends always praise about my ground chillies and asked me for the recipe. Thus, I would share it here since it's a good spicy chillies.

Evy Latest Pictures & Update

These are her latest pictures. She is growing up, just look at her 6 months old picture on the right, she looks different isn't it? How her facial feature change since birth until now is amazing. When I looked back at her old pictures or video, I was like she looks so different now. And how weird that she has brown hair instead of dark? People said it's the weather here that made her hair brown. She is talking up a storm, keep adding new word or sound as the months go by.

She had her first camping trip over the weekend. Glad to say that she did good, slept through the nights and enjoyed walking around the bushes. Got a few scratches on her knees though because I couldn't keep an eye on her all the times as she loved to walk around. Hmmm...should have put her on long pant but it was sorta hot in the day. Anyway, she loves camping!!

Pandan Kaya

~Yield one medium jar, adapted from Jo's recipe.

Ingredients
----------------
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
300 ml thick coconut milk
1/2 tsp. pandan paste

1. In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add sugar and whisk until sugar dissolved. Add coconut milk and pandan paste. Mixed well.

2. Sieve kaya mixture into a stainless steel saucepan (twice) and place on stove top over medium heat and stir occasionally with a whisk until mixture started to thicken. Scoop out any bubbles that formed while whisking. Switched to low heat and stir continously until kaya reached the desired thickness or consistency. Remove from heat and cool completely before storing in a glass jar. Refrigerate afterwards. Kaya will be thicker when it's cool and even more so when refrigerated.

~Will produce a smooth kaya.

Roast Herbs Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
Salt to taste

(A)
sage powder
dried sage herbs (can omit if you don't have it)
dried rosemary
garlic powder
extra virgin olive oil


Steps

1. Rub the salt all over the chicken, under the skin and in the cavity.

2. In a bowl, add (A) together and mixed well.

3. Next, use a brush to brush (A) mixture all over the chicken, under the skin and in the cavity. Place the chicken on a wire rack or a roasting rack.

4. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 1 hour & 45 mins or until the thermometer inserted in the thigh area registered 180'F. Cool for 10 mins before chopping into pieces.

Soy Braised Cornish Hen

Cornish Hen is a small chicken. The size of a black chicken.

Ingredients

1 cornish hen
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1/6 cup brown sugar
1 Tbp. oyster sauce
1/8 cup sherry
2 Tbp. dark soy sauce
1/4 tsp. 5 spice powder
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. cloves
1 2cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed
1 clove of garlic, crushed

Steps

1. Mixed all ingredients in a large bowl with the hen overnight in the fridge. The next day, pour all the marinade without the hen in a wok and turn on the heat. When boiled, add in the hen and simmer for about 40 mins on each side, covered. Keep adding water if it's dry out. Remove and cool before cutting into pieces.

2. Pour the thicken marinade sauce over the cut out chicken before serving.

Pan Mee

For Chicken Stock:
-2 drumsticks or chicken carcass, some celery, 1 onion, 2 carrots, a piece of ginger and some ikan bilis. Boil this for several hours. Then, drain it to get the clear stock. This produce very sweet stock, no seasoning required.

For Noodle:
-Some flour, one or two eggs and water. Knead until a dough like consistency. Add flour as needed. Roll it flat with a roller and tear it with hand and drop it in a hot boiling water until it float to the top. Dish out and put it in the chicken stock when ready to serve.

For Minced Meat and Mushroom:
-I used ground turkey instead of ground pork, either way is fine. First, marinate the chinese mushroom that has been soaked soft with oyster sauce, chinese rice wine and a little sugar (make sure you squeeze the juices out first). Then, add a little oil in the wok, and stir-fry the ground turkey until cooked and add in the mushroom, stir-well to mix and then add seasoning: oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese rice wine, a dash of sugar and pepper and lastly a little sesame oil. Stir-well and dish out and set aside.

For Crispy Anchovies (ikan bilis):
-Wash anchovies with water, dry it and then deep-fry in oil until crispy. dish out and set aside.

For Crispy Shallots:
-Sliced the shallots and deep-fry in hot oil until crispy. Set aside. Or put the sliced shallots in a microwave safe bowl and add in enough oil to cover to microwave until brown.

Other side dishes:
-Greens and fish balls. I used collard greens because that's the one I have in the fridge. You can use chai sin, or spinach as subsitute. You can omit fish balls if you don't have it on hand. Add those lastly in the chicken stock when ready to serve.

To assemble:
-Dish out a good amount of noodle in a bowl with some fish balls and greens, and then top it with minced meat and mushroom, add the crispy anchovies on top and lastly the crispy shallots. Serve warm with chili padi. YUM!!

(Serves 2)

Napa Cabbage in Scallop Sauce

Did this a while back. Thought I would share the recipe here. :)

Ingredients

8-10 leaves of napa cabbage, washed and cut into 1 inch wide strips.
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped.
2 dried scallops, soaked in hot water to soften (about 1 cup), reserved the water.
3 jumbo sea scallops, washed and cut into half.
1 egg white.
salt to taste.
1 tsp. chicken granules.
1 ~ 2 tsp. potato starch / cornstarch mixed in some water.

Steps

1. Heat up some oil in the wok, when hot, add in garlic. Stir until slightly brown, add in the napa cabbage, stir to mix until napa cabbage is soften, add in some salt. Dish out and set on a plate.

2. For the scallop sauce, heat the wok and add in the scallop water with the dried scallops, then add in chicken granules, salt and when boiling, add in the fresh scallops. Let it boil until the scallops are cooked (turned white in color) and turn off the heat and stir in the egg white and potato starch mixture. Stir until thicken in gravy and egg white is cooked, pour on top of the napa cabbage to serve.

Green Tea Buns

I made Green Tea Buns the other day. Just use any basic sweet bun dough recipe and add 1 tsp. of green tea powder into the flours mixture. The green tea flavor is real subtle which is good for those who don't like the smell being too strong. I added mung bean paste as filling just because I have some leftover mung bean paste in the freezer. For stronger green tea flavor, add 2 tsp. green tea powder.

Layers Pandan Konnyaku Jelly

Since I didn't have any fresh fruit in the refrigerator, I decided to make the double layers pandan flavor Konnyaku jelly. I just followed the recipe at the back of Red Man Konnyaku jelly and added pandan essence and pour half of it into the mould. Place the half filled mould into the fridge to speed up the harden process and meanwhile adding some milk into my leftover jelly liquid. Took the mould out and filled the rest of the milk base jelly into the mould, put in the fridge for at least 3 hours before consuming. What can I say except yummy...the texture is just shiok especially on the hot summer day.

Evy is Walking

Finally my sweet little girl is taking off. She started to take steps at 13.5 months and really walking at 14.5 months. Now at 15 months 1 day, she is walking like a pro. It's just too cute to see her walking around the house. When she wanted to be carried and I was half way preparing dinner and ignored her, she would fuss and walk around the house in frustration. Yeah, even a little girl has attitude!

She loves outdoor so I would take her out to the front & backyards everyday just to let her walk around the lawn. Each time I want to go out I would say to her, "Go grab your shoes at the front door and bring it back here because we are going for a walk." and she would go grab her shoes and bring it over. I even asked her to wear her own shoes! She is just too young to get the concept yet but she sure try, like lifting her feet to let me put the shoe in. :) I really amazed at the things she understood. In just a couple of months, she would really start talking and that would be too cute!

Slow Slow Slow...

I'm still waiting for Chong to send the food pictures and he is taking his own sweet time. *Just want to get a cane and whip his ass* No idea what has gone into his head. I told him I want to take my own food pictures and put it in my computer myself but no he said. He said I don't know how to adjust the light setting, blah blah blah...and my pictures will turn out bad. Geez...doesn't he know there is a setting called automatic?? Also, this is MY BLOG, I can do whatever I like with it, eventhough my pictures might not turned out as good, still I can do whatever I want with it. Now, I have to wait for his lazy ass to edit those pictures he took and send it to me before I can post it. And what does he do? Playing his computer games instead of sending me those pictures!! So you know what happen whenever I'm late to post, is his fault!! What is his problem anyway?

Garlic Bread

I made garlic bread this morning. My garlic is too coarse, guess I will have to process it in my food processor next time if I want to make it again (or smash it really well). This bread was so soft when it's still warm from the oven, so good. I made my own garlic topping and not sure whether it's the right way or not. But this was what I did.

Garlic topping for 6 buns
==================
3 cloves of garlic, smashed it with some salt.
2 Tbp. of soften butter
1 tsp. of dried chopped chives

Mixed all together in a bowl. Spoon it in a small zipper bag, cut the tip off one end and squeeze it on top of the dough before baking.

Coconut Jam Bread

My second attempt at bread. Got the inspiration from the cookbook "Make Your Own Bread". Use the basic sweet dough, roll it into a long shape and tie a knot in the middle and fold the ends down. Brush the top with water and press it down in a bowl of crushed coconut and arrange 3 buns together to proof for an hour on a baking sheet. After an hour, put a spoonful of jam in the middle of each bun. It can be any flavour jam (strawberry, blueberry, peach, etc). Then bake in a preheated 375'F oven for 10 minutes.

I didn't do a good job on the jam as you can see. Not sure why my jam spread out instead of staying in the middle looking pretty. :oP

My First Attempt at Making Buns

Finally decided to make sardine buns today using Gina's Basic Sweet Buns recipe. The variation I made: I added 1 tsp. of bread softener in addition to the bread improver. I don't have a stand mixer, so I did everything by hands. I rolled the dough until the butter was incorporated into the dough. And then I rubbed the outside of the dough with extra virgin olive oil before proofing for 5 hours (had to go out). Overall, I'm very satisfy with the result, the bun is soft like it should be. I just need to practise how to put the filling inside the bun and roll it into ball. Still not good at this and some of my filling was leaking out (greedy, wanted to stuff a lot of filling too). I only made 6 sardine buns, the rest I freeze it and will try it with chicken curry filling or plain green tea buns.

Venturing into making bread and buns is not too bad, will experience with more recipe later when I find time again. Thanks Lily for her instant yeast, without that I won't be able to make buns.

We got our Green Card!

After preparing our GC for 4 years, we finally received it. The recent trip back to M'sia was to go for the final phase of the process ~ to get interview at the U.S. Embassy. One week before the interview, we had to go for a medical check up and X-ray in a clinic in KL chosen by the U.S. Embassy. The day before the interview, we went to pick up our result and x-ray which were sealed in an envelop only to be opened by the official.

We were assigned 9am to be there. They took the result and some documents and asked us to come back in the afternoon. The American official would then interview Chong with some questions (I never get interview since I was H4 visa) and then we were finger printed and got a cancelled stamp on our old visa and were asked to be back tomorrow to collect our passport with the new visa stamped. Just an informal interview outside the window like everyone else, no special room whatsoever.

Once we entered the U.S., we had to go to the new immigrant counter and got finger printed again. He told us we will receive our GC in 3-6 months, but in reality we were PR on that day on. We received the congratulation status changed letter in 3 weeks and received our GC in less than a week. So, instead of 3-6 months wait, it's more like less than a month.

What do you know

My computer is fixed!! Chong came home with a new webcam and windows xp software yesterday and fixed it. And the culprit was one of my memory cards died on me. It had been having problem recently like jamming, restarting itself, shutting off when I turned on the webcam and one day just totally dead. What do you know it's the memory card and he told me it was infected by virus....geez....

Anyway, just glad that it's fixed and my parents get to see Evy through webcam every weekend again.

Bak Chang Season

It's the chang/chung season again! The urge to eat chang made me wrapped my own bak chang this year. I didn't get to make it two years back because (1) I was pregnant and (2) had to take care of a baby last year. I think the color was not dark enough, other than that, it tasted pretty good. This time I managed to use all my filling along with the glutinous rice, (all agaration and thus sometimes with leftover filling). I tried to stuff as much filling and wrap the chang as big as I could with the short bamboo leaves that I bought. (greedy! :0P)



Mental Note: Don't ever buy the short nice bamboo leaves again! But buy the long bamboo leaves, wide is a plus. Then, it's a guarentee big chang everytime.

Giant King Crab

While we were dining at one of the Seafood Restaurant in J.B., a reporter from a Chinese Newspaper (Nanyang) came to this restaurant to take some pictures. So, the owner (I guess) asked one of the kitchen chef to come out and hold the crab for the reporter. Chong took this opportunity to take some pictures as well. Heard that this King Crab was imported from U.S. and cost more than RM$1000. Whoa, now I wonder who would want to eat this crab? This is one expensive seafood restaurant, the steamed fish that we ordered cost more than $100.

Like My Pose?

This picture was taken in M'sia. I like this picture a lot so I thought I shared it here. She was trying on a dress that her kuku bought her and while undressing her, we thought why not took a half naked picture of her. Who would know she even pose it for us. LOL!

Food on Air

The food served on Singapore Airline while on the way to Taipei. Chicken Glutinous Rice and can I say YUMMY! Our first meal was stir-fried noodle in shrimps and jumbo scallops (sorry didn't get to take picture), it was delicious. It had chinese meal included in all the selection and of course I chose all the chinese meal and it was all delicious. On the way back to U.S., we stopped at South Korean so the food was mainly Korean food or American food or Indian food. Anyone knows why Indian love Singapore Airline because the majority of the passenger were Indians and they even have a special Indian menu in all the flights. I heard Malaysian Airline serves excellent food as well.

I'm back!

Glad to be back! Sorry Kirsten and Jo about me being unable to meet up with you ladies. My short time in PJ was really rushed and with no vehicle, it's just tough. The heat and humidity were something we were not accustom to anymore, we are really spoiled by the weather here. Poor Evy always had wet hair (covered with sweat) and rosy cheeks (from heat) while back home. She also got sick on the night before we were flying home. She made it through the flights and now resting at home. She hates her medicines and we have a hard time feeding it to her. This is her first time being so sick and we are just an inexperience parents. Hope she will recover soon.

Will be MIA!

I won't be around for a month or so. Flying back to Malaysia on Monday and will stay for roughly a month. Can't wait to eat all the yummy food and kuih. :) Just hope that I won't gain too much weight and would be able to lose it after I got back. :P

It would be great to let the grandparents see Evy for the first time too. I could tell they are getting excited. It has been six years since I last went back, heard that a lot have changed, can't wait to meet my parents and siblings as well.

Kuih Bunga/ Kuih Rose/ Honeycomb Cookies

This was the kuih bunga I made for this year CNY. I used Jo's crispy honeycomb recipe from jodelibakery.netfirms.com. I didn't get to eat much since my husband basically finished all that I had save for ourselves. I brought more than half to a friend's CNY potluck. My husband just ate it like a snack. Next time I would have to double the recipe.

Heart Shape Kuih Bangkit

This was the kuih bangkit I made for Chinese New Year. I used Hugbear's recipe from kitchencapers.net. It was the best kuih bangkit I had ever made and definitely a keeper recipe. The kuih bangkit was crispy when you bite into it and then simply melt in your mouth all at once. Sooo good!

Pineapple Tarts

This is my favorite Pineapple Tarts recipe. I first adapted Amy Beh's recipe but was not satisfied with the result because I wanted a melt in the mouth tart.  So, I played with the recipe couple of times until I got the end result that I was looking for.  The recipe below was the result of my experiments and is the recipe that I used every year since then. The pastry was soft and has the melt in your mouth taste to it.