Packed and ready to bless!

Silent Night

Santa and trees

Silverbells

Gingerbread Galore!

Mommy

" Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severly, if anything but death seperates you and me"
Ruth 1:16-17

The book of Ruth is close to my heart, because everytime I read it, I am struck by how the relationship between Ruth and Naomi is so similar to mine and my mom's. My mom's life was never easy like Naomi, through it all, as mother and daughter, we clung on to each other. It was not just each other that we clung on to, we clung on to God together to find much joy through the sufferings.

On the 8th of November 2007, we were seperated. On that day, God decided that it's about time that I continue my journey on earth without clinging on to my mom. It was, is and will be tough to manage, but I place my hope in the God that I cling on to and I know He never leaves nor forsake me.

Rolled plum pork

lasagna

Jap Stuffed Squid

Whipped Avocado Seafood

nutella banana cupcakes

creamy salami chicken

hokkaido milk loaf

why?

1. I never give up!! I would describe my past bread making experiences as hard, as with the results as well. I am a total failure at baking bread. But I simply adore bread, so I refuse to admit defeat.

2. It rained when I was asleep, when I woke up it was still raining and it looked like the rain was not going to stop. It was so cool and I almost wanted to stay in bed and snooze the day away. But somehow, I remembered a colleague's wife telling me that the best temperature to prove bread and knead bread was at 'air-con' temperature. So I immediately jumped out of bed and started to search for a bread recipe and came across this http://http//schneiderchen.de/237Hokkaido-Milky-Loaf.html

success?

It looked perfect and when I tore the 2 loaves apart, what greeted me was the most amazing sight! My kitchen, my laboratory has never set eyes on fluffy bread that smelled so divine!! It was a success. I was grinning ear to ear and I simply could not believe that I have baked bread!

failure?

I'm not too sure why, but there was this really slight tinge of bitterness, but it went away after 10min. Perhaps LR and myself were really to impatient to wait for the bread to cool before we attacked! Freshly baked bread is simply THE BEST!

mee siam

babi ponteh

Apricot Raisin Chicken

oktoberfest

apple pie

huff puff stuffed chicken

pataya rice

perfect paella

Lurve Lunchbox

why?

I remembered when I was in JC, I chanced upon a lunchbox that my friend's mother prepared for her. The first reaction I had was awe. I would have never imagined such a beautiful sight in my school canteen! But then my second reaction or transformation took over , I somehow just could not bring myself to join in the chorus of "wows" that the lunchbox drew. I became a green-eyed monster. I was really jealous! I wanted to be the person at the receiving end of so much love and affection. I eventually got over it of course, but today as I was packing in the Sushi and Inari I made into the lunchboxes for LR and my mom, when I remembered the JC friend incident, it wasn't that I was hoping that people seeing the lunchboxes would be envious of LR or my mom, but rather what hit me was that as the person preparing the lunchbox, I could experience much joy and thanksgiving. I am just so grateful that I have people that I love so much, that I can give to :) Now I know why our God gives us so much to His people, because He loves us deeply and it brings Him joy to give.

failure?

I wish I could prepare more so that I could give to ALL the people that I love!

success?

I learnt that in giving, I receive as well.

"Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you"

NIV Bible

"Give your life away; you'll find life given bck, but not merely given back - given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity"

Eugene H Peterson from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Lanaguage

Luke 6:38

onde onde

Orange everything chicken

Lamingtons

why?

I lived and love Australia. For four years while pursuing my degree, I called Brisbane home. The selection of bread and quality must claim responsibility for the extra weight I piled on. There's this particular chain of bakery that I would go to for my daily stash and would be easily tempted to grab some Lamingtons and Apple turnovers for "snacks". I had some left over coconut from making onde onde and flipping through one of my cookbooks, I was elated to find a recipe for Lamingtons and decided the deed must be done!

success?

Too good! the recipe was for Mocha Lamingtons, but I am not a fan of coffee, so I made some adjustments.

Adapted from Bake it by Murdoch Books

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, chopped and softened

230g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

250g self-raising flour

250ml milk

2 tsp cocoa powdered, dissolved in 2 tsp boiling water

icing:

350g of good quality dark chocolated, melted with some chocolate milk

150g of freshly grated coconut and steamed with pandan leaves and a tsp of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees cel. Lightly grease the base of a 23cm square tin and lin the base with baking paper.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk until combined and smooth. Mix in the cocoa mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until skwer inserted into the centre f the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into 25 squares.

Using 2 spoons to hold the cake, dip the cake squares into the melted chocolate to cover. Roll the cake in the coconut to cover and place on a wire rack.

failure?

Made too few :)

strawberry choc mousse cake

Doggie Treats

Why?
Look at that face!!!
Meet Chewbacca aka Chewy (what I call him) aka Chew-bark-y ( what LR calls him)

failure?

I made 3 different flavoured doggie treats. Chicken liver with mint, peanut butter and cheese.
Chewy rejected the peanut butter treat. He is an extremely fussy eater. You can tell by how he is so selective of the fruits he eats. He goes for more exotic ones like peaches, kiwis and strawberries but scoffs at apples, pears and papayas.

sucess?
He finishes the cheese treat in 30 seconds, which means he loves it. buttttt........
The top prize goes to the chicken liver with mint. When the treat is presented before him, his tail wags violently, he stares intently and given to him, he takes 10 seconds to finish it! It's no wonder why he loves it so much, it is a combination of chicken liver, lamb broth, wheatgerms and mint(home-grown).

A-L-P-H-A-B-E-T cookies

why?
In chronological order,
1. I bought alphabet cookie cutters.
2. I read KUIDAORE's blog and was inspired to decorate cookies.
3. An expression of how much my friends mean to me :)

failure?
This is my first attempt at icing, and seriously, from the photograph, it goes to show that I can't 'write' neatly. Totally exhausted from wrestling with how to work the piping instrument, deciding the nicest combination of colours and actually icing each cookie, I garnered enough energy to reflect on the whole process. Somehow painful memories of Chinese homework came flooding back. I remembered the times where I was made to write the same character many many ridiculous times and yet during Chinese spelling, I would still get it wrong! Okay, the icing process wasn't that bad, but just that it frustrates me because I want to get it right and coupled with the fact that I can actually visualise what bring right would be like and me not being even close, was tiring. But I haven't given up, after reading many websites, I've come to the conclusion that icing beautifully is about practice, perserverance and patience. It's exactly what I envision my growth in knowing God to be like. This Bible verses just sums it all up...

"Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything"

James 1:4

Oh and I also really like this quote from the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

"I am how far I have come, not just how far I have to go. I am not where I want to be but neither am I where I used to be"


success?
i made them for a bunch of very appreciative and encouraging friends. Enough said :)

Sticky Tomato Chicken

Chocolate Maltesers Cake

kampung chicken rice

crepe suzette

Panic Manic Bruschetta

Scoring Brownie Points!!

why?

I love baking birthday cakes for my dearest friends. So it was Rosh's birthday and I wanted to do something special :) I read in Nigella's book that a quick and easy but absolutely stunning 'cake' for a birthday would be to stack on freshly baked brownies and candles all around!

success?

Gorgeous! And it went so well with my home-made vanilla pod ice-cream! Here's the recipe that I tweaked to suit the palates of Less-Sugar-Please and More-Dark-Chocolate people.

Birthday Brownie

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's FEAST

Makes about 24 huge slices

Ingredients

375g unsalted butter

375g at least 70% dark chocolate

6 eggs

275g castor sugar

1 tbsp real vanilla extract

225g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp salt

150g white chocolate buttons

200g dark chocolate buttons (at least 80%)

some icing sugar for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees cel and line a baking tin with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate over low heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture and beat well.

Fold in the flour and salt and stir in the white and dark chocolate buttons.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin and at this point, if you want, you can scatter some chopped walnuts to give the brownie more texture. I tried this one, but somehow, seem to prefer my brownies 'pure' :)

Bake for 25min. However, the baking time really depends on how you like your brownies. If you like them more gooey, take them out 5 min earlier. If you want them with a more cakey texture, leave in the oven for another 5 min. However, do keep in mind, if you intend to store them and heat them up in the microwave to serve them warm, you might not want to over bake the brownies.

Cool for about 10min, then cut into squares, stack them up and dust away!!

failure?

I would reduce the sugar even more if you want to coat instead of speckle the brownies with icing sugar. Blizzard versus snow dust. You decide!

Roasted Pomegranate Chicken

Sushi??

Bakwang Kepiting

Goreng Assam Prawn

Ayam Buah Keluak

Hands-on Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

Why?
My mom bought these rice paper for me to re-create one of LR's favourite dishes. It's relatively healthy and super easy to make.

Failure:
The rice paper to wrap the spring rolls were too small, LR and myself went berserk adding A LOT of every ingredient into each spring roll which resulted in crazy clumsy eating and a very messy dining table.

* I found the bigger rice paper at Vivocity Cold storage*

Success:
But it was great fun, it's been a while since we have thread down the road of using hands to eat.

Rustic Fishcakes

Mexican Affair

why?
My best meal during my honeymoon was Mexican food at Lake Tahoe. I was blown away by the freshly baked warm tortillas, the combination of lucious gucamole, nachos dipped with tangy salsa and the most amazing fruit chutney with grilled meat. I lost count at the number of times I ate at a mexican joint during my honeymoon. I ate mexican for supper in LA and mexican again for quick bites at the airport during flight transfers. By the end of my honeymoon, I was already conspiring in my mind how I would be able to convice LR that the destination for our 2nd honeymoon MUST be Mexico!!

failure?
Haha.... I cheated. I bought this Tortilla pack from the supermarket to re-create my Mexican fest. The pack came with the tortillas, marinade and salsa. I had to buy the fresh ingredients like avocado, tomatoes, tasty cheese, chicken and lettuce.

success?
It brought back wonderful memories of my honeymoon and the mexican food. Of course, it was no where near what I had tasted in Lake Tahoe. But it really did not matter, to me the meal was as good as all the supposedly more authentic mexican restaurants I went to in Singapore.

hot cross buns

Why?

I spent 11 years of my schooling days in an all-girls catholic mission school so subconciously, I've always known at the back of my mind that these buns were eaten sometime during Good Friday and Easter. Then, being young and greedy of course, I was only interested in the eating! Almost 10 years on, am still greedy, but thankfully, I've matured to baking and more importantly, made the choice to follow Jesus.

I spent a good 2 weeks sourcing for the 'best' recipe and those two weeks were also spent reflecting on the significance of the history of these buns.

According to wikipedia, these buns are eaten on Good friday with the cross standing as a symbol of the cruxifiction.

What does the cruxifiction mean to me?

1. I am a precious child of God that is so deeply loved. I ball my eyes out each time I watch The Passion of Christ. I simply cannot fathom how much He was willing to suffer for me!
2.I am a sinner. I needed and will always need the cross to remind me to repent and ask for His forgiveness because I have fallen short.
3.I have a purpose and mission in life. My purpose is to glorify Him and because of that, my mission is to lead a life that would be an example of Christ and to go to the ends of the earth with His gospel to make Him known widely and deeply to the nations.

Success:
The very first bread I made that rose. Thank God for that because He reminded me that while He was cruxified on Good Friday, He rose again on the third day, Easter day!

Failure:
Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

pandan cake

Why?
1.LR doesn't really like cupcakes or muffins. He prefers airy cakes like pandan cakes.
2.I spotted some un-used pandan leaves in my fridge.
3.Green is my favourite colour!

Any excuse to bake in my kitchen :)

Failure:
In the midst of weighing, mixing and stirring, I couldn't find my pandan essence. It was an optional item on the recipe, but it did say that it would result in a very pale green colour(mine came out just yellow, as seen from above). I also killed my food processor. I was blending my pandan leaves with the tool and it suddenly 'smoked' and died. Thank God it managed to cough up 2 pathetic tsp of pandan juice. Honestly in the end, the pandan in the cake was almost non-existent. I, in fact made a butter sponge cake.

P/S: My pandan essence was found in my mom's place. We did grocery shopping together and it was left in her bags.

Success:
It had an almost 'juicy' but not wet bite to the cake. Somehow, it was still air-y and light. I liked it alot. Most pandan cakes that are sold commercially tend to be very dry. So I was pleasantly surprised by the contrast.

mushroom soup with country rolls

Why?
A few weeks back, there was this Border's 40% discount voucher circulating and I managed to convince LR that it would be such a waste not to use it to extend the library in my kitchen :) I decided that if I do want to master the art of baking bread, I need a book JUST devoted to bread making and nothing else.
Of course, soups are the perfect complement to bread. I decided to try making mushroom soup(Jamie Oliver's book - Dinners).

Success:
Sigh... not much :( But it's a pretty picture eh?

Failure:
The soup was too oily. The problem is when I cook from Jamie's book, sometimes the ingredients measurements are too vague for my liking. Exactly what is a good knob of butter? So anyway, my version of 'a good knob of butter' resulted in the soup being too oily, I was also overly generous with the lemon juice to 'kick up the flavour' as quoted from the book. My soup ended up sour and oily. Miles from what a mushroom soup should be. I also couldn't puree my mushroom soup as my food processer 'died' on me :(

The country rolls were a tragedy too... hard and totally inedible. I discovered it was because my yeast 'died'. I came to that conclusion from a side experiment I performed. I took a little of yeast from the same bottle that I used and added tepid water and sugar. If the yeast was alive, it would bubble and look sponge-y. But it didn't!! I checked the expiry date, and there was still about a year left. Not trusting this brand anymore.... Also am totally dejected on bread making.

Medley of CNY goodies

Why?
I'm not young anymore, and I have to admit that I would eventually become an 'auntie'...Sigh. Yes, so a huge part of adopting that title, is to participate in the annual frenzy of Chinese New Year (CNY) by baking pineapple tarts, giving out ang pows and marketing for food early to avoid the ridiculous price increase of fresh produce etc. To prepare myself for 'auntie-hood', I should and MUST master the art of tackling CNY. My medley of CNY goodies included Chocolate Chip cookies( from She bakes and she cooks), pineapple tarts( from another blogger, but forgot whom) and finally Mars cornflakes( Nigella's FEAST book).

Success:
The Mars cornflakes were a huge hit with everyone and it was so easy to make. But making them really tested my speed in the kitchen. I had to spoon all the goo-ey cornflakes into the individual paper mouldings fast before it hardens up. These fabulous goodies had the most fantastic combination of chewy-ness and crunchy-ness. I would definitely be making these again.

Failure:
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the easiest/fastest to make and 10 being insanely difficult/longest to make. Pineapple tarts registers with a score of 1 million!!! I am not joking! These goodies are just pure madness to craft. Making the homemade pineapple jam, requires leg and arm strength of an army. I am already exhausted recalling the hardwork in the kitchen to come up with them. Possibly the journey for pineapple tarts has ended in year 2007. I will gladly disqualify myself from 'auntie-hood' if making pineapple tarts is a major criterion.
Ok, moving on to the cookies. They came out rock hard!! Gosh..I don't know what happened! But I was just too tired to care after the pineapple tarts! Haha....

CNY or auntie-hood.... I am just not ready for it.

Angelhair pasta with Seafood in Prawn bisque

Why?
I had the most delicious Crayfish pasta at Miss Clarity Cafe, that greatly inspired me to whip up a similiar dish in my own kitchen. There was this distinct sweetness from the broth that the pasta was soaked in that really got me all excited. I just had to experiment as to whether the sweetness came from the prawn bisque or the cream or both!

Success:
I didn't use Crayfish, and bought huge scallops, prawns and fish fillet instead. I also opted to use Angelhair pasta, as it would be perfect to 'soak' up the flavours from the broth . I will include the receipe, since it's my very own and there would be absolutely no 'plagarism' here :) But I have to clarify, that I cook absolutely by instincts when I don't have a receipe. So you have to bear with me, if I just simply state - to taste!

Ingredients:
Garlic - 5 cloves
Onion - 1 medium
Bacon -2 streaks
Scallops
Prawns with shells on
Fish fillet
fresh tomotoes -2
canned whole tomatoes - 1 can
tomato paste - to taste
double cream - to taste
salt, pepper and sugar - to taste

Prepare some prawn bisque by de-shelling the prawns(including head) and boil in some water till reduced to this bright orange colour that usually at the same time fills my entire house with prawn vapour.

Fry the thinly sliced garlic, onion and bacon till fragrant. Add in the tomatoes(canned, paste and fresh) and prawn bisque to boil. Simmer for about 1/2hr and then add in the seafood with all the seasoning to taste with the double cream.

Only stir in the pasta when you are absolutely sure you're going to eat it within the next 5 min, or you would end up with mee sua pasta :)

Simply divine.........

Failure:
I tried this receipe twice. The first time, I added some herbs(basil) and it did snatch away the sweetness of the pasta. Maybe I'm a purist in my flavour. The 2nd time when I tried, I held back the herbs, and in my opinion, it was a more focused and distinct flavour of sweetness from the seafood...

Fresh Pasta

Why?
LR gave me a pasta machine as a Christmas present last year and of course I have to put it to good use :) And one of my occasional nothing-better-to-do-but-just-go-to-Phoon Huat- trips, I saw Semolina flour and bought a packet of it as I sort of remembered reading from somewhere that it makes yummy fresh pasta, so just bought it for an in- case- I-am -in-the-mood- to make pasta moment in the kitchen.

Success:
It was so much fun!!! I searched the internet for usage of Semolina flour and pasta, found a receipe for Ravioli, but I didn't have any stuffing, so decided to just make simple Fetcuccine. I am definitely getting my girfriends over to make some fresh pasta in future.

Failure:
I think the Semolina flour I bought was a quite coarse. I might need to stick to Italian 00 flour or hunt for a finer semolina flour.