Taiwan, I'm coming again!

Hello all,

I'll be flying off to Taiwan in another 9 hours time! Going to visit my Mil and also to celebrate my 1st Wedding Anniversary :)

This time round, I'll not only be staying in Taipei, I will also be going to 花蓮 (Hualian) to have my romantic wedding anniversary celebration with my Prince Charming. We have booked Echo Villa (迴音谷), one of the 民宿 in 花蓮. I really like that 民宿 so much and I can't wait to see it!

If you are interested, you may click here to direct yourself to 迴音谷 official website.
I'll updates you with the services and facilities! :D

In the mean time, I may not be able to update any new food/recipes entries, so pardon me for 8 days ;)

Lastly, I am praying hard that .........

"I will be LEAN and SLIM

when I come back from Taiwan"

Amen.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

Serves 10
Ingredients	Amounts
Raisins	1 cup
Rum	2/3 cup
Egg yolks	8
Sugar	1 cup
Milk	3 cups
Heavy cream	1 1/2 cup

1. Combine raisins and rum in small bowl. Cover; let stand at room temperature 2 hours. Drain raisins, reserving 6 tablespoons rum. Combine in same bowl.
   
   
2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in large bowl until blended. Bring milk and whipping cream to boil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Gradually whisk into yolk mixture.
   
   
3. Return mixture to saucepan; stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens, about 15 minutes (do not boil).
   
   
4. Strain custard into bowl. Cool. Add raisin mixture to custard. Refrigerate until cold.
   
   
5. Transfer custard to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer―s instructions.
   
   
6. Freeze ice cream in covered container until firm, about 4 hours. (Can be prepared 3 days ahead.)

Rum raisin ice cream is one of my favourite besides the usual cookies and cream or cookie dough. My Prince Charming recently bought a bottle of Gold rum for me when he went Bangkok for his Company Trip last month.

Was cracking my head on whether to use it for my bakes or for pure drinking when my Prince Charming commented that I can use them for ice cream! Fantastic idea ;)

This recipe yield 10 servings and is adapted from http://www.epicurious.com/. Was so excited when I saw the ice cream nicely done, so I couldn't wait any longer to taste them! By the way, my scooping skill is really really bad!

I hurriedly tasted it and got a big big shock, cause the liquor taste was really strong. I couldn't figure out what went wrong, only when I went through the recipe again and I realise that only 6 tbsp of rum is needed to combine into the mixture! I ADDED 2/3 CUP OF THE RUM! My god, I must be drunk from smelling the rum =.=

Anyway, the taste of this ice cream really taste like the ones sold outside, minus the strong liquor taste. I suppose I can make my own Rum Raisin ice cream in the future and store them up :)

After making this ice cream, I realised that it's not so hard after all. Just need some patience to get the custard nicely done. Well, I'll want to try a fruit flavoured (Mango or strawberry) and Cookies and Cream ice cream the next time!

Hamburger Sandwiches

Basic Loaf
Ingredients A	Amounts
Bread flour	220g
Instants yeast	3g
Water	130g
Ingredients B	Amounts
Bread flour	60g
Sugar	15g
Salt	1/2 tsp
Milk powder	10g
Water	40g
Ingredients C	Amounts
Unsalted butter	15g

1. Combine Ingredients A into a dough. Cover the dough with a layer of cling and allow proofing of 90 mins.
   
   
2. Add Ingredients B into proofed dough and combined into smooth dough. Add in the unsalted butter and make sure it gets knead into the dough thoroughly. Try the stretching test. If the dough is "elastic" enough, allow to proof for another 60 mins, else continuing kneading till it passes the panel test.
   
   
3. Cut the dough into small portions of 70g and round it up like a bun. Allow the doughs to relax for 10 mins.
   
   
4. Flatten the doughs into oval shape and roll it up like a swissroll. Place the rolled doughs into the bread pan and allow another proofing of 50 mins or when dough double in bulk.
   
   
5. Bring to bake at 200 degree Celsius for 30 mins.

Meat Patties
Ingredients	Amounts
Minced pork	150g
Diced onions	30g
Tomato ketchup	5 tbsp
Mirin	2 tbsp
Salt	1 tsp
Corn flour	2 tsp
Sugar	1 1/2 tsp
Soy sauce	1 tbsp
Oil	3 tsp

1. Mixed all the ingredients together.
2. In a pan, bring the oil to heat. Place the patties into the pan and fry till brown.

Hamburger Sandwiches

• Lettuce leaves
• Tomato slices
• Mayonnaise

1. Slices the loaf up.
2. Place 1 meat patty onto 1 slice of bread, top with lettuce and tomato slices.
3. Apply some mayonnaise over it and finished it with another slice of bread.

Finally I'm back to cooking and baking! The loaf of bread was out this morning at about 2am. I was so terribly tired after all the cleaning up. Luckily it was kneaded by my Bread machine else I wouldn't have the energy to make any hamburgers. Anyway, my loaf turn out to be rather "small" because I do not have any smaller bread pan so I had to place them into my giantic bread pan (about 30cm long) and when they came fresh out from the oven, they look so mini cute! LOL.

Prince Charming was jumping with joy since this is the 1st time I've ever baked for the past 2 weeks. I'm back on my "recovery" and he is really happy about it. Well, I need to work out on my "waiting-list" that has to be transferred to my "to-do List" so that I get to clear them up ASAP. LOL!

Bon Appetite!

Love is all around

I would like to thank Aimei from My Baking Cottage for passing me this tag. The world is truly full of love! Though it was devastating to learn that so many lives were taken away from the recent disasters that happened to Myanmar and Sichuan, we could see that love that was created by god's nature warm up the hearts of all.

Recently, I was feeling very low due to some conflicts arising in my office. It was giving me so much pressure that I totally lost control of what I should and what I should not do. I so wanted to escape from reality by running away but, thinking that the problem would not be solved, I had to hold on till the end. It was definitely not the life that I want. Everyday was just so meaningless, even with the fact that my family gave me alot of encouragement especially my Prince Charming. I never knew that this was so torturing because I've never experienced so much like this before!

Probably I forgotten that I am in fact very fortunate after all. I still have a stable job with a stable income. Me and my family are safe in Singapore, we have a roof over our head and sufficient food. Well, now I've finally come back to my senses =)

Gong to get back to my bakings/cookings, though frankly speaking I'm getting somehow lazy :P
I pray hard that the world will continue to bloom with love and my family and myself will be safe and happy.

I'm going to pass this tag to:

• 周老師
• 白老師
• レイチェル
• Amanda

Note:

In order to be able to achieve and maintain happiness we need to, actively, be able to do two things:

1. Complain and then let go (Dump the baggage, the roadblocks to happiness.)
2. Openly Express Gratitude (The open expression of gratitude promotes happiness.)After all, everyone has something to be grateful for and/or something to complain about.

If you would like to accept the challenge, please follow the appropriate link and do so. "Are You Grateful?", "Complain Complain Complain."Contributors to "Are You Grateful?" & "Complain Complain Complain" are:

1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Max 3-DianaCA's Metamorphoses 4-Mental Poo 5-My Thoughts 6-Baba Doodlius 7-Wake Up America 8-Life is a Roller Coaster 9-Life and Me 10-pinay mommy's love blog 11-My Happiness Haven 12-And Life Goes On for a Filipino Mom 13-Blessed Sanctuary 14-Expressions And Thoughts 15-Memories by Jenn 16-Reminiscence of My Adventures 17-In the Life of Mne 18-Juliana's Lair 19-Pinay Wahm 20-Lucid Creativity 21-Winged Words 22-Irresistible Fascinations 23-A Little Time 24-See Me For What You Will 25-Greatest Reviews 26-ETC ATBP 27-Gandacious 28-We Are Family 29-Journey to this thing called LIFE 30-www.rajeshrana.net 31-www.rajeshrana.com 32-BaReFooTeD Me 33-Uncomplicated 34-Points of View 35-Pride & Prejudice 36-Colorful World 37-Nora's Notes 38-A Daily Walk With Bill & Gina 39-Strange but True 40-Everything Under The Sun ( Beth Rebokon ) 41-Kaleidoscope 42-Fil-Oz Blog 43-By Osc@r Luiz 44-Comedy Plus 45-Blogging by Sandee 46-Soul Meets World 47-Mae's Memoirs 48-Beyond the Rave Reality 49-Amori, poesie, arte, chat by Hanna 50-Attached at the Hip 51-Carver's Sight or is that Site? 52-Empress Reviews 53-Simple Pleasures In My Heart 54-Lourdes' mia 55-A Grateful Heart 56-Majorsleepyhead 57-Scrappy n Happy in Ohio 58-CHOC MINT GIRL 59-Extraordinary Things 60-ZOOROPAZOO 61-BeNolSatuEm 62-As The World Turns 63-Your Caring Angels 64-Life Is Wonderful To Know Everyday 65-Sugar Magnolias 66-Little Peanut 67-Creative In Me 68-Me and Mine 69-Pea in a Pod 70-the diary of the Pink & Brown Wedding 71-good thoughts, good trades, good life 72-My Blog - all things me 73-Rainbows 74-Little Corner of Mine 75-Me, Myself and I 76-My Planet Purple 77-Amel's Realm 78-A Handful of Surprises 79-A Detour 80-Something Purple 81-Vanity Kit 82-Are You Grateful? 83-A Simple Life 84-BlogTips.Com 85-Balitang Kalye 86-Mariuca 87- Emila Yusof 88-A Total Blog 89-My Life in this Wonderful World 90-MommyAllehs 91-Things That Suck 92-A Mother's Stuff 93-Princess Vien 94-My Inner Thoughts Revealed 95-Roxiticus Desperate Housewives 96-Apples Of The Eyes 97-Nita's Random Thoughts 98-Nita's Corner 99-Thomas Digital Services 100-A Mother's Thoughts101-Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta 102-My Perfect Escape 103-Vanidosa. Marie 104-Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 105-Lynda's Loft 106-Listening..Learning..Living 107-LadyJava's Lounge 108-The Painted Veil 109-Poeartica 110-Maryannaville 111-the life of a psychotic weirdo 112-CARPE DIEM 113-Turn-u-Off 114-asian mutt international 115-Petty Ramblings of a Petty Queen 116-LIFE IS A ROLLER COASTER 117-AZZY'S BLOG-A-ROONIE! 118-glad to be here 119-WilStop 120-Dare to Blog 121-WebGeek Journal 122-Foster Me Up 123-This is My Life 124-DaveylynneDR 125-Life Realities 126-aNgRiAniWorld Dot Com 127-All That Matters 128-Baking Cottage 129- Viewfinder of Mr and Mrs Kwok

Updates!

It's been 2 weeks since I posted my last entry. Goodness, I never really track them as often as I used to be and got a big shock when I saw that my "latest" post was on 01 June 2008!

Been really busy over these 2 weeks *sigh* I did tried to squeeze out some free time for baking/cooking but I am just not in the mood. My to-do list is now becoming my waiting-list! I've got so many things that I want to try out, but when you don't feel good, you don't have the motivation to get yourself going.

I bought myself this book <爆紅人氣三明治> that introduce many methods of creating innovative and tasty sandwiches. They even cater a recipe for transparent mayonnaise! The kind of mayo that you see in Breadtalk's Pork floss bun! My god, that's my favourite kind of mayo!

I also got myself another book <元氣麵包活力滿屋> which features ways of getting different kind of bread using the same dough. I love the way they use the pastry dough for different kinds of danish pastries! Yummy! It's on my To-do list, opps I mean waiting-list.

Praying now that things gets better and I'll be back to my cheerful self. My Prince Charming has kind of suffered during this period of time cause I'm not baking and he doesn't have any snacks to munch on! He is praying hard that things goes well for me and I get to bake lots of snacks for him! LOL! I'm alright, my love. The snacks are on the way ;)

歡迎光臨 Welcome my friends!

Shortly after the mini gathering for my friends from my current company, my 2 teacher friends, 大S and 小S came over today! They were my fighting khakis during my teaching period. We fought through many "wars" and struggled through thin and thick. How time flies, its been 2 years since I left the teaching world. No doubt I have no regrets leaving, I still miss some of my kiddies, especially my Primary 1 babies :(

Both 大S and 小S are very fun and jovial friends whom I will never miss in my life. I guessed without them, I wouldn't have survived through my teaching career. All of us are now into the corporate world but we still keep in contact closely. I think that's the power of Friendship.

Anyway, it's lucky both of them ain't any fussy eater, except that 大S prefers non-spicy food. I did a prawn broth pasta (Tomato based) and an appetiser that consists of baked salmon, blanch asparagus, salmon fruit salad and baked sweet potatoes. They really enjoyed the food especially the baked salmon! Hehe. I like the baked salmon too!

Actually I intend to try baking some maracons but due to time constraints, I had to leave it till some other days. I then decided to have a chocolate fondue for our dessert, however we were all filled to the brink with the food served so we decided not to have any dessert. LOL .

Oh ya! they got me Capital vouchers! My god, why is everyone giving me presents?! So, is there anyone who wants to drop by again? :P

For your eyes :)