The Kwoks Viewfinder

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T21:30:00.001+08:00

Wooooo.. in another 3 hours it'll be 2012! Time flies doesn't it?
Everything seems to running in the fast forward mode ever since I stepped into Motherhood! It's awesome on one hand but terrible on the other hand because it just make me feel guilty that I've not done many things that I targeted to have them done so in 2011!!!!

I wanted to bake Mango and Strawberry swissrolls
I wanted to make Crumble Apple Pies
I wanted to designs some cupcakes
I wanted to bake some croissants
I wanted to put my hands on painting
I wanted to learn sewing
I wanted to go on a diet
I wanted to conduct a mini baking sessions with my friends
I wanted to do some Art and Crafts and Baking session with Baby Kwok
I wanted to have photography lessons tutored by Prince Charming

These are just a few of my To-do list for 2011! For godsake, none have been fulfilled :(
Does that means I have to try to have them done in 2012? Guess I'll have to do that then~

Anyway, there's one thing that I did eventually fulfill for my To-do list which is to learn Korean Language! Have been checking on a few schools and finally decided on one. Have not done the registration yet but more or less confirming myself for their Jan's intake :) Apart from that, I'm pretty proud of Baby Kwok as he is getting himself comfortable with school finally. However, he seems to lost some weight after going to school. Sigh.... When will my Baby Kwok be Chubby Kwok? So thus, my 2012 MUST-DO list will be to plump up my Baby Kwok and his Papa (Prince Charming), making both of them very healthy and chubby :)

2011 have been quite a good year for me. I wouldn't say its fantastic but it is not that bad either. I managed to survive in a new job with nice colleagues and also making myself comfortable being a mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter. It was really a challenge in 2010 when I was promoted to being a mum but I'm really happy with this promotion! Even though I may not be the most perfect mum in the world but I know I'm the best mum to my Baby Kwok :D

In 2012, I hope that all of my love ones will be blessed with great health and happiness. For all the children, especially Baby Kwok and his cousins - May all of them be healthy and happy. For my parents/grand mum and in law/grand in law - May them be blessed with great health, wealth and happiness. For myself, Prince Charming and my siblings/cousins - May all of them be happy in all areas (Career, luck, wealth, relationships) and last but not least, may all my family be blessed with Great Health, Great Happiness and Great Wealth! Huat Huat Huat!

And before I end my post for 2011, I'll like to wish all of my blogger friends and visitors a Happy 2012! Here's a preview of what we had for New Year Eve's dinner ;) Bon appetit!

Merry X'mas 2011

2011-12-25T23:15:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I last blog! I was browsing through my blog and realized that I have not blogged for 2 months!!!! Goodness me, it seems like I've little time for my little space here but well, I'll try to blog more if I can.

Anyway, blogging on Christmas day has been an yearly event for me so here I am here wishing all my blogger friends and my visitors a Merry Merry Merry X'mas~
As usual, my family came over to my place for our yearly Christmas dinner :) This year round, I decided to take up the chef role and make everything from scratch! Pretty proud of myself! Hehe...

Without further delay, here I present to you our Christmas Feast! Pssst.. the Photographer (Prince Charming) was busy busy munching with the food and that he decided to give himself a break so no professional photos here ;)

Top Left - Right: Grilled Root Veggies and Home-made Garden Salad

Bottom Left - Right: Honey Baked Ham with Cherry Tomatoes and Honey Baked Chicken

It was my first attempt baking a whole chicken! The last time I did Roast chicken, it was only Chicken thighs so while marinating the chicken today, was a little worried if it will turns out good. Thank god for the blessings, the honey baked roast chicken was a big hit with my family especially Prince Charming :)

And oh, all the kids enjoyed themselves so much especially Baby Kwok! He was literally running all around the house and oh, he love the presents that he received from my sister and brothers :) It was a whole load of fun for everyone, even our neighbour kids came to join n the fun!

Moo Moo Chiffon Cake

2011-10-21T08:50:00.001+08:00

Finally baked my chiffon cakes yesterday !!!!!! It's pretty obvious that I baked while Baby Kwok is having his sleep otherwise, I don't think I'll get any minute in my kitchen! Anyway, these chiffon cakes were for Prince Charming's colleague housewarming as well as the breakfast for my department. It's been ages since I baked for my colleagues and his colleagues!!! Time flies isnt it, Baby Kwok will be attending school in Nov! Hopefully I'll get more time to bake snacks for him to bring to school :)

Anywya, love the moo moo effects! It wasn't as hard as I expected so I believe anyone can make this!
Give it a try! I swear it's addictive! I mean eating and baking ;)

Had some leftover batter so I did a mini chiffon (with real marble effects)

Love these moo moo effects :)

The efforts spent were worth it!!

To make these, you'll need:

Batter Mixture
- 70g Yolks
- 60g Water
- 60g Oil
- 20g Sugar (I used fine sugar)
- 70g flour (First)
- 10g flour (Latter)
- 8g Cocoa Powder

Egg White Mixture
- 180g Egg whites
- 90g Sugar
- 10g Corn Starch

Mix Yolk + Sugar + Oil till well combined. Add in water and flour and mix well. Make sure that there are no lumps visible.
Separate the batter evenly into 2. In Batter 1, add in 10g of flour and mix well. Set aside. In Batter 2, add in 8g of Cocoa Powder and mix well.
In a deep bowl, whisk egg whites till soft foam and add in sugar gradually. When the mixture is slightly 'ribbony', add in the corn starch and mix till you get a shiny and smooth peak. (Not too stiff).
Divide the white mixture into 2 and fold respectively into Plain batter and Chocolate batter.
Scoop either batter at the corners of the chiffon pan (I set 3 corners) then top over with the other batter. Repeat till you get about 70% full.
Bring to bake at 170 degree Celsius for 35 mins. Turn the cake upside upon baking and remove from pan once cooled.

** Recipe adopted from Kitchen Corner**

中秋節快樂之Thousand Layers Spiral Mooncakes

2011-09-11T11:16:00.008+08:00

Yes, I know that I've not been blogging recently but can't help it cause terribly busy with work as the workload is getting heavier and heavier and customers are getting more aggressive :(

Baby Kwok was also down with stomach flu and recurring fever 1.5 weeks ago and I was really really worried about it. The stomach flu was really bad! It made Baby Kwok lost 0.5kg! It wasn't easy to make him pile on weight and just when we are finally happy with his weight, stupid stomach flu came. Sigh.. I guess I finally came to realized that Health is more important than Weight!! Yes, I need to constantly remind me of that!

Now that Baby Kwok has fully recovered, Prince Charming and I are both down. We both suffering from throat infection and flu! Baby Kwok is also having slight flu and cough but he is still eating well and being very active so I'm not too worried. I just hope all the viruses will just keep far away from us after we have fully recovered!

Okay, to cut my post short back to the real topic! Mooncake Festival will be coming on Monday and thus, I've decided to bake my own mooncakes this year. Even though I was really weak, I wanted to do it so badly for many years so I insisted on baking! My efforts were paid off :) Very happy with my end results comparing to the one I did 2 weeks ago with my cousins (Those on my FB will be able to tell the differences!)

Okie dokie, here I present to you my Thousand Layers Spiral Mooncakes. Pardon the pictures cause it was taken by me with the EPL-1 that Prince Charming got for me. The photographer was sleeping like a pig when I wanted to take these shots so I had to do them myself. Still a novice at photo-shooting!!!
Last not but least, 中秋節快樂!

To make these, you'll need:

Water Dough
- 300g Plain flour
- 90g Crisco shortening
- 40g Icing sugar
- 140g Water
- 1.5 tsp Lemon juice/vinegar

Oil Dough
- 260g Plain flour
- 160g Crisco shortening
Fillings - Ready made Red bean paste/Lotus paste
Salted yolks - 4 big ones and quarter them up

For Water Dough: Mix flour and Crisco shortening using the rub-in method till it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the icing sugar and then pour in the liquid ingredients and knead into a soft dough. The dough should be soft and not sticky. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle some flour to get into the right texture. My guts will say it resembles a bread dough but less elastic.
For Oil Dough: Mix flour and Crisco shortening into a soft dough. If the dough is sticky, you can sprinkle little amount of flour to get into the right texture.
Knead both Water and Oil dough into little dough balls of about 40g each.
Flatten the Water dough and wrap the Oil dough into it. (Imagine that oil dough is the meat filling while water dough is the bun dough and you are going to wrap the filling into the bun dough)
On a flat surface, roll the bundled dough with a roller pin then swirl them up like a Swiss roll.
Rotate the Swiss rolled dough 90 degree and rolled the it flat and swirl them up like a Swiss roll again.
Cut the swiss rolled dough into 2 with the the swirl side facing down. Flattern the dough and wrap the filling into it.
Bring to bake at 180 Degree Celsius for about 25 mins or when they turn golden brown. Alternatively, you may deep fry them in hot oil.

Hello... I'm still here!

2011-07-11T17:15:00.000+08:00

Not that I've stopped cooking/baking but rather I'm been pretty lazy to update my blog *Hides in the wardrobe*. As you know, my little darling, yes my mini version Prince Charming aka Baby Kwok has started to walk since 13.5 months old (He's now 15 months old btw). Way before he mastered the art of walking, I was anticipating for that moment where I get to hold his hands and bring him out on a stroll in the park. I was wrong, totally wrong. This little terrorist of mine has never wanted to hold my hands or rather our hands (including daddy's)!! He only want to venture out himself!

The first time we let him walk on his own was in Kiddy Palace and it was like as though we were playing "Polices and Thief". The Daddy (yes, Prince Charming) was panting up and down cause he could not even stop for a break before our darling starts running around the whole place. It was scary, yes very scary! We were so afraid that he might just trip and knock into any corners/shelves etc. Finally we managed to caught hold of him (yes, he struggled like as if we were the kidnappers) and never let him walk on his own in the mall. Lesson learn! (But forgotten very quickly before the police and thief game starts again).

Okay back to topic, so yes been pretty tired from all the picking up of toys and running after my Baby Kwok that even when I have 30 mins of free time to update my blog, I would rather couch on the sofa and watch the TV. I guess that's Parenthood, when you have time you just wanna rest! Anyway, am starting to time my cooking recently cause Baby Kwok will be going to school (ahem.. childcare I mean) in Nov and that means I have to make sure dinner is served within 30 mins once we reach home. Been practicing really hard but couldn't reach my goal of 30mins. More practice I guess...

Anyway, here's my little darling in his room, playing with his toys.(as usual)

I love you darling!! :D

CLOSED Pre-order Earth's Best snacks

2011-07-08T10:56:00.002+08:00

Crunchin' Grahams: Honey Sticks $5.70

Classic graham cracker flavor with a hint of honey
Finger-friendly snack for toddlers
Made with whole wheat flour
Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
No hydrogenated oils
No trans saturated fats
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

Smiley Snacks: Banana $5.70

Fun, smiling faces to help toddlers learn to eat
Bursting with natural banana flavor
12 grams of whole grain per serving
2 grams of protein and fiber per serving
Excellent source of iron. zinc, vitamin C and six B vitamins
USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
Kosher certified

Snackin' Fruit Hearts & Rings: Blueberry $4.00

Healthy finger food can go anywhere your toddler goes
Made from real blueberries
Convenient grab 'n go cup - resealable, fits in car cup holder
13 grams of whole grain per serving
2 grams of protein per serving
2 grams of fiber per serving
Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
Kosher certified

Organic Snackin' Fruit Hearts & Rings: Banana $4.00

Healthy finger food can go anywhere your toddler goes
Made from real bananas
Convenient grab 'n go cup - resealable, fits in car cup holder
13 grams of whole grain per serving
2 grams of protein per serving
2 grams of fiber per serving
Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
Kosher certified

Sunny Days Snack Bars: Strawberry $6.00

Juicy flavor of fresh-picked strawberries inside a wholesome cereal crust
Individual wrapped bars - perfect for on-the-go
Excellent source of calcium, iron, zinc and six B vitamins
Made with organic ingredients
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

Sunny Days Snack Bars: Apple $6.00

Juicy flavor of fresh-picked apples inside a wholesome cereal crust
Individual wrapped bars - perfect for on-the-go
Excellent source of calcium, iron, zinc and six B vitamins
Made with organic ingredients
No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

To order, simply send your order details to my email: happymrskwok@gmail.com with the below ordering format:

Item 1:
Quantity:
Amount:
Mode of Collection:

Upon receiving confirmation of orders, payment details will be provided.
Collection comes in 3 mode: Registered/Normal/Self Collection.
Postage will be advised upon your confirmed order(s).

Self Collection is only available at selected areas and timing (as well as within my comfort zone) -:

Hougang Ave 8
(Weekdays between 630pm - 830pm)
Anchorvale Sengkang
(Weekdays between 900pm - 1100pm/ Weekends between 1100am - 1000pm)
Ang Mo Kio
(Weekdays between 1130am - 130pm/ 530pm - 630pm)

Tonkatsu 豬排蓋飯

2011-05-29T09:17:00.005+08:00

Shall be a short post cause my back's breaking from cleaning the house yesterday! The pictures will sum up what we had for dinner last night, including my Baby Kwok! We have been very adventurous to explore him to our food recently. I wonder if that's a good thing. Hmmmm.....

Yup! We had Tonkatsu for dinnner :) I played a litle trick on this - No, not about using frozen pork chop but instead of using my Don-pan (which I usually do for donburi), I merely fried the pork chop, cut and shove it on to the rice then pour the pre-prepared sauce over.

Alright, need to rest my aching back! Age's catching up I suppose!
To make this, you'll need:

Pork Loin, 180g - Pounded flat with a meat hammer (is that how you call that tool?)
1 big Onion, sliced
Panko, 1 packet (Japanese Bread crumbs)
Plain flour
3 tbsp of Soy sauce
50ml of water
2 tbsp of sugar
Spring onions, sliced (for garnishing)
1 beaten egg (for coating)
1 lightly beaten egg (for the sauce)
1 bowl of cooked Japanese rice

Dust the Pork Loin with plain flour, followed by a layer of egg mixture and then covered well with panko. Set aside.
Heat up a frying pot filled with oil (enough to cover the surface of the pork loin), once temp is ready, fry the prepared pork loin till golden brown.
Fill a bowl with rice. In a saucepan, pour soy sauce, sugar and water and bring it to boil. Add in the sliced onions and cooked till soft
Stir in the lightly beaten egg and shut off the heat. Cut up the deep-fried pork loin and place it on top of the rice.
Pour the sauce over and garnish with spring onions.

Singapore Black Pepper Crabs

2011-05-18T22:24:00.004+08:00

Well well well, not that I've been MIA but was really busy. My house seems to be like a junk site every now and then. My little terroist a.k.a Baby Kwok has learnt to open up the drawers and "tidying" up the stuffs in it. Not only that, he has learnt to "hide" my stuffs so that I won't find them till Christmas arrive. The most mischievous act from him - Making the whole house upside down 5 mintues after I've cleaned up the house! Hmmmm... genetics inheritance?

Was telling Prince Charming that we should just hang everything up on the wall so that nothing get losts and thrown everywhere but still I'm sure my litle terroist will find his way up to grab them. He's not learning to walk yet but is already climbing up the window grilles. Though my little terroist gets on my nerves at times, he is still the one who brights up my life, nono our life (+ Prince Charming). The hefty amount of weight that I've piled on during pregnancy, the uncountable stretchmarks and the numbers of sleep that I've lost were worth it! Motherhood is such a bliss that comes with a tint of complaint :)

Anyway, we went to Sheng Siong for crab hunting on Vesak Day! As usual, we arrived late and many of the female crabs were gone and most of the leftover mud crabs were those with smaller pinchers (gongs) but still we managed to grabbed two of them who looks more muscular than the rest. Damages? $24.90!!! CHEAP and good!

This time round, I decided to try my hands on Black Pepper crabs after savouring those from Peach Garden. Wasn't that hard as I imagined! Yummilicious too but a little too spicy cause I've added slightly more black pepper. Greedy me!

It was so shiosk to have this crabs with Bulmer's Cider! Wohoooo!

To make this, you'll need:

3-half tbsp Ground Black pepper
4 tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsp Sugar
1 medium Shallots, sliced
1 medium Onion, sliced
A handful of garlics, diced
5 tbsp Water/stock
6 tbsp of oil, for frying
1kg of Mud crabs

Wash the mud crabs and chopped them into pieces.
Heat oil in wok and fry crabs till they turn red.
Back to the same wok, throw in the shallots, onions and garlic and fry till fragnant.
Stir in oyster sauce, ground black pepper, sugar and water.
Throw in the crabs, fry evenly and ready to serve.

Pre-Order from Japan Limited Offer - CLOSED

2011-04-28T18:00:00.003+08:00

Takoyaki Maker (電気たこ焼き器)

■ Voltage: AC100V
■ Power: 500W
■ Thermal fuse: ℃ 172
■ Automatic temperature control circuit: ℃ 160
■ Size: 25.76 × 25.76 × 7.25cm

Price: $70

Petite Donut Maker

■ Size: 19.5 × 25 × 10 height (cm)
■ Color: Milky Pink
■ Voltage: 100V 50/60Hz
■ Power: 520W
■ Thermal fuse: ℃ 240
■ Thermal Stat: ℃ 180

Price: $70

Note: Above electrical appliances are direct from Japan, therefore please note that you need to use a transformer before using these appliances. Transformers can be easily purchased from your local store (e.g. Best Denki/Harvey Norman/Courts/Self-Fix Stores)

For interested parties who would like to join in this Pre-order, please kindly send your order to happymrskwok@gmail.com. An order confirmation email will be send to you, providing with Collection mode and payment information.
Pre-Order Closed. Thank you!

Blog Project #1: 早餐店系列 - Pancakes & Hashbrowns

2011-04-17T14:39:00.001+08:00

Now comes my 2nd from Blog Project #1: 早餐店系列, featuring homemade Pancakes and Hashbrowns!
Even though in Taiwan, most breakfast are very traditional - in terms of cusine wise which means more Chinese but as years grew by, most Taiwanese are also learning to adapt new cuisine and so you can see many western breakfast in their local 早餐店 as well.

Pancakes and Hashbrowns are the most common breakfast items that you can get from most 早餐店 and even though their pancakes may not be as fanciful as what we get from Western cafes, they taste great too!

I've always been making pancakes since they are pretty easy and blend well with almost anything - Jam, butter, fruit etc. It also goes well with milk, tea, coffee and juices which explains why this is so popular in Macdondalds cause not only the kids love them, adults too!

As for Hashbrowns, Prince Charming has a fetish towards them :) He especially loves the ones from Macdonalds' breakfast. I decided to make them myself instead of getting the frozen ready kinds this time!

Breakfast! My favourite meal of all time :)

Pancakes! I loves them with honey too!

Self-made Hashbrowns - I shredded them prior to boiling them. Makes work easier!

Hashbrowns are pretty easy to make but it can be tedious when it comes to shaping them. I had a hard time trying to shape my hashbrowns so I added some flour to make them stick.

Blog Project #1: 早餐店系列 - 蛋餅 & 總匯三明治

2011-04-09T18:09:00.005+08:00

Those who are on my Facebook would probably noticed my recent status "Blog Project #1: 早餐店系列 ♥"
Very motivated by many bloggers who actually make the effort to plan food projects for their blogs, I've also been thinking of starting mini projects for my blog to movitate myself to cook/bake more. This was pending in my To-Do list for quite sometime only till recently that I decided it's time!

The first project will be 早餐店系列 because breakfast is always the meal that I eat the most (in terms of appetite) and also the meal that I always look forward to :P Without further ado, here I present the 1st from my Blog Project #1. 1st from the project features Breakfast from Taiwan's 早餐店 which consists of 　蛋餅, 總匯三明治 and Black Tea.

♥♥Blog Project #1 早餐店系列♥♥

蛋餅 is one of the most common breakfast in Taiwan that consists of egg and a batter skin. Most of the time, ingredients such as cheese, pork floss or spring onions can also be added to make it more savoury :)
My 蛋餅 receipe was adopted from 小小米桶 but I did some slighty changes to the amount of water added for the batter as I find that the orignal recipe's is a little too thick for my personal liking.

總匯三明治 is a MUST for my breakfast when I go back to Taiwan for holidays. I like the fact that it's full of ingredients and yet so cheap! It cost around NT25 for 1 which consists of at least 4 slices of white bread with lettuce, tomatoes, meat patties, egg, and sometimes ham. The amount of ingredients make this sandwich really tall that you have to secure with toothpicks. I don't have any toothpicks at home (cause we use floss) so my 總匯三明治 went out of shape :( The sandwiches were really gigantic after piling all the ingredients. For mine, I added tomatoes, lettuces, chicken patties and egg.

Fellow bloggers who are also interested in my project, please join me! I'll love to see many posts featuring the different kinds of breakfast ;)

Baby Kwok is 1!

2011-04-08T15:13:00.002+08:00

Baby Kwok finally turns 1 year old on April 6! My little baby is officially a Toddler now! Come to think of it, I pretty much missed the days when he's still a newborn :)

Anyway, we had a Closed Door Party for his Big One Celebration at "With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra" last Saturday and though he's still too young to know what's exactly going on but I could tell that he is really happy cause he was smiling and clapping his hands happily :D

The Birthday Cake that I ordered for Baby Kwok was way above my expectations and it wowed all the guests especially the little guests and they were literally going "Wowwwwwwwwwwwww" with their mouths wide open! I was the happiest person on earth at that moment! Oh, Baby Kwok's Birthday cake was from Pine Garden - My All-time Favorite!

Food catering according to my guests' reviews were nice, especially the Bacon Aglio Olio and Banana goes Porky (Bananas wrapped with Bacon). The kids were really happy with the fact that dessert was Ice-cream (Vanilla/Chocolate/Strawberry) and some of the kids came up to me and thank me for the nice Goodies box that I've prepared for them . Thank god for the little ones!

The Birthday Celebration was a big success and I would like to thank everyone for their perfect attendance and of course, the crews at With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra were really friendly and helpful! They were helping me with all the arrangements and even offered to help me cut up the cake and serve the guests! Pine Garden was nice to did some little changes to the cake design according to the Cake toppers that I provided and I was really thrilled when I saw the cake (even though the changes may not be obvious but hey I did noticed it!). They never fail to disappoint me!

Sunday's Fusion Breakfast

2011-03-27T22:26:00.003+08:00

Have you ever wondered what's your all-time favourite breakfast? Roti Prata and Cantonese porridge with Deep-fried doughstick has always been my all time favourite for breakfast and I usually try to alternate both every weekends, otherwise I would generally skip Breakfast and go direct to Brunch. If you ask me between Cantonese porridge and Roti Prata, which is your favourite? I would cast my vote to Roti Prata! I can eat 5 of them for breakfast but of course too full for my lunch then :P

To some, Roti Prata can be quite hearty as a breakfast but I believe people like me staying in Singapore won't be surprised if we have that served for breakfast. I guess it's because we grew up taking hearty breakfast? I even have friends who takes Tom Yum noodles as breakfast! I don't think Roti Prata would sound hearty to them if they were to choose between that spicy Tom Yum with the delicate crispy Roti Prata ;)

Anyway, I bought 2 packets of frozen prata pastries 2 weeks ago and they were as usual left sitting in the freezer till I saw them today while preparing for Baby Kwok's meals. Know what? I should learn to make a list of what I have in my fridge because just today, I realised that I have a few duplicates items and I even have stuffs that had expired and yet to be open! Arghhh... I can't blame this to pregnancy because I've been like that even before my pregnancy! It is just a bad habit right? 2011 target --> Learn to do "house keeping" for my fridge!

Alright, back to topic and so I decided to serve Roti Prata for Breakfast but hey, I do not have any curry mix and neither do I have any canned Curry Chicken so how am I going to serve Roti Prata with? Jam? Butter? Cheese? I know I can serve Roti Prata with those but I think it is always good to have a sauce so.... I decided to go fusion! Japanese curry with Roti Prata! It's amazing how matching they goes with each other! Don't believe? Try it yourself :)

Yum yum.. They go with each other so well!!

Love the crisp :)

Hearty but I love it!

So now.. can you tell me what's your favourite breakfast?

Baby Kwok's BIG ONE Party

2011-03-23T14:39:00.002+08:00

Time does flies isn't it? Baby Kwok will be turning 1 in another 2 weeks time and my oh my, my little baby has grown to be a toddler now! One super active and cheeky toddler :)

We'll be having his Big One celebration at one of the cafe located in the East and I am really looking forward! I guess when it comes to 1st-time mummy, we usually get overly excited especially with parties and celebrations with our little ones.

Preparation works start as early as January this year but... up till today I have not gotten the invitation cards, thank you note and Goodie bags done. God, now I'm only left with 1.5 weeks to go, I desperately need to fasten my pace so that I can get everything up before the party!

Anyway, been very hardworking in designing invitation card, poster, goodie bag labels and Thank you label for Baby Kwok's party. Friends were suggesting getting something off the rack (those ready printed Disney invitation cards) but I think I'll prefer to design one myself cause I wanted something unique and special :)

This is the Thank you label that I've specially done up for our guests!
It's not something big but just a small token of appreciating their attendance for our Party :)

And oh, did you notice that we have a new banner? :P

Inspirations

2011-03-22T15:59:00.002+08:00

Prince Charming just sent me a link and both of us got inspired! He promised that he'll focus well when he's taking photography for my food and I do think he's capable of doing it. On a hind note, I think I should learn some photography techniques too!

Hmm.. time to invest in a camera?
Olympus E-PL2 or Panasonic GF2

What I did LAST....2 weekends

2011-03-22T13:19:00.002+08:00

Alright, finally had time to pen down one entry. I did had some wonderful time with my kitchen for the last two weekends and was quite happy. YES! I finally promise myself to do up something in the kitchen after the CNY bakings :)

Prince Charming was giggling with joy because I finally dragged myself to the recipe corner (A corner of the IKEA shelves where my recipe collections are at) to get some ideas to decide what to cook for him. He was eager to try my cooking/baking and also eager to take pictures for my food. Well, at least he took the imitative without me asking first!

Right after the photography sessions end, he started complaining about the lights, the exposure and the settings. We don't have much time to setup the table because of our active darling, Baby Kwok crawling around the whole house, pulling down everything that comes in contact with his 2 round eyes. He couldn't focus well because Baby Kwok likes to crawl towards us and pull himself up with our help so the photography session were not like how we used to do before. I guess he just needs time to get used to it and I'm sure he'll be able to take pictures like how he used to take for my food. (Or maybe he is now too used to taking human photography that he needs to have some emotional contacts with my food before he gets the "FEEL"?) *giggle*

Nevertheless, here I present my hard work for the last 2 weekends! *Pat pat my own shoulders*

An impulse attempt to satisfy our needs for Wanton and oh, I know.. gigantic Wantons :)

From one of my "To-Do-List", Sherperd's Pie. I wanted to give a try on Gordan Ramsay's recipe but Prince Charming was a little "fearful" towards minced lamb and I couldn't get it at the supermarket near my house, so I only used minced pork in my Sherperd's Pie (I can't eat beef so nah.. no beef!) and only reference Gordan Ramsay's seasoning but most of the seasoning are upon my own taste buds ;) Prince Charming totally loves the pie and the both of us almost finished the whole of the pie. It's really a big portion, I think enough for 6 person :)

Look at the amount of mashed potatoes I've piled onto of the minced meat!! Oh, I added egg yolk to the mashed potatoes mixture and I think it sort of makes the mixture slightly smoother but I didn't mashed the potatoes finely because Prince Charming wanted something in between chunky and smooth. You know something like Chunky Peanut Butter.

Woolala.. my first attempt on Sherperd's pie!

Okie dokie, so I did took the effort to post up 2 entries ;)
Gambatte to myself and I hope to post more in the near future and probably with some kids menu too :D

Finally I BAKED

2011-03-18T16:42:00.001+08:00

Alright, this is super long overdue. I did eventually baked for Chinese New Year. Nothing fancy, nothing weird, nothing shocking just my usual Pineapple tarts :)

I guess I did improves when it comes to molding the tarts but on the other hand, I need to be more well organised. I was panicking in the kitchen - For fear that my Baby Kwok will cry anytime! Also, I'm just too lazy to cook Pineapple jam which I even proudly told Prince Charming that I'll make my own Pineapple Jam this year. Ptttffff.... I shouldn't have brag it too early.

Nevertheless, pretty proud of my little tarts and my friends commented they were nicers than the usual ones I baked previously! Why? Because I decided to switch to a new recipe and adopted Little Teochew's recipe :)

Happy Munching!

Psss... I wanted to use my signature on my picture but guess what, my macbook ran out of space! I can't even save my works after editing them! Grrrrrrrrrrr... I need a new laptop!! Maybe a Macbook Pro?

I Promise!

2011-03-15T15:46:00.002+08:00

I promise I'll blog something this or next week!
I promise okay!

Cola Ribs and Carmalized Wings

2011-01-17T17:06:00.003+08:00

This is definitely one long overdue post! I made these ribs and wings almost 2 weeks ago but only had time to upload them now to Blogger. Pssst.. I'm quite active and prompt in Facebook though :P

Anyway, Prince Charming was ~~moaning~~ yearning for Ribs! Yes, he was literally begging me everyday to do a dish on ribs for him but I never had the time because he wanted those Barbecue kind which I have no confident in doing it since they won't taste the same if I were to bake the ribs in the oven comparing to the hot barbecued kinds. Finally he decided to lower his standards to just any kind of ribs as long as they are prime ribs!

Okay so on our usual weekend grocery shopping at Cold Storage, we bought 300g worth of prime ribs for my first attempt to do a ribs dish. I was intending to adapt a recipe for Caramelized wings by 小米桶 and I thought, why don't I just marinate them together and see what I can do later! Anyway, both dish came out pretty decent except that the wings had those "chicken" smell which I deem must be due to it being a frozen one. I never had problems with fresh wings!

This was taken almost 1hr after I've finished cooking them because someone was just too addicted to his GT5 game that he "delayed" our usual dinner time and yes, he was too engrossed that he totally forgotten all about taking pictures for me! Grrrrr.... Guess it's time I asked him to buy a camera for me! Maybe a Olympus EP2?

To-do list 2011

2011-01-02T22:50:00.002+08:00

Was browsing through my previous entries (especially those before pregnancy), I was telling myself " Hey Mrs Kwok, stop finding excuses to escape from your kitchen!" I think it's really time I settle down, do some time management so that I can juggle between work, home and kitchen.

The first attempt to bake was for Christmas! The snow flakes cookies took me more than twice the time I've used to bake previously!! I guess it's really right to says that practice makes perfect. Here's my left brain telling me that "Yes yes, please start baking more so that you can improve and not deteriorate!" and my right brain goes "No time for you Mrs Kwok, you still have loads of laundry to wash!

Alright, stop my ranting! Anyway I decided I will ~~shall~~ start a To-Do list and try my best to fulfill them!

I really really want to be a perfect chef for Prince Charming and Baby Kwok!

To-Do list 2011

~~Gordon Ramsay's Shepherd Pie~~
Mini Burgers & Sliders
Shrimp Fra Diavolo
Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Puff Pastry
Raisin Loaf
Chocolate Marble Loaf
Haiwaiian Pizza
~~Oven Baked Ribs~~

Hereby wishing everyone a Happy 2011!

Resolution 2011

2010-12-29T12:16:00.005+08:00

Been asked by a few acquaintances about my resolution in 2011. Was kind of feeling weird because like I said, they were acquaintances so I don't feel that they will know much about me, so I told them "Nah, I don't have one" :x

Not trying to be rude but I've tried revealing my 2010 resolution to 2 of them last year when asked about it and ended up getting question mark faces, because like I said, they were just acquaintances and thus, do not know me very well!

On the other hand, I am absolutely happy to "announce" my 2011 resolution since I believe those who have been following my blog will know me well enough ;)

Would like to go on a family trip with Prince Charming and Baby Kwok to Disneyland! Japan or HongKong? I bet Prince Charming will go for Japan!
Why: Have not traveled for more than a year!!! Desperately need an overseas holiday!
Make more initiatives to beautify my house and keeping it sparking clean!
Why: I'm one who likes to change "pattern" for my loft. If you follows my blog, you should be able to grasp a hint or two from my postings. Oh! Sparkling clean cause need to create a fresh and clean environment for my little boy :D
Learn to appreciate my family more especially Prince Charming ;)
Why: I believe mummies will agree with me that after being a mum, things changed. I don't mean relationship between husband and wife but more of like referring to moods. It seems that my focus is all on Baby Kwok and I tend to throw tantrums at him even with little matters. Though most of the time he understands but still, I have a heart of guilt for raising my voice at him occasionally :P
Create some healthy baby food for Baby Kwok!
Why: I'm so worried that he'll get sick of porridge. It's always either pumpkin, spinach or broccoli with threadfin/pork. I need to be creative to create special and healthy meal for my darling!
Continue my breastfeeding journey till Baby Kwok turns 1 year old before I fully introduced him to Formula milk!
Why: Breast milk is the best that a mom can give to her child. I want my child to enjoy the good quality milk :) Not that Formula milk is no good but well, you know ;)
Spent more time with my Kitchen~~~
Why: Ever since pregnancy starts, I have not been utilizing my kitchen in terms of cooking or baking. When I looked through my past postings, I miss the joy I had when I bake/cook for my love ones. I really need to get the regime back!

I guess that's all for now? Will add on when I think of more!

Oyakodon 親子丼

2010-12-27T00:23:00.002+08:00

Remember I mentioned in my previous post that I cooked Oyakodon for X'mas dinner? Prince Charming's cousin paid us a visit and because we were pretty busy during the festive season, we decided to go simple rather than whipping up a table of food cause I'm pretty sure we'll not be able to finish them up.

I have done this Oyakodon umpteen times since this is one of Prince Charming's Top favourite list for Japanese food apart from the usual Japanese Curry. Enjoy!

Christmas Sugar Cookies

2010-12-26T01:20:00.004+08:00

Hurray! Prince Charming did live up to his name for keeping his promise!

Although it seems that I had time for some baking but in fact, I had little :(

Prince Charming's cousin came over for a visit and to give Baby Kwok his Christmas Present so we invited him over for dinner. Not too nice to be keeping myself busy in the kitchen so I did not bake till he went home and then my parents were here to play with Baby Kwok so I joined in the fun and ended up, I was left with like 1 hr to do the baking.

Half way through my baking, Baby Kwok who's sleeping started crying! I had no choice but to stop all my bakings to calm him down. Prince Charming can't manage to make our baby stop crying and so you know, I had to like cut short my baking plan. Was intending to frost the cookies but due to time constraint I'm just leaving it as it is. Only managed to did the outline though.

Anyway, at least I did some baking! *A pat for myself!*

Once again, Merry Christmas!

And opps, Prince Charming was snoring away when these cookies were done so, better pictures next time! I promise :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T16:59:00.004+08:00

This Christmas is definitely a very special one for both Prince Charming and myself!
Our first Christmas with Baby Kwok! We were really excited about celebrating Christmas with Baby Kwok and that we actually put up the Christmas tree much much earlier than usual :D

Baby Kwok totally love the Christmas tree! He almost pull off the whole tree! The jingle bells were thrown onto the floor and the little red pressies decors were in his hands! I can't imagine when he start walking, I bet my house will be in chaos. My mum was complaining to me that Baby Kwok kept pulling the telephone wires and threw the phone on the floor *Swallow saliva* I have a little terrorist!

Anway, was telling Prince Charming that I BADLY needed some time for X'mas baking~ "Un-offically" been not baking for almost a year! I desperately need to have the baking/cooking regime back, otherwise I think I might not even remember how to break an egg! He "politely" agreed but well, we'll see! Pssst.. if you guys see me posting up my X'mas baking that means he kept his promise if not, you know... :P

Merry Christmas ~

Mrs Kwok finally cooks!

2010-10-25T23:06:00.003+08:00

Yes, I finally cook something decent in the kitchen!!!! I can't even count with my fingers the number of cooking attempts I've tried, practically no time for my kitchen~

Prince Charming begged to have Japanese curry rice for dinner last Saturday and I thought okay, shouldn't be much problem and so off we went with Baby Kwok to Rivervale Mall to get our groceries for the meal.

End up, we went to Daiso and bought many other stuffs and gotten the time drifted away that I had to rush like mad to cook this meal! (Needed to go back to my parents' place to celebrate my sis's birthday!) Nevertheless, Prince Charming enjoyed this meal much as I do :) Baby Kwok is still too young to savour the Curry rice so let's wait till he is much older and I'll definitely cook for him. I bet he'll have the same taste as his dad! :D

On a hind note, this time round I used S&B Curry cubes rather than the usual Vermont one that I always use. I seriously much preferred Vermont one cause they seems thicker! S&B cubes seems to require lesser water than Vermont kind cause I cook the exact way I do for my Japanese curry but they turn out not as thick as we wanted. Hmmmm.. or maybe it's just my cooking skill that has deteriorated?

Starting Solid

2010-09-22T16:44:00.004+08:00

Guess what, in another 2-3 weeks time I'll be starting Baby Kwok on solids! Always thought it'll be simple but never to expect there's so much to learn about making baby food. To prepare myself, I got myself AK's Top 100 Baby Purees and was amazed at the varieties of food that we can/can't offer to our babies.

Anyway, here 2 recipes that I found on Wholesome Baby Food
I did the Carrot Purees and offered a few mouthful to Baby Kwok and he seems to like it!

Carrots - Basic Purée

1. Peel carrots and cut into small chunks

2. Place chunks into a steamer pan with just enough water visible through the steamer basket

3. Steam until tender

4. Do not reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the carrots if baby is under 8 months old as Nitrates may seep into the cooking water

5. Place into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing.

6. Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin consistency.

Apple Baby Food Recipes - Puréed Apples/Applesauce

1. Peel, core and cut apple into slices/chunks

2. Place slices or chunks into a pan with just enough water to slightly cover apples

3. Boil/steam until tender; be sure to check on the water level and stir, That's It. Easy Peasy.

4. Apples may be mashed with a potato masher to achieve a smooth applesauce consistency. If your masher will not achieve a puree type of consistency, then follow steps 5 - 7

5. Reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the apples

6. Place into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing.

7. Add the reserved water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin puree

8. Add cereal (if desired) to thicken up the

9. Ask your pediatrician about adding some cinnamon for new tastes.

My Star baby :D

2010-08-24T22:43:00.005+08:00

I have a star baby!

*I guess only Aimei knows what I'm talking about!*

Guess who's who? ;)

I love you my Baby Kwok ♥

Mummy Kwok's back!

2010-06-27T16:31:00.003+08:00

Another long hiatus from my previous post in April! 2+ months of MIA and now, Mummy Kwok, S8xxxxxxxI reporting back! These 2 months were tough or in a better term tiring. Baby Kwok wakes up every now and starts being cranky. Being a New mummy, I've got no idea what he actually wanted so I could only guess its either he's hungry or its diaper changing time. Motherhood works like archery, you don't always get to hit the bull's eye!

Being a breastfeeding mum, rest/sleep is almost 0. We need to feed baby on demand plus to work up the milk supply, its a must to pump. I wakes up every 3hr to do my milk pumping, not forgetting feeding Baby Kwok, washing and sterilizing my pump parts and Baby Kwok's milk bottles. When all these are done, my next pumping session starts. *Yawn*

I can't even remember when was the last time I bake a cake or when was the last time I vacuumed and mopped my floor. Prince Charming was nice to help clean the house occasionally but time is really precious. While he's at work, I'm almost sticking to Baby Kwok unless when he's sleeping that I get some time off to eat and do some laundries/house chores.

Tedious but I'm loving every min and seconds! Looking at my calendar, I'm due for work in another 1 week time :( If only I could stay at home, looking after Baby Kwok and get paid!!!
I cannot imagine 8 hrs not being with Baby Kwok!!!

My Baby Kwok ^^

2010-04-27T12:35:00.004+08:00

After a long hiatus, I'm finally back to blog.

Still "under-going" confinement now but it will be ending soon in another 1+ weeks time! HURRAY!

It's so tough to have your confinement done during the April period! The weather never seems to help much, plus the temperature seems to get higher and higher each day. Luckily the past few days were quite cooling with the help of some heavy rain. Unable to bathe is a NO issue for me but with my MIL staying in my house, I have to oblige to it but thank goodness my Mummy bought the herbal shower pack for me so that I could at least soak myself in water about once a week. Actually I did sneakily bathe during my stay at mummy's place while she's at work :P *shssssss*

And yes, my most important task to blog today is to introduce my bundle of Joy! My baby Kwok! He arrived on 6-Apr 2010 at KK Hospital! I went through a 26 hours of labour but it's all worthwhile when I see him :)

Here's my birth story which I said I'll share the other time.

5-Apr 2010

--------------

9:30am - Admitted into hospital for induction of labour

10:00am - After the monitoring of baby's heartbeat at Labour ward, prositiin was inserted to help soften cervix

12:00pm - Had my lunch at labour ward as there were no available ward for me to stay in yet

1:30 ~ 2:00pm - Yeah! Finally get to shift to my ward where I can sleep comfortably

2:30pm ~ 8:30pm - Contractions came in but bearable

9:30pm - Heavier contractions encountered, notified nurse and was sent to Delivery suite since I'm having immerse contractions every 2 mins

9:30pm ~ 3:00am - Having bad contractions and was so sleepy. Slept through out but the contractions wakes me up every min!

4:00am - Gynae came in to burst waterbag!! Wooo.. hot fluid coming out!

7:30am - Can't bear with the immerse pain so asked for Epidural aka HAPPIDURAL!

7:30am ~ 3:00pm - Painless labour but at around 1230pm, Epi ran out so was topped up with another one since I was only 7cm dilated

3:30pm - 10cm dilated! Was asked to push so was giving all my best to push to crown my baby's head

4:00pm - Gynae arrived and within mins, baby arrived!

It seems just yesterday that I've given birth but looking at the dates, it's 3 weeks already!

Baby Kwok will be turning 1 month next week and I can't wait to see the cupcake tree that I've ordered for him :)

Prince Charming took this for Baby Kwok and I'm loving it!

We're going to print it in Poster size for Baby Kwok's First Month Party :)

Baby Kwok is here!

2010-04-08T00:52:00.000+08:00

After a super long labour, Baby Kwok finally arrives!
I'll be updating my birth story soon, when I'm coping better with Motherhood! :)

When is the time?

2010-04-01T23:25:00.002+08:00

Tapping my fingers to await for my baby's arrival. Currently 38+ weeks and I've no signs of labour :( Most of my forum mates who are due in the 1st 2 weeks of April have mostly popped and I'm one of the few who've no signs of symptoms yet.

Baby Kwok, Baby Kwok... When do you want to come out?

Mummy and Daddy Kwok is waiting anxiously and excitedly for your arrival!

Plus, I don't even know how's contractions like! OMG!

I only know I've pelvic cramps/pain and I feel tightness on my tummy. Are these contractions signs? Praying hard that Baby Kwok will come out chubby, healthy and soon! :)

Oh, and hopefully I can lose at least 12kg of weight upon the arrival of my healthy Baby Kwok :P

Nom Nom Nom

2010-03-22T23:54:00.004+08:00

Have been craving for Chili Crabs since the start of my pregnancy. If I recalled correctly, I only ate twice during my pregnancy and they were really miserable amount of crabs. My mum would yell at me if I were to get another servings cause she said it's not really good to take so much crabs.

Well, well well since I'm now into the Advance stage of my pregnancy and might be popping anytime, she allowed me to feast onto them, otherwise I doubt I'll get any chance unless I can diligently wait till I finished my confinement month.

So.. I went to Sheng Song Supermart with Prince Charming on Saturday hoping to grab some big claw crabs or the Singaporean way of saying... Big Gong crabs! LOL! A pity there weren't any since the staffs said they weren't given any when the crabs came in early in the morning. What I liked about the crabs in Sheng Song - They are always in fresh water! That's pretty nice isn't it, comparing to those caged crabs we see in NTUC and wet markets. Anyway, no big gong crabs so we opt for middle gong crabs. We got 3 of them and they only cost us $26!! Cheap!!

And well, it was raining cats and dogs and we had to like rush thru the rain to get a cab and the Comfort cab driver, knowing that I'm pregnant don't even want to detour back even though Prince Charming begged him. How ruthless! Take note, COMFORT CAB DRIVER okay! I've got countless bad experiences with Comfort or Citi cab drivers. I think the company really needs to look into their Cab drivers attitude!

Anyway, rushed back home, blended the ingredients and here comes my crabs with of course, my fried mantous! Yummy!! The crab recipe was taken from SBS website.

Nom-ing session starts!!!

I couldn't resist myself from the Fried Mantous and took a bite before Prince Charming could snapped this pic! I think he don't even know that one of the mantou was bitten off a portion! Muahahahhahahaaha!

The claws! Well, though they were not the size we wanted but they still taste nice.. And actually, I had a hard time bitting the shell off cause... I don't have a seafood cracker at home! I think I nearly chipped off one of my tooth and had to get Prince Charming to do the tough job while I sit back and enjoy my crabs! :D

What I've done and not done so far....

2010-03-10T22:45:00.004+08:00

Done List

95% done with hand washing of Baby Kwok's apparels (Rompers, Sleep suits, Receiving blankets etc...)

100% done with washing of Baby Kwok's Cot bedding (I've only got 1 set currently and I machine washed them so its pretty simple!)

90% done with packing of my hospital bag, with the exception of Prince Charming's stuffs. (He'll see what he wants to bring and wear - VAIN lor!)

Almost 100% done with the purchase of Baby Kwok's stuffs, for instance: Baby Bath, Bottom Balm, Bath Towels, Burping Cloths etc...

Undone List

Sterilize Baby Kwok's milk bottles and my Breast Pump

Align the Bedding set onto Baby Kwok's mattress and pillows

Wash and sterilize the Bath tub which is sort of hands down (We bought it for Prince Charming's Taiwan niece in 2007 when she came to visit us at 3 months old and it was only used for 1 week)

Re-align the Kitchen appliances to make space for the Sterilizer and Tupperware to store Milk bottles

Clean and "dettolised" my Fridge to ensure that the Fridge is bacteria free (Must store my breast milk in a clean and bacteria free environment)

Almost Almost!

2010-03-08T21:44:00.002+08:00

Almost! Almost!
I meant my hospital bag is ALMOST ready! I wouldn't say its 90% done but I'm glad I actually did took out the effort to go through my list again and again and to reaffirm the necessary items with experienced mummies.

Remember the list that I posted several weeks ago? Many mummies have feedback that it is too long and many of the items are not that necessary for instance, Maternity pads/Breast pump/Breast milk storage bags. During my Antenatal lessons, my instructor Mrs Wong Boi Boi told the class that Colostrum or Breast milk may not come in right after delivery. Most of the mums get it maybe 3 or 4 days after baby's arrival which is why I suppose there is no need for me to bring my breast pump and storage bags to my hospital. Furthermore, most hospital do supply their patients with breast pump and storage glass bottles so okay... that's like 2 things off my checklist = lighter hospital bag!

Besides the almost ready hospital bag, I've just placed my deposit at the Infant Care Center that I'll be placing Baby Kwok once I resume work after my Maternity leave. Prince Charming and I had no choice to place Baby Kwok in an Infant care because Grandma (my mummy!) is still working and it sort of unfair for her to quit her job since I couldn't afford to pay her that amount of salary that she is getting, plus I can't even contribute the extra 15% CPF and the 2 times bonus which she gets every year.... I thought letting her to work is a better deal and most importantly, I've 2 brothers who are currently in University and Polytechnic. I believe with my mummy working, she can helps with the load that my daddy is carrying :) Even though Granny was telling me she don't mind, but I don't want to be a selfish daughter, I need to think for my parents who are approaching old age, don't I? :)

So another checklist done! FYI - Finding vacancies in an Infant Care Center wasn't an easy task!
Each Infant Care only caters to a maximum of 10 infants and many infant care centers have waiting list of up to 150! I'm really lucky that the Infant care center just 2 LRT stations from my area has 2 of their infants upgraded to the toddler group which is why I am able to get a placement there. Of course, I don't really like the idea of placing Baby Kwok in an Infant Care Center but oh well, I'd pray that I made the right choice. On a positive side, Baby Kwok can strengthen his immune system and has more contacts with the other kids which would make him more sociable when it comes to school.

Counting down.. I'm 35+ weeks into my pregnancy and will be due in another 2-4 weeks time!
Getting really excited!!

Time to pack my Delivery bag!

2010-03-01T10:36:00.003+08:00

Remember my previous post mentioning about packing of my delivery hospital bag? I said I will start the preparations at my Week 30 but now 4+ weeks have passed and I've not even started a single packing!!!

My gynae said that all is ready to start popping after 37 weeks of pregnancy and looking at it, I'm left with just 3 -4 weeks time. I better remember to bring back my mini luggage bag from the office today, otherwise I would have to lug the big big luggage at home to the hospital. By then I guess I would have been the laughing stock of the day with everyone staring at my big luggage bag :S

Prince Charming took for me last week on my Week 33 :D
The invincible Stretchmarks have started to crawl in ALL AT ONE SHOT!
Now, it's really time to pile more of that fatty creamy Stretchmarks cream on my tummy.

Jimborange Photography

2010-02-23T16:35:00.006+08:00

Advertorial

Doing a little advertorial for my Prince Charming, who have stepped into the world of being a Freelance Photographer :)

Interested parties, please check out his Photography Wordpress or you can view his Flickr album.
For quotations and enquires, please send an email to him for details :D

新年快樂!

2010-02-12T16:21:00.003+08:00

Wishing everyone a prosperous Chinese New Year!

恭喜發財

年年有餘

財源滾滾

事事順心

身體健康

May our wishes come true :)

My Pregnancy Progress

2010-01-20T17:49:00.003+08:00

Some photos to share my pregnancy progress :)

As you can tell very rightly from the pictures, I have put on LOADS of weight. Hahaha...
Prince Charming was saying: "Who doesn't when they are pregnant?"
FYI - Up till date (currently 28 weeks), I've piled on 26 lbs! Heee heee..

Oh! I requested Prince Charming to do a "studio shot" for me and I truly love him!
I can't wait for Little Kwok to arrives in April!
Sharing my joy with all my blogger friends! :D

Counting on you, Prince Charming!

2010-01-18T17:12:00.009+08:00

Baby Posing » a class by Kelley Ryden and Tracy Raver in Omaha, NE

A very cool blog to share with Mummies to be!
Awesome pictures and the babies are mostly about 10~12 days old when the pictures were taken.

Prince Charming, do you think you can do this? Me and Little Kwok counting on you! :D
P/s: I thought I should just post up some of my favorite ones from this blog :)

One very important List!

2010-01-18T14:25:00.006+08:00

I'm officially in my 3rd Trimester now! Looking at my Pregnancy Ticker ( at the right bottom of my banner if case you get "Ah, where?), it's another 82 days till my EDD (Estimated Due Date). My Gynae did mention that most women tend to deliver their babies at around Week 38 ~ Week 39 but of course, it much depends on individual.

I read through some forum that it is best to pack my bag for Delivery at around 30 weeks ~ 33 weeks. I'm just into my Week 28 and have been researching up and down the necessities of what to bring. My sister, currently into her 2nd Trimester does not seems to have time for me (Dealing with her school and my niece + Brother-in-Law) so I dare not hinder her time since I know she really need more rest than I do! She's a teacher and I used to be one (okay.. contract teaching for 1 year) so I truly understand the minimal time she has for herself.

Alright, after doing some search via Google I sourced through a few local forums and got the following Bag list. I'm going to post it here for Prince Charming and my convenience! Also to share with all the First-time Mum-T0-Be like me :)

Bag List for Delivery

Antenatal & Outpatient Appointment Card
ATM Card & Cash
Gynae Letter (If any)
NRIC of both Husband and Wife
ROM Certificate and Bank Account Book/Statement (For Baby bonus Admin)

Mummy's Item

Cord Blood Banking Kit - Must remember to pass this to your Gynae before Delivery
Disposable Breast Pads - To absorb leaking Colostrum
Disposable Cotton Panties
Breast pump - You can start to pump your supply if there is
Hair Accessories (e.g. Hair Band/Comb) - To tidy up your hair
Face and Bath towel - In case the ward does not supply
A set of Home Clothes - To wear upon discharge from Hospital, preferably a dress
A pair of shoes - Best to wear Slipper for easy convenience
Maternity Pads - To absorb heavy postpartum Blood flow
Mobile Phone & Charger - VERY IMPORTANT!
Nipple Shields - To protect sore or cracked nipples while breast feeding
Nursing Bras - To use with Disposable Breast pads
Socks - To keep your feet warm, it can get very cold inside the ward
Spare Plastic bags - To store soiled clothes & towels
A box of tissues
Toiletries - Just in case the hospital does not supply
Cooling Bag - To store your milk supply if any
Breast milk Storage bag - If you have over-excessive volume of breast milk

Baby's Item

Receiving Blanket/Baby Blanket - To wrap and warm baby upon discharge from hopsital
Booties & Socks
Mittens
A set of Newborn Clothes
Newborn Size Disposable Diapers (Usually supplied by Hospital)

Daddy's Item (If Daddy is staying over with Mummy) - Something that I added myself!

Sweater - The ward can get very cold during the night so it is best that the daddy prepares a set of Sweater so that he can keeps himself warm. Alternatively, you can request for a blanket from the Hospital.
Snacks - In case the daddy gets hungry and become grumpy. (Opps.. which always happen to Prince Charming!
Magazines/Games/MP3 - To keep the daddy entertained which Prince Charming needs so badly. I can predict that!
Camera/Video cam - To capture the precious moments~

Happy Saturday!

2010-01-17T17:30:00.003+08:00

Had a hearty breakfast and yum my day off! :)

Breakfast consists of Crispy Butter Croissant, Cocktail Hotdogs and Scramble eggs.

It's a simple meal but just make my day happy!

Made some Claypot Chicken rice for Dinner, with some Oyster sauce Veggies.

Prince Charming was amazed that I cooked Veggies! (Well... since my pregnancy I started to list Veggies as one of my "I-don't-like food item). I added in A LOT of preserved meat in the claypot rice cause Prince Charming loves them so much and I drizzle so much dark soy sauce (opps). The aroma just perks up our appetite that we had 2 bowls of it!

Oh, did I mention that the Claypot cracked while the rice was simmering?

I need a new claypot!!!!

Something to post before CNY!

2010-01-12T12:57:00.006+08:00

I have so many stuffs on my list that I really wanted badly but, Prince Charming said we have to eliminate those that are deem unnecessary and only get the ones that we REALLY REALLY need. Okay, FINE...

#1: Slow Cooker
I so wanted it and nearly got myself a small Slow Cooker but got a big one for my mummy in the end cause I knew I probably won't use it for long (maybe just 4 times max) since I'm not cooking/baking much nowadays (Get tired easily lah!) and mummy is always brewing soups for me and I know the one she's been using is really really old and a tad too small.

#2: Multi-Tier Steamer
Prince Charming is worried about the limited space we have in our Kitchen. Exactly! That's pretty much what I'm worried too. My Kitchen is as small as a mouse hole and most of the space are much occupied by the huge Whirlpool Fridge. Having a Multi-Tier steamer would mean that I need to get rid of one of the electrical appliances that is sitting on my table top right now. Rice Cooker - No! Hot Pot - No! Cooker Hob - NO! Tell me, which one should I discard to fit in my Multi-Tier Steamer?

#3: Microwave Oven
Exactly the same problem I'm facing as #2 and my mummy kept nagging that Microwave generates a huge amount of radiation that's not good for humans.

#4: Dehumidifier
Prince Charming has been complaining so much about the humidity problems we are facing in our Walk-in Wardrobe. For those who have not visited my house, my shower room is just right inside my Walk-in Wardrobe and it seems that tonnes of moisture are escaping from the shower room and finding refuge in the Wardrobe. It sort of makes our clothing a little "wetter" but lucky enough, not adding extra scent or fungus to it (Maybe cause we don't poo in the shower room :P) This is making Prince Charming a little frustrated. Well, oh well.. we can't seems to find a small dehumidifier anywhere in Singapore and our Walk-in Wardrobe can't accommodate any bigger ones (1 disadvantage of staying a new flat = very small area!) Sigh.. also we don't have any electrical slot in the WIW and I don't really like the idea of using the extension unit! It will make my WIW looks untidy! (

#5: Playpen
Thought of placing the Playpen in the living room so while I'm doing any house chores or cooking in the kitchen, at least I can see my baby without walking to and fro from my Bedroom and making myself assured that my baby is still within my eye level but...... my living room is pathetically small :( I don't even know where to squeeze out a space to fit in the playpen. My alternative other than a playpen would be a Play Gym.

#6: Diaper Bag
In a dilemma whether to just get a cheap diaper bag or should I get something that I like. Prince Charming prefer that I get a diaper bag that I really like because he wants me to feel proud carrying that diaper bag. Actually.. he got his motive because if I get myself a nice diaper bag, he will have the excuse to get himself a Crumpler bag which he will uses it as Daddy's diaper bag! God.. what a clever husband I have!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-03T11:45:00.004+08:00

How time flies!! Goodbye 2009 and Hello 2010 in a wink!

I can't remember how many Happy New Year have I greet in my blog, I think probably 3?

2009 may not be a prosperous year for many out there due to the major economic crisis and dramatic recession around the globe but I'm pretty sure each of us learnt something from our lesson, especially on the investment part. Haha!

2010 will definitely be a good year for me especially! In another 3 months plus time, I'll be delivering my Little Kwok! I really can't wait to see him! For now, I'll concentrate on my pregnancy and hope that Little Kwok absorbs all the good nutrients from me and continue to grow healthily. I hope all my families will be blessed with happiness and good health and wealth! Huat ah! :P

Anyway, didn't really celebrate New Year. Just a simple one at home with Prince Charming and his friends (Opps.. Actually I was sleeping like a log throughout the night). On New Year day, I did a humble dinner for both of us cause Prince Charming was really tired from the "celebration" at home the night before.

Cooked Butter Corn Rice which was featured on TVBS 生活好事兒. Really a simple dish to whipped up within minutes. Just purely melting some butter in the pan, stirring in some minced garlic and onions and adding in the washed rice and stir till fragrant. Add in the corn lastly and mix well. Pour the mixture into the Rice cooker pot and pour stock over it. Just enough to cover the rice and bring it to cook till done. SIMPLE right!

Prince Charming requested for spinach because he wanna be strong like Popeyes, hahaa.. So I bought a packet and stiry fry it with some oyster sauce. Simple deli! We bought 2 packet of Frozen Deep fried chicken from Fair Price the other day so Prince Charming requested for the one with Seaweed. Deep fried it and was served together with the other 2 as our dinner.

Simple yet fulfilling! I'm not a fussy eater you see! Kekee...

Konnichiwa! An All Japanese meal

2009-12-20T22:29:00.004+08:00

My company organized a Team building program where they hired a chef to teach us how to do sushi the other day. Although I sort of know how to roll a sushi but Prince Charming always fuss with the vinegar taste of my Sushi rice. He finds it not "sourish" enough and hopes that I can make some for him to try since he knew that I enjoyed myself during the Sushi session in the office.

Oh well, how can I reject him? I've not been cooking/baking much stuffs recently and since Sushi isn't something that will take up the whole day, I beam with joy and told him that we'll have a All Japanese meal! I decided to add in Japanese Potatoes Croquette and Chawanmushi (Japanese Steam Egg). With this packet of Spicy Garlic Tori Karaage lying in my freezer, I decided to use it up since it's going to expire in 1 month's time.

Here's our Japanese Cuisine feast! Itadakimasu!

I was so full up from the meal and oh, I added cheese in the Croquettes. Yummmmmyyy!

Christmas is coming!

2009-12-11T12:22:00.003+08:00

I baked cookies for Christmas last year as a give-away for my friends and my neighbors' kids.
Was wondering if I should bake them again this year or should I attempt to try something easier?

One of the kids asked me about the cookies the other day and she hopes to receive them again cause she likes the buttery taste. OMG.. does that indicate that I have to bake cookies and frost them again?!?!! I guess I probably need to get myself an assistant (exception of my Prince Charming cause he CANNOT cook/bake and he'll probably throw me with 100 questions about this and that.. LOL!)

It's finally FRIDAY! TGIF TGIF TGIF! Apparently, I'm feeling so lazy and sleepy in the office.
Just couldn't make myself more awake *Yawns* I blame the weather!

Catch me if you can! ;)

2009-12-08T16:57:00.005+08:00

This is what I captured on video last night :)
I can see it quite clearly but maybe because Little Kwok is inside me and we are very well connected so that's why I know when's the exact timing.
Try spotting Little Kwok's kickings/movements! ^^

Pardon for the dark image cause I took it in the dark with just 1 bedside lamp switched on and oh well this was taken by my mobile so the quality may not be that good.

I want to go....

2009-12-08T13:10:00.002+08:00

My Sis brought my niece to Tokyo recently and wow, Disneyland looks fantastic!
If only I could be there to play with my niece!! Told Prince Charming that I would want to bring our Little Kwok to Disneyland when Little Kwok is big enough to travel (say about 6 months old?)

He said he prefer to bring Little Kwok to Disneyland when Little Kwok is slightly bigger say about 2 years old. His logic is that if we bring Little Kwok to Disneyland before 1 year old, Little Kwok might not be able to remember what we did at Disneyland. Logical? Well, I don't quite agree but he is the boss so well.. Hahaha...!

Anyway, my Sis was so nice to buy some cute stuffs for my Little Kwok. She got Little Kwok a set of Mickey's house bibs and a set of Stitch infant clothes. The Stitch's set looks so cute!!! My niece, Charlotte told me that she misses me during her Japan trip. How sweet!

I'll share some of their Japan's trip pictures :)

That's Charlotte and my Brother-in-Law at some Shrine.

That's my Sister and Charlotte at Universal Studios :)

Charlotte and Sis at Disneyland. Spot Mickey Mouse?

That's my Sweetie Pie wearing a Mickey Mouse hairband.
So CUTE!!!

Happy Family ^^

My Weight Gaining Journey

2009-12-02T12:47:00.004+08:00

I'm into my 21+ weeks of pregnancy and well... I gained up to 8kg already!
My weight gain seems to rocket especially in my 2nd trimester!

I still remembered losing 1kg during my 1st trimester because of the morning sickness symptoms and now getting back on track, the scale never seems to stop there. It'll just ..... goes up almost every week! I hope that's a good thing (Hopefully my weight gain are good signs that my Little Kwok is absorbing my nutrients and is growing very well) :)

Prince Charming took pictures of my tummy almost every week, if I'm not lazy.
Sometimes I'm just too tired to do anything that's why. I seriously need to be more hardworking to blog more about my life and pregnancy here.

Just some photos to share my joy ;)

If you notice, my tummy seems to balloon from 17 weeks onwards.
The difference is quite obvious :D

AND wait! My hair does'nt seems to grow!

My sweetie pie, Charlotte ^^

2009-11-27T23:24:00.006+08:00

My cutie niece has just turned 2 years old this month and my oh my, how much has she grown!

She is now able to speaks clear and full sentences and also making very impressive expressions especially when she sees something that arouses her. It's no wonder the whole family dotes on her so much!

She knows that I'm pregnant now and won't be able to carry her like how I used to be and I was quite worried if this would sort of dampen her moods. It's bless that she is such an understanding baby! She likes to pat on my pregnant tummy and mumble "Charlotte sayang (dotes) Baby". So cute isn't it? I'm pretty sure my Little Kwok will love Charlotte and so do Charlotte :D

As you probably would have guess, with a 姨丈 who's a freak in photography she is already so used to the cameras around her and without doubts, she will definitely give you a nice shot whenever you lift up that camera in front of her! Well trained by Prince Charming! Haha!

Here's a video with Charlotte singing Barney's version of "I Love You" song.

She sings and start to hug everyone around her! So cute!! Oh, by the way she had a bit of sore throat that day :P

Korean Bibimbap with a tint of Chinese essence

2009-10-30T21:38:00.004+08:00

It has been really really long since I cooked something special for my Prince Charming. I still have 2 Off days due from my Overtime and since Year end is coming soon, I took the chance to have a rest day today. It's been quite sometime since I last took some leave so I decided to do some simple cooking for my Prince Charming.

I woke up err... not very early but good enough to grab some fresh groceries from NTUC. I also went a bit of window shopping with my Mum and went with her for some KFC! Yummy.. I just realised that I only have to topped up 20 cents to upsize my drink from a regular size to a medium size. God, I guess it's been a long long time since I bought any KFC myself. Heee heee...

Anyway, I made simple Bibimbap for our Dinner cause it's won't take up too much of my time and I don't have to fight with the heat in the Kitchen. I don't have any stone pot or whatever you call it so I used a claypot instead. The main thing is to get some rice crackers! LOL~

Yummy~ This is really easy. All you need is dice some vegetables that you like, add in some meat of what you desire and an egg. Mix it with the self-made Gochujiang sauce and it's done!

Korean are really good with handling leftovers. Bibimbap is a wonderful dish that helps to lessen the chances of leftover and it is so easy and yummy! Of course, in Singapore Korean restaurants don't use leftover but you can see it in most Korean shows, don't you?

Mix and mix and mix. Ready to go!

Dinner time!!!!

I want this Diaper Bag!!!!!

2009-10-27T11:52:00.002+08:00

This is my DREAM Diaper bag! So gorgeous!
If only I could get some sponsors to buy for me :P

Was thinking of getting it 1 month ago but due to currency dropping so hold it for a while (Auntie lah, wanna save more bucks) and then.. realized I couldn't buy it now cause I just pre-ordered a Medela Freestyle Breastpump that cost me $460!!! The Breastpump is definitely a must as I intend to breastfeed my Little Kwok and yup for at least a year if I can endure.

Oh.. can some nice souls out there buy this for me???? :P

The Flu and Cough bug

2009-10-21T20:08:00.006+08:00

I should have taken well of myself.
I should really eat well.
I should avoid the crowded areas.
I should learn to take more Vitamin C.
I should not ignore Mum and Prince Charming's nagging.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I regretted not heeding the above :(
The stupid flu and cough bug stick to me like super glue. How I try to shun them off, they just wouldn't go! I hope the fever won't be my friend. Please don't come to me......

Been taking my medications prescribed by gynae regularly. Just praying hard I'll be well by next week. Baby, please do not get affected by Mummy ok? Baby must continue to grow well and be healthy :)

Hello Little Kwok! :)

2009-10-15T15:14:00.006+08:00

Well, as you can see my "latest" updates was in July. Grrrr.. that's like 3+ months ago?
People have been asking me "Where did you go to?" "When are you going to start your cooking and baking?" "Why haven't you been blogging?" "Hello, your blog is growing mold!"

I'm finally going to reveal the answers to all the questions which were thrown to me at a rocket speed! As you know, I've been married for 2 years and both my Prince Charming and I thought: Hey, I think it's time for us to start our little family!" and *drum rolls* I'm having my little Kwok! ^^

It's not that I don't want to share this good news but being a Chinese *ahem PROUD Chinese*, I have to keep this wonderful news for a period for 100 days before I can finally spread it loud to the world :)

Finally, the day has arrived! I'm currently into my 14 weeks of pregnancy and though has been suffering from some bad Morning sickness for many couple of weeks, I'm still really enjoying my pregnancy! It's so amazing seeing my little bean developing a flickering heartbeat to a fully form little human now and who is happily swimming in my uterus.

I am wondering if I should blog my pregnancy journey here or should I start a new blog for my baby? Vote please!!!!!!!

I'm back!

2009-07-10T16:21:00.000+08:00

After a long holidays (if only it's longer!), I'm finally back to blogging. Will be uploading my pictures shortly because Prince Charming snapped tonnes of them. I need some time to sort them out before revealing :)

Got myself a dozen of recipe books from Taiwan and oh man, they flooded my to-do list. I need to find time now for my kitchen. Attempting Creamy Butter Crab tomorrow. Yummy!

Wanderlust, here we COME!

2009-06-26T09:34:00.004+08:00

Finally, the day of going back to Taiwan has tipped on my toes! Can't wait to stay at Wanderlust! The ocean, the sceneries, the high tea, the food and the relaxing atmosphere. Wanderlust, here we come! :)

We'll be on a family trip to Tai-Chung and will be also having a 2D1N farm stay! Can't wait to see those little lambs running besides me!

Wanderlust HomeStay: http://www.wanderlust.com.tw/

Strawberry Swiss Roll

2009-06-01T22:31:00.002+08:00

Was watching "我猜我猜我猜猜猜" on Saturday night where they introduced a popular Swiss roll in Yilan, Taiwan. The Swiss roll is covered not only with cream but with a layer of strawberries and Milk pudding. Yes, Milk pudding! The creator took 8 months to bring out his perfect milk pudding recipe and I heard it was a craze in Taiwan.

Prince Charming asked if I could make them and I was telling him that if I could, I'll definitely sell it in Singapore! Oh well, I need to practice my baking skills really hard before I could really bake that good. Anyway to appease Prince Charming, I tried baking a Strawberry Swiss roll for him.

I used to think that baking swiss roll is never for me, because when I started baking it initially the base would always crack on me and I couldn't roll it up well. However, after many times of attempting it, they are a lot easier for me to handle now. Practice really makes a big difference!

Maybe I should really try out the milk pudding and see if I could roll them up huh? LOL!

三菜一湯 A Simple Fare

2009-06-01T22:21:00.004+08:00

On every Saturday, both Prince Charming and myself would stay at home either to catch some DVDs or play some Wii or PS3. This is also the day where I would conquer the kitchen for almost the whole day to prepare for our usual Home cooked Dinner. I try to reduce the time of dining outside because of the oil and MSG intake, also for our weight maintenance. (More oil = More fats)

It has been sometimes since I start cooking some chinese dishes. The first thing that comes to my mind about Chinese cooking would be the preparations. They usually can take up the whole of my time if you notice. Anyway, I'm cutting short my story and let the pictures say it all :)

Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tow Kway 菜頭粿）

2009-05-31T10:04:00.005+08:00

Fried Carrot cake (Chai Tow Kway) is a common hawker dish that you can easily find in any part of Singapore. There are 2 types, typically the more 古早 Sweet Fried Carrot cake that is usually cooked with sweet sauce and is dark in color and the more savory one, Crispy Fried Carrot cake.

Personally, I favor the crispy kind more because I don't really like sweet sauce kind of food for instance, Char Kway Teow. Don't ask me why because I have no idea! My parents love Sweet Fried Carrot cake so I do take them occasionally especially if I am having breakfast with them and it happens that they are ordering that. I'm not a fussy person so I eat whatever is serve to me.

Prince Charming personally like both of them, one thing for sure he much prefers the Sweet sauce kind in the morning or as supper. He is not a very fussy eater as well so he eats what I serve to him! HAHAH :P

I made this Sweet Fried Carrot Cake as a supper for Prince Charming on Friday night. He likes it except that he finds the "Chai Po" or persevered radish too salty. I suggest soaking it in water to remove some of the salt content before using it.

Seafood Rice and Roasted Chicken

2009-05-24T22:50:00.005+08:00

I made these for our dinner on Saturday. Although I have been spending quality time in my sweet kitchen, I haven't been hardworking enough to take pictures. Prince Charming is having his exams soon and I don't want to take up his precious time. As you know I am still a novice in Photography and it is so obvious because out of so many pictures that appear on my site, only 1% were taken by me. The latest one was the twin yolks! :(

Anyway, I'll learn to brush up my photography skills using a DSLR. I need more time!!!

Prince Charming was nice enough to offered his help for these pictures because I cooked it SPECIALLY for him! ;)

I want him to have a good dinner before he starts his studying schedules!

The Seafood rice comprises of prawns and squids only. They were the only seafood I managed to grabbed at NTUC on Friday night :( I replaced the usual raisins with dried cranberries and I though they were a perfect match! Dried cranberries comes with a tint of sourness and a little sweetness that works well to make the rice taste amazing! I used pork broth in place of water for the cooking and the aroma spread throughout my whole kitchen. Ahhhh wonderful smell!

The recipe for this roasted chicken came from a new recipe book that I accomplished lately. I topped the chicken with some honey and used the juice remains from the roasting with some brown sugar to make into a sauce to go with it. Tender juicy was what Prince Charming screamed when he made the first bite! That totally makes my day!

Meatball Soup & Steamed Dumplings

2009-05-05T23:12:00.006+08:00

Prince Charming is down with some cough and some irritable throat, so I had to go easy with our dinner. He has specifically requested something light but not too plain. All I can think of was something soupy and less greasy.

We dropped down to the supermarket at the mall and did some grocery shopping. Due to the cough that Prince Charming has been struggling with, I decided not to attempt anything with poultry. My mummy always stop me and my siblings from taking any poultry whenever we are down with some coughs. I think according to Chinese, poultry products tend to worsen the condition of the cough. I am not too sure if there is any scientific research about it but I dare not take the risk. Looking at how Prince Charming cough while sleeping makes me sad :(

Serves 2~3
Ingredients	Amounts
Minced Pork	200g
Corn flour	2.5 tsp
Minced Prawns	2 ~ 3
Soy Sauce	2 ~3 tsp
Sesame oil	3 tsp
Pepper	2 tsp
Carrot, diced	1 medium size
Green onions, sliced	1 medium size
Pork broth	1 Can
Chye Sim	3 stalks
Water	300 ml

In a pot, pour the pork broth followed by adding in the green onions and carrots. Bring to cook over medium heat. Scoop away the fats that surface when boiling.
Turn the heat to low and continue with the cooking of the soup.
In a clean bowl, mixed the minced pork and prawns with pepper, sesame oil, corn flour and soy sauce. Keep the marinated mixture in the fridge till later use.
Observe the boiling soup and make sure that the diced carrots are softened. Roll the marinated pork mixture into small balls and drop into the boiling soup. The meatballs will float up when it is thoroughly cooked.
Add in the Chye Sim and simmer for another 3 mins.

* You may boil some mee hoon and top it with the soup. This serves as a Mee Hoon soup*

No additional seasoning was added to the soup and it tasted really sweet. The meatballs were springy and matches well with the soup base. Prince Charming had 2 big bowls of the soup of which one was served with Mee hoon :)

I used the left over pork mixture and wrap them into Siew Mai look-alike dumplings. I topped the dumplings with some wolfberries and it makes the dumplings look even cuter. Prince Charming call them "Fat Dumplings". The skins were shanghai dumpling skins which I got from Cold Storage, tasted good without the typical yellow noodle like taste comparing to the local yellow wantan skin.

On a side note, you may add in some wolfberries into the soup base as wolfberries have a general sweet taste and is good for the eyesight. Another knowledge that I learnt from my mummy :)

*UPDATES: Please ignore the word "Chicken" on the first two pictures of this entry. There were no poultry involved and I had no idea WHY did I added in Chicken. Sigh. Am I getting old?

Homemade Grill

2009-05-03T23:50:00.005+08:00

On Friday, I met up with a couple of ladies from a local forum which I joined months ago. It was really nice hanging out with them! You would not believe that all of us only knew each other for not long, but we could relate to each other pretty well :)

After the mini gathering, I went off with Prince Charming to the supermarket for our BBQ Grill shopping! We have been talking about doing this for sometime and it seems that every time we talked about it, I would forgotten it the next moment! I have a bad memory to admit frankly.

Anyway, both of us finally had our taste on our own grilling session and it was FABULOUS!
Prince Charming commented that the grill tasted way better than the ones we had outside. I guessed it's because we had them in adequate amount comparing to surfeit ourselves when we dine outside.

We had the grill like the Koreans - Wrap the grilled food with sauce onto fresh leaves of lettuces.
It was awesome! I did the sauce using Gochujiang( Korean red pepper paste), some brown sugar, sesame oil and water. The sauce tasted heavenly. Try them out!

I've got Twins!

2009-04-19T03:09:00.002+08:00

This is a super over-due post because I'm suppose to make this entry almost 1.5 months ago but I forgotten all about it! Anyway, you can call me a nerd or whatever but this is the first time that I actually strike a twins :)

Nono, I meant a Twin-yolk egg! I don't mind having twin babies actually, so I'm praying hard that if I'm pregnant, I hope to strike a pair of twins ;)

Ahem.... Grrrrr....Ahhhhh

2009-04-15T12:45:00.002+08:00

As the subject header goes, am currently declared sick :(
Went to work on Monday with a bad headache and halfway through, I felt warm. Yes, I practically felt warm in an overly cold (think north pole) environment! That means something but I ignored it. Went lunch with Esther and was telling her how awful I'm feeling, surprisingly I can still eat but not as much as I usually do (think hippo). We chatted a while and I sort of felt really uncomfortable and had the desire to seek a doctor help (think crawling to the clinic).

I waited 30 mins before I finally get to see the doctor. He was amazing shocked that I'm running a high temperature (think Sahara desert). I don't have any other symptoms except for a mild painful throat so he is not very keen to give me antibiotics. He wanted me to monitor my temperature because if it persists, then he is suspecting it might be dengue (think hospital). Ah, I got dengue once and I would never want to have it again another time!!!! Was give 1.5 days of MC and I totally dragged my feet home.

Back home, was upset with my Prince Charming for leaving me alone at home and happily venture to his Beloved cousin's house for some PS3 actions. I was like so goddamn (*beep) angry but oh well, what can I do? I had my medicine, sleep and ignored him the whole night. I tried to push him down the bed but no strength so I walked myself to the living room to sleep :(

He's a heavy sleeper so he only realized that I was not by his side when he woke up at 5am. Grrr... I was like shivering in the living room since 3am! Anyway, I gave him a whole load of shit (*beep) that day and he eventually raised his white flag. Wheeee! I WON!

Back in the office now and I almost doze off while clearing my 400+ emails. If only I could have 2 more days to rest at home. Sighhhhhh..

Cooking on a Saturday

2009-04-04T21:42:00.004+08:00

Finally, I cooked up something! I have been like working non-stop and getting a little lazy with my kitchen. I have so many to-do lists and none are being carried out! Ahhhh, please give me 100 hrs of free timeeeee!

Anyway, while Prince Charming went for his lessons I was busy in the kitchen making dinner for both of us. I've promised him that I'll cook something special for him tonight so, I better not disappoint him :)

Woke up not very early but managed to squeeze in the crowd at NTUC for some fresh crabs and vegetables. My first time buying crabs so was sort of having question marks all over me on choosing better quality crabs. I think the auntie was a little impatient waiting for me!

I made this <黯然銷魂飯> which originated from Stephen Chow's 食神movie.
All you need: Cooked rice, boiled vegetables, 1 sunny side-up and some char siew. EASY!

The char siew recipe was taken from Baking Mum. It's really simple and delicious!
One thing for sure, I'll definitely make more of them the next time! The sauce goes very well with the rice. Yummmy!

A closer look at the Char siew. Making me hungry all over again!

I whipped up one local delicacy for a side dish too. Remember I mentioned about crabs?
Yes, I did Singapore Chilli crabs! The thoughts of slaughtering these creatures were a little horror but when I handled them today, it was rather simple! All you need is sufficient strength to chop them into pieces!

I used local chilli so it wouldn't be too spicy. I don't want my Prince Charming to have any tummy ache which always happen, whenever he eat something very spicy.

Another simple dish to try out there :)

Serves 2~3
Ingredients	Amounts
Fresh live crabs	1kg
Chilli	3
Ginger	2 slices
Garlic	2 cloves
Beaten egg	1
Beaten egg	5 Tbsp

Seasoning sauce: 2 tbsp of Chilli sauce + 1 tbsp of Vinegar + 2 tbsp Sugar + 1 tsp Salt

Blend chilli, garlic and ginger into very fine mixture.
Heat oil in wok and fry the crabs till they turn red. Scoop up the crabs and set aside.
Stir in the chilli mixture into the work and stir fry for 2 mins.
Add in the cooked crabs and pour in the seasoning sauce.
Cooked till the mixture are well incorporated with the crabs.
Shut off the heat and stir in the beaten egg. Ready to serve.

Be extra careful when frying the crabs in hot oil. Due to the fact that there are still some moisture on the crabs, you may experience hot oil splashing out from the wok. For me, I hold the wok cover like an Armour to protect myself ;)

開飯囉~ (Dinner time!)

H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.S

2009-03-17T10:14:00.005+08:00

I have been getting lazy lately. Haven't been doing much cooking/baking, although I just cooked some Fried Tom Yum Mee hoon last night. After the cooking it was already near to 12am, was so tired that I did not take any pictures.

Having just come back from a short getaway, I'm yearning for another holidays! I think that's human nature, never get enough of good things! Was thinking of how to celebrate our 2nd year Wedding Anniversary and thought, maybe we can go to Tai Chung. Prince Charming and I planned to visit different part of Taiwan on each of our Wedding Anniversary! ;)

I totally enjoyed my Hualien trip last year and love the minsu to core. Was searching for some minsu in Tai Chung and came across 若茵農場. Looks really beautiful! I've told Prince Charming about this place and he agreed that we could plan the next trip there!

Bali Inspiration

Zen Fusion

Sweet Cottage

Modern Urban

Say....HELLO

2009-03-15T13:12:00.002+08:00

Meet my new friends, Dollcena Chicken Little and Dollcena Nut Mania A!
I arranged a Pinic for the both of them and I could see they enjoyed it ;)

A picnic fulled of sweet treats. Both girls had lots of fun!

This is Dollcena Nut Manic A.
She 's a very danity girl who has very good table manners :)

This is Dollcena Chicken Little.
She's a smart girl who likes Chicken Little so much she's dressing up like him ;)

A short getaway to Kuala Lumpur

2009-03-09T21:11:00.007+08:00

Prince Charming and I went for a short getaway to Kuala Lumpur last week. It was an impulse trip because I got so tired from my work and needed a break badly! I just need to get out of Singapore and relax. All thanks to Air Asia's $5 air tickets that we get to travel without worrying ;)

The weather in KL was really hot and both Prince Charming and I get headaches while walking around. It was horrible because we wanted to shop longer but got really sick with our headaches! Arghhh... nevertheless we did spent a humble amount of time eating and shopping :)

We stayed at Hotel Maya which is just about 5-7 min walking distance from the famous KLCC Twin Towers. The hotel is really nice and cozy, not forgetting the pretty interior that they have.
I love their breakfast buffet where you get to eat nice pastries but a pity we did not capture them on camera :( The hotel also provides free shuttle service to Chinatown - awesome right?

We had our lunch before setting off
Air Asia doesn't provide food unless you purchase them on board

We took the risk of taking a coach from KL LCCT to KL Sentral
9RM for a single trip - took about 60 mins to reach

Our Deluxe suite @ Hotel Maya

An area in our room. You can see the night view via the full panels

"Mini" living room

The changing area and Bath room

The big Bath tub! Wohooooo....

We had dinner at the bistro called NZ near our hotel
Prince Charming had Nasi Bryani Ayam

I had Nasi Lemak.
I think the chilli is not spicy enough but it was pretty good

Prince Charming ordered Lime Juice while I had Calamasi

Prince Charming wanted to have a try at the Satay so we ordered 10 of them.
They were a tad fatty for me so I don't like them >.<

KLCC Twin Towers

The Breakfast Buffet - Yogurt Counter

What we ate for Breakfast ;)

We took many many pictures and I think it'll explode this page if I'm going to post all of them up. If you like to take a look at them, you may see them here.

Yohoo..It's CURRY Time

2009-03-01T14:07:00.005+08:00

Oracle has finally ended for this month so it's time for my kitchen again! Haven't been baking recently but I'll definitely find a day to go through my "To-Do" list and decides on what to bake. Oh well, let's just cross my fingers that I can have more time to spend with my cute oven ;)

I cooked up a big pot of curry yesterday and not kidding, it's my first time cooking Chinese style curry. I have never thought of doing it in the past probably because my mum makes really good curry and I don't see the need to do it myself. Additionally, it is very hard to gauge the amount to cook for just Prince Charming and myself.

The crave of cooking my first pot of Curry got so strong, I decided to hold a Curry session with my buddies. All thanks to the convenience packaging, I don't have to go all the way down to the Wet market to get Uncle Muthu to prepare the curry spices. I got myself a packet of Curry powder from NTUC Fairprice and also a bunch of Lemon grass. All I need for this curry session would be potatoes, coconut milk, onions and Chicken joints - That's easy since NTUC has almost EVERYTHING that you need.

All in all, the Curry session was really fun! Prince Charming enjoyed the curry as much as I do so I thought maybe it's not an entire bad idea to prepare a big pot of curry for just the 2 of us in future :P I really love the taste when dipping those french loaves into the curry. Yummy Delicious!

I got myself this chalk board from IKEA and really love it to core!
It's just so fun scribbling all around on the board.

Now you know what type of curry I'm whipping up?

First time pounding ingredients, sort of fun!

Close up of the Curry

French loaf against the view in front of my block.
These bread were sponsored by Qi! Thanks girl ;)

Spicy Tomato Penne

2009-02-20T21:04:00.002+08:00

I did these for my lunch yesterday. Yes, yesterday and I only posted today. The penne were the wholemeal kinds and I think they tasted much chewier than the usual ones.

Got myself a small can of Tomato paste, some celery, tomatoes and here it goes!
I boiled these beautiful pasta in a pot of chicken stock, diced the celery, onions and tomatoes, found some chilli padi in the fridge and wheeee, I thought a spicy version sounds good.

So here it's done-

Add some olive oil in a sauce pan. Stir in the diced onions and stir a little.
Pour in the celery and cooked them in the heat (Celery are very crunchy vegetables so I cooked them first before adding in the diced tomatoes). Add in the diced tomatoes shortly.
Grab some ham/bacon (cut them into small slices in advance) and mix them in.
Scoop the cooked penne and stir thoroughly into the mixture.
Take some Tomato paste and mixed them evenly into the cooked ingredients. Add in a little chicken stock left behind from the boiled Penne.
Season with some salt, sugar and chili padi.
Garnish with some sliced egg and cheese. Ready to serve!

Ah, you caught me spoiling the slice egg!

I made 2 portions - One for Esther and the other for me. Esther said it was good maybe she was just being kind? There were some leftovers and Prince Charming ate them all up. He said it was delicious and maybe I could cooked some for him to bring to the office for his colleagues. A little too late by then but I'll do it some other day :)

On a side note, I did 鳳梨蝦球 for Prince Charming as dinner just now. I am not trying to say that I'm good with cooking but they were really awesome. Credit goes to the fresh big prawns I got from NTUC. I believe when you use really fresh ingredients, you don't need much seasoning cause they will taste as perfect it is. Of course, I wanted to snap some pictures but by the time I did them up, it was all gone! I'm going to do them again very soon and by then will post up the pictures and the as simple as A-B-C recipe.

Ju Shing Jung

2009-02-08T18:10:00.006+08:00

It was my Prince Charming's hatch day on Friday and well you know, my current workload is exaggerating heavy and I am not allowed to take any leave for this 2 weeks - Oracle closing in preparation!

Left with pretty no choice, I promised Prince Charming that I'll bring him for a nice meal and suggested Korean BBQ since he has been nagging about trying it out donkey years ago. The decision is now with him - Crystal Jade or Ju Shing Jung. He chose Ju Shing Jung since Audrey blogged about it and she was raving about the food. I was pretty happy with his decision since Ju Shing Jung is located at East Coast Park and that means more silent time with him - We don't have to face the downtown crowd that much!

The whole dining experience was relatively nice with good service at the restaurant. The restaurant is spacious and looks like the office canteen in those Korean dramas. We both went for the Lunch BBQ buffet that comes with unlimited 3 choice of pork and 1 chicken, plus all side dishes (kimchi etc) and yes, also a lunch special (Bibimbap, Saba fish etc). Afforable I would say, $29++ that can burst your stomach.

It's our first time trying out Korean BBQ so I couldn't comment much. Overall, it was good. Pretty decent menu and very helpful and friendly staffs. Generally, it is a good place for gathering since their seatings are so spacious ;)

A big feast of Korean side dishes and the sizzling pork belly!

Lettuces and sauce for wrapping up the BBQ meat.Yummy!

Clearer view of the side dishes (not all though). I love the octopus kimchi best!

The grill with our BBQ stuffs

My lunch special - Bibimbap

Prince Charming's lunch special - Grilled Saba fish

The wrapped BBQ meat taste really good!

The staffs helped to BBQ your food

Note 1: Prince Charming was a littleeee too happy with his wrap and he gave me a weird expression so I photoshopped his face in case he starts screaming at me for posting this up :P

Note 2: Photoshopped my face because I was eating with my mouth wide open! >.<

"주 신 정"
JU SHIN JUNG EAST
한국식 전통 숯불구이 전문점
KOREAN CHARCOAL BBQ RESTAURANT
1018 East Coast Parkway #02-01
Singapore 449877(Burger King 2nd Floor)

Yokoso Yokoso

2009-02-06T15:26:00.005+08:00

I know it has been really....................................... long since I updated my blog.
Can't help it because time is never enough for me :(
I wish I could have 72 hours a day!

Anyway I made some sushi on Wednesday for dinner.
Finally, my rolling skill is improving! :D

Oh BTW, Evan commented that my sushi look more like Korean's Kimbap. Hehe!
I am nodding seriously cause, it looks like only the Kanikama and Tamago are relatively closer to the Japanese Sushi style. Tell me, when have you ever seen hotdog in Japanese Sushi? :P

Yokoso myself back to blogging! ;)

2 Weeks more to go

2009-01-12T00:42:00.004+08:00

What will be coming up in 2 weeks time? Clues? Hints?
*Drums Roll...* It's Chinese New Year! I'm seriously getting anxious and excited about it.
I've always likes Chinese New Year, mainly because of the good festive foods, other than that it is probably given the privilege to buy new clothes without being nagged ;)

I have been getting ready with Chinese New Year - Spring cleanings (not entirely done though) and some bakings. Like last year, I baked Pineapple Tarts. It was sort of tedious because I only baked them once a year so you can imagine the mess I've done to my kitchen :(

After slogging in the Kitchen for 3 consecutive days, I only manged to baked 3.5 tubs. 4 more tubs to go! Gambate! I know I am really slow but what can I do? I'm a amature baker!

My cutest and sweetest :)

2009-01-09T00:45:00.003+08:00

My sister has been complaining that I have over-pampered my niece and whenever I'm with her, she'll turn into a big bully! Oh my, I don't think she's a big bully, she just a little mischievous baby trying to play with everyone :P

Tsk tsk tsk, I seriously don't think I am giving in too much to my niece. Even if I do, how can I resists! The moment my eyes set on her, my heart melts. Awwwwwwwww...

TELL ME, how can I not give my full attention to her

when she is such a darling!!

Say ONEeeeeeeeeeee

Tee Hee Heeeee

Classic Butter Cake

2009-01-06T01:01:00.004+08:00

Makes an 8" cake
Ingredients	Amounts
Plain flour	210g
Butter	250g
Sugar	20g + 170g
Baking powder	1/2 tsp
Egg yolks	5
Egg whites	5

In a bowl, cream butter and 20g sugar till smooth. Add in the egg yolks slowly and combine into a pale and smooth mixture.
In another clean bowl, whip the egg whites till foamy and add in 170g of sugar and beat till stiff peaks are formed.
Combine the egg whites into the butter mixture and blend well.
Sift the baking powder and flour and fold it into the batter above. Make sure that there are no clumps.
Pour the cake batter into a cake pan and bring to bake at 180 degree Celsius for 45~50 mins.

Happy New Year! Although I've been starting to blog more recently, I know it is still not fast enough to catch up with everyone in the flogging world. I'm still trying hard though, to juggle between work and kitchen. Give me more time okay ;)

This Classic Butter cake was prepared to celebrate my very 1st post for 2009! How time flies, it looks like I was only learning how to bake the day before and boom it has been almost 1.5 years since I started my culinary path. It was indeed an enjoyable hobby and through my flogging, I got to know many friends who share the same interest as I am.

I am wishing that 2009 will be a smooth and fruitful year for everyone out there!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009~

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T14:27:00.005+08:00

On every Christmas day, my whole bunch of friends will meet out for our Christmas dinner followed by a Gift Exchange program. This year, everything remains except that we have moved our destination out of downtown area to a more heartland environment!

The change was started by me, because I was the coordinator for this year's Christmas program. Every year the downtown area will be flooded with people and it is really hard to get a reservation at any place. Furthermore, we have 2 little kids and it will definitely be a tough chores for both mums to struggle carrying their babies amongst the crowd.

I had a hard time looking for a dinning place because I wanted a place that has a nice ambience and is really cozy. It was such a blessing when I came across this cafe while on a trip and they were featured on the TV as well. I hurriedly called them up for reservations and was really thrilled when we finally visited them!

The whole cafe is really really comfortable and they have vibrant colors that brighten up your mood. Best of all, the owner - Priscilla is such a gorgeous and friendly lady. The whole cafe brings out a very cheery atmosphere and I'm sure kids and adults will love to stay inside for a long long time and yes, they have a nice and interesting name - With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra.

I think I'll save my words and let the pictures tour you around.

The entrance

Nice windows ;)

The Menu stand

Very colorful environment

Kyra the host with her slogan

Besides the usual dinning area, they have a side corner for games and it's quite spacious

I told you it's spacious!

They have very cute and innovative name cards.
We "grabbed" many many of them :P

I have not tried the cakes but they looked pretty delicious

Turkey Caesar Salad
Nice salad! I love the dressings very much~

One of the Christmas course - Teriyaki Salmon set
Very yummy sauce and the fish was cooked nicely. The potatoes were nice!

One of the Christmas course - Beef Tenderloin set
The beef was tender although the sides were a little dry so it was on the average range

French Caramel Pudding
Very milky and delicious! The choco balls around them were really cripsy!

The whole Christmas menu cost $30 nett. (comes with a Salad, Main course, dessert and a cup of red/white wine). Yes NETT, no GST, no Service Charge! How cool can that be!

With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra
297 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: 6348 2297

Christmas Cookies

2008-12-10T01:07:00.006+08:00

Christmas is going to tip at my toes in another 15 days and I'm so excited! It's a season for family and friends and this truly perks up my mood :)

Last year, I wanted to make some Christmas cookies but they failed terribly. I could not even lift up the shaped dough not to say baked them! I guess it's either the recipe or otherwise my skills. I believe it's the latter.

This time round, I bucked up enough courage to try it out again.
IT works and I frosted them with some icings. Though they may not looked as nice as Evan's ones but I'm happy that at least they can be shown to the public now. Hurray!

On a side note, I'm looking for a nice and cozy place for Christmas Dinner.
It'll be good if it's buffet but Ala carte is fine - Not too expensive because you know Christmas is a month of spending! Let me know okay?

Santa Claus is coming to town.!

Hello Hello!

2008-11-30T23:07:00.003+08:00

I have been tagged by both Aimei and Ganache-Ganache for the below Meme. Sorry ladies that I actually acted on this till now. Was really busy with my work and you know, I have not been baking for almost 2 weeks! Arghhh...

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

I love high carbohydrate food such as Bread, Potatoes and noodles. NOW, you know why I always have to keep a watch out on my intake ;P
I love to bake and cook as much as I love to talk. However, due to my workload, I haven't been doing the 3 much recently! :(

I'm a very repetitive person who can ask the same questions up to 20 times a day. The first person who can prove for that would be my Prince Charming.

I'm 5 feet 2 inches tall. Go convert it into Centimeters and you'll get my height.

I'm lamenting on the fact why did I chose to left my previous company. Sniffs....

I'm a hilarious and loud person who can laugh at the smallest joke and cry at the smallest mistake I made. Very extreme person I would say but no worries, I don't have any mood swings. My friends can vow for me!

I am not going to tag anyone for this.

Raisins Scones

2008-11-03T02:15:00.007+08:00

Makes 13-16
Ingredients	Amounts
Plain flour	3 cups
Butter	170g
Sugar	1/2 cup
Baking powder	5 tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Milk	1 cup
Beaten egg	1
Raisins	1 cup

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a deep bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and mix into the flour mixture. Rub the butter with the flour using your finger tips till crumbs like mixture is formed.
Add milk and beaten egg into the crumb mixture and mixed well. If the dough is sticky, you may add in more flour. Pour the raisins into the dough and knead well.
Roll the dough flat onto a floured surface. Cut the dough into circular shape and bring to bake at 200 degree Celsius for 15 mins or till golden brown.

I forgotten where I got this recipe from ( sign of aging *sniffs*) but I wrote that down and stick it onto my fridge, so when I was cracking my brain what to prepare for breakfast, I saw that and was happy since I got all the ingredients on hand, plus I was craving for scones after I ate that at InterContinental Hotel.

This is the second time I'm attempting on scones and the last time, Prince Charming complaint that he does not like fluffy scones so I was crossing my fingers that this is not something that he would fuss about. Quite a relieve that Prince Charming commented he likes this much better than the previous attempt :)

Serves this with your favourite jams and it'll make a good breakfast or high tea ;)

Late night supper @ The Roti Prata House

2008-11-03T01:50:00.005+08:00

I almost forgotten all about our late night supper only when I found these tempting pictures lying in my folder! Gosh, is that a sign of aging? :(

Prince Charming and I headed down to Thomson for our late night supper while on our way home. We decided to go for pratas since the aroma was really strong and its practically dragging our feets there.

We ordered 2 kosong pratas (plain) and 2 egg pratas, 1 mee goreng and 1 Teh cino to go along.
The pratas were really crispy and nice! I love how you can bite the crisps off the edges and munch it down your throat. Awwww... thumbs up for the prata. Mee goreng on the other hand was not too bad and with a good point - they were not as greasy as the common ones we get anywhere.

I did not get to taste Teh Cino because I don't like to consume caffeine at night so according to Prince Charming's statement, he said that was the most flavourful Teh Cino he has tasted and it was really smoothing and nice. Total cost - $10 in exact. I have no idea how much each individual cost so I'll check it out the next time.

Anyway, I am staying so near to Jalan Kayu but both Prince Charming and I will rather prefer to take a ride down to Thomson for their pratas than walking over to Jalan Kayu. We both felt that Jalan Kayu's pratas are a little over-rated and they were not as nice comparing to the ones at Prata House. I suppose its up to individual to decide.

The Roti Prata House
Thomson Garden Estate
246M Upper Thomson Rd
Tel: 6459 5260
Mon - Sun (7am - 1am)

English High Tea @ InterContinental Hotel

2008-11-02T01:39:00.005+08:00

Prince Charming and I went down to InterContinental Hotel at Middle Road today for my advance Birthday celebration. Our initial plan was to visit Equinox after viewing Evan's post . A pity the reservation hotline confirmed that it was fully booked but they did commented that we could make a walk-in to try our luck.

I was really keen to go Equinox but looking at the slim chances of getting a place, I decided to go for High tea. We were browsing online and decided on Intercontinental Hotel's High Tea at The Lounge.

It was a 4-Tier High tea cuisine that comes with Fried wings, Caesar salad, Scones and cakes. I love the dried tomatoes in the salad cause they tasted really like baked bacons! The scones were really nice and the strawberry jam were amazingly tasty. I think that's the best jam I've tasted so far ;)

Frankly speaking, I would prefer to go for an international buffet because the high tea is not re-fillable. In other words, what you see is what you eat.

InterContinental Singapore
The Lounge
Reservation Tel: 6825 1046
Price: $35++ (15% off UOB Credit Card)

Stuffed Wings

2008-10-27T23:23:00.005+08:00

Serves 2~3
Ingredients	Amounts
Minced Pork	300g
Corn flour	2.5 tsp
Spring onions (Chopped finely)	2 stalks
Salt	2 ~3 tsp
Sesame oil	3 tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Pepper	1 tsp
Vegetable Oil	Sufficient for swallow frying
Chicken Wings	5

*Chicken Marinades: Salt, Pepper, Sesame oil and Soy sauce ( Each 2 tsp)
** Deep frying ingredients: 1 beaten egg, flour and bread crumbs

De-boned chicken wings by cutting of the joints and slowly crapping off the meat from the bone. Break off the bones from the chicken and you'll get a boneless wing.
Marinate the chicken overnight. Combine minced pork, spring onions, pepper, salt, corn flour, sugar and sesame oil and mixed well.
Stuff the minced pork mixture into the boneless wings and bring to steam over medium heat for 10~ 15 mins.
Roll the steamed wings in beaten egg and pat with flour and breadcrumbs.
In a wok, pour in the oil and heat it upon medium heat. Swallow fry the wings till golden brown.

There's a stronge tint of Thai essence in my kitchen today. As you see, I made Shrimp toasts this afternoon and later in the evening, I made stuffed wings! Prince Charming was beaming with joy since this is the 2nd time I am doing it. (The last time was 3 yrs ago!)

I do not know how to make the dipping sauce, so we ate it with Tabasco sauce. It was nice but I think with the dipping sauce it would be excellent. Anyone has the recipe for the dipping sauce? :P

Shrimp Toast

2008-10-27T14:41:00.006+08:00

Serves 3-5
Ingredients	Amounts
Fresh prawns	500g
Corn flour	2.5 tsp
Spring onions	2 stalks
Salt	2 ~3 tsp
Sesame oil	3 tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Pepper	1 tsp
Vegetable Oil	Sufficient for swallow frying
Bread	Half a loaf

Cut the edges off the bread and slice the edgeless bread into triangular shapes.
De-veined the prawns and minced into paste form. Cut the spring onions into little pieces and mixed into the prawn paste.
Season the prawn paste with salt, corn flour, pepper, sugar and sesame oil. Mix well.
Spread the marinated prawn paste onto the triangular shaped bread.
In a wok/frying pan, add in oil and allow the oil to cook over medium heat. Place the Prawn pasted bread into the hot oil and fry till golden brown.

Thank goodness it's Deevapali today, I finally had time to make these shrimp toasts! I have been yearning for public holidays and weekends since I stepped into my new job. I wonder if I should be happy that at least I managed to slot out some time for my kitchen or just moan over the fact that I am not making much foodies.

These Shrimp toasts were truly AWESOME! I bet you can munched on them non-stop once you started. It'll be good to snacked on them when they are pipping hot but well, really greasy I would say. They can be eaten without any sauce but Prince Charming likes them with Tabasco sauce and I like them with some mayonnaise. They make a good party appetiser and I can foresee making them for my Christmas party. Tee hee hee...

Pan-fried Yam Cake

2008-10-22T21:37:00.008+08:00

Makes two 6" cake pan
Ingredients	Amounts
Yam, diced	300g
Rice flour	500g
Water or Stock	1.8 litres
Minced chicken	200g
Salt, Pepper and 5-spices powder	As desired
Dried shrimps (soaked and chopped finely)	50g
Spring onions (Chopped finely)	2 small stalks
Vegetable Oil	2 .5tbsp + 1 tbsp
Sweet sauce	As desired
Corn flour	Gauge accordingly

Heat oil in a frying pan and bring the diced yam, minced chicken and dried shrimps to cook over medium low heat. Scopped the cooked ingredients and set aside.
In a big bowl, pour in the rice flour and add in some salt , pepper and 5-spices powder. Add 1.8 litres of water into the mixture and blend well. Make sure that it does not get lumpy.
In a deep wok, add a little oil (approx. 2 tsp). Pour 1/4 of the flour batter into the wok and bring to cook over low heat. Add the cooked ingredients into the batter.
Pour the remaining flour batter into the wok and cooked till the mixture gets thicken.
Scooped the thicken mixture into cake pan and bring to steam over medium high heat for 30-40 mins. Allow cooling before slicing it up.
Pat the sliced yam cake with corn flour. In another frying pan, heat up 1 tbsp of oil and when ready, bring the sliced yam cake to fry over low heat till golden brown.
Sprinkle some spring onions over the yam cake and drizzle some sweet sauce over.

I made this yam cake for our breakfast on Tuesday. The cooking method is somehow similar to HongKong style Radish cake except that this is a simpler version. The original recipe calls for roast pork but well, having yam cake for breakfast is heavy enough, imagine having a roasted pork yam cake will be far too greasy for us.

As you know, it's been really long since I last hand-made some breakfast for my Prince Charming. The yam cake really makes his day, so its all worth while even though I'm really tired from work :) I'm getting better with my working environment now, so I hope I get to present more food entries here!

Crystal Jade Korean

2008-10-15T23:04:00.005+08:00

Hello everyone, I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus since I was really busy with my work. I don't really have the sufficient time to sleep, don't even mention about baking/cooking. Work have been piling since my 1st day and it has never stop since then :(

I hope when I get more adapted to my new environment, I'll get to bake and cook like I used to be. I am crossing my fingers here! Anyway, Prince Charming took me to Crystal Jade Korean at Centerpoint for our 5th Anniversary celebration. How time flies, just a wink and 5 years have passed.

I was the one who requested for Korean Cuisine since I always like Bibimbap. We used to frequent Picnic food court at Scotts for their authentic Bibimbap, a pity the food court is no longer around. I wonder where would the stall been relocated to cause I think they served the best bibimbap I've ever eaten! Stopping my talkative-ness and let the pictures drool your appetites ;)

Marinated Spinach

French beans

Marinated Bean sprouts

Ginseng Chicken Soup

Bibimbap

BTW, we ordered a Set menu for 2 that cost about $79++. It also consists of Grilled Saba Fish and Stir fry vegetables and beyond that we ordered another Ala Ca-rte Seafood Pancake. Total damage = $90. With that amount of food, I think it's more suitable for 3 ~ 4 consumers cause we were ultimate bloated! :P

I would say the food is generally good but not as authentic. It would be good if only the side dishes were refillable! Do they?

Homemade Strawberry Jam

2008-09-21T02:16:00.006+08:00

It's been quite sometime since I last updated my blog. I have been really busy with my new job and thus, explain the lack of post here. Anyway, it was the wedding of my BFF's Elder sister on Friday. I couldn't make it due to work committment, so I decided to DIY some gift for her.

I hope she like this wedding present :)
The strawberries were really fresh and so the jam tasted really good! I hope to make more of them the next time.

Swiss Rolls

2008-08-25T00:15:00.003+08:00

Swiss rolls have always been one of my favourites, though I really have so many favourties to list out. I always like buying sugar rolls from Polar because they were always yummy even though left after a day.

I supposed it's almost 1 year since I did swiss rolls. As usual, I have this packet of cake flour with me for quite sometime and I thought I REALLY NEED TO USE IT UP! So, here comes the Swiss rolls. I made 2 flavours - Ocha and Classic. The recipe was adapted from Kiki and it was the recipe that I used for my Mango Swiss roll.

Yummy! There's finally breakfast for Prince Charming and me!

Classic Swiss rolls

Ocha Swiss rolls

Puff "Prata" Sausage

2008-08-16T13:53:00.002+08:00

I was reading through my usual frequent flogs when I came across Happy Home Baking's post on Prata in a Bento. I was truly truly attracted to it. It just came to my mind that I must do this NOW!

So, without much further hesitation, let me present to you Happy Mrs Kwok's version of the Prata sausage. Well, my version were not as nice as HHB cause I think I'm not gentle enough >.< Nevertheless, these darlings tasted real real real heavenly! Try it out, so easy and so delicious!

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

2008-08-04T23:16:00.003+08:00

Makes 1 Pint
Ingredients A	Amounts
Egg yolks	4
Caster sugar	25
Oreo cookies filling	7
Ingredients B	Amounts
Heavy cream	200g
Ingredients C	Amounts
Non-dairy Whipping cream	250g
Vanila essence	1/2 tsp
Crushed oreo cookies	As desired

Beat ingredients A till a pale and yellowish egg mixture is revealed.
Bring ingredients B to boil and add it slowly to the egg mixture. Mixed well.
Bring the mixture to boil over low heat till it thickens. Remove from heat and allow cooling.
Whisk non-dairy whipping cream till stiff. Add into the thicken mixture follows by crushed cookies, vanilla essence. Stir well.
Pour the mixture into a container , sprinkle some crushed cookies over and bring to freeze overnight or until set.

As per request by my buddies, Gwen and Tracie, here's the recipe for the cookies and cream ice cream. I'm gald that you girls love it and wish to attempt it yourself :)

Pork Floss Bun

2008-07-23T09:43:00.006+08:00

中種面團 Starter Dough
Ingredients	Amounts
Bread flour	167g
Water	100g
Instant yeast	1 1/2 tsp

主面團 Basic Dough
Ingredients	Amounts
Bread flour	167g
Water	67g
Butter	40g
Sugar	40g
Skimmed milk powder	15g
Egg	20g
Salt	5g

Fillings: Pork Floss

With the help of a Breadmachine/Mixer, mixed the ingredients for Starter into a dough.
The dough may be slightly dry and sticky but that is okay. Allow the dough to proof for 90 mins.
Combine ingredients for Basic dough (except butter) and knead into a dough. Tear the proofed Starter dough into small pieces and add into the above. When the doughs gets mixed thoroughly together, mix in the butter. Allow kneading till dough is smooth and elastic (Try stretching the dough to determine)
Cut the ready dough into 60g each and roll them into a ball-liked shape. Allow the dough to relax for 10 mins. When done, roll each individual dough into an oval shape and allow another proofing of 45 mins. (You may proof the doughs in the oven with 38 degree celsius set plus a bowl of warm water)
Bake the dough at 190 degree Celsius for 12~15 mins. Allow the buns to cool.
Spread Transparent mayonnaise onto the bun and topped it over with Pork Floss.

I finally took out some time for baking! I cannot imagine that I have not been baking for, I supposed at least 2 weeks :( I just hate it when work's piling so much that I do not have my own time to do things that I really like.

Though I was home rather late (OT-ing as usual), I decided to bake some bread for breakfast! I felt kind of guilty since I haven't been baking any snacks/breakfasts for my Prince Charming lately. I still have 1 and 3/4 packets of Pork floss to go, complimentary from my Mil cause she knows I love pork floss. I decided to make my own Pork Floss buns!

The Transparent Mayonnaise that I made the very last time were chilled in the fridge, so I heated a portion of them up and they were back to the sticky texture again. Prince Charming just love these mayonnaise so much that I applied a super thick layer for his buns. LOL.

I love how soft the buns were, even though left overnight, very fluffy too. I baked a total of 9 buns and only used 3 for Pork floss. Guess I'll be using the rest for other flavours, perhaps Tuna?

Up up into the sky - Singapore Flyer

2008-07-20T15:45:00.004+08:00

Prince Charming's company organised a "Singapore Flyer Experience" trip on Saturday. The expected time to "fly" was about 6.30pm in the evening and guessed what? The weather starts to get gloomy at around 4.30pm and later on, I saw big splashes of water droplets from the sky.

I started to worry since the priority aim of my trip down to Singapore Flyer was to capture the beautiful city view! The rain might just blur out the visions :( Phew~ luckily the rain stopped just in time when we reaced our destination :D

I saw Popeyes! I always thought that they only has one outlet at the Airport, so I was quite happy that I can just pop by Singapore flyer if I have the crave for their so tasty mashed potatoes. There was this "Yakult Rainforest" in the center of the building, but well the floorings were wet so I did not get to enter the "forest". Within no time, we had to ride onto our Cabin into the sky! Excited!

The view was indeed gorgeous! The beautiful night view of Singapore = Superb!
Now, let the pictures do the talking ;P

World Biggest Ferris Wheel (At the moment)

Inside the Cabin

I love this expressway view, and look over at the future developments!

Night view of Beautiful Singapore

Night view of Beautiful Singapore

Itadakimasu!

2008-07-18T00:34:00.003+08:00

Serves 1
Ingredients	Amounts
Raw salmon	3 small steaks
Salt	1 tsp
Pepper	1 tsp
Egg	1
Salt	a pinch
Mirin	2 tbsp
Cooked sushi rice	1 bowl
Teriyaki sauce
Ingredients	Amounts
Soy sauce	1/4 cup
Mirin	1/4 cup
Corn starch + Water	2 tsp + 3 tsp

Marinate the salmon steaks with salt and pepper. Set aside.
In a bowl, beat up egg, salt and mirin. Heat up a pan over low heat, pour the egg mixture over and stir vigorously. You should get small crumbles of cooked egg.
In a saucepan, pour mirin, corn starch and soy sauce and bring to boil over low heat. When the mixture starts boiling, arrange the marinated salmon steaks into it and allow simmering. The salmon should get cooked within few mins. Allow the salmon to continuing cooking in the sauce to enhance a better taste.
Scoop the sushi rice into a bowl, top with "crumbled" eggs and top it further with Teriyaki Salmon steaks. Pour some remaining sauce over and ready for serving.

This was the dinner for my Prince Charming. The intention was to make some salmon sushi but, i think that would be more work for me, so I decided to change it to doing a Teriyaki Salmon Don.

Prince Charming always like food that comes with a little sweet taste so I think that's the main reason he always love Teriyaki!

Pancakes, ice cream and sandwiches

2008-07-16T22:55:00.004+08:00

I haven't been posting recently due to the holy-mama heavy workload that is piling and piling each day. *sigh* I miss baking+cooking :(

Anyway, here's what I managed to come up with recently.

Sunday - 13th July 2008

There was a Japanese food fair going on in Plaza Singapura and I happened to get this little bottle of Maple syrup. It looks kind of watery compared to the normal ones we see in NTUC or Cold storage, so I was kind of worried that it might not be as good.

Well, it was more of like an impulse purchase and I really do not want to leave it intact in my cabinet so, I made some pancakes in order to use it. ( I normally utilise my "stocks" when they are open, else they will just end up in my cabinet untouched!) I was wrong! The syrup taste really good! We finished up our pancakes in no time :D

I made some Cookies 'n' Cream ice-cream as well since there was some left-over heavy and whipping cream in my fridge.

This ice-cream turns out real good! I got the recipe from <冷凍甜品>.

Tuesday - 15th July 2008

Since I was really tired due to my over-whelming workload, I did not managed to baked any breakfast recently. Most of the time, I will get a packet of Gardenia Low fat Loaf from the supermarket and transform them into sandwiches.

My Mil gave me 2 big packets of Pork floss, so I make use of the flosses to create a Floss and Egg Sandwich. I stirred up some 透明美乃滋 (Transparent Mayonnaise) with the recipe from <爆紅人氣三明治> for the spread on the sandwich. The mayonnaise was really good, taste exactly like the one from Bread Talk!

*Updates*
. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Recipes for Transparent Mayonnaise (透明美乃滋)

Ingredient A

100g, Fine sugar
5g, Salt
50g, Butter
450g, Water

Ingredient B

200g, Fine Sugar
50g, Corn Starch
200cc, Water

Combine Ingredient A into a big bowl and bring to cook over low heat. Make sure that stiring is done and that sugar and butter gets completely melted.
When mixture A starts to boil, combine Ingredient B into mixture A and continue to cook over low heat. The mixture will starts to thicken and get transparent in color. Allow cooling before using the mayonnaise.

Sigh

2008-07-10T19:55:00.009+08:00

I'm still slogging my head off in the office!

A very LONG post

2008-07-06T13:14:00.008+08:00

The first two days of my Taipei trip were spent at home, mainly to spent more time with my Mil. On the 3rd day, Prince Charming and I left Taipei for the Northern part of Taiwan, Hualien (花蓮).

We took 自強號 from Taipei Train Station (台北火車站) and alighted at the Hualien Train Station (花蓮火車站). The journey took a wholesome of 3.5 hours, so majority of the time passengers are sleeping inside the cabin. It is always recommended that you bring/buy bentos in case you feel hungry in the midst of the journey, as the train does not cater any selling of bentos but biscuits instead.

We did not sleep much on the train so we managed to capture some of the nice sceneries. The below picture shows a large scale of Padi fields. There were some Corns at the side but we did not get to take them down in time. The sky was so amazingly blue!

When we reached Hualien, we were escorted to our 民宿 by the host 阿呈. As we were a little earlier than the expected time, the room was not ready yet, so 阿呈 suggested that we could take a tour around the area by riding on the bicycles provided. Prince Charming and I thus, cycled out from the 民宿 and toured around the place. The sun was soaring so fiercely up in the sky and I was feeling almost dehydrated.

We stopped at one of the eatery and had our lunch over there. We decided to go for 扁食 at <花蓮香扁食>. We ordered the below:

滷肉飯 Rice with Braised minced pork

紅油抄手 Wanton in chili oil

乾麵 Dry noodle

Besides the usual main dishes, you may also add in little appetizers.
We had the below:

涼拌小黃瓜 Preserved cucumbers

滷蛋與昆布 Braised egg with Seaweed

After our hearty meal, we cycled for almost 1 hour before heading back to our 民宿. We were sweaty and hot and I desperately wanted to have my shower right away! The heat was so much higher than Singapore!! 36 degree in Taipei and 37 in Hualien! God sake!

It was such a relief when we reached our 民宿. I like the way how the 民宿 was decorated because everything looks so so so cozy and there were many cute and nice ornaments that the host had. Oh, I forgot to mention that the host had 2 retro vehicles! He drove us back in his Volkswagen Beetle of 40 yrs and nothing was changed. It was a nice experiment really!

So now, the room! We really liked this room SO much! It has a 樓中樓 concept and it's really romantic :)

The romantic Balinese inspired room.
You get to see beautiful butterflies flying outside the room especially in the morning :)

The stairs leads you up the upper level where you can relax and
賞星(adore the stars) at night.

This is what you see right away when you reach the upper level - A swing!
The scenery behind the glass panels were awesome.

When you view through the glass panels, this is what you get to see.
Beautiful flowers and greenery.

The delicious breakfast catered :)

The special wooden Japanese style bath tub. The water are hot spring water, that were piped down to the 民宿, so you don't have to spent a single cent visiting hot spring hotels.

One of the cute ornaments found in the 民宿 - A retro Beetle car

Another ornament - A miniature retro Vespa

The whole image of 迴音谷, very nice and cozy.

This is the Volkswagen T2 I mentioned above. very CUTE! They call it 麵包車.

Basically, the 民宿 is cozy and a nice place for holidays. It's just so relaxing staying in that place! I am certain I would visit this 民宿 again if I'm going Hualien. Probably I'll stay in the other rooms or perhaps I might visit their other branch 迴音海 which is at the coastal area.

Now, Hualien's trip - Hot but beautiful. Hualien is a small city in the northern part of Taiwan and the weather is relatively much higher than those in Taipei. They have many natural creations especially the marbles ( 大理石). We went to the famous 太魯閣 and was amazed by god's creation.

The beautiful lake in 太魯閣. Clear blue water!

The weather was so good, even our shoes love tanning!

Next up, we headed to 七星潭, a coastal area in Hualien. The scenery is so nice and oh my, it's the pacific ocean! I can't believe I'm standing near the Pacific ocean. LOL!

Ain't that beautiful? The skies are indeed very blue.

It's just so nice sitting down, admiring the nice scenery.

After we left 七星潭, it was near to 5pm. We decided to go to 自強夜市 - The famous 夜市 in Hualien! It wasn't very big as we thought, I suppose they only had like not more than 10 stalls. Anyway, we weren't very hungry due to the hot weather, so we decided to try on 2 stalls - 棺材板 and 烤肉

花蓮法市棺材板 - It's basically a special French toast covered with
different kinds of ingredients

There are so many different kinds of 棺材板 to choose from - Savoury to sweet.

The little tins contains the different kinds of ingredients.

Here's the 棺材板 we ordered. We had 蜜汁燻雞 (Honey smoked chicken).
Very yummy! *Drools*

We also had 烤肉串 and 烤雞排 but Prince Charming couldn't wait to eat them up, so he did not take any pictures of them :P

The next day, we checked out from the 民宿 and 阿呈 drove us to the Train station. As we are again earlier than expected timing, he recommended us to one of the restaurant that is within walking distance. The ambience of the restaurant was really nice :)

This is what you see when you look out from the windows.
Beautiful huh?

The layout of the restaurant. The furniture were all antiques!

They also had an outdoor area, nice isn't it?

They plant lotus at the outdoor area.

花生土司 Peanut butter toast

酥炸豆腐 Crispy Beancurd

肉燥麵 Mince pork noodles

甜不辣 Tempura

檸檬愛玉 and 古早奶茶

That marks the end of our Hualien trip and now back to Taipei. My friend, Rachel and her buddy, Ah Zhen came to Taipei too! We met up together and Rachel, being a fan of Jay Chou, we bought the both of them to the restaurant owned by Jay Chou.

That's the signboard - Mr J 義式廚房!

When you entered the restaurant, you will get to see Betty Boop and 方文山!

The restaurant isn't very big but they do have private dinning room.

I love this corner because of the sofa!

Appetizer - Munchies Combo 綜合拼盤

Ah Zhen's order - 義式臘腸焗麵 Baked Penne with Sausages

Rachel's order - 香烤海鮮奶油飯 Baked Seafood rice in Cream sauce

Mrs Kwok's order - 茄汁干貝蝦燉飯 Shrimp and Scallop Risotto

Mr Kwok's order - 明太子奶油麵 Spaghetti Mentaiko

We chose to top up NT $89 for a full course that consists of - Salad, soup, main dishes, desserts and drinks. The total came up to NT $2000. The food were not very fantastic but edible though. Well, it doesn't really matter since it's just an experience. Now I understand why my Mil love the Pasta mania in Singapore - They have BETTER pasta over there.

After the dinner, we took Rachel and Ah Zhen to Miramar 美麗華 where the famous Ferris wheel is.

Beautiful right? It's even nicer during sunset :)

Whooops, its such a LONG post! LOL~
Lastly, Happy 1st Year Wedding Anniversary!

Taiwan, I'm coming again!

2008-06-27T23:27:00.003+08:00

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

2008-06-24T20:23:00.007+08:00

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

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.
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.
Return mixture to saucepan; stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens, about 15 minutes (do not boil).
Strain custard into bowl. Cool. Add raisin mixture to custard. Refrigerate until cold.
Transfer custard to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer―s instructions.
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

2008-06-22T15:47:00.003+08:00

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

Combine Ingredients A into a dough. Cover the dough with a layer of cling and allow proofing of 90 mins.
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.
Cut the dough into small portions of 70g and round it up like a bun. Allow the doughs to relax for 10 mins.
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.
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

Mixed all the ingredients together.
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

Slices the loaf up.
Place 1 meat patty onto 1 slice of bread, top with lettuce and tomato slices.
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

2008-06-21T21:11:00.004+08:00

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:

Complain and then let go (Dump the baggage, the roadblocks to happiness.)
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!

2008-06-19T12:20:00.007+08:00

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!

2008-06-01T01:11:00.004+08:00

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 :)