::FAMILY:: Christmas Dinner

There's nothing more I treasure than family time, so once in a while we have the family over for a meal at our place. Christmas dinner this time round was a 5 (+2)-courser mix of east and west ;p

Readily available from our freezer - junk food to hold off hunger pangs

Extra mashed potato from shepherd's pie

Spicy tuna wontan

Kong ba bao in Korean sauce

The Sherpherd's Pie

Salted egg yolk French beans

 

Scallops with shitake and spinach in cream sauce

 

I must say my dad was pretty impressed with the spread he asked where I picked up my culinary skills from?! It's not from motherhood, dad, it's a natural talent not displayed when I was staying with you and the kitchen belonged to mummy ;p

::COOKING:: Salted Egg Yolk French Beans

2nd attempt at this dish after the failed attempt several years ago.

This time round I googled for a recipe before actually embarking on my little kitchen adventure :)

Was sooo excited putting everything together that I denied N access to my kitchen (to help out)because this, was MY RECIPE that was going to succeed.

I must say we nailed the taste and the chemistry between the foods this time round. Previously, I didn't know how to 'stick' the egg yolk to the French bean ;p

 

It was good to have it as the calorie buster to our simple (and healthy) macaroni soup on a weeknight. Sometimes I really wonder how the other working mums without live in help do it. Hopefully practice makes perfect and we can have more home-cooked meals soon!

 

Ingredients:
French beans, 1 packet

Cooked salted egg yolk, 2 eggs, mashed

Garlic

Sugar

Oil, 2-3 tbsp

Curry leaves

Chilli

 

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok
2. Sautee Garlic, curry leaves and chilli (I didn't add the last 2 this time round)
3. Add in the salted egg yolk and fry until creamy
4. Add in the French beans and fry until soft
5. Sprinkle sugar and stir to combine
6. SERVE!

And watch your calories! :)

::QUICK FIX:: Thin Crust Pizza

We had some Gardenia Wraps lying around in the house one day. We have been using them to make wraps for dinners.. but we have had a wrap too many that week and the remaining ones were fast expiring...I read the packaging and saw that it could also be used as a pizza base!

 

So this has become our quick fix dinner solution for the working mum! And it's really yummy!

 

Base

Gardenia wraps (pack of 5 pieces)

 

Toppings

Minced meat, marinated with BBQ sauce

Capsicum

Prego tomato paste/pasta sauce

Cheese - we used cheese slices because those are readily stocked up in our fridge

 

Choice of toppings to suit your own tastes!

 

Preparation

1. Spread tomato paste/pasta sauce over wraps

2. Sprinkle toppings

3. Sprinkle cheese

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degree celcius

::KITCHEN GODDESS:: The Need to Bake

Once in a blue moon, the heart feels a dire need to let out something creative - to create love, bliss or beauty. I find these sudden bursts of needs being addressed best in the form of shopping or in the kitchen, and in the past it used to be on the nails.

This was my proudest creation Cake pops. I was actually planning to do another batch in minion forms this week, but didn't get down to buying all the ingredients. The last time we did this, we scouted many places in order to get them.

I was very inspired to do a pumpkin bread last week after tasting one some time back. Having a kiddo makes you appreciate and take note of all these healthy little treats! I googled for a recipe. However, a Japanese green pumpkin was hard to get in a neighbourhood supermarket. Since I was already in a baking mood that weekend, I found an easier recipe in the same blog Cosybake: Butter cakes! (Original recipe from Littleteochew ) Just nice! D didn't quite like the twiggies I bought for him earlier (cos I think they were too sweet!)

So using the recipe from there, I further cut the sugar to 150gm (and still found it too sweet! Will cut by half again next time).

Since I had some of these cupcake cases in stock, I decided to make them into cupcake sizes. Recipe makes about 15 cases.

 

I had D at my MIL for a few hours so I could make these in peace!

Imagine the amount of mummy-guilt laiden time off I need to take if I were to create + hit my classes every weekend! The woes of being mummy!

Sometimes, I wonder how the other mamas cope!

And So We Cook!

Our first fried beehoon attempt for 15 pax!

Beehoon is such a simple dish but yet is the most difficult to master! We havent quite gotten the taste right, so we threw in everything else yummy enough to cover up for what we were lacking in. Lupcheong, chyesim, taigehs, bacon, egg strips and carrots! :p We made our 3rd batch of home-marinated chic wings and received quite positive response for them! :) 

Found ourselves with leftover ingredients in our fridge on Sunday.

AND SO WE COOK! 

Sunday Dinner

1 ginger, 2 use

The juice goes into the claypot rice

And the almost dehydrated ginger bits into the sesame chicken broth!

The Man cut chye sim while I showered o.O"

So he claimed he doesnt like to eat this part of the vege! 

Dragon Year!

Settling into a new schedule this year with the new title. The prelude to CNY started off with a mini gathering at our place followed by 5 rounds of reunion meals over the long weekend! No pics to show but all are home cooked by the fabulous head chefs in each household!!!! Our turn this Sat to feed 15!!!! Luckily the cuz stays a stone's throw away! She's in charge of making the chap chye! And Thank God for google for making cooking life SO.MUCH.EASIER! Yes! Confession #1 in 2012 - I cook with Google and cookbooks for the more difficult dishes!!! I google for differences between baking soda and baking powder (and I regret not paying Chemistry more attention in college). I google for images of "how does a stiff peak look like" when the recipe asked to whisk the egg whites into a stiff peak. And my friend thought I was a real kitchen goddess from looking at my Food Tributes album on facebook!!

Char's 27th Nutella pie cum cavers' warming at our place.

Nutella pie recipe from where else but google! :D 

Am making another round of this with Baileys this Sat!!!

Research is ongoing for this Sat's food menu, as it is for the upcoming trip and the Michelin options :):) Food makes GLEE!!! :D

Eve of the CNY, little Mur all dressed up to usher in the Dragon Year!!! Silly boy hates to be dressed up!! :p

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Royal Carribean, Liberty of the Seas. Marina View, cabin view, restaurant view. 

Captain's Night - the dilemma of playing dressed up vs saving luggage space for more shopping!!

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Haiti. Paranomic of Paradise Cove. A Haitian game. Lost a Haitian game. Exclusive access to the private beach. Sunset.

::Nigelrene Loft:: CNY MEAL #2

After our mini reunion, there was a mini bakernanza for the weekend. Dessert for the girls on Saturday (which is today z.z) - NUTELLA pie!

Crust with nutella spread. With hazelnut praline (homemade!!). Nutella cheese fillings. Praline and fererro halves. It's going to be hazelnut overload!! Me LOVES!!!

Cant wait to see how it tastes like tomorrow! 

Happy Chinese New Year Everybody!!!!!!!

Eat more!!

Love more!!

And grow fat!! :):)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CNY MEAL #1

It's the eve of the eve of the eve and before we go on our rounds of reunion dinners, N&I had a mini one at our home.

Prep and cook time: 1.5 hours, and dinner was served at 9pm :x

The FIRST time using our rice cooker, FIRST time cooking rice. The result was too little rice! So we had a tablespoonful each

蒜（Suan4) with taukwa - Suan4 also means count in Mandarin. 

Symbolizes good wealth and fortune ahead for the new year - because can count lots of money!!!!

Steamed fish － Fish is 鱼 in Mandarin 

Symbolises 年年有余 （鱼）- Abundance and plentiful every year!

Happy Chinese New Year!!! :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CHINESE DUMPLINGS (JIAOZI)

 N&I have had many major cookouts at home. But this is the only one where we got photo to show of us slogging away in the kitchen, yet also the only one where we didnt prepare the meal ;)

Chinese dumpling from SCRATCH!

 Recipe for the dumpling requires an agar-ation of ingredients. So the only takeaways for everyone present that day was how to roll your dough into a round shape and how to wrap the dumpling without making it look like a curry-pok :S

::Nigelrene Loft:: WEIGHING SCALES

This hand-me-down traditional weighing scale from my mum that has served me rather well for all my previous baking adventures, all the way till the Kueh Balus last Saturday.

We ve bought new scales now!! 

Pull out digital display and super slim. Got it in black to match our granite top too! :) Love digital scales - precise to the 2nd decimal place!!! 

Kueh Balus from Saturday - still needs fine tuning before they can see the world :D

Little man was all ready to take the first bite! :D And first bite he did take!