Dinner_21 March10

Here's what we had for dinner today :) I love these simple dishes. Hhmm...couldn't finish the pumpkin so might think of what to do with the leftovers tomorrow;p

Stir Fried Kailan with Garlic, Chicken Soup, Chicken and Vegetables Stew with Rosemary & Pumpkin and Mushroom with Fermented Black Beans.

Birthday Cake

I baked this cake for our monthly birthday celebration in the church. So, this is for March birthday babies :)
There is nothing special about this cake. It's made of 2 layers of cakes - vanilla and chocolate sponge, with chocolate frosting and some simple decoration (you can see I am quite hopeless when it comes to decorating a cake).

A friend called this a porcupine cake....with all the chocolate chips at the sides of the cakes. ;p

Birthday Dinner_9March10

Yesterday was hubby's birthday and we had an enjoyable time celebrating his birthday. Since I've got him his birthday gift weeks earlier, there's no more birthday gift for him on the actual day ;p

So, I took 1/2 the day off to cook him a nice dinner. No 9 course dinner la although that crazy thought did cross my mind. Haha....how in the world can we finish 9 dishes right....so, to be practical, just something that he likes lor.

Lettuce with garlic and soy sauce, Steamed Fish with bean paste & Baked chicken drumsticks

Herbal Chicken Soup

Lychee and Mango dessert

These were what we had for dinner last night and nope, I didn't manage to bake him a cake. At first I thought I'd bake a cake but then I'd have to buy lots of things to decorate the cake. That's something I try to avoid because I am trying to finish up my baking ingredients so that I can have some space in the fridge. The main reason is, I don't thinkI can cope baking a cake and cooking dinner on the same day. It's just too tiring for a fat woman like me now ;p

Since we had Bible study last night, I bought him a nice fruit cake with a chocolate sponge base to celebrate his birthday with the brothers from church. I made some lychee jelly too and bought some snacks. Overall, I think it's a meaningful way to celebrate birthday with loved ones :)

Sweet Preseved Radish (Choy Pou) Omelet

My mum used to cook this whenever we had porridge because the saltiness and sweetness from the preserved radish goes really well with plain porridge. I love this omelet though if you eat it on its own, it can be very salty. We had this for lunch sometime back together with stir fried spinach with carrot and chicken curry.

Ingredients:

Eggs

Preserved Sweet Radish (cut into small pieces)

Pepper

Oil

Method:

1. Heat a little oil and stir fry the radish.

2. Beat eggs with a little pepper.

3. Pour egg mixture onto the radish. Let the egg cook till it sets.

4. Turn the egg and cook the other side.

5. Dish up when both sides are cooked.

Steamed Tofu with Small Ikan Bilis

Here's a simple and yet tasty tofu. I think I've put in a little too much ikan bilis ;p OK, next time I shouldn't be so greedy.

Ingredients:

Tofu

Small ikan bilis (I don't know what you actually call this..)

Oil

Light Soy Sauce

Method:

1. Steam tofu. You can do this using a rice cooker while cooking rice.

2. Heat a little oil in wok and fry small ikan bilis till it turns light golden. Dish up.

3. Drizzle some light soy sauce onto the cooked tofu.

4. Sprinkle ikan bilis on top. Serve hot.

The rest of the dishes we had for dinner :)

Carrot and Radish Soup with Tomatoes

We had these for lunch sometime last month. The Chinese sausage is from my mum since she bought some for us to bring back after CNY. I just steamed it and drizzled in some light soy sauce after it was cooked.

As for vege, I just blanched some lettuce, then fried some chopped garlic and use it to 'dress' the lettuce, with some oil and light soy sauce. It's simple and yummy!

As for the soup, I love it with tomatoes....

Ingredients:
Carrot
Radish
Tomatoes
Chicken
Salt
Water

Method:
1. Boil water, then put everything in and cook for 2 hours or so.
2. Season with salt before serving.

Piggy Jello

Aren't these cute??? I just knew I had to get them when I saw it in Daiso :) There's nothing special about the jello since it's the normal instant ones you can get in any supermarket, but I just want to show you these cute little piggies ;p

Lunch_30Jan10

Another backdated post....;p

For lunch, we had a simple stir fried lettuce, carrot and radish soup and pumpkin with mushroom in bean paste.

Carrot & Radish Soup

Ingredients:

Carrot

Radish

Onion

Chicken

Water

Salt

Method:

1. Boil water and pour in everything (except salt).

2. Cook for at least 2 hours.

3. Season with salt.

Pumpkin with Mushroom in Bean Paste

Ingredients:

Pumpkin (cut into cubes)

Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into cubes)

Dried Shrimp (chopped)

Bean Paste

Garlic

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute garlic.

2. Add in dried shrimp and bean paste and stir fry till fragrant.

3. Add in mushroom and stir fry for 1min.

4. Add in pumpkin. Stir fry for another min.

5. Add water. Cook till pumpkin is soft.

6. Goes well with rice!

Dinner_14Jan10

I'm trying to finish up the remaining dory fish in the freezer, so I cooked a slight variation today for dinner. Instead of using bean paste, I used some light soy sauce. The rest of the ingredients are the usual garlic and ginger. Not bad too, but it tastes milder compared to the bean paste version.

As for vege, it's broccoli with chicken in oyster sauce. Nothing fancy but since we both love broccoli, even a simple stir fry with garlic is good enough.

The 3rd dish is sardines with onion (my favourite canned food ;p). So, we have a double dose of fish today!

Dory Fish in Bean Paste

Our dinner 2 days ago:

As I was thinking how should I cook the dory fish, I thought maybe I'd ask my hubby how he likes the fish to be done. Guess what? "Cook with bean paste lo." Hahaha....very predictable. Well, I wasn't sure if dory fish would smell terrible if I steam it, so I thought I'd just stir fry it with some ginger and bean paste. Same ingredients, but instead of steaming, we do it the stir fry way. Works well and yummy!

Ingredients:

Dory Fish

Ginger

Garlic

Bean Paste

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Heat a little oil and saute the garlic and ginger till fragrant.

2. Add in bean paste and fish. Stir fry for 1 min.

3. Add some water and cook till it simmers.

4. When fish is cooked, dish up.

New Year Lunch @ Home

Another year, and another holiday :) Since today is an off day for us, I thought it'd be nice to have some home cooked food. There's nothing special with this meal and it's what we usually eat at home; steamed fish and vegetables. It's just nice to lazy around the house and have a simple meal.

Happy New Year everyone!

Stir Fried Vegetables with Oyster Sauce

 Hubby's favourite steamed fish with bean paste

Christmas Dinner

Yesterday was Christmas and hubby decided that we'd cook dinner instead of eating out. I do prefer to stay at home on public holiday because no matter where we go, it's always crowded. At first we thought of going to the mall but when we saw the long queue of cars waiting to get into the car park, we thought it'd be better to spend the afternoon at home taking an afternoon nap or watching tv. Hahaha....

We had a nice time preparing the dinner together. This time, hubby cooked ABC soup, vege and he even tried to cook pork in soy sauce! Very ambitious hor...but it was a nice meal and am very proud of him for his interest to learn :)

ABC Soup

Ingredients:

Pork Ribs (can use chicken also)

Tomato

Carrot

Potato

Onion

Water

Salt

Hot boiling water

Method:

1. Pour the hot boiling water onto the pork ribs and let it stand for 5min or so.

2. Boil a pot of water and throw in the ribs and all other ingredients except the salt.

3. Cook over high heat (soup will be boiling) for 1hour or so, then turn to medium or low heat for another 1-2 hours.

4. Season with salt and serve hot. Love this soup and very comforting on a rainy day!

Pork in Dark Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

Pork Meat (slice thinly)

Ginger (shred thinly)

Sesame Oil

Dark Soy Sauce

Light Soy Sauce

Sugar

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil and saute ginger till fragrant.

2. Put in pork and stir fry for 1/2min.

3. Add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar.

4. Stir fry for for another 1/2min and dish up. Goes well with rice..

Family Dinner

Hubby and I had a satisfying dinner tonight and it was fun because this time hubby cooked 2 dishes! Today, he cooked stir fried siew pak choy and an onion omelet. Both are yummy. The vegetable dish is the same as the one he did before but this time we used siew pak choy instead of yau mak. Hehe...it's for him to practise so everything is the same except the vege used.

Stir Fried Siew Pak Choy

Onion Omelet

Braised Fish with Bean Paste & Tomatoes

Onion Omelet

Ingredients:
Eggs
Onions
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Method:
1. Beat the eggs and sprinkle some pepper into the mixture.
2. Heat a little oil and saute the onion until it turns a little brown.
3. Season with a little salt.
4. Spread onion evenly then pour in the beaten egg mixture. Let it cook/set.
5. Turn the egg and when it's cooked, dish up.


Braised Fish with Bean Paste & Tomatoes

Ingredients:
Fish
Salt
Ginger
Tomatoes
Preserved Bean Paste/whole beans
Water
Oil

Method:
1. Rub salt onto both sides of the fish.
2. Heat some oil and fry the fish until golden brown and cooked on both sides.
3. Dish up and set aside. Pour out the oil and leave only a little oil in the wok.
4. Saute ginger till fragrant.
5. Add in bean paste and tomatoes. Stir fry for 1/2min.
6. Add in water and cook till it simmers.
7. Add in the fish and let it cook for 1-2min and it's ready to be served.

A Simple Dinner

I am now on a "restricted" mode when it comes to doing any housework, so most of the meals that I cook now are really simple and almost effortless dishes. We had steamed chicken with ginger and stir fried vegetables for dinner. This is the first time hubby cooked a vege dish (well, the other dish he did was onion omelet long time ago ;p). It was fun to cook together and I hope we can do this more often :)

Steamed Chicken with Ginger

Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into medium size pieces)
Ginger (cut into thin strips - I prefer young ginger)
Garlic (chopped)
Salt
Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Rub the chicken with a little salt.
2. Arrange the chicken on a plate and sprinkle garlic and ginger over it.
3. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of sesame oil over it.
4. Steam till cooked (I put it on a rice cooker steamer and cook it together with the rice).

Stir Fried Yau Mak Vegetables

Ingredients:
Yau Mak
Garlic (chopped)
Salt
Oyster Sauce
Oil
Water

Method:
1. Heat a little oil in a wok and saute garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the vegetables and stir fry for a while.
3. Season with oyster sauce and a little salt to taste.
4. Stir to mix well. Add a little water if too dry.
5. Dish up when it boils.

Dinner with Pastor & Wife

This could probably be the first time we invited guests to have dinner at our home. Pastor was here for about 3 weeks for church work and since I was cooking dinner, it wasn't a trouble at all to cook a bit more for all of us. :)

It's just a simple meal with lotus root soup, lettuce with carrot, sardines (yeah, out of the can with some onions ;p) and minced pork with potatoes. I didn't plan this ahead so, as usual I cooked whatever I had with me at that time. ;p

It was a nice time of fellowship and sharing and hopefully we'll be able to do this more often.

The guests

The food

Cake Stand

Sometimes God answers our prayer in ways that we can never imagine and here’s a good example :). I have been thinking of buying a cake stand but didn’t see any that I like. They are either made of plastic or not in the design that I want. So, I thought I’ll just wait and see and slowly shop for it until I can find the right one. Well, of course God knows us best and so, it was really a pleasant surprise when a co-worker from US bought me this lovely cake stand for my wedding gift! Don’t get me wrong, I am not the type who go around giving hints to people to buy me things! Never and I do not like this kind of behaviour ;p I’d only do that to one person, that’s my hubby. Hahaha....At work, I’d always like to remain professional. Serious...



Isn’t this lovely? It’s exactly what I was looking for!



So, since I was given a cake stand, I got to bake a cake, right....Here’s the chocolate moist cake I baked as a thank-you to Ken. It’s really nice and thoughtful of him to get me a wedding gift even though my wedding was already 5 months plus ago.

Marble Cake with Raisins for my in laws

This is a cake I baked yesterday for my in laws in SG as hubby is going back for the weekend. Some aunties said they didn’t get to try my cakes, so this time I thought I’d get hubby to bring back the whole cake! Haha…sure enough kua.

As usual, to be on the safe side, better bake the reliable marble cake. I just added some raisins into the cake this time. Hope it’s not too sweet!

Birthday Cake - Moist Chocolate Cake with Ganache

Today is Jac’s birthday, a friend at work in my department so her team mates wanted me to bake her a birthday cake. I was considering between carrot cheese cake or moist chocolate cake, and in the end settled for moist chocolate cake. I guess we can’t go wrong with chocolate cake! This one has a layer of ganache in between the 2 layers of cake and covered with chocolate ganache as well (yummy…but fattening for sure).

Initially I wanted to decorate it with some fresh strawberries but this didn’t work out because I stored the strawberries in the freezer and when they were out, all the berries turned soft. It was already 9+pm at night and even if I can make it to the nearest supermarket, I don’t think I’d have the energy to continue decorating the cake afterwards. So, what you see here is a last minute idea ;p Not too bad, I guess??

I’m glad all of them loved the cake and they even thought the deco was cute. Haha…. :)

Chocolate Rum & Raisin Cake.....Sold :)

Wow...can't believe it that I've been away so long. Was out of country for my honeymoon for 2.5 weeks and after I am back, there's of course the work to clear in the office and right before the quarter ended.
Anyway, it's nice to be back where I can find noodles soup and nasi lemak easily ;p


Have not been baking for a long time too; 1 month+. This week, CF ordered 2 chocolate rum and raisin cakes for her friends, which is also why I tried my best to make the cakes look more colourful with the strawberries. Haha...I am just not a cream person when it comes to decorating cakes because I don't like thick layers of cream in my cake. At least that goes for cakes that I bake for own consumption or for family members/friends. It's good to try to be healthy ma...at least try...;p


I am happy with how the cakes turned out. Most importantly, CF liked them.
They smelled good too as I soaked the raisins in rum overnight. :)

Marble Cake for Mum's Birthday

Ever since the successful bake last year my sis and I made for my mum, I'd decided to bake mum a cake for her birthday this year. When it comes to my mum, there is no need to crack my mind and spend sleepless nights thinking about what cake to bake because plain butter cake or marble cake are the only approved ones. So, I did a reduced sugar butter marble cake for mum. The only decoration are the walnuts on top of the cake. No cream pls....cos she dislikes cream. I'm glad she loved it! My dad enjoyed it too. He ate 2 big pieces at one go!