HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! This year it's the DRAGON YEAR!!!

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CUTE? LOLS!

This year CNY is kinda special, we are doing it in Msia at DaJiu (Eldest Uncle) House instead of at grandma's. That's where everyone can gather together and not rush back home etc..

Preparation starts early, as we can't bring in meat and stuff into Msia, mom and grandma head in first to do the necessary marketing for those meats and all before it closes for the new year.

This year's CNY falls in January, which is really strange and pretty rush for us. Usually it falls in Feburary, im sure everyone feels the rush too. To pack house, buy decorations, buy goodies and all to welcome the new year. Don't really have the mood too i don't know why...

On CNY's Eve, it was preparation day:

Preparing Sharkfin for Sharkfin Soup with Daddy.

Our simple lunch for new year's eve, still preparing more for dinner..

DaJiu, chopping up the bird #likeaboss.

.....

Then a chicken feet went missing....

So.....we had grandpa noming on chicken feet, still can pose for the camera! Lols! So Cute!

Then quickly, it transited to dinner time. Later that night going to pray before setting of fireworks and fire crackers!

"Rambo" Dad.

Some praying to the ancestors before setting of the firecrackers!

GO! GO! GO!

...........................................................

AND! It's also DEAREST MUMMY's BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Mummy! I/WE LOVE YOU!♥

Yup it's my mom's birthday, and she loves cheesecakes especially tangy kinds. So i chose to make her a lemon cheesecake instead. Found this recipe on the web which says it isn't that sweet etc. which my mum prefers. She don't like stuff to sweet, so thus i present you my lemon cheesecake!

Recipe HERE - I reduced the sugar and changed some to artificial sweetener instead.
Thanks Anncoo Journal for the great recipe :)

She went in with my grandma to meet my uncle in Msia in the morning on 21st Jan, so i excuse myself and chose to go in in the evening instead with dad so i could do this. I prefer doing and serving the cake on the same day as i think cake taste better fresh :D Except for some cakes which tastes better the next day.

The day before (20th Jan 2012) we went for early celebration at Aston's Sembawang :)

Mummy, with her Cream of Mushroom Soup

Our present to her! A small pendent :)

Lastly, i'll end with a post of my lemon cheesecake :)

First is Prima Deli Pineapple Tart from Wiffy at NoobCook

(Photo Credit: Noobcook - http://www.noobcook.com/primadeli-pineapple-tarts-giveaway/)

Thank you!

and

Now..

Good Start of the Year! :D

Initially i was looking at FB's newsfeed and saw the above, then i was like is this Genevieve me? Went to try my luck check my email, its me! Heh! So happy :D

Xie xie! Xie xie!

Gong xi fa cai!

cross to the other side soon

I used instagram for this picture, in which if you find it familar, it is, cause i copied it from my facebook page. LOLS!

It was kinda an impluse baking thing which hit be yesterday before i went out for shopping with my cousin. Its a really simple recipe to make :) I kinda don't really like to bake cookies because it involves so much steps of either chilling the dough (need to wait-impatient) and rolling/scooping them up (will dirty fingernails and very ma-fun) cause im a lazy person, so i tend to bake cakes instead, cause everything just pour into 1 tin and into the oven... "Gao-Tim" - Cantonese meaning of "settled".

BUT!

Since it's CNY just thought of trying out 1 batch for my close relatives :) Plus the fact that im able to control the amount of ingredients placed into it makes it healthier an more suited for my elderlies at home. I like cookies that kinda melt-in-your-mouth and scour the internet for 1 recipe in which i tweak here and there, so this is the one:

ALMOND COOKIES
yields approx. 50 cookies

• 150g self-raising flour
• 50g Icing Sugar
• 80g Ground Almond
• 80g Diced Almond
• 100g Corn Oil (or any tasteless oil)
• 1/2 tsp Almond Essense

Method:

1. Sift self-raising flour and icing sugar in a bowl. Don't be lazy here if you want your cookie to be smooth and not lumpy.
2. Add in both the ground almond and diced almond and mix well.
   I like to use a whisk here to remove the lumps.
3. Add the almond essense to the corn oil.
4. Pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon/spatula.
   I used spatula here because im lazy to wash the whisk which is more difficult to wash than a spoon/spatula. Plus its easier to mix them with a spoon/spatula anyway... :P
5. Mixture may be crumbly but no worries, just shape them into balls and place in small paper case.
6. Preheat oven to 170°C then place cookies in for about 18-20mins. Cookies will be slighly brown, it will be a little soft when it just came outta the oven, but just let it cool it will harden.
7. Cool to room temperature then store in air-tight containers.

(Note: You can egg wash the top and add some diced almonds or topping of your choice at the top of the cookie before baking. Just beat an eggyolk and brush the cookies)

I think this amount of sugar is perfect for me and my family, its not bland or anything just not overly sweet which might overpower the almond taste. If you like it sweeter you could increase it to about 80g.

Of course you can bake it anytime of the year not necessary CNY only :)

"Totally agree with this sentence"

Anyhoo, how is everyone? I haven't been blogging much lately, due to the Taiwan Trip with my family which happens from 27th Dec 2011 all the way to 5th Jan 2012, been long, i know.. it was fun thou, wasn't really looking for much stuff there, the excitement didn't really grow on my until i was at Taoyuan Airport! Whoohoo! and mann i fell in love with that country, especially the people there with their friendly hospitality!

Went to House of Robert Timms for our monthsary on 23rd Dec 2011, meaning last year... omg! 1 frigging year had passed!

Passed thru there a couple of times, yet didn't have the opportunity to dine in there. Either because we are broke or we didn't have the time.. Damnn... anywayy we popped by in this time round and never regretted going in :D

Kel's order - Three Way Toasts ($13.50)
Sauteed Mixed Mushroom, Bratwurst Sausage, Poached Egg with Turkey Ham on Multigrain toasts, served with Baked Tomato

Its was on the breakfast menu, but they served all-day breakfast and their portion were huge. Since we had something before, we decided to settle for something smaller instead. So this is what he ordered.

It was really really awesome! I never tried Eggs Benedict before, i know the center had to be gooey and its usually paired with Hollandaise Sauce. Dayum! Its so delish! What i love most of the most was the sauteed mushroom, its juicy and creamy and the earth smell of the mushroom was really really nice. I really love mushrooms thats why i had intense love for it.

Love the bread too, its a multigran bread, sliced and toasted. The sausage was really yummy too, not too dry like those outside, can't really taste what sauce was in it thou, but it paired well :D

See... can't wait to dig in, until tongue sticking out and mouth cannot close. HAHA!

Gua' Roasted Chicken Salad - "can't rmember the price"

It's quite a huge portion i should say, but at least it wasn't heavily drizzled with too much sauce. The chicken was nicely roasted where it remained juicy and not dry and flaky. Love it!

They have kangaroo meat and crocodile meat too, omg!

Overall we pretty much enjoyed ourselves. Love you Dou and may 2012 brings many more happy occasions and moments for us :D

Dearest Sharmaine's birthday was on the 8th December 2011. I was having a terrible time coping and motivating myself to study on my last paper at the point of time, so i promised her to celebrate after it instead.

Yup! So im bidding goodbye to examinations for now! :D Im so happy im wiggly my butt!

So yesterday was just a treat to Ishi Mura at Northpoint. We went to try out the buffet there since i used to pass by and wonder what's inside. Pricing wise was pretty alright, but the food wise... hmmm.. Basically, if you were to ask me if i am to step in there ever? NO. period.

The spreads pretty limited. If you think that there's gonna be some sashimi inside? Nah.. We paid $16.90 per person as its was the weekends. If you were to come on weekdays before Friday, it will be $14.90 instead.

We were asked to select the steamboat base for our soup. 2 choices was Bonito and Miso. We opted for Miso instead, but it kind just look like corn soup to me. We had no idea it was a steamboat buffet lols. Anyway there's quite an array of stuff to pick from to drop inside. But actually its kinda repeative. There's prawn and mussels thou. Sharmaine kept picking the beancurd and beef. Lols!

I dumped in my favourite cabbage to 'sweeten' it instead. Somehow the entire metal bowl will pop suddenly, i wonder if its the gas that's too strong.

NEVER ATTEMPT TO TOUCH THE PIZZA! Im serious! I don't know what is it, it's dry, the base is crumbly, the yellow thingy i really have no idea what is that. But the inion rings is pretty normal, like what you can find outside, what's rewarding is probably the chicken teriyaki.

Another mediocre item will be the tako yaki, it has prawn inside. The prawn has shell on and the batter is really thick. Its cold and chewy, i spat it out instead. Sorry, but it really not worth consuming, at least for me. I rather the sushi instead.

The leftover sushi, we came there about 3ish and the last serving is 4.30pm but you can eat till 5pm. They do not replenish it in anyway. They probably just cook a batch and leave it there, if it's finish, its finished.

See what i meant? Sighhh wasted my $16.90. >.<.
Call me picky or what, but i wouldn't come here again, for the buffet at least..

Since we had late lunch or pratically dinner already, we walked back to my home and did Milo Cupcakes instead :D

We brought some over to Kel's granny's house and seems like people do like it, i think it pretty nice so im sharing the recipe here. I tweaked the recipe a little, as usual..

Milo Cupcake Ingredients
(Yields 12 cupcakes)

• 115g Plain Flour/All-purpose Flour
• 100g Caster Sugar (* i used brown sugar instead)
• 1.5 teaspoons Baking Powder
• Pinch salt
• 40g Unsalted Butter, room temperature (* i tried replacing 10g of butter with mashed banana, it turns out well)
• 120 ml Whole Milk
• 3 tablespoons Milo
• 2 teaspoons Cocoa Powder
• 1 Egg, room temperature

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 170℃
2. Line 12-hole muffin tray with paper case
3. Beat butter till light and fluffy.
4. Mix all dry ingredient (Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder) together.
5. Stir milo into milk until it looks like chocolate milk.
6. Add in eggs to butter.
7. Mix dry mixture and milk mixture into butter in 3 part. (Means alternate wet ingredients and dry ingredients until all inside)
8. Beat with electric mixer till combined and smooth. DO NOT OVERMIX!
9. Scoop into muffin tray until 2/3 full.
10. Sprinkle a little chocolate rice or milo powder.
11. Pop them into the oven and bake for about 20-25 mins. The cake will bounce back when touched and skewer will come out clean.
12. Leave cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.

Original Recipe from: The Cake Mistress

I melted some chocolate with hot water, snipped of one corner of a zip-lock bag and randomly squeeze them ontop instead.

I made the birthday girl Strawberry Vertical Cake with Rum-Infused Ganache. I tried piping roses on it, but i kinda overwhipped the ganache so it became grainy. But i think it should rely on buttercream to pipe roses instead. LOLS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! ♥

I'll do another post on the vertical cake soon :)

Its the exam period again, i don't have the mood to study at all...
and first paper is next Monday.. sighh..

On the other hand! I got a really awesome boyfriend who shoot through the entire Singapore just to fulfil my desire for P300.
Yup, i managed to sell away my LX3 and downgraded to a P300 instead. Thanks Doubby! ♥♥

Such a rainy day today, and i forgot to close my room window. THUS, my entire bed and curtain is soaking wet.. damn.... :((

Almond Biscotti Ingredients:
(yield about 16 thin slices)

• 1 cups of plain or all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp almond extract (*can be replaced with 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1/2 roasted whole almonds (or any nuts you wished to put, even raisin or cranberries)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180℃. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Combine flour, salt and baking soda together.
3. Whisk eggs and sugar till well combined. Add in extract to egg mixture.
4. Gradually add in flour to egg mixture until dough is form. (It will be sticky, no worries)
5. Add in almonds (or other nuts and ingredients)
6. Flour hands and divide dough into half. Roll into log shape.
7. Flatten the logs slightly on baking sheet. Space them about 2-3 inches apart.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (i baked mine for 37mins). It will be done when its firm to the touch and lightly brown.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5-10 minutes then slice them with serrated knife into 1/2 inch think.
   (i let it cool for about 5 mins, don't let it cool too long or it will be hard to slice)
10. Arrange evenly on baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes each side. It should be lightly brown and crispy.
11. Remove from oven and let cool, store in airtight container.

Notes:
- I halve the entire recipe as we don't consume much. Recipe can be easily doubled
- I thinly sliced the biscotti as it is easier to bake and crisp up in the second bake
- I halved the recipe and lessen the sugar amount and it suits my taste-bud better. Original recipe calls for 1cup.
- Feel free to dip them in melted chocolate after it cool. But i like mine plain
- I added raisin in the other half

Original Recipe Adapted from: My Kitchen Snippets

Im pretty amazed that this recipe doesn't have any fat content. Not including the nuts. What binds them together is that little egg in there. :D
This is my first time attempting biscotti, cause mum bought this whole package of almonds from NTUC and i decided to use them for this recipe instead. So happy it turns out super nice and its so simple to make!

What im happiest is to know that dad ate alot of them. He's quite a fussy eater sometimes. And the entire house smells so almondy and therapeutic, for me it is.. made a grumpy gloomy day not gloomy no more!

I see myself churning them up more often now, and probably with other ingredients to play with. Since it isn't so high in fat content. :)

Im happy now, got to mug hard now..

SO TOUGH!

HURMPS!

I don't frequently talk about them, those 2 stinky doodles scuttering around the house.

But i love them so. So here's a recipe post for them.

Its been sometime since i did doggie biscuits for my pooches. In fact i don't really like making cookies cause its pretty troublesome to cut out those cookie shapes myself. Making cookie should be a family activity, involving more than 1 person, i think. Then i'll be fun!

Neewayss, i was web searching some recipe and i gathered a few recipes here and there, tweak it a little with what i have in the house and made it in small batches -- just in case they don't like it. It's pretty simple, took me less than 15 mins in preparation, no need to rest the dough and it isn't very messy. Shaping them took me some time, then into the oven it goes.

PARSLEY MILK BISCUITS
(Yields about 2 dozen small stars - depends on your cookie cutter)

• 1 Cup - Whole Wheat Flour (can be replaced with plain flour or wheat flour)
• 1 Tbsp - Parsley (i use dried ones)
• 1/2 Cup - Milk

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Just add everything into a single mixing bowl and mix till they come together. Add more milk if its too dry. Add more flour if its too wet.
3. Roll dough into a ball, dust surface with a little flour. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick.
4. Happy cutting them into whatever shapes you want. (*Note: Bigger cookie needs longer baking time)
5. Place them on baking tray, these cookies won't expand or spread much so its ok to leave just a little space in between them.
6. Pop them in the oven and bake for about 25-30mins. Oven temperature varies, mine took 30mins. Bake till they are golden brown around the sides.

Im surprised how fuss-free these cookies are. AND! the lucky or best thing is that Skippy & Gucci chew them down. They have been lingering around the prep table since i started making it, to rolling the dough to putting them in the oven.

Skippy ate the quickest, surprisingly. Compared to his daughter, who as usual... ate like a princess. Slowly chew chew chew..

Overall, im glad that they like it.

Im happy that i can put  my stress out on baking. I always find myself turning to baking whenever im stress and now i have eager pooches ready to gobble down my bakes. :D

AND!

I'm happy to share with you how to save money and make your doggies cookies with simple ingredients found in the house. No kinds of fats or eggs inside. It took me by surprise how aromatic this cookie is actually - yes i ate it first to test before giving them.

SO SHOW YOU BESTFRIENDS HOW MUCH YOU ADORE THEM! BAKE THEM TREATS!

Just when you thought it would be the last of me temporary with the last post. IM BACK!

Sorry i was just surfing tumblr and the web, saw this picture so i NEED to post it.

Then i know i have this really bad habit, of opening a million tabs on Google Chrome. Im serious, i can open like 50+ tab in one browser. The boyfriend gets irritated with my crazy tab opening shit and will constantly nag me to close them. I CANT! Whenever i see something interesting in 1 window, i will right click "open page in new tab" and thats what i love about google chrome! and that's how i ended up with this



and an irritated boyfriend and a hard time finding this page again. This is already considered little... HAH!

==========

Ok im just taking today to be a relax day. No notes reading, no project stress (yet... but soon) just 'slack-wednesday' today.

And random picture-uploading-day :D

Some photos are just so hard to not post, or in tumblr-logy "reblog".

Also, im addicted to PORN, yes hard-core PORN!

uh....?

.

huh??

porn?

did she just say PORN!?

is she psychotic?

blogging about porn?

HERE?

.

.

.

and in PORNOGRAPHY, i meant it to be FOOD PORN!!

Damnnn, some people just have the ability to make and conjure up a delicious meal and take such beautiful pictures of it that makes me salivate in front of the screen. They give me inspirations, and also are really my inspirations, they make me happy and jealous... in a way. Jealous cause i really envy how they are able to take time to make it, take picture of it artistically and have people around to sample it.

(This is how i have eating mango since young, dad cut it up like this for us)

WHY SO ARTISTICALLY APPEALING!!!

(stomach-growling--shut up tummy)

OK, so pornography aside.. PLEASE:

Adele's - Rolling in the Deep.... Literal Version.

an abstract on what i usually do under those comfy covers of mine...

and my dog stinks...