Down with influenza Mon 16 Nov

I went to see TCM doc near home as I was hurting too much from the pain due to the lingering sore throat.

The TCM physician diagnosed it as a cough arising fron dryness, rather than the heatiness that I thought (since over 90% of my previous sickness episodes arose because of my inherent heaty nature). I then realised that I perhaps should not have self-medicated the 羚羊水 over the weekend.
Anyway, was sent home with 2 days worth of pills (labelled 补阴片) and told I should recover quickly.

Unfortunately, I was caught (without an umbrella) in a passing shower on my way home and got rained on. I didn't think much about it and continued working on the poster prints which I had to complete today (the voucher expired on 17th).

I was coughing quite a bit during YX's last music class today, and attributed it to the chill since it rained heavily in the afternoon. I barely finished the clear fish soup I had bought for dinner. But I was elated to find that YX enjoyed her spaghetti bolognese and almost finished the whole serving.

On the way home in the car, I was coughing through'out but thought it was due to the dry aircon. I did have a plastic bag ready as I realised some violent coughs tended to attract a vomit reaction and my dinner was indeed, very watery. Thankfully, YX did not give too much trouble that evening (maybe cos we didn't ask her to practise her piano or do her activity books).

That night, I couldn't sleep well as I was feverish (I was too tired to get out of bed and find a thermometer to measure) but I thought it was okay since I was in pain the whole day from the sore throat. I also later realised I was shivering uncontrollably although I did not have the aircon switched on nor the windows open. Covering myself with a blanket did nothing to help. 

Hong Kong style steamed milk with egg pudding

I enjoyed steamed milk with egg pudding (I can't remember exact name) at Honeymoon Dessert on Mon after shopping with my sister at Bugis. It was one of the Hong Kong-style desserts that I love, especially the one I had at Australian Dairy Company during vacation in Hong Kong. I craved it so much I looked up the recipe and made it after cooking dinner today. 

Found an easy recipe from 

http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/featured/chinese-egg-pudding-my-organic-dessert/

I used the recipe for 2 servings, which filled 3 ramekins. It was soft and wobbly after the 15 mins of steaming over low heat, but hardened after cooling down and refrigeration.....I guess I should have eaten it while it was hot....

My guess is that the cooling down and refrigeration had somehow affected the texture. I DID use clear wrap to cover the ramekin during steaming, but had removed it as it was cooling. so maybe too much moisture escaped, or something like that?

Wagyu beef, sauteed veg, Mac and cheese dinner

24 Oct 2015
After we already had breakfast/lunch at Orchard, we were at Plaza Singapura window shopping to get out of home and away from the awful haze. 

YX requested that I cook dinner tonight (so that she could play at home), so we decided to pop by Cold Storage for main ingredient. I was thinking along the lines of a beef stew, since I already had root vegetables (potato, carrot, zucchini, cucumber) at home. When browsing the beef section, the promotion for Australian wagyu beef  ($2.99/100g) came into view and we decided to get it since it was more worthwhile.

When we got home, I started google-ling for recipe and methods, as I had an awful record of cooking the toughest beef steaks. Learnt a couple of things about wagyu (I have read about it before, about Japanese wagyu and how they are raised specially. But I figured that even for wagyu, there are tender and tough cuts, depending on which part they came from.) And for less than $30/kg, the cut we had probably wasn't that good for me to salvage with my lousy cooking skills. 

Thankfully, the label indicated wagyu topside M4. "Topside" referred to the cut, "M4" the degree of marbling. And the deal we got had the least marbling, for Australian beef is supposedly M4-M12. I decided to just give it a try with no particular marinating (There was not enough lead-time anyway!) A few tips I did apply from reading various blogs (there was even a discussion on an Australian BBQ forum) include,

A. take it out from the fridge 30 min before cooking;

B. Use paper towel to soak up any juices/condensation;

C. Rubbing with butter and marinating with salt and pepper just before applying to heat (1-1.5 min each side);

D. Resting the cooked steak for 10 min before serving on warmed plates.

YX chose macaroni when presented with choice of rice, potato and pasta/macaroni, so I decided to prepare a foolproof Mac & cheese, which I know she would enjoy. Only that I hadn't had any cheddar in the fridge, only open packages of shredded mozzarella and parmesan, which I had used for a pizza recipe earlier. Back to the google-world it was, as I knew it was unwise to throw the mozzarella into the saucepan for the cheese sauce. Thankfully, I found some useful alternatives on   http://www.melskitchencafe.com/tuscan-macaroni-and-cheese-bake/, and decided to use my new box of Philly cream cheese instead. And since I also wanted to use up some of the mozzarella, I decided on a cook-and-airfry Mac & Cheese. 

I started cooking at 6pm, cutting a peeled carrot and a medium zucchini into wedges while the macaroni (1 cup dry) was being precooked. Drained macaroni was mixed with cubed cream cheese (scant 4 oz, I eyeballed my block when cutting as I wanted to ensure I had enough leftovers for a future cheesecake). 

Into another saucepan went a half cup of fresh milk and 2 small chunks of frozen chopped spinach (I didn't follow the recipe link above, hehehe). I whisked 2 tsp flour into an additional 0.25cup of milk, and added it to the milk-spinach mixture just before it came to a boil. I drizzled 2 rounds of olive oil on my ramekin to oil the surface. Whatever left over was added to the thickened milk mixture (I still need some fat in the AF process!), which was then mixed with the macaroni-cream cheese. All these went into the ramekin, then into our Philips AF (preheated at 160 deg C), covered with a piece of foil. 

With the carbo-side out of the way, the carrot wedges, which were in the meantime, boiling in the salted-macaroni water (with some fresh boiling water topped up), were drained. I sauteed the zucchini wedges with a chug of olive oil in a preheated frypan, then added a splash of water and the boiled carrots. Just before they were done (this took a while as I like my sauteed veg soft, and to pre-empt YX's complaints of "the vegetables are too hard!"), diced red pepper were tossed in. I turned off the gas after a while, placing the serving plates as lids to keep the veg warm (and you know, warm the plates at the same time). 

By then, the Mac&Cheese had been in the AF for 10 min now, and I didn't want the sauce to dry out, so I removed the foil, scattered shredded mozzarella on top, and left it inside the AF with the power off. I figured the residual heat from the AF and wire basket (and the heat in the ramekin itself) would keep the contents warm, and the "broiling" of the mozzarella cheese could be done just prior to serving.

The multi-tasking cooking (not to mention a load of laundry in the washer and an awful itchy cough that made me cough continuously) made me a bit blur by now. So instead of applying butter on the steak, I just grabbed the nearest available fat (olive oil) and rubbed one side of the steak with a large drop of oil and some salt (I forgot pepper!). My frypan is nonstick, so no fat was applied. I was so ecstatic when I heard the sizzle of the raw meat touching the preheated frypan. 

However that was short-lived as I was distracted and left the first side on for almost 2 mins, by which time the fats and juices were charring at the side of the frypan. I have absolutely poor control over my gas stove, I swear. Flipping over the steak with my silicon spatula, I then watched it during the 1min for the reverse side like a hawk. Removed it from the pan and set it on the warmed plate, then restarted the AF for it to melt the cheese topping. I did some dishes in the half-full sink, then checked for doneness. When the dear hubs said it was okay (it is about medium-done, I guess, my preferred style), I proceeded with the 2nd piece of steak. But I forgot to preheat it, and the steak went on the pan like a limp, wet fish.  So the second piece (which went to the hubs since I was sharing my steak with YX) was more like, medium-rare?!? 

Note to self: 

1. A cool-to-touch ramekin that fits inside AF wire basket should not be used, at least until I find some kind of tongs to extract it out whilst it is hot (and possibly with bubbling contents). I forgot I have the grill pan, which has no walls. 

2. Olive oil didnt seem to go with the steak juices. The juices that drained away were all black. Try (good quality) butter next time. 

3. Grilled/Roasted/AF pasta or rice dishes seem to go well with YX. Can sneak in other types of vegetables next time. 

4. Need to get proper steak knives if we want to cook steaks in future. A serrated fruit knife, while it works, doesn't really work in a dining situation of 3 meat lovers. 

End note: the hubs commented during the meal that it would have cost $100+ to eat such quality, tender wagyu outside. Today? The pack cost <$16, and that includes a 3rd piece sitting in the fridge (I reserved it as I thought 500g might be a tad too much for 2 adults & 1 picky finicky 5 yo gal. Plus, it had almost no marbling.) The other components of the dinner would not cost more than $10 (half block of Philly @$2.80 + root veg@$2 + macaroni and all other condiments from my kitchen)

George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl

Haze is back after the fresh air we had on Sunday yesterday. So I was back in the library enjoying the aircon.
Picked up some of the available Roald Dahl books for which I had borrowed the corresponding audiobooks for YX.
So I enjoyed a short book again "George's Marvellous Medicine"...

Mini doughnuts for breakfast (3Oct 2015)

I had bought a mini doughnut maker online some time back, but it was stashed away at my parents' home. I remembered about it recently and brought it back, since I now have the batter dispenser to play with. 

I followed a basic waffle/pancake recipe and tried making it for breakfast at home today. I realised the heating panels are uneven, so the bottom half of the donut was more evenly browned, whereas the top panel gives the "speckled look". 

I tried to even the browning by flipping the doughnuts halfway through the cooking time (this electric machine can't be flipped upside down, unlike the traditional stovetop type) But the structure was not fully set yet, so they tear easily while I was using tongs to flip them manually. In the picture below, you can see the ugly marks left behind by the tongs when I turned them over. These cook fast! 1 min on each side so one batch of 7 gets done within 3 mins.

Ricecooker yam rice for dinner (26 Sep 2015)

YX wanted to watch 中国好声音4, so we were aiming to be home during dinnertime. It was a choice between buying dinner back from the zichar nearby or cooking at home. On the way back from Bugis at 4pm after a quick visit to the Central Public Library, YX said "I want mummy to cook". So that sealed the dinner decision.

On the bus, I was doing a quick google search on an easy ricecooker recipe and hubby suggested yam rice, so I found this recipe: http://www.thetummyescapades.com/mums-mothers-yam-rice/

We could only find baby yam from NTUC, so I used that instead.


My recipe:

5 cloves of garlic

1 waxed sausage

6 fresh shiitake mushrooms (cos I didn't have dried ones on hand)

500g bag of baby yam

240g pork belly, skin removed


For seasonings, I followed the recipe mostly. I wanted to use up my stock of brown rice, so I used 1 cup brown rice mixed with 2 cups of Calrose rice (so that YX wouldn't know the difference!!)


The smell was quite fragrant and we hurriedly gobbled down our respective shares. The picture below is what is being kept as leftovers for my lunch next week.

Japanese anime series -Nodame Cantabile

After we were cooped up at home on the hazy Hari Raya Haji public holiday, hubby and I decided to get around and walking in town while the PSI was not so bad. We visited HMV at Marina Square which was closing. 

As I was browsing the Kids section, I noticed this Japanese anime DVD titled "Nodame Cantabile" (See Wikipedia entry). No, I'm no Japanese anime fan, but this title caught my eye cos there is a Korean drama series starring Joo Won which is supposedly based on this Japanese manga story. Haha. It features some aspects of music making and orchestra, so I thought it could be something to engage YX in. However, there were only discs 3 and 4 with no copies of the earlier episodes. 

I made a mental note to search the web for streaming sites for this, and I found it! 

Here is episode 1 on animeram.

Boiled Barley Grains - Mushroom, carrots "porridge"

I cooked a cup of dry ‪#‎barley‬ with 4L water in my pressure cooker to make barley water in this horrid weather. 

After draining the barley water, I always felt it was such a waste to throw away the beans, but it was too plain tasting to eat on its own. So I've been looking at recipes to use them.

Today I added some diced carrots, mushrooms and garlic to some barley grains, together with stock (I crumbled a small chicken stock cube), wanting to make something like a ‪#‎risotto‬. But I guess the water didn't really dry up as much since I used an electric lunch box steamer. So it ended up tasting like porridge. Still very good, though. 

Im gonna try #barley ‪#‎pudding‬ next. 

"James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl

A 45 minute silent reading session at Tampines Regional Library, while I was happily escaping from the haze.

Family birthday Sep 2015

Baked a chocolate Ogura cake for my niece, K's birthday. 

Airfryer Agedashi Tofu and Steamed pork mince with salted duck egg 咸蛋蒸肉饼

Last week's simple dinner for me, hubby and girl - Agedashi tofu and salted egg steamed minced meat 咸蛋蒸肉饼.

I learnt from method on http://www.justonecookbook.com/agedashi-tofu-2/. But used only tofu, potato starch, oil to cook tofu in my ‪#‎Philips‬ ‪#‎airfryer‬. Sauce was made from instant dashi, mirin n soya sauce, simmered briefly. When using airfryer instead of traditional oil deep fry, the potato starch continues looking whitish and may taste uncooked. You may wish to brush/spray a thin layer of oil on the tofu cubes instead.

Meat patty method - hand-minced pork with diced water chestnuts, spring onions, carrots. Season with (little) salt and pepper. Crack raw salted egg. Mix egg white with mince mixture, then flatten on steaming plate. I placed salted egg yolk in middle to steam, on low simmering water.
Ps: can skip salt cos the salted egg is already very salty.

Noodling around #2 Our first decent homemade noodles - Bah Chor Mee / minced meat noodles / 肉脞面

After the first failed attempt at homemade noodles, we learnt our lesson and stuck strictly to the instructions and measuring cups this time. We managed to get the noodles looking more like what we see on Youtube and everywhere else. 

I found a super informative blog post on how to prepare one of my favourite dishes, minced meat noodles from tummytroll. Thus, with other preparations (see how I airfry pork lard cubes and "mermaid fish" and prepare soup stock), we enjoyed a lunch of homemade bah chor mee, or "minced meat noodles". 

Silly me forgot to change the Philips noodle maker cutting disc to the thinner angel hair one, so we ended up with fatter noodles. I personally prefer thinner 幼面 for my noodles, but since it represented all our hard work, I slurped through the entire bowl for lunch, anyway. 

Airfryer mermaid fish

The first time I knew about this "mermaid fish" was in the lead-up to Chinese New Year, when my sister bought a whole bag of them and used my airfryer to fry them crisp. I can't stop snacking on them!

Today, I bought just a handful from Chinatown wet market for $1 (approx 30g), and airfried them as topping for my homemade bah chor mee 肉脞面

Airfried pork lard cubes

This needs little introduction. I was trying to prepare minced meat noodles/肉脞面, and wanted to make these as topping/seasonings.

So I dug some of the pork belly skin/fats that I had saved from previous meals and frozen. They were diced into approx 1cm cubes and thrown into my airfryer basket. 

This is how they look like after airfrying (sorry, cannot remember temperature and duration). Just have to keep an eye and check periodically.

Result: These oily morsels were crunchy when fresh from airfrying. After standing for about 30mins, they were softer. I guess they need to be prepared just RIGHT BEFORE serving. 

(I airfried my mermaid fish after these, so I did not need to add any oil)

Pressure cooking - pork rib carrot soup

I finally got down to buying a pressure cooker after eyeing one for the longest time ever! I was sick of pots of stock or beans or braising peanuts for hours on end over the gas stove, and still NOT getting the desired taste/texture I wanted. To be fair, I did try alternative methods of cooking like slow cooker and thermal cooker, but being the impatient me, I wanted something faster and more energy-efficient, without having the gas or electricity plugged in for hours. 

I was only familiar with the WMF brand as it was the one that my mother owned in her kitchen. I was shopping around the usual larger departmental stores (Metro, Takashimaya, OG, Robinsons) and came across an offer for a non-German/non-European brand. It was still quite costly but I decided to just get a cheaper one to use and experiment with recipes first. 

This is one of my first recipes on my "Pressure Cooker To-Cook list", a huge pot of soup stock for saving and freezing in batches. I wanted a pork and ikan bilis stock (according to the recipe shared by tummytroll), but did not have the exact ingredients on hand. 

My version below included Pork Ribs, carrots, onions, garlic, ikan bilis powder (whizzed in the grinder and scooped into DAISO empty tea pouches). It was sweet and flavourful after 30 minutes of cooking under the "High Pressure" setting. The vegetables were all soft and mushy, and the pork tough, but I didn't mind it as I was after only the stock.... Yay.... I am so happy that I can reduce my dependence on instant dashi granules and chicken stock cubes....

Unboxing Philips noodle maker

Finally got down to blowing the dust off the Philips noodle maker that hubby had bought during a Philips staff sale event in Dec 2014 (did I ever mention half my kitchen appliances are from Philips cos he has a friend working for Philips?)

The unit came with the basic cut moulds for 

A) Angel hair/ Mee Kia 

B) Penne
C) Spaghetti/ Yellow noodles
D) Fettuccine/ Ban Mian

Our first round was disastrous as I was happily admiring the machine at work after pouring in the flour and water, when hubs popped round and asked why I did not add an egg. I had quickly browsed through the instruction manual and only breezed thru the table showing the difference in ingredients for egg vs normal plain noodle. I remembered the liquid measure was different for egg, and ASSUMED it was simply the original amount for plain water, with an egg added in. So I just quickly beat up an egg and added it into the mix before the kneading cycle ended. 

THAT WAS THE MISTAKE!

What originally looked like breadcrumbs texture ended up like a thick sticky muffin batter. I tried adding in more flour but still couldn't salvage it. I had fitted the thinnest cut disc, and the extruded noodles looked like extra-strength electrical wires (you know, those that coil around each other, forming one thicker band of wires?). Hubby tried to manually knead the dough we dug out of the chamber, by hand. and tried extruding again, without much success. But we still managed to cook them anyhow, and ate them for lunch. They were pretty decent, and chewy....

And that is why this post is on "unboxing" rather than the final product. Haha.

Bye MBP, Hello Mac Mini

I had been using hubby's Macbook Pro for a while now, and it has been "degrading" somewhat. I was facing problems like slower speed (which was to be expected), unusually hot surface (the internal fan was probably broken), and a totally dead touchpad (which wasn't a problem since I was mainly using it as a desktop and used a separate USB mouse anyway).

Purchasing a new Mac-based system for use as a desktop had been on my mind for quite a while. I had put off the purchase for a couple of IT fairs/expos by now, and I was getting a bit more fed-up with the performance lately, as the surface was getting really hot, and it shuts down on me without warning.

I decided to just get a simple replacement, looking for size rather than portability, since I didn't have a real need for a portable machine. After some online (and store) research, I decided to get the Mac mini since I was still more accustomed to the Mac (rather than Windows) interface and programs.

It was the weekend of the quarterly IT fair, but there are usually not any good discounts offered for the Mac family machines. Thus I got the Mac mini from Challenger, where I could chalk up membership points and see what other discounts they could offer. We managed to get a good offer on software.

For the other hardware, it was all bought from COMEX 2015 at Suntec. YX followed us rather obediently (although she did grumble a bit about the walking and the crowds) as hubby helped me select and purchase a suitably-sized (and priced) monitor and keyboard.

Bye MacBook Pro (Top picture), Hello Mac Mini (bottom picture)

My buys - Cake turntable

I finally got my hands on a more proper cake turntable! 😋

I was using an improvised one for a couple of months, using a small/short plastic turntable from Daiso that was merely 1-2cm high, and slapped on a nonslip mat between that and the cake base cardboard. 

Airfryer grill pan

I had been getting quite frustrated with the splattering of oil when preparing stovetop shallow fry dishes, and was looking to make better use of the Philips Airfryer (at least cleaning up was easier!)

So I searched around the usual retail shops for the Airfryer grill pan (an optional/additional attachment for the airfryer) as well as online, and managed to find an online seller in qoo10. Together with the cart coupon and other discounts, this grill pan cost me S$40.40, including delivery.

It has been a good experience thus far, as cleanup is easier, compared to the airfryer basket. I also use this pan when cooking foods placed in ramekins and baking trays, so placing and removing is easier and safer (it is pretty hard to remove a hot ramekin from the AF basket, esp. with oven mitts)

 

German cookies for Teachers Day presents 2015

Hands getting itchy again, so I decided to be ambitious and bake some homemade cookies for YX's teachers. Decided on the german cookies that I had been thinking of making since Chinese New Year, but never got round to baking. I had to bake earlier as her centre is having a scheduled holiday the day before the MOE school holiday on Friday. 

I used the recipe shared in the Facebook group, Bakingscorner, and the original recipe is from bakingtaitai. I followed the ingredients list accordingly, and made two batches, one original and one green tea matcha flavour. 

My experience: 

1. I found the dough to be very soft and wet. It was suggested that if the dough was too soft to handle, we could chill it. I thought that would also help while waiting for the oven to be ready, so I placed a tray of shaped dough in the fridge. They ended up having tiny beads of condensation on them, which were visible after baking. 
2. Also, based on the recommendation size of 8g per piece, my cookies came out being quite big (after expanding in the baking process). For subsequent trays, I reduced the size to 6g each for a more manageable bite-sized portion. You can see the difference in size in the second photo. 
3. The picture below shows the matcha flavoured cookies sticking more to the baking paper. Perhaps I did not bake them long enough. (I used the lower end 12 min baking time as I was worried they would be burnt and take on a brownish hue.)

After the cookies cooled sufficiently, I packed them (VERY CAREFULLY) into disposable plastic boxes I had bought from Phoon Huat. I alternated the flavours by layer, and laid each layer on the only doileys I had on hand (5.5 inch round ones leftover from CNY baking). They fitted the boxes perfectly, as you can see in the picture below. 

I ended up having quite a lot extras since I made 2 batches. But I was worried about saving them until Sunday for her church school teachers, and next monday for her music class teacher, so I decided to just let her have all the boxes for her teachers in LifeJourniz. 

Original Recipe Source is http://bakingtaitai.blogspot.sg/2014/06/german-butter-cookies.html.

Cycling in our neighbourhood

Saturday... Weekend is here (Did you hear my groan yet?)

We did not have anything special planned for today. YX had done a quick (and perfunctory) piano practice in the morning and was entertaining herself quietly in her room. I decided to take her out for a quick trip round the neighbourhood on our bikes since the haze seemed to be better today. YX had been so preoccupied with her newest toy (the 3-wheeled scooter) in recent weeks, so I wanted her to go back to her bicycle, which was relatively new (and unused)!

We cycled to the larger playground at Cantonment Towers, and met a younger 4-year old girl and they started playing together. 

Before we left (it was almost 1.00pm), we came across a bread vending machine. YX thought it was quite interesting, and so she happily posed with it. 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake (Valerie Chian's recipe)

What you need:

For the cake:
145g cake flour
15g corn flour
1 egg
5 egg yolks, whisk slightly with fork
150g unsalted butter / corn oil
65g fresh milk
5 egg whites
100g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt

250g fresh strawberries
170g fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 160degC
Grease and line 8"square pan
Heat butter/oil and milk till melted and combined, do not boil
Off heat and add in sifted flour, mix with wooden spatula
Transfer to bigger bowl, add eggs, continue to mix til smooth
In another bowl, beat egg whites on low speed til frothy, add salt and followed by sugar in 3 additions, beat til soft peak
Pour 1/3 of egg whites mixture into egg/butter mixture, fold in gently, pour the rest and continue to mix gently
Pour batter into pan, bake au bain marie for approximately 45minutes or til skewer comes out clean
Remove from oven, after 5 minutes trasnfer to cooling rack
------------------------------------
For the stabilized whipped cream:
2 tsp gelatin powder
8 tsp cold water
2 cups whipping cream, cold
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Chill mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes
Put cold water in small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes
Place saucepan over low heat, stir continuously with wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature
Remove mixing bowl and beaters from freezer. In the mixing bowl, combine whipping cream, sugar and vanilla and whip till slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture
Then whip the mixture at high speed till stiff
------------------------------------
For sugar syrup:
Optional:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp kirsch gel
Combine in a small saucepan, bring to boil, stir in sugar til dissolved
Let cool
To assemble:
Reserve some strawberries for decoration (the pretty ones!)
Dice the balance, mix with a little sugar, set aside
Reserve some raspberries too for decoration and halve the balance
Cut cooled cake into 3 parts
Place 1 layer cut side up, brush with syrup, spread cream, arrange diced strawberries and spread again with cream
Repeat with the 2nd layer (but this time with raspberries), put the 3rd layer cake on top, brush with syrup and layer thinly with cream
Chill for 30 minutes at least
Spread another layer of cream on top of the cake and chill for another hour, garnish with berries
------------------------------------
Clear Fruit Glaze

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water or fruit juice
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. corn syrup

Bring sugar to a boil with 1/2 of the water or juice. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 water or juice and add to the sugar mixture. Cook, stirring until mixture thickens and clears. Stir in corn syrup. Bring to a boil then remove from heat. Cool before using.

Seeta's birthday cake 2015

We had an early birthday celebration for my 2nd sister during our weekly dinner gathering at my parents' house. I took the chance to have fun and try to bake something new/different.

I had tried this particular Strawberry Shortcake recipe before, but the first attempt last year was not too ideal, as I was new to bain-marie method (which is a fancy term for waterbath) then. Unfortunately, for this round, the baking result was also not perfected yet. I was supposed to get a nice soft and beautifully risen round cake, but it deflated unevenly after cooling and was sloping on one side.

Thankfully, my Wilton small cake leveler (view it on Wilton online store here) had already arrived through hubby's consolidated Amazon purchases. It was such a lifesaver and easy-to-use tool. I wonder why it took me so many years to decide to get this. I always ended with a backache after baking and slicing and decorating cakes in my kitchen with a flimsy adaptation of a cake turntable. Not to mention uneven and sloping cake layers.

Strawberry shortcake recipe. Filled with strawberries. Topped with mandarin oranges, strawberries, peach and blueberries.

The cake base recipe is from a church-mate Valerie. 

Kongguksu for lunch

I had made a batch of soyabean milk from scratch for the first time (soak soy beans overnight, remove skins, blend, boil, strain) and was racking my brains to figure what else to do with the massive containers of soybean milk that resulted. It was all my fault for keeping that packet of dry beans in my pantry for too long and forget about it. So it was expiring soon and I did not have the energy to make another batch within the next 2 weeks. 

Then I happened to be watching one of the episodes of #3MealsADay, where they were grinding beans (See Series 2 Ep 9), so I tried something similar. I usually google for recipes, but #maangchi (https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi) is becoming my go-to reference for Korean food cooking demos and advice. This Kongguksu 콩국수 is made simply from whatever I had on hand

Simple steps: 

Cook some meesua, drain water, rinse under cold water; 

Pour chilled soybean milk over noodles; 

Serve with cherry tomatoes and shredded cucumbers. 

It was a cool and refreshing lunch! yummy...

My first Ogura cake 20Aug 2015

I came across this type of cake, named "ogura". Apparently it is similar to a chiffon in that the rising of the cake is based on beaten egg foam.

I tried a simple recipe for pandan flavoured cake and it tasted okay. The aesthetics were, however, much lacking. Other than the split top, I spied quite a few pockets of unmixed egg white foam. Texture was lovely, though. It was soft and spongy, and not as dry as traditional chiffon.

Watched "Wonderful Days | 참 좋은 시절 | 美好时光"

A rather long (50 episodes!) Korean drama on family and forgiveness. With quite a few typical K-drama makjang elements. Initially watched it for the female lead, Kim Hee Sun, after watching her in "Faith", but was glued to the finish for the bromance between Lee Seojin and Taecyeon.

Planning for National Day/ Jubilee Weekend

We are not the super ardent fans of the annual National Day Parade, although YX watches and re-watches the video clip I downloaded from youtube(?), of NDP 2014. Somehow she loves the pageantry and the music.

Since 2015 is Singapore's 50th birthday, we decided to try and ballot for the NDP tickets. We were not lucky enough to get selected, so I'm now back to the drawing board on what to do for that weekend. 

Thankfully, with the attention and Govt funding for #SG50, there are a whole plethora of events out there on the same weekend, whether organised by the public sector or private organisations. 

I guess I will be ploughing through the singapore50.sg website very soon! 

And do check regularly on my SGEvents calendar, as I add more events there. Meanwhile, I am also searching for a (not-so-technically-challenging way) for me to share that listing. 

Jubilee Winds and Percussion 21 June 2015

Jubilee Winds and Percussion 《鼓吹狮城庆金禧》

by City Chinese Orchestra 狮城华乐团

21 June 2015, 5pm  Victoria Concert Hall

It has been a while since I last watched a CityCO concert (previous attendance was at "Footprints", if I'm not wrong). This year, the mid-year concert coincides with Father's Day, and so I delayed purchasing my ticket as plans with the extended family were not firmed up. It was not until 3 days before the concert that I was able to confirm my availability (as well as alternative toddler-sitting plans). By then, tickets for the cheapest category were almost all gone, and I was pretty horrified to hear the SISTIC counter lady tell me she could only offer me the first row of stall seats. I was adamant on going (and hubby wasn't), so I bumped up to Cat 2 and got myself a single Circle seat ticket. There went my $49...

It has been a long while since I stepped foot into Victoria Concert Hall as it was renovated. I took the opportunity to arrive earlier and walk around the place. All those memories of the concerts I performed in my teens flooded me. The physical surroundings outside the concert hall and theatre looked cleaner and classier, but still with all the lovely architecture feels. 

Above: The backs of the seats from the former concert hall were re-used in refurbishing the Theatre next door.  The seat numbers were shown on the back. I recall having to peer behind the seat to double-check that we had the correct seat. heehee

Above: Today, a spiral staircase brings the audience to the Circle seats at the 3rd floor. Gone are the two flights of staircases that we sat on to chat in-between rehearsals, eat our packed lunches/dinners/snacks, or just to hang out. 😞

All photos are my own. 

My selfie stick purchase

Finally got down to buying a selfie stick (from qoo10). The purchase came in via normal mail safe and sound, and looked sturdy.

I made the mistake of opening the package in front of YX, and so she was bugging me for it the next few days once she saw it.

Here are some pictures taken by her.

Home Bakes - Hershey's Perfect Choc Chip Cookies

My niece wanted to prepare some cookies to gift her school CCA seniors, and so we tried a recipe taken off hershey's website.

We experimented with the size stated in the instructions ("rounded teaspoons" of dough) as well as the easier-but-larger size using my small ice cream scoop.

Verdict (which I could predict anyway): the smaller cookies tended to be more crisp, and larger ones had softer centres. At least that was the case on the actual day of baking. We will have to wait a few days to see if the flavour and texture changes after some days of storage.

Our first SEA Games experience

YX was getting excited about SEA Games after her childcare arranged for them to attend one of the tennis matches (held at Kallang Tennis Centre) on Tue, 9 June 2015.

Thus I searched around and decided to bring her (& my nieces/nephews) to the Singapore Sports Hub today when there were non-ticketed events (Athletics) going on.

We boarded a direct bus from home (196) and alighted at the People's Association bus stop along Nicoll Highway before walking towards the #SeaGamesCarnival.

It was pretty sunny whilst we roamed around the carnival areas. As usual, it took quite a while (and many, many prods) to get YX interested and brave enough to attempt some of the simple games at the carnival.

She enjoyed the 'Pool Soccer' and 'Hockey Golf' games best. While we were waiting for the older children to queue and complete their games, I half-cajoled, half-dragged her to the other end of the carnival to look at the "Rocky Mountain", Art & Craft, and "Giant Slide" games. She managed to obtain 5 stamps on her carnival card to happily receive her redemption items and a lucky draw chance.

It was then time for lunch before we explored the rest of the public areas. The sports hub library was quite crowded with carnival-goers, mainly families and students. The projector screen was showing the Men's water polo match and so we sat down and relaxed to watch while the heavens opened and poured rain for a while.

The hubby and eldest niece went shopping for SEA Games T-shirts, and we watched a skipping-rope competition before we decided to leave. Hubby had to go home pick the car and I was to bring the children back to my parents' place, where we have our weekly dinner gathering.

On the way back to the bus stop, we passed by the National Stadium again and decided to spend some time watching the ongoing Athletics. YX was clearly excited from the experience, this being her first time in an actual sports stadium, watching live sports events.

Above: YX and my nieces and nephews, when we were waiting in queue to get into the National Stadium.
Below: Just before we left the Stadium for home.

Above: The SEA Games participating nations flags and the SEA Games cauldron, against the Tanjong Rhu backdrop.

Family birthday-JS's cake - Disney princesses

I was put off preparing buttercream and/or fondant cakes for a while as my family was not too keen on the taste and high butter/sugar content of these decorations. But as I re-started my baking habit in May, I started to hanker after those beautifully decorated cakes again. I remembered that I had once bought a set of plastic Disney princess 3D cake toppers at YX's insistence some years back, only to realise that I had not put that expensive purchase to good use yet.

My niece (JS) birthday was coming up soon in mid June, so I whatsapped my sister to ask what the little gal preferred. Apparently her current favourites were Frozen, Ben and Holly, Peppa Pig. I had made a Peppa Pig cake before, and JS would be having a Frozen-themed cake for celebrations in her childcare, so I decided to use the 3D cake toppers and try my hand at fondant again.

I baked the sponge cake layers using a sponge cake premix (the Prima brand 'Optima' flour) on Tuesday. On Wed, I whipped up half a batch of Mousselline Buttercream (recipe from 'The Cake Bible') to fill and cover the sponge layers. I was deciding between this and the sweeter / more-likely-to-crust normal buttercream, and eventually decided on this as the temperatures were soaring these days (34 deg Celsius in the afternoons when I'm doing baking/ decorating). I remembered that fondant cakes weren't supposed to be refrigerated so I needed an icing that could hold up at room temperature.

(Top: baked 2 pieces of 8x5inch sponge cakes.

Bottom: I wanted a square cake, so I split one of the cakes and joined together. 

And filled and frosted together)

***

COVERING WITH FONDANT

(Top: sides of cake covered with store-bought white fondant. Top of cake covered with green fondant which I coloured using Wilton's gel -blue and yellow. Looks like I need to work on joining the seams, which I had hurriedly pinched together while the buttercream was 'melting' underneath

Bottom: Green buttercream leaves to cover the ugly seams)

***

ADDING FLOWERS AND "TREES"

With the "defective" areas settled, it was time to add the frills. I placed the toppers and estimated the space that would be available for the other 'garden/flower' decorations.