Brunede Kartofler (Caramelized baby potato)

Got this recipe from http://andrew-mccosh.suite101.com/how-to-make-christmas-danish-caramel-potatoes---brunede-kartofler-a266010

This dish taste very good and all dissappeared before I managed to snap some picture! It is easy to make (except fot the potato peeling part!) and fun to eat.

Ingredients
• 600 grams – Baby potatoes
• 5 Tablespoons - Butter
• 6 Tablespoons – Raw brown sugar

Method
1. Wash the baby potatoes thoroughly in the sink; especially if they are home-grown, to remove any acquired dirt or chemicals, peel them, and place them in a small cooking pot. Fill the pot with just enough water to cover them completely. This is important as the more water, the longer it takes for the water to boil, and consequently, the potatoes to cook. Add a pinch of salt to the water and place the pot on a medium to high heat, covering with a lid.

2. Once boiled, drain the potatoes, and leave to cool for a few minutes. In the meantime, warm a large frying pan or skillet over medium heat on the element. Making sure as to not let the pan get too hot, spread the brown sugar in a thin layer over the bottom of the pan. Once the sugar has started to heat in the pan, make sure you pay close attention to the sugar to make sure it does not burn, and avoid stirring so that the sugar does not caramelize together and form large lumps.

3. Wait for the very edges of the sugar to become a light brown, before adding the butter in several small chunks around the pan, as this will take far less time for the butter to melt. Once the butter has melted stir the mixture together until it looks like a thick brown sauce. This indicates that it is time to add the potatoes. Place all of the potatoes into the mixture, and keep stirring them in the mixture until they are completely coated in the caramel sauce. Once all of the baby potatoes are thickly and evenly glazed in the rich caramel sauce, remove them from the pan and place them in a bowl, ready to serve for dinner or lunch.

These traditional Danish sweet potatoes make a perfect Christmas dinner or Lunch, and should be served with roast pork, or Danish meatballs (Frikadeller) and red cabbage. This simple recipe can be made by everyone, even children. And is a fun and easy way to make a delicious side for almost any large meal.

Birthday 2011

It was the monsters' birthday again. How time flies.


Blue Angry Bird!




Naughty Pig!




Pig and Angry Bird... Now I know why they fight all the time!



Small M four and Big M seven.




With cousins



Yummy chicken wing




Happy Birthday and love you kids....

Dried Shrimp Sambal

This is a recepi from my mother-in-law. I love it very much. I have tried other recipe before where there were garlic and tumeric added. However, my taste bud still prefer this one.

This recipe can easily be halfed. 500g of dried shrimps is a lot!

Ingredient
500g dried shrimp
8-9 stalk lemon grass (more if you like the aroma)
20 stalk dried chilli
15-20 shallot
Half cup oil
Sugar and salt to taste

1) Wash and soak the dried shrimp until clean and soft.
2) Blend the shrimp coarsely
3) Cut the lemon grass, chille and shallot to smaller pieces before blending it to a paste (water can be added a bit for easier blending)
4) Heat the oil in a wok before adding the paste.
5) Stir fry until aromatic before adding the dried shrimp.
6) Stir fry until aromatic.
7) Add sugar (I didn't count how many tablespoons, but it was quite a lot. This dish suppose to be sweet, salty and spicy)
8) Add salt to taste if needed (as the dried shrimp can be salty)

BAD lighting!

Butter Durian Cake

This recipe is from http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com. Purely for durian lovers only. If you are not that, stay far, far and farther away. Heavy duty staff... literally... I mean, with 250g durian, 250g butter and 250g flour...


Ingredients:
• 250g Mashed Durian Flesh (original was using 170g)
• 250g Butter
• 150g Castor Sugar (original was using 180g)
• 5 Eggs
• 240g Flour, sifted (Plain/All purpose)
• 2 teaspoon Baking Powder, sifted

How to do it:
1. Cream butter and sugar til light fluffy.
2. Add one egg at a time and continue beating.
3. Add in durian gradually and beat for 2 1/2 minutes.
4. Add in flour and baking powder.
5. Mix well.
6. Pour batter into a greased and lined 25cm X 25cam baking tray. ( I baked in 6' rectangle tin and muffin cups)
7. Bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or till cake is done (check using toothpick)


A real staff!

15 Minutes Cupcake

I was quite surprise as such a simple cupcake tastes pretty good. As I added chocolate chips to it, I reduced the sugar to 100g so it wont be too sweet. As for flour, I reduced it to 200g since there would be less sugar, therefore less liquid.

Recipe from http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
• 225g Self Raising Flour, sifted
• 130g Sugar
• 125g Butter, soften
• 3 Eggs, lightly beaten (I use AA eggs)
• 60ml Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

How to do it:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl.
3. Beat to combined.
4. Gradually add in the flour.
5. Beat well till mixture is smooth and pale.
6. Stir in chocolate chip, raisins, nuts, etc, if you like.
7. Spoon mixture into muffin cups.
8. Bake for 15 minutes till golden on top.
9. Cool on rack.

SImple and Good!

A Visit to National Science Centre in August 2011

The centre conduct activities during certain time of the day. If you plan to visit the centre, it is best to call them to confirm the activitie time. Otherwise, it would be like us. We reached there around 12.30pm where there was a break and most of the activities starts again at 2.30pm.

Tel:03-2089 3400

Their opening time is 9.00am to 5.oopm
Ticket priced at RM8.00 for adult and RM5.00 for children
(inclusive of dinosour exhibition.). The rate is cheaper if you do not want to include the dinasour exhibition)
Free entrance for children below 4 years old

Small M and dino



Big M and T-rex


Grasshopper U


Grasshopper Me


Print yourself!


Can you make this quick? You are wasting my time


Roar T-rex! ROAR!

Blueberry cake

This is another recipe from www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com

This is an extremely easy cake to make. Nothing fancy. Since it does not contain any butter and blueberry isn't exactly aromatic, it may lack certain 'strong charactor' in taste department.

Having said that, this cake got a charactor on its own. It is lighter in taste, bursting with blueberry goodness and best of all, it is healthy!

It was recommended to complement the cake with milk sauce (by combining some condensed milk and evaporated milk). However, since I still have the white chocolate sauce from the previous cake making, I used those instead... Delicious!


Ingredients A
3 eggs
1/2C sugar
1/2C oil

Put all of Ingredients A into a mixing bowl. Beat well with a whisk.
Ingredients B
1C flour
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
pinch of salt (I omitted it)

Add Ingredients B to the egg mixture. Mix well. I didn’t even sieve it all together….just add to the batter.

Ingredients C
350g frozen blueberries (I used around 200g)

Add the frozen blueberries (straight from freezer) to the cake batter.

Mix well and pour into a tin lined with baking paper.
Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes or when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool a few minutes. Cut and enjoy. It’s very delicious served hot or at room temperature.

White Chocolate Cake With White Chocolate Sauce

White Chocolate Cake With White Chocolate Sauce from www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com.

This cake is pretty heavy and rich. Couple it with the white chocolate sauce and it is sinful!. If you do not like the egg aroma, remember the add the vanilla essence.

Ingredients A
300g white chocolate
250g butter
1C milk
3/4C sugar
Put all Ingredients A in a pot and melt under low fire. Keep stirring. Turn off fire and let cool for a while.

Ingredients B
3 eggs
2t vanilla essence

Beat Ingredients B lightly. Add to the melted butter mixture. Mix well.

Ingredients C
1 & 3/4 C flour
1t baking powder

Sieve Ingredients C into the egg mixture above. Mix well. Pour into a baking-paper-lined tin and bake in a preheated oven of 160 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The time really depends on the depth of the tin that you use.

Ingredients D (chocolate sauce)
1/2C double cream
150g white chocolate

Put Ingredients D in a small pot and melt under low fire. Keep stirring. Turn off heat. Let it cool till warm and beat with a hand beater until thick.

Snap shots at Genting, Before the Annual Passport Expire!

16 July 2011

We are Happy! Why?...



Because we are at Genting Highland... again!


Merry Go Round


Fun Time with Cousins


Yay! I'm not afraid anymore!


With Xin Xin Che Che


Peace to Genting


Mom said I'm not big enough for this ride. Got to wait here.


Bye Genting, until next time...

Tapioca Egg Noodle

This is a recipe which was taught by my father. It has been around for generations I guessed. The noodle is just like any noodles, can be make into soup based or fried. Old M love it very much and this is the first time I make for the two monsters!

Tapioca Egg Noodle

600g tapioca flour
2tbsp flour
6 eggs
pinch of salt
water

Mixed flour and salt with water(flour dissolved but sticky)
Add in eggs and mixed well
Put one laddle into heated non stick pan or kuali(slightly covered with oil and moved the pan in circular motion to level up the mixture.
Repeat till all the batter being used.
Cut the cooked pancake into stripe and used it as noodle (can be used in either soup base or fried noodle)

Just like pancake


After being cut into stripe


For soup based, I used anchovies stock and some chicken. I shredded the chicken meat and added fish ball and chinese celery.

Traditional Steamed Egg Cake

This recipe is from http://blessedhomemaker.blogspot.com/search/label/Steam%20Cakes

One thing I like most about this recipe is that there is no oil in the ingredient. Not because I dont at oil but because I feel less guilty to slap on more butter before munching the cake! My taste bud really love the cake with butter spread over. For me it is like a beautiful combination. Somehow it doesn't taste that good when you add butter as the ingredient than spreading it across after the cake was done.



Traditional Sponge Cake
Ingredients
(A)
Egg : 200g (I use 4 extra large or AA eggs)
Sugar : 230g (I use 160g)

(B)
Hong Kong flour : 230g (can replace using Cake Flour)

(C)
7-up : 75g (or any fizzy drinks)


Method

Use high speed beat eggs till fluffy. Add in sugar gradually and continue beating till well- blended(until ribbon stage, meaning if you draw lines on the beaten eggs, it doesn't fade straight away)

Fold in the flour in 3 portions, alternating with 7-up. Stop once there is no flour streak visible

Pour mixture into 20cm round bamboo basket lined with glass paper till 90% full(I use Chinese wok to steam).

Sprinkle a handful of sugar such that it forms a cross on the surface of mixture (I omit this)

Steam over high heat for half an hour

Banana Cake

This is another recepi from kuali.com that I love so much! The cake turned up so well. Beautiful texture, spongy and the aroma.... Hmmm yummy...

Since I don't have lemon with me at the time, I used lime juice instead

Ingredients
175g butter
175g castor sugar (I reduced it to 150g)
4 egg yolks (I used large eggs)
1 cup well-mashed ripe bananas (add 1 tsp lemon juice when mashing)
235g self-raising flour, sifted
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted
4 egg whites
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind (I omitted this)

Note: I would probably try adding extra egg yolk or reduce the flour so that the cake would be less crumbly.


Method
Grease and flour a 21cm cake tin. Preheat oven at 170ºC. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add mashed bananas and beat well. Fold in sifted flour gradually. Beat egg white until stiff and stir into banana mixture. Add lemon juice and rind.

Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until cake is cooked. Cool cake in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Genting Highland

Ever since we bought Genting annual theme park pass, we have been bringing the two monsters there quite often.

Waiting to check-in to FIrst World Hotel.


Can we go down now? Please.....


The 2 monsters favorite rides... bumper cars. My guess is the next round we go to Genting Highland, Big M would have to go to adults bumper car already... either that or I find him a super duper thin shoes...





Yaey... (Small M don't dare to join)


Weeeee..... (Small M afraid...)


Yes! This is my ride...


Ferris wheel

Happy Mother's Day

Big M bought this for me.....




He bought this from a lady selling those flowers at the psdestrian bridge at his school. It cost him RM1.50 and he bought extra one for Small M so that Small M can give it to me too. Thank you two monsters!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mothers!

Butter Cake

I have been lazy (again) to update my blog. After using steaming method to make cakes, finally my oven is up and going again. So the fist cake that I baked was the extremely easy butter cake.

This recipe is from http://kuali.com/. This is one of the best butter cake recipe. It was moist, aromatic and best of all, it was so simple to make.


Ingredients
250g butter
210g castor sugar (I reduced it to 170g)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g self-raising flour, sifted with 1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp fresh UHT milk
Method
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with greased greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 170°C.

Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until mixture is light and fluffy. Add essence.

Fold in sifted flour gradually to mix. Finally stir in milk. Mix until well combined.

Turn out mixture into prepared tin. Level out mixture at the sides but allow a shallow well in the centre. This is to enable the cake to level up evenly during baking.

Bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.

The cake was finished in one day. Gosh! That was whole block of butter!

FAMOUS AMOS’ CHOCOLATE COOKIES RECIPE

FAMOUS AMOS’ CHOCOLATE COOKIES RECIPE

Recipe from http://www.thesuzette.com/2010/02/famous-amos-cookies/

This recipe produce aromatic and delicious chocolate chips cookies. It suppose to be chewy type but since I like my cookies crunchy, I do not roll it into balls. Instead, I just scooped it by the teaspoon and dropped it at the tray before flatten it a bit with the back of the spoon. The result, a crunchy chocolate chips cookies!

Ingredients
1 bar butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal, blended to powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
340g chocolate chips
250g Chocolate bar, grated
100g nuts (your choice), chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven at 190C
2. Cream the butter and both sugars
3. Add eggs and vanilla, mix evenly
4. Fold in flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.
5. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate bar and nuts. Mix well (I used my hands in a food grade plastic bag, as it is too thick for my mixer).
6. Roll into small balls (around 1 inch in diameter) and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet/tray.
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 190 C.

Nestum Cookies

Recipe from http://www.simpledishonline.info/?p=21.

This is a real treat for Nestum lovers. Buttery and full of Nestum flavour.

Ingredients:
250g Low Protein Flour
250g Pure Butter
120g Fine Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Cups of Nestum
2 teaspoon Vanilla Essense

Method:
Whisk the butter until fluffy. Then add sugar, eggs and Vanilla. Mix well. Next add the flour. Once the flour has been mixed well, add in the Nestum. Mix well again.

Roll them into a size of a tiny ball, depending how big you want your cookie and use the fork to press it down.

Bake them at 150′C for 8-10 mins depending on the size and thickness of the cookie.

My cookies weren't cook at 150'C for 10 minutes. Therefore I increased the degree to 175'C and baked for 10 minutes.

Sweet Crepe Batter

Recipe from http://www.therecessioncookbook.net/2009/05/paris-on-cheap-nutella-crepes.html#CrepeSeparator

What I did was stacked the crepes and spread each layer with a thin spread of Nutella. I topped it off with warmed diluted Nutella (double boiled 3 tablespoons of Nutella with 1 tablespoon of milk). This was so yummy! Next time I would add slice bananas to it.

I didn't rest the batter in the fridge as suggested (coz I couldn't wait that long). Therefore the surface of crepes were not smooth. But does ot matter when it was covered with Nutella?


SWEET CREPE BATTER


Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
Makes about 20 crêpes

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If you don't have a blender, whisk the eggs, milk, water, and vanilla together in a bowl until smooth. Add the flour and sugar and whisk to combine. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Strain the batter into another bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow all the air bubbles to settle.

Heat a small crêpe pan (or nonstick skillet) over medium high heat. Swirl 1 teaspoon of butter in the pan and add a small amount of batter to the pan--swirl the pan so that the batter evenly and thinly coats the bottom. Cook for about 30 seconds (until lightly browned) and flip. Cook for another 10-15 seconds and remove to a plate.

Continue cooking the rest of the batter, adding additional butter every third crêpe or so. Place the crêpes on a sheet tray and keep warm in a 225 degree F oven until ready to serve.

Cornflakes Cookies

Cornflakes Cookies from http://happeecooking.blogspot.com/2009/02/cornflakes-cookies.html

There are many cornflakes cookies recipe. I picked this one because it has milk powder in it. The result wasn't dissapointing. The cookies were cruncy and the milky taste was there. What I did was lessen the flour by one tablespoon and a increase the milk powder by one tablespoon. Next time I would probably add some pecan nut to it.

A word of caution, know your oven well! It seems like the cookies get burned easily. The first batch was not far from burnt when I baked for 25 minutes. The second batch was baked for 15 minutes and came out just nice.




Ingredients:
120g Butter
80g Icing sugar, sifted
1 Egg Yolk
1/2tsp Vanilla Essence
120g Flour, sifted
30g Cornflour, sifted
30g Milk Powder, sifted
100g Cornflakes
Method:
1. Cream butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and
vanilla.
2. Fold sifted flour mixture into butter mixture.
3. Drop mixture teaspoon by teaspoon onto the cornflakes.
4. Shape into balls and place into small coloured paper cups.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes till (I
baked for 15 minutes)
golden brown. When cool, store in air-tight container

Simple Steamed Carrot Cake.

I got this recipe from http://www.nibbledish.com/people/Joesze/recipes/modified-carrot-cake. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

It doesn't has the usual spiced aroma of carrot cake of course, but it is light, soft, and delicious in its own way.

What I did was turned it into cup cake and steam it for 15 minutes. The recipe below can make around 6 cupcakes. I continue by whipping up some cream cheese frosting and swirled it on top. Haha! So much for the healthy cake!

Yum yum...


Close-up



Ingredients
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar *
1/3 cup corn oil *
2 eggs *
1 cup shredded carrot *
1/2 cup raisins *
1 cup self-raising flour **
3/4 tsp salt **
I measured with drinking cup


How to make Modified Carrot Cake


STEAMED carrot cake WITHOUT cinnamon, baking powder, vanilla extract..& whatsoever ingredients u normally find in a carrot cake..this sounds a little funny, but suprisingly, it turned out well. Simple yet nice & healthy.

1st, mix all the ingredients marked with * until well-blended. Next, mix the ingredients marked with ** in a paper plate before adding slowly to the 1st mixture. Stir altogether & mix well. Pour into a cake pan & steam for about 35mins. Cut when cool.


Cream Cheese Frosting
250g Cream Cheese (room temperature)
100g-125g Butter (room temperature)
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Icing powder to your taste (I put in around 5 Tbsp, therefore not too sweet)

Using a mixer, creamed the cream cheese and butter until light.
Add in icing sugar until your desired sweetness

First day at School - Big M

Having spent 2-3years at kindy, and the 2 weeks tuition class in December, Big M do not have any problem in his official 1st day in Standard 1. He can fit right in and started playing with his new found friend.

Hahaha! just one incident. During the orientation one day before school starts, a teacher took the class around the school and parents waited at the classroom and fill up forms. When the group came back, all the chikdren were around except Big M. I asked the teacher 'Where is my son?"

Well, the teacher panicked and headed out to look for him. Luckily after a while, Big M saw me and walk towards me. Apparently, half way through the tour, he has joined other group!

Big M Orientation Day


Can you see me?

Small M First Day of School

First day of school for Small M. Yes, I have enrolled him into kindergarten year 4 at Tadika Wawasan Melody. He was full of anticipation that he couldn't wait for the school to start. He was the first one to enter the class.

First to arrive


Look at my bag and tumbler


While waiting for the class to start.


His excitement started to turn to fear when some other kids need to be peeled off from their parents and start screaming and crying their heart out.

He walked to the window and told me he wanted to go home, and started to make sure that I was within his sight. I felt that it was better for me to leave at that time. I told him I need to go to work and would come back for him soon. He waved me goodbye.

When I came back for him, He was sitting very quietly with his hankerchief in his hand and wipe his face when his tears tickle down. When he saw me he broke into visible cries...

Of course he told me he dont want to go to school anymore, but I managed to bribe him, saying that I would wait for him at home tomorrow and would bring him for ice-cream. It works and he say "Didi happy liow lor..." Hahaha!

Well, after the second day, he actually like going to school again, eventhough he told me he still cry a bit!

Fun Day at Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

A recent trip to my mother-in-law place in Kauntan. Brought the monster to Teluk Cempedak.

Lets dig!



I can dig too!


Deep enough?



Happy Me!


Hey! No water...


I am a lake monster hahaha...


Should have brought us here sooner!