More than a mouthful!

Bye bye!

2009-02-16T21:36:00.001+08:00

Hi Everyone!

Bye everyone! I've discovered an easier place to blog! Hopefully this will mean more blog entries!

Please continue to drop in at http://thefoodaffair.wordpress.com

Take care all!
Love, Liz

Korean Cuisine!

2009-01-11T16:15:00.003+08:00

Happy New Year to you! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

Perhaps it was the fact that I have started watching some Korean series again, but the first weekend I was back in Perth, I had a Korean cooking craving!!!

I love the Korean pancakes - and the little Korean restaurant on Barrack St, in Perth does it so well! It must be the best I have tasted. Anyway, I just bought the pancake mixture from the Chinese shop. But they ran out of the Korean one, so I had to make do with the Japanese mixture. It tasted pretty much the same, except it had a bit more of a dashi flavour to it. Everything was in Japanese. so I had to just guess how much water to put in!

Seasoned bean sprouts - chilled.

Tofu and Vegetable Bean Paste Stew - but I added in extra ingredients like seafood and seaweed. YUMMY!!!

I love this Korean vermicilli (spelling?!) - it is a bit thicker than the chinese one, and it has more of a chew to it. It doesnt break as easily as well! Lightly stir fried with minced beef and chinese vegetables.

Bibimbap

korean hot pepper chicken, fried egg (slightly runny inside) with the seasoned bean sprouts and slices of cucumber! Yummy!

Wishing you an awesome 2009!!! Have fun!!! :)

Strawberry Cupcakes!

2008-12-09T16:39:00.002+08:00

I must be in a cupcake crazy mode!!! :) Here are more cupcakes for you!!!

My favourite colour :)

These are strawberry cupcakes, with fresh chopped strawberries and margaret river strawberry jam folded into the batter. Topped with slightly sweetened whipped cream, with a touch of pink! And fresh strawberries to finish off!

I love my cupcake carrier! It's perfect to pack cookies, cakes and especially cupcakes! That was what always put me off about bringing cupcakes to friend's houses - unless you had a box high enough not to touch the frosting, all your hardwork would disappear!

Stay tuned for more yummy goodies this weekend... :))) I'm still thinking and can't choose what to bake and cook!

Hope you are all enjoying this festive season... :))) I love it, there's something very special in the air - and we're blessed this year, it has not hit the 40 degree mark that our Western Australia's Christmases usually have!

Rainbow Cupcakes!

2008-11-16T16:41:00.004+08:00

I must have been on a cupcake rampage for the past couple of weeks! I baked these kiddy totally colourful cupcakes last weekend for a friend's 2 and 4 year old daughters. They are SO cute... the girls I mean... :) I haven't got any photos of them with me, but these cupcakes totally match them, girly, cute, vibrant and energetic!

These were vanilla cupcakes with a white chocolate ganache (with a drop of colouring to make it this gorgeous pink!) and decorated with all things colourful! :)

The cupcakes had a nice fluffy texture, but I think the vanilla essence, together with the vanilla bean paste I used was a little over the top - then again, to each to its own!

Hope you have a great week ahead! :)

"Cool Bananas!"

2008-11-13T19:43:00.006+08:00

I know I know, it has been months since I last blogged! I've been around, just been rather slack about blogging and uploading pictures etc! Anyway, thought I would quickly write whilst my banana cupcakes/muffins are in the oven!

I love banana muffins - and today, I was craving banana bread! The place that does it really well, surprisingly is actually McCafe! A colleague and I would sometimes get a coffee and slice of banana bread as a Thursday morning treat. Well today, we didnt coordinate it, but boy was I craving it! Then I got told Cinos does a good banana bread too! The choices and dilema!!! Conclusion, I had a piece of honey butter multigrain toast and a cup of tea.

Why? I figured I should save the treat for tomorrow, since it's Friday! Well before I got to that conclusion, I was thinking banana bread vs saving $ vs lazy to walk there vs is it really a need or a want! Too many equations ended up with me having a toast and tea at work! (well now that I made this, Im not sure I can justify buying banana bread from someone else! HMMM!!! Perhaps will have to save it for Monday then, as a treat to kick off the week! Hahaha! :))

So, what is your Friday treat? Is it a bought lunch, a piece of chocolate, a drink at lunch or some nice banana bread and a good cup of coffee? :)

The smell of warm bananas is one of the nicest fragrance - I feel like bottling it up now! :) Makes a house a home!!! :)

Enjoy these banana cupcakes - they were made for a special someone!!! :)

Happy Fruits! Strawberries and Lychee!

2008-07-27T16:11:00.006+08:00

I love strawberries! Absolutely adore them! I think they are one of the happiest fruits on earth! If you could put an emotion on them - they would be radiating happiness! It must be something to do with their heart shape and their bright red colour! Whenever I see these punnets and punnets of strawberries - I cannot help but buy them! My hand just automatically reaches for a punnet of these happy fruits and it goes straight into my shopping basket!

Lately, they have been in season! Yay! I always thought they only turn up on our shelves in the summer months - or at least they are much more in abundance! The thing is - I dont always enjoy eating them... sometimes they can be kinda sour and that is an unfriendly feel :P Ok, I sound a bit odd here - :) But the punnet I bought on the weekend from Coles was absolutely perfect!!! Sweet, juicy, bright red and happy!

Came across this fantastic - my new favourite receipe - from a great blog! It is a Lychee butter cake with rose syrup cream and fresh strawberries. The texture was perfect - how do I describe it... the perfect buttery yellowy colour, light, fluffy yet not too airy - you got the feeling you were biting into a piece of good cake without feeling like you were consuming more air than cake!

May I suggest though that you follow the recipe - the second time I made it, I thought I would be more generous with the lychees - bad idea - cake turned out more like a Lychee mud cake :) But then again, if you prefer it more dense - perhaps that wouldnt be a bad idea then!

For the recipe - please check out this fantastic blog: http://www.dessertfirst.typepad.com/
She has some fantastic creations - I am amazed!!!

Enjoy!!!

(Food Photographer: Thanks for the photos, Gerard!)

Hey, blog is still alive!

2008-07-19T14:28:00.005+08:00

I know! It has been forever since I last blogged... I can't believe how fast time is flying, and now we are into the 2nd half of 2008!!! Hope you guys have all been doing well!

Well, I haven't had much time to bake lately (but tonight, I will be! Will blog it after! I'm really excited about this new recipe!) - I'm just starting to do further studies which will no doubt make me feel guilty to be in the kitchen or on the blog instead of into the books! Argg!!! Even now, I am procrastinating...!

Anyway, just wanted to say Hi! And to leave you some photos that I promised months ago to post - Adrian and I went to a lovely winery called Millbrook and here is the evidence of the place... Enjoy!

Millbrook Winery

Millbrook WineryOld Chestnut Lane

PO Box 48

Jarrahdale Western Australia 6124
Telephone: (+61 8) 9525 5796
Restaurant: (+61 8) 9525 5796
Facsimile: (+61 8) 9525 5672
Email: tastingroom@millbrookwinery.com.au
http://www.millbrookwinery.com.au/

Anzac Cookies!

2008-04-27T18:43:00.007+08:00

Everyone in Australia last weekend enjoyed a long weekend! It was ANZAC day (25 April)! So being occassional, I decided to make a couple of batches of these lovely golden syrup oat biscuits! It is honestly one of the easiest cookies ever to bake! Just mix with a wooden spoon! I followed the following recipe very closely but you could probably lower the sugar a little if you dont like the traditional anzac biscuit sweetness!

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
125g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift flour into a large bowl. Stir in oats, coconut and sugar.

Place butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until melted. Remove from heat. Combine bicarbonate of soda and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Stir into golden syrup mixture (mixture might become frothy). Add immediately to flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Roll mixture into balls (size depending how big you want it to be! I wanted mine small and thin, so basically about a teaspoon of mixture!).

Place biscuits on each baking tray. Flatten accordingly, allowing room for biscuits to spread.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until biscuits are golden.

Allow biscuits to cool completely on trays. Serve.

Notes & tips
You can store Anzac biscuits in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
These are crisp Anzac biscuits. If you prefer them chewy, flatten biscuits to 10cm (diameter) rounds and reduce cooking time by 1 to 2 minutes.

(Recipe taken from http://www.taste.com.au/)

A golden mass of yummy golden syrup, butter, oats and flour!!!

It is perfect eaten with a cup of tea or coffee! :) Hope you had a lovely long weekend! :)

90th Birthday!

2008-03-20T22:18:00.009+08:00

This is the 90th Birthday cake I was telling you about previously! Finally, all done! :) My colleague requested for a fruit cake, which is a great type of cake to cover - as the cake is solid which makes it easier to handle.

I covered it with rolled fondant, which is basically icing in a mouldable form. This can be purchased from specialist cake decorating shops. Rolling and getting the fondant was not at all easy! :)

Each rose petal was handmade with special sugar paste - this was started a few weeks before. This was a little tricky to do because to get this burgurdy colour, I had to use quite a bit of the liquid colouring, which made the paste very soft. So normally, you would cover it with cling wrap so that it doesnt dry up, but this time, I let it "air" a bit before rolling it out. You just have to adjust and be flexible, depending on how your paste feels! :)

The roses... up close and personal. I use three different types of ribbon to provide variety and different textures.

All in all, a great experience! Truly gives you a deeper appreciation of how much work and time goes into making such cakes! :)

2008-02-24T16:41:00.003+08:00

I know - I haven't blogged for awhile! Hope you guys are doing well! :) Well, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago - and it was a lovely one! *smiles* It's amazing how fast birthdays seem to come these days! I had a couple of lovely surprises and these new cookbooks *claps* are part of them! They were from thoughtful friends who gave them to me - I'm touched! :)

For years (and I dont think Im exaggerating!) I have been waiting to get my hands on Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" book. For some reason or another, I never got around to getting it. So as eager as a child that opens a block of chocolate, so was I with this book! Pages and pages of delicious desserts, treats that will no doubt widen your hips but, provide many many moments of pure delight, lay before me.

Each recipe is written with a lot of enthusiasm and fun! Now, I just need to decide which one to try!

Another sweet friend of mine gave me the above book - it was so thoughtful - it was the perfect addition to my cooking library! Gosh, talk about varieties of cookies, this one will create jars and jars of delicious crispy treats for all ages, tastebuds and moods! I can't wait to try them out!

***Small announcement!!!***
A couple of weeks ago, my colleague enquired if I would bake a Birthday cake for his grandmother who was turning 90. I couldn't believe I was actually getting a proper order!!!

It has been so fun so far - it's going to be a square cake for about 80 serves. They requested for a fruit cake, and I'm going to cover it with fondant and decorate it with roses and ribbon :) I'll post the photos up as soon as it is ready - it won't be for another month - but stay tuned!!! :)

More High Tea Goodies!!!

2008-02-05T20:45:00.000+08:00

I have started this post numerous number of times! I am determined to finish it tonight!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all! We are still within the 15 days of the CNY festival - so hopefully you guys all had a great CNY and lots of feasting!!! :)

For the high tea a couple of weekends ago - in addition to the cupcakes, I made pineapple tarts (above) and the durian puffs below. I dont like adding too many spices to the pineapple filling - I just used some clove. Be careful not to go crazy with this spice as a bit goes a long way! :)

Durian is a fruit that some may consider truly offensive. It is a sharp looking fruit that I am sure can do much damage should it drop on you! It is known as King of the Fruits (I think!) - the smell is rather unique - I am sure many have heard the many descriptions of its smell. It's flesh is creamy and yellow with a big brown seed.

To make the filling (outside is just choux pastry - which I made!) - just simply stir the fresh durian flesh through freshly whipped cream - and if you prefer it a little sweeter, you can swirl in some honey. Be careful not to swirl in too much honey as you dont want it to be a noticeable flavour. The star of this dessert is the durian!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all!!!

(p.s. Thanks to G for the photos!!!)

High Tea Cupcakes!

2008-02-02T22:23:00.000+08:00

Everytime I read through my cupcake books, I am so inspired. There is something so sweet and cute about a cupcake. It is your mini cake - minus the guilt - well, limited guilt anyway!

Last weekend, I had some friends over for a "High Tea" and everyone brought a plate or two of very yummy goodies to share around. Gosh there was an overload of food! But exactly what a high tea should be like!!!

Our resident photographer, G, took this really nice photo of my cupcakes! He honestly makes food look SO much yummier!!! Before I go into the actual cupcakes as well, we have to look at the cupcake stand.

I first laid my eyes on such a cupcake stand at this cafe at Garden City. I even went up to the lady to ask her where she had bought it from. Some shop in Perth, but I couldnt seem to find such a stand. I figured, perhaps it was not to be. But it was always at the back of my mind.

Over the recent holidays, I went over to Melbourne and... yes... it was meant TO BE! :) I found it!!! It was sitting proudly on one of the shelves in the "Let's Cook" shop and it was the last one left. An 18 cupcake holder stand. It was mine. I did not think of how I would have to take it with me to Tasmania, drag it to Hobart and Lauceston and then drag it back to Melbourne and then to Perth. Heart over head. It was honestly one of those purchases where you sigh and smile with relief. It was a great purchase! I know I sound kinda obsessive and a bit over the top, but for those who have purchased something they have been eyeing for, for a long time, you know what I mean! *grin and wink*

Ok, so to the pretty little things on the stand... I made 2 types - a Coffee and Walnut Cupcake and the Butterfly Cupcakes (Vanilla cupcakes) with Margaret River Raspberry Jam and Piped Fresh cream with half a Fresh Strawberry on the top! These were from the Crabapple cupcake book.

I love these cupcakes! The texture was fine. And I mean fine. Not lumpy, not heavy but fine and light! Apparently there was not enough coffee flavour though (probably because I didnt make the coffee icing to go with it!) but other than that, I liked the texture :) This recipe is for keeps!

Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

(ps. There will be more High Tea entries happening soon....)

Elephant Pancakes anyone???

2008-01-09T18:10:00.000+08:00

I thought I would share with you one of the more interesting name places we ate at during our Melb/Tasmanian holiday! This place was called "Mount Elephant Pancakes" (see http://www.mount-elephant-pancakes.com.au/ for more details) - and the restaurant is in this old cottage.

The name of this place is very catchy and makes it sound like you went to a really weird/different place! I was thinking if only they had real elephants in their gardens, now how cool would that be!!! But I checked - no elephants in sight at all!!!

We actually ate pancakes that were more like crepes! Very yummy and fairly big portions. It was a very nice holiday feel to it, as the cottage was surrounded by greenery.

This was their mixed berry (strawberry + raspberry) and banana pancake, with cream and ice cream on the side.

This was their chocolate and banana pancake - this is one of the best combinations when baking cakes or muffins - yummo!

A very homely feel to it - a very comfortable place to have breakfast at! We went to the original one - which was on the east coast of Tasmania - they have another branch in the city of Launceston.

By the time we left the place about 10.30/11am, many more cars were pulling up into the carpark and the place started getting packed out! Visit this place if you're in the area next time! *wink*

The Cupcake Craze has started.....

2008-01-05T22:53:00.000+08:00

Yes it has started! I was determined to start this, after studying, analysing and reading and flipping my cupcake book that I received for Christmas! So many lovely cupcakes, so many yummy toppings, so which should I choose?!

Sitting on my kitchen top right now are 12 "Blueberry, Almond and Yoghurt Cupcakes" - but the title of it was "No fuss" cupcakes - which is so true. No mixer needed, just mix. I always have my doubts when recipes seem too easy - I doubt its result. It's cooling in my very cute, pastel coloured cupcake cases at the moment. I went crazy and bought so many cupcake cases - I couldnt decide which ones, so I bought them all, and since it is hard to get hold of pretty cases, I figured it was a "long term investment" :P

These cases are Robert Gordon cases that I bought from "Let's Cook" in Melbourne, the equivalent of the "House" cooking shop in Perth.

I got home at about 10.30pm and started in the kitchen, and it was in the oven by about 11pm. And I used minimal equipment - so it really is "no fuss". Original recipe asked for Raspberry but I used Blueberry instead - raspberries are often too sour!

I'm going to have a quick taste now, so I can let you know what it tastes like!!! :)

Verdict: YUM!!! Super moist and I love the delicate, subtle grainy texture of the almond meal in the mixture. Each cupcake was bursting with blueberries as well, and the yoghurt enhanced it's smooth and moist texture. I am starting to believe in these "no fuss" recipes!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T22:05:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy & Blessed New Year to you!!! :) Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, feasting and enjoying great family moments and also a great New Year's - with new resolutions or perhaps rolled over resolutions! :)

I was away in Melbourne and Tasmania over the Christmas Break - so didnt get a chance to do a full Christmas Feast but we did have a small one in our serviced apartment which was nice! I love the Christmas period - it's such a happy period and I have to say, I LOVE the decorations, the hundreds of cooking and baking Christmas ideas! I need two christmases in a year!!! I felt Christmas came WAY too fast this year - I still want to do a full roast, pudding and everything!

Anyway, a group of us organised a very nice, civilised and proper Christmas dinner (big thanks to the host and everyone who was there! It was so nice!) - and I brought dessert. After thinking literally for probably a couple of weeks at least, I decided on a Christmas Truffle bouquet. This was inspired by Su Yin from "The Journal of a Girl who loves to cook" - check out her fantastic blog at http://www.cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/.

After lots of curling of ribbon, twirling of chocolate, rolling of truffle balls, drizzling of chocolate to make designs, rolling in crushed hazelnut... this was the result...!!!

To my surprise, if you actually google truffles, there are lots of recipes out there but basically this one was biscuits of your choice + cream cheese - and basically blend. Su actually demonstrates it very well in her blog, so do check it out there! I made the following flavours:

Mint Slice
Double chocolate Tim Tam with a hint of Rum
Hazelnut biscuits with a whole hazelnut in the truffle

I had so much fun doing this eatible bouquet arrangement!!! Thanks so much to Adrian who helped me out lots with this! My friends loved it, which made it all worth it!!! :)

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and may your year be extra special and blessed!!! :)

Stay tuned for more yummy photos - I am SO inspired to bake and cook and decorate even more this year!!! :)

Cake anyone?

2007-12-22T19:27:00.000+08:00

Finally... this is the result of my 7 week cake decorating course! So, what do you think??? :) Underneath the fondant is a rich fruit cake - which we are eagerly waiting to try but that means cutting the cake - which means have to take this cake apart! This cake is still sitting on my dining table - not sure for how much longer though! :)

I have to say I was very pleased with it and to my delight and definitely I felt very encouraged, I had friends placing advance "orders" for their future wedding cakes!!! :) Hahaha! Not sure if I'm ready for that huge step - especially imagine doing your friends' cakes - the pressure you would put on yourself!!! :)

These sugar roses are definitely the star of the cake - the end result of the cake definitely made all the hard work of moulding each and every petal so worthwhile! :)

This is likely to be my entry for 2007 - so just wanted to say thank you to all those who have read my blog this year - and I hope to entertain your tastebuds more in the New Year! (I am also intending to go for Level 2 cake class - stay tuned for more amazing sights... I have been promised...)

Have a blessed Christmas everyone and a fantastic and joy filled New Year!!!

Love, Elizabeth

Cake decorating classes!

2007-12-04T21:46:00.000+08:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been eagerly waiting for the time and opportunity to enrol in a cake decorating class! and the time has finally come! Now that CA has been completed and done (praise God!!!), I can start these cake classes :)

This week will actually be Week 5 of the course - there are 7 weeks per level (I just havet got round to blogging earlier!) This is Level 1.

Above is a bear that we made out of icing :))) Cute huh!!! :)

It has been really fun - we have been taught to make sugar roses - made out of fondant and let me tell you - it is hard work!!! No wonder wedding cakes can cost thousands of dollars! I will never look at a wedding cake in the same way again. I love the end result though - at the moment, our class is struggling to find the motivation to make these roses as they are so delicate and time consuming. But they are so pretty!!!

Last week, we were taught to ice kids' birthday cakes! So here is Elmo. Apparently there was something not quite right with the texture of the cream (to do with the manufacturer) so the cream was a little softer than usual (hence the white parts appear a little "wobbley"!) and didnt seem to absorb the colours as it normally does! But here is Elmo - a mud cake Elmo cake :)

There's 5 levels to these classes, and I'm already thinking of signing up for Level 2 in 2008 :) The classes are fun and the teacher is fantastic!!! Whilst it is definitely hard work and I dont think I will go into this full time, it is nice to have a new hobby and learn an extra skill!!! :)

Breakfast in Leederville!

2007-12-01T10:24:00.000+08:00

Good morning all!!!

There is something exciting about breakfasts.... I don't deny it is a pain to roll out of bed in the morning, and you may even question yourself why you promised your friend to meet for breakfast on a Saturday morning when all you want to do right now is sleep in!!! This is usually what goes on in my head in the morning, but I never ever regret rolling out of bed and getting ready for a proper breakfast (out of the house).

A few weekends ago, we went to Cafe Villa for breakfast. This is quite THE place to be for breakfast - it was pretty crowded, the aroma of coffee was in the air, and attractive breakfast food was being served to tables.

What's also great about this place is that it serves breakfast all day - so if you wanna have a bit of a sleep in and still grab breakfast, you've got it! :)

I had their famous Eggs hollandaise, yep pretty nice... the muffin was toasted to perfection, had a bit of a crunch yet still soft. Recommended (although have you tried the eggs hollandaise at Dome? Now, that's really nice too). I can't remember how much it was... I think $15-$16.

Adrian had the omelette with duck :) Interesting hey!!! I think we thought the egg was a little on the dry side, but it was definitely something different! I can't remember the exact price but it was probably around about the same price as the eggs.

And... an added bonus... if you have the entertainment card, it is 25% off!

Hope you had a great breakfast this Saturday morning - or made up for it by having a good sleep in.... I did! :))

Pandan Panna Cotta!

2007-11-20T20:51:00.000+08:00

As I was thinking what to call this blog entry, I contemplated "Green with Guilt" but then I thought, is guilt green? No jealousy is green... so anyway I thought as well that is perhaps not such a nice title for a lovely dessert! Although honestly this is quite the guilty dessert to consume!

I made these individual pandan panna cottas for a potbless we went to a couple of weekends ago! :) I stumbled upon this recipe from "Smell & Taste are my memory"'s blog (http://jinhooi.blogspot.com/) - and thought it was a great asian twist to a traditional western dessert! Check out the blog for the receipe :)

It worked out well - however the only difficulty is finding the gelatine sheets - Adrian found some from me from a chef friend of his! This is a rich, extremely creamy dessert and the pandan hint is just perfect :) I loved that the colours separated a tiny bit at the moment (somehow it just happened!)

I drizzled some coconut milk for the colour contrast, and decorated it with half a fresh strawberry and some coconut husk pieces (sold in most Asian grocery shops).

[p.s. Big thanks to G for the photos!]

Taiwanese Cakes!

2007-11-12T17:53:00.001+08:00

The bubbletea craze that originated in Taiwan in perhaps the early 21th Century has not only toured Asia, but also Australia! There are a couple of popular joints in Perth that asians can get a taste of being in Asia.

One of the more popular, and older chains called "Utopia" recently opened up in the Myaree area. I have to admit, it's actually pretty okay. They serve bubble tea and these really cute cakes! And they have Karoke (Im not one for singing but a lot of asians do like it!).

For those from Asia who are homesick, you should come here! Not only can you purchase these asian delights (which have a selection of green tea, taro (yam) delights), you can get your favourite bubbletea (try the red bean sago - it's different - a huge sago with one bean inside!) and you are "blasted" with asian music.

The above dessert (left) is the Mango mousse with the rice cake skin - it's a good concept. Outside is this sticky, elastic pastry (which is meant to be mango I suspect but doesnt really taste like it!) and inside is layers of mango mousse and chocolate sponge. Separately they are all probably good, but a combination of them in a mouthful is kinda weird. Your tastebuds are not exactly sure where to start from. I think its about $3.50

The dessert above (right) is actually quite pleasant. A very light sponge, very prettily decorated (although I kinda think it is weird to use parsley as part of a cake decoration) and layers of cream and fruit. Well presented for $3.50.

Left - this is the green tea bun with a red bean paste inside. Not bad. $1.80 - I like the asian breads, they are a little different to the western ones in that they are softer and have a bit more flavour to it - usually have a hint of sweetness to it.

Right - again, a green tea swirl with a thick green tea paste. Not bad. $2.20

The cakes are packed in this cute little box for you to take away!

Oh and one great thing about this place is that they are open till 12am on weeknights and weekends till 2am. An additional place you can add to your list of hang out spots should your local cafe close its doors on you! :)

Cooking catch up! From Japanese to Western!

2007-11-12T16:51:00.000+08:00

I'm going to be making up for my blogging absence of recent times! :) Hence the double entries in one night!!!

Last weekend was full on cooking *claps*! I had some of my old girlfriends over for dinner, and what's really unique about our bunch is that

1) we never fail to arrive late,
2) never fail to COOK AMAZING food
3) Always cook enough to feed an army,
4) have more courses than people at dinner :)

We always have way too much food but that's what I love about it - everyone seems to always be able to throw something tog really quite amazing! The theme was "Japanese" - see pictures below.

On Sunday (the same weekend), our cell had a BBQ. Adrian and I made a roasted vegetable, with bacon and chorizo pasta salad. It was really yummy! Really easy - literally chop the eggplant, pumpkin, and cherry tomatoes and the fetta cheese, season and drizzle with oil, bake in the oven. Cook the pasta will al dente, and toss the roasted veggies with the baby spinach and olives. Best eaten chilled. Especially with a BBQ.

Okay - this was dessert on Saturday night. I LOVE strawberries... I saw a huge pile of them at the shops yesterday and that made me happy. Bizarre but true. It's just so sweet, so nice... hard to describe *sigh with happiness* I'm going to try and make full use of the strawberry season!!! See future entries :)

This is one of my latest favourite crowd pleaser and also chef pleaser desserts! Why? Because it is so simple to do and looks fantastic! Just melt some chocolate in the microwave (Warning: be extreme careful and watchful as you do this - otherwise you may set your smoke alarm off!) and dip the strawberries in, place them on baking paper and chill them.

I hadnt made this in ages... but now I remember why I like cooking it! It is fast to cook, tasty and really quite healthy! (besides the salt content :P) because you dont use oil at all. I think the proper name is Oyaku Don - the non-katsu version.

Don't overcook the egg - pour it over at the last minute, let it cook for a couple of minutes, till the edges start to cook, turn off the heat and cover for a few minutes then serve immediately on top of japanese rice.

Gyoza! Japanese dumplings! I am so grateful to this japanese book for teaching me in simple terms how to fold these dumplings. I have never been good at folding but I think this method (although not visible here) was good - take a piece of pastry and put in a bit of the meat filling, fold it over and wet the edges to seal the dumpling, and then crimp/fold the edges to form a fan shape.

Okay that's about it for now! Hope you all are doing well! I will blog again soon - I do have quite a few entries more to go!!!

Have a great week - those in Perth, hope you did not melt in today's 39 degree heat!!!

Wedding Bells Again!!!

2007-11-11T22:15:00.000+08:00

Yes wedding bells again! Infact 2 more wedding bells!!! My good friend Cheryl got married over a month ago - I was honoured to be her maid of honour! :) It was so much fun! We had a lovely time before and during the wedding. I took a day off during the week leading up to the wedding, and we went to this lovely spa place in Observation City Hotel - called Vanilla Spa. We had the Vanilla slice package! Wow what a treat!!! We then went to Trigg Cafe for lunch - I have heard so much about it, and did it meet expectation? Well the view was amazing - and unlike Cottesloe, it was "untouched" - it wasn't touristy and didnt have heaps of shops or anything around it. Will blog about it next!

Anyway, back to the wedding! The day was fun! It was tiring - I can't imagine how tired Cheryl and Michael must have been! but hey I was so glad and honoured to be a part of their special day. I couldnt imagine a better way to have spent a day with such a good friend!

Check out the photos below... :)

Mirrin and I

Me, Cheryl and Mirrin

Cheryl's lovely bouquet!!!
I was SO delighted to have my own fresh bouquet! :)

Edwina, Holly, me and Sasha! UWA Uni mates! :)

So what's the OTHER wedding bell??? I'm going to be Bridesmaid again!!! Yay!!! For a really good friend - Eehui! Remember my gardening, rose farm and weeding buddy? Yep I'm going to be part of another wedding in 2008! Stay tuned!!! :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and stay COOL! It's going to be 39 degrees tomorrow (Monday) in Perth, Western Australia!

(p.s. I made a couple of new things over the weekend - will blog them soon!!!)

Lamb Cutlets & Creamy Pasta!

2007-10-29T09:30:00.000+08:00

A couple of weekends ago, for the first time, I cooked lamb cutlets! I have never cooked lamb before... I'm not sure whether it is an asian thing, but we were never really brought up to eat much beef or lamb - we ate pork or chicken much more! Asian people often think lamb and beef have a "smell". Anyhow, these cutlets were easy to cook! You should try it sometime!

Taken from Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, he suggested to marinate the cutlets with olive oil and thyme leaves (I added in some garlic myself :P) and then for medium cooked lamb, 3mins on each side. Talk about accurate! The cutlets came out just right! :)

The recipe also suggested field mushrooms which I chucked dry over the pan to heat it up and then once warm to put it into the bowl, which the cutlets went into when cooked and to squeeze lemon juice (weird you might think but it was an excellent touch! Probably took away any potential "lamby smell"!), swirl some olive oil and to season with salt and cracked pepper.

To accompany the cutlets, I made a creamy garlic, mushroom and spinach seeded mustard pasta! Yummy! I received an excellent review from my dinner partner! Haha! :)

Hummingbird Cake!

2007-10-28T10:21:00.001+08:00

This is called a Hummingbird Cake! Huh you might say?! Where is the bird?! No bird... just some yummy cake! I'm still not sure why it is called a Hummingbird cake - since there are no seeds or any bird related ingredient!!!

A colleague at work brought in a cake his wife baked - and it was YUMMO! He was so sweet, totally promoting his wife's cake and he was right - it was lovely! A very nice home baked type of cake - the ones that make you feel totally comfortable as you take a huge bite out of it! It's a very homely type of cake, and the beauty of it is that it is SO simple to bake. The ingredients are banana, crushed pineapple and chopped up walnuts. I always have my doubts when a recipe is too easy - esp with desserts - so I decided to give this a go! They were right - this one was literally throw everything in the mixing bowl, do a few swirls and DONE! :) and it worked!!!

It was a heavy dense type of "afternoon tea with a good friend and cup of tea" type of cake! :) It was a very satisfying bake! :) The cake rose perfectly and ahhhh.... talk about a wholesome type of cake!

Talking about cakes - I am starting cake decorating classes this Thursday for 7 weeks - so I'll try to post some pictures up! I have been waiting for YEARS to do this - super excited! :) Let's see if it's everything I've imagined it to be! :) Hope you are all doing well - drop me a line sometime! :)

I'm back! - with a little Japan!

2007-10-25T20:29:00.000+08:00

Hihiii!!!

I'm back! Well I have heaps of entries, so stay tuned... although I might appear to have been MIA - I have lots of pictures to post and things to write about, so thank you for being patient! And thank you to all those who have asked where I have been! Hope you all have been doing well!

Okay a few entries ago, I mentioned that I had something a little Japanese to post! (sorry title may be a little misleading... I didnt go to Japan :P)

So here it is... green tea cookies! Have you ever felt that green tea tastes like fish food? It's bizarre, but it actually tastes like the smell of fish food! The odd thing is that I still eat green tea stuff! By the way, Baskins and Robins has some great green tea ice-cream!

Anyway these cookies were a little different - I was a little too generous with the matcha (green tea powder). This cookie had a bit of a different texture - it isn't crispy and light like choc chip cookies, in fact it felt a little denser but still a nice change! And it's green! Try it for a change!

Receipe courtesy of this fantastic food blog called "Lovescool" : http://www.lovescool.com/

Green Tea Sweets

Ingredients
Yield (2” leaf shape): Approx 25

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 TBS Matcha (powdered green tea)
1 cup Granulated sugar (for coating)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color.
Add the flour and mix until well combined.
Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.
Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes).
Roll the dough out to ½” thickness.
Cut the dough with a leaf cookie cutter.
Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat.
Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

First Day of Spring!

2007-09-02T18:03:00.001+08:00

After recently acquiring the "gift" of flowers, gardening and even weed appreciation, a trip to the Araluen tulip festival was indeed on the list of "Things to do".

Many many years ago, my family made a trip to Araluen, but I think I was obviously young and immature and did not appreciate nature and must have declined the trip. I think. I wasn't in any of the family photos. I suspect I was in that stage of life where a trip to a park to me was just a larger version of my backyard was not how I wanted to spend an afternoon.

However, now obviously a lot more matured *ahem*, and with much influence from my friend EH, who has taught me to become friends with my garden rather than the enemy, I looked forward to checking out the tulips!

We arrived at about 930am on Saturday morning, and the air was crisp, a little chilly but extremely fresh. You could almost taste the clean air! :) There were these people that must be keen photographers out with their huge cameras... G, you could have been one of them! :P

Anyway, check out the tulips below - the festival runs till the end of Sept, so be quick and make a trip up there! The bright pink tulips were my favourite...! The tearoom at the Araluen Park is really nice too - it's an old wooden house, up in the hill... ahhh homely kinda cool! :)

There is also a tearoom and potted tulip place on Croyden Rd on the way to the Araluen Park where we stopped on the way back to buy a few tulip plants (*Note: Araluen Park doesn't actually sell tulips) Unfortunately, they did not have any of these pink ones, but I bought 2 red ones for Mum (oh my gosh, they are amazing.... I am not sure whether I love roses or tulips more now!) and an orange and yellow one for EH :)

Make a trip there within the next month if you have the time! It's only about 45mins away from Perth, a quick getaway and you get to enjoy Spring in its truest form!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Ooohhhh.... cherry blossoms.... and we didnt even have to go to Japan!!! :) This is such a pretty tree!!!

(http://www.araluenbotanicpark.com.au/)

(P.S. sorry no food pictures this weekend!)

The Harvest, North Fremantle

2007-08-27T12:50:00.000+08:00

This is ONE great restaurant you should visit! As you can tell, it is a "house" restaurant, located in North Fremantle, in a location that could be easily missed (we almost did!). However, do not let the looks of this house deceive you, because behind the doors a cosy, homely dining experience awaits you!

This is "The Harvest", a very cosy, personal restaurant in North Fremantle.... the minute you step into this place you know you're going to have a great time! They had really nice funky type of music, and the place was buzzing! We went there for breakfast on a Saturday morning (quite a few weeks ago! This is a very overdue entry!) and no bookings were allowed, but we took the chance.

The door is old - infact you might have thought this was one of those unkempt houses, but once you open it, it's a whole other world! The walls are lined with flowery wall paper, coffee aroma and the happy clinking of utensils. We had to wait for a bit, and they have these large homely leather sofas for us to sit on. Wooden floor boards, bold coloured walls and funky music.

Scrambled eggs and salmon on toast, with little bits of shaved truffles

"The Harvest" - instead of hashbrowns, they served cubed roasted potatos

Waffles with stewed pears and very decadent chocolate mousse.

Unfortunately, the food for its price was not as fantastic as the actual restaurant's atmosphere itself. It was rather pricy for the quantity, and taste wise, it was nice, but nothing I would really rave about. However, I would recommend this place just for its atmosphere and the coffees were served really fast, and the service was pretty good too. They do open for lunch and dinner too, I would like to go back and try that!

(Photos courtesty of G - many thanks!!!)

The Harvest
1 Harvest Road
North Fremantle WA 6159
Phone: (08) 9336 1831

Chorizo Pasta & Caesar Salad!

2007-08-26T17:43:00.000+08:00

Despite it being a weeknight, I just could not resist cooking! Had some friends over for dinner, and we said that we would just do a takeaway because we work and there would be no time to cook.... but as the dinner day came closer, I couldnt resist a chance @ cooking! So whilst this is nothing fancy, it is pretty delicious, wholesome and a great winter comfort dish!

Chorizo sausages, olives, semi-sun dried tomatos, fresh basil, cans of tomatos, fresh garlic and onion and pasta! Honestly, that's it! You basically fry up the garlic and onion with the sausages, add in the cans of tomatos, season to taste and chuck in the fresh basil and the al dente pasta! Mix all together and serve! This is a great combination - lots of different bits to eat in one mouth full!

Caesar salad - tossed to perfection by Shona! :)

I just found a new recipe I'm dying to try out - so I shall attempt to do it this weekend, will keep you in suspense for now...:P and a couple of outstanding restaurant reviews will be coming up soon too.... Have a great week all!!! :)

"Man" Biscuits!

2007-08-26T11:52:00.000+08:00

Now you boys can bravely eat these Pocky sticks! We figured it must be "men" biscuits because it was a dark chocolate pocky stick! haha!

And boys, incase you wanted some advice, wisdom and encouragement.... turn to Pocky! :P

Melt & Mix Mud Cake!

2007-08-26T11:38:00.000+08:00

You know those days where you feel like eating a real cake (ie not from a cake mix!) but yet you want it to be as easy as a cake mix? Well I had that feeling this weekend! I miss the kitchen... I feel like I haven't been in it much!!! And one of the best things in life is a rich smelling cake baking in your oven!

I found this recipe "Melt & Mix Mud Cake" from www.taste.com, which is a fantastic website for pretty easy recipes and they have a million chocolate and pasta recipes! I liked it because you literally just melted and mixed the ingredients, stirred it and put it in the oven! I have doubts on such recipes at times, but this one really did prove me wrong! It is a COMFORT cake! Rich and friendly! But on happy days, well, it can just make your day that bit better! :)

Ingredients (serves 8) (Thanks to www.taste.com.au)

200g butter, chopped
300g good-quality dark chocolate
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self-raising flour
pure icing sugar, to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) round cake pan. Line with baking paper.
Place butter, 200g chopped chocolate and hot water in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH (100%) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, or until smooth. Add cocoa to warm chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, caster sugar and egg. Sift flour over chocolate mixture. Stir gently to combine.
Pour half the batter into cake pan. Chop remaining chocolate and sprinkle half over batter. Top with remaining batter and chopped chocolate. Bake cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.
Allow cake to cool completely in pan. Remove and dust with icing sugar. Serve.

It's crusty on the top and sizes, and inside the cake literally melts in your mouth... crumbly but soft and moist - for max. taste and cake experience, put it in the microwave for about 10s to soften it and honestly, with a cup of tea or coffee, you will add this to your list of blessings!!! :)

Happy weekend all! :)

Blueberry filo tarts!

2007-08-19T20:31:00.001+08:00

Hello hello hello! Very strange, but I havent been cooking much in the past couple of weeks... life seems to have got busy! However, my mind hasn't been too far from the kitchen!

Yesterday, I learnt a new skill - weeding. I almost wanted to cry looking at it, but thank God my very very very good friend EH helped me out (this is self sacrificing... weeding on the weekend...:P) - she probably did more of the weeding than me... it was hilarious though on reflection! 2 asian girls wrestling with the weeds (and Im not exaggerating here!!!) and even wondering which were the weeds and the plants! Sometimes you couldnt tell! So although I will never love weeding, I'm glad to have learnt something new, and EH's advice: when you see a small weed, PULL IT OUT STRAIGHTAWAY!!!

Before weeding, we baked a New York Cheesecake! I havent got any pictures, but apparently it was nice! There was lemon and orange zest in the cheese mixture, and we used Arnott's Nice biscuits and butter as the base!

Okay, back to the Blueberry Filo Tarts (taken from Donna Hay's Aug/Sept 2007 Issue) - original recipe asked for fresh strawberries, but as I didnt have any, I used blueberries instead and they were really quite nice! Filo is an interesting pastry... it reminds me of the spring roll pastry... pretty dry, thin and very very delicate!

The mixture was almond meal, butter and caster sugar and an egg yolk! Mixed together and served in the centre of the filo pastry, topped with some blueberries. Baked in the oven for about 8-10 mins and you have this very simple, fairly quick (although a little fidley!) dessert! The filo pastry was so crisp! Yum yum!!! :)

Pretty Wedding Cupcake!

2007-08-16T20:28:00.000+08:00

The latest craze in Wedding cakes seem to be these cutely decorated individual cupcakes!!! Isn't this SO cute! I was flipping through some wedding cake magazines and my my, the cakes are gorgeous! No wonder they can cost several hundred dollars! Anyway, it does seem these cupcakes are quite the craze! Tiers and tiers of cupcakes!!! Ahhh!!! :)

My parents recently went to an old friend's son's wedding and the above was their cake! Each guest had one of these cuties to take home! We could hardly bring ourselves to eat it! :)

Chocolate tasting plate!

2007-07-30T21:22:00.000+08:00

So this is how the chocolate tasting plate turned out! I need to work on my creative presentatio of food I reckon! It looked a little too "proper"/"too straight"! Anyhow, the most interesting was the chocolate brulee - as I got to use the blowtorch to caramelise the top - you can't really tell from here as this was the "before" shot - however I think I shall have to practice as even when I used it, there was a thin layer of hardened sugar but it wasn't brown - I think I needed to sprinkle on more sugar and maybe I needed to burn it more! Anyhow who knows the technique, please let me know! :P

The brulee wasn't too bad - but not smooth enough despite being sieved through a muslin cloth! :((( The flavour was really nice and chocolatey!

Chocolate tart - oh my... the chocolate is really every chocolate lover's dream... it was just full of chocolate goodness.. and very smooth too... the pampus pastry was a little odd this time though, it seemed to take forever to heat up!!! :P

Enjoy a piece of a chocolate or chocolate in some form this week! A bit of chocolate can work wonders!!! :)

Crazy about chocolate!

2007-07-28T22:48:00.000+08:00

You know the feeling when you suddenly find some money somewhere you never expected? The feeling of "yay! hooray"??? Well, a few nights ago, I was just shifting some stuff around in my room and guess what I found? Yes a Chocolate "bible"! I had forgotten I had bought this recipe book that was just on chocolates... every dessert and cake had chocolate in it, and even had some savoury sauces that had chocolate as an ingredient! It is a GORGEOUS book...... really, your mouth can water just looking at the pictures... the question was, where do I start???!!!

I have this dinner tomorrow night with some friends, and after days of thinking of what to cook, I decided I would make nasi lamak, but really I felt that perhaps I should make some sago, or almond jelly as dessert as it would go with the asian/malaysian theme... but once the discovery of this book came, all thoughts of sticking to the theme was abandoned!

Some weeks ago, maybe even a couple of months, I went to this most beautiful restaurant... which will be blogged in the weeks to come, and they served a terrific chocolate tasting plate. O very quickly, talking about tasting plates, another chocolate tasting plate that Cheryl and I had at the Globe Bar and Restaurant (which by the way is a finalist or has won some award according to The West on friday) which is in the Hilton Hotel... oh that was BAD... we figured the quality of chocolate must have been so out of our league that we could not comprehend the flavours... it is really with regret that I say this, as the restaurant is pretty funky and the atmosphere is nice, and our main courses were good (but small portion as such places would have it!), and I love the wooden floors... but really, the chocolate tasting plate was just really errmm... not at all chocolate tasting!

So in order to provide something interesting for my friends tomorrow night, and also for my own kitchen entertainment, I've decided to put together my own version of a chocolate tasting plate! (I thought about the different texture combinations... it had to range from smooth and creamy, to cake like to thick and rich...)

So here's the menu for dessert:

1) Brownies with almond cream cheese (as per the pictures)
- This is definitely different! The cream cheese is slightly on the sweet side, but with a cup of tea or coffee it would just hit the spot! The almond made it feel a little like marzipan, and whilst this may put people off, I would say, give the brownie a chance - there is something quite pleasant and classy about this combination! And looks gorgeous too!

2) Chocolate brulee
- As I type, this is sitting in the kitchen, cooling... and will be chilled and tomorrow will sprinkle some caster sugar over the top and grill it or use my gas torch :)

3) Chocolate Tarts
- The recipe looks excellent, requires no refrigeration and I will use Pampus' shortcrust pastry :) Fast and delicious!

I will blog the other pictures soon!!! And stay turned for a funky North Fremantle breakfast review soon! :)

I am way too distracted for my own good..... why do my accounting notes not appear as delicious?!!! :)))

Hope you all had a nice weekend!!! :)

Winter Warmers - Asian Style! :)

2007-07-24T21:30:00.000+08:00

The forecast for the past week and the week coming up is WINTER all over... words like rainy, showers, storm, wind, rain and more rain are on every weather forecast... miserable? Actually no! I like this weather - it is the perfect excuse to stay @ home, perfect DVD/watching TV/korean series type of weather, and there is this very cosy feeling when you're indoors, warm and the sound of rain outside...

My mum occassionally asks me what should she cook for dinner... I guess after 20+ years of cooking, you would almost run out of ideas! So with winter weather upon us, I thought of making braised beef and throw that over rice flour noodles (or otherwise known as kway teow) - it is one of my favourite lunch time dishes and I always order this when I have lunch @ Chi... so here it is... and despite some nervous moments, my family gave it the thumbs up tonight! Yay!!!

Fry up lots of sliced ginger, sliced garlic, spring onions in a bit of oil, the 5 star anise and cinnamon stick, then throw in the beef pieces and then throw in 1/2 cup of light soya sauce (for about 1kg of meat) - sounds like a lot of soya sauce and I would suggest going easy on this if you're not having this over noodles or the rice flour noodles - it is just fine if you are doing so. And then 8 cups of water - it might seem like a crazy amt of water... I was like "Oh no... this looks like beef soup!!!" but trust me, after simmering for 2hours there is not much of it left. Thicken slightly with tapioca flour. And because I like the dark colour look, I swirled in some thick soya sauce too.

Whoever said winter wasn't great?! :)

Steamed herbal chicken stuffed with glutinous rice and some bouncy jelly for dessert!

2007-07-24T21:03:00.000+08:00

The first thought I had when G sent me these photos were that this was one professional looking chicken - really thanks to the photography and photographer! (Thanks!!!) A couple of Sundays ago, a few of us got together and had this mega potbless, and I meant mega... the theme was Asian, and we had everything from thai fried rice, spicy spare ribs, salt and pepper chilli prawns, 3 egg spinach, mee siam and more!!! We had so much food I think at one point of time at dinner we couldnt talk... we were literally speechless.. we were too full!!! Ahhh this is the way dinners ought to be! Full of great food and fellowship!!! Thanks to all the chefs!!!

After many many pondering moments, I decided to steam a herbal chicken and stuff it with glutinous rice. I couldn't decide whether to make a herbal chicken or a soya chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, so I combined both! It turned out really well - steamed chicken is just so tender... and the rice was just right - the trick is to really soak the glutinous rice for at about 2 hours before you stuff it inside the chicken. Fry the rice up so it is partially cooked before stuffing it. So yes for a bit of a twist, stuff your next chicken with some rice! It is a meal in itself!!! :)

I'm so glad this jelly is back on the market - Konayaku (spelling???) jelly. Apparently it was taken off the market for awhile because someone choked on the jelly... anyhow just make sure you chew it properly ok? :) It is a rubbery, bouncy type of jelly - I'm not quite sure how else to describe it except that it is really nice!!! :P

This can be easily purchased from your chinese supermarket and it really is fool proof - I guarantee you can't go wrong with this, as unlike previously, this time everything is all in one package - flavour, colouring etc. It's literally read instructions, pour water, watch the fire and thats it! And they are a winner! Refreshing after a very heavy meal! This was lychee flavoured with real lychee in the centre of each jelly!

Buttery Goodness!

2007-07-22T20:22:00.001+08:00

Shortbread! The famous Christmas time biscuit...! :) To celebrate Christmas in July (actually I just came up with this "excuse" - then again, when do you ever need an excuse to bake/cook! Just do it! :P) - I baked 2 batches of these on Tuesday night! It turned out good - light, crisp, totally buttery and the perfect biscuit with a cup of coffee!!!

To add a bit of a twist, I made pinwheel shortbread as well - basically just made a chocolate paste (a bit of water and cocoa powder) and mix this in with the vanilla mixture. It is a little more work then the vanilla ones, as you need to roll them out separately and then place them on top of each other and slowly roll them into a long roll :) Then cut them and shape them into a round shape.

Dust the vanilla ones with a bit of caster sugar when it gets out of the oven - adds a nice touch to them!

I found the perfect jar for the cookies - from Freedom Furniture - :) It is an airtight jar, so that the biscuits remain crispy and fresh! And what's great is that this is actually a plastic jar!

(p.s. Surprise surprise, but there was not a lot of cooking this weekend! I cooked a steamed herbal chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, and made 3 egg spinach dish... however no pictures... sorry.... next week there will be more cooking!!! I have a week to come up with a great dinner meal! :P)

Roses once again!

2007-07-17T17:41:00.000+08:00

Perth had an amazing weekend... the weather was perfect! That's one of the things I love about Perth! You appreciate fine weather all the more when you are stuck in an air conditioned office for the majority of theweek!

EH and I decided it was time to learn to prune from a professional and with the promise of fine weather, we decided to go to the Melville Nurseries on Saturday morning and learn a few tips from the expert!!! It was a lot better than I imagined... for those who know me, I'm not exactly one with nature.... I know very little about the garden but EH inspired me and also I was keen to be good at keeping my roses alive! But really it was fun! The guy was so funny, and basically the key is to THINK, prune down your roses to 50% and think about mother nature. No kidding!

Our friends A & G came along for a fine morning of rose viewing and photo taking... unfortunately there weren't that many roses, but nevertheless, they took these amazing photos. Doesn't the food look so delicious???

This was the Ciabatta that I had the last time... very yummy... loved the marinated and grilled red peppers...

Chicken pesto penne - apparently not good... not tasty enough... so yeah perhaps dont try this if you go to the rose farm!

Salmon bagel - apparently good!!!

Chicken caesar salad - yummy!!! See previous review.

Scones and tea and coffee... perfect way to spend the weekend... :)

We quickly took the shots before they pruned down these flowers!
We'll be BACK!!! :)

A Fruity Strudel!

2007-07-16T19:44:00.000+08:00

I have been wanting to try this recipe/idea for ages and ages and ages!!! Perth is well known for their apple strudels - fluffy puff pastry, with a layer of apple and custard and fresh cream. SOOO YUMMM!!!

But this is a slightly different version - instead of custard, there is a passionfruit curd (and by itself it may seem slightly too sweet, it is a perfect combination once you eat it all together!), and fresh whipped cream, and I added in slices of fresh strawberries - mango was the recommended fruit! But now isn't the season - however, I think the strawberries does make it a lot more tempting and attractive...!!! I love strawberries, it would be on every dessert if I could have it my way!!! :)

A dessert definitely worth serving up for your friends!

(P.S. Stay tuned for some savoury and flower updates....)

3 Nut Butterscotch Tart!

2007-07-16T19:31:00.000+08:00

There is something about tarts that fascinate me! I have a feeling it is the thought of how cute it will look on the plates, the 3 tiered cake displays... cuteness in a pastry! :P

These honestly are so simple to make - choose your favourite nuts, I chose almond, macadamia and walnuts and you heat it over a pan with honey and cream and brown sugar. Really, that's all you do, and just simmer it till it is well coated and it starts to caramelise.

In the meantime, warm up your ready made short crust sweet tarts in the oven, and when ready and cooled, place a generous serve of the 3 nut butterscotch mixture.

Serve with cream if you are feeling extra naughty!
Enjoy wth a cup of nice Twining English/Afternoon Tea!

Some fingerfood!

2007-07-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

Despite the lack of entries in the past week or so, the kitchen has been working extremely hard!!! Last Thursday, my friend wanted to bake some goodies for her colleagues, so we came up with the following "quick" goodies seeing that it was a weeknight!

Quiche, sausage rolls and a chocolate cake! We both didnt get to try the quiche - but it looked pretty good. We bought the ready made short crust pastry in the aluminium foil - quiche is basically eggs and cream :) Haha! I sauted some onions, mushroom, red and green peppers and bacon as the filling.

These sausage rolls - or otherwise affectionately known as "Puffy dogs" - are really simple to do if you need to make something quick and savoury! Just buy the frankfrut (sp?) sausages and wrap them in the puff pastry. However, ours seems to burst at the seams... not quite sure why... does anyone know how to prevent this?!!! :)

(P.S. Flowers from the garden!!!)

Creamy pasta with a touch of mustard!

2007-07-14T22:30:00.000+08:00

This is one of the simplest pastas ever! But really tasty and a real comfort food (just dont think of the calories!) - perfect for winter and if you're in a rush!

To make the cream sauce, all you do is saute some onion and fresh garlic in butter, and after a couple of mins, throw in the fresh mushroom and the fresh single cream (now you know what I mean about the fat content! So don't eat this all the time! - just when you want to treat yourself or really need that extra sense of comfort!) and let the sauce simmer. Now, what I think is the real star of the sauce is the wholegrain mustard. Flavour the sauce with this and season with salt and pepper. I love adding in the gourmet baby spinach into the sauce - do this at the end. Then toss in your al dente fettucine and add in some of the pasta water if you need to losen up the pasta.

Serve piping hot. Honestly, it won't take you more than 30mins, and you will be quite satisfied and comforted (worry about the gym tomorrow!!!).

2 Types of Fruits!

2007-07-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

Apple and cinnamon pie! There is something about this that always tempts me when I see it in magazines... I'm not really an apple fan... but it must be the "homely" feel an apple pie expresses!!!

I took the easy way out and decided to buy the Pampus short crust pastry... good idea? No... it was okay but not as good as the sara lee apple pie pastry! However, the filling was good - it's really simple, just very finely sliced fresh green apples (core and skin it), with sultanas, sugar and ground cinnamon - and a little butter... simmer it till apples are tender, then a bit of cornstarch and water stirred to form a bit of a paste and then mix it into the mixture. Cool. Then line the tart tins with the short crust pastry and fill. It's time consuming to make the mixture - because of the slicing - but you avoid all the extra "sauce" or rather starch that often comes with storebought apple pie! Perfect with whipped cream! :)

My friend (Joey Poey) a few weeks ago surprised me by buying me the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine - not only was it so very thoughtful (there was a section on roses!) but opened my eyes to a new set of magazine subscriptions I am contemplating subscribing to! :P Anyway, they have a range of articles from the garden to the kitchen. I have to admit I found myself reading the cooking section a lot more than the other sections, but I liked how they had sections on how to decorate your house yourself etc etc... anyhow my eyes found the recipe on "Chocolate Prune Spice Cake" - I thought... how interesting... chocolate and prune... we know anything with chocolate is fantastic... but I substituted the prunes with pitted dates and the port with rum and left out the spice as I couldnt find any in the pantry!

It was a moist cake - and I added in 1/3 of a chocolate bar just incase there wasn't enough chocolate in it (this was an addition!) - I think we could do with another 1/3... it was quite nice... I'm not sure if I would call it a favourite, not because it wasn't good because it was a good recipe, the proportions and moisture level etc was good... but I think I prefer my dates in a sticky date pudding!

Stay tuned for this weekend's food update.... there will be more! :)

Ohhh Ohhh.... the discovery......

2007-07-01T14:03:00.000+08:00

It is not good... ohh ohh... I can hear myself groaning... for many years, I have not kept up with the times, and being quite the risk adverse person that I often am (so evident when I always order the same dish at the same restaurant, and even at different restaurants, because I like it and I know it will be good... I have never been one to experiment with new dishes or weird ingredients...), however I think it is all about to change...

Whilst it seems like the majority of the world have hopped eagerly and even become addicted to ebay.com, online shopping etc, I have been quite the tradition shopper - preferring to buy items face to face :) However, I have found that it is very difficult to buy really cool, interesting and internationally acclaimed cookbooks in Australia and/or in Singapore. I suspect they are all in the US (sadly!) - however, Amazon.com is the answer to my prayers... and now, I think I shall be taking that step forward and will be doing some "clicking"!

Now, I am eagerly wondering which book I should buy to christen my entry into the world of Online Shopping. I can't decide... there are a million wonderful books out there...and I do fear that once I start, I won't be able to stop!!!

I'll let you know my decision soon.... *grin*

(Btw - yes there will be a food entry happening soon... once I get the pictures!)

Hope you had a very happy and warm weekend! :)
(It is raining like cats, dogs and even elephants in Perth, WA now!!!)

A Feast with Old friends...

2007-06-25T19:29:00.000+08:00

I really love roses.... there is something very perfectly sweet about them... this breed above is called Flamingo hybrid tea roses - we got them from the rose farm and this blossomed in my very own garden!

Had a cosy dinner with some old friends last night - combined with good food, plenty of laughter and weird jokes and moments, it was a great way to end the weekend! The theme was Italian.. so we had lasagne, cheesecake, and even started to celebrate Christmas in July with Turkey, yum yum!

This was caesar salad - the full works! I pan fried chicken tenderloins which was lighted marinated with salt and cracked pepper and white wine, pan fry till golden in colour. Then with the remaining oil in pan, pan fry bacon strips (I used short cut bacon, has less fat!). Keep this warm in the oven whilst you prepare the rest. Anyway, basically it's caesar dressing, cos lettuce, hard boiled eggs and parmesan cheese! Although, I feel this isn't exactly cooking as I didnt really make anything from scratch, there is something really nice about presenting something green on the dinner table! And honestly, for a proper caesar salad, you must use fresh chicken and bacon - personally I prefer to buy the bacon rashes and slice them rather than the bacon bits from the bottle (eww!) or even the diced bacon bits from the deli... use fresh whenever possible! It's so worth it!

I made bruchetta (spelling?!) for entrees... there is something very healthy and refreshing about it... and to make things a little different, I used an olive bread instead of a sourdough... not bad :)

Photography wasn't so good last night - we just wanted to dive into the food! This is an eggplant pasta... it does taste better than it sounds!!! Really nice for a vegetarian pasta... to be honest, Im apprehensive about vegetarian stuff... ie I hardly ever will order a vegetarian dish, I feel a dish needs to have meat or seafood... if it's just veggies it should be an "extra" or a side dish... however, really this eggplant pasta can be quite the winner! I threw in some chilli flakes for extra kick!

Mocha tarts! This was the most work! I made this on Saturday night! But there is nothing as satisfying as baking or cooking something from it's raw form! I made the pastry from scratch, and I wont bore you with the details, it was fun for quite awhile... it is a bit like play dough, except you get to eat the end result! The filling was a rich chocolate and coffee mixture which you bake... this is totally baked... my friends liked it, so that made it all very worth while!

Hope you had a very happy weekend too!

Tagged by Joey Poey!!!

2007-06-23T21:15:00.000+08:00

Okay, Im not sure how exactly this works... so I hope Im playing by the "Tag Rules"...

The rules:
1) The person tagged has to write 7 facts about themselves, along with a copy of the rules.
2) The chosen one then needs to tag 7 others and make a note of whom they’ve chosen as the next ‘taggees’ on their blog.
3) And finally? Leave a comment for those that they’ve tagged, giving them a heads up to read their blog and find out what it’s all about.

Liz's Facts!...
1) I read my cookbooks on the way to work, before I sleep, whenever I have a moment ... :) I'm always thinking about what to cook, how to cook that particular dish or a dish I have read... I started cooking at about 8 or was it 10 years old.. I remember helping my aunt make sushi

2) I was a Barbie doll fanatic, and I think I owned about 13 barbies... and sadly, only 1 ken - I wanted a barbie house too but I never got one... :P

3) I played the piano till Grade 6, the flute for awhile and was born in London, UK. I have been abseilng, flying fox, canoeing, white water rafting, what's the other one where you use a compass... some navigation thing, believe it or not, I have actually done these things! :P

4) When people try to scare me, I often scare them back with screaming back in fright louder than their "boo!" (often though, I have about a 3sec delay lag... ie "Boo" silence than "AHHHH")

5) I always wanted to be the youngest in the family - my sister says it's not that fun though! Hmmm... :P I also wanted to be a doctor :)

6) I too thought the idea of wearing glasses were very cool (like Joey Poey) but totally regret it now!!!

7) I love peppermint - I love peppermint chocs, milkshake, ice-cream and once at camp, we stayed up talking at night and I managed to just lick away at the toothpaste... much to the disgust of my friends!

Friends to Tag (that havent been tagged before!):
1) Thomas
2) Seng
3) Gerard
4) Edwina
5) Jason
6) Steph!
7) Shona & Jimmy

Those who have a blog, post it on your blog and those who don't have a blog, email it to me :)

A Family Feast!

2007-06-18T22:09:00.000+08:00

Hello hello! How was your weekend? Mine was great!!! Baked a chocolate cake on Friday night with my friend - it was actually a pretty good recipe (sorry no pics... I forgot!) - the chocolate sponge was real TASTY! How do you describe it... when you taste the cake, you FULLY taste the chocolate... you know how sometimes it's like half the taste, and before you finish it, it seems like the taste did not fully develop, and you wonder whether it was a chocolate cake you just ate? Well this wasn't that type of cake, it was really chocolatey, yet not too sweet, light and perfect texture for a creation I am already thinking of! The icing was simply melted dark chocolate with thickened cream... this is heaven!!! (btw - use Cadbury's dark cooking chocolate, it has 60% cocoa solids and I think much much better than the Nestle brand...)

On Sunday, my family came to my place for a Sunday dinner - cooked by me!!! So the menu was brushetta, spaghetti marinara, Spanish Tasty Roast Chicken (this is actually the name... I didnt name it!) and for dessert chocolate souffles with thickened cream drizzled on the top! :)

I used fresh roma tomatos, get rid of the core and seeds, toss with purple onions, fresh basil, season to your liking, olive oil and basil :) We used a thick type of bread... I forget the name... either ciabatta or a sourdough would be good!

Okay, not the most flattering picture of the chicken, but yes you basically stuff the chicken with a hot lemon that you have pierced... boil the lemon with the potatos in a pot for about 5mins... the different ingredients used here besides the whole lemon, is this italian dressing which is italian parsley, lemon zest and garlic - which you throw over the chicken once cooked :)

I have never made souffles before... so had NO IDEA what to expect... but they turned out really yummy... think a warm chocolate mousse... this must be perfect for Winter :) The ultimate comfort food and also something to eat when you're happy as well. I imagine it must be nice to tuck into this warm full of chocolate type pudding when you are not feeling the best! Yet, on good days, this also goes down real well. Souffles deflate real fast! So basically once baked, serve straight to guests! It also deflates once you microwave them (as I found out tonite!) - but the taste is not at all stolen... :) Still there, still comforting... worry about the calories another day... there is always tomorrow....

Hope you had a happy weekend!!!

p.s. Exciting weekend of food will be coming up.............. stay tuned! :)

Old fashioned goodies...

2007-06-12T20:05:00.000+08:00

Amongst all the fancy food that we can create, eat and imagine these days, the different varieties of panna cotta, fancy names we call simple food, the mix of east and west, different types of sauces for pastas, and food for every person's desire, there is always going to be a soft spot for the old fashioned goodies... so we're back to basics today... and may I present you the very reliable chocolate chip muffins and banana and cinnamon bread.

Sometimes, and to sound very sentimental, it's the good old fashioned things, that last... that suit every person's palette... who can ever find fault with a chocolate chip muffin or banana bread? Okay, unless you really dislike those ingredients... but let me tell you, even if you dislike chocolate or banana, you will love the aromas that fill your kitchen when you bake these babies! I am not kidding... it's unexplainable... it's like you feel so comfortable, so homely and for me, very excited that my kitchen, was filled with the good old fashioned aromas. Whilst I have to admit that these muffins (From Nigella Lawson) were not the best - I have to tweak it for next time round - you honestly cannot help but smile when you take them out of the oven. Too bad for my kids next time, they will never be allowed to eat a store-bought muffin!!!

Why do I love banana bread? I just do! I have a soft spot for them... when I saw the recipe I couldnt wait to try it out! Let me describe this...now, these were extremely heavenly.... the whole living and kitchen area was embedded and showered with the aroma of bananas... my kitchen smelled like a bakery... I think what I love about cooking and baking is that it makes the house a home, the kitchen more than just a storehouse of pots and pans, but just totally alive!

When I was in Sydney last year for work, there was this small cafe at the bottom of the building next to mine that made EXCELLENT banana bread... and honestly it is the best I have tasted... in between toast and a moist bananan cake... they toasted it and spread it with a thin layer of butter... I looked forward to work each morning, knowing there was going to be banana bread and a cup of coffee :)

Whilst my banana bread last night was more like a cake, it was still very good, just not bread like enough.. although I'm going to tweak it to suit my taste buds, like my brother reckoned it could do with bananas (Im not sure it is possible! It seems saturated enough!), and I added a bit of milk due to my paranoia of dry cakes, and I think the sugar could be decreased.... and perhaps I would just put a couple of pinches less cinnamon, this was good... Best served as a thick slice! Im not sure the picture actually captures this, but whilst not as good as the Sydney one, it was certainly not bad!

Friday Dinner Review

2007-06-11T20:26:00.000+08:00

It's often much easier to go out for take away, go out for dinner, especially on a Friday night. However, we decided that we could still have that style but less most of the effort. So whilst, what follows is all mainly purchased, I thought it was still worth a review to see how we can definitely spice up a dinner quickly - just to celebrate the beginning of a weekend!

Above - Mason's Rose Sparkling Grape Juice @ $2.97 per bottle, this easily filled 6 glasses. You can taste the tinge of rose at the end of the sip. Bonus, it was pink!

Rose Breed is "Peace" - a tinge of pink highlights the tips of this rose. It is one of the largest roses I have seen! From my garden :)

I love this black rectangular platter and dip bowl from Alex Liddy (Myer) - Dip was the Wattle Valley "Grilled Eggplant, Parmesan and Cashew Dip" - not bad, but I prefer the capsicum version, the cheese flavour was a little strong, but definitely one of the better dips avail as you can definitely feel the dip... :)

King Island Double Brie Cheese - man this is good!!! :)

Crackers and cucumber - the usual :)

Smoked salmon - who can resist! Try this with the Brie cheese and crackers... yuuummm....

Leonards has some good marinated chicken... we wanted the Tandoori chicken but they ran out, so tried their portugal marinated chicken, which is about $3.75 for half... we had about 4 pieces here... and it's really quite quick in the oven and browned really well and crispy too!

I baked the potatos, to quicken the process, microwave and then toss with oil, cracked pepper and salt and chuck it in the oven! Do this with some pumpkin too!

Now, this was really the star of the night! A strawberry flan from Jean Claude Pattiserie. It's on Rokeby Road, Subiaco and it is a tiny shop, that often has lines outside it (must be a marketing ploy! The shop is so small - packed with bread and of course therefore people have to line up outside!) - honestly, they have one of the best strawberry tarts. It definitely does not come cheaply, but definitely worth a taste... or two!

Breakfast by the Beach... in Trigg....

2007-06-04T20:35:00.001+08:00

... the perfect way to start the weekend! A few of us decided to start the long Foundation Weekend with something different! Breakfast by the Trigg Beach @ 930am on Saturday! We found this humble cafe called Bennison Street Cafe on West Coast Drive or Hwy, Trigg! Trigg is one of the famous Northern Beaches, and it really is so beautiful, as the pictures below will show...

Breakfast is one of those meals that seem like a luxury, although we have been told is really a neccessity! But once you actually manage to pull yourself out of bed and sit down to a scrumptous breakfast with a hot cup of coffee or a refreshing juice, you wonder why you don't do this every weekend!!!

The Beach Breakfast - with Scrambled Eggs $15.90

Eggs Benedict... $15.90

New York Style Bagel! $14.90
This was filled with Smoked Salmon, scrambled eggs and spinach :)

Beach Breakfast with Eggs, Sunnyside Up! $15.90

Vegetarian Beach Breakfast with Poached Eggs ... $15.90

3 Egg Omelette $14.90
Filled with Ham I think!

Happy to finally eat... I made them wait for me to take photos of their food before they could eat it! Thanks guys!!! :)

Happy moments... after a filled stomach, we decided to walk across the road to appreciate the view... where the ocean was before us...

The Breakfast Club... where shall we patronise next?! :)

The Green Pancake and Shanghai Dumplings!

2007-06-04T19:02:00.001+08:00

So as previously mentioned in my below post, I went cooking crazy! This green pancake is called "Kueh Dada" - not sure exactly what it's origins are! But basically it is a coconut, pandan flavoured pancake that you cook - make sure it is fairly thin and wrap it up with some fresh coconut that has been cooked with this brown sugar called Gula Malaka. It's really nice, very rich and not for the faint hearted! :)

I love Shanghai Dumplings - must be the combination of the grated ginger, chinese wine (otherwise known as Shaoxing cooking wine), sesame oil and the soya sauces - all mixed up with minced pork and chives and/or spring onion! Leave to marinate for awhile, and then wrap it up with either storebought or home made pastry. I actually made the pastry here - because well, if I can, I like to make things from scratch which at times is hard - ie curry pastes etc which require 101 ingredients, a pounder and other stuff! Hahaha! But here, all you need is flour and water, hands and patience :)

This pastry turned out sticky - so please make sure if you're not using gloves, wash your hands thoroughly before handling. Once made, let it sit for awhile and I still found it sticky, so use flour to make it easier to handle and roll it into a "log" and cut into slices which you then roll out using a floured rolling pin. Wrap the minced meat in it, lightly oil a non-stick frying pan, and lay down the Shanghai dumplings and you'll hear the satisfying sounds of a soft sizzle, add water for more sizzle, cover, which acts as a steamer till the pastry turns colour - it would originally be white as dough is, which when cooked turns to a light translucent colour... not exactly clear, but perhaps more like cooked wanton skin colour! :)

Serve with vinegar and thinly sliced ginger! YUM!

p.s. There is an art to folding these dumplings - mine looked a little odd... more like mini curry puffs I thought! :P Practice makes perfect I guess! :)

The Cookie Barrel!

2007-06-04T18:30:00.001+08:00

I literally went kitchen crazy this long weekend! I was in this total baking and cooking mode and wanted to bake anything and everything! :) I think I wanted to take advantage of the full long weekend and totally inspired with all my recipe books that constantly stare at me :) I even read them in the car on the way to work!

Okay, the samples for the Cookie Barrel were Custard Hearts and Melting Moments with Passionfruit cream :) I have never made these before and only ever eaten Melting Moments store bought!

Cookies are pretty to look at and nice to nimble on, but they are time consuming! But satisfying once completed! I baked the cookies on Sat night and used my heart cutters to get the heart shape, and a cake tester to make the little dots on the hearts :) They do indeed look better with the dots :) Almost like cross stitch!

On Sunday, I made the 2 different creams and sandwiched them together. Okay, Im not much into the use of icing sugar and think it's just sweet and well just sweet! But I have changed my mind. The passionfruit cream, although sweet (made of icing sugar, butter and passionfruit pulp) was really quite pleasant, there was definitely a twist with the passionfruit.

The custard cream was a DREAM! I honestly cannot explain how I feel about the texture of the cream... I know, I sound bizarre, who ever gets passionate over cookie cream? This isn't your usual whipped cream, but really like the cream between your Arnold's biscuits. It was beautifully smooth, a very golden yellow custard colour and OH! just really nice :) Tasted okay too!

I have actually yet to try the custard heart cookies, but I did try the Melting moments which used Self raising flour - and when they say Self raising flour, they also mean self expanding flour. This was not just a moment, but a GIANT moment :) Came out larger than I expected, but yes it really does melt in your mouth and definitely deserves a "Fragile" sticker :)

Happy Happy Birthday!

2007-06-02T14:25:00.000+08:00

Last weekend was my friend's Birthday, so we celebrated her birthday for her! Birthdays are a perfect opportunity to get together and let us say, last weekend was a very memorable birthday! We had plenty of food, which I dont have pictures for, but here is a picture of the cake that I baked and my Mum and I decorated! :)

The cake is Nigella's Chocolate Malteser Cake - but I decided to change it a bit and just used the cake but different decoration. There are 3 layers to the cake, filled with fresh cream and fresh strawberries, each layer of cake brushed with Baileys and to top it off, more fresh cream and crushed almonds for the side. Decorated with Strawberries and Maltesers! YUM!

Spaghetti Marinara!

2007-06-01T20:13:00.000+08:00

This has to be one of my favourite pastas of all times.... simple, yet totally tasty and yet pretty healthy! Spaghetti Marinara! I cooked dinner for my friend last night, and was thinking of a fast, no-meat dish that would not be entirely boring and yet totally yummy to make!

I cheated and bought pre-cut up and already prepared marinara mix (this one was bought from our local gourmet grocers called Limes, in Melville) - this one was great, full of REAL seafood, rather than all the cocktail stuff which doesnt necessary taste much like seafood.

So here it goes.............

Boil spaghetti whilst you cook the marinara sauce
Heat some oil up in a deep pan
When warm, fry with chopped garlic (I really do recommend the fresh garlic - one, it doesnt "spit" at you as much when frying and tastes just so much better than the bottled ones) till slightly brown - then fry the seafood.
Okay, if you were to prepare the seafood yourself without any marinate, just marinate it with fresh parsley and garlic and perhaps some salt
Dont overcook the seafood as you will be cooking it off again later
When 80-90% cooked, take the seafood out and place it aside
Now in the same pan, toss in canned tomatos and add salt, pepper to taste and also a couple of tablespoon of tomato paste - I find this just makes the sauce so much richer and tastier!
Last night I added in a little water, but for an even richer sauce, dont add water and if you need more liquid, add more chopped canned tomatos
Chuck in fresh basil
Then toss in the already cooked seafood, together with any remaining "juice" and simmer for a few mins to ensure seafood is cooked through and also warmed up
Lastly, toss in some spinach for your vegetable intake!

Honestly, it only takes about 30mins and you have a lovely, fresh and tasty healthy meal! :)

Chocolate Overload!

2007-05-27T22:41:00.000+08:00

At times, nothing is better than a thick slice of delicious, totally choc-a-block full of chocolate cake! It's strange how chocolate can comfort! I have known more than one girl who have found eating chocolate very comforting! So last weekend, I decided to try out Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate loaf (taken from her "Feast" book)... it looked heavenly and it did taste pretty darn satisfying too!

Quadruple because there was cocoa, chocolate buttons (I used Cadbury's cooking chocolate instead because it had a higher cocoa content - however I would suggest perhaps the melt would be better or if you soften the choc first... there were literally choc blocks at the bottom of this loaf - talk about a chocolate overload!!!), a chocolate sauce and there was meant to be chocolate shavings - I left out the last bit, I was lazy to shave the choc :P

It is most wonderful eaten warm with cream or a scoop of ice-cream!

This recipe was really quite lovely, you literally mix everything up together - I didnt quite believe it, and really believe in more of the creaming method etc, but hey this worked and managed to use my pink pink pink blender for this! I really enjoyed using the blender and am sure it is because of the pink! However, next time it probably would be better to use a cake mixer (check out the flamingo roses from our garden!) - I felt like I was exhausting my blender!!!

Chocolate is welcomed anytime and everytime - crusty on the top and totally moist, full of chocolate oozing goodness and totally indulgent!

Windsor Bar & Restaurant

2007-05-21T21:43:00.000+08:00

open scotch fillet steak sandwich, roasted onions,
bacon, mixed greens, tomato relish, aioli & fries
$17.90

The minute I walked into this place, I thought how funky, relaxed, and a fun place to be on a Sunday afternoon! The place buzzed... and I mean buzzed... and the fit outs with plastic red chairs (no, not at all tacky!), wooden tables, modern yet not cold, really made me go "wow" - why hadnt I discovered this place earlier!

What really stole the show, was the outdoor area - or the Garden area as it is referred to. We didn't sit there, but I could see it from the window, and since yesterday's weather was on the cool side, I was not too disappointed. I didnt get to take pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it and check it out yourself!

Prices were fairly reasonable, food was good and well presented. I had the steak sandwich (see above) and you can really rave about this! It was definitely gourmet. Not your usual piece of beef in between two slices of bread with some lettuce and fries on the side. No, this was on ciabatta bread (I think... some type of gourmet bread), a thin slice which was toasted, and piled on top with a good portion of scotch fillet, creamy aioli, cooked onions, roasted peppers with relish, tomatos, english spinach and topped with watercrest, served with a very fresh portion of fries on the side. Totally satisfying. I love it. Must replicate! The scotch fillet was tender, tasty and a generous portion. What I really liked was that there was more ingredients than bread here, really felt like a decent meal!

Spicy Chicken Nachos $15.90

pappadelle pasta, roasted butternut pumpkin,
artichokes, courgettes, toasted walnuts, english spinach,
semi dried tomato cream
$19.90

My friends had the spicy chicken nachos and this creamy pasta - each under $20. They were both yummy, and definitely there was a kick with the nachos! The pasta was fantastic, creamy, al dente and whilst not a fan of vegetarian dishes, I would give this one the thumbs up!

The portions were definitely beyond decent, prices really reasonable as well!

Service was a little on the poor side, it took them quite awhile to get me my drink, quite awhile to get our orders and even longer to collect the bill. We had to ask them to take our money! However, being a Sunday, and it being busy, we forgave them and definitely will return!

The Windsor Bar & Restaurant
112 Mill Point Rd, South Perth
http://www.thewindsor.theguide.com.au/#2986

Cooking with Speed!

2007-05-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

I love taking my time with cooking... I like to just slowly enjoy each step, have a cup of tea or coffee during the process, do this and do that, listen to music and end up with something fantastic from the kitchen!

However, I was challenged a couple of weekends ago! I have never cooked with such speed, and was cooking for friends who had high expectation *grin*!!! Thank God it turned out pretty okay, despite the rough approx measurements here and there, and the sauce that turned out pretty nice in the end :) (thanks for the encouragement!!!)

So if you ever run out of ideas of what to cook, although I will say this wouldnt be the fastest thing to cook, (nothing beats 2min noodles), it is pretty awesome for the amt of time that it actually takes you to cook it! So have a go!

Jamie Oliver's puff pastry chicken thing... he calls it "My old man's superb chicken" - this is a dish that I'm sure will win your guests heart! Simple, with really fresh ingredients, not much salt, and fantastic tasting :)

Okay, it doesn't look that great here, we were too hungry by the time it was ready to really take artistic and perfect shots... but with this, all you do is buy ready made puff pastry, fresh chicken breasts (nothing beats this - so much nicer when you eat it the day you buy it!), and to make the stuffing, fry a bit of olive oil with chopped garlic (use fresh if possible, it is WAY better!), chopped fresh mushrooms and a handful of italian parsley (or also known as flat parsley). Add freshly cracked pepper and salt to taste. Simmer till mushroom and parsley is tender.

Stuff the chicken breast with this mushroom mixture, wrap the chicken breast with the puff pastry, and pop it into the preheated oven (approx 180 degrees) for about 45mins.

To make the white wine mustard sauce... just a couple of tablespoons of wholegrain mustard and a glass of white wine, simmer till the alcohol smell is practically gone.

Serve with salad or oven chips.

Next... dessert... self saucing chocolate coffee pudding (taken from Donna Hay's magazine) - now this is an awesome recipe.... it's got self raising flour, almond meal, coffee, cocoa and sugar of course, but hey wow this is yummmmyyyy with a capital Y - baked straight from the oven, and eaten with some fresh cream, sensational! :)

(P.S.stay tuned for a restaurant/cafe review........ this is my new favourite place!!!)

Pretty Pretty Pretty!!!

2007-05-14T20:54:00.000+08:00

You have to check out the Rose Farm! It is so cool!!! :) Honestly, it's fantastic... such an eye opener for me - thanks Eehui!!!

It's what every weekend should be like - some time out, relaxation, something different, away from the city, just something different! This place is just 30mins from Perth, and not too far at all, just in the Perth Hills. I felt like I was on my way to camp or the country side... it is another world... and imagine, only 30mins from the City!

We got there about 2pm yesterday and we were probably the only non-asians and non-mothers :P hahahhaa! They have this outdoor and indoor cafe/restaurant. Lovely outside as you're really in the open, and you overlook the roses, but inside was just as lovely as it feels really country-like, with pretty bunches of roses on each table (see photo above). We had a lovely lunch, which was worth the wait...see photos below... all their dishes come with rose petals... ahh so pretty!

The chicken caesar salad was lovely, they mashed the boiled eggs and mixed it with the salad, with crispy tasty bacon bits and slices of slightly marinated chicken. $17.50

Ciabatta... yummm... perfectly toasted, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside... filled with slightly marinated chicken breat, avocado, garlic butter, swiss cheese, roasted peppers and a light gourmet salad on the side. $14

After all of that, we further indulged ourselves (and it wasn't even our Day! Haha!) How could you not have the Devonshire feast - 2 scones (we chose a rose scone and fruit scone... it was lovely! it really did taste like rose... very subtle, very pretty tasting!) which came with cream, jam and a cup of tea $7.70

They have a funny looking animal - who was called Roby... Eehui thought it was a giant Aussie rat... not sure what it was... anyway it added to the fun! Free.

This brings back fond camp memories... but much nicer of course... it is apparently a lot prettier in Spring when the roses are in full bloom!

Me and my new found love - roses! I am holding the Flamingo range of roses - bought 3 different shades of roses for my Mum... they are such pretty shades of pink! :) The Flamingo Hybrid Tea Rose range is perfect for cutting - beautiful long stem roses!

Front entrance... the big rose at the back is apparently the world's biggest man made rose!

Eehui and Peace :) It apparently will change its colour with age! We can't wait!

Flamingo (pink) and some other breed... I can't remember the name...

Melville Nurseries
40 Masonmill Rd, Carmel
Western Australia 6076

http://www.melvillenurseries.com.au/the_roses.php

Sensational....... :)

2007-05-12T01:03:00.001+08:00

It has been years since we had the Attrium Buffet at the Burswood Hotel... but tonight we decided we would have a family dinner there, since it was Mum and James' Birthdays this week and also Mother's Day on Sunday.

It was sensational!!! The last time we went there, which was quite awhile back, it wasn't good - so we always ended up going to the Hyatt or the Sheraton. But tonight changed our minds. Not only was the food pretty good, there was a good atmosphere - pretty crowded, live jazz music and quite a buzz in the air! There was lots of variety with the food! There was really nice ice-cream, fresh seafood, oysters were really fresh, good hot food, like beef, lamb, even the sweet asian buns!

All in all, a great time and great food!

I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to take many snaps, so I only took a few..... but boy dont they look just yummy!!!

Burswood Attrium
Cost: $47.50 per adult

This is such a beautiful sight, giant choc fondue, with seamless flowing chocolate... rivers of joy...... with the fresh flowers in the back... talk about picture perfect!
(I forgot to try it, but heard it was nice!)

I think this was an Opera cake? Really yum! Coffee layers... so delicate, will be so good to bake it! But a lot a lot of work I can tell!!!

P.S. More food photos this weekend... cooking lunch for a few friends tomorrow... :)))

Here comes the bride....

2007-05-12T00:47:00.000+08:00

All dressed in white... :)

No, it's not me - not yet :) Last weekend was Abby and Arthur's wedding and it was a lovely celebration! Congratulations guys and wishing you every happiness! You guys are a great couple and so happy to see you both sharing your lives together.

Abby's favourite colour is pink - this is something we both have in common! Unfortunately, I didnt get to take many pictures of all the pink stuff that was in the wedding, even the cake was decorated with pink roses... awww so sweet.... check out the few photos that I did manage to take though!

Jelly that Eehui and I made the night before... a night we shall not forget! :P

Left: Refreshments team
Right: (from left) Felicia, Liz and the Bride!

Blossoms!

2007-05-06T23:25:00.000+08:00

Camelias

Photos of some of the flowers in my garden... Eehui pruned my rose bushes for me so apparently we might be seeing more roses in the next couple of weeks! Yay!

I was extremely excited to see the first blossom of the Camelias yesterday... isn't the pink just perfect???!!! :P

The Simple Things in Life...

2007-05-02T23:15:00.000+08:00

Are the best.... :)

Maybe it is the onset of age, maybe it is just how it is, but really, it is the simple things in life that are the best, that bring a lot of joy and good moments! Like tonight, I was thinking, to eat a piece of chocolate cake (which was freshly baked by my mum) and to watch episodes of Grey's Anatomy would be utterly satisfying. A bit sad on one hand, yet really, the small moments, the small pieces make a really really satisfying picture! Really, maybe it is the onset of age.... or maybe the post trauma effects of having to study and read thousands and thousands of words... :)

Reading a new recipe book or a new food magazine is honestly so joyous... what is it about the kitchen that one can be so passionate about - I think it's the creation of wonderful scents, satisfied "customers" (hopefully!), the ability to create something... honestly, there is just no stopping with what you can create with food!!! The dinner parties, the colours, the yuuuummmy moments with friends!

So what are your favourite simple things in life?

For example... (in no particular order)
1. A good conversation with a friend
2. An excellent cup of coffee, in prefably a nice cup :)
3. An excellent piece of cake - last night the craving was cheesecake... btw, Cakes Delight at Canning Hwy, Applecross does an excellent cheesecake :)
4. Grey's Anatomy & Gilmore Girls
5. A good night's sleep
6. An excellent meal with great friends
7. A trip to the hairdressers
8. Being with a friend, being with family
9. Loving your job
10. Being able to cook and cook loads too, an even better challenge! :)
11. Just having time on your hands to do what you want - whether it be to flip through a magazine, listen to a sermon, read a book, just not needing to rush :)

And the list goes on...

I am so excited that I now honestly, will have some time to bake and cook and do all these fabulous things that I couldnt do guilt-free for months, thanks to the pending exam, assignments.... pages of readings.. etc etc.. blah blah blah!

This weekend is my friend's wedding, and she loves pink (YIPPPPEEE!!!) so I'm making pink layered jelly - it will be different shades of pink... thank God for pink! :)

So watch this space for pictures... and there will be more food pictures... truly there will be this time! :)

The Joy of Gardening and Fruits of your Labour?!

2007-04-25T23:28:00.000+08:00

For those who know me, this is a very bizarre topic! Whilst I still very much love my kitchen and anything to do with a kitchen, I have to admit that the concept of gardens and plants are beginning to create some interest... read on... I dedicate this topic to my friend Eehui, who is an inspiration to me with her fondness of gardening! *grin* and who introduced me to the world of Waldeck and all the flowers!

I never really understood why my parents and esp my Mum found so much delight in growing fruit trees, roses and herbs... to me, they were just green things in the garden with some colour. But now I do. I have these roses in my garden that I practically stare at every opportunity and I even bother to go and smell them... and I do feel disappointed when they do fade, and become quite hopeful and delighted at the sight of the budding new roses! I even find myself comparing the colour of my lawn... to check that the time spent putting the lawn fertilizer and the soil wetter was worth it, so far, it has worked... the lawn has still got green in it! I have these pink flowered plants, that are seriously such a gorgeous pink... they are camelias, and I cannot wait till they blossom! Honestly, I can't get over what an excellent shade of pink they are! :)

My mum has planted 2 chilli plants in the garden and much to my delight, it is growing and producing chillis, and apparently they are very hot! And trying to grow laksa leaves which is so incredibly hard, they have a higher death than survival rate! Whilst it will be quite awhile before the fruit trees actually do bear fruit, and whilst I have so much more to learn, like I am wondering why the leaves are turning brown on some plants (and yes, I do water them!), it sure is going to be an interesting "journey" and worth the wait... :)

In the meantime, alongside John Howard and the rest of the farmers, I am praying for rain. And tonnes of it, please :)

(ps Will post some pics sometime! I forgot to take the photos!)

Happy Easter!

2007-04-15T11:30:00.000+08:00

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all had a very nice and blessed Easter! :)

Had a few friends over to my place last weekend for a Housewarming and also an Easter Dinner! It was SO good to cook... so much fun...!!! :) (Below are some pictures, unfortunately didnt get time to take pictures of the other food.... :P)

Dinner was Nasi Lamak, so there was Otak (spicy fishcake sorta thing), Coconut rice, made sambal pumpkin coconut rice too, which was interesting, not too bad! Layered jelly (which was time consuming but it turned out well and everyone enjoyed it, so definitely worth it!!!), curry chicken (without coconut milk, less fat and tastes just as good!!!), sushi, ikan billis, 2 varities of eggs, lovely kuehs from Singapore, chocolate fountain, fresh fruits!

Sambal fishballs and nasi lamak chilli... *note: ramekins are from Wheel and Barrow! Arent they cute!!!*

Sushi and chocolate fondue... *yum*

Eulynn trying to save my chocolate fountain... thank you! It was a very heart stopped moment when the choc didnt seem to ermm... melt and flow... :P

A very Strange thing...

2007-03-19T18:01:00.000+08:00

Hi all!

I'm sorry, been rather MIA lately... I havent even done much cooking except for a batch of instant brownies the other weekend, which hardly constitutes as cooking, but it was nice to hold the handymix, smell the chocolate mixture and turn on the oven and smell the wonderful baking delights!

Anyhow, something really strange happened on my blog... maybe someone out there will know the answer, and maybe it isnt really that strange after all! 2 entries ago, I blogged on my new cooking books and inserted photos on it... and guess what, yes it has disappeared!!! No joke! Gone!!! I checked on my dashboard and it is meant to be there, but now it has gone! Disappeared off the face of the blog!

Are there blog police out there??? Have I violated or committed some sorta crime? Maybe the Nigella publishers have come and managed to somehow take it off the site... oh dear.... this is real weird!!!

Take care all............ I hope to post some food stuff up sometime!!!

Love, Liz :)

Poker Championship Night!

2007-03-05T19:32:00.000+08:00

Had a lovely loooong weekend! The way a long weekend should be! Plenty of food, fun & friends!!! :) Eulynn and Terence hosted a "Poker Night" and provided loads of food, drink and atmosphere!!! Hehehe! (Will this be an annual/half yearly event???!!!) Thank you heaps guys, always such a blessing to receive such warm fellowship and good food!

In celebration of this event, and with a set of new Nigella cookie cutters that I got for my birthday, I made the agar jelly and used the tiny alphabet cookie cutters to mark the event! The top layer is made with coconut milk and the bottom layer was clear with green pandan essence! Refreshing on a hot summer's day! :)

Hope you all (in Perth) had a lovely long weekend too! Cant wait for Easter now!!! :)

2 New Friends!!! :)

2007-03-03T21:57:00.001+08:00

Honestly, there is something just so very very exciting about cookbooks! It's unexplainable - perhaps it is an obsession? I know my friend, Eulynn will totally understand what I mean! It's like there are these wonderful, creative secrets hidden in the glossy, mouth watering, ever so tempting pictures, pages with food that can send your senses wild!!! Truly, a very nice afternoon would be a nice cuppa tea or coffee and a brand new cookbook or magazine on my lap!

So the above 2 books are new additions to my cookbook family - WELCOME WELCOME! I have heard so much about Nigella, and her Snow flecked brownies are THE best, no calories are spared, but hey if you're going to be eating calories, make sure you make it worth your while! But her books are always on the pricey side, and I find that her ingredients are weird... some weird animal or vegetable..... BUT.... this time, her book "Feast" seemed to well, really look like a feast! So yes, I decided to treat myself with some birthday money from my aunty and bought it!

And then the other book, "Dinner with friends" has some awesome recipes as well... it has different cuisines and geez, it all looks so darn yummy!!! Ahhhh these two "friends" sit faithfully by my bed, pages and pages of glorious food, ready to get to work! Really it should be called inspiration.

Stay tuned............. hopefully I shall get some time to try them out!

For those in Perth, have a happy long weekend!!! :)

(p.s. I've been SO busy lately, I havent had a chance to try out new recipes or even use my friend's bday gift to me yet! Looks like Vday month and flavour has come and gone... o dear...! Ahh - ha today I got another very nice birthday present that shall be put to use in the not too far future.....!:))

Happy CNY!

2007-02-18T17:39:00.000+08:00

Our dinner last night!

Happy Chinese New Year all! :)

Breakfast in Style!

2007-02-18T17:28:00.000+08:00

This is my 3rd breakfast weekend in a row! :) I love going to breakfast - although just before u wake up, you question yourself why you made an appt so early in the morning when all you feel right now is to sleep........ BUT it is always worth it! So, at 830am, we went for a lovely breaky @ Bluewater Grill @ Heathcote, at Applecross. I didnt take many pictures, but it is a FANTASTIC place for breakfast - actually it is a fantastic place full stop. A couple of years ago when I went, the service was bad, like terribly snobby! But they seemed to have got fairly decent staff now :)

The weather was a little windy on Sat so they sat us inside the restaurant. The outside would have been fantastic, visualise this, you are seated under one of those umbrella tables, and there is beautifully manicured lawn infront of you, and beyond that is the swan river with city views! :) ahhhh... fantastic..... :)

They haven't actually got a website, but it is called Bluewater Grill and for $14 you can get a delicious continental breakfast that includes salmon and wonderful baked products and fresh fruit, and for $27.50 you can get hot food as well! Highly recommended - this is a great place - both day and night. Next time I go, I'll have to take some ambience and surrounding photos, rather than just this plate of food :P

A Sweet Heart!

2007-02-18T17:18:00.000+08:00

In celebration of V-Day, I baked some heart shaped pineapple tarts! :)

I think next time I make these, I should bake the pastry first then put the filling and then bake it for a few mins! I have been finding that if not, the filling dries up, either that or you dont get a nice golden brown pastry colour! Next time!!! :)

You know what's interesting about these tarts? It actually tastes better the day and days after.... it is a little too crispy the first few hours after it has baked... it seems to "settle" after a few hours...!

Due to the busi-ness that every weekend promises to bring, I wasn't able to make my other V-Day themed item this week! But stay tuned - Shona gave me an awesome gift - which will assist in the next "fruit" from the Kitchen! :)

Hope you all had a lovely V-Day and CNY! :)

Btw - I have got permission from Gerard to advertise his blog here, check his blog out @ http://longingforsimplicity.blogspot.com/ - you will definitely be extremely amused - esp with his V-Day theme! :P

A Girly Breakfast!

2007-02-10T21:45:00.000+08:00

Up and ready to go this morning we were! :) I had some of my girlfriends over this morning for a girly Birthday Breakfast! :) We had a great time - must do it again next time! Age must really be showing, instead of the late night coffees, breakfast is quite the option these days!

Thanks gals for coming and thanks for your gift! :) - thanks WanSee and Joey too (unfortunately weren't able to be at the breakie *sniff sniff*)

Desserts @ The Hyatt

2007-02-10T21:20:00.000+08:00

As they say.... a picture speaks a thousand words.... :)

Enjoy! :)

"Love is In the Air...!"

2007-02-04T20:46:00.000+08:00

Inspired by a friend's blog @ Simply Life (I'll add in his blog if I get permission!), who is going to blog about love n relationships this month since it is Valentines Day... got me thinking!!! Why dont I have a Valentines Day theme too! And my favourite colour is PINK! Perfect perfect perfect!!! *big smiles*

So for the month of February - at least once a week, I'll try to bake/cook something either pink, or in a heart shape! *claps hands* Imagine a heart shaped piece of steak, or a pink loaf of bread! Hahaha jk! I promise it will be eatible! :) Ahhh I'm so excited now! So hopefully you'll stay tuned, and check out what gets created...! :)

By the way, if any of you have great V Day themed food ideas or any cool stories along the theme, do share! :)

See ya all soon!!! :)

Happy Aussie Day!

2007-01-27T22:50:00.000+08:00

This officially must be one of the hottest weekends in history... I literally felt like a muffin in an oven! Worst than feeling like a "char siew pau" when I had my facial the last time! Perth is known to have some really hot days, and this weekend was one of them! We reached about 41 degrees yesterday I heard and today was 40 and tomorrow is I think going to be 40 as well! Argg!!!

Anyhow, to celebrate Australia Day we had some friends over and had a BBQ as well as a potbless. Wow there was so much food! We had steak, lamb, kebabs, salads, chicken, noodles etc etc! It was a food galore! It was awesome! :) Fellowship was fantastic, people were great, overall a great Aussie weekend - the way it's meant to be!!!

(Thanks Gerard for taking the photos! See below...)

Tiramisu!

2007-01-27T22:36:00.000+08:00

Ahhh!!! As mentioned in a previous post, this is the Tiramisu I made for Ben and Rika's house warming a few weeks ago. This tiramisu has, I must say cleared almost my poor memories of my previous attempts at this decadent dessert! I used Tia Maria and Rum, and man this is such a heavenly combination!

I remember my friend Cheryl once trying to calm me down about not following a recipe totally, she said that things might actually turn out better and we get pleasantly surprised! So true! I was walking in Coles on a Thurs night and wanted to make a certain dessert (forgot what it was now!) then half way decided to make tiramisu instead, because I saw the sponge fingers on display - but couldnt remember the proportions of what we needed. Anyhow, didnt buy enough mascarpone cheese (meant to be about 500g) but I bought only 250g and whipping cream, so decided to instead use 250g of mascarpone and 250ml of cream (whipped separately) and wahhh la! It was great! Not as rich, a little cheaper, and overnight, this dessert tastes even better... no joke! :)

Rice Flour Rolls!

2007-01-11T17:18:00.000+08:00

These are the white rice flour rolls that you often get from the Dim sum restaurants. I made these from scratch using water, rice flour, a bit of corn starch and oil - cooked it in the microwave and wah la! They tasted pretty good, really quite authentic!

Drizzled with the hoisin mixture (which basically is hoisin sauce, water and sesame oil) and scattered some toasted sesame seeds, and you have it!

Your authentic rice flour rolls! :)

Mango Mania!

2007-01-09T15:42:00.000+08:00

I have been forever wanting to make good mango pudding! I love it, but you don't always manage to taste good ones from the Dim Sum restaurant - they are either not creamy enough or fake tasting, that you know they must have either skimmed on the mango or used the tin version! Fresh is always best!!!

So today was the day for Mango Pudding! I'm going to a friend's house for dinner tonight, so thought it would be a good opportunity as well! Verdict? YUM!!! I haven't drizzled carnation milk on top of the pudding yet, but it will be really nice, and will do so tonight when we eat it! The texture was really smooth and yes I think just the right consistency!

Okay so what were the ingredients? Aeroplane jelly "Mango Mania", carnation milk (but I used cream instead as I didnt have any carnation milk this morning), cold water, and fresh mango!

Truly yummilicious!!!

Pineapple Tarts!

2007-01-07T16:26:00.000+08:00

I find these tarts such a joy to eat! :) Pretty little pastry with a tiny scoop of sweetened pineapple filling! Yum!!! Typical chinese new year goodies, they will be everywhere come Feb! But who says we can only eat them during CNY? I think they are nice to eat all the time! *wink*

I used crushed tinned pineapples, a cinnamon stick and a couple of cloves to make the filling. Drain out the liquid from the pineapples, but next time I make it, I will leave a little bit more of the liquid, as by the time you put it in the oven, a lot of the moisture will disappear. Add some caster sugar to taste. And basically simmer and stir it for about an hour till it changes colour (as below) and thickens: (By the way, make the pineapple filling the night before, and then refrigerate it so that it becomes more solid and you can form little pineapple balls)

You know, sometimes I ask myself how can one be so passionate about food??? It is one of the joys given by God! :)

Okay, so pastry time... it was very satisfying to create good pastry... it was strange, it felt good even in its uncooked form... the colour, the texture after it was placed in the fridge for 30mins to chill... I used gloves to rub the butter into the flour/salt/sugar/egg mixture, as otherwise it gets very gluey... o ya you add in about 55ml of iced water, some vanilla essence and a few drops of yellow colour. Trust me, use gloves then you can have a lot more fun with the dough and not worry about getting it into your fingers and nails!

I bought the pineapple tart mould from Singapore for S$1.50! It's very cute and pretty, and make sure you flour the mould a little to ease the cutting of the dough with it!

All in all, it worked out, pretty yummy (o ya egg wash the pastry to get a bit of a shine and browning to it!) - and definitely going to make more again sometime soon! :)

Finished fruits of my labour! :)

(p.s. Stay tuned for my next post on Tiramisu! - waiting for the photos from my friend! :))

Christmas in Singapore!

2007-01-05T17:49:00.000+08:00

I'm back! :) I went to Singapore for 10 days... it was just right! I didnt make it past Takashimaya, and only sat the MRT once, but the good thing about being there for not too long is that the damage on the weighing scales wouldnt be as bad! I haven't been to Singapore since March 05, so it was nice to go back and remember how many shops they had, how MUCH food there is, I even wondered if perhaps there was a ratio of 2 people: 1 restaurant! No kidding, there is just so much food! My q is, if so, why are people still on an average small??? Not fair!

It was nice being in Spore, and catching up with family and friends. We had an asian meal at a Hotel for Christmas, in this private function room that had couches and everything! :) It was nice, and yes it was good to be with family and relatives!

Okay food I ate (I forgot to bring my camera most of the times, so didn't get to take many happy snaps - so imagine!):

James and I - sashimi octopus out of James' mouth and I'm holding a tempura - yum!

Japanese buffet - I wish we had it in Perth! The usual stuff, but it was nice!!
Sausage wrapped with a roti prata
Japanese pancake with red bean inside - yum!
Beard Papa - cream puffs @ $2 each
Okay this one is great! - Green tea Frappaccino from Starbucks! Oh my gosh! This is heavenly................ craving for it at the thought!
Xiao Long Pao - the shanghai dumplings with soup inside - I wanna learn how to make this!
Herbal duck - yes herbal duck... yum yum!
Japanese pancake balls thing, stuffed with prawn or octopus

Okay, I ate more than that, but those are the ones worth mentioning! :) The food in Singapore is just so good - and it is everywhere!!! And shopping - I love how they display it by the colour category!

Met up with 2 of my good friends in Singapore (Thanks May and Jieying!) - had a great time, and yeah was so good! Wish you guys here were - or May would probably say, me move back to Singapore!!! :P

May and I :)

Jieying and I :)

Okay, stay tuned for more posts... I'm attempting Pineapple Tarts and Tiramisu tonight!
Till then! :)

Crumbed and Stuffed Chicken!

2006-12-18T22:18:00.000+08:00

Ahhh this was tonight's dinner! Crumbed chicken with pancetta, spinach, sundried tomato pesto and cheese! :) I roasted some potatos for the side dish, and to make it complete, sliced up some cucumber! :)

This was fairly yum!!! A bit of work though, because of the assembling, and also because you had to first coat it with flour, then dip it in the egg + milk mixture, then coat it with breadcrumbs, leave it in the fridge for 30mins, then pan fry it each side to get it nice and brown, then place it in the oven for about 10mins or until the chicken is cooked through!

This is the first time I'm using pancetta... hmmm... I think I may go for bacon next time, because I could hardly feel or taste the effects of the pancetta... however, I think bacon may be a little too strong....

I'm not sure if my picture does justice to the chicken, but it was quite a satisfying meal!

Do have a go when inspiration hits you! :)

'Tis the Season to be Jolly!!!

2006-12-17T21:03:00.000+08:00

8 Days to go before Christmas!!!

I love this time of the year! :) The cheer, the festivity, the relaxed atmosphere, the christmas carols, just everything about December! I wish December lasted a little longer than a month... :) Anyway, so I had big plans to bake, and maybe even do a Christmas cake... but with 8 days to go, none of it has happened :( - There will be always be the hope for Christmas 2007.

However, we had a christmas dinner for the YAs, and Janice and I were placed in charge of catering dinner for 60 young adults!!! It was a huge task, at times seemed too large and a mountain too high to climb, but we had so much fun, and Janice is absolutely amazing with her decorations and food ideas! So we had heaps of fun!!!

Thank you to all the wonderful people who helped us out! :) Couldnt have done it without you! :)

Incase I don't see or speak to you guys soon, just want to...
wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very blessed 2007!!!
May 2007 be an even better year for you, with more dreams coming true and success in everything you do! :)

Thanks for reading my blog - may 2007 bring even more food and cooking inspiration!!! :)

Check out the photos below.........

The beginning of the feast for the night....

Another view of the food... :)

The yummy ham Eulynn roasted....

The turkey I roasted... not exactly the best shot but thank God it worked out well.
Did you know turkey porridge is extremely yummy??? :)

The summer berry trifle that I made! :)
(check out the cool food labels that Janice made!!!)

Perfect Mini Fruit tarts!

2006-12-16T22:02:00.000+08:00

Heyhey!!! Yes I know, it has been so long since I last blogged! I just realised there were NO entries in November! I have been pretty busy, didn't bake all that much actually, on reflection. But promise there will be a few more entries coming up! Okay for the first time ever, I made proper custard.... this is called pastry cream, and it was really good! But I want to modify it next time... I'll post the recipe below and write little notes at the bottom on how I would modify it. It was really delicious, a little bit too sweet (which is why i would suggest the following modications), I used real vanilla instead of the essence... it was a pastry cream hence if you want it a little firmer, you prob should add in more cornstarch. But this certainly beats the box custard! So try it sometime! :) No, I didn't make the shortcrust pastry - bought the mini tarts (Pampus) brand - follow instructions, real simple and totally yummy! I brushed some gelatine over the top of the fruit.

Perfect summer treat especially when chilled!!! :)

2 cups half-and-half (mixture of milk and cream)
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated white sugar
A pinch of salt (1/8 tsp.)
5 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Heat the half-and-half, 6 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt in a saucepan until the mixture simmers. Stir occasionally to dissolve sugar.

2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in a bowl until smooth. Whisk in the remaining sugar (2 tablespoons) with the egg yolks. Whisk the mixture for about about 15 seconds. Whisk in the cornstarch and keep whisking for about 30 seconds.

3. When the half-and-half mixture is simmering, gradually add the the hot milk/cream mixture to the egg yolks, only a little at a time. Return the mixture to the pan and simmer until the mixture is thick and shiny, about 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. If you prefer a smooth pastry cream, strain the mixture through a sieve. Refrigerate the pastry cream for at least 3 hours, until it is cold. You can keep it for two days!

Source: http://kokonuggetyumyum.blogspot.com/2005/05/biggest-disappointment-ever-strawberry.html#111638886260095363

*Liz's modifications: Here is what I would suggest for next time - mind you, I havent tried this modified version, just some thoughts I had after tasting it - it is fairly sweet, so I would cut down the sugar by 1/3. I would perhaps add in an extra tablespoon of the cornstarch*

Shortbread varieties!

2006-10-31T21:43:00.000+08:00

After dinner tonight, the perfect square of butter in the fridge totally distracted me! Days ago, I was thinking of baking plain shortbread with chocolate shape print in the middle, so totally eager to make these perfectly shaped cookies, I headed straight into the kitchen after dinner.

I made choc chip shortbread, plain shortbread and "double decker" shortbread! My initial idea of those shortbread with cute patterns in the middle disappeared after I tried doing it, too much work, far too delicate and for some weird reason, my dough tonight seemed to be a bit drier than I remembered it was previously!

Anyway it turned out well! So here I am, 2 hours later, kitchen cleaned, shortbread baked, waiting for it to be cooled before packing it away! Tomorrow is the first day of the month, busy time @ work - hopefully these cookies will bring some sense of comfort to us in the midst of urgent journals, accounting issues and tight deadlines! :)

Have a happy mid-week everyone! :)

More Apples!!!

2006-10-29T19:31:00.000+08:00

Entry on Sunday: Yes yes yes! More apples! Weekends seem to be getting busier! After a REALLY busy Saturday, today seemed like a holiday :) I even managed to do my laundry and watched "The Break up" too - I had heard mixed reviews about it. My quick review of it: dialogue was VERY realistic, and shows the different ways in which guys and girls work! Ending was a bit ermmm... iffy.... if there is such a word! It was perhaps a "blah" movie... in which you cant really comment on for more than 2 sentences! :)

A couple of weeks ago, I bought the Nov 06 issue of "Food Idea" and saw a recipe for a "Apple and Custard teacake" - that seemed interesting enough! Seeing the huge basket of apples that we still had and liking custard, this seemed like the perfect recipe to try!

Taste verdict: Not bad! Although I think the previous apple cake was a better recipe! That one had an incredible fluffy texture! But this one was definitely really nice and moist because of the custard. The cake formed a slight apple and custard layer at the bottom.

An Apple a day keeps the doc away? :)

2006-10-23T22:38:00.000+08:00

Yes of course! :) So what better way to consume your daily prescription of fruits than in a yummy Apple & Cinnamon teacake?! Haha! Well, ok this probably wouldnt be what a doctor would prescribe, but nevertheless there are real fresh apples in this cake!

Recipe came from the "Good Taste" Sept 06 magazine! I have been starring at it for ages, and was hoping to bake it on the weekend... but didn't end up baking it. So tonight, after a loooong day @ work, I was STILL thinking about the cake... and was going through the "should I or should I not" thought process, and then BANG! thought why not! How long would it take me anyway?! And so in less than an hour, it was sitting very nicely in the oven... 40mins later, the aroma filled the kitchen, and shortly after, here it was! Taste was really quite lovely! The texture of the cake was nice and fluffy and very light, yet moist! A very even textured cake :) Apples were nice and sweet and it was all just right! I increased the milk a bit just to make sure it would not be dry, but other than that, I didnt change the ingredients!

Hor Fun

2006-10-15T21:23:00.000+08:00

One of my friends asked why I didnt mention his name in my blog when he was part of the "blog action"! Haha! I told him I would devote a whole entry to him then - so here it is, this "Hor Fun" entry is for you - hahaha! To someone who is entertaining to watch eat, always likes savouries, who doesnt like sweets, and only enjoys about 2 desserts in the whole world!!! (that has to change one day! haha! :P)

A few weeks ago, I started cooking this dish - I'm sorry I dont have the recipe - Im being like a typical asian cook and just adding this and that to the dish to taste! - I now understand my Mum! :) It's basically white noodle sticks (Kway Teow) - that you buy fresh from the asian shops and you fry it with oil and garlic, and to make it brown, simply put a bit of the dark sticky black sauce! You then cook the egg sauce and once completed, you ladle the sauce over the kway teow. This was dinner tonight - my family enjoyed it - phew it passed the high quality food control family testing! :)

A trick to make the egg sauce - crack the whole egg in and swirl it very quick and only a couple of times, otherwise the sauce looks too eggy like scrambled eggs! :)

Best eaten with the green pickled chilli, but we forgot to buy some, so ate it with some hot red pickled chilli instead!!! :)

Green tea cupcakes!!!

2006-10-15T21:04:00.000+08:00

Green tea green tea green tea! It has a very subtle fragrance! :) I'm not sure what it is about it, perhaps the thought that it may ermm have a healthy element to it that makes it appealing? Nah not really! Hehe! Anyway, I finally got round to baking these "different" sort of cupcakes - thanks to the Cupcake Bakeshop @ http://cupcakeblog.com/! Check this blog out, it is all inspiring!!! :) Takes the idea of a cupcake to a whole different heavenly level! :)

I once thought and still do think that green tea has a bit of a fish food flavour to it, and I remember my friend once asked if I had actually tasted fish food! No! Of course not, but really, you have to admit it does have that type of flavour to it... :)

On that ermm interesting note, here are the fruits of my oven labour this afternoon! :) Very good - a recipe to keep! This is not your fluffy airy type of cupcake - it is one that has a fairly solid feel to it, and you can definitely taste the green tea - it's subtle but it's there. For those who dont like a strong taste of it, you'll appreciate this, and I love the fact that these cupcakes are green! :) Kinda different! :)

I cut down on the sugar to 1.5cups of sugar instead of the 2 cups... refer to the Cupcakeshop blog for the recipe :)

Enjoy all! :)

I am alive!!!

2006-09-26T20:54:00.000+08:00

Hello hello hello!

Okay, so it has indeed been awhile since I wrote or updated this blog! Sorry! Things have been so busy! :) I have though been cooking! Just havent been taking snaps and writing it up here! I've been exploring and cooking more savouries - I figured I should invest more time into this area, although more useful and tasier, not as fun or pretty as desserts! :)

Anyway, thank you for those who are still checking in once in awhile - in approx 2 weeks this blog should hopefully be more alive! I'm dying to try out the green tea cupcakes that was in someone's cupcake blog - looks fab! So that shall be happening soon - plus I still need to try the Spanish Roast Chicken by Jamie Oliver... talking about Jamie Oliver, his Sticky Toffee Pudding is awesome! Love it love it love it! Simple to make, so moist and well... delicious! :)

A couple of annonymous bloggers have dropped in to say Hi! Thanks! and Hi back! :) For the person who asked for the Raspberry Donna Hay cupcake recipes - I will post it up in about 2 weeks if that is ok? Please check in from time to time! :) You'll love it! :)

Okay till then, happy eating everyone!!!

Cheers, Liz :)

Nutty choc chip cookies!

2006-08-20T11:25:00.000+08:00

Last week's bake!!!
Choc chip cookies with a bit of a variation - used brown raw sugar instead (this gave it a bit more of a grainey feel) and tossed in some chopped almonds! :)

Good morning!!!

2006-08-20T11:15:00.000+08:00

Check these pancakes out! I made these for our Sat breakfast! :)

These were from Jamie Oliver's Happy Days recipe book, and they were like the hotcakes from McDonalds! Fluffy and fairly thick, and surprisingly it browned real nicely! :) Although a little more complicated and time consuming to prepare, as you need to separate the yolks and the whites, but it was worth it! :)

The recipe doesnt have sugar in it, so you can make it either sweet or savoury and the variety of toppings is just endless! I drizzled maple syrup, whipped up some cream and cut some strawberries, simply divine!!! :)

Harry's in Perth?!!!

2006-08-05T22:42:00.000+08:00

Refer to earlier postings on "Harry's Hotdogs" in Sydney :) So anyway, we decided to try making our own today for lunch! It was actually pretty nice! We didnt make the sauce from scratch(!), bought the Taco seasoning, and added in our own onions and garlic, diced tomatos, kidney beans and minced beef :) Pretty yum! And added the Master foods hot chilli sauce! It did come quite close to the real thing, but we still need to find the right sausage... the American hotdogs from Woolworths was not solid enough!

However, overall quite a tasty Saturday lunch! :)

Cake mixes?!!!

2006-08-05T22:29:00.000+08:00

Okay, I admit I am usually quite skeptical about using cake mixes because 1) I think it's not enough fun, not enough of a challenge and 2) it may not turn out nice! Either too bland or too sweet or something like that!

However, on Thursday night we stopped by Woolworths, and I was browsing through the cake section! I wanted to make choc chip cookies, but decided that I would feel too guilty if I spent too much time in the kitchen when I really should be doing a lot of other things... ie study, assignment, etc etc! Then these very attractive cadbury boxes caught my eye! My 2 above hesitations immediately accompanied it!!!

I decided yes to "cheat bake" so that I could have a little bit of fun in the kitchen and yet not take TOO much time...... so I bought the Cadbury Choc Swirl Cake mix!

Verdict: Simple to make, so if you like a challenge in the kitchen, there is absolutely NONE, but it turned out well! Yay! Light, spongy and tasty, and the frosting was really yummy too! :) So do give this a go, it's pretty good value @ $4 a box, and simple to make and tasty!

My colleagues enjoyed it, so it was all worth it! :)

Glutinous rice in Lotus Leaves!

2006-07-31T20:23:00.000+08:00

I've been dying to try this out for absolute ages - even before my last exam and before my Sydney trip! Yay finally I managed to find some time (at the expense of my tax assignment... hmmm hmmm :P) on Sunday afternoon and made it!

Check it out!

You can purchase these dried lotus leaves from Asian grocery shops - soak them in hot water for an hour till it is soft.

2. Most recipes will ask you to soak the glutinous rice in water overnight and then steam it for about 30mins - My mum taught me a quick way of just microwaving it for about 20mins (I used about 3 cups of rice for this recipe) - just place enough water to cover it about 1-1.5 inches above the surface of the rice. I think it's better to have less water than more, as you can always add in more later! :)

Place the rice in a steam-proof container and steam for about 30mins.

3. Ingredients are chinese mushrooms, shrimp, chinese sausage (see below) and chicken breast. Soak ingredients, other than the chicken in hot water for about 30mins. Up to you how much ingredients you would like to use :)

Marinate the sliced chicken fillet with a bit of sesame oil and soya sauce.

4. Thinly slice the chinese sausage.

5. Simmer the ingredients. Heat the pan with oil, and fry the chicken till slightly brown. Place the chopped garlic, chinese mushrooms, chinese sausages and shrimp once chicken is fairly cooked and fry for a few mins. I like the filling to be brown, so I threw in some dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Make it as tasty or as not tasty as you like! :) Oh yeah, and throw in some spring onions as well!

To make the sauce thick, combine some cornflour with cold water and mix it into the cooked ingredients, and simmer for a few mins.

6. The steamed glutinous rice.

7. Place a big tablespoon of rice in the middle of the lotus leave, and put a bit of the ingredients into the centre, and cover it with the glutinous rice. Wrap the 'rice parcel' with the lotus leaves like an envelope.

Steam for about 30mins or so.

8. This is it! :) Yum yum!!! The lotus leaves really do give it a nice fragrance! :)
Eaten best when straight out of the steamer!!! :)

Agar Jelly!

2006-07-30T18:18:00.000+08:00

Fellow foodblogger from "Grab your Fork" asked ages ago for the agar jelly recipe! Sorry it has taken this long!

Extremely simple - it's basically follow the instructions at the back of the pack of this particular brand of agar powder that I used! Absolutely no tricks there! I like using the powder version, heaps quicker! Actually I have never used the strips before, but Mum has said it is more of a hassle!

Some quick pointers on making the layered jelly (besides it being absolutely time consuming, but totally worth while when it works out!):

I like using coconut milk to get the pastel colours - I dont really have a set amt of how much of it I use. Eg. 1 recipe = 1L of water, you could do half water and half coconut milk. I have never used 100% coconut milk before!

Each layer takes about 3-5mins to harden - use a toothpick to lightly tap each layer to make sure it is actually set before pouring in the next layer.

To get a nice pandan flavour, use the green pandan flavour colouring which can be purchased from Asian grocery shops.

A problem I had was how do you keep the jelly from not hardening in its pots/containers whilst you wait for each layer to set? Keep it on a low flame! Otherwise it will most likely set in the pot :)

Recipe asks for 250g sugar... I always use just under a cup of sugar.. I think this is less than 250g sugar, and just right if you ask me! :)

Pretty in Pink!!!

2006-07-30T17:56:00.000+08:00

For those that know me, I love PINK!!! I'm not sure when or how this obsession happened but it did! A couple of weekends ago, Mum and I went to this cake decoration supply shop in Bibra Lake and I bought some royal icing sugar (which you can buy from Coles as well) and decided to buy some liquid food colouring to try! Of course I chose my favourite colour - Pink! Surprisingly, you only need a tiny bit of this liquid (so yes this tiny jar is going to last me yonkers!!!) to get a really lovely pink colour!

I did refreshments again this week for church and inspired by the pretty pictures in the August 06 Good Taste magazine of their cupcakes, made the White Chocolate Mudcake cupcakes, but made them Mini size. The recipe was simple enough and seemed really good, but I guess with all mini size cupcakes they often tend to be more dry... anyway going ahead with my initial plan, I decided to "dress" it up in Pink! Used Betty Crocker's vanilla frosting and with a bit of the pink liquid food color, the gorgeous pink was born! I bought a really cute set of little cutters to get the tiny heart shapes :)

Oh, and just a quick one - I tried out the Orange Yoghurt cake from "Milk and Cookies" blog (http://ilovemilkandcookies.blogspot.com/) last weekend - and perhaps it was just me, as her review on the cake was excellent, but yeah it was a bit dry and more solid than expected. Flavour wise was really nice though, the fresh burst of orange flavour! By the way, check out her blog, it is really cool! :)

Made Nigella's brownies - haha funny how sometimes it turns out different each time you make it, but as my friend Cheryl comforted me, sometimes this works out for the best! And true enough it did - altho not as fluffy as it was the previous time, it was still delicious, and moist - just gotta warm it up and serve it with cream/ice cream! Yumm!!! It was probably more brownie like this way! :)

Taronga Zoo!

2006-07-21T00:36:00.000+08:00

My good friends Gen and Gloria and I always went to the Singapore Zoo whenever we went back to Singapore for our summer hols! So going to a zoo in a new city seemed quite natural!

it was with great fondest to visit a zoo again - Gen and Gloria, I still think the Spore Zoo is better!!! Although the view from the Taronga Zoo is breath taking! So nice! Worth the $34 adult entry fee! By the way, the zoo is 90 years old this year, so for the month of July, if you are born in July, you can get it for 90cents only! :)

My favourite was the giraffes! Check the pictures out - it says it all!!! I haven't posted pictures of any other animals, apparently Sydney is probably quite famous for its Gorillas (yes they look like King Kong!) and snow leopards - we only saw the tail... it was sleeping... :( But I have posted pictures of the view...

Bondi Beach & HUGE ribs!!!

2006-07-20T23:57:00.000+08:00

Hahaha, yes I'm still blogging about Sydney... nearly finished, nearly there!

Anyway, here are some pictures of Bondi beach... I think I prefer the Perth beaches... however, what was really cool about this beach was that there was this swimming pool that was next to the Ocean! Check it out!

There is this fantastic restaurant that we went to for dinner that night at Bondi - it is just a street away from the beach! It is called Hurricanes! They are famous for their pork and lamb ribs! It's hard to actually see the size from the pictures above, but let's just say it was MASSIVE!!! I think the size of the plate was the size of your serving plates which you use to serve like 5 people!

The stack of ribs is bigger than a guy's hand! Yum yum yum.. pretty good value too, $27. No! Do not be horrified, I did not consume it all myself!!! The lamb looked a lot less than the pork.... as Gen's expression (which unfortunately I did not capture! It was a classic!) so well revealed! No one left home hungry, or unsatisfied! A must go place! The fastest service ever, considering we went in a group of 40! Go go goooo!!! :) - check out those bones... boy would Cruise have loved it! :)

Raspberry trifle Cupcakes AND Nutella Cupcakes!!!

2006-07-16T16:03:00.000+08:00

(Note: Had heaps of problems putting pictures up... so this was written like nearly a week ago... on Sunday!!!)

The smell of chocolate is DIVINE.....!!! My nutella cupcakes are currently happily baking in the oven and wow.... I can really smell the chocolate!!! Yummmyyyy!!! Boy, have I missed my oven and kitchen! :)

This weekend was a food feast!!! Eulynn organised a really nice steamboat dinner last night (forgot to take pics!) for a few of us - such good fun! Loads of food and fantastic fellowship! Friday night we had 2 birthday surprises - which funnily enough I missed both of them by about 5mins! Hahaha! But yes there was more food.... and more laughs and tons of fun!!! This is what is called "home"!!!

Raspberry trifle cupcakes turned out pretty nice, except that I misread the custard icing method and hence it didnt quite have that nice peak form... but it was still pretty yummy! Bought REAL vanilla bean paste (@ $10 a jar! TINY jar too! yikes!) to use as well... :) Anyway, they look a lot prettier than the nutella cupcakes... and it was nice and moist, and not too sweet. This recipe was taken from Donna Hay's magazine... she has some really nice pretty cupcakes in there!

My nutella cupcakes are DONE! I was going to make some pretty decorations and cover it with chocolate frosting, but I think that is going to be an overkill by the smells of it! So perhaps next week we'll do something pretty, for now... we'll enjoy the cupcakes in its natural form, hehe!!! :) (Recipe courtesy from "Baking Sheet" http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com search for "Nutella")

Taste verdict: The recipe was not wrong when it said it would be a little bit tricky to swirl the nutella as the cupcake base is very thick and rich!!! My family enjoyed the cupcakes very much (yay!) - I think it was a rich and solid cupcake, but unfortunately, I think it could have been a bit more moist... it was a little bit more dry than I would have liked it to be! I think it's fairly ordinary... the raspberry trifle one was a little more special! :)

I think next weekend will be proper savoury cooking..... stay tuned!!!

Famous Sydney Sights!

2006-07-13T23:31:00.000+08:00

Check out the awesome Sydney weather!!!

Some famous sights as follows.... love it love it love it!!!

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Martin Place!

(Martin Place was where I saw the famous korean actress from "Autumn in My Heart" - she really is very pretty looking! She was shooting a commercial for a drink/juice! - no wonder there were so many asian people around Martin Place that day!!!)

This is The Rocks Market, which is open every weekend! Pictures of the buildings were around Kings St Wharf area... really nice looking buildings, which house cafes! :)

Stay tuned for my afternoon cupcake creation - Raspberry Trifle Cupcakes!!!

It's ready, I gotta go dress it up now! :)))

Japanese pizza & Award winning Corn?!!!

2006-07-13T23:17:00.000+08:00

Yes, Japanese pizza... it really was a jap pancake with noodles, cabbage, prawns and meat! It was really yummy! Gotta try to make it sometime! This place in Chinatown also sold the japanese pancake filled with custard, red bean or green tea or chocolate paste :)

Yes apparently this corn has won some prices! It is this stall at The Rocks markets and all they say is cooked corn on the cob, and you can have it with butter, salt and pepper! It was pretty nice! $3 for one tho! :)