I am alive!!!

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!

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!!!

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?!!!

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?!!!

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!

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!

1. 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!

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!!!

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!

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!!!

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! :)