A Smoothie Morning

Sometimes when I don't know what to make for breakfast, I blend. I usually make green smoothie for the hubby and I to take to work. But for weekends and public holidays like yesterday, I tend to try something different.

I've been trying thinking of an unusual recipe for a smoothie. And then it hit me: black sesame! I then googled it and found that it has been done by others but it's not that popular.

Anyway, here are two types of breakfast smoothies from yesterday. One fruity and bright coloured for Emma, and a black one for the adults.

The ingredients for the Mango, Banana Smoothie are:

1 mango
1 banana
some yogurt
a bit of honey
a splash of soy milk

Then you just whizzz.. everything in the blender.

Teddy likes it. It was Emma's idea to use him as a prop!

For the black sesame smoothie, the ingredients are:

2-3 tbsp of roasted and ground black sesame seeds
1 banana
soy milk

I roasted the seeds the night before and ground them in the morning. I didn't add any honey because the soy milk was the sweetened type.

If you notice the coloured paper in the photo above, it's actually done using ice-painting. Here's the artist for the paper, and the assistant art director for the photo-shots!

A Different Kind of Easter Egg

I was trying to think of a way of making Easter eggs that's doesn't include painting boiled eggs. Someone blogged about baking cakes in eggshells. That sounded great but could be a bit messy. Then there was another one where you put candies in eggshells and seal them up. Hmm... sugar high....

Then the idea of making jelly in eggshells came to my mind. So I started saving the shells whenever I cooked eggs or bake cakes and cookies.

I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I thought if it didn't, I'd just take photos of them and post them on Pinterestfails. Ha ha.Thankfully, they turn out great. 

My little one enjoyed cracking the eggs and removing the shells.

As for the pretty colours, I did not use any artificial food colouring at all. Here's what I used instead:

RED - Ribena concentrate
BLUE - Blue peaflowers (bunga telang, juice only)
Orange - Fresh mango (chopped super fine)

So I made clear jelly from agar powder, separated the liquid to three parts and added the above ingredients, and poured them into the empty eggshells. Then refrigerate.

I hope you like this idea. 

 

Pumpkin Bread

When we went to the Big Bad Wolf last year, we bought lots of books. However, most of them were for Christmas presents. I told myself I'd buy one cookbook for myself. There were plenty of recipe books with beautiful covers. But I end up choosing one with a rather plain cover, because I thought the recipes inside were great and a little different.
Commonsense Baking, that's the name of the book. And this is the first recipe from the book that I've tried.

My last post was on Pumpkin Muffins, which I guess is pretty common. This this pumpkin recipe however, is great and a just a teeny bit uncommon. It's real yeasty BREAD, not the cake loaf type of 'bread'. The end result is a lovely bread loaf with a nice golden colour when you slice it.

When you see something like this out of your oven, it makes all the hard work worthwhile. Also, when you bake your own bread, you get this lovely bready, yeasty aroma filling your whole house. It beats store bought bread anytime. Besides, I haven't such type of bread sold anywhere.

Here's how it looks like after the dough is risen, before baking:

And here it is, straight from the oven:

Finally, here's the recipe I'd like to share. I've simplified it from the original. I can't wait to try more recipes from the book. I guess what they say is right; don't judge a book by its cover!

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkins. There are so many things you can do with them. I've used them in pilaf, pancakes, loaf cakes, muffins and yeast bread (which will be in my next post). Pumpkin puree also make a wonderful baby food.

Anyway, here I would like to share a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. These are really easy to make. I used steamed fresh pumpkin but you can also use canned pumpkins.



So this is a very short post. Life isn't so great right now. But cooking and baking is always therapeutic. And photography too, if I can get it right.

Here's the recipe.





Chinese New Year - Meat Rolls

Today is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year, or Chap Goh Meh. In the old days young maidens would take a walk under the full moon and cast oranges into the river to wish for a good husband. Or something like that, more or less.

Anyway, as the celebration comes to and end, I would like to share something from my mother's kitchen. Unlike my little kitchen, hers is large and airy, with plenty of natural light, which is perfect for food photography.


I helped my mom make meat rolls for CNY dinner. They are either called Lor Bak or Ngo Hiang in Chinese. I'm not sure if there is a difference, but one thing I'm sure off, these meat rolls are yummy! Unfortunately, they take a bit of work. But it's okay, it's a labour of love for the family!

Here are some of the snapshots....


This is me, chopping up some stuff. The things that go into the meat rolls are carrots, water chestnuts, shitake mushrooms, crab meat and pork meat.

Here's the meat filling all ready to be rolled.

The filling gets spread onto a bean curd sheet, rolled up, and sealed with cornflour mix.

These are the meat rolls, frying in in hot oil.

And here they are..... hot Lor Bak, ready to be cut and served!

We also had other food, which I'm not showing here. But take a look at this claypot on charcoal fire. Duck soup simmering inside.

That's all for now. Happy Chap Goh Meh and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Traditional Peanut Cookies

The festive seasons is far from over. Christmas may have passed but Chinese New Year is just around the corner and can't seem to wait to burst.

I don't usually make Chinese New Year goodies as most of them require a lot of hot oil and frying. However, these old-fashioned cookies are lovely and are my nephew's favourite. This recipe produces delicious melt-in-the-mouth cookies.

Making these cookies isn't difficult, really. The only tedious part is removing the skin from the roasted peanuts. If you do not live in an apartment, however, you could rub the nuts and blow the skin away. Do this outdoors, or course. That's how my mom used to do it.

Also, if you're roasting the nuts yourself, remember to measure out more than the required quantity and they will lose weight upon roasting.

Another tip: you may add the quantity of the flour or oil to adjust the dough consistency. If it is too wet and soft, add more flour. If it is too dry, add a little more oil. Simple.

Okay, so here's the recipe:

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Christmas Baking

I remember the smell of my mom's kitchen when we were baking cookies for Christmas. Andy Williams, Karen Carpenter or Boney M could be heard while we were rolling and pressing. Those were the good old days.

Nowadays, I have a small kitchen and a tiny oven. But I still love baking for Christmas. And my 3-year-old daughter seems to enjoy it too.

Here are some snapshots of the Christmas goodies I made in my lil' kitchen.

2008

Chocolate Crinkles

Mini Gingerbread Men

Cinnamon Sticks. These really are a favourite among many.

Orange Shortbread

Peanut Butter Cookies



2009

 

2012

I became a busy mummy after giving birth at 2010. So, no baking for Christmas. Or least no photos, until last year. Here's what I made.

Christmas Log

 

2013

These are some of the stuff I made this year. The rest are the same as what I've made before.

Gingerbread people again. This year, they've grown bigger and sexier!

Well, that's all folks. Here's wishing everyone happy baking and a very Merry Christmas!