Post #117

its xmas time!!!!! well, its boxing day today. and i had an extremely busy time before xmas, trying to slot in little bits of festive preparations whenever i can. and xmas flew by in a blink of the eye!!! all fun times tho~~

have neglected this blog for a short while, but definitely not cooking!!!

so, here begins some festive baking - xmas wreath cookies.


-Almond shortbread wreaths with rum + orange glaze-

hubby's boss invited us to his home for a xmas party, so i thought it would be nice to bring some homemade cookies along. this recipe's from australian gourmet traveller! caught my attention right away because they are soooo cute and chritmasy, despite the fact that i dont like baking cookies (and never have....)!





i changed the recipe a little bit - based on what i have in the pantry. hehe. changed a brandy glaze to a rum glaze, and used dried cranberries and currants and crushed pistachio. just thought the red and green and black would look so pretty!! :) also reduced the amount of sugar in the cookies, after knowing how much sugar is used for the icing glaze!!!!



as far as i dont really like eating cookies, these are actually quite nice and v crumbly!!

Post #116

i was meant to try this dish out for a long long time now. everytime we order it at fook yuen i've been saying that i will give it a try! so finally, with the leftover vermicelli from the vietnamese vermicelli salad the other day, i tried it out tonight!!


-Crispy vermicelli with xo seafood sauce-

so easy to make but so yum~ just the vermicelli seems too thin and not as crispy compared to the one at fook yuen. i suspect they use a lot of oil to fry the vermicelli. but the sauce was good! simply pan fry the seafood dices with garlic *i've got prawns, calamari + salmon here*, add the roughly chopped sugar snap peas, then some stock, oyster sauce, chilli, xo sauce and seasoning. finish off with corn starch water to thicken the sauce. i added the sugar snap peas in too early, so its lost its crunch *my bad :(*

on serving plate:



and for supper, i made a banana smoothie *cos i only have banana at home =.=* but i added honey, soy and cinnamon, and it was soooo nice~ banana is a MUST for smoothies. makes such a big difference.

hehe, forgot to take pic before drinking...


-Banana + cinnamon smoothie-

Post #115

effortless cooking ~ thanks to my dearest mum!!! everytime we go to mums we would end up taking bags of food home. mums just like our food supplier, especially those exotic chinese ingredients, like dried mushrooms, dried shrimps, pickled mustard greens, dried figs, dried dates, chinese north + south almonds, etc etc.

and this time, mum made some braised dried abalone!!! *thanks to dad too as mum would only make it when dad's around!!* and we got 2 to take home~!


-Noodles with abalone, buddhist delight + abalone sauce-

2 massive abalones!! wakakakaka, v rarely we get to eat like this i feel a bit shameful... hubby said, we should have shared one and save the other one later... but we're given 2, its just convenient to each have one... the buddhist delight and the abalone sauce were also supplied by mum. theres hardly any cooking required!

a close up



yum yum yum~

Post #114

only on rare occasions that i would cook breakfast. the reality is that on the weekend, we would either get up at a time thats after breakfasts normally eaten or if we get up early it would be because we have something scheduled to be done early (meaning no time for breakfast).

this saturday we got up early to get things done at the RTA, and surprise surprise it was still brunch time when we got home. so with the right ingredients in the fridge, i was able to whack up a quick brekkie~


-Toast with cheese, avocado, ham + poached egg-

only if i know how to make a hollandaise sauce!! i only used bbq sauce =.=

hey but it was still yum! :) and here's a perfect brekkie, with a strawberry banana smoothie~~

Post #113

sis came over tonight so i bought some king prawns and rib eye scotch fillet to greet her :) such nice sis i am! hehe.

thought about making a beef tataki with japanese ginger dressing, but i wanted to try something new, and to use up some of the truffle oil thats been sitting in the pantry for a long time now. so instead of the usual ponzu dressing, i cooked some chopped mushrooms with truffle oil, garlic, eshallot, cream and chopped parsley to go with the seared beef, finished off with some more truffle oil :)


-Seared beef with creamy mushroom + truffle oil-

and with the king prawns, i cooked them with chorizo, tomatoes, fetta and pearl couscous. hehe, this time actually cooked the fetta too before dishing up.


-Tomato king prawn, chorizo + fetta with pearl couscous-

and a close up:



also made a veg side dish that i recently found a recipe for. brussel sprouts, a veg i remember cooking once a long long time ago, have suddenly caught my attention again! haha. these mini cabbages are just too cute!! and so easy to prepare and cook too! AND apparently they contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre! i think these will appear on our dinner table again :)


-Brussel sprouts with chopped chorizo + almond-

Post #112

still having great fun with the new blender!! delicious freshness~ :) and such a great way to consume fruits when we're too full to eat anything solid. deceptiveness~ >.=

this one - papaya, honey, squeeze of lemon juice + soy milk


-Papaya smoothie-

this - strawberries, banana, yoghurt, apple juice + mint


-Strawberry banana + mint smoothie-

and this - mango, banana, yoghurt, honey, soy milk + mint


-Mango banana + mint smoothie-

Post #111

my continuing experiment with savoury muffins. and i'm glad i havent given up after the first so-so batch of savoury muffins, because these potato ones are awwwwesome!! :)


-Potato bacon + cheese muffins-

i tweaked the recipe a bit. instead of grated potatoes, i went to the trouble of boiling the whole potatoes beforehead and roughly chopped them into chunks as i like waxy potato bites rather than tiny grated pieces. and i used rosemary instead of chives *because i still have some in the fridge ;p* and they were soooo good :) but a bit oily on the bottom, probably because of the tasty cheese. will definitely make again, and next time i might half the tasty cheese and substitute the rest with parmesan!!

see the chuncky potatoes?! :) these are quite morish~ and requires a bit of self-control!!