The True Mother's Day Deal

Hooray! It's really Mother's Day. Well, today we ended up (as usual) going to our annual Mother's Day brunch. Sadly, my litte sister got food poisoning just yesterday and couldn't go :( I missed her, so I took some pictures at the brunch-buffet place so that she could kinda get the feeling of being there too. We went to the Fort Langley Golf Course, it wasn't as fancy or well organized as the Wolf Creek Golf and Country Club by any means. We had reservations for 12pm and they didn't get us a seat until 20 minutes later! That is always frustrating. And the service was very poor. You may be asking, "What service? Isn't it a buffet?". This is true, but the drinks are served by waiters who took a very long time and seemed inexperienced. Also, the people who were suppose to take away our plates after we had finished using them were slow. I think they were very under-staffed. Overall, the food was okay; but for the same price I would have rather gone to Wolf Creek... sadly, they weren't running a buffet this year :( *sniff* Oh, well... what can you do?

The food on my plate looked pretty unappetizing. Because we had to wait so long, I piled a ton of food on my plate and it looked horrendous :P I did manage to take a couple nice pictures of the breakfast/dessert things...

Belgian Waffles with Fruits... and a Churros hiding

in the background (left)!

Cute miniature foods ... donuts and mini muffins!

Yummy! Chocolate Mousse....

<--and so purdy :)

The Chocolate Mousse Aftermath


----->

Early Mother's Day

My family has the always had the long held tradition of going out for brunch on Mother's Day. I love going to those fancy golf course lunch buffets and seeing all the different and unique combinations of food. The only draw back is that I can't make my Mom breakfast on Mother's Day... otherwise a Mother's Day brunch is pretty stupid, as you'll be stuffed from breakfast. So, the tradition has always been that I prepare a Mother's Day breakfast on the Saturday. This year, I had a lot of fun searching for cool recipes that my mom would enjoy.

Breakfast Casserole:
I made a similar recipe to this one in February (click here to view) and when my mom had some, she just loved it. So for her big day, I decided to make one BIG casserole... but varied it slightly and ended up with a breakfast strata. I will add the recipe later (I promise). But for now, you can take a look at the pictures.
Chai Tea Sponge Cakes:
I really liked how Ivonne utilized my mom's favorite tea to make cute miniature bundt cakes. And her presentation of the cakes was delightful. So, it was a no-brainer that I would use this recipe for Mother's day.
Sugar Cookie Flower Pot:
I made a batch of sugar cookies and added red food coloring to make them a cute pink color. While they were still warm I stuck a toothpick through them. I then took a small flower pot I had purchased at the dollar store and stuck a chocolate cupcake inside to resemble "dirt". The toothpicked-cookies were placed into the "dirt" and placed on the breakfast table. It was so simple, yet so cute.
Apple Pancakes:
The Williams-Sonoma website has some very fancy breakfast ideas that are elegant for Mother's Day. The link above connects to the apple pancake recipe I used. Though my pancakes do not look as beautiful they sure tasted great, almost like christmas... my sister had 3 helpings of them. (Note: The recipe says that it makes 12 pancakes... but I ended up with way more, so unless you eat gigantic pancakes you'll probably end up with 20-25)

Mother's Day was a success! It all went without a hitch an my mom really enjoyed the relaxing day of not having to do dishes, washing etc. Dad, my sisters and I loved watching mom open her presents. We had gotten her a travelling coffee mug with a double-wall (in which we placed some of the better family pictures), a book on 101 things to do to relax, bath necessities and a tea candle. WE LOVE YOU MOM! <3

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yeah! That's right, May 8th (almost May 9th... gotta finish this entry!) and I'm another year older, 19 to be exact. Oh, that special age where the world opens up a whole range of possibilities. What to do? Well, today I decided to make myself an Irish Coffee... I didn't take a photo of it (because it basically just looked like coffee... whoopdie-doo!).

Today was awesome, I got home from a dance practice at church and walked in to hear my mom yell "Happy Birthday!" As a family, we like to keep our birthday celebrations within the nuclear family. I really like our little parties, they're just a fun time to really bond with your parents and siblings. My parent know me all too well. The present they bought me seemed super expensive, and I loved it. Yup, they bought me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer... I'm so excited to use it; finally, my hands can get some well deserved rest :P

My parents and sisters also know that my love for cooking & baking is only paralleled by my love for eating, and that I love coffee-flavoured anything. So when my parents brought out my cake I knew that they had put a lot of thought and love into choosing it. TIRAMISU! Dare I say that I think this cake was even better than T&T's fruit cake :0 *gasp*... I know, when would I ever say such a crazy thing? But seriously, the Tiramisu cake for my B-day was exceptionally delicious, I'm thinking it's even better than I could have made! And that's saying something :)

Man, spending time with the family is great... here'a pic of me and my sisters being super crazy with the cake. I love just acting spontaneously with my sister's, they'r the coolest... besides, of course, my parents ;)

Dad's Party @ Old Spaghetti Factory

This is the same place that we celebrated my little sis' b-day. Ah, the Old Spaghetti Factory... the novelty of "Italian" cuisine without having to deal with authentic Italian crazy people :P (jkjk I kid, I kid)

My family loves this restaurant. I dunno if it's because my mom enjoys the set meal of a pasta dish, bread, soup/salad, tea/coffee and ice cream for an average of about $12.00; or if it's because of it's very family friendly atmosphere? Could be both... but whatever the case, my family really enjoys dining there. I didn't take any pictures of my food :( I know, I'm sorry. I was super hungry by the time I got my pasta (Spicy Chorizo Penne). The reason our food took so long to get to us was because the restaurant was hosting some grade 7 girl's birthday party (there were like 30 kids... no joke! and also 20 others who were in her family).

The kids were kinda noisey and I said to myself, "Hey! This is my Dad's B-day too. We should just ignore the big party of people and focus on my pop's greatness!" And we did. I did take some pictures while we were waiting for our food to arrive, I guess it was just out of boredom...

Here's the yummy sourdough loaf with either plain or garlic butter

-->

<-- Here's my hot water and Honey Lemon Tea

Here's the cool glass of hot water I got with my tea-->

Yeah! Dad's Birthday Celebration was great fun What can I say: Awesome fun with an Awesome Dad!

Gyoza

Inspired by Florence's beautifully crafted gyoza, I decided to try my hand at making these cute dumplings. I always remembered the way my mom and her friends would sit at the kitchen table and prepare wontons and other dumplings for soups and for frying. Those precious memories of the past are sadly faded away, nowadays we usually purchase the gyoza/wontons from T&T or from Hon's. We don't even by the wonton skins from the grocer anymore! So in rememberance of thos moments I decided we must continue on the tradition of home cooking (okay, enough ranting).

My sister isn't a big fan of green onions and is allergic to prawn/shrimp. So I made her a batch of gyoza with only beef... she appreciated it. As for the rest of the gyoza I decided against using mushrooms (since I didn't have any on-hand) and added in garlic, ginger and carrots.

Fried Ginger + Pork Gyoza

Filling
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw pork, minced
- 1 knob of ginger, minced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup carrot, grated
- 1/4 cup green onion, chopped

- Salt and Soya sauce, to taste

Method:

1. Fry pork, ginger and garlic together until pork has turned brown and no longer pink.

2. Once fragrant, add in the green onion and carrots.

3. Continue to mix and drain away the fat. Add in the salt and soya sauce to taste.

Gyoza Skin

Ingredients:

- 1 cup plain flour

- 2/3 cup tapioca starch

- 100ml boiling water

- 40ml cold water

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/3 cup shrimp, deveined and cooked

Method:

1. Combine the 2 flours and salt together in a mixing bowl.

2. Add in the boiling water and stir with a wooden spoon (or chopstick) until they resemble small flakes.

3. Incorporate the cold water and knead into a pliable dough.

4. Roll onto a floured surface and divide the dough into small (ping-pong sized) portions.

5. Use a rolling pin to flatten out dough. Use a small bowl to create circular gyoza skins (10cm in diameter).

6. Place a shrimp in the middle of the wrapper and then continue by adding the filling.

7. Fold wrapper in half and close edges (to prevent the filling from spilling out)

8. Heat some oil in a frying pan and cook gyoza until nicely browned.

9. Eat with japanese vinegar, dumpling dipping sauce, chilli... basically whatever you wish.

I rather enjoyed eating these gyoza. They turned out very crisp and flavourful, unlike the frozen ones from the market. It seems that when you thaw the frozen dumplings and then fry them, they retain some liquid within the dumpling and turn out mushy, soggy and just plain gross. Homemade dumplings are seriously the way to go... try it and you'll be impressed.

Green Tea Ice Cream

What do you do with all that left over whipping cream from your dad's b-day cake icing? Make ice cream of course! I had bought a tin of match powder a while back and decided to finally use it's awesome Green Tea power! And the best form of green tea (besides the brewed tea itself) is as ice cream. I dare someone to challenge that notion... jkjk

Green Tea Ice Cream (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

- 1 cup heavy cream (whipping cream)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tbsp green tea powder (matcha)
- 1/4 cup sugar (or more... depending on taste)

Method:
1. Mix cream and milk
2. Add in green tea powder and sugar gradually (to prevent lumps forming).
Note: if lumps do form don't sweat it. Just use a strainer and get rid of them!
3. Place in a metal bowl and stick it in the freezer.
4. Freeze for 1 hr and then mix it. Freeze for another hour and mix again (at this point you can actually start eating it, if you're freezer is cold enought to have frozen the mixture thoroughly)

As you can see from my photo, I used a fork and scraped some of the ice cream into submission :P I loved the matcha taste. And my sister, who generally doesn't like matcha flavored anything actually found it easy to polish off an entire bowl.

Ichigo Daifuku

Tuesday: Ichigo Daifuku I was contemplating what items would be nice to place in my sister's bento box for school and it hit me. Ichigo Daifuku! I had just bought a package of strawberries the other day and they were perfectly ripe. I also had some left over sweet bean paste from another recipe. So I simply wrapped each strawberry in a thin layer of bean paste and then wrapped them in a daifuku skin which I dyed pink with food coloring. The mochi recipe I use is very simple and is as follows:

Daifuku

1. Prepare your work area with potato starch.

2. Sift together 1 cup of glutinous rice flour with 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar into a small pot.

3. In a small cup mix together 1 cup of water and the preferred coloring (I used 2 drops of red dye).

4. Add the water to the pot containing the flour and sugar and stir over medium heat until the mixture becomes sticky, transparent and "mochi-like".

5. Once the dough is ready dump it onto your potato startched surface and then soak the pot in water (if you do this asap it makes the pot easier to clean.)

6. Dust you're hands generously with potato flour and begin to divide the dough into smaller portions.

7. Wrap your filling with the mochi skin and dust with some more potato starch.

8. Now you have Daifuku! Eat and enjoy!

Too much stuff to post!

Well, usually the case is that I have very little time to make anything and that's why my blog is not being updated. But in this case I've made my hands very busy and just haven't gotten around to blogging any of it... so ironic! So here is my very brief version of last weeks events...

Monday: Went to T&T and bought some Ang Koo Kueh

Oh, my goodness I just love this kueh... it has to be my absolute favorite. I walked into Guilford T&T today and stopped by the little Taiwanese shop in the food court. The owner began speaking to me in mandarin... sadly I do not speak and I let her know this. She seemed disappointed, until I opened my mouth and proclaimed, "I would like one Ang Koo Kueh!" I know it's not the same as speaking my language, but it's close, and the lady seemed to have about an ounce more respect for me. I felt great. I then went home and prepared to steam the delicious kueh. Sadly I got distracted and left it in the steamer too long and it expanded way too much. Some of the red bean filling came spewing out of the glutinous rice layer :( Oh, well it's all the same in your stomach :P


Before the spewing catastrophe (left)... and after (right)



My fascination with kueh is only equally paralleled with my fascination for mochi and daifuku. I think I just enjoy playing with glutinous rice flour...

I will continue reminiscing about last weeks events in my following posts. But for now, here are the very minimal details

Tuesday: Ichigo Daifuku
(Will elaborate more in next post)

Wednesday: Green Tea Ice Cream
(elaboration will continue)

Thursday: Gyoza

Friday: Dad's Birthday Outing

Oreo Yogurt Cupcakes

Okay, so my yogurt challenge to myself is long since past. Since they did expire quite a while back. But I still decided to use yogurt in a cute new recipe I found off the internet at Precious Moments (warning... if you don't like heart cuddly music, turn off your speakers before you click on the link! I, personally, find the music endearing). Don't worry, I didn't use my expired yogurt... that could have turned out gross. I did however vary the recipe by using a vanilla yogurt (instead of plain, unsweetened) and therefore eliminated the vanilla essence from the recipe. I also cut down on the sugar, since the yogurt I used was sweetened. The cupcakes were a hit with my sisters who scarfed down 2 each by the end of the day. Sadly, I halved the recipe so as to make only 6 cupcakes... and they were all gone before my parents could try one. They did say that they were pretty though :) Next time I will definitely not half the recipe; in fact, I may even double the recipe... man that'll take a ton of oreos, but who cares... those are the best parts.

I only have one comment to make regarding the storage of this cupcake. It won't store well... all baker's know that when storing crunchy cookies with soft cookies, muffins or cakes the crunchy ones always get softened. Well, in this recipe you must basically make the cupcakes fresh, because if you store them the cupcake makes the oreo cookie soft and crumbly. It still tastes good, but it lacks the crisp contrast between the cake and cookie. Just a heads up to anyone who plans on making these a day in advance (I think you may be alright if you keep the cupcakes exposed to the air... not too sure how food-safe that is, but the texture may be maintained).

Bento Fun in the Sum... kinda rhymes :P

Well, summer school started this Monday. So did my fascination with the Japanese "art" of making bento lunches. I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, and now that I've started I just can't seem to stop! It's a ton of fun just experimenting with different variations on the Japanese lunch box. For the first day of my summer course I decided to start my experimentation. I've always loved my sister's Hello Kitty lunch box, and although we didn't buy it necessarily for the use in bento lunches it works very nicely. All it needs are separate compartments for the different dishes and it'd be even more perfect. Anyways to continue...

Day 1: Heart-shaped Onigiri Bento

Not the most creative, I know, but considering it's my first time I think it turned out fairly well. I made the same one for my sister, but for her's I added a heart-shaped piece of nori to the top of her onigiri. It looked so cute! Why didn't I take a picture :( Oh well, I'm sure you have an imagination. And my sister hates carrots as well as cucumbers, so I had cut her some kiwi slices and added some teriyaki chicken. Yum! Oh, and the strawberry treat is similar to a fig newton... but made with strawberries (well duh :P)

Day #2: Sesame seed and Smiling Onigiri BentoMy bento for lunch contained the 2 onigiri, one with sesame seeds and the other with a smiling face (so cute!). My mom had bought celery hearts the other day so I decided they would make a good addition to my bento. I also included beef jerky and a korean "french-style" apple pie treat (from H mart, an awesome korean supermarket... only second to T&T!)

My sister, also doesn't like celery or beef jerky (can you believe we're related!) so I prepared her onigiri bento with a hot-dog octopus (at her request) and some cute pepperoni + cheese cut-outs. I added some carrot and cucumber stars in, to add some flair, but I assured my sis that she didn't have to eat them... no pressure hehehe what are sisters for?

Overall, my first experience with bento has been going well. I really enjoy the look of the box, and especially the look on the faces of those you make the lunches for. When their face lights up, and they can see that you've put a ton of care and effort into their meals, it's all worth it.

Memo to self: Must invest in a good quality bento box (maybe with 2 or 3 levels), also must buy an egg mould... the hello kitty and other animal shaped moulds are super cute.

Yeah! My 100th Post... Happy B-day Dad!

I've had my share of baking blunders... but I think that this one was the worst of all. I was planning on preparing a chocolate-coffee mousse cake for my dad's birthday and it didn't turn out so... how shall I put it... "moussey" :P For the cake's base I used the chocolate sponge recipe from yochana's blog and cut it into 2 layers. I then decided to use the iced coffee mousse recipe from foodnetwork.com.


Day 1: Make the sponge cake and cake decorations. These decorations included- chocolate covered coffee beans, and chocolate writings etc.

Doesn't look so bad eh? I thought it was a very cute chocolate cake.

Day 2: Make the mousse and finish assembling the cake.

I thought the cake was turning out well, at least until I realized that the mousse wasn't setting for some odd reason. I think it may have been the fact that I didn't use enough gelatin... or that the gelatin hadn't fully dissolved in the water before I added the milk. Oh man! Having little experience with gelatin previous to this attempt, I was kind of expecting something like this to happen. So I basically ended up with a coffee iced chocolate cake for my pop's birthday. He didn't mind so much; like they say, it's the thought that counts. And he really liked the coffee icing. Well, at least the cake tasted good and my efforts didn't go to a total waste.

Kasutera (Japanese Honey Sponge Cake)

Although I'm not Japanese, I do enjoy baking many different international goodies. Sift though my blog and you'll get what I mean :P Today I decided to make the delicate Japanese Honey Cake, aka Castella, aka Kasutera... aka yummers in a pan ~ hehehe.

I've always been fascinated with the cake whenever I walk into T&T (still the world's best supermarket!) and my daddy has bought it to treat the family now-and-then. What intrigued me was the beautiful brown "crust" on the top of the cake. It seems as though the honey rises and becomes concentrated at the top of the cake. Oh! So good. If you have never tried this cake you don't know what your missing. It's light, sweet and oh so delicious. I searched the whole internet to find the recipe that suited me and I settled on Diana's. For my first time making this cake the recipe was really simple and the results were excellent. I contemplated whether to make my Kasutera flavoured, with matcha or cocoa, as I thought they might add a little umph to the cake. But I decided against it, as it would probably cover up the slight honey taste of the cake and I just could not have that!

P.S. I was super nervous when it came to slicing the cake. I usually make beautiful goodies only to ruin them by cutting them unevenly... I basically mutilate my cooking :( So for this cake, I took extra caution in slicing it. I used a super long serrated knife and spent at least 30 seconds (no joke) cutting each slice. I was extremely excited to have sliced the Kasutera like a pro. Maybe I should invest in a bread slicer... but knowing me, it would probably squish my masterpieces into unrecognizable, but tastey, blobs of mush.

Scary Movie Night: Round 2

Well, it's been a long time coming (not that long actually... but still) and we've finally had our real Scary Movie Night. Last time didn't turn out as well as planned... being that only 2 people showed up :( I know... sad eh? You can read about the first attempt, if you care to here. So anyways back to round #2... all the people who planned to be there showed up; I was excited! We met at a friend's house and decorated her basement. She's the one with the big screen and surround sound. Truly, this is the only way to watch scary movies. We got there pretty early, so we spent some time baking a cake. Alright, we didn't so much bake it as "open the box, add ingredients and stick it in the oven" but we did decorate it very nicely. And it tasted awesome. This Scary Movie Night was also more-or-less a celebration of us finishing our 1st year of Nursing! We were ready to chow down on some "nutritious" foods like: samosas, our beautiful cake, 5 different kinds of ice cream, chips, cupcakes and a plethora of other goodies. Sometimes you just have to chillax with some of your gal pals and enjoy some spine-tingling thrillers.

So we (at least, me and rachel) didn't get freaked out of our minds by the movies. Kirsten and Julie we're quite entertained by the films. We decided to ease into the scariness progressively, starting with Panic Room, Identity and then Kiss the Girls. I know these movies aren't that scary, but I guess we just didn't want have fear impede our much needed beauty sleep (what's the fun in that?). Sadly I had to leave early and didn't watch any movies after Kiss the Girls, but hopefully the gals had fun watching the more freaky movies. I had brought over 28 days later (my favorite spooky movie of all times) and left it for them to watch after I left... let's be honest, no one should be deprived of watching Cillian Murphy at his best :)

Just to have this entry include a recipe, here's the one for the french vanilla whipped topping of the cake.

French Vanilla Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

- 1 cup whipping cream

- 1 1/2 tbsp instant French Vanilla Coffee, finely ground

- 2 tbsp sugar

Method:

1. Pour whipping cream into a chilled bowl (metal or glass works best) and whip on medium speed for 5 minutes.

2. Add the sugar and continue whipping, on high speed, for 5 minutes (or until the whipping cream becomes fluffy and forms stiff peaks)

3. Add in the coffee and use a spoon to gently incorporate it into cream mixture, forming a uniform color.

NOTE: Do not whip the coffee into the cream as this may form a flat and "dead" looking topping.

Oatmeal Yogurt Butterscotch Cookies

My third yogurt recipe... Hooray! I've actually discovered that yogurt makes a lot of ordinary foods taste amazing. You have to try this easy cookie recipe. The cookies turned out so moist and chewy, it was heavenly.

Oatmeal Yogurt Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (used 2 yogurt packs! Yay!)
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
-1/4 cup canola oil
-1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
-1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 cup butterscotch chips (could use chocolate chips if you want)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugars, yogurt, butter and oil until well blended.
3. Add flour, baking soda, oats, and salt. Blend until smooth. Stir in chips.
4. Drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Use a little over 1 teaspoon of dough per cookie.
5. Bake for approximately 9 minutes or until cookies are just turning golden brown.
6. Let cool for one minute before removing them from the cookie sheet and onto a cooling rack.

Okay, I don't think that I'll be able to finish using all my yogurt packs before they go bad :( I know... what a shame. I guess I have no choice but to freeze the 11 yogurts that are left. Well, it was worth a shot.

Yogurt Recipe #2

Well, this morning I woke up and remembered all about that challenge I had made myself. To finish all those yogurt packs before they expire. Not sure how that's gonna turn out, but I decided to use 1 pack of strawberry yogurt for my breakfast today.

Strawberry + Banana Yogurty Pancrépes

Ingredients:

- Pancake mix

- water

- 1 pack of strawberry yogurt

- 1/2 banana, sliced

- Stawberry syrup (optional)

Method:

1. Take your pancake mix and add in water, a little (1/8 cup) at a time, until you achieve a batter with a crépe-like consistency. (Notice, I'm very leche in the morning and just want to get some food in my tummy)

2. Heat a frying pan to low/medium heat. Pour in batter and swirl around until it becomes thin and crépe-like. (Honestly, if you've made crépes before... and even if you haven't, just cook it so it looks right)

3. Fill each pancrépe with a dollop of yogurt and roll them up.

4. Place them on a plate and decorate plate with sliced bananas and syrup.

5. Enjoy your yogurt using success!

I still have 13 more packs of yogurt to use up; I'm gonna go insane! Well, at least finals are over and I can focus on my cooking. Oh, I just had a great idea... not about my yogurt problem but about my pancrépes since the recipe is so quick to qhip up, why not use it for Mother's Day?

Yogurt Scones! Yummers

If you don't know the whole story about my soon to be "craze over yogurt" check out how it all began... read it here! If, like me, you don't care how it all started and just want to get down to the awesomeness of baking then don't read it.
Here it is, my first yogurt encompassing recipe...

Yogurt Scones

Ingredients:
-2 cups flour
-2 tbsp sugar
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-4 tbsp butter, cold, cut into 1/2 in. cubes
-3/4 cup yogurt (I used 2 of the Silhouette by Danone 100g containers of yogurt, 1 vanilla + 1 wildberry flavor)

Frosting:
-2 tbsp milk
-confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius
2. Stir together dry ingredients. With a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough yogurt to be able to form dough into a ball (up to 3/4 cup).
3. Turn dough onto floured surface and with floured hands, knead a few times. Press dough into a rectangle, about 1 1/2 inches thick. Fold rectangle into thirds, like a letter. Press dough into 9-inch round. Cut into 8 equal triangles.
4. Place scones into scone pan or on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.
5. Whisk confectioner's sugar into milk, adding more sugar until desired consistency is reached. Frost scones while warm.

NOTE: When kneading the dough, handle it as little as possible. This ensures that the texture of the scone is light and fluffy, instead of hard and tough.

Makes 8 scones.

I know I always say this, but my family loved these. They taste exactly like (if not better than the ones at Starbuck's). My 12 year old sis exclaimed, "They are the best scones ever... Oh, My Goodness!" So go ahead and try them... 2 packs of yogurt down, 12 more to go. What shall I do next?

AHH! What a dilemma

Well, this is much like the hotdog bun incident of last year... except this one is involving yogurt. My mom loves buying things in bulk, so when she saw that a 24 pack of yogurt was on sale she just jumped at the opportunity to make the purchase. After tasting the yogurt, she wasn't too impressed; she said it was too sour and had a weird after-taste. My sister ate one and liked it (at first), but then after eating a couple more she got sick of them. I don't mind them... I stuck a popsicle stick in a couple of them and ate them as frozen yogurt.

Now, the problem is that my mom says I'm responsible to finish all of the yogurt packs. This wouldn't be a problem except that the expiry date is 1 day away and I still have 14 yogurts to eat. "What should I do?" I asked myself; and then I got an idea... BAKE with yogurt! Why hadn't I thought of it before? It's so simple... and so the bake-fest begins :)

My first recipe = Yogurt Scones

So Simple Fa Gao

Since finals are approaching (and me being the kind of person who can't go 1 week without baking something)... I decided to make a really simple recipe FA GAO! I just love this light and fluffy cake. This was an excellent decision.

Simple Fa Gao

Ingredients:

- 1 cup self raising flour

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1/2 cup coconut milk (the good quality thick stuff)

- water

Method:

1. Sieve flour and brown sugar together, this helps remove sugar clumps and gives the cake an nice fluffy texture.

2. Mix in coconut milk.

3. Add enough water to make batter ribbon-like in consistency.

4. Pour into prepared muffin tin and steam on high for 13 minutes. (NOTE: Do not open the lid of the steamer for the first 10 minutes... this helps ensure that the cake "smiles" nicely)

5. Allow to cool in pan and then remove... eat fresh, with a mixture of brown sugar and dessicated coconut. Enjoy!

Recipe Yields: 6 servings

Since the weather here's been pretty gloomy and wet, my parents really enjoyed eating this cake and remembering the sunny and warm atmosphere of Malaysia. My sister, who loves coconut and brown sugar was so excited that I was making this recipe... when your family enjoys your baking, it just makes it that much more special :P

Happy Easter!

Man, what an awesome Easter this is turning out to be. I woke up this morning, and happened upon the Ford World Curling Championship finals on CBC. Curling is one of my favorite sports to watch, probably because Canada rocks at it... more so than at hockey (sad to say). My mom, who doesn't usually watch curling, she says it's too slow, actually sat through the majority of the game and started getting really into it. It was so much fun watching the game with someone else... usually it's just me cheering at the TV. Eventually my dad decided he'd join the curling fanclub and he watched the final 2 ends. We were so extatic that Canada won 8-3! (Especially since we were against Germany). Also, Glenn Howard's is one of my favorite players... Go Canada!

With Easter rolling around and all those chocolate goodies stocking the supermarket aisles I decided to use some of them to make a cute little Easter cake.

Rich Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup baking cocoa

- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour one 10 cup bundt pan (or two 9-inch-round cake pans)

2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add milk, water, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract; blend until moistened. Beat for 2 minutes (batter will be thin).

3. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes (25 to 30 minutes if using cake pans) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack and cool completely.

I decorated the cake with green icing for "grass", chocolate eggs and sugar cookies in the shapes of bunnies and flowers.

The cookies were made with the same recipe I had used for my Stained Glass Christmas Cookies and cut into bunnies with one of my home-made cookie cutters. After baking the cookies and letting them cool, I warmed up a bit of honey, lightly glazed each cookie and covered them in colored sprinkles.
The icing was pre-made (I know... for shame, but I was in a hurry and to tell you the truth I kinda like the taste of tube-icing) by Wilton; I stuck on an icing tip and pumped out all the green goodness. I then attached the cookies and strategically placed each chocolate egg into their respective positions.

I brought this cake to bible-study and the younger kids just jumped all over it. One of them even asked his mom where she bought it! I had a laugh, kids are so adorable. Those who tried the cake said it was a very moist and delicious cake. The kids didn't have to say anything... just the fact that they were going back for seconds told me everything I needed to know.

Well, have a HAPPY EASTER everyone! Hope you enjoy the break... and get lots of sun :P

Roasted Pepper Sauce

Tired of the regular same-old tomato sauce for your pasta? Well, so was I when I decided to whip up a batch of Roasted Pepper Pasta Sauce.

Roasted Pepper Pasta Sauce (single serving)

Ingredients:
- 1 roasted pepper (red or yellow), chopped
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/4 tsp cayenne

Method:
1. Core the pepper and roast it over an open flame (ie. stove top), until slightly blackened.
2. Quickly place pepper in a paper bag and cover with a towel. Let rest for 10 minutes.
3. Peel off the skin, and chop the pepper into chunks.
4. Place pepper and remaining ingredients in a blender and pulse until uniform in consistency.
5. Pour onto your favorite cooked pasta and enjoy!

Red Bean Ice Cream

Getting back into the cooking groove... Woot! Well, it's not exactly my most challenging piece, but I love this ice cream. It's simple and delicious. I basically just make my red bean paste (using the recipe from About.com) and once that cools I add it to a regular old tub of vanilla ice cream. See, so simple! Sure your arm may get a little sore from mixing, but it's totally worth it to taste the finished product.

Yum Cha Dessert

Since my family came home from California I decided to treat them to some good old home cooking. They have been telling me how sick of MICKEY D's they are and how the chinese food in the states is pathetic. You have got to hear this story my mother told me. Here goes, my family stopped of in Oregon along the way to Disneyland and decided to eat at some chinese restaurant. They wanted some chow mein, so that's what they asked their waitress for. When the dish came out is was mostly bean sprouts with a handful of those deep fried "crunchy" chow mein noodles on top! How sad... American's do not know how to serve good asian noodles. This could explain why my family insisted that we go out to Hon's for lunch the day after they returned from their trip.

Seeing how deprived of good quality chinese food my family was, I decided to make some baked sago pudding. I've been searching for this recipe for ever, and finally found it at Grab Your Fork. I decided to half the recipe (as I could see from the recipe it would make quite a bit), and it still made lots of pudding. It was delicious, especially since I layered the bottom of the ramekins with red bean paste (just like the one's at yum cha). And my family was very appreciative.

I'm back!

I know I haven't been blogging for a little while, but I've been busy with school and everything that that entails. Plus, my family is on vacation and I have no one to cook for! Do you know how inconvenient it is too bake for 1... quite. Well, the other day I made Jook and decided that I was going to save gas by making my own Yar Char Kway. It actually turned out pretty well. Looking at the picture, it doesn't look brown enough to be YCK; but I remember reading somewhere that if the food you're frying becomes dark brown then that means it's actually soaking up the oil. If you fry the YCK just to the point where it is cooked (and still mostly white), then that's when all the water is evaporated and just before you start soaking up the greasy stuff. It tasted just like the real thing... I was pretty impressed. I got the recipe from Playing With My Food which also has a couple other recipes for YCK, using ammonia and Alum.

The Jook

1. Just your basic 1 cup rice to 8 cups water, boiling in a pressure cooker for a long time (it more or less depending on how mushy you like the rice).

2. Add in sliced ginger and let that soak in the congee for about 1 hour (longer if you enjoy it more flavorful.

3. Add in sliced century eggs, chopped green onion, salt (or chicken stock powder) and some shredded chicken (if desired).

4. Top with white pepper, fried garlic and green onions. Easy peasy.... Oh! and don't forget to eat it with your YCK!

I can't wait until my family comes back... I've been missing them for so long... 10 whole days :(

Sniff... sniff

Well, my entire family (all four people :P) have left me to go on their Spring Break trip to Disneyland. I'm slightly depressed, seeing as how no one will be around to sample my cooking... and of course because they're going on a trip without moi! They're going to 10 days, stopping off in Ventura (not quite sure where that is) and then ending up at the "Happiest Place on Earth" for their final 3 days. Alas... but I will get to spend some quality time with my puppy and maybe we'll do some good bonding, who knows.

I didn't want them leaving me behind empty handed, so I made them some breakfast to take along with them (they driving down to the U.S. isn't that crazy?!!?). I told myself to stop cooking anymore dishes until they come back; otherwise they'll return from their vacation to a fridge full of old food... bleh! Truthfully, I don't know how well that command is going to stick. Anyways, I made them some steamed Malay cakes, otherwise known as Ma Lai Koh. As you can see, I was in the lovey-dovey mood when I was making them... I just love my family soooooo much!

I just love Florence's Blog, she has a ton of delicious malay bun recipes. You can also find alternate recipes for Ma Lai Koh at: My Zest or jodelibakery.com but I prefer Florence's, it's much simpler and I find it less oiley.

Well, I hope my family enjoys their vacation... I should be celebrating being home alone; but without my sisters, and mom and dad home just doesn't seem so homey :(

Hope you're reading this... HAVE A GREAT VACATION!