A mom's pleasure

Guess what these are?

The bottom layer

The top layer

The carrier

It's my kids' lunch boxes!

My kids love it and it makes them look forward to days when they had to stay back in school for extra classes or co-curricular activities. Plus, it's also something I thoroughly enjoy doing.

The bottom layer is where I pack dessert, yoghurt and extra drink for hot days. The top layer makes up their main meal. It could be a home cooked meal, noodles or in this case, sushi!

Most of the time, they get to name their choice a day earlier although there's no guarantee that it's what they'll get. Well, ... actually, I want to keep an element of surprise for them which makes their day all the more interesting! On special days, they even get a note or card from mom. :-)

These lunch boxes are the envy of my kids' classmates because none of their friends ever have anything like it. Most of them had to make do with canteen food. Which is why I try to pack extra chocolates and tell them to share some of the dessert if they can't finish it themselves. My son tells me that it is hard for him to refuse the girls who often surround him asking for a piece of this and a piece of that - especially on sushi days! But I suspect he dishes them out generously because he really enjoyed being surrounded by the girls. ;-)

I know my efforts make my kids feel special because they proudly told me so. They feel like a million dollars whenever mom makes her appearance at the classroom door with their lunch boxes.

So, what makes this mom happy? Nothing much really, as long as the kids are happy, healthy and safe.

I know this Sunday I'll get hand-drawn cards from them. And they'll wish me Happy Mothers' Day. But frankly, for this mom, I'm grateful to be given a chance to be a mom. The pleasure's all mine, all mine ...

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I might not be able to update my blog regularly for a while due to busyness. But I'll try to ...

Buttered toasts

It's been quite a while since I last made toasted garlic bread for my family.

My father-in-law particularly enjoyed them and the last time he ate so much, I felt somehow responsible when he had a sore throat soon after.

I decided to make a batch of buttered toasts with sugar for the kids to bring to school. They're getting rather tired of their usual bread with *cheese/kaya/peanut butter/margarine* fare.

I bought a stick of french bread, sliced it thinly, slather it with olive oil margarine before sprinkling some sugar over them. If you want to make garlic toasts, just chop some garlic finely and mix it into butter/margarine before spreading onto the bread. It's nicer still if you have some dried mix herbs (the kind you use for your spaghetti) to sprinkle on top.

Put them in the oven at 160 deg.C and they should brown to a nice crisp in about 20-25 mins.


As an aside, I think dried toasts minus the butter & sugar make a good breakfast choice for my current diet goal to lose a couple of kilos ahead of the coming August school holidays.

Especially with a fresh brew of black coffee. I heard caffeine helps with the weight loss as well in revving up the metabolism. Hmm ... how convenient! :-)

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I'm thinking of taking a break from blogging, so if there are no updates for a while, well - I'm doing something else.

In the meantime, hope you guys continue to have a nice day everyday!

Soup for my sniffles

I'm having the sniffles.

What's with the weather these days? One minute, it's hot and sunny and the next, it's pouring buckets. That's how I got caught in one unexpected downpour a few days ago.

I hate having a cold because all the sneezing and blowing always left me with a sore and red nose. And if things get nasty, I ended up with a sore throat that refuses to go away.

Now I'm craving for some nice hot soup. A lovely tangy, peppery apple celery soup like the one I had in a restaurant recently.

To me, home-made soups should be made from fresh chicken stock made on the stove so that you get more nutritional value out of your efforts. It's really easy - just throw in some chicken bones or half a chicken into a pot of boiling water, add in one or two large onions and let it boil away slowly for 2 hours. I normally sieve the stock before using it to get a clear broth. And you can freeze any unused soup for later.










Chop up one green apple and two stalks of celery. Put them into three bowls of clear chicken stock and simmer them in slow heat until they are soft. Add in coarsely ground black pepper and salt to taste.

By the time the soup is done, I got about 2 bowls of soup in the pot. I've made mine with a good dash of black pepper for that extra "kick". It's nice and warming. And hopefully, it'll ease my discomfort considerably.

Salad day

I'm making a salad lunch for the kids today, as a surprise.

I always enjoy seeing their faces brighten up when they come back from a tired day at school to find that their lunch is not the usual rice/noodles/porridge.

I've also got them each a slice of J's favourite chocolate walnut brownies from Secret Recipe for their dessert and there's Magnolia Tropical Sling Jolly ice lollies in the freezer. If they want more, I'll whip up a fresh strawberries lassi. It really doesn't take much to make my kids happy.

I'm making an apple-potato-egg salad today.











Boil the potatoes and eggs and let it cool. Chop up some parsley. You'll need some green apples, ground black pepper and mayonnaise.










Cut the potatoes, eggs and apples into small squares. I decided to add in some coarsely grated carrots for added nutrition as well as colour to the salad.










Put all the chopped ingredients (except eggs) into a mixing bowl. Add two big dollops of mayonnaise, shake in some black pepper and mix well.










Add the eggs and mix it all in carefully.
I decided to throw in a handful of raisins although J hates them. But her little brother likes raisins and I guess, being the picky eater that she is, J is bound to pick them all out. And maybe the bits of carrots as well if she's particularly fussy today. I hope not. :-)










There you go. Lovely, isn't it?

The kids should be back soon. There's some pretty ripe bananas sitting in the kitchen. Should I make them banana milkshakes or banana cake? Hmmm ...

Hot scones on a rainy afternoon

The heavy rain that poured down from the skies yesterday afternoon kept me at home. The kids are busy with their respective homeworks while I am feeling rather bored, well, restless actually.

After getting up and down for the umpteenth time wondering if I should or should not venture out and get that A.R. mail sent, I decided that I might as well stay put and warm indoors. I asked the kids if they would like some hot scones for tea and of course, the answer is always yes to mom's offer to whip up something from the oven.

I haven't cranked up the oven since the days leading up to Chinese New Year. And I still have warm memories of hot scones with fresh cream, butter and strawberry jam from a recent weekend up at Cameron Highlands.

Scone are pretty much easy to make but of course, whether the end result is one that tastes as good as it looks is another matter altogether.

The thing to remember though is to handle the scone mixture with great care and a very light hand. It should be mixed as quickly as possible into a soft dough and then use only a small amount of flour on the kneading board and knead lightly until just smooth.

Too much mixing and kneading will result in a tougher, drier dough and the scones will turn out very tough. The rule is, better to undermix if you're unsure!

Scones must be baked in a very hot oven of 220 deg.C for about 12 minutes until the top is nicely browned and the scones sound hollow when tapped.

If you brush the top of the scones with milk before you bake them, you'll get golden shiny tops. Some people like their scones crisp, which is what you'll get if you cool them on a wire rack after baking. But if like me you prefer your scones soft, wrap them instead under a clean tea-towel to keep them warm.

Scones are best eaten fresh from the oven while still warm. My kids love it best with slabs of butter melting on the warm pieces. I like them with fresh cream and strawberry preserve. And of course, a hot cup of tea!










Preheat oven to 220 deg.C.
Sift 2 cups of self-raising flour with a pinch of salt into a bowl. (If you like your scones sweet, you may omit the salt and add in a tsp of sugar instead.)
Cut 30gm of cold butter into the flour, and rub lightly with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Do this quickly.










Combine 1/2 cup milk with 1/4 cup water and slowly pour into the flour. Leave about 2 tbsp liquid for glazing.










Use a spatula to mix quickly to a soft dough.
Turn onto a lightly floured board (use self-raising flour) and knead gently (15-20 times is probably enough.) Press dough into thickness of 2cm and cut with a sharp round metal cutter or shape into small rolls like what I did here. Brush the top with milk.










Bake for 10-12 minutes until the top is nicely browned.










Voila! Fresh hot scones ready to be served with your hot tea!

All in it took me about 30 minutes to get the scones onto the table. That's a pretty neat and quick way to make the kids happy on a wet wet afternoon.

Lemons and Lavender

I like the smell of lemons and lavender. I know, it's very grannyish you'd say, but they do remind me of all things nice and luxurious. Or maybe I'm kinda old-fashioned ;-)

Of course, I don't mean to say I like to mix up the scent of both. How gross!

I prefer them at different times, depending on what kind of mood I'd like to be in. Lemons evoke bright & breezy days, of lemon pies, cheesecakes and iced lemon tea. Of the innocence of childhood, of laughter, happy surprises and contentment. Of holidays and celebrations, and all things nice and cheerful in my life.

Which brings to my mind this huge lemon tree laden with ripe fruits, some of them lying fresh, unpicked on the grass and the most delicious homemade lemon butter I ever tasted in an Australian farmhouse not too very long ago.

It's always childishly exciting for me to see trees laden with ripe fruits like apples, oranges, persimmons, lemons and grapes on the vine whenever the season is right while travelling abroad. Back home, I love it during the rambutan season and cruising along the road to Jelebu or Kuala Pilah, the journey invariably weaves through kampungs where it's an eye feast to see the trees bursting in red and green bunches of the fruit. But I digress.

Coming back to the zesty lemon butter, it was the first time I came across such a lovely concoction, slow-cooked by the lady of the house from the lemons fruiting abundantly in front of her humble abode. Spread across thick cuts of crusty warm country bread, the burst of tangy flavours got me hooked instantly! It was the best bread spread I've ever tasted.

When I shopped at Woolsworth before I headed for home, the one thing I made sure I bought was jars of Masterfood's Lemon Butter. And back home, when my supplies ran out quicker than I had anticipated, I was more than a little bit frustrated that I could not find any in our local supermarkets. What a shame! Malaysians have yet to discover the delights of lemon butter spread on their roti!

Okay - no problem, I'll just make my own. From the recipe I found on the Internet, it seems pretty easy.

All I need is 4 large eggs, 125gm butter, 110gm sugar, juice of 1 large lemon and grated peel of 1 lemon.












Beat the eggs lightly in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add in all the rest of the ingredients and heat over very low fire.

Stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Continue stirring until you get the consistency you desire. (Remember, it will thicken further and set once the mixture is cooled, so don't cook it until it becomes too gooey.)

The first time I tried making it, I doubled the recipe and added in an extra lemon for more "oomph". I figured I stirred the mixture for more than 20 minutes, but do be careful not to let it boil. And do not stop stirring the mixture while it's cooking or else it might burn or turn clumpy.













When the mixture has thicken to the right consistency, pour them into clean/dry glass jars. My recipe yielded 4 jam jars as you can see. Leave to cool completely in the jars undisturbed, cap it and store them in the refrigerator.


Notwithstanding that it was my first attempt, it turned out amazingly well to rave reviews from my kids and their cousins. And last Christmas, I found the perfect homemade gift for them.

Ah -- what about the lavender, you might ask?

I'll tell you about them next time, okay?

Domestic goddess wannabee's weekend post

It's a challenge trying to preach to kids about the importance of healthy eating.

Take the example of eating bread.

We are constantly reminded that wholemeal & wholegrain is infinitely superior to white, right? Because the first two have more sources of fibre and nutrients compared to the latter which is made from highly bleached flour which in turn raises your blood sugar way too fast.

So far, I have not been able to convince the kids to give up their white bread. And because I love coarse grained breads, I always ended up with stale hard leftovers because I can hardly finish a whole loaf by myself. And my husband doesn't really like bread - whichever type.

So what I normally do, being the conscientious cost conscious and waste-n0t-good-food woman that I am (!), I use the leftovers to make bread & butter pudding.

Ahem - bear with me, after all it's a weekend, rite? This is another one of my self-indulgent "domestic goddess wannabe" cookery class post.

Oh, did I forget to tell you guys I am actually one of those rare women who, as the Cantonese saying goes, "yap tak chui fong, chut tak tai thong" (can perform in the kitchen and is equally presentable in public.) (tsk tsk ... I'm in the mood for some self-glorification ... kekeke!!)

Back to business before I go off tangent trumpeting my other glorious achievements. (wahahahaha!!!)

Bread puddings are basically very very easy to make. It's fail-proof even for anyone who has never baked anything in their whole life. And the end result is, you get something which does not taste like bread at all. The texture of this pudding is something like our local "kueh".

AMOI's Bread Pudding with Honeycomb Sugar & Real Vanilla










Break 3 eggs into a bowl. Beat briskly with a fork until well-combined.










Add in about 2 cups of low-fat milk (not more than 2 cups!). Beat again to combine them well.










Add in 3 spoonfuls of sugar or whatever, depending on your taste. In my pix, I'm using raw honeycomb sugar which is less sweet, and presumably healthier. But I need to beat the mixture a bit longer in order to blend it in.














Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract or in my case, the beans from one vanilla pod.

Oh - never seen real vanilla pods before? There they are, the dried blackish sticks in the jar. They smell wonderfully fragrant and really, there's no substitute for the real thing. I took one pod, slice in down the middle and scrap the beans & pulp out and deposit them into the milky mixture. You can also add a dash of cinnamon if you like the smell of it. And, if you have spare bananas, you can slice one up and mix it in.

Btw, don't throw away the used vanilla pod. Clean it and dry it in the sun. Put two sticks in a glass jar, cover with fine sugar and hey presto! You now have lovely home-made vanilla sugar. They give a lovely fragrance to my cup of tea!










Tear the bread you wish to use into bite-sized pieces. You can use any type of bread that you like, preferably not too fresh/soft.

I'm using half a loaf of wholegrain raisin that's 2 days old. It works out to a big bowl of bread chunks which I add into the egg/milk mixture. Coat the bread thoroughly, making sure each piece is well-soaked. Don't dump in too much bread - make sure you have a layer of liquid just covering the whole thing when mixed.

Let the bread sit in the mixture for about 1/2 hour. Stir it around a few times in between.










Heat your oven to 180 degC. Grease a baking tin. Pour mixture into the tin, and put a few pats of butter on top of it. Bake it bain-marie style, meaning you put the baking tin into another bigger pan half-filled with water (about 1.5cm will do). Put the whole thing into the heated oven and bake for about 45-50 mins until the top is slightly browned.

I was told by a friend that if you don't have an oven, you can actually steam this dish over high heat until it's well done. Just make sure that the water vapours from the pot cover don't trickle back into the pudding pan. Personally, I've never tried this method.










There, it's done! You can dust some icing sugar on top, pour some custard sauce over it or serve it warm with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Delicious, and the kids don't even notice that it's wholemeal stuff.


HAVE A RELAXING WEEKEND FOLKS! Hopefully, I'd be back in active mode next week.

Chinese home-made rice wine & egg

I probably should go on a diet. I keep thinking of food for the last few days, especially chocolates and durians.

I normally don't take too much sweet stuff (really!). But MIL brought over 2 boxes of Belgium chocolates which she got at the duty free shops after her recent trip to Cambodia.

It sat in the fridge for one whole week without any of the kids touching it (they aren't particularly fond of chocs either) until I could not bear it anymore (see, it's taking up too much space in the fridge ...) and then, I could not stop myself once I started!

And the last week was the school holidays so I did a bit of baking and cooking to amuse the clan. And I got a surprise request to whip up a familiar dish - commonly served during the one-month confinement period after a member of the family has given birth.

Yup, it is the "chinese rice wine soup with chicken" or "wong jau kai" in Cantonese.

Most local Chinese families are familiar with the home-made glutinuous rice wine which we call "huang jiu" in Mandarin or "wong jau" in Cantonese.

My sister-in-law recently made a batch and gave me a bottle. Normally, Chinese families would make them when a female family member is expecting a baby because after delivery, the new mom would be encouraged to consume copious amount of it. It is traditionally believed that this wine will be able to restore the strength and vitality depleted during pregnancy and childbirth.

No - I ain't pregnant! And actually, no one's pregnant in the family. There are so many female members enjoying this traditional dish that every once in a while, my sister-in-law would work up a batch for all of us. It is pretty easy to make, but that's another story.

Usually, this wine is cooked with small pieces of chicken fried with lots of julienned ginger and strips of chinese fungus sauteed in sesame oil. But I like it better using eggs instead of chicken.

I love the smell of ginger slowly browning in sesame oil. And when the wine is poured into the mixture and left bubbling for a few minutes, I get slightly intoxicated with the fumes of alcohol wafting up! Ahh ... sheer culinary bliss. :)

On cold and rainy days, I particularly enjoy eating and sweating over a hot bowl of rice-wine soup, the part when the alcohol starts getting into my head and I get a little bit tipsy and warm and ... hehehe ... hic! ... a nice fuzzy feeling with a full stomach!










Slice ginger into thin strips and brown them in generous amount of pure sesame oil. When the ginger is crispy, remove and set aside. In the same wok, add a bit of sesame oil & fry chinese mushroom wood fungus (aka mook-yi, which has been pre-soaked and cut into thin strips) for about 3 minutes. Dish out and set aside.










Break three eggs into a bowl, beat lightly and pour into the lightly oiled hot wok. Add a bit of browned ginger and "mook-yi" into the egg. Cook as you would an omelette.










Wrap the omelette into a nice little parcel. I always like this part because it makes me proud of my skills in making a pretty good omelette!










Add the rest of the ginger and "mook-yi" into the wok. Pour in the chinese rice wine, season with a pinch of salt & sugar to taste. Let it bubble and cook for about 5 minutes or longer if you wish to evaporate the alcohol content from the wine. (But that would really take the "kick" out of this dish. For even bigger kick, you can add half a cup of brandy into this!)










It's almost ready. Dish it out into a bowl and enjoy!! Remember - don't partake in this dish if you are going to drive, or feast on durians and chocolates!! (It's way too heaty according to Chinese folklore.)

Cookies to knock you cold!

I've not cranked up the oven for quite some time and seeing the kids demolished a whole 400gm bag of Famous Amos Choc Chip cookies in one sitting got me fired up.

Time to don the apron and whip up a batch of home-made cookies! Cookies are also great comfort food, if you know what I mean. :)

I've never baked chocolate chip cookies before, to be honest. I've had great success with my oat and cornflakes cookies that I spent two whole days fulfilling repeat orders from my family and relatives. Yeah - that was the last time I baked cookies because I was thoroughly drained at the end of that marathon session. It's a lot of hard work to make a whole bunch of people happy.

So, I searched the Internet and came across a recipe which looks easy enough. It looked workable too.










Mixing the dough was a breeze!










Divide the dough into small pieces, nicely spaced out on baking paper. Put them in a pre-heated oven.










Presto! Freshly baked Anak Merdeka chocolate chip cookies.

The aroma that wafted through the house was deliciously wonderful. That's what I loved most about baking. Reminds me to start cranking up the bread-machine again. I love the smell of freshly baked bread too.

Don't they look good? Do they taste as good as they looked?

Errmmm ...

J said they tasted delicious, better than Famous Amos because I reduced the sugar content and put in more chips so that they are not too sickly sweet.

"But they are a bit hard ..."

"But it's okay. Once you crack it, it's actually not that hard..."

Hehehe ... I've got a diplomatic kid.

I tried one. Truth is, those cookies can knock your dentures off! I can hear J making "crunch, crunch, crunch" sounds as she chews into them. But she really did like them because she had one after another and another ... until I had to stop her. Don't want her to get constipated lah!

Must be the baking powder. I realised too late that it expired in 2005. Can't be the cook, right?

It ain't Chinese New Year but here's something sweet to seal your mouth!

All this sugar talk is making a lot of people feeling overly excited for the past few weeks. You can see it spilled out in almost every major local newspaper - all the gungho show of support for one man and all the brickbats thrown at another.

And the shelves in Jusco is still EMPTY - poor makciks. How are they going to get through their day without the kuih-muih manis for minum petang? But seems like some public servants are still having a good time conducting their meetings with a table laden with sweet kuih and sweeter still tea & coffee! Different strokes for different folks, eh?

Kak Ju was suddenly seized with a sweet craving this afternoon. So, rummaging through the fridge, I found ONE large cake of Niangao (Chinese New Year cake) still in very good shape and condition. No need sugar to make this sweet dessert!

All you need to do is slice up the Niangao, slice up some sweet potatoes (any type will do, and I'm using the purple ones since that's the only available type in my kitchen but I think the orange potatoes would probably be better), whip up some wheat flour batter with a pinch of salt and heat up a frying pan of oil. And voila! A plateful of delicious, smacking sweet niangao fritters!











Sliced sweet potatoes on the left and sliced niangao on the right.











Sandwich niangao with 2 slices of the sweet potato.











Mix wheat flour with enough water and a pinch of salt to form a smooth batter. Coat the niangao fully in batter.










Fry them in a pan of hot oil until crispy.










Drain the niangao and serve.

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Kak Ju is all smiles are she sits down for afternoon tea with her teh manis.

Hmmm ... maybe, I ought to serve some to the demi-Gods who make so much decisions that affect our lives. Perhaps, it will remind them to deliver some sweet deals to us, to make up for so much of the bitter stuff we have been forced to swallow lately.

Any fat chance that it'll work?