Wake Up and Smell the Cake

It's hard fasting while most are not. Haha. And I'm already hungry this early in the morning! Sigh. It's only Day 2 of 8, and I hope to complete at least 6 within Syawal! I'm bored of sorts lately. It's quite cyclical, once in a couple of months or so. This time round I think I'm getting tired of raya. I want a day that I can sit at home with no plans at all, so I can catch up on my housework and laze around with my family. I am, after all, the Raya Grinch. In other news, I turned 31 two days ago! Hijrah calendar of course. I haven't written a random post like this in ages, mostly it's recording of recipes these days. Maybe I should pen down such thoughts again.

After the egg tarts, I slowly built up the ingredients for shepherd's pie. Reason being I can't cook for a long period of time without having kids cutting in for attention. So I boiled the cauliflower (a whole head!) first while cooking baby's food, let it rest for some time, before frying the minced meat. That too rested in the frying pan until it turned cold. Haha. I added red capsicum, curry powder, coriander powder and 2 sprigs of curry leaves to the meat to make it fragrant. I mashed the cauliflower with low fat milk and cheese, also at another time when the baby was taking her noon nap. Managed to get 4 loaves/servings of shepherd's pie, one I baked for lunch and the other 3 refrigerated for the next few days' breakfasts. Easy peasy, bake it for half an hour, let it rest for another half hour and pack for work! It tastes better after a day, maybe because the cheese and cauliflower and milk have all blended well together. I did not make measurements ...

Finally got down to making some egg tarts and using up my store bought tart shells. I got them from Phoon Huat, and intended to make some savoury tarts for guests but those were just my never ending dreams. And another of my dream is to make sabsuka, and hence 2 dozen eggs in my fridge plus 2kg of minced meat in the freezer. I know right. Ha. Ha. Eggs need to be used up first, and after sifting through many recipes, I found one simple one that uses low fat milk which I have. None other than one of my favourite sites, Baking Bites ! They use only egg yolks. The egg whites I decided to make a fritatta of some sort but didn't turn out too well so not sharing it here. Egg Tarts 5 medium egg yolks 2/3 cup low fat milk splash of vanilla oil 1/2 cup sugar Whisk all together, pour into a measuring cup for easy pouring into the tart shells. Take tart shells out of the freezer and pour the custard in. Bake for 17-20 minutes at 170 degrees. These are husband-approved! Thoug...

Made my cookies already! So happy. Was contemplating on making meringue kisses but looking at the time it will take in the oven and also the time I took contemplating, haha weekend over! :p Made the usual stuff. Almond London (2 batches!), pineapple tarts, chocolate chip cookies and cornflake cookies. Making cookies is laborious but I don't seem tired from it. The Husband said I'm having fun in the kitchen haha. I didn't take any photos for the cookies, mainly cos they are recipes I've used before. These 4 cookies, I won't look to other recipes. Not planning a major overhaul of the house, just cleaning up some things here and there. Most of the house has been springcleaned and unwanted things thrown pre-Ramadan. Am also not a big fan of dressing up the house just for raya, I like to keep it neat and practical. After all I have a boy with toys everywhere and a girl who is crawling and starting to climb all over. We had a change of carpet, and some new cus...

Yes! No longer in my 20s as of yesterday haha. Getting older, I definitely can feel it. From the knee aches, back aches, to the reactions I realise I have on certain issues. More laid back, more composed and I'm learning to be more patient. Growing up definitely. Yesterday's celebration was simple, I didn't want buffet spreads or fancy cafes. Getting too old for such things haha! Buffet during Ramadan is not advisable, plus it's expensive. Cafes, so far all I've tried were disappointing, many people said sedap sedap but ok ok only, so I shall skip that and get food which I know is good. I actually wanted to eat Indian rojak ahhaha. But we ended up at Spize cos well rojak is usually at a hawker centre heh but Spize was good too cos we had a good table. Earlier in office, Husband surprised me with a bouquet of flowers on my table! Overjoyed! Too happy :) I don't usually ask for flowers, but hey which girl doesn't love getting flowers! Especially surpris...

Yesterday I was on leave for my baby boy's birthday day out. Was feeling extra hardworking so I cooked salted egg chicken for sahur. Got up earlier to prepare and I'm glad I did! Later that morning I made bombay briyani for buka. Baby girl was at my mum's for the day so we can give full attention to the birthday boy. Salted Egg Chicken These take less than an hour to make, fast and easy peasy and totally yummy! I don't have to buy outside anymore! This is husband-approved! 2 chicken breasts (the big one, not the small pieces) 1 egg white Cornstarch + 1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp butter 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 inch ginger, finely chopped 3 salted egg yolks, mashed Evaporated milk, about 7-10 tbsp, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be 20 curry leaves, the more the merrier 2 cili padi (I didn't have this so I used 2 green chilies) Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes. Coat them with egg white, then in the cornstarch dip, then deep fr...