Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Finally FINALLY I got my indoor gardening set thanks to dearest Husband! :) Was aiming for clickandgrow and plantui, and we settled for plantui though more expensive, but can fit 6 pods at a time and the light seems better. So YAY! I've been trying to grow herbs at my home but since we're not at home most of sunlight time, we can't grow much. I tried pandan leaves but it eventually died, mint grew but more of a survival thing rather than growing fully leafy. All these because we don't put our plants in direct sunlight, and our windows are tinted. We have money plants though, which I put in the sun only on weekends but those plants can survive anything so those don't count. HAHA. With my very own plantui I hope to grow my own herbs! I started out with Thai basil on Sunday (cos who wants normal basil when you have Thai basil!) and yesterday I added in 1 pod kale and 2 pods coriander. Will be updating on the progress soon! So far I see that the thai basil se

Back from the long weekend! Spent two days fully at home, cooking and baking. So happy. Day 1 was sindhi briyani and Almond London . Day 2 was ayam lemak cili padi and a batch of almost Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies , but I split the batter into 2: hazelnut, white chocolate, cranberry combination and hazelnut, dark chocolate chip combination. I made the cranberry ones first, they taste awesome. But after I ate the chocolate chip one, say bye bye to cranberry! Nothing beats chocolate. And the white chocolate chips somehow dissolved into the batter, melted. What to do, it's just white chips from Redman. I should try a better brand instead.  Happy new year indeed!

The little one woke me up just after 4 for milk, and at that time I didn't feel sleepy at all so I played games on the phone and got up at 5 to make today's breakfast and lunch. It was clear-the-fridge aglio olio! Sadly some of the mushrooms have gone bad, but I managed to salvage some. I also have cauliflower, capsicum and fried chicken to clear. For a portion of 2, the following ingredients were used: 4 cloves garlic, minced 3 cili padi, sliced 1/2 capsicum, sliced Whatever mushrooms I had 1/2 floret of cauliflower 2 handfuls of shell pasta (HA HA lazy me used hands as unit of measure) 2 cooked chicken breast, sliced Extra virgin olive oil for dressing In the interest of time, I boiled the cauliflower in the same water as the pasta. Cauliflower was cooked first, taken out then pasta goes into the boiling water added with salt and oil. I also pre-fried the capsicum in a little oil, mainly cos I fried the whole capsicum and set aside half for another day. In

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

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

I was so determined to make bread that I woke up at 5.30 as I do on weekdays. And I did it! So happy :) I did one recipe of sweet bun that I learnt in my breads course. Totally love my Kenwood mixer! Here's to many more bakes using the Kenwood! I got the Titanium Major, the bowl's huge at 6.7 litres. But you'll never know when you need a big one, and since I'm buying this for long term use, might as well buy a very good and reliable one. Bosch seems good too with a huge power output. Anyway. Here are the pictures! So after mixing the dough in the mixer for about 12 minutes, here it is after some kneading using the hand. Left for proofing for an hour. Good thing I can use my counter top to knead dough! It doubled! So happy! I asked my son if he wanted to punch the dough, he touched it instead -_- He didn't want to punch it because he said it was sticky. Haha. Knead and then design, I made into butter buns and raisin cranberry rolls. Got 10 x 60g bu

I have LOTS on my checklist tomorrow! Shall arrange them in order: Wash clothes Bake 1 batch of red velvet cupcakes for office and my mum's house (just because I have leftover buttermilk ha ha) Clean all fans Bake 1 batch of banana walnut cupcakes Mop 2 rooms Frost cupcakes Iron lots of work clothes Clean toilets I hope I can accomplish all within the day. I shall start early! updated Planning FAILED! I have to bring both kids with me soooooooo I think I won't be able to do even 50% of the above. Ha.

Did loads over the weekend! Friday was check up day (weekly now! haha!) so it was long weekend for me haha. I managed to find butterscotch chips at Cold Storage Novena on the way back home from the hospital so I grabbed one packet! And just to prove that Cold Storage does carry the brand, I went to check at Northpoint as well and yay! Found them again! Fetched my baby boy from my mum's and went home to make nasi goreng kampung which was a tad salty but the Husband said finally it has taste -_- Haha. Nasi Goreng Kampung recipe to be updated soon! I couldn't get my hands away from the kitchen hence I made butterscotch oatmeal cookies as per the recipe on the packet. Started at like 6 and ended at 8. Yes. That crazy. While the cookies taste oh-so-yummy, I had problems getting them off the trays as they tend to stick. Sigh. Very frustrating. Doesn't help that the cookies are brittle and thin. I'm kinda thinking of making another batch without using oatmeal, an

Yes I'm in cookie mode! Made pineapple tarts on Tuesday and cornflake cookies yesterday! I enlisted the help of my darling baby boy since he wasn't sleepy yet. Junior was glad to help! Junior trying his best to drop the dough, most of the time failing haha. But I let him continue still and rearranged them later. I love my mum's cornflake cookie recipe so I tried to get it from her. Sadly the recipe isn't complete as there's no measurement for flour. In her words, as long as can drop off the spoon can oredi. Like how vague is that!! T_T So I searched for other recipes trying to see if I can sorta estimate, and yesterday I used only 3 cups flour. Less flour is better than too much flour, but the cookies were quite sweet. Maybe 4 cups could be okay too? Anyway. Here's the recipe! Cornflake Cherry Cookies 250g salted butter, softened 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 3 cups flour 1 small box of Kellogg's cornflakes, 275g diced cherries diced almonds

No mood to work. 22 more days to EDD and 10 more working days less weekends and MCs! Haha. And this weather is perfect to sleep in. Yesterday I was at home so I made pineapple tarts! The lengths I go to to get Golden Churn butter in the tin, omg! I could have given birth seriously. I searched aisles and aisles at 2 NTUCs, 2 baking shops, whole of Chong Pang and finally found one last tin, slightly old cos the due date is October this year, and super pricey at $9.90! But I bought it cos there's no way I'm searching anymore. Apparently Phoon Huat doesn't carry Golden Churn brand, and NTUC and Giant are supposed to have them but maybe too many makcik2 and kakak2 buy oredi. Le sigh. I went Giant at Sembawang thinking there'd be stock there since it's big but I asked 2 staff and they don't know where it is either. Great. So I resorted to buying the block butter at the refrigerated section. I made 1 batch only since I only had 1 tin of butter, but at the ra

Today is a much better day than yesterday. Good start to my morning! I woke up at 4am and got my washing machine going, slept back and woke up at 5 to start the dryer. I love it when laundry gets done! Then I ironed a couple of shirts, baked banana muffins cos I have ripe bananas rotting in the fridge, and then off to work with the muffins! In office, a stack of chappati with keema and vegetable curries awaited me YUMYUM :) My dearest colleague made them for me (I requested for her homemade chappati and keema), she loves cooking for pregnant women. Totally love her soft chappati and her curries! With such spices, I don't mind being vegetarian haha. My banana muffins today aren't sweet, luckily I added some leftover chocolates in for a bit of sweet chocolatey taste and topped off with sliced almonds. Banana Muffins (they don't qualify as my type of banana cake) 250g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder 2 eggs 125ml oi

It's December! Too fast. Weekends aren't that free anymore, not much of cooking these days. Two weekends ago (or 1 weekend ago?) was daging masak kicap, and the weekend that just passed I didn't really cook save the quick Sunday dinner of sambal sardine with canned mushrooms. My ultimate comfort food best eaten with hot rice. I think I finally got it, tastes like my mum's. Yumyum. 1 can sardines in tomato sauce (Sardines, not mackerel. Ayam brand's the best!) 1 onion, finely sliced 2 garlic, smashed and chopped 1 inch ginger, sliced 1 stalk lemongrass, bruised and cut into 3 3 tbsp chili paste 1 small can mushrooms, drained and washed) Fry the lemongrass and onions till fragrant. Add in garlic and ginger, fry till fragrant as well then add in the chili paste. Fry till the oil separates (yes that's what my mother says), probably 10-15 minutes I didn't time, but the longer the better. Add in mushrooms, stir fry for about 1 to 2 minutes before a

Saturday boy was I busy in the kitchen! Went to the market earlier and was home by 9.40am and got started cooking! The siblings wanted chicken fajitas so I quickly sliced the chicken meat and marinated (fajitas mix + paprika + black pepper + dried basil) before Junior & I went to the market. Junior made my heart melt: all those times spent baking and cooking with him paid off! He now is officially my little baker! I didn't want to bake anything, but he sorta forced me. How can I refuse when he took out the whisk and ladle and even the sugar! But before that, Junior was busy helping me cook! On the menu for the day: Chicken Fajitas Sindhi Briyani (Shan mix) Potato Soup for Junior Potato soup is really simple. Peel & cut potatoes, boil and add cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and fish/chicken cubes in and cook together. I throw in a teeny bit of salt, and some dried basil. It's even yummy for adults! So on to the biryani! I was kind of eager to cook biryani whe

Whoever does work today is not normal. Haha. Eve of a public holiday yet no half day oh the pain! Saturday my siblings came over for lunch, and cooking was yet another diner dash. On the menu was daging masak merah and very simple fried cabbage. Butter cookies was supposed to be an after-lunch activity but it was changed to butter cake because of lack of time. I also had to go to the post office to get Junior's books that arrived but were too big for the mail box. Maybe I should have one big mail box outside my door and ask the postman to deposit it there instead. The queue at the post office was so long! When I came at about 10, I was like 60th in queue?! So Junior and I went to get some groceries while waiting for our turn, and when we came back, the number only moved up by 20. Damn. By the time we were done and back home, It was 11.30! Not enough time to cook the meat! Thankfully Junior explored his new books on his own quietly, so I had time to cook. Multi-tasked: frying

TGIF! I'm so happy with my two hour lunch break :) Went to JEM to get gifts from Chomel for the interns whose last day is today. They made for us shepherd's pie, cupcakes and each person our name in Arabic calligraphy. So sweet! See! Really nice right! My table's in a mess right now but I'll find a place to put this! Today is a day of gifts. The Husband received the cufflinks I surprised him with (posted to office address haha), me receiving interns' gifts and I went shopping! Blessed Friday indeed :) I roamed around alone because I need some me time. Happens once in a while, when I get overwhelmed with many many things. Bought 4 t-shirts from Uniqlo because they have buttons!! Yay for breastfeeding mothers! And why buy one when it's only $12.90 each! So I got pink, yellow mustard, dark grey and purple. I also bought 2 brooches for myself from Chomel. Was browsing through for the interns' gifts (I looked at practically all brooches, some more t

I'll steal in a quick blog post this morning. Last Saturday I tried out the Malay chicken curry recipe to the T from Malay Heritage Cooking by Rita Zahara. Not my type of curry, sadly. Too much coconut milk! It would have been much better omitting the coconut milk totally, or replacing with yoghurt. I'm an Indian curry lover, not Malay. Haha. Husband started his 6 week class on Saturday mornings and that leaves me plenty of time to do my own things. But for the past two weeks instead of stealing in a quick bake, I decided to cook! Feels good to cook for The Husband especially when he comes home all hungry and tired :) The weekend before I made sweet and sour fish, no recipe just throw in stuff. This Saturday I plan to make laksa! Heehee. I also managed to clean the house, do laundry and go to the market before cooking. It's amazing how much you can do in a few hours. No pictures of cooked food because I didn't bother taking any, but here's photos of Junior ca

Good morning! Not the best of mornings. I have this irritating woozy feeling lingering somewhere in my head. Or eyes. Don't really know which is the cause. Weekend was kinda okay. I made Husband-approved banana cake with chocolate chips! Haha. I wanted to use the leftover yoghurt but it seems that Husband threw it away already so I had to do with milk + vinegar. I went back to my mum's trusty banana recipe and I got it right this time! Previously I didn't, so I made changes and used another recipe too, but I was determined to get back the soft fluffy banana cake (not banana bread) that I grew up with. It's difficult to find a real banana cake recipe because most are banana bread, but I want the soft and moist cake, not a cake full of flour. This time round, I took my time creaming the butter with sugar, and then with eggs till I got the right consistency of air in the cake. I used self raising flour too and I sieved it. The result is just like my mum's cake

Weekend is almost here but I'm not looking forward to it. Too many things happening that I am not in a good mood. I told FFL my itinerary for the 2 days and she said I need a superman's cape. I still haven't found my peace of mind thinking of what's to come. Very tiring. In chronological order: cooking 2 days' porridge (no time on Sunday) the usual ironing and laundry to do play group open house 5 houses to visit all in JB staying overnight in JB Junior's playgym wedding of someone I don't know and right now I don't care to go visit one house, if people are at home cook for guests we're expecting on Monday. I'm not doing the cooking but I'm doing cleaning. clear house for Monday. Peng's Kitchen just made some vanilla custard puffs that look easy to follow! If I have time (WHO AM I KIDDING RIGHT) I would love to try it out. Husband wants the stayover in JB cos probably he's sick of Singapore. It's only 1 and a ha

Everyone's in holiday mood it seems. I don't get much spam emails now, much less work emails!   Yesterday night we did a mini makeover for our living room. I was amazed we did it under 2 hours! Vacuuming, partial mopping (haha yes only those areas that matter only), cleaning the fan, oiling the sofa, rearranging furniture. Oh and laying out our new carpet that has been sitting in the store for months!   I'm not a carpet person so for normal days I refuse to have carpet. It's easier to clean without carpets.   I didn't take a before-after photo, so this is the best I could find of my living room previously.   Sofa pushed to the side, coffee table too, so that Junior has maximum space to play. We have since bought a new coffee table and TV console! And this is the outcome after yesterday's mini makeover. Tada! The bowl we got it yesterday during lunch at Takashimaya. HAHA. We've moved the sofa to the middle of the living room so that

Heloooooo!! I know it's been ages since I've updated, there's still our family's umrah trip to talk about but I'll just do a random update here. You see, my brain is kinda fried for the day after three whole days of figuring out the stories behind certain numbers and accounts. It's tedious and frustrating at times because you can't get the whole picture due to some missing pieces. So, I'm going to spend the rest of the day clearing up, writing the to-do list, and some other menial work. We've to prepare our house for a small shoot on Sunday, and nothing's been done! Today we plan to vacuum, lay out the carpet, rearrange the sofa (on normal days it's just against the wall for maximum space), dig out whatever little ornaments that can be used for decoration (we don't have that many). It's going to be a long night! Kuih-wise, I've pretty much settled on my kuih list. Made two batches of kuih tart at my mum's last week (o