My trial

Tomorrow will be the last examination paper that my little one is sitting. She sure been putting in a lot of effort for this exam as she wanted to attain a gift that I promised if she does well. I just simply love her spirit. Sometime I wish my son has a little bit of this "never say die" attitude. Then again, each child is different.

I am praying hard that the sky will clear up soon so that the toppers won’t be sweating. My greatest fear will be, them going limp just before delivery.

With my cake commitment more or less in place, I agree to a little project as I know that I will have more time to test out some recipes. The only thing is that I need to get it out by this weekend.

I wouldn't say that I failed in my first trial. Fresh from the oven, my little hippo (she has been eating so much lately that both my helper and I are worried about her weight), already chomped down three pieces. We were trying to stop her from taking her third serving.

Seeing her sister munching on it greedily, my teen couldn't resist despite saying that he is still full from his dinner. As I need to keep some for breakfast, they were literally fighting for more.

I like the texture but I wasn't too happy with the taste. So I am going back to the drawing board.

Rise and shine!

I have known friends who will wake up as early as 4am to cook noodles or even porridge for their kids as breakfast. Such devoted mommies that I admired.

As for my kids, they don't have such love from me. It is either sandwiches, cereals or even cookies! So to get a hot breakfast, like Bacon and eggs are left mostly on weekend.

Since I have a very good experience with my Steamed Brownie yesterday, I decided to prepare some Steamed Rice Cake for my kids as breakfast. Looking at the recipe, it was super easy to prepare.

My kids rarely eat this as I am afraid of the colours but I am sure they will like something different from the usual breakfast they get.



I didn't have very good result with it. I find that the texture is very dense perhaps it might be my mixing? Wondering whether there is a way to mix it properly as the instruction for this book is generally very vague.

Though we hardly eat this, but I think the texture is fluffier than this. Also I didn’t get that split look.

I am pretty paranoid with colours, I wasn’t very liberal with it. Thus wasn’t able to create more vibrant rice cakes but I chosen two favourite colours of my kids. Pink for the girl and green for the boy and white for mommy!

Nevertheless, the kids didn't complain and I am glad. A little sugar high is okay since exam is over for my eldest.

It is a PERFECT Monday!

I am up and running again. Many thanks for all your care and concern (via emails and comments). I really appreciate it. The love you given are even better than medication.

Last weekend was definitely a good resting period for me. Thankfully, hubby was around and he ferried the kids for their lesson while I rested at home (in peace).

I spent whatever time I had (be in on the sofa or in the bedroom) dozing away. Cat nap is better than no rest.

This morning, I was telling myself that I am wrong about the weather. The haze seems to be gone. On the way home, I witnessed a nice skyline and then next I saw black cloud looming in the distance from the west. Instead of feeling gloomy that a wet day is coming on a blue Monday, I welcome it!

I was hoping that this heavy downpour will clear the sky ever more. On the bad note, I secretly wished that it is a sunny day as well because I am doing a fondant cake for a client and it is sweating like mad. Luckily, there isn't much 3D, or else I am sure to stress out as the client only come by to pick up the cake in the evening.

I am not going to let this ruin my day, I am not going to let my inconsiderate neighbour ruined my day too. For those who visited me before, I am sure the front door to the rubbish chute is no distance too far to take the bag of rubbish. Instead she left it by the lift entrance. Totally no shame, that we are seeing her disgusting action. What is wrong with her?

Okay, great I let it off my chest, now I am going to carry on my daily life.

Today has been good to me as well as I managed to tick off many to do items on my list.

A recipe from a library book caught my eyes as well. I was eager to try out as I was telling A that I wonder how a Steamed Brownie taste like.

I was told that too much baking is actually bad for face as it creates more pigmentation. I definitely have pigmentation but whether from baking or not, it has yet to be proven. Nevertheless, I am glad that I have found another way to have my cakes!

This Steamed Brownie is really easy to prepare and it tasted great too. Do try it!



Source: Magic Steamed Cake

What you need:

A
100g butter
85g chocolate

B
180g castor sugar
3 eggs (large)

C
20g cocoa powder
170g plain flour
1 1/4 tsp double action baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

D
120g chopped walnut (I omitted as my gal said she did't want them)

Method

Melt chocolate and butter over double boiler till chocolate melted. Set aside.

Whisk egg with sugar till sugar dissolved. Add in cooled chocolate mixture. Mix well.

Sieve C and then it to the chocolate/egg mixture.

Add the walnuts.

Pour into a 8" X 8" square pan (or 22 X 20cm).

Steam on high for 30 mins. Set aside to cool.

Coat with ganache.

It is coming back

Few weeks ago, I had an asthma attack and it was pretty scary as I didn't have my medication with me. It sure been a long time I last had one.

Anyway, it is coming back again. This time triggered by the haze. My chest was tight just a day before the haze started to get really bad. I thought that it might be because I was tired but when the haze started to thicken, I knew it wasn't. Went to see the doctor to get my medication but he discovered that I was also running a temperature. I told him that I didn't even feel sick, just with a tight chest. A test proved that he was right.

Being a homemaker, the saddest part is that when you are ill, you still need to function. Sometime I wish I am back to a little girl. Being love, care and pampered by mommy dearest.

Now I am luckier than 5 years ago, as I don't have to do 100% household work unlike last time. My helper is also very compassionate (a true blessing). Yesterday I just had to go out to top up the fridge and also to grab some presents for friends who become parents.

Luckily everything was done indoor. Grabbed and run. By the time I reached home, I was totally exhausted. With both kids not in school, getting peaceful rest is near impossible (I am a light sleeper). Thus sometime I wish I have a bigger house or a garden that I can sent them out. hahhaa.

A gloomy had passed. Today I am feeling a little better and since I have a cupcake commitment, I got up at 6am to bake despite waking up at 2am and couldn't go back to sleep till 3ish.

My little one is suffering from Bruxism and I am really tempted to seek Chinese medical opinion as the dentist told me that there is no cure, only to put mouth guard and since she is so young, he told me to hold on till she is bigger. She enjoys sleeping in our room but her teeth grinding often wakes me up. arrghhhh.

Since I am already baking with all the ingredients out, I took the chance to experiment another Vanilla Cupcake recipe that A asked me to try to see whether I can get a nice dome shaped cupcake which I have been seeking out.

A, here is my result. It is great but I think I still need to adjust the batter to each cup. I will pair it with some frosting later as I am flat out again.

Note: Sorry, I won't be able to share this recipe.

Home alone

This morning, I was awoken by a phone call. My dear friend V asked me out for breakfast. It feels good to bring my little gal along as this week, she will be off from school till Friday.

Being an e-learning week, she gets to do her homework at home. Though a little worrying to stay home during an exam period but I guess a little relax environment won’t affect her performance much.

Having her home alone at home is really peaceful. Besides singing and dancing around the house when she is awesome mood, she is basically a very happy girl and quiet as well.

Being home alone with my boy is very different, the radio will be constantly turned on with his head banging music that sometime gives me headache. Or he will go round the house with his ping pong ball and bat. tick tock tick tock all day long or the soccer ball is being dribbled round the house.

Being home alone with both kids is another different feel. My girl will tend to wince alot and my son will like to bicker with her but the best moment is to see them playing very well with each other. My son will initiate a game of ping pong over my two coffee tables (now you know why I have two in my house if you visited my home).

So today, with a peaceful mind and a relaxing afternoon, we went about baking a brownie since daddy dearest loves brownie. Chose this recipe from Sweetness again, Mom's Fudge Brownie.

Definitely nice to end the day with a scoop of ice cream over warm brownie after dinner.

Want some?



Note: I overbaked it again this time round. I will cut 5 mins from the baking time next round.

What you need:

222g unsalted butter
116g unsweetened chocolate (use the best you can find)
200g castor sugar
190g plain flour
4 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
168g pecan, coarsely chopped

Method

Melt butter and chocolate using a double boiler. Transfer into mixing bowl.

Using a whisk attachment, whisk the sugar with the chocolate mixture while it is still hot.

In 4 alternating batches, add the flour and eggs into the chocolate mixture. Whisk well after each addition.

Add in vanilla and pecans. Stir well and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 20 - 25 mins.

Doesn't look at all

I have been pending this recipe for nearly 3 weeks and I knew that I can wait no further.

Didn't have very good mood today as I was upset by how rude my son is getting. I can tolerate laziness, untidiness and playfulness. One thing I can never tolerate is being RUDE.

Even though many told me that this is the teenage phrase and they need to exercise their rights and independence but I NEVER agree of them being rude to Parents or anybody for matter of fact.

I refused to allow my son to talk to me with disrespect or treat me with one.

Perhaps you can say I am a very HARD mom but hey, house has house rules, school has school rules and even when they go out to the society to work, there are office rules and there are country rules!!!

So if house rules can't be complied, I seriously don't know how they will grow up to be a good citizen.

Didn't make matter better is that husband was quiet about it and refused to stand up for me. Hey, if husband and wife cannot be together in same view, I am sure my son will think he has a "strong" backing and can LORD over me whenever he is not around. Already the situation is bad with the attention and I definitely don't need another one to add to my problem.

Call me a stubborn old mule but I will not soften till I get my apologies and I got them right after his school. Of course I did my explanation and reasoning and hopefully, this will drum deep into his head.

With apologies accepted, I went into my bread making process. My last experience and this bread kneading weren’t really fantastic. It takes a long time for it to barely pass the stretch test.

Next, the proofing time was way too long. I think it was nearly 1.5 hours before it barely makes the half way mark.

I didn't want a plain white loaf so I added in raisin during the final proof.

Next obstacle, I have two Pullman tins but unfortunately both sizes are not the required one for this recipe. No choice but to improvise by added some tin foil and was hoping hard that it will "beef" up nicely.

Haiz..... a failure because instead of a nice loaf of Pullman Bread, mine turned out to be more like a baguette.

Though the bread was soft but it wasn’t fluffy soft. The crust was hard as I suspect I overbaked it. Does bread has this overbaking problem too?

Will I consider this a success? Definitely not!



Next for dinner, I prepared Cordon Bleu Chicken. I remembered the last time I first tried this was at Raffles Marina and it was long time ago. It was relatively an easy dish to prepare.

As I don't have any block cheese around, I used Kraft Cheddar slice which was a mistake as it melted away.

Overall, yummy.

Cook and Feed with Love

At our last Bloggers' Party, an idea bounced off on why don't we, bloggers, come together and cook for others since we enjoy cooking and baking. Sharing our passion with less fortunate will bring even greater joy.

It was a welcome idea and eventually put into reality. A month or two of discussion and co-ordination work finally comes together.



As this is our first time organising such an event, we didn't want to attract too much attention by blog invitation to join this effort. Instead, we opted for a more subtle way of going by word of mouth.

As we don't have a central kitchen to cook in, we need to get the food done in our private kitchen. To maintain the same consistency and taste, a standard recipe needs to follow.

A group of team leaders thus was appointed to find an easy to follow and yet tasty recipe.

Our recruitment drive turned out to be really good. In fact, it was so successful that even a few non bloggers wanted to help as well. For some, despite their work schedule, they still find time to participate and I am truly touched.











It was a humid morning but still a few of us already started streaming in early. The hall was already set up and soon, food items were coming in and topping into a central serving tray.

I am really glad that everything fell into an orderly co-ordinated sequence and soon the old folks were all waiting excitedly outside the centre. A queue started to form right away after the centre manager made an announcement.

Can't keep them waiting for too long, can’t we?



The mood was merry and everyone just pitched in to help in what way we can. Some were dishing out food, some were helping the less mobile to their table and some were serving those who are on wheelchairs. Some were helping to clear tables and some were helping to serve desserts.



It was in perfect co-ordination that no instruction was needed.

There was even an Karaoke session after the lunch!

To the old folks, they sang praises about the good lunch that they were given.

To the volunteers, it was simple joy of seeing those toothless smiles. Enough to melt one’s heart and bring great satisfaction for all the hard work and effort.

Special thanks to my hubby. I am glad that hubby despite his office move, he is taking time out to pick up my little girl for her Speech and Drama class.

Also my helper for all the cutting and helping out.

V, my kind friend who sponsored the cultery.

And all involved in making this Cook and Feed with Love event such a successful one.

The day ended with so much joy despite us not able to find time to connect with new faces but we promised each other that we will make it up by a tea session real soon.

Thank you all, without your effort, this event can never be a successful one.

A thank you note from the centre manager:

Thanks for organising the lunch for our seniors. They enjoyed the food and the energetic presence of your young team. You have been so kind to us. Have a good weekend. Lucy.

Couldn't get enough

Just yesterday, I baked a batch of cookies and the jar of cookies is more or less finishing soon. You won't believe it but this is how much my teen at home is eating. Not surprisingly, he only craves for sweet stuff. Other than school days where I know he can't have that sugar high mode as he needs to sit down and focus in class, I usually let him have his way.

Even I, there will be some days I just needed some chocolate bar to boost my day.

V and little R are coming over today. I think it will be nice to have another batch of chocolate chip cookies for the kids to have as tea time snack.

A rather unique recipe as it uses a small amount of oatmeal in it. Unfortunately I didn’t quite like the shape. I suspected that I added a teaspoon of baking powder by accident. It is a soft cookie and has a bit of chew to it. I will reduce the sugar a little if I add in chocolate chip the next round.

Boy, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. A month or so of co-ordination work is finally coming together.

I hope this group of bloggers will have fun cooking for this Cook and Feed with Love event and I am sure the elderly will get pleasure eating home cooked food done out of love.

Healthy option

Yea I am done with supervising my son. For today, he sat for his last paper for Final year examination I seriously hope that he did put in his best effort and be serious during the examination.

Since yesterday, he was already looking forward to today. I don't know whether he is a cool dude or couldn't be bother attitude but he is definitely not stress over the examination despite not doing well for his mid year. Going through his assessment books, I found out that many of them are not really fully attempted despite me urging him on to try it.

Was it my error that since young, we focus more on play rather than studying? After all, it was only after his Primary 6 Prelim, that I hired a tutor for him? Thus there is no responsible to do assessment? Have we done wrong to let them have a good childhood?

Just a moment ago, I was on the phone with my client, deciding on the theme for a little 10 years old boy's birthday cake. When his mom asked him what design he wanted for his birthday cake. His response was "Anti homework".

I can't help but wonder ....

Anyway, cookie jar is empty and I am sure my boy will be walking round the house and asking what can he eat.

Thus I decided on healthier choice by using oatmeal and raisin. I just couldn't resist throwing in a handful of chocolate chip as well as I really have way too much chips.

So here is our Oatmeal, Raisin and Chocolate chip cookie. If you like chewy cookie like me, this will be the one.

Nevertheless, I am pretty pleased how these turned out. At least all in uniform shape but I will definitely need to buy a smaller ice cream scoop so that my cookies can be more dainty looking.

Enjoy.



Source: Joy of Baking

What you nee:

226g unsalted butter
210g light brown sugar
50g castor sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
195g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
260g rolled oats
140g raisins
100g chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 177 deg.

Cream butter and sugar till cream and smooth (2 mins)

Add in the eggs and beat after each addition.

Add in the vanilla extract.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.

Add into the egg mixture and beat till incorporated.

Stir in the oats, chocolate and raisins.

Using an ice cream scoop, place batter apart on a cookie tray.

Bake for 15 min or more or till golden brown.

Cool on tray slightly and tranfer to cooling rack.

An extremely busy week

This is going to be a stressful week as my little prince is (ahem... should I say my growing up prince) is having his exam and I need to constantly making sure that he is focusing. Boy, I seriously don’t know when will be the day that he could self study without any monitoring.

As expected, this week is jam packed. I am basically trying to work faster so that I have more time for my kids and hopefully by end week, I will be all ready for a weekend activity that I am looking forward to.

With plenty of chocolate chips in my fridge and a bunch of banana ripening at an alarming rate, I spotted a Banana Chocolate Chip Pound Cake recipe at the right time. I just couldn't say no to this one.

Coming back to the banana, I find it strange that the banana is ripening so fast. I could hardly have a chance to see a nice bunch of yellow banana. Are the farmers doing something unethnical with their growing method? I told myself fear not, as our AVA is pretty good in doing their job to ensure that the produce that we are getting overseas are deem fit to eat.

This is another interesting recipe. It uses mascarpone cheese as well as sour cream. I was very keen to find how the texture is like as the last Supreme Chocolate Cupcake was nice that I am just curious to test out another recipe from this book.

The texture is soft and yet moist. I seriously urge you to try it for it is truly delicious.

Next round, I will double the ingredients and make two loaves!

Okay need to get back to work now.



Adapted from Sweetness by Sarah Levy

What you need:

66g chocolate chip
143g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
60g sour cream
56g mascarpone cheese
83g butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
100g castor sugar
1 egg
148g banana, mashed

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Use one tbsp of the sifted flour and add to the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Combine sour cream and mascarpone cheese in a bowl with a spatula. Set aside.

Cream the butter and cinnamon on high speed. Gradually add in the sugar a tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat till the mixture is light and fluffy.

On medium speed, add in the egg and follow by 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beating till incorporated.

Follow by 1/3 of the sour cream mixture.

Alternate with the dry and the wet ingredients.

Using a spatula, fold in the banana and the chocolate chip. Do not overmix.

Pour into a loaf tin and bake for 40 -50 mins or till cake is cooked.

My last party for 2010

I am hosting a pot luck party for some close girlfriends. Tonight's party might be my last for 2010. After tonight, I don't think I will have time to host another one till next year.

We have been talking about a gathering since last year and it never happened. Or should I say we did try but our busy schedules kept having us to reschedule and reschedule till we decided to stay firm to it.

With H going for a second baby real soon, I guess this is the perfect timing for a gathering.

As usual, my contribution is dessert. I didn't have time to plan what I wanted to bake or prepare yesterday as I had a sudden dinner appointment then a girl friend came over and stayed late into the night. This morning is the usual Saturday routine for the kids. Thus I didn't get to think about it till while waiting for the kids and browsing a recipe book for idea.

When my son heard that it is a pot luck dinner, he too said he wanted to contribute an item and that will be his by now famous Baked Rice. It gotten lots of praises from the aunties, even fussy eater Baby S was eating it happily.



Son, good job!

As for me, decided to just make a peach tart and some chocolate cupcakes.

I only get to go about it after all my "duties" are done for the kids. At 4pm, I was still weighing out my ingredients when H came. I was trying so hard to focus and not to miss an item while talking her.

I had fun preparing this lovely Peach Tart. It was well liked by my friends and kids.



I didn't have time to do a chocolate butter cream for the Supreme Chocolate cupcake.



The reason why I attempted this recipe was the uniqueness of the recipe and I was eager to find out the texture of the cake. It would have been nice if I had the time to prepare the buttercream.

Overall texture is soft, fluffy and very chocolaty which I like. Next round, I will pair it off buttercream.

The evening ended just so beautifully. As usual, lots of laughter and fun time talking about the “been there done that”.

We promised each other that we will have to do this more often.

H, have a safe delivery for the new baby.

S, enjoy your Japan trip.

L, hope to hear good news from you, hopefully by next year.

Cheers to friendship!

Adapted from Sweetness by Sarah Levy

What you need:

57g cocoa powder
1/3 cup boiling water
106g cake flour
250g castor sugar (I reduce this to 200g)
2 1/8 tsp baking powder
167g unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1.5 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Combine cocoa powder and boiling water to form a paste. Set aside.

Sift together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.

Whisk eggs and vanilla extract together. Add a third of the cocoa mixture to the egg mixture. Whisk till all incorporated.

Add the remaining cocoa mixture and the butter to the dry ingredients mixture and mix together for 1.5 mins.

Add the cocoa egg mixture to the cocoa dry ingredients mixture in 2 separate addition. Mixing for 30 seconds between each addtiion. Ensure all the cocoa egg mixture is well blended.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full.

Bake for 20 min.

Simple food

My kids love porridge. Once a while, my hubby will also request for this. I guess too much rich food sometime makes us crave for simple food.

I learnt how to cook porridge from my mom. She has this skill of cooking porridge that has this thick and velvety texture. She is so good at it that I don’t recall her burning her congee. Her trick was NOT TO STIR it. Simply let it simmer. Easy as it sounds but I still get a 60% chance of burning my pot. So I still have a long way to go.

My kids love grandma’s porridge and grew up with it, that they frown upon Teochew porridge.

I remembered our first visit to a Teochew Porridge stall. My son refused to eat it as he said it is not porridge. It is just rice with water.

For my porridge, I usually used broth instead of water. I will cook a big pot of stock and have it deep freeze. I find that it is so much more flavourful this way.

For this particular day, we decided that plain white porridge will go very well with Kokken's Braised Mushroom meat sauce that I had prepared last week. Her meat sauce looks so divine that it is hard to pass this. Thus, when I had sometime on hand, I cooked it without knowing how to pair it. Thus I decided to deep freeze it just to standby.

Matching this was by instinct, but I have no regrets. It was simply delicious.

Thanks so much for sharing.

After a long break

I can't recall when my last bread-making session was. I do know that I have been delay making it for a long time.

My family is basically very much into bread. Perhaps I should seriously considering picking up this skill.

My kids are a big fan of Hot Dog Bun or Cheese Bun. Don't ask me why. Each time when we visit a bakery, they always never missed picking up this as their first choice and I hated it. No matter how I persuade them of other choices, they stood firm with their decision.

You might think that I am terrible but I hope my kids to grow up exploring different type of food. Enjoy experiencing different varieties.

For me, if I dined out, I always like to experiment different type of food. For my hubby, he will always order the same thing and I am afraid that my kids will take after him - boring.

Anyway, these days, though prices remain, the size actually shrunk. I noticed that they no longer sell a full hot dog bun. The bun either become smaller or the hot dog cuts into two. So I decided to bake some for my kids.

If mommy masters it, I am sure more Hot Dog buns to come for them.



Recently I joined a baking club in which they have a recipe for members to try on a monthly basis.

For the September challenge, it is Sweet Bun Dough, recipe adapted from Alan Ooi.

Initially I find that my dough is very dry. Despite mixing the yeast with the water, I feel grainy texture on the dough. Perhaps it is the sugar. It only starts to have a smooth texture after I add in the butter.

I was kneading the dough with a dough hook and after 10 mins, the dough still didn't pass the stretch test. By then, I was afraid that I will burn the motor. I couldn't afford for it to send back to the workshop again. Thus, I decided to just cover with a damp cloth and let it proof for 45 min.

It didn't yield the volume even after an hour. I decided to cover it with a HOT damp cloth instead. A sigh of relief when I saw it doubled in volume. At least I don't need to dump the dough away. Phew.

Wasn’t good with shaping at all, definitely needs to work on this in future.

Texture is really soft despite so many hiccups. Thus I think this dough is very forgiving. It will be good for beginners like me.

A strange morning

On Sunday, I survived the day with only 4 hours of sleep. I only gotten to bed at 2am and woke up at 6am on Sunday as I need to fulfil an order.

I could only blame my hubby for being a TV addict. Somehow, I find men love the TV and being a couch potato. Perhaps it is a form of relaxation for them?

Usually TV has this hypnotic effect on me, I tend to fell asleep while watching TV but for this particular Saturday's late night, the program was surprisingly aired in Cantonese. Gosh, it has been a long time since I last watch a show in this dialect.

Anyway, this morning, I am like a zoombie. The perk of being a homemaker is that after I fulfilled my role as a driver in the morning, I went back to bed. Had an extra hour or so and I felt so much better.

It was a great morning. Light breeze and a little sunny but I think it didn’t last long. The weather turned pretty humid after that I needed three showers. It is definitely bad for my skin.

Checked into the cyberworld for some inspiration of what to cook for tonight's dinner and bingo! I saw this recipe from Almost Bourdain.

I knew my kids will love it as they are a big fan of potatoes. I am going to do a slight modification so that we can have this as a dinner.

Initially my family thought it was Rosti as we are a big fan of this. Since I don't recall me eating this in Germany, I actually can't do a comparison. Kartoffelpuffer or German Potato Pancakes didn't have this crispy texture like Rosti.

Hubby suggested that I should cook it longer to get that crisp which I am not sure whether it is attainable without burning it.

I like the fact it has onion that adds some crunch to it without the bite (I love onion but it has to be cooked). I also created some salmon cream to go with it and it was delicious. I couldn't finish the three pan cakes on my plate as it was rather filling.

We enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thanks for sharing.

Remembering a friend

Today my friend V and I gave a Children's Day treat to our kids. I have been spending a lot of my time with V and her kid.

As a friend, this is the least I can do to give her support as she is going through a very difficult period in her life. I feel sad for her as there is nothing that she can do to change her life at this moment. A betrayal of a 17 years relationship can be really devastating to her. It didn't help for the fact that she is also a stay home mom for the last 7 years. She trusted whole-heartedly with no reservation. As a woman, I can understand her feeling of being helpless now.

I am glad that our friendship has developed to the next level. These days, I won't dare to think our relationship will grow old together as in the past, I have been told many times and in the end, it is just words.
Somehow, people changed and thus these days, I have lesser hope. Of course it hurts initially but I guess when one door closes, the next door opens.

For me, bringing V into my life perhaps it that opened door and I am truly blessed for I know this friend is for real. Thinking about what V is going through reminded me so much of L and I am praying so hard that V will get stronger and finds the strength to see light and hope at the end of the tunnel.

As for L, you were always be remembered. I wish that I can turn back the clock and starts all over being your friend again.

To my readers, I leave you with these delicious Deep Fried Mushrooms.



What you need:

A punnet of mushroom (clean and cut)
3 tbsp rice flour
4.5 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp butter, melted
salt and pepper to taste
Water

Method

All the ingredients except water together.

Slowly add water to form a thick batter.

Heat a wok of oil. Coat mushroom thoroughly with batter and deep fry straightaway.

Drain and serve.