Snow Skin Mooncake

Rewind 10 [ok, possibly 20] years ago. I got back from school to a house filled with chatter-aunts and sweet aromas all coming from my mum's kitchen. The dining table had a stack of mooncakes baked and another pile filled with white fluffy mooncakes. This bunch of housewives had everything going- tins of lotus paste, lots of pastry and even matching mooncake boxes.-This was my first recollection of mooncakes and Mid-Autumn Festival.

I remember asking my mum why were there fluffy mooncakes? Were they raw and uncooked? ..And then I most probably scoffed them down the second she told me they were edible and digested the whole thing when she told me they were Snow skin [ping pi] mooncakes.

Now, a few months into marriage and I'm conforming to my wifely duties. -Much like those chatter-aunts that were in the kitchen pleasing their husband's tummy. To be utterly honest, I wasn't too keen on making mooncakes. From memory, it seemed like something that would test my patience and make my body go weak. Yes, I'm lazy like that.

But after H's failed desperate prowl for snow skin mooncakes the night before, I thought I'd be nice- you know, to make up for the times i'm embarassing, childish..or for those toe drawings I do.

So here goes my mess..

Life is so much easier with plastic moulds

Excuse my fat fingers- pandan lotus mooncakes in the making

Green Tea Snow Skin Mooncakes

The lot. With imperfections and all.

Guess who got lots of kisses and wife points last night?! Tee Hee.

Simplicity takes it

My mind had been calling for some comfort food for the whole week. It had to be warm, with loads of egg and cheese.

Come Saturday afternoon and I needed some lunch fast, no fuss- way easy.

And this is what came from it..I'm not sure if its a frittata or a omelette..either way it tasted good!

Egg and Cheese bake

1 cup cream

5 eggs

Handful of Cheese- I used whatever was in my fridge, in this case, Colby cheese

Dash of Paprika

Dash of Pepper

Dash of Salt

This is the easiest instructions ever - you ready?

Chuck everything together and mix 'til even. Bake on 180 Celcius for 20 minutes.

What came out was what I had conjured in my mind all week. It was light, soft, fluffy, cheesy.. just what I needed.

Now I'm suffice...

Butterscotch Cheesecake

I'm a lazy cook. So lazy in fact, I couldn't be bothered taking those huge distracting crumbs away before taking the photo.

I'm the type who loves simple recipes made with the least amount of ingredients. Preferably from things already stocked in my pantry. This is one of those lazy cheesecake recipes.

Butterscotch Cheesecake

Base

250g plain sweet biscuits

125g butter, melted

Filling

4 eggs

140g Caster Sugar

500g Cream Cheese

Butterscotch Topping

1/2 Cup firmly packed brown sugar

40g butter

1 tablespoon Cream

Method:

1) Process biscuits until fine and combine with melted butter. Press mixture over a 20cm springform pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2) Preheat oven to 120 Celcius fan-forced.

3) Make filling by beating eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.

4) In a separate bowl, beat cheese until smooth and add into egg mixture. Beat until combined.

5) Pour filling into springform pan and water-bake for 1 1/2 hours or until set.

6) While cooling the cake, make butterscotch topping by heating the ingredients in small saucepan until smooth.

7) Spread over cheesecake and leave for 3 hours or overnight to set.

And if you're lazy like me..you can still take the photo with the crumbs in it.

Dear Mr Jobs

Dear Mr Steve Jobs,

I write to inform that your Iphone is a bad invention

... and I suspect my husband is cheating on me.

Ofcourse, I know I really shouldn't bother you with our marital problems, but I suspect- no, I'm positive, my husband is cheating on me with your Iphone 3G.

Ever since my husband found Miss I.3G, our communication has deteriorated. Every night before we sleep, he would be totally engrossed with Miss I.3G only to gently lay her to bed right beside him. Every morning the moment he wakes up, he greets Miss I.3G before he greets me.

When we have dinner he concentrates on what she's communicating instead of me.

Furthermore, last night I caught my husband furiously tapping his fingers on Miss I.3G. Apparently Miss I.3G has a function that makes his fingers run on her- my husband tells me its a finger race! Good gawd!

But you know where the real problem is? My husband also encourages me to find another.

I plead you to also warn others by adding this extra warning to your device. Your label should read: Warning: marriages my fail after the usage of this device. Use at own risk.

Please help.

Yours Truly,

Married with I-trouble.

Cake Flour

There are some really nifty smitten cooks out there!- and since i'm not one of them..I thought i'd introduce you to one.

I've been following Joy the Baker for a while now. It's one of those foodie blogs i religiously follow and wish I had such kitchen talents. Anyway...she gave a great blog on Cake flour. Yes..making your own cake flour. I just had to share.

'Cos I know alot of people overseas find it hard to find cake flour, and when I go to baking classes, alot of my foreign classmates don't know whats cake flour. And really, cake flour costs an arm and a leg in comparison to plain flour- which really shouldnt be the case.

Cake flour simply put- is sifted all purpose flour and cornflour! It makes cakes/bakes lighter and softer, but isn't ideal for breads. Go here for the full instructions.

How's House?

I've been counting...and I'm really in Week 52 of house building. Which technically makes this house 1 years old, still not finished and completely delayed. I could sit here and ramble on about the causes of delays..but I won't. I'm not going to whinge. I'm just gonna live with it. 'Cos I'm [suppose to be] a mature woman.

What I will tell you is this..we've finally got windows. Parts of the house have been decked with louvre windows. For two reasons really- one for aesthetics and the second for security. I was quite sure for one that I didnt want grills over my openings. Yes, in Asia, its very common to have grills over windows and doors for security purposes. But then how would I deal with security?

So together with my glass maker, we came up with this system- louvres with grills inside the frame. Within each white frame holding the glass panels is a steel bar. This steel bar acts as a hidden grill. Kinda nifty I reckon- cos you wouldn't of otherwise known.

And if you notice close enough..our ceilings are up too.

Ahhh..the tiles. The tiles have been up for a while now. I remembered the pain of choosing them. I would complain to you about the suppliers..or lack of..but I wont. Because I promised. But can I just say there are some very unprofessional people out there?!

Now that its out of my system..lets continue.

This is the common bathroom. Kindly excuse me not wiping it down for photograph purposes..but I wanted to show you how boring I am. Beige. Off white. Mosaic tiles. As simple as that. After hours if not days of labouring whether tiles should be creamy white, white white, beige white...it really doesnt make that much of a different when it's up. Seriously.

House isn't quite home yet. We've still got lots to do. But look who has moved in-

Wasps. oh Gawd! I'm not befriending them but can someone tell me how I shoo them away?

Try-Hard Gourmet

Sometimes I dream of being a chef, having my own patisserie, slaving in my little kitchen making daintly things sweet and savoury. So then I try and realise my dream for a second, and by that I mean a split second! The moment I have a tad of hope for that patisserie of mine..POOF..I do something terribly wrong and I realise I need my day job. Desperately!

So here is my try hard moment-

I imagined tiny carrot cupcakes with little crunchy walnut bits, smothered with cream cheese frosting, accentuated with a dash of white chocolate.

Just to let you know, the little crunchy walnut bits were replaced with chopped prune bits because walnuts decided to go on holiday that day. First detour.

So the little cuppies were getting baked and I didn't hear my timer because I was cooking dinner. Hence, cuppies sat in the oven a tad too long. Second detour.

I still had some determination left and thought I'd made the most out of it anyway. I creamed the cheese and melted my chocolate. Here's where it got all tricky and my dream was quickly poofing away.

I thought doing chocolate was gonna be damn easy. How wrong was I!

I melted the chocolate, gently spread it out. When it hardened I placed my cookie cutter on it only to realise my try hard gourmet part wasnt coming through. Darn. Think TweedleDee think. A few minutes of searching whats left in my tiny brain I finally got the solution. So I bring you...tadaaaa....

Swirled chocolate on white chocolate!~

The end product didnt turn out too bad. I present to you Carrot detoured Prune Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting..its nowhere near gourmet though...

and.....me being a patisserie chef? Bleh.

Yours Truly

Hi! Here's Tweedle-Bum and Tweedle-Dee. aka H and myself.

Here's us. Predominantly in our very conscious but child-like forms a bit after we got married. -Notice how we were still infatuated with a little ring on our fourth finger signifying our union in marriage.


I hate to admit this to you. but months later...err..we're still like this.

Just a few nights ago after our 49th monthiversary and a little over midnight I was still jumping around like a spring chicken and asked H :

Dear..don't you want to talk?

H, half asleep and wrapped warmly in the blanket let out a mere groan,-

Urghhh...this is going to be looooong night!

In all seriousness, I had nothing to talk about but wasn't gonna fall asleep anytime soon. I had a afternoon nap and H knows afternoon naps leave me jumping with joy at night.

But being the true husband that he is, he scratched his forehead, popped on his glasses, sat up and said:-

Ok, what do you want to talk about?

And being the silly inconsiderate wife I am, I smiled, closed my eyes and replied-

Nothing.

With that..somehow all my energy left and soon after I did fall asleep. Which kind of leaves me sounding quite selfish at the moment huh?

Anyways..

So dear..thank you for enduring those spring chicken nights of mine. I promised to entertain you for your spring chicken nights too.

And for all thats been asking How's marriage? All I can say is that We're getting use to it...and we're loving it.

And of all our other doings

I wish I was a tad more interesting and told you I did something wacky other than eat and shop in Singapore. But I wont. 'Coz I didnt. I'm plain, boring and that's that. H and I were stuck at Orchard most of the time doing house shopping. In between we snuck bouts of food searching and some shop detours, but we did what we had to do. Very much different from our previous honeymoon where relaxing was the key.

I wanted to do the Singapore Eye or even meet up with a few old friends, but didn't even get up to that.

So in between...here's a few glimpses..

This is Orchard Central- a new shopping center @ Orchard Road. This is where Phoenix Hotel use to be- where most of my childhood Singapore memories are. The selfish part of me wish it didn't change. Wish I could still smell Famous Amos cookies being baked, walk between John Little and see a pastry shop. Now it kind of just looks like everywhere else-

We found this huge sculpture too..I thought it was a column or something...then i looked way up..and saw a gigantic dinoshopper [dinosaur sized shopper]. But it somehow also reminded me of Sex and the City.

A sit down at Haagen Dazs...

We did Mos Burger too. [And just incase you're thinking we're some monstrous pigs right about now, I'd like to clarify we didnt eat consecutively... just that this is all mass jumbled together. Ahh, that made me feel better. ]

I would show you my undenying love with Bak Ku teh too if it didnt end up with a photo of me with a big cheesy grin that screams psycho!

hmm...lets move on..

Anyway...I personally like this picture and would give you a whole story about it.

Once upon a time, there lived Big Cup and Lil' cup. One day, Lil' Cup wanted to go for a stroll in the hills......

ok...maybe that's another post altogether and my imagination is running a little wild. Sorry, I do that when I see nice simple graphics. H always told me I'd tell good bedtime stories.

Here's a interesting one..rice burger with teriyaki beef.

Lurving their crispy chunky chips too.

Oh...and Lawrys. Yes, we did Lawrys again.

Funny how I was craving for it- I tried to do the yorkshire pudding and lovely beef which ended up nothing like it..and then ended up eating the real thing days later...and realising I completely sucked.

..And the reason why I've compiled everything in one post?..I'm having holiday blues. Writing about Singapore makes me want to go there again. So I decided to finish this off once and for all.

Mr Big

Presenting Mr Big - ok, KitchenAid. My McDreamy. Well, [one of] my kitchen Mcdreamys. He's smooth, sleek, tough and operates just fine. Which means he's technically a smooth operator!

Ok, I digressed. And just to clarify...it's a 'he' just like guys name their cars 'she'. Its just a opposite sex sort of thing. But look...he's just ultra sleek.

H gave it as a gift- he hasnt quite worked out the occassion yet and I haven't quite worked out if I should be totally happy with the idea. Does he mean I'm suppose to slave in the kitchen from now 'til eternity [which I remember quite clearly wasn't in our marriage contract] or was he merely just fulfilling my kitchen dream? Hmm.

And this was my first bake with KitchenAid. To be precise, maybe it was my first cutting session with KitchenAid. You don't understand do you? H ended up playing with it and I became the assistant. Hmm. Did I say it was my toy?!

H can't deny it. Cos I also blame my failed Kueh Lapis on him. tee hee.

I never showed you my Kueh Lapis because it kinda turned...well..ugly. Tasted fine..but ugly. Fugly ugly.

So now you know what I've been up to.

Chocolate Research Facility

I felt like a kid at Willy Wonka's or something- their lab department to be precise. Forget dieting, this place is totally calorie indulging. Chocolate in all sorts of flavours, packed in their uber cool graphic boxes and displayed on white- well, lab-like decor.

Made me feel like I was actually doing something scientific, experimental..when really I was just spoiling myself.

Half way through choosing, a kid ran into the store. After a few glimpses he shouted

Isnt there any Normal chocolate in this place?

lol. Poor mum.

I ended up with Banana chocolate and Sugar free Milk chocolate. -Though you'd most probably notice the first ingredient on the sugar-free chocolate is sweetener- hmm.

The chocolate? Smooth. Soft. Nice. -I've really got a way with words huh?!

Chocoholics all aboard!

Chocolate Research Facility, Level 2 Wheelock Place Singapore. I believe its also at Millenia Walk.

The Getaway

If I haven't told you, H and I get funny bouts of emotions and sudden bursts of inspiration mainly in the mornings. One if not two of us thinks of something wacky. Totally unplanned.

So that fine morning, H said-

Lets go Singapore tomorrow!

And thats really how it happened. I kind of ignored his abrupt morning statement and the next thing I knew, he had bought the tickets. No planning, no talking, just off we went.

Our main agenda was to settle some things for the house, but we did get awfully distracted with the norm- food and shopping! What else was Singapore known for?

Here's our first food stop. Tong Shui Cafe, 54 Zion Road Singapore.

By the time we checked in and refreshed ourselves it was pretty late. So we had a stroll to Zion Road where cafes and restaurants are aplenty. We wanted something light for supper- this place fitted perfectly.

They had some pretty funky stuff too...things we were intrigued with but didnt have the tummy to try. Maybe next time? The in-your-face semi Nyonya decor was quite appropriate for the place. Queer, funky, modern, chic...just like their food.

While waiting, we spent much of our time reading up their wall of fame. Excerpts from magazines.

H's [safe and boring] white fungus dessert- he's not one to try new foods.

My glutinous sesame ball in almond paste. A bit too sweet for my liking but heaven forbid running oozy centers!

Between us, we had stuffed fried dough.

This is something I won't try...but H would of loved if he had just a tiny spot left in his tummy. Him and Durian go way back.

And this...is a photo I took so that I could try out this recipe next time. Salted fish fried rice with wolfberries. Looks good huh?

Ohhh...the many wonders of FOOD.

I apologise

Whenever I go missing, I come back with a lame post. Without photos. Without anything really. Just a bit more blabber from my side of the world. Then, I have the audacity to promise I'll give you a substantial update soon.

Well, this post is no exception. Sorry. I'm gonna tell you I've been extremely busy but I'll be back to blogging soon. I promise. But not that it really matters. Now that its out of my system, lets begin.

I've been extremely busy with:

work- hi ho overtime!

the new house -which is most probably not so new now considering its taking its own sweet time. You'll most probably be moulding by the time it finishes and I'll most probably I dunno, have grandkids by then.

And in the middle of it, H threw a semi-surprise getaway trip which I'll tell you about next time- you know the gist, the part which would be interesting.

In the mean time, have a Kit Kat.