First swap ever!

This year I decided to take part in a Christmas swap organised by one of my BLU friends Erica. I got paired up with one of her friends, Chiara from Italy and we sent each other handmade goodies, craft supplies, beads and fabric. Here is what I got. How lovely! :) Love the babushka necklace & felt brooch!

Coconut M&Ms

I've been passing these at a candy shop at the train station for many days so I thought I would have to try it.
At first, they taste a little weird but it does grow on you and after a while, just tastes like M&Ms. Apparently I smelt like coconut after eating the pack :P

Fresh garlic

I've never seen garlic so fresh that there are green stalks attached so I got these at the market on Saturday.
They look good don't they?

Gingerbread men

I saw an article about ninjabread men and this really inspired me to make some gingerbread men because I really do like to eat them anyway.


But since I don't have those cutters, I had to make normal men.

Ingredients: -
150g butter, chopped
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon ground ginger, sifted
1 teaspoon mixed spice, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
3 cups plain flour, sifted
milk chocolate bits, to decorate

Method: -
1. Place butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Stir in bicarbonate of soda. Transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Cool.
2. Stir in egg, ginger, mixed spice, baking powder and flour until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape into discs. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 3 baking trays. Line with baking paper. Roll 1 dough disc between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Cut shapes from dough, re-rolling dough scraps.
4. Bake, 1 tray at a time, for 8 minutes or until just firm to touch. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


Here are my gingerbread men.


And a gingerbread ghost. Hahaha!

Market flowers

Got a giant lot of nice flowers from the market on Sunday. Three large bunches for only $5! They smell great too!

Onde-onde

Second attempt at onde-onde today. It is actually quite easy to make and this time, I've got a batch done in about 15 mins (with some leftover gula melaka from the last round). The toughest bit was actually scraping the gula melaka together into little balls to be put in the centre of the glutinous rice balls. I've got no colouring at home so they are not coloured but they still taste good.

Ingredients (makes about 12):
½ cup glutinous rice flour
70ml water (cool to room temperature is fine) OR coconut milk
Palm sugar (gula melaka)

Method:
Shave palm sugar by slicing thin slivers off the block and then chop roughly. Pinch small amounts together and roll into small marbles. Freeze.

Knead glutinous rice flour with water or alternatively, coconut milk till a ball gathers and the dough is slightly moist. Add water gradually so that the dough does not get too wet. If the dough seems a little dry add a teaspoon of water or coconut milk and knead till incorporated.

To stuff the dough, pinch a small portion of the dough, toll roughly into a ball and squash so it's about four to five millimetres thick. Place palm sugar into the centre and gather dough around so the stuffing is covered, then pinch away any excess dough. Roll in palm of hands till you form a perfect ball.

Fill a medium to large pot with boiling water. When the balls are cooked, they will float to the top. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and transfer to sieve to drain for about five seconds. Don't leave for too long or they will get sticky and unmanageable.

Tip balls into desiccated coconut and roll till completely covered. Rest on paper towel to catch access moisture from balls as they cool.

Sujee Biscuits

With cooking shows and celebrity chefs being all the rage now, Shawn got into the spirit of things and wanted to make some local food. We've now got a bunch of recipes for yam cake, onde-onde, chee cheong fun and sugee biscuits. We got most of the ingredients after work today and here is the first thing we tried out. Most of the recipes can be found here.

Ingredients
230g butter
150g castor or icing sugar (icing sugar creates shorter texture)
300g plain flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder sifted (you can omit this which results in a slightly more dense texture)
100g ground almonds/almond meal
1 tsp Vanilla or almond essence
Red glazed cherries, cut into tiny pieces for decoration

Method
Set oven to 160° C.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla or almond essence till pale and fluffy.
Add flour and baking powder and mix with a wooden spoon.
Add almond meal and mix till combined.
Line baking tray with parchment. Roll dough into circles the size of large marbles about 1 inch apart. Top with a piece of cherry and squash down a little.
Bake for about 10 mins or till pale gold - these are not meant to be golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.


They are quite yummy!

Another year older

It's my birthday today and I am on leave to spend some time with myself :)
Since the Good Food and Wine show this year starts on the same day, I thought I would go and have a look and at the same time see my favourite Masterchef judges live. It is amazing that so many people are going to the show on a weekday too. Spent about 3 hours at the show. Lots of food samples to try and of course bags of stuff to buy. Here's what I got.



Here are the presents I've got this year too from Mathilda, Mammo and Godma. Thanks!


Flowers from Shawn.


Got to do a little bit of gardening when I got home which was nice because the plants aren't looking too good with the cold weather and hopefully some TLC will perk them up a bit.

New flavours!

More new Caramel Corn flavours I've found :)
Rennyu ichigo (Condensed milk & strawberry)
Caramel hotcakes

Got some from Singapore from the sis via the cousin too.
Hinamatsuri Peach
Butter toast

Woo hoo! Yum yum! It's mind-boggling. They sound amazing.

Bunny lace bag

I had to get this bunny lace when I saw it even though I didn't know what I would do with it. Bunny anything is always good. Today I made a bag out of it and here it is. =) I am quite proud of it.

A new bag

Tried out a new tutorial for handbag recently. I decided to use my favourite pieces of fabric from the collection I have amassed over the years! I really quite like the finished product :) It is reversible too!

See tutorial here

Video conferencing with Samuel

Samuel wonders who is talking?


Look at his cute smile!

Egg face

I was cooking dinner today. Cracked 3 eggs into a bowl and I got this face. Hahaha!

Peanut butter biscuits

Haven't done any baking for a while. Since I had some time this morning, thought I would try out a recipe I saw yesterday. They are quite good!


Ingredients:
1/3 cup cold-pressed canola oil
1/2 cup unsalted organic peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large organic egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp water
1-1/4 organic whole spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp organic ground cinnamon
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, at least 70% cocoa mass

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

In a medium bowl beat together oil and peanut butter until well combined. Beat in brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla and water, beating until well combined.

Combine spelt flour, baking soda and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir into peanut butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. The batter will be very thick and quite sticky.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool in tray for 5 minutes then remove to cooling rack.

Woo hoo storm

Today we saw one of the scariest storms ever. Luckily we were in a car in Brunswick and slowly crawling down the road. The build up alone was quite spectacular. The sky got so dark even though it was only just 3pm and the wind started building up. Then a giant woosh and all the rain was pouring! Started hearing loud clunking on the roof of the car and we realised it was also hailing. That was quite scary. I yelped every time we got hit. Haha!

That did not last too long. It slowed down to normal rain. But when we got back to the city, I think it must have been worse there. There was so much leaves all over the ground. The leaves must have got torn off the trees and stuck on cars so much that they looked like camouflage. There were also clusters of hail around. Pity I only had the camera phone.



Hail downstairs near our apartment

Lots of drama around as a result of the storm in the news.

Busy weekend

It's the CNY and Valentine's weekend and although we haven't got much festivities here, we did go to the city where there was a little bit of CNY atmosphere which was nice. There were lion dances going on around the shops at Chinatown and ear-drum bursting firecrackers going off. I seem to have accomplished quite a bit at home though.


Balsam flowers sprouting!


Made a simple skirt for me...


...and a new handphone pouch.


Tried out a sponge cake recipe with the rice cooker. This turned out a little like steamed cake. I know someone who will like this!

We also wanted to arrange a bunny date for Pixie with a bunny that needed a new home. But his owner eventually did not get back to me. So no bunny friend for her this time. I have been toying with the idea of getting her a companion but the thought of what if they don't get along does make me a little hesitant. I thought perhaps that was a sign that I wasn't ready yet :P

I love hay

The hay we got from Karen came in such a large bag, I thought it would definitely take a while to finish. But it looks like Pixie is going through it quite quickly. She even helps herself in the hay rack sometimes :)

Plants on our balcony now

My plants are currently not doing too badly after a spell of no plants and everything drying up. I even had a couple of nasturtium flowers. :)

The cutest face

This has been the cutest face around recently. That's Samuel, my dear nephew. I don't get to see much of him in person so we "converse" on Skype :)

Cheesecake

Attempted a recipe that came with our new rice cooker. Doesn't look too bad!

Visiting bunny friends

We visited Karen and Nimal at the Do Hop Inn today. We went round to get hay for Miss Pixie because she loves the hay they have since she boarded there.It was amazing! All her bunnies are so big and lovely! And they are everywhere in the house. Hehehe! I really do admire their dedication to the bunnies. Look forward to going to visit again but there is so much hay it will be a while to get through.