Banana & Chocolate Muffins

As my hub loves to eat banana so he always buy them. But he always cannot finish the bananas!! So give me a good chance to try my banana muffins again!!
This time round i used another recipe and added some chopped chocolate in. I usually don't praise myself but then trust me, this time round muffins are really very nice!! They are soft, moist and banana never goes wrong with chocolate!!

*Just look at the melted chocolate!! *

I used half of the ingredients so we do not have to eat so many muffins. I only got 5 muffins this time round!

Ramly Burger

Hub asked me to use the left over beef patty to do Ramly burger for his breakfast on saturday. So I did do since we still got the tomatoes and veggies left. This time round my egg is not burnt like last time. I used very small fire to slowly cook it and in the end the color turn up very nice. Happy with my Ramly burger!!
In the end, hub is sick and got no appetite. So in the end the burger end up in my stomach. :x

Krispy Kreme

When we are back in US, Tom & Da jie brought us to this place where they sell very delicious doughnuts. Initially when Da jie said they are bringing us to eat doughnuts for breakfast, i was still thinking is already very common back in Singapore.

But when we reached there, is different story. This Krispy Kreme do it in the way they have a open concept kitchen. Which means you can see how the doughnuts are made. Very nice and interesting. Their speciality is their original doughnuts with just icing sugar over it. Is very simple but do trust me, is nice!

The doughnuts we ate are all freshly out from the oven! Hot doughnuts, hot chocolate and cold weather. Wor...hor nice.Oh, my main motive is to tell my Da jie, Krispy Kreme is here over in Indonesia at Jarkata!! And they are very near to our house. The Doughnuts here got more varieties but then again the original is still the best. But the thing is, they don't really serve hot doughnuts here which is a minus minus point.


I still think eating hot doughnuts, drinking hot chocolate in a cold weather is the Best!!

Finally .... is here

The curtains are finally here. After a long wait of 3 - 4 mths with many hip cups, the house is complete!!

This set of curtains, really "来的不容易"！First is the toopid shop people lost our order list, so no choice we got to go back and choose all over again. While choosing, those we like are either too expensive or no stock. So we spend like 1-2hrs there choosing. Then finally when we have made our choice, they called us like a week or more later and informed us that the cloth we choose is out of stock!! Arragh....People who knows my hub well will know by now he is already getting very angry. So agrued with the people and made them bring the cloths to his office to choose and tell them whichever cloth he choose they have to charge us the price of the cloth we chosen last time. In the end, hub choose the most expensive cloth.

We are actually quite worried that the curtains we choose will not be nice, but then is turn up quite nice!

Now that the curtains are up, no more sun shining onto our faces as early as 5am. And we have a few more hours of good sleep. Yipppy!!

6 Lessons to Success

Lesson 1:
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.'
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.
The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.
When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'
'It was Bob the next door neighbor,' she replies.
'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:
A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.
The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'
Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.

'Moral of the story:If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3:
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'
'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas , driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Puff! She's gone.
'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.' Puff! He's gone.
'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4:
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?' The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5:
A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.' 'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.'
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there..

Lesson 6
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was.
The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

Just for laugh.....kee

American Style Burger

Today is a public holiday in Indonesia, which means both of us can sleep late!! Yeah....
I think 1 good thing about indonesia is that they seems to have more holidays than Singapore. Like they got lots of reasons to declare Holidays. Oh well, whatever it is, is a good thing for us. =P
Today I made Burger for our breakfast. Why is American? That is because the meat patty i do is so thick. Together with my veggies, tomatoes, onions and prickles, the burger turns up so huge. Just made us remember what we ate when we are back in US.

The burger is nice and we finished the whole thing again. Opss....

Yogurt Inc

Today Alf & I went to Pluit to look for Yanping (my childhood fren) who opens a yogurt shop there with her bf. This is the first time we go there. Always thought that their place is so far but actually it takes only less than 1 hour during peak hours. Which means if i go there during odd hours, it should takes less than half an hour?!

Yeah, another place to go and most importantly someone to talk to when i'm bored!

Their place is small but very comfy. Although the mall is new and alot of shops are not open yet, their crowd still consider quite ok. So when the mall is official open, i'm sure there will be more crowds.

** Us Enjoying our Yogurt!! **

Carrot Cake & Hainanese Chicken Rice

Yesterday morning, I fried the left over carrot cake i do with some garlic, chai po and dou ya into our very own carrot cakes. It taste still ok just that is too sticky.

Then dinner, i prepared the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice. Alf always don't believe that i know how to cook chicken rice. Oh well, since long time ago, i been telling people that as long is cook by a Hainanese is Hainanese Chicken Rice what. Which is quite true right?

But then, as a pure Hainanese, how can i 对不起我的爸呢？怎样都得煮一餐好吃的海南鸡饭给alfred吃.不然海南人的尊严要往哪里摆呢？

看起来不错吧？

Cheesecake Factory

Did i mention that there is a Cheesecake Factory nearby our house? Oh we drove pass a few times and i keep asking Alf to bring me there. So finally 1 of the night we drove there for our dessert. I tell you, the blueberry cheesecake is delicious ! And i ordered a Chocolate Fondant and is so so so nice as well. Even Alf who is not a cake lover say the cheesecake is nice. But that day i forget to bring my camera so did not mange to take any photo of it. So sad.

After that day, i keep thinking of the cheesecake. So Alf and I went there again today for our dessert. Yeah....happy happy.
This time i remember to bring my camera already! Look at how nice the cake is.
Alf ordered a Brownie cheesecake and i ordered a White chocolate and Coffee cheesecake together with a Hot Mocha.
I still think they blueberry cheesecake is nicer. Oh well, i'm going to try all their cheesecake 1 by 1. And guess how much we pay for 2 cakes and 2 coffee?
It cost less the S$10. It will cost like about S$28 - S$30 if we are at singapore already.
So alf and i decided to go there more frequent as is a good place for coffee and relax. Finally i found something nice over in JKT already! Haha....

" Leek can Cook, So can U!! "

Today, dear said he will cook dinner again. Ya..... Again!!

As he was preparing for the dinner, me as the "AC" aka "Assistant Cook" will stand at the side to help him wash up and do some cleaning. At time, i will also comment like, "Did you wash the mushrooms properly? They still look dirty", "I think you don't need so much corn flour", "You cut too many garlic already lar" and etc....

He cut 1 whole clove of garlic and in the end he got like 1 whole plate of garlic....

In the end, he used half of the garlic and told me to save the rest for tomorrow.

** Hardworking Chef Leek at work **** 1st Dish - Fried Mix Mushroom or hmm.....Mix Mushroom Soup?!?! **

The first dish he cooked is this garlic mix mushroom. He actually wanted to fried it but he put too much of the oyster sauce so in the end he put alot of water and sugar. So in the end this dish become a soup base.

** Fried Black Pepper Beef **

2nd dish is this fried black pepper beef. This is not too bad. Abit salty but still ok.

In the end after 15mins............

tadah.......

We finished everything. So dear told me, you must take the picture of the empty plates so you all know the dishes are really nice...

So overall, the dish might not look appealing but it taste ok.

Nice effort! Good job dear!!

Radish Cake

Yesterday afternoon, i made radish cake for today breakfast. Radish cake is actually very simple is just the preparation that needs some time.

The Recipe i used is as shown below:-

Ingredients: Makes one 7 inch square

1 radish (approx. 500g)
2 cups water
2 nos. chinese sausages, skinned then diced
4 nos. chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft then diced
20g dried shrimps, soaked till soft then roughly chopped
2 nos. shallots, sliced
3-4 tbsp oil, for frying
Extra oil for greasing
150g rice flour
30g wheat starch (tung min flour)

Seasoning:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chicken granules (optional)
Few drops of sesame oil
Dash of pepper

Hoisin sauce to serve

Method:
Skin and cut radish with a knife to long thin strips.Place radish with 2 cups of water in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until radish is soft. Let cool.

Clean and grease a 7 inch square pan with oil.
Clean and soak both dried shrimps and dried mushrooms until soften. Chop dried shrimps slightly. Cut mushrooms into small cubes.
Soak chinese sausages in water to ease the removal of casing. Cut sausages into small cubes.

Heat up oil in a pan/wok. Fry sliced shallots until fragrant. Add in chinese sausages, mushrooms and dried shrimps and continue to fry until fragrant. Season with the seasoning ingredients. Set aside to let cool a little.
Drain cooked radish well. Save and obtain approx. 200ml of the juice from the boiling of radish. Pour away the excess or top up with water if not sufficient.
Combine rice flour and wheat starch in a large mixing bowl. Pour radish juice and mix with a hand whisk to obtain smooth batter. Add cooked radish and the rest of the fried ingredients into the batter . Mix well. Pour mixture into the greased pan. Steam over rapid boiling water for 1 hour or until chopstick inserted into radish cake comes out clean.

I pan fried it for breakfast this morning!

Does it looks just like what we buy from outside? keekee.But the texture is still abit soft. It might be because i cannot find the wheat starch over here or is maybe because i put too much water in. But overall, yummy!!

Recipe For Chicken Katsu

Actually no special recipe for this Chicken Katsu.
I just do the normal marination for the chicken overnight.
Then i coat the chicken with flour than egg than the bread crumbs.
Next will be off to deep fry the chicken.

Tip is the fire cannot be too big if not the coating will be burnt and the meat might not be cooked! After the chicken is cooked, remember to turn the fire big then put the chicken back to fry for awhile more. (This is to force the oil out so is not so oily!)

This way you will get your chicken cripsy and not so oily!

Chicken Katsu Curry

Today dear is back from surabaya so i prepared something nice for him.

Ta dah........Chicken Katsu Curry

I think today dinner is very good as my dear keep saying:"hmmm...好吃!!" (While nodding his head)

So today dinner is very successful!!

Happy!!

Boring Wall!?!?

Since hub is not at home and i'm so bored, I decided to paste the wall sticker all by myself!
We decided to paste this at the dinning area as that place seems so boring with no pictures, no frames and etc.

Boring Wall

Boring Wall No More!!

With the stickers now, it look so much different! Much better!
So tempted to buy more. =P

Just another normal day

Today we ate prata hotdog for breakfast. It looks really not nice but trust me, it taste good!! But of course is still not as good as what outside people are selling. They got lots of veggies, tomatoes and sauce. For mine, nothing but the cheese hotdog. Don't have the ingredients so simple will do lar!

As for dinner, i fried brocolli and carrots, a fish and chicken herbal soup. This is the first time i actually pan fried a fish. What i mean is a whole fish and not fillet. Living in a family who don't like to eat fish for 20 over years, no chance for me to actually fried a fish. And now, married to a guy who loves to eat fish so much, no choice but to endure the oil "jumping" all over. The very next question to ask when frying a fish is: "How do i know whether the fish is cooked?".
Oh well, i think it really depends on the cook's gut feeling!! At least, today my gut feeling is right!!

Sunny Egg Toast

Running out of ideas what to eat for breakfast? Getting bored with Peanut Butter or Kaya Bread. Let me teach you all an easy way to make your breakfast something different!

Place some cheese at the sides of a bread.

I add some ham on it as well. (Can do without it if you want)

Cut a square shape out of another slice of bread. If you have a cookie cutter of other shape, even better. (Something interesting for the kids)

Then, placed the bread onto the cheese bread

Press the middle part with your fingers

Beat an egg at the middle.

Bake in a toaster or oven till the egg is set.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper and serve.

*Put some butter at the side of the bread to prevent it from getting browned faster than the egg.

Actually i did 2 method. The other is i put the cheese in the square, press it with my fingers before i beat the egg in it.

Tadah...this is the end result

I bake abit too long and the egg is no longer sunny egg and the bread is just like biscuits. Arragh.

Shall try again next time.

Alfred Ratings:

3 *

Reason:Too crispy like eating biscuits.

Longan Muffins

This afternoon i baked some Longan Muffins for snack. It suppose to be Lychee Muffins but i do not have lychee so i used longan instead. The taste is good but i think Lychee with be even better.

The Recipe i used is as shown below:

Luciously Moist Lychee Muffins
Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
120g cake flour
1/2 tsp salt(do not put if using salted butter)
1 tsp baking powder
130g canned lychees
1 egg
90g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp lychee juice (syrup from canned lychees)
Method:
1) Slice butter and melt it in microwave oven for a few seconds. Or melt over low heat on the stove.
Remove butter from the heat source when half of it has melted (Do not overheat). Mash remaining lumps of butter. Set aside to cool.
2) Sift flour, salt (if use unsalted butter) and baking powder. Mix well.
3) Cut lychees into small pieces. Use a paper tower to pat them dry. Add 3/4 lychees to the flour mixture. Toss lightly to coat. Leave the lychees in the flour mixture.
4) Beat egg and sugar in a mixer at medium high speed for three minutes till pale-coloured and triple its volume. Add essence, juice and melted butter. Stir gently with a spoon.

*I don't have a electric mixer so i used a hand whisk*

5) Fold flour mixture (together with the lychees) into egg mixture gently with a spatula.

6) Set mixture aside for 30 mins to allow it to thicken.

7) Preheat oven to 170deg. Line muffin tray with paper cases.

8) Fill the paper cases with as much mixture as you can without it spilling to the sides (I filled up to the ream of my paper cups). Sprinkle some lychee pieces on top.

9) Bake for about 25 mins till golden brown / when inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Special Notes:

* Do not overheat the butter as its flavour will be altered.

* Do not replace lychee juice with milk or water as lychee juice intensifies the lychee flavour in these muffins.

* Patting the lychees dry and tossing them in flour prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins during baking.

Do give it a try as is very easy!!

Alfred Ratings:

3.5 *

Reasons: The taste is nice but abit sweet!

** 三八妇女节 **

Today is 8 March 2009, also International Women's Day. This day is a global day celebrating economic, politcal and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some countries like China, this day is a national holiday. But too bad for Singaporeans, this is not a public holiday yet. Maybe in the future, it might be a holiday for Women?! Just for women!!

So all gals out there, take a break and relax for a day.

Visit to Polyclinic

Today went to Pasir Ris Polyclinic with my mother to remove her stitches. Come to think of it, this might be my 2nd time i step into a polyclinic. First time should be many years back when i'm still in my secondary school or poly years bah.
We reached there at about 8.15am and to my horror, there are already alot of people waiting.
Call me a "Mountain Turtle", I really don't know what is the process of seeing a doctor in polyclinic. My mum actually have to tell me the process step by step.

First Step: Take a queue from this machine

Step 2: Wait for the number to be called to register and the clinic number
Step 3:Go to the clinic at the respective floor and wait (AGAIN) for the no. to be called

** Waiting Area **

Step 4: After seeing the doctor, have to go to the pharmacy to wait for the no. to be called (AGAIN!!) to get the medicine

Step 5: Go back to the Registration Desk there to wait for no. to be called (Yes, AGAIN) to pay the bill.

Oh my goodness, the average waiting time is 2 hours or more. If i'm sick, i think i will have been fainted by the time i see the doctor. But there are still alot of people who are willing to wait. Of cos most of the crowds are old people and a few students who probably trying to take MC for skipping school.

I think i wll not go polyclinic when i'm sick unless i got a very good and valid reason bah!!

Live a Meaningful & Happy Life

I was reading my old emails and found this story that I will like to share with all of you:-

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert.

During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Take the time to live! Do not value the THINGS you have in your life. But value WHO you have in your life!

Hope you all enjoy this story as much as I do

Dinner at Shokudo

After so many days of 闭关at home, I finally go out and meet my uni friends for dinner.We went to Raffles City - Shokudo for dinner. This time round attendance can say was pretty good. At least it reach over 10 ppl but then come to think of it, 3 of them are actually partners. Oh well, at least the group is growing!!keekee

This time round, there is a main forcus. And that is Junxiang's baby boy, Jonas!! Everyone is forcusing on him as no matter what he is the first baby of our group!So of course we will be busy taking photos of him!

Look at his eyes, so sparking!! Very cute boy!!

Everyone got a chance to take photo with him but why is he crying when i'm trying to take photo with him...arragh....he just like big boops lar....Totally normal for a baby boy!!Even the couple that is getting married end of the year got a chance to have a taste of it. Marcus really looks very experience with kids wor!! Sharon can relax in the future already! So nice....