Foodelicious!

A 3 going to be 4 years old girl sat on my lap and whispered to me that she wanted a magical carriage, just like Cinderella's. Hahahaha... this girl knows what she wants! So, I made the above for her. Her mama told me that this year will not be a big celebration like the years before as her birthday will be on a weekday, hence, it will just be a family celebration and this cake will be just right.

This is the little girl's favorite vanilla buttercake and it weighs about 2.3kg and was sold for RM220.

Woooo.... I have always wanted to make halloween a big thing and this year, I did it! Hehehe.. gather a few friends, made some simple food, carve 2 pumpkins, bought some Halloween deco and celebrate we did!!

I made simple grilled Peri Peri chicken, whip up some coleslaw and roasted some very sweet pumpkin and spice it up with some salt and nutmeg.. yummms...delish! Oh! and I had my pumpkin tong sui for dessert too. Hehehe.. something western, something eastern! I suppose it's not about the food.. but the company. My monster had her friends over and they switch off all the lights and watch spooky movies.. all huddled together staring at the TV screen with such concentration! Hahahahahhaa... the things young people do..

Oh.. yes, my carved pumpkin.. oh.. I got the inspiration from my friend, craftyady.blogspot.com but of course, I am not so talented like her.. hence, mine is so much more simple. And even that, it took me a long time. Hahahaha.. the pumpkins here have very very hard skin and the flesh is really thick.. so, I had a tough time cutting thru them.. but nevertheless, I made it! Hehehe... and I like the effect once the candle is lighted.. it gives a very warm glow and festive feel! woo hooo... I wish I had more time and talent to come up with lots of spiders, witches, bats or what have you.. hmm... maybe next year eh.

Oh.. with halloween here, it reminds me that the year is fast drawing to a close. Another has zoom past so fast.. and for the last 10 months, I had fantastic time traveling, creating new yummilicious food, faced and conquered quite a few challenges, love and lost.. The year is now left with my 2 most favorite months.. hehehe... and soon, Xmas range will appear.. I am now experimenting them, once they are perfect, I will roll them out. Hehehehe.. I do hope, by December comes, I will have all the lose ends tied and ready for a new year! It will be a great year rolling in! Yay!

Happy Halloween everyone! It's not about western values or eastern thinking.. it's about appreciating the significance of each festive and enjoying it with the people that matters most to you.

I have been having a macaroon week.. creating and coming up with new flavors and selling them. It has been exciting and yet very frustrating. Exciting because the creations are different from what can be found outside and around. Frustrating because sometimes, the macaroons fail flat on my face!! I am not sure.. it could be weather, with the rain pouring like horses from sky, the macaroons were not able to create "skin" before baking.. Sigh.. after awhile, I just put off making macaroons until the weather is sunny..

Yes, it cost quite a bit to fail as the almonds are extremely expensive lately. So, after many failures, I have been improved! Hehehehee... Happy Macaroons everyone!!

I have always wanted to create something local for macaroons.... and since I have bushes of pandan in my garden and they have been singing out to me to use them, I took up this challenge. It was not easy to create pandan macaroons with real pandan juice. Macaroons are delicate thing.. everything has to be measured accurately and adding pandan juice will affect the balance and everything has to be re-created.. after many many tries.. many many thrown aways.. I got it!!

Hehehehe.. yes, I could always use those ever readily available pandan paste but that wouldnt be nice. Pandan is something you need to use the original.. the paste or essence dont do justice and for some, it's rather horrible. As such, my pandan macaroons dont have the dark green color.. As for the filling.. hehehe.. this is my best creation.. gula melaka butter cream is not hard to make but I decided to create a bit of difference.. salted gula melaka! The balance of saltiness with sweetness was tricky but after a few tries, I got it! Hehehehehe..

Pairing these two, I created something awesome! Hehehehe.. I tested this on non-macaroons eater and after much persuasion, I got them to try and they love it!! They even took more than 2.. so... Yay!! yay!! yay!!..

To try this, it is a RM4 per pop! with a minimum of 20 pops... It will pop you!

oh... this has been a carribean year! First taste of this coconut and lime combo in London has excite me to create another yummy variant.. I had the calypso jelly mooncakes for the mid autumn festival and now, a coconut & lime variant macaroons. This is a wooo hoooo ... coconut is a rather rich flavor ingredient.. and in macaroons, it add on to the aroma... making it addictive. However, one cannot have many.. it gets too rich..hence, a filling that will compliment yet contrast the coconut macaroons is needed. What can it be besides lime.. hehehehe..

One has to take a bite to experience the magic of Carribean Queen.. I wont try to describe this.. you gotta bite into it this to experience the Queen... RM4 each with a minimum order of 20pcs.

Hahahahaa!!! I have been making this set of cuppies for the many hen nights orders. Hahahahaha.. today's version is clean shaven theme. giggles.. giggles.. giggles...

These are twister cuppies with lemon curd filling sold for RM6.50 each with a minimum 16 cuppies.

I personally am not a big fan of salmon... but I am a big fan of salsa! Hahahahhaa.. On hot days, I like my salsa to be tangy. On rainy days, I like it spicy. Today, as I am not well, I have decided to pan fry a piece of salmon and ladden it with very tangy mango salsa. This shall be my monster's lunch today.

On a hot pan, as the salmon sits sizzling, I chopped up tomatoes, onions, pineapples and mangoes into small cubes, spice them up with bunch of thyme with lime, salt, honey and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Once the salmon was dished up, it was generously ladden with tangy Mango Salsa.. The aroma is simply very very enticing and with a plate of hot rice, my monster polished off all in a jiffy.

With the extra salsa, my monster and I had a whale of time watching TV and eating corn chips dipped in these salsa. A very addictive passtime..

You will not be able to find this dish being sold anywhere nowadays and quite frankly, most people dont even know there is such a dish! Hehehe... This is a bygone era dish. This dish is very popular with the Penang Peranakan clans. During those times, people are very frugal and I must say very creative to come up with dishes that does not require expensive ingredients but yet is extremely appetizing, flavourful and most importantly, filling to the stomach. You dont need a lot of this to eat plenty bowls of rice..With this dish, one will polish off at least 2 bowls of rice.. 2 big bowls!! This is plainly because the sauce or kuah from this dish is so seducing.. once it is mixed with hot rice, one cannot stop eating it.. spoon after spoon after spoons of rice.. and I always tell myself.. "ok! this is the last spoon.." but some how, it is never to be... Hehehehe...

To prepare this dish, one must have the patience of a nyonya.. hehehe.. I can just imagine girls born into and brought up by in a Peranakan family. These girls are required to have good cooking skills.. Everything has to be nicely done... there was no blender then and you just have to slave away using the mortar and pastel!! Peranakan girls are also required to cut everything finely, something which I will fail face down! Hahahahaha.. any fine cutting or chopping or slicing are always done by my aunt.. I dont have such patience... not even for food.. Heh! heh! heh!.. So, you can guess who did most of the work for this dish.

To start making this dish, one has to get lime, wash them, grate off the green part nicely and make slit around the fruit. Boil a pot of water and drop these "processed" lime and scoop up. Leave them aside to dry. Slice garlic, onions, chilies finely. When I say finely, I mean finely.. like hair! Sun dry them together with red and green chili padis for a few days.. while those are taking a nice sun tan, one can start with getting the sauce ready.. tumeric, vinegar, sugar and lots of oil.. fry them and when everything is nicely blended, leave it to cool. Once this sauce is ready, just dump in all the nicely tanned and finely sliced ingredients.. mix and throw in the limes. Let them soak for days.. (if the whole thing bubbles up, you can kiss all your hard work goodbye and start again!) After a week or so, it should be ready.. and that's when you fry some fishes and drop them into the acar. The fried fish will soak up the flavour of the acar and together, the taste is extremely appetizing and exciting! It's savory, it's tangy, it's sweetish, it's spicy, it's aromatic, all your five tastebuds will be alive! Woo hooo...

And yes, on a draggy Thursday, I really need something like this to make my day. Hehehe.. yes, I am waiting, not very patiently though, for Friday to come....

Dont you think these are super cute? Hehehee.. I think they are! The best part is that they are not hard to make.. Easy to shape and mould. Much much easier that Angry birds! For me, I find Angry birds the hardest design to make... very tedious and a lot of details. Humph!

Anyway, this set of lemon cuppies are sold for RM5.50 each with a minimum order of 16 cuppies

This is an all time favorite with kids and adults since beginning of time! This dish is good with hot weather, rainy weather, no appetite days, fussy kids days or simply a lazy to cook days. Yup, take your pick as to what day it's today for me.. hehehehehe...

Originally, this recipe calls for Pork but since I dont eat pork, I substitute it with chicken fillet. Season the chicken fillet, chop up some onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and pineapples. Heat up the wok with oil till very hot, fry the chicken fillet, scoop up! Fry the onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, pineapple and add in the sauce.. tomato sauce, a dash of vinegar, salt, sugar, plum sauce, worchestire sauce. Throw in the fried chicken fillet and toss it around a bit and dish up! Serve with hot rice and that will make a bad day seem bearable! Hehehe..

Tuesday started cloudy and dark with wind blowing and the many wind chimes around my house were happily dancing to the tune they make. My favorite weather.. aaaahhh... with such weather, it never fail to incite me to make something different.. today is something spicy and contrasting...

Yes, got everything together.. Yes, I always have most ingredients in my house.. either in the garden or in the fridge and slave away! Hahahaha.. yes, making this dish has a bit of slaving away work to do.. Gotta clean the serai, lengkuas, kunyit and a tiny bit of ginger which I yank out from my garden, pluck the chilies from my garden, peel the onions, toast the belacan a bit, put everything into the mortar and pastel and pound away. Yup, with all your might and anger.. very good for anger management! Hehehee... Once that is done, heat up the oil, fry the ingredients with a few pieces of kafir lime leaves, Vietnamese mint and if you have, torch flower till fragrant and oil floats up. Add in some cut up tomatoes and for today, I add in fresh pineapples. Add in tamarind water and once it starts to boil, add in fish, cut up brinjal and ladies finger. I like to season my dish with a twist of lime, sugar and salt and garnish with mint from my garden... My lunch is ready...

For me, it's always easier to cook than to go out to eat. Many a times, I stand and stare around at food court, restaurants, shopping malls not knowing what to eat.. Sad! Such incidents have taught me that it's always easier to cook... hehehe.. a simple meal of steamed 3 types of eggs and blanched vegetables with oyster sauce is just as yummy and satisfying as a meal in the most expensive restaurant cooked by the most renowned chef. Life can be great with simple things....

When I was in London, I noticed that people in London make use of every available plot of land around their housing area. Even tiny strips of land next to the road are used to cultivate something or another.. I even saw a chicken coop with a few chicken clucking away! Oh.. how I wish we are able to do just that here. Sigh.. this is the difference between a developed country and a non developed one like KL!!

Anyway, back to my stories, I was very inspired and motivated to start my farming again especially after a visit to Kew Gardens, London and with the many packets of seeds, I came back and planted some of them. After 2 months, I now have 2 very healthy zucchini plants in my mini vegetable farm.. a few cabbages are in progress, bell peppers fruiting.. oh.. the sight is simply very pleasing. It's such sights that give me tremendous happiness.. hehehe..

From my 2 healthy zucchini plants, I am able to harvest some zucchinis.. not big though but they are chemical free, organically grown with everyday produce as fertilizers.. grounded and used coffee beans, heads and ends and peels of vegetables that I use everyday, orange skin, lemon skin after having their juices, fruits and vegetable pulps from my daily juicing.. I dont need commercial fertilizer do I?? Hehehe...

With my harvest, I made this today for my monster's lunch. A very simple but deliciously appetizing dish.. zucchini and chicken in oyster sauce. Fry lots of chopped garlic, throw in cut up chicken fillet seasoned with a dash of pepper, salt, corn flour and sesame oil. Stir them up quickly, add in the sliced up zucchini, add a dash of oyster sauce, stirring all the time and lastly, a bit of water to give it a bit of sauce. When ready, dish up and serve with hot steaming rice. My monster can wallop 2 big bowls of rice with this dish! And my! the zucchini slices are so succulent and sweet!! I wish I could have more zucchinis in my garden! Hehehe...

With this, Monday dont seem so bad afterall.... Have a great week everyone!

When I was young, I wasnt much of a Curry Laksa fan..I still am not because very simply, my stomach has never been good and such rich and spicy dish dont sit well . This was always the case until years ago when I was in Penang. I had a spoonful of Penang Curry Mee from my uncle's bowl and I was bowled over!!

Penang Curry Mee is very light.. not thick with coconut. Infact, it's the opposite! It's light but fragrant and the taste is very pleasing. The broth is lightly flavored with a few simple spices balance off with enough coconut to please the tastebud. Where else, the condiments that went along with Penang Curry Mee is simple ingredients... a bit of bean sprout and long beans, a generous helping of freshly steamed prawns, slices of tender cuttlefish, a good heap of freshly peeled cockles garnished with mint and lots of taufoo puffs. For those who enjoy a more spicer kick, a spoonful of home made chili sambal will transform this Penang Curry Mee to another level of excitement!

Recently, I was craving for a good bowl of Penang Curry mee but couldnt find any in KL, so, I decided to make! Hehehe... read thru a few so called authentic Penang nyonya recipes but didnt quite find a good enough recipe to entice me.. so, decided to pick my aunt's brain on this. hehehe.. my aunt grew up in Penang and is a great cook.. So, with her information.. I set out to create this new excitement!

And yes! it was indeed great excitement to see my guests tucking into their bowls of Penang Curry Mee. Yes, it was bowls. They had a few rounds of it and was happily enjoying every single mouthfuls of it. Even the kids had a go at it! Hehehehe.. With that, I consider this a complete success! My Penang Curry Mee party at my secret garden was served with refreshingly chilled konikyaku jellies and a Roselle sangria drink. And yes, Roselle syrup are made from my secret garden too.... Life cannot be any better... great friends, good food and perfect weather are hard to come by these days...

This is a triple marbled cake... I remember the first time I had this cake was when I was a very small girl. Hehehe.. I am not that small anymore but this cake always has been my favorite. The 3 colors all crisscrossing each other and the flavor.. Hmmm.. lovely! This is extremely lovely with a good cup of tea...

Anyway, when I recommended this to Charlise's mom, she was instantly enticed. Hehehehe.. she got to know about my cake from a party that had my cake and after 2 slices of that cake, she was game for anything. So, with Winnie the pooh and Tiger in mind, Charlise's mom left it to me to come up with a design on a number 1 cake and I came up with this..

This cake was sold for RM280 ad it weigh in 2.75kg

Sean cannot decide between Buzz light years or ultraman and I suggested why not both? We can have Buzz meeting with Ultraman in space in the presence of the little alien. You should hear Sean's "Oooooo....." hahahahaha.. kids always brightens my day.

So, I came up with this.. A lemon buttercake weighing in at 2.4kg and was sold for RM260. A terribly yummy tangy lemon buttercake is Sean's mama's favorite cake..

Another variant I came up with using my Roselle jam. I got this idea from those traditional slices of cookies using shortcrust pastry at the bottom and a layer of jam with sweet coconut topping. However, funky me decided to change the shortcrust pastry slightly to give it a more melt in the mouth texture that will blow your mind off with a generous layer of tangy roselle jam. As for the top, instead of using coconut and sugar and what have you as topping, I decided to top this with another layer of pastry and a generous handful of almond flakes. The result??

Awesome!! Addictive!! Dont say I didnt warn you..

My roselle plants have been fruiting like there is no tomorrow!! and with that, I have so many bottles of roselle syrup and tubs of jam.. plenty of tubs. I have been distributing these 2 items all over the place. Hehehehe.. and comments received were very positive. The syrup was well received by the kids and the jam was enticing to the adults. But with my giving away exercise, I am still stuck with plenty tubs of jam so, I came up with this...

Prosperity cups! Hehehe!! one Chinese New Year I made this very pretty and exciting tart which I name it prosperity cups. Basically, it is a very light and crispy pastry with jam in it.. The contrasting texture is very enticing.. the light and crispy pastry meets the sticky and slightly chewy jam.. Yuummms!!

The unique thing about this is the jam. It's tangy but yet not tart.. very pleasing and blends well with the pastry.. simply addictive! You will not stop at one..

I have yet to think if I wanna sell this.. hehehee.. I might just be selfish and keep this all to myself.. because I love it very much! Woo hoo..

Havent been making this for awhile already.. Anyway, was having a bowl of delicious black sesame "tong sui" the other day with the rain pouring outside and suddenly, a thought came to my mind.. using black sesame to make macaroons since there are so many medical benefits with black sesame.

The smell and taste of black sesame is very strong and I personaly like it. Black sesame has a very warm and inviting taste to it and it helps balance off the sweetness of macaroons. I pair this up with a very light chocolate ganache that is made with dark chocolate.. heh! heh! heh!..The taste is like.. magic!Wingardium Leviosa!

Anyway, these little magic are sold at RM3.50 each with a minimum order of 20 pieces.