Baking Up A Storm

It's been a while since we did some baking, and thought it'd be a nice way to occupy him at home one afternoon.  The last time we baked was about a month-and-a-half ago where we made blueberry muffins.  This time around, I was gonna bake some banana bread together with him.

There was a funny moment when he stirred too vigourously and flicked some batter onto his arm, the table, and the floor.  And he proceeded to melt into a gush of giggles :)  It was sweet that he wanted to help me clean up after, and tried to wipe up the specks of flour and dough that he had flicked onto the floor.  I say tried, cos he was essentially pushing all the flour and dough around on the floor :)  But it's the thought that counts heh.

I think this was the first time that he was really able to do most of the stuff himself.  I basically just helped with measuring and maybe the final stir to check that the flour was mixed in properly.  But he did the rest of the pouring and mixing on his own.  So I told him that "Mummy helped Asher", instead of "Asher helped Mummy".  

It was also nice to have the kitchen to ourselves.  I enjoy the freedom of not being 'watched' (for lack of a better word) in my own home, which was something I often felt when our helper was around.  Left the real cleaning till after his bedtime so that I could just spend the entire afternoon with him.  

Dinner was a muffin, and breakfast the next morning too :)

Creaming the butter and sugar

Beating the eggs

Looking at the speck of batter on his arm

Giggling away

Scooping the batter into the muffin tray

Going, "WHOA!" each time he dumped a scoop of batter into the loaf tin

Cleaning under his chair :)

 Ta da!

 Eating & giggling while remembering how he flicked the batter around :)

Brekkie the next day

Being silly and squashing his face with the container cover :)

Baby Muffin - No Eggs, No Sugar

Cake or muffin, whatever you choose to call it, and depending on whether you bake it in little cups or in a square tin. As mentioned in the previous post, I had experimented to create a no egg, no sugar recipe for baby cakes. I was surprised at the dearth of recipes such as these because I thought many would have been keen to find sugarless recipes, and might have been concerned about whole eggs for their babies. But I suppose usually babies just miss out on cake, which sounds quite sad to me - hence the desire to experiment :)

Anyway, here's my humble contribution to the world of baby food. If you have any suggestions on how to better improve it, please share!

Ingredients:
1. 4 small bananas / 1 big banana - squashed
2. 2 small red apples - grated
3. 1 tbsp unsalted butter
4. 25ml or 1/8 cup milk (can be expressed breastmilk, formula, or whole milk)
5. 2 cups flour
6. 1 tsp baking soda

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Mix the wet ingredients (1-4) together.
3. Separately, mix the dry ingredients (5-6).
4. Combine.
5. Pour into muffin cups (or whatever other container of your choosing), and put in oven for about 15mins.

Done! Yields about 14 small muffins/cakes.

Easy peasy :) And it's been taste-tested by the following tots - Aidan & Anya (who both tried version 1, which was more like kueh), Josiah, Emma, and of course, Asher!

For variation, and if your baby has already been introduced to it, you can add cinnamon for an extra twist. Cinnamon is really good for babies - supposedly an excellent source of manganese, iron, fibre and calcium. It supports the digestive system and can kill 'unfriendly' bacteria like E. coli. Plus, it tastes great! Asher likes cinnamon with his fruits like apples, pears and bananas :)

Speedy Gonzales

After Asher went to sleep I indulged in some late night kitchen experiments. I took the recipes from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express, which I had bought at a London streetside booksale. I watched many of her shows while in London, and thought a recipe book with quick fixes would be great for an after-work evening. But now more than ever, with Asher to care for, quick recipes are all I have time for. Hooray Nigella!

What did I make? Mini croissants and Gravlax!

The croissants are not real croissants, but look-a-likes, which still taste great especially when fresh out of the oven. I filled them with dark choc (70%! yum!) and although I was supposed to only put in only one square of chocolate for each croissant, I greedily stuffed in 2 squares...then after making 4 uber-filled croissants realised there really wasn't enough pastry to wrap them up properly, so reluctantly reverted back to just one lonely square of chocolate in each.

The recipe really is speedy, and before you can say Gonzales, Jon and I were chomping on warm pastries while watching TV. Mmmm...

The next morning, bright and early at 6am, I baked another batch, this time stuffing most of them with peach marmalade for a breakfast-y twist. The plan was to make more so that we could distribute to our neighbours and relatives. That was the plan. In reality, Jon and I ate every single one of those 25 croissants all by ourselves!! Oooohhh the indulgence....and ohhhh the waistline...










Gravlax is really just salmon cured in salt and sugar. The one I made had a Jap twist to make it more like sashimi. In addition to salt and sugar I used sake and wasabi, so when you eat it it tastes like sashimi already dipped in wasabi. I wanted to make this dish so that I didn't have to cook lunch but just needed to slice up some fish and eat it together with crackers or rice. A time saver! I like it, though non-fish lovers will find it too fishy (to which I always say..."but fish has to taste fishy!")

Juggling Time

Taking care of Asher alone is really training in time management and prioritization. Once there's a little bit of spare time I've gotta decide what needs to be done, and do it immediately. Should I bathe, eat breakfast, do the laundry, etc? Decision made, DO! Cos once the free time runs out, that's it, it's feed, play, then try to put him down for a nap again (not an easy task given that this boy doesn't like napping in the day. Each nap is preceded by a lot of fussing/crying/screaming.)

It's a challenge, but it's been fun juggling caring for Asher, cooking my lunches and some dinners, doing the laundry, some ironing, folding clothes, packing up the house, checking email, and when I'm really free, blogging :)

Of course there are the frustrating moments, and it can get tiring. I'm usually quite worn out by the weekend. I'm always glad when Jon comes back home cos it's an extra pair of hands to help - and he's a big help! My mum comes by occasionally to bring me lunch now and then too. But personal time is hard to find. Diary entries have become just a few lines to a few paras long instead of pages and pages like how they used to be.

Still, there are some things that are great. All the feeding time means I've plenty of time to read (albeit intermittently). Finished up 3 book so far - Sippy Cups are Not for Champagne, Momfidence, and Sense and Sensibility. The first two were lent to us along with a few other pregnancy/parenting books. Just some entertaining, brainless, reads :) The last was a book I've always wanted to read but never got round to it. I really like that era of novels cos the writers then seemed to be able to capture the psychology and emotions of their characters so well!

Besides books, I've now found a new favourite TV programme on Discovery Travel and Living! Jon & Kate plus 8! During my 11am-ish feeds I'm always at the TV watching this show. It's a reality show about the Gosselin family where Jon (30) and Kate (dunno her age) have 8 kids - two six-year-olds, and six two-year-olds. Imagine! I find it inspiring to know that Kate, with so many kids on hand, can still care for them all on her own, prepare all their meals, clean the house, and the kids are all so lovely and well-adjusted (on TV at least) :) Each episode features what would be an easy activity for an ordinary sized family to accomplish, but which requires so much planning for their family. Things like going to to zoo, taking a road trip to Disneyland in Orlando, buying beds for the children, etc. And the kids are soooooo cute!

Anyway, despite the business I've still managed to find time to try new recipes! Recently I made Spanakopita, a Greek spinach pie. Recipe courtery of Discovery Travel and Living's Food Safari show. (As you can tell, Discovery Travel and Living is my fav channel on TV). It's made with filo pastry and filled with spinach, greek feta, pecorino, and ricotta. Yum yum yum! I had made a huge pie 2 Saturdays ago, and Jon and I finished it all in one afternoon! Then a few days after that, since I had extra ingredients, I decided to do a short-cut version for lunch :)


Yesterday, Jon and I made hamburgers from scratch complete with chips and salad! We marinated the beef with all kinds of herbs and spices, then made the patties and fried them. We also had a couple of friends over to enjoy the meal. What fun! Cooking is so therapeutic! :) (Although I must admit the cleaning up after is less fun heh).

A few weeks back we also endeavoured to make potato salad for a friend's party. Jon was very supportive of this cos he loves that reciple :) I think we made it as much for ourselves as for the party haha :)

There are still several recipes I want to try! Lets see if I find the time!

Juggle, juggle, juggle!

Anyway, some not so recent pics of Asher, just cos I like them :)

Goodie! Foodie!

Hi Hi!

There's been lots going on in the kitchen and here are some of the highlights, in no particular order :)

Avocado, Mushroom and Chilli Padi Salad
This may not be to everyone's taste, but I love avocados, and they go so well with lighty cooked mushrooms! The chillis add a zing to the dish. The avocados from Chapel Market are so fresh! I walloped 2 whole avocados in a single day muhahaha...










Chicken Rice










Shredded Grilled Moroccan Chicken with Pita & Salad
Just a change from rice :)










Chicken Nasi Briyani











Lamb Nasi Briyani
The chicken briyani was good, but the lamb briyani was better! The lamb was so so tender! Jon and I couldn't help eating more and more of it. We were supposed to leave half of it for dinner the next day, but I think we erm..ate a lot of it hehe..










Ginseng Herbal Soup, Coffee Pork Ribs & Veg
I had extra ribs from making the soup, so thought I'd experiment and try making coffee pork ribs. Pretty ok, but could improve the recipe further.










Wanton Mee
I brought up my favorite brand of frozen wantons from Singapore - CP brand. So since I made come Char Siew for CNY dinner, I kept some to make wanton mee!










Belgian Potatoes
On our trip to Belgium I saw this being made at several Christmas Markets. We didn't try it, but it looked really yummy. After going to several markets I concluded that the dish was basically made up of potatoes, bacon, and brie/camembert cheese. I decided to come back and try making it myself! And the final product is quite yummy and definitely qualifies as comfort food!









Pancakes
Jon's always asking me to make pancakes, so I thought I'd give it a go - from scratch! Wasn't too difficult, though the proportions have to be refined further :)










Paella
I've always wanted to try making this dish. It looks so easy to make, and it is!










Laksa
It was really shiok to have a taste of home :)










Tom Yum Soup
Perfect for a chilly day!












Fritata with Dutch Fenugreek Cheese
Saw a chef make fritata on tv, and thought I'd give it a go myself. Easy peesy and very yummy :)

Playing With Food

I've been experimenting with new stuff in the kitchen this past week :)

Made sushi over the weekend! And I've new respect for sushi makers...it's not that easy to make a nice sushi roll! On my first attempt, the rice was not compacted enough and it was falling out when trying to dip it into the soy sauce, haha. It's a different technique from rolling popiah! When I tried the popiah way, the ingrediants were not centred in the middle. Eventually I found a way to roll the rice tightly and centre the ingredients :) But no photo of that cos I was so pleased with it I just gobbled it down haha! :) But I'm still far far away from perfecting the technique! This photo is of the second or third roll I think. Anyway, making sushi is really fun, and not that difficult to prepare :) Think when we get back to Singapore, we could hold a sushi party!










Next experiment was to make Char Siew! The last time we went to Kitty's house to play the Wii, Kitty's mum made some realllyyy yummy Char Siew. As I asked for the recipe, Kitty's mum gave me a bottle of Char Siew marinade! So I eagerly brought the bottle of marinade with me to UK, and have finally had a go at the recipe! Here's the final product! Quite yummy, if I may say so myself. But I think Kitty's mum's one it still better. More practice required!!



















Tempura (or rather, mini-tempura) was the next challenge. Er..the initial bits weren't so tempura looking. But after playing around with the batter, I found a way to coat the seafood better :) As you can see from this pictorial comparison, the piece on the left was hardly coated, while the piece on the right looks more correct. You'll have to cut me some slack on this one cos the instructions on how to use the flour were completely in Jap! So I just tried to follow the pictures, which according to my interpretation said "flour + water, then stir together. Fry". Didn't say anything abt the coating process :) Maybe the words actually say how to do it properly, heh :)





















For lunch today I made pork loin, with a fusion style sausage, beansprouts, carrots, and capsicum stir-fry salad. Don't wrinkle your nose! It tastes nice! :)










And finally for dinner today, I made a pork and olive pasta in cream and tomato sauce! I think this is quite yummy too, and easy to make! :)

Back to Cooking

December was really eventful! Jon & I celebrated our first wedding anniversary, I went back to Spore to attend PS & DK's wedding, flew back to London and hopped on a train for Belgium and Netherlands over the Christmas holidays, and back in London for new year :)

So after all that holidaying (and you thought a lady of leisure couldn't have yet more holidays, heh), it's back to hard hard work - cooking, laundry, ironing, blah blah! ;)

2008 has been quite yummy so far. We had vegetable soup and brinjal topped with sambal shrimp when we got back from Belgium. Soup was good cos we were both feeling a bit under the weather.










The post Christmas sales were taking place in the supermarkets as well, and we got a Christmas cheese platter and sausages wrapped in bacon for ourselves. This we had for dinner on one of the nights together with really sweet cantaloupe and grapes.










The new year opened with curry and roti prata! (forgot to take photo of that). Then we had fried rice (cooked with bak kua as a replacement for lup cheong!) together with leftover curry.










Bak kut teh was really shiok for a cold day. Shan & Ben had recommended Ma Ma brand bak kut teh spices, and it was really good!










And today, I made sweet and sour pork!










So with all this food in my stomach I will start to catch up on the many blog entries that I've left undone! I'll be back-dating some entries for Dec 07, so do check out the previous entries for updates! Stay tuned!