Category Archives: Food

Baking Cookies

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Ryan was absent from school a few days due to inflammation of his calves caused by viral infection. Instead of blowing time aimlessly at home, we decided to do something meaningful.

We explored a few options and finally decided we will bake some yummylicious butter cookies. I have never baked anything in my life. So instead of turning the kitchen into a disastrous war zone, I consulted my best friend for a sure win recipe.

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
268g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg +1 egg yolk

Method:
1. Mix the flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl.
2. Cream the butter with sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and egg yolk.
4. Sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon until it’s well combined and there’s no loose flour.
5. Roll the dough between baking paper into a rectangle about 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate until cold.
6. When dough is cold, cut it into desired shapes. Put the biscuit on baking paper in a tray and refrigerate.
7. Preheat oven to 160C.
8. Bake biscuit for 15 to 20mins until very pale brown.
9. Let cool until set then transfer to wire rack.

I opted without the sauce because I had wanted to try royal icing but for reference purposes, here’s the recipe for Chocolate sauce for coating:
1. Heat a pot of water on low heat.
2. Cut desired amount of chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl.
3. Put the bowl of chocolate into the pot of simmering water, and melt the chocolate.
4. Dip the cool biscuit (whole or partially) into the melted chocolate and leave the biscuit on wire rack or baking paper to allow the chocolate to harden before storing.

The recipe is straight forward and easy to follow. I dashed to the nearby bakery shop to stock in all the ingredients. Meanwhile, I got Loida to help get all the tools ready, the scale, mixer, ingredients, cutters, baking tray, etc etc.

On 21 June 2011, Ryan was still limping but hands were sure fine. I got him to help out with the mixer, rolling the dough, cutting the shapes out.. :)

 

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Ryan likes Gingerbreadman, so I bought some Gingerbreadman cookies cutter especially for him

 

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Oven pre-heated for the baking ahead…

 

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Yumss.. the butter cookies surely smell soooooooooo good inside the oven

 

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At about 4pm, we were done with all the cookies. The kitchen was in a mess and I was too tired to work on the royal icing after baking all the cookies. We shall reserve the task for tomorrow.

The next day… we worked on the royal icing. I had been prewarned of the complexity of reaching the right consistency for piping/flooding so I made an effort to read a bit on the topic prior this. The preparation was more taxing than I had anticipated as sure enough I had difficulty getting the icing runny enough for piping. It’s either it was too runny or too stiff. I guess the only way to perfect this skill is through lots and lots and I mean, LOTS of practise. It is definitely easier ‘read’ than ‘done’.

 

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Flooding failed big time.. but they sure taste soooooooooooo gooood….

 

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Ryan piped the eyes and mouth. So cute….

 

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Ryan’s creative piping design on the cookies were a huge hit. Everyone wanted a piece of Ryan’s masterpiece. He sure made everyone very happy that day…

Ryan and I had a swell of a time and gives us ample bonding opportunity. Later when I asked him if he wants to bake again, he said he shall only be tasked to do the decoration next time (royal icing). Just call for him when the cookies are ready to be decorated. LOL.

The cookies were yummy. I guess butter cookies can hardly go wrong, even under the hands of someone who never baked her entire life. Even my maid asked for the recipe so she could bake them when she goes back to her Philippines.

Just when things looked really memorable that day, we had a shock at night. I had turned on the monitor in the room when I heard Ryan tossing and turning on the bed. I was in the next room watching my TVB show and decided to check on him. Sure enough, I saw him scratching frantically on both his legs. Under dim light, I thought I saw bumps that look like mosquito bites. I grabbed Bud’s First Aid Lotion (which really helps in reducing mozzie bit swell) and switched on the lights. I had a shock when I saw the bumps on Ryan’s thighs.

 

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Those are no insect bites. I was in a state of shock I don’t even know what to think. My poor baby. Already he was limping due to the inflammation of his claves and now the painstaking itch. I ran to the first aid box and dug out the hydrocortisone cream. Within half hour or so, the swelling reduced and he was no longer scratching.

The next day, the swelling are gone. I showed Ryan the pictures we took of both his legs and he couldn’t believe it as there was no tell tale sign visible at all. We are not sure of the cause of it but we suspect it could an allergy reaction towards food coloring used for the royal icing. But then again, it’s not the first time he consumed food which may have hints of coloring and he has never experienced such reaction before. Could it have anything to do with his inflammation? It is surely on everyone’s guess. I hope it’s just a fluke incident.

 

The Two Milk Monsters…

Ryan @ 5 years 2 weeks 5 days

Lil B @ 1 year 3 months 1 week 6 days

 

My two boys are absolute milk monster. Even Ryan, at his age, still drinks about 4 * 120ml milk each day.

Picture says it all…… (I know, don’t ask me why the big monster is still using the bottle).

 

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Each has their ‘security/comfort toy ‘ tucked by their side. “Green” – Ryan, “Handky” – Lil B’s. Lil B has no particular preference on which handkerchief, yet.

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The contented happy look after milk

In the last few weeks

@ 35 months 1 week 3 days

Iryne’s Wedding, 8 Mac 09

It was one of my best friends’ wedding on the 8 Mac 09. I was honoured to be one of her chi-muis (8 guys and 3 girls ; yes.. my dear friend actually had some of her guy friends as chi-muis. Will post a pic of them when I get hold of it). It was such a fun filled and memorable occassion. There were many funny moment throughout the day. I had a swell of a time. Congrats again to Chua and Iryne and thanks for inviting me to be apart of your day.


You can see the bed slanted a side. Yes.. THE BED BROKE right after the shot! Photo courtesy of Brandon


Me and the beautiful bride. Taken while the heng tais and the rest of the chi muis were having a ‘war’ downstairs. 

A Visit to Grandma’s

No, not my biological Grandma :D It’s actually a restaurant located at United Square. We had read about this newly opened restaurant whose chef used to work for Madam Kwan in KL some time back on the paper. So when we found out they opened a new outlet in United Square which is much nearer to our place, we were obviously thrilled. I have always loved Madam Kwan’s nasi lemak and a visit to this Grandma’s is a must.

   
Can’t helped but to witness the close similarity to Madam Kwan’s. They used the same theme colours.

 

   
While waiting for our food…. Ryan engrossed with his new MRT trainset from Toys R Us

 

Here comes the food….

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Nasi Lemak. Looks good but disappointing taste. The curry chicken was too salty and the sambal was too sweet to my liking.

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Fried Hor Fun. Hubs said it was too bland.

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Sambal Petai. I never liked petai but somehow this gets a thumbs up from hubs.

The 3 dishes and 2 drinks came up to about $50. Not quite worth it… :(

Meeting Up The Most Travelled Family, at least in the last one year 

It was such a coincidence that Chew Lee and I will be in KL the same time last week. We know it will be awhile before we are able to meet up again so we made a point to at least catch up for drinks last Sunday (22 Mac 09).

The last time we met up she was still heavily pregnant. Now, baby Kelsey is already in her arms, sleeping soundly most of the time, totally oblivious to his noisy surrounding at Starbucks, Pavillion.


Me and the Chewlee with the new addition to their family. Baby Kelsey is such a handsome boy with blond hair and sharp nose.


The two kiddos, still warming up

but not for long……….

   

Soon after, they were all over each other. Ryan as usual could not stopped hugging and holding Malaika’s hand. The last time the kids met and played together was some time back last year. They were still in Singapore when we would each each other frequently. That time the kids were still pretty much playing individually, not quite with each other. How time flies.. we met again this year and now the kids were inseparable especially when it comes to play. Simply love to watch them happily playing. So innocent, so carefree, so happy….

 

In Class

@ 21 months 3 days

The little one in class during snack time yesterday. I don’t understand why he is very fussy on his food (neither hubs or I are fussy eaters). There were fruits, corn flakes, sausages served but nothing interest him. While the other kids were busy gobbling down the food served, The only thing Ryan had was the apple juice. Truly difficult to please…


Busy kepoh-ing at other’s. His food was left untouched.

 


Having his apple juice. Not long after I snapped this pic, he spilled all the drinks on his shirt! *slaphead*