11.05.2010- My first homemade bread

Hmm...im not sure whether you all have this sudden mood to bake cake or bread? Myself do have such sudden moon which rather scary..especially to my maid cos she need to help out the washing part when im done ..hahaha.

As i said sudden mood..so this happen on Wednesday and i tried to make a bread and with no surprise, my bread is a total failured one. The bread is not fluffy and with strong yeast smell.

Sigh..so sad..

After google the bread problems, i reckon the following issues that caused the failure.

1) Recipe might have error - too much of yeast

2) Kneading time is not enough. As per other blogger, the kneading time at least 25mins.

3) Undercooked the bread . My oven temperature needs to be reviewed again.

4) Oven temp too hot and cos the bread gets brown quickly and the inner texture is not fully rose.

After knowing the above problems, i will give a try again. I've set in my mind that i must successful in bread making..worst scenario, invest a breadmaker...hahaha

Cameron Trip with Neighbourhood

Saturday ,08.05.2010 @ 2pm

Our neighbourhood (4 chinese couples including ourself) has make a trip to Cameron Highland for a nite stay. This is our first gathering and certainly bring all of us closer to each other.

We reached Cameron at 7pm and we went to Brinchang nite market to buy the vegetables for our steamboat. Well, as usual when we reach nite market you can resist the food there and everyone are eating the food sell at the roadside. Nevertheless, we still keep our plan happening and continue our steamboat in our rented apartment at around 10pm. This is the latest steamboat dinner that i ever had in my life. As you can imagine, how can our stomach fill up the steamboat stuff since we ate something at the market. So, we continue our steamboat session in the morning for our b'fast. Again, this is another new b'fast that i ever had in my life.

After our heavy steamboat b'fast around 12pm, we checked out and proceed to morning market for our veg shopping.

During this trip, my observation on our neighbourhood as follow.

1) Choo & Yoke Yin - Choo is a very humouros guy and he can easily make everyone laugh and is good to have him in the group . Yoke Yin is a very gentle and quiet lady . She do not easily open up herself to stranger.

2) Melissa & Sunny- both of them can talk alot if they want. Melissa is a very particular lady on cleanliness surrounding her. She is a very hardworking lady and she prepared most of steamboat stuff for us. Sunny is consider a talkative one among the men. He is not inborn with humorous character but he is good in entertaining everyone with all kind of subjects.

3) Lim & Agnes - Agnes is older than Lim of 5yrs. These couple do not talk alot, especially Lim.

He is a bit ego type cos i realised he don't look at your eye when he talk to you (with lady only).

He can be very friendly with guys but not ladies. Well, probably is a good sign so the ladies will not easily attach to him. I think Agnes has a strong character during working time as she need to handle 7 staffs under her. Usually a lady strong at work, she likes to be a little cat (siu nu ren) at home and let all the decision to be made by her partner That's why she can bear Lim's ego character..

Thats all about how i observed everyone in this trip, overall they are great and looking forward to have 2nd trip. Hmm...would suggest a better planning on second trip especially time management as this 1st trip is rather poor one...kekeke

Picnic at TTDI Park

03.04.2010 at 7.30am

We woke up early this morning and prepared ourself to go TTDI Park for picnic. This is the 1st time we been there and we all really like the place. Fresh air, many trees around, playground for the kids, clean & nice jogging track..most wonderful part is the small water stream from the hill. The kids had so much fun there catching small fishes, water and sand. Is really a very nice garden for city folks like us. I mean...there are many garden around us but this one is rather special and attractive.

Is a bit far for us who stayed in Shah Alam to go TTDI but i still think is worth to go once in a while..

When we are about to go home, the kids were asking when are we coming again??? They look so sad and worry that our next trip would be another year kind of thing. Well, in order to cheers them up I said anytime since is not that far..

Xinyi 2 years old birthday

Her actual day is 26th April and we celebrate it for her on 24th April so everybody can enjoy the nite till late since is Saturday.

I challenged myself to make this strawberry mousse jelly cake. Overall, the cake is not so tough to do it but the step of pouring the jelly is bit panic to do it. The cake is very tasty and refreshing, the outlook not too bad but the jelly a bit too soft. Not sure why cos I've been followed the same steps on the instruction label.

Hmm..im bit lazy to type out the recipe, however you can easily find it in http://www.jellorecipes.net/.

Sorry, i forgot to take picture after slicing the cake :-(

Im too busy on that nite as i also serving, spaghetti, salad, eggroll , mashed potatoes and some grilled sausage. ..

Dry Mee Pok Fishball Noodle -S'pore Style

20.03.2010 - Saturday

After exploring in the net and finally i found my favarite mee pok recipe and I'm so urge to prepare it since i can't find any in KL. The recipe is showing the DIY sauce which Im really lazy to do it . Luckily, I found another blogger who recommend to use the Dried Shrimp Chili Paste (Tean's Gourmet) which can be easily find it at any local hypermarket. So, obviously I choose the option of the ready made sauce .

I was very happy with the taste and i found out that the most important secret recipe for this noodle is the 'black vinegar'. After putting the black vinegar, the noodle taste is totally different and is so tasty. I love it so much.

Here's the simple ingredients:-

Note: Below is only my estimated measurement, subject to change based on individual tastebud.

Fish balls (estimated 4pcs a bowl)

minced pork (about RM3)

green onion (a stalk)

Cintan dry flat noodle (1pc)

Sauce :

Soy sauce x 3 tsp

Fried lard oil or garlic oil x 1tbsp

black vinegar x 1tbsp

dried shrimp chili oil x 2tsp

white pepper (a bit)

Method:

1) Fried some lard oil or garlic oil & put aside. Cut the green onion and put aside.

2) Boil water and out some 'ikan bilis' to cook some soup. Use small fire to brew the taste of the ikan bilis soup.

3) Sieve the ikan bilis out and put in the fish ball and let it boil till the fish ball is floating to surface. That means the fish ball are cooked.

4) Use a sieve, cook the minced pork in the soup using the sieving method. This will not make the minced pork all over the soup. Once the pork is cooked, put aside.

5) In a separate wok/pot, boil some water and ready to cook the noodle.

6) While waiting for the noodle to cook, prepare the sauce in a bowl.

7) Once the noodle is cooked, toss the noodle and mix it in bowl with the sauce.

8) Serve the noodle with the green onion and some minced pork. A separate bowl of fishball soup.

Here's the picture of my mee pok noodle...hmmmm yummy yummy.

2nd cakes for my nephew birthday

13.03.2010 .

I have another chance to challenge myself baking a chocolate banana layered cake with chocolate ganache for my nephew's birhday. Since, im very new in decorating big cake and is really not easy for me to frost the cake nicely. I always have problem frosting the side of the cake. Well, as usual will think of a way to hide the ugly part of the cakes. Here's are the 2 cakes i made.

Why 2 cakes? Ya, last minute my sis told me to make one more in case is too nice and not enough for the party. Oh dear..she really hv confident on me. Anyway, luckily the taste of the cake is not so bad but a little bit dry. Probably, i nv cover it probably when i keep in the fridge.

Reason i kept in the fridge is easier to handle when frosting.

Again, the recipe is obtained from HHB blog (http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/).

06.03.2010-Birthday cake for my husband

Well..this is the 1st time im doing this peach cake for my husband and thank god the cake is really tasty although the look is ugly.

Sorry to say, im still not good on the decoration part and realised is really not easy to frost the cake smoothly..sigh.

Anyway, I will not give up as I found its really interesting and happy to be able to bake a cake for your love one.

I adapt the recipe from a blogger (HHB) and realised her recipe is really tasty and detailed information.