Quiche...

Quiche.....my kiddos think I am saying "Kiss".....haha!  So, what is quiche? Its a savoury open face pie with egg custard filling, cheese, veggies, meat, etc.  Some people told me that quiche comes from Germany and others state that its from France. What I can say is...who ever created this, quiche is AWESOME!!!!

I was thinking of making small individual pies but the lazybum in me shouted, just a big one will do...save time, save energy.... So, here's how my quiche turned out...

That's all for now....

Happy quiche.....ing!!!

Bread, Bread and more Bread...

Winter is here and not surprisingly, my kiddos love having bread...its better if its MV first.  They will have it with their warm milk or chocolate milk.  So, I decided to make 2 types of bread this round.  I will do some buns and a loaf.  I just wanted to see if my kiddos prefer the buns or slices of bread.  As usual, my kiddos wanted raisins inside the bread. Hence, here's several photos of my humble raisin breads.

Last stage of proving...going into the oven very soon....

Just out from the oven.....

On to the cooling rack....

My humble raisin loaf...

Gosh...I just love the smell of the bread baking in the oven....don't you?

Tom Yum Noodles

Tom yum....mmmmm....yum!yum! This soup comes from Thailand and its known as a clear spicy soup. Some people calls it the hot and spicy soup.  Winter is just around the corner and any hot soup will be a welcome in this household.  I love to add cauliflowers, baby corns and of course the other ingredients which I use for hotpot into the tom yum soup...yum!!! This time around, I added yellow noodles to it too.

I quickly took this photo as I saw the fork and spoon heading towards the bowl....haha!!!

Till next time....happy tom yumming!!!

Raisin Buns and Scrolls

My little darling Princess was asking for raisin buns when we walked passed Bread Top yesterday and I told her that we will try and make some today.  Since we have a good old breadmaker, we should put it into good use. My little Princess got all excited and we can out with 2 different types of raisin buns.  In between waiting for the dough to double in bulk, we also tried to make some Danish scrolls. As I do not have a laminator / dough-breaker, I had to do it by myself with a rolling pin.

Here's some photos of our little project today...

Raisin Buns 

Raisin Buns

Danish Scrolls

I am pretty happy with the end results as my 2 kids ate at least 1/3 of the buns and my DH ate 1/2 of the danish scrolls...wohoo!!!

Long Time No See...

It has been ages since I last wrote on this blog. I have been so busy...completing my last semester, working oh the days which I do not attend classes, trying to spend time with my kids, etc, etc, etc...golly! Its pretty hard work...no I understand why some people say that 24 hours is just ain't enough. I totally get it even though lots of my friends said that if I have better time management, I will not be like so.  However, with 2 kids who need your attention when you get home throw all your "time management" skills out of the window...that's how I feel as I want to catch-up with my kids, watch them grow, the milestones, etc, etc, etc.

I have not been doing much cake decorating lately....I wish I had more time but I will surely do one for my lovely princess on her birthday which is next month.  She requested for Strawberry Short Cake...hmm. That will be a challenge to me. Fingers cross!!!

Here's some of the photos which I took when I was working during the long school holidays in December 2011. I really enjoyed myself as I made so many different types of desserts for the dessert buffet counter.  Had an awesome time there!

We had a small family reunion dinner during Chinese New Year and then rushed to the temple for prayers and blessings. My 2 precious wanted to watch the lion dance and fire crackers.  Here's some photos of our simple reunion dinner.

I finally made frittata for my DH and he loved it ever since...ha!ha! Frittata is just an egg-based dish. I have been asking my Chef where frittata comes from and he said its from Italy and the meaning is "to fry". However, we do not fry frittata...not the version which I am using though, I bake it in the oven.  I enrich the frittata with mushrooms, bacon, sausages, veggies, potatoes and whatever I can find in the fridge.  Here's one of the frittata photos which I took.

In February, one of my friends asked if I could do a cake for her. She wanted to surprise her darling BF. I am so glad to hear that both of them loved it. Here's a photo I took before I delivered it to her house.

Lastly, here's a photo of one of the items which I made at my current workplace. My Chef is just awesome as he wants me to better myself and sharpen my skills. Eclairs is made from choux pastry filled with cream and decorated with chocolate and icing sugar. According to my Chef, eclairs originated from France.

Last but not least, we went to the temple to celebrate Lord Buddha's birthday. This is the day where we can bathe the little baby Buddha.  We will bathe him 3 times to improve harmony and inner balance in our lives.

That's the end of this post. Made baked pasta for tomorrow's potluck.  Can't wait to savour my friends' dishes...yummy-yum-yum.

Potstickers (Guo Tie, Jiao Zi, Gyoza or Yaki Mandu)

Potstickers...now, this is one snack which everyone loves. I came across so many other names for this little babies ~ gou tie, jiao zi, gyoza, yaki mandu...the list goes on for the same old thing. Hub was pestering me to whip up some gou tie as he wasn't too keen to buy it outside. He said its too expensive - 6 pieces for $7.50

So...I went into the kitchen, ransack my fridge and voila!....made my gou tie skin with plain flour and water, marinated my minced pork with napa cabbage, chives, sesame oil, soy sauce, seasonings, ginger and chinese cooking wine. I let the dough and my marinate sit for an hour before I begun.  I really am not good in plaiting the gou tie but I guess it really does not matter as its for my family...ha!ha!

After an hours, I rolled out the skin. As you can see from the photo below, my skin is not as round as the commercial bought ones. Then I seal the edges with some water and plait it. Gou tie has a thicker skin and its chewy. After that I shallow fry and followed by steaming  the gou tie.

When I was a child, gou tie was only eaten during festivals like Chinese New Year. My Grandma will even hide a clean coin into one of the gou tie for the lucky one. However, these days, gou tie can be found in spring, summer, fall and winter. Aren't we lucky...ha!ha!

Here's some photos to share:

The verdict from my hubby - DELICIOUS!!!

Sweet Buffet Showpieces

I was very excited when I started my showpieces class. We learnt how to use sugar, chocolate, pastillage and marzipan to build our showpieces.

The sugar base is made with sugar and vinegar. If we want it to look better, we can add in some black sesame seeds. As for pastillage, its a sugar dough. Its like playdough but it hardens really fast. When its hard and you drop it, it shatters like glass. For chocolate, we use modelling chocolate and it made out of chocolate and light corn syrup.

When I was trying to put together my very first showpiece, the sugar base broke into few pieces...(really wanted to cry!!!) and then my pastillage broke into 2 pieces (definitely gonna cry)...things really not going my way....Oh well, in the end, my first showpiece turned out like this.

Here's some photos which I took at my showpiece class:

Really hope that I will do well for my practical exam...fingers cross!!!