台湾卤肉饭

Tried out this recipe & it's super yummy! But gotta cut down lots on the soy sauce, salt & chicken stock. Am wondering whether the soy sauce mentioned refers to dark or light soy sauce? 2 cups of light soy sauce is seriously overloading on salt!

Jovia Galore!

Photo Wonder

Tinkering with the new iPhone app!

Teacher's Day 2012

From this year onwards, I've got to prepare 3 sets of presents for my 3 girls' teachers. This means that I've to start planning what gifts to get way in advance. Not to mention the frantic rush to package & tag them prior to the actual day.

Since MOE has changed Teacher's Day to the 1st Friday of Sep, this year it fell on the Friday of the Sep 1 week hols. As such, DD1's Pri sch has set the Fri before the 1 week hols to have the celebration. Luckily I have already bought the gifts as DD1 only informed me abt it 1 day before.

DD3's IFC celebrated TDay today. I wonder how they celebrate when their charges are all babies & toddlers?!

DD2 is having the celebration tomorrow and all are to wear party clothes. Sounds like fun!

Pork Ribs Steamed with Black Bean Paste

Tried this easy peasy recipe and even simplified it further!

V tasty and resembles those dim sum steamed ribs, yumz!

Ingredients:

300g riblets

2 tbsp fermented black beans (i used the garlic black bean sauce)

1 tbsp minced red chilli (omitted this to be child-friendly)

1 tbsp minced garlic

Marinade:

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tbsp potato starch (to be added later)

Seasonings:

1 tbsp wine (i used huatiao wine, can taste faintly the fragrance even after steaming)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar (i used raw sugar crystals)

1 tsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp water

Method:

1. Chop riblets into small chunks.

Add marinade and mix evenly.

Set aside for 30 mins.

Then add potato starch and mix evenly.

2. Heat up 1 tbsp oil and saute black beans.

Drizzle over with wine.

Add the rest of the seasonings and stir evenly. Remove from heat.

Add riblets and toss well. Remove and place on steaming plate.

Sprinkle with minced red chilli and garlic.

(Note: I simplified this step by omitting the sauteing - instead i directly mixed all the seasoning together and toss with riblets. Still turns out good!)

3. Bring water in steamer to a boil.

Place riblets inside and steam over high heat for about 20 mins till cooked.

Serve hot.

(Source: All About Pork Ribs)

Do try, it's a breeze to make but taste is maxed!

Guess who's turning 34??

None other than my dear sis :)

We had a rocking good time at Mt Safra KBox on the sat night, 3 generations of us in all.

Spanning from 1 year all the way to over 60 years... cool!

Started off with a scrumptious dinner at Ichiban Boshi @ GWC, the toro aburi sushi is to die for!!

It is now my fav item... thanks to sis who opened my eyes to it yay!

After our tummies are sated, it's off to KBox to get my throats working.

We had a lovely big room, v new too.

The stepped loft was just perfect to keep the kids scrambling up and down, all the more fun with the complimentary balloons.

Actually to the adults, it's more of deafening screams than melodious singing, but all in good fun :)

Here are some pics to store in our memories:

The gals closest to my sis's heart

The happy family :)

And the whole clan!

Pizza de France

Pizza de France - Tel: 6777 8787

Ordered the Couple Combo (2 - 3 pax) S$21.80
- 1 Regular Pizza 10"
- 2pcs Mid Wing (Hot & Spicy)
- 1 Set Wedges
- 1 1L Organic Soya Milk

PZ 7: Sunshine Fantasy
(Chicken Bacon, Sausage, Sliced Boiled Egg and Mayo)

Chocolate Marble Chiffon Cake

(Recipe Source: http://cookingcrave.blogspot.com/2009/07/chocolate-marble-chiffon.html) 

Koi Bubble Milk Tea

Thanks to hubby who waited in the car while I queued up. It was almost 2pm, lunchtime ending and there was still quite a queue for this bubble tea. Makes me really wonder how good it really is. I bought 2 cups, one the bubble milk tea and another is the Plum Green Tea with Pearls. I like the milk tea one better and I love the pearls! Smaller in size than the normal ones and super duper chewy!! Yummy! But ask if I'll queue again for this and I may think twice.... it's just bubble tea!!

National Day Open House @ National Museum: Celebrate the Swinging Sixties!

I love the spiral staircase

Made by Jeryn

Made by Janelle

Made by Me!

Gong Cha Bubble Milk Tea @ City Square Mall

This brand of bubble milk tea is supposed to be one of the better ones. And it is very nice! And best, not much of a queue!

Roast Pork

Korean Instant Noodle with Cheese

Nong Shim Spicy Mushroom Instant Noodle topped with a slice of cheese. Taste-wise not much difference except that there's an additional depth and creaminess to the soup.

Strawberry Shortcake

My maiden attempt at making and frosting a layered cake. This is for my FIL's birthday. Not too bad for a first-timer I would say. But seems that there's more cream than cake! Hahaha... next time will cut down on the cream.

1st Attempt at Pandan Chiffon Cake

I've always loved eating Pandan Chiffon Cake, and it has to be the one from Bengawan Solo coz all the others I've tried are either lacking in taste, smell or texture. Bengawan Solo's one is just nice, moist enough and smells and tastes fragrant.

Ever since my flopped attempt once at baking this cake, I've never dared to try it again. I don't know what went wrong the other time, but my cake batter was dripping out of the bottom of the cake tin after I sent it into the oven and it didn't rise much too. I had a nightmare of a time cleaning up my oven coz dumb me didn't think of lining the bottom of the oven with aluminium foil. Now I'm much smarter of coz!

This time round, I tried baking this with my aunt's recipe. The texture is moist, very similar to that of Bengawan Solo's but the top cracked terribly and it is a teeny weeny bit wet, so next time, I shall lower the temperature abit to maybe 150 deg. C and tent the top of the cake.

Taste-wise, it's not fragrant enough. Probably because I only put in 1 tsp of pandan paste and that's it. Next time, I'll dutifully do it the traditonal way with pandan leaves crushed to extract the juice. Hopefully, that'll make it more fragrant. This time round, tastes a bit eggy!

After 10 - 15 mins in the oven

After 20 mins in the oven

Overturned the pan to cool the cake and this is what it looks like after I've uprighted the pan.

Cake after being removed from the pan, ready for slicing.

Cake sliced and ready for the taste-test!

Can I say that I'm very proud of my cake?! :P

1st Movie for Jeryn - Toy Story 3

I still remember when we first brought Janelle to watch her first movie at The Cathay when she was 2+ yrs old. The movie was 'Monster House'. It's a cartoon, but a bit scary cartoon. (On hindside, that doesn't seem like a good choice to start her off :P) Janelle clung to her Daddy from when we first stepped into the cinema theatre and refused to be put down. Even the popcorn and drinks didn't help much. When the lights started dimming and the theatre got pitch dark, she was whimpering to get out of the place. So, regretfully, Daddy had to bring her out and told me to continue watching the show while he entertained her outside. But then, it doesn't feel good to be watching the show alone while your hubby and child is outside, so out I went too. And we never got to finish the show.

However, this time round with Jeryn, we got to finish the whole show! Although she was a bit fidgety, but you don't expect a 2 yr old child to sit firmly on her seat and transfix her eyes on the screen for 2 hrs. She was alternating between standing on her seat and looking at the family with young kids behind us and walking up and down the aisle steps. Well, this is quite a good start and I'm optimistic that we'll get to watch more movies in the near future.


Hmm, as to why I chose The Cathay... 1. Because I thought there'll be lesser people and thus the theatre would be more empty, to pre-empt if Jeryn starts screaming. 2. I like the popcorn there! Warm and crispy and sweet caramelised taste. 3. With UOB credit card, weekend tickets only cost $8.50 each instead of the usual $10!

I like Mr Potato.

This is my friend too!