I Like Paper Cutting & Craft

Korea Trip in Apr

2013-05-24T01:30:00.000+08:00

We went to Korea in early April. We covered Seoul, Jeju Island and Mont Sorak. We were lucky as we saw sakura in Jeju Island (beginning of Spring) and snow in Mont Sorak (end of winter). This was the first time in my life seeing Sakura and snow. It was a dream comes true holiday for me.

Sakura

Aqua planet

zoo

farm

Tulips

Mont Sorak

Trick Art Mesuem

Everland

Nanta show

Easy Creamy Vegetables Soup

2013-05-22T02:30:00.000+08:00

I cooked leftover vegetables soup very frequently. This time, I decided to make the soup into creamy style. The soup turns out well and everyone enjoyed it. I was happy to see my children finished the whole bowl of it, as I made the soup and only I know there are lots of 'hidden vegetables' in the soup!

Do you also like me worrying your kids didn't eat enough vegetables?

Easy Creamy Vegetables Soup

1. see here on how to cook a pot of leftover vegetables soup.

2. place the cooked vegetables and some soup into a blender.

3. blend it until smooth and thicken.

4. pour the creamy soup into a pan to cook for 5 minutes.

5. season with salt and pepper to taste, serve warm.

Washi Tapes Holder DIY

2013-05-20T03:00:00.000+08:00

I made myself a bonsai wire tapes holder last night. Yes, I am a big fan of washi tape. I have been collecting washi tapes years ago. I made this holder because I wanted to keep them high where my children are out of reach. There were so many rolls of my beautiful tapes gone wasted by them. They like to play with it when I am not at home. They pulled out the long roll of tape and walk around the walls in the house! Luckily, it won't pull the paints off my walls when cleaning.

Cashew Nut Turmeric Rice

2013-05-17T10:00:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, I have get up early to pack my lunch box for my daughter to school. I usually like to cook one pot rice as it is easy to make. This morning, I cooked cashew nut turmeric rice (similar to biryani rice, nut light version) with rice cooker.

Cashew Nut Turmeric Rice

Ingredients

1 cup rice, washed

3 shallots, minced

3 gloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp turmeric powder (serbuk kunyit)

½ cup cashew nut

½ cup raisin

Method:

1. melt butter in pan, saute onion and garlic with low heat until fragrant

2. add in rice, turmeric powder and seasoning to taste, saute for one minute

3. transfer it into rice cooker, add in cashew nut, raisin and enough water to cook

Fried KimChi Wantan

2013-05-15T08:00:00.000+08:00

I was preparing wanton for the dinner and run out of minced pork. I quickly recall my favourite dine out place - Kim Gary serves beautiful deep fried KimChi wantan. So, I continue my wantan wrapping using KimChi. The outcome is just great. You don’t have to deep fried for too long as KimChi is already ready to eat. I like the crispy outside and sour spicy taste inside of it. I had many of them for dinner.

Fried KimChi Wantan

Ingredients:

wantan wrappers

Kimchi

1 egg white, whisked

Method:

1. spread a wrapper flat in the palm of one hand

2. place a teaspoon of KimChi in the center of wrapper

3. brush egg white around edges of wrapper

4. seal it tight into a triangle shape

5. heat oil and deep fry wontan for a few minutes or until golden brown

6. remove from heat and drain on paper towels

Add lace to tee

2013-05-13T02:00:00.000+08:00

Amanda is much taller than last year. However, her size of her body remained. She is still able to fit into tees she have been wearing 3 years ago. Hence, I altered her tees to make them longer for her. I sewed a piece of white vintage cotton lace at the bottom of her tees. I like how it turns out. The lace added some patterns to the plain tees. I guess this tees can be worn again for another year or two.

Origami: Heart-shaped card

2013-05-10T01:30:00.000+08:00

Amanda has made some Thank You cards for her teachers in conjunction of Teacher's Day celebration. She enjoyed the process of card making, card writing, putting card into envelope, have it seal, and lastly write the name on the envelopes. Oh my, I suddenly realized, I didn't send any cards for so many years. I miss those days when I letter writing to our pen friends. For tutorial on heart-shaped origami, please go to How About Orange.

Steamed Sweet Potato Rice

2013-05-08T03:30:00.000+08:00

I usually cook simple food during the weekend. So I could have more time to be with my children. I cooked sweet potato rice last week. This simple dish was one of my childhood favorite food on the table. My mother used to cook it in a big rice cooker. It was indeed a simple and easy way to feed the big family. I cooked it in a smaller portion, just enough for me and my daughter to share. So, I steamed the rice in a bowl. I can eat it all by itself without having any other dish to go with, perhaps, add a dash of soy sauce for that 'authentic poor man food' taste (酱油捞饭）.

Steamed Sweet Potato Rice

Ingredients

1 sweet potato (peeled and cut into bite size)

1/2 cup rice (rinsed and drained)

Method:

1. place rice in a bowl, add sweet potato on top

2. add water and steam on low heat until cooked

My Homemade Kaya

2013-05-06T01:00:00.000+08:00

This is my mum’s recipe for kaya (coconut jam). We don’t buy kaya from the stores when I was young. My mum will makes kaya at home, and she makes it very frequently. As the eldest at home, I naturally become her best helper. Every time, I got to stand in front of the stove and keep stirring the mixture for one hour. I didn't complain, instead I learned to appreciate food, for I truly understand the hard work behind each cooking.

This kaya recipe is rich in coconut, less sweet, with beautiful caramelise sugar flavour. Enjoy.

My Homemade Kaya (Coconut Jam)

Ingredients:

5 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 cups of fresh coconut milk

Some screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) knotted up

½ cup sugar – for caramelising

Method:

1. mix eggs and sugar together

2. add in coconut milk and stir to dissolve sugar, add in screwpine leaves

3. strain mixture into a heatproof container

4. place container into a double boiler

5. keep stirring every 1 minute for 50 minutes until the mixture form thick custard

6. discard the screwpine leaves

7. in a pan, caramelising the sugar and quickly pour into the mixture to form golden brown colour

8. continue to cook and stir the mixture for another 10 minutes

9. let cool, keep in a clean container. It can last for 2 weeks when store in refrigerator

Love u mama

2013-05-03T01:30:00.000+08:00

Last night, I reached home late and kids were already on bed. I saw a piece of paper on my daughter's desk. When I looked closer, I saw a big red heart with a line 'I love you mama can you love me?' Oh, I must have been too strict on her lately, and she thought that I didn't love her enough. I quickly grabbed a pencil and wrote something on it and head to bed. I hope to see her big wide smile on her face first thing in the morning.

One Pot Rice

2013-05-02T01:38:00.000+08:00

I use leftover vegetables in the drawer of the refrigerator to cook this 'one pot rice'. This is so easy as I cooked it in a rice cooker. I usually cook this dish in the morning, and all ingredients are prepared a night before. I packed it in lunch boxes for myself and children. My children love it and always mistaken it as fried rice. Well, it does look like fried rice, but one pot rice is is less oily compare to fried rice. It is indeed a healthy and tasty meal for the family.

One Pot Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup rice, rinsed and drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallots, minced

1/2 cup dried shrimps, minced

any leftover vegetables in the fridge (I used long beans, cauliflower & sweet potato) all cut into small pieces

Method:

1. heat oil in a cooking pan, saute minced garlic, shallots and dried shrimps till fragrant

2. add all vegetables into pan, and stir frying for about 2 minutes

3. add rice and seasoning, stir fry it for 2 minutes

4. pour rice and vegetables into rice cooker, cover it with enough water, and let it cook in rice cooker.

5. when the rice is cooked, use chopstick to loosen the rice. Serve hot.

Rice Plants in pots

2013-05-01T01:00:00.000+08:00

These are the rice plants I took from paddy field near my mom's house few months ago. My children wanted to see how paddy are growing rice, so I planted it in flower pots filled with soils in my garden. I don't flooded it with water. As I have seen people in my village growing their own rice at their backyard before. I know the rice plants will grow even on a dry land.

Now, you are looking at the semi-ripe paddy plants. Well, my maid is already thinking that she would use mortar and pestle to mill the rice to remove husks when the rice is ready be harvested. We are all hoping and waiting to eat our home grown organic rice.

Glass Deco DIY

2013-04-29T01:30:00.000+08:00

Simply draw, color, peel and stick! This is a fun and creative activities we did recently to decorate our bathroom. Our theme for this craft is ocean. We were busy flipping books looking for the design of sea creatures, sea shells and seaweeds. This was what we have made. I stick the deco at the back of the glass panel.

Glass Deco

Supplies:

glass deco peelable kit

Directions:

draw/ trace the lines of the design onto the plastic film using black outliner
wait for it to dry and fill the picture with glass colors
allow the pain to dry completely
then, peel off and stick on glass surface

Steamed Tapioca Cake

2013-04-26T00:30:00.000+08:00

I was at my mother’s house the other day. Early in the morning on that day, my mum went to her farm and bought home some tapioca roots she harvested from her farm. We decided to make a tray of tapioca cake with it.

We started making it after having our breakfast. I learned from my mum that tapioca juice tastes bitter and have to be thrown away. I was a happy girl the whole day on that day. Because the cake came out nice, and most importantly, my mum and I did it together!

Steamed Tapioca Cake
Ingredients:

1kg tapioca, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 cup fresh coconut milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup fresh grated coconut

1 tsp of salt

Method:

1. place tapioca pieces into juice extractor to get grated tapioca

2. keep the tapioca juice in a bowl, let it set for 20 minutes to form two layers

3. discard the yellowish water on top (as it is bitter) and keep the tapioca starch (white layer)

4. in a separate bowl, mix together grated tapioca, tapioca starch, coconut milk and sugar

5. spread some cooking oil in the tray to prevent sticky

6. pour mixture into tray and steamed for 45 minutes

7. remove from heat, and let it cool before cutting

8. in a plate, add salt into grated coconut and steam for 10 minutes, let cool

9. cut out the tapioca cake into small pieces, dust it with grated coconut before serving

discard the yellowish juice, mentioned in step 2 & 3

Deep Fried Nian Gao

2013-04-24T11:15:00.000+08:00

I made some pan fried Nian Gao last week. It was also to spring clean my fridge to clear all CNY food, especially nian gao. I used Nasi Lemak Lover's Crispy Batter recipe for the cooking (5 tbs self raising flour to go with 1 tbs rice flour). Then I mixed the flour with water slowly to make a sticky batter, not watery. You could add some salt and an egg to the batter, if you wanted to, but it is optional.

The end result was satisfying. The skin was crispy as expected. The batter made a thick skin that hold nian gao and sweet potatoes together. It also prevent nian gao from leaking out. I am enjoying it now with a cup of tea while I am typing this post.

Sprinkles on biscuits

2013-04-22T00:30:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, me and my children had beautiful tea time together. We had fun decorating the plain merry biscuits into something chocolaty and colorful. Simply spread some Nutella on the biscuit and decorate with fun sprinkles. My kids love them so much and we had lots of fun together.

Steamed Yam Cake

2013-04-19T02:00:00.000+08:00

This is a tray of yam cake I steamed last week. I found Sue's recipe on flour and water ratio just easy to remember. That is, 1 bowl of rice flour with 2 bowls of water. If you don't have rice bowl in your kitchen, you can use the cake measurement cup to replace rice bowl, 1 cup of rice four with 2 cups of water. Enjoy!

Steamed Yam Cake

Recipe source: The Momster's Kitchen Yam Cake

I use 3 bowls of rice flour and 6 bowls of water for this round baking pan.

I also added 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour into the mixture.

Let the cake cool completely before cutting.

Rainbow Marshmallow class

2013-04-17T02:00:00.000+08:00

My kids attended a cooking class during the last school holidays. I sent them to artis @ Paradigm mall. They enjoyed the session very much and had lots of fun. Besides the cooking, they also made paper box for the rainbow marshmallow. These marshmallow not only beautiful with rainbow colors, it tastes yummy as well.

Soy Sauce Spaghetti

2013-04-15T01:30:00.000+08:00

I usually don’t cook spaghetti ‘the spaghetti way’ at home. Most people like to cook spaghetti with tomato sauce, olive oil or either cream sauce. For me, I like to use spaghetti in all Asian cooking. It includes spaghetti in assam laksa, curry laksa, hokkien mee, and even jawa mee.

Most of the time, I like to cook simple food. So today I am sharing this easy recipe - spaghetti in soy sauce. The key ingredients are garlic, mushroom and soy sauce. These are also the secret ingredients that make a delicious spaghetti!

Soy Sauce Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1/2 packet of spaghetti (cooked and drained)

1 cup of Chinese mushroom (soaked and sliced)

soy sauce to taste

Directions:

1. heat oil in wok, saute garlic until fragrant

2. add mushrooms and saute for 3 minutes

3. pour in cooked spaghetti, add enough soy sauce to taste, and stir until well combined. Serve hot.

Add ribbon to zipper pull… for little hands

2013-04-12T00:30:00.000+08:00

Amanda has chosen a nice pink school bag at a store last week. When we reached home and checked on the bag again, I found that the zipper pulls are too small for Amanda's hand to make a smooth open/close. So, I added some short brown ribbons to all the zipper pulls to make it easy to hold. Happy ending.

Paddy Field

2013-04-10T01:12:00.000+08:00

These photos are taken while we were back to my mother's house. There is a breathtaking view of paddy field near mum's house. I think my photos of a little hut in a sea of green is beautiful. My kids taken some rice plants home to plant.

Tulle Hair Tie DIY

2013-04-08T01:30:00.000+08:00

This is a fun to do craft. It is also an easy craft to impress your kids. We all like to see how it transforms into pom pom when all loops are cut. You can use this beautiful tulle pom pom for anything, from hair to shoes, or on a bag or skirt. Anyway, I am making it into a hair tie for my 7 years old girl.

Tulle Hair Tie DIY

supplies:

tulle

elastic hair tie

needle and thread

Directions:

1. wrap the tulle strips around four fingers for about 5 times

2. tie a thin ribbon in the middle of tulle

3. cut all the loops to form a pom pom

4. sew the elastic hair tie to pom pom

Paper House Fun

2013-04-05T01:00:00.000+08:00

I got this beautiful book from a bookstore in town recently. This book is written in Chinese. However, it says that this book was nominated as ‘No. 1 children craft book in Korea’, with 900 thousand copies sold.

Children and I spent about a month to complete folding all the furniture for the house. Every night, we gathered around for 2 hours tearing out, pasting and folding the furniture slowly. Furniture includes piano, sofa set, dinning table and chairs, rocking chair, bedroom set, kitchen set, etc. We have a lot of fun and laughter making these together.

little bunny and her mother are ready to move in to this new house

Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan

2013-04-03T01:30:00.000+08:00

We visited Teluk Intan few months back. Besides trying out some of the famous local food vendors there, we also spent some time visiting the leaning clock tower. This tower is built in 130 years ago, originally house the water tank to supply water during drought. Now, it serve as a clock tower and famous landmark in Teluk Intan, Perak. It is worth visiting the tower because it is equivalent famous as Pisa tower in Italy.

Sweet Corn Pudding Cake

2013-04-01T02:00:00.000+08:00

This sweet corn pudding cake is easy and quick to whip up for friends coming over. The cooking time is only 10 minutes! Make them a night before and chill it in the fridge before serving. It is a tasty and hassle free dessert to make.

Sweet Corn Pudding Cake

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup custard flour

2 cups coconut milk

2 cups water

1 cup sugar (or lesser)

1 can of cream corn (418gm)

Method:

1. add 1 cup of water with 1 cup of custard flour into a bowl, mix well. Set aside.

2. pour 1 cup of water, sugar, cream corn and coconut cream into a pot, bring it to boil.

3. add in custard flour mixture and keep stirring until the mixture turn thick and yellow.

4. brush a baking tray with cooking oil, pour the thick mixture into the tray.

5. use large spoon to flatten and smooth out the top, let cool and chill into fridge. Serve cool.