I Like Paper Cutting & Craft

Deep Fried Yam Cake

2013-06-14T01:00:00.000+08:00

'Do you know, deep fried yam cake tastes really really good?' my MIL says to me when she was eating the steamed yam cake I made. Really? I have try it out. I purposely steamed a new tray of yam cake for deep frying. After steaming the cake, I let the cake cool in room temperature and cut into bite size the next day. Just heat some oil in pan and deep fry the cake to golden brown color. These cake are crispy outside and soft inside. It goes best with some soy sauce. It tastes really good. Try it out yourself.

Chicken Farm Visitation

2013-06-12T01:30:00.000+08:00

We visited to a chicken farm recently. This is a small scaled of farm not far away from my mum's house. My mum knows the owner, so we get the chance to visit this place. It was a good experience for me and the kids. They get to see how do hens lay eggs and how the eggs are collected by the workers. I thought it is good for my children to understand the origin source of their food in order to appreciate it.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake

2013-06-10T11:16:00.000+08:00

I made steamed pumpkin cake today, see steamed yam cake I made previously. I use pumpkin to replace yam in the cake. Love the yellow pumpkin cubes after cutting into slices, taste yum too.

Korea: Pororo, Tayo & MOMOs Blog

2013-06-07T02:30:00.000+08:00

Pororo shop in Everland

My daughter got something she loves - Pororo the little penguin

My son got something he likes - Tayo the little bus, he can name them all, Tayo, Rogi, Gani, Rani, Citu...

I also got something I heart - MOMOs Blog by Remane

These are our souvenirs to remember our Korea trip

MOMOs Blog by Remane

Cantonese Opera @ KLpac

2013-06-05T01:30:00.000+08:00

We watched Cantonese Opera show at KLpac two months ago. We enjoyed the show very much, from my MIL 80 y.o to my youngest boy 4 y.o. We were there for two consecutive days and watched six performances. When I was at my daughter's age, I watched this show a lot with my grandma. And now, I am glad I have the opportunity to introduce this unique China's cultural heritage show to my children.

Round and Sealed Sandwich

2013-06-03T01:00:00.000+08:00

My kids enjoy this round sandwich I made for them. It is so cute in shape and easy for little hand to hold. It is so nice that the edges of the bread are nicely sealed so the filling would not drop out. It is similar to the Chinese pao. The secret of making this bread is to press a glass on bread to sealed, please refer to mitong site.

Round & Sealed Sandwich

make about 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

Filing

1 potato (cooked and mashed)

1/2 Japanese cucumber (cut into small pieces)

2 hard boiled eggs (cut into small pieces)

1/2 cup corn niblets

1/2 cup mayonnaise

salt & pepper to taste

How to make filing: mix all the ingredient together

How to make Round & Sealed Sandwich

Method:

1. place 1/4 cup of filing on center of a toast

2. top it with another piece of toast

3. press a glass on bread to cut out and seal the edges

Watermelon Cake

2013-05-31T11:14:00.000+08:00

This is a 100% real watermelon, but decorated like a cake. When I saw this at i heart baking, I know I have to rush to the store TODAY to get one watermelon to surprise my family. This is so easy to prepare and the result was beautiful. I will make this again for the party table.

I use the disher style ice cream scoop to make the round watermelon balls.

Korea Trip: Food

2013-05-29T01:30:00.000+08:00

I am sharing some photos of the food we had during our recent Korea holiday. As some friends of mine asking whether we could adapt well to the local food in Korea. Well, yes we had kimchi almost every meal, but kimchi was just the side dish. Most of the time, we had rice together with seaweed soup, vegetables, tofu, and meat. Overall, we enjoyed the food. I especially love the Korean porridge. As for my kids, they just love the crispy seaweed sheets.

Pan fried vegetable with rice

Pan fried spicy rice cakes

side dishes: cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi, soybean sprouts, cooked spinach, black beans paste, etc

Ginseng steamboat

Porridge: pumpkin, mung bean, plain, abalone, red bean + mantou

crab + seafood steamboat

sweet pancake

my favourite coffee stop

Schneeballen snack - thumbs up from my family

love the cream puffs, so good!

as usual, table full of banchan (side dishes)

Amanda leaving a sticky note comment on wall of restaurant we had our dinner.
'Your food make my stomach strong'

Alphabet Pancake Fun

2013-05-27T02:00:00.000+08:00

We had something fun to do last Sunday. We made alphabet pancake for breakfast.

Best serve with honey or marble syrup with lots of laughter.

Alphabet Pancake

Ingredients:

1 cup Bisquick mix

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Directions:

1. mix all ingredients together

2. pour batter into a plastic squeeze bottle

3. squeeze batter onto a hot non-stick pan to form letters

4. cook until edges are dry, turn to cook another side until golden brown

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.