Strawberry Shortcake

The weather has been so warm that I am constantly drinking ice water and bath several times a day.  I would fill the shopping cart with loads of different fruits each time I go for my grocery shopping.  Fruits are sweet and always taste great when served cold.

I have been trying to pick up baking again and bought a few books on cakes and cookies.  Since there are plenty of fruits at home, cake recipes that incorprate fruits seem the most apt now.   For someone who have not baked for 20 over years, making a strawberry shortcake would be a difficult task to complete.  But I can't resist the juicy strawberries I have just bought.

Tried to follow strictly to the recipe I found online, I baked my very first strawberry shortcake and although the sponge cake didn't rise as high as it should be, it was a delicious cake to savour at home especially after it is chilled.

Mint leaves are harvested from my little pot :-)

Rachel K CC Cream

There has been a raving trend for BB (Blemish Balm) cream and there are so many different brands of BB cream that you can choose from nowadays.  Even I own 3 brands of BB cream.  They are lighter in texture, blend onto the face easily and control oil a little bit better than two-way cake.  BB cream was formulated to protect the skin of laser surgery patients in Germany.  You can google and get lots of reads on BB cream.

I also love to visit the pharma stores overseas especially in Australia and New Zealand as you can find many organic beauty products on the shelves.  I noted that that Watson and Guardian stores have now stocked many more different brands of beauty products from various parts of the world, including organic products from Austalia and New Zealand.  It also seems that Taiwanese and Korean products have made its way into these stores.  Our consumers have more options now and that is always a good thing.

Back to BB cream.  A new generation seems to have emerged and it is the CC Blemish Balm.  Rachel K Mineral CC cream has been retailed at various Watson stores for a few months now.  "CC" stands for "Colour Control".  CC cream aims to provide the properties of BB cream plus to give an even more effective skin coverage.  So, CC cream is:

• Less oily
• More whitening effect
• More brightening effect
• Better coverage
• No breakouts
• More moisturizing
• More long lasting
• Better stability

I bought a tube to try out the effect.  I have combination skin with a oily T-zone and visible open pores especially on the nose.  Here is my verdict of the CC cream.  It has a very light and smooth texture and it applies easily on my face with minimal effect for an even spread.  However, the coverge of the pores on the nose is just average.  After 3 hours, my T-zone becomes oily.  This cream does not control the sebum secretion as well as the other BB cream.



You can read more on Rachel K CC cream on this website Rachel K Cosmetics.

Pork Trotters Bee Hoon

My first taste of the fried bee hoon with pork trotters was at a pot-luck party.  Love it and I gather it would make a delightful weekend meal for the family.

Based on Sweetpea's recipe, I cooked this delicious fried bee hoon with pork trotters for the family as a Sunday lunch.  I briased the pork trotters in light & dark soy sauce with some garlic, cinnamon, star anise and sugar over mid-level heat for 3 hours.  Cool them and shred the pork trotters.  If this is all too much work, it can be substituted by the ready canned pork trotters or pork ribs.  Fried the bee hoon with cabbage and carrot, then add in the braised pork trotters.  Walla!  Savour the yummy Pork Trotters Bee Hoon :) and it goes very well with sambal belachan.

Sweet & Sour Fish

Home-cooked food will always be my choice over any fine dining, simply because it warms one's heart and stomach.

I don't cook as often as I should have and I resolute to do better this year.  An aspiring chef of the Yeo's home kitchen, making references to cook book and recipes from internet plus performing experiments in the kitchen are a joy.

Sweet & Sour Fish is a common dish you can order from a "zhi cha" stall.  I have not cooked this dish as it involves frying, a process I don't enjoy.  Since the aim is to cook more often and to prepare different dishes for the family, here is Sweetpea's Sweet & Sour Fish.

Such a great dish to have for the enjoyment of both adults and kids.  Goes very well with rice and it is filled with a variety of food nutrients with fish, cucumber, pineapple, onion and chilli.

Another Surprised Seedling?

Well, I didn't just place some pumpkin seeds in a pot, I must have placed some other seeds into the other pot next to it.  A seedling has spruced and I cannot recall the seeds that have been planted as the pot has been bare for a year.

Hmmmm....... this is how it looks......

Looks like I will have to wait for it to grow further to have a better idea what plant it is.  Wait! Maybe it is a seed I brought back from NZ.

A Surprised Seedling - Pumpkin

Having a flower garden and a vegetable farm next to my house has always been a dream I pursue.  I now stay in an apartment with no land space to grow any plants but this lack of soil area has not stopped me from growing herbs and flowering plants in pots.

I usually prepare pumpkin dish quarterly.  Would have loved to eat the sweet orange fruit more often if my Hubby fancy it more.  Recently I bought a japanese pumpkin from the supermarket.  Japanese pumpkin is lighter in colour than the local ones.  In fact, it is more golden in colour.  Every time when I prepare the pumpkin for cooking, I always find it a waste to discard the seeds and wish then I have a veg farm to grow them in.  I did this time round.  The seeds were washed and placed in a pot.  I was not expecting any seedlings since I didn't prepare the soil for its growth.  A week on and I was pleasantly surprised to see a seedling in the pot.

Although I am not hopeful that it will eventually grow and fruit since I have no soil land for it to creep around, I am just as thankful to see life taking place in this seedling.  It has brought so much joy to me just seeing it growing now. Will enjoy the moment. 

Tamagoyaki 卵焼き

Egg is one of the "must have" dishes on our dining table, and it can be cooked in so many different ways.  Fried omelette, steam egg, stir-fried egg with vegetables, egg flower in soup, sambal egg, hard-boiled egg, half-boiled egg......and the list goes on.  Tamagoyaki is one of my favourite egg dish from a Japanese menu.

Tamagoyaki 卵焼き is a type of japanese-styled "grilled" egg roll.  It is usually made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg, similar concept as the making of kueh lapis.  Using a rectangular omelette pan (makiyakinabe) will make the rolling of the layers o egg easier.

I made a simple dashi tamagoyaki (or dashimaki) with the following ingredients:

4 eggs
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp of dashi stock
1 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp sugar (you may skip this if you prefer it more savory)
Add other prefered ingredients (I added seaweed bits)

The cooking process is quite easy and since this is my first attempt in making it, I cooked the egg over low heat and exercised patience in the rolling process to avoid breaking the layer.  It took me about 10 min to make a dashi tamagoyaki.

Osmanthus Cake 桂花糕

One of my favourite things to do is to visit supermarkets and grocery shops locally and even when I am overseas.  I learn alot on the living and food culture of the local people just by browsing through the products on the shelves.  I usually end up bringing home a bag or two of stuff from these trips.  Sometime the purchases will include an unique product (that you usually do not find in supermarkets) and a product that I may have forgetten about its existence.

I recently bought a packet of Water Chestnut (马蹄) Flour.  This flour which is starchy in nature is usually not stocked by Cold Storage and NTUC Fairprice, but it should be available in bakery shop.  If you are staying in other countries (and not Singapore), you can get this from the Asian supermarket.  There are a few brands of water chestnut flour available.

This is one of those products that I have seen for many times but have never tried it.  Maybe I can make a Water Chestnut Cake for Chinese New Year, I thought to myself.  

I finally made the cake yesterday.  You will probably find it strange why did I title it "Osmanthus Cake" instead of "Water Chestnut Cake".   The cake that I finally made was "Osmanthus Cake" using the water chestnut flour I bought.

Osmanthus flowers (桂花)are fragrant and really smell like apricot to me, just more floral than fruity.  I have a bottle of osmanthus flowers that I used to make tea with and I figured I could make Osmanthus Cake instead since I love the fragrant smell.  You can get osmanthus from tea shops or chinese medical halls.  A teaspoon of osmanthus will give you a nice cup of tea.  It can also be used to make jelly and the golden yellow flowers add such a nice touch to the overall look of the jelly.

Here is the Osmanthus Cake (桂花糕) made at my first attempt!  Although the texture is not as smooth as it should be, the osmanthus cake turns out quite pretty and tastes yummy!

Online Shopping

Would like to recommend the following online store.  Happy browsing.


Sweetpea Yeo's Beauty & Home Accessories

Self-drive Holiday in Japan (Part 1)

Hubby loves to take overseas holiday trips every year.  He would make sure we go some places to spend time together and to appreciate the world better.  I always struggle with the thought of going overseas.  The process of convincing me that we both need to take some "timeout" and enjoy the world and finalising the places to visit has always been a tough task for Hubby.  No matter how difficult the process is, he never gives up and he will make sure we both take that trip even if he has to compromise on the choice of places.  I am glad Hubby has this dedication and effort, as without that, I will proabably not have such an enriching life.

December 2011. Hubby finally worked out the trip itineraries we would both embark on.  The trip was to Nagoya, Japan and we bravely decided we would do a self-drive up north from Nagoya and spend 2 weeks in Japan.  Self drive trips are not new to us.  We have given up the idea of tagging along tour groups as we always have to compromise on time and the places we really would like to visit.  Plus, the travels were tedious as we would spent sitting in a coach travelling on the road for many, many hours.  Just 3 years ago, we decided we will enjoy the holiday trips the way we want.  Self-drive trips is a very good option.  We have since taken such road trips in UK, Australia, New Zealand and now Japan.

The thought of holidaying in Japan was thrilling but the thought of driving in Japan was a little scary.  You see, Hubby said we will get GPS to help navigate around and if all fails, I can still practise speaking japanese to the locals.  Although I have learnt the language, it has since been 20 years in which I never have much opportunity to use it.  Despite my reluctance to be relied on to converse with the locals (stressful!), we decided to take the challenge as we both love to visit Japan again.  Not just for the scenaries and shopping, I truly admire the good-mannered culture there is in Japan.

To reduce the stress level I anticipated I will have to go thru, I convinced Hubby that we ought to finalise our road itineraries and to make accommodation arrangement prior to our travel.  We have taken self-drive trips without making prior arrangement for accommodations as we discovered the joy of searching and looking in at the plenty lovely B&B that are so available in Europe, Australia and NZ before deciding which are the ones we would love to spend the night in. BUT, to do that in Japan will be tough with my little spoken (and rotten) japanese and my little courage.  So, we planned, researched and finally made all the necessary acommodation arrangement.  We will be staying in a Ryoken with shared bathroom and toilet, and that sent a chill down my spine.  Why?  I am a freak for clean toilets and bathrooms!  I compromised so that Hubby can enjoy the holiday trip the way he wanted to. 

Hubby did a research and decided on the choice of car to be rented.  He said to me "Dear, the car we will be driving in Japan will be a very small car (unlike those we have driven in Europe).....rates are very high for rental cars in Japan." I frowned a little but well.....so Hubby proceeded with the online application on a car rental company's website.  After half an hour, I have an upset and grumpy Hubby.  The online application which he spent almost half an hour completing was rejected, and the reason for rejection was that he has forgotten to request for snow tires as December is winter time in Japan.  Haha!  Hubby didn't give up although he had wished that the japanese can be more flexible in the application system design.

Finally the day came and off we go.  We landed in Nagoya to pick up the rental car before heading up north to Takayama.  We hit our first challenge (!) - The counter service girl at the car rental company does not speak English.  After a series of briefing and me trying very hard to comprehend her explanation, we checked for the snow tires and the GPS that we have asked for and were ready to hit the road.  Not before too long, we met our second challenge.......

Finally!

The first time I actually spent time reading a blog article was when my dear friend had started posting up her thoughts on a blogsite.  I enjoyed it......very much, strangely.  She wrote very well, describing her views, thoughts and feelins very well.  Most importantly, I feel connected to her...even though she is staying quite a far distance from me.

Following that I actually read other blogs, by chance, when I googled for specific topics.  I got excited and felt the urge to create a blog for myself.  "Such a great way to share one's interests and thoughts, and be connected with people who share alike....." so I thought warmly to myself.  That was my thought 3 years ago.  I didn't pursue this interest.

It, however, continues to remain in my "Top 5" list of things to do whenever I manage to find some time on my own.  Each time, I would procrastinate, telling myself that there are other things more urgent that I have to do and certainly creating a blog for myself to share is not that critical.  Also, what would I want to blog about if I have one?  How should I start writing again when I have not done so for many years besides writing very formal corporate proposals?  Who.......?  So what if........?  The list of questions I have in my head went on and on.  So, it remains faithfully on my "Top 5" list to do.....yet again.

Today, I finally told myself to push ahead or I will never do so.....then maybe I should delete it from my "Top 5" list.  Top listing is meant for things that need to be done.

So, here it is.  Simple as the blog may look, it is an effort I put in for myself......finanlly convincing myself this is the time to act on it.

Welcome to the birth of Sweetpea Yeo's blog :)