Bridal Shower Cake

Here's the other cake I had to make. This didn't turn out as I had hoped. I did try a different design. My options for the picture for a three tiered cake, wedding bells, an umbrella, champagne glasses or a wedding dress. Humm... I'm thinking I should have gone for the wedding dress. Oh well, maybe next time. Any suggestions? The cake is a butter pecan flavour with Wilton's classic butter cream icing with pink royal icing flowers. Nothing much to add to this pretty picture except that I do enjoy decorating cakes. If I had more time, I would try more complicated designs. I enjoy working with fondant but it is so expensive to buy and I still haven't found a good fondant recipe that uses easy to find ingredients.

Baby Shower Cake

This is the first baby shower cake I've made and I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I would have added a little baby's face but due to the lack of time and also I had to make another shower cake that I will post tomorrow.

For some reason, my icing didn't turn out the way I like. There seemed to be alot of air bubbles. Might have been due to the fast whipping of the icing toward the end of the mixing. For this cake, I made a rainbow bits cake. I used to love eating this cake but now, I'm more into the golden cakes and of course the chocolate cakes. Humm... that makes me think of the carrot cake I used to make. I just might have to make that some time soon. The cake is iced with Wilton's classic butter cream icing and the blue morning glory flowers are made of royal icing.

Chocolate Iced Orange cake

Baking again! Every time I bake, I am not quite sure what will turn out. I made this for our bible study group as it was our turn to host. It had great reviews! When I want an easy cake, I usually use a cake mix. But ofcourse, I cannot just leave it as it is. I like to spiff it up a little to make it more unique and perhaps homemade like? So, I used an orange...
cake mix from Duncan Heinz. Here's a great tip if you want a nicely leveled cake. I have noticed that many cake mixes tend to errupt in the middle when it cooks. So I usually sift the whole mix before adding the wet ingredients. This always helps to balance out the baking powder and evenly spread throughout the cake well. Normally I add orange juice instead of milk or water. But I didn't have any at hand. Another good tip to keep the cake level even is to bake the cake at a slightly lower temperature and bake for a longer time. Once it was cool, I divided it into two and brushed it with a light orange syrup made with orange marmalade or sometimes I use Grand Marnier. Just a tablespoon will do. Then I used a chocolate butter icing for the filling and to ice the whole cake. I had strawberried at hand and used it to make the cake pretty. Next time instead of cutting the strawberries into half and decorating it, I will use the strawberries whole. I found that putting the inside of a halved strawberry on the icing, made the strawberry start to screte its moisture. Next time, chocolate dipped strawberries would be even better for decorating.

Ginger Lime Chicken: Low Calorie

I haven't made this recipe for a while now eventhough I knew it is easy and tasty. This recipe has very few ingredients .

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter, 4 skinless chicken breasts - sliced, salt and peppered, juice of 1 lime, 2 tbsp liquid honey, 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (read on for ginger tip) and 4 green onions thinly sliced.

Directions:
Melt butter in a large pan, preferably a non-stick pan over med-high heat. When bubbly, add chicken and cook till golden brown. Meanwhile, combine lime juice, honey and ginger into a small bowl and mix well. When chicken is golden brown, pour honey mixture over top. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add green onions and stir well. Serve immediately with jasmine rice and steamed yau choy or also great with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans or broccoli. Its that simple and fast! You can make an asian meal or a western meal with it.

Tip: You can keep fresh ginger in your freezer and just slice or grate to use in your cooking. You might like to skin the ginger root before you freeze it. To skin a ginger root without much waste, use a small spoon to scrape the skin off. It works better than using a knife. Not sure why but it works well.

Crab Cakes & Salad with Asiago cheese

This was a cheat lunch since I bought those crab cakes from Costco. I love crab cakes but can't be bothered to make them myself. I guess I could try making it with crab meat that has been shelled already instead of doing it myself. Yummy as these are, the feature for today's post is Asiago cheese. Also purchased from Costco! Of course it is sold in bulk so it was alot of cheese. Not only is this a delicious cheese on salads and sandwiches but great as is with a glass of full bodied red wine. There's just something about the two that make them a perfect pairring.

Wikipedia explains Asiago cheese as an Italian cheese that according to the different aging can assume different textures, from smooth for the fresh Asiago cheese( Asiago Pressato) to a crumbly texture for the aged cheese (Asiago d'allevo) whose flavor is reminiscent of sharp cheddar and parmesan. The aged cheese is often grated in salads, soups, pastas, and sauces while the fresh Asiago cheese is sliced to prepare panini, sandwiches, or molten on a variety of dishes. It is often treated as interchangable with the parmesan and romano cheeses, as they are with each other.

The only "official" Asiago cheese is produced in the alpine area of the town of Asiago, province of Vicenza, in the Veneto region, and now is also made in the Alpine region of Trentino, which has become part of the DOP area for Asiago cheese production. Most asiago cheese in the world, however, is made somewhere else using techniques and cultures that produce a cheese of the same or similar flavor.

Spicy Chicken and Basil Stir-Fry

Aromatic basil, sometimes called Italian basil, is fundamental to Mediterranean cooking. But on the other side of the world, in Thailand, another basil variety is equally essential. For a more authentic version of this dish, seek out Thai basil, which has smaller, narrower leaves than the common Italian variety, a reddish purple cast and a more pronounced anise flavor. Look for it in Southeast Asian stores or at farmers' markets, or plant seeds outdoors in pots or beds for easy harvests.
This recipe is a current favourite of Renovation Man and I. It has a very appetizing flavour and just the right amount of spice for us. I have tried this recipe with just dried basil and it works just as well though when using fresh basil, especially Thai Basil, it gives a lovely Thai taste to it. I highly recommend it.

6 Tbs. chicken stock2 Tbs. Asian fish sauce2 tsp. firmly packed light brown sugar1/2 tsp. cornstarch2 Tbs. vegetable oil1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch strips1 or 2 Thai or jalapeño chilies, cut into very thin rounds2 garlic cloves, minced4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into thin strips3/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai basil3 green onions, cut into 3-inch pieces

Cooked jasmine rice for serving. In a bowl, whisk together the stock, fish sauce and brown sugar. Add the cornstarch and whisk until the cornstarch and sugar are dissolved. Set aside. In a large wok or fry pan over high heat, warm the oil. Add the bell pepper and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add chilies to taste and the garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink, about 2 1/2 minutes. Stir in the basil and green onions and stir-fry until the onions are barely wilted, about 1 minute. Whisk the sauce mixture and pour into the pan. Cook just until the liquid comes to a boil. Spoon the rice onto individual plates and top with the stir-fry and sauce. Serves 4.

Photo and recipe taken from http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=2A9C9595%2D0013%2D4661%2DBE339830267F9798

Special requests! Indian food

My good friends Chocolate Girl and Living Sword left for Berlin for vacation a few days ago. I wasn't expecting to hear from them, let alone so soon after their departure. It was a short email requesting for some recipes! Of course I couldn't help but to take this opportunity to add another post to my food blog. Here's a recipe for Tandoori Chicken.
6 chicken thighs, 1/4 c lemon juice,1/2 small onion chopped, 4 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger, 3 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tbsp lemon juice(extra), 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp paprika, pinch of chilli powder or to taste, 1 c yoghurt, red food colouring (optional)

Directions:1. Remove the skin from chicken and brush with lemon juice. Cover and let marinade in refridgerator for 30 mins.
2. Process onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, extra lemon juice and salt in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed. Combine this paste with the paprika, chilli powder and yoghurt and mix together until smooth. Add enough drops of food colouring to make the mixture a deep red colour.
3. Place the chicken pieces in a large shallow dish and spread liberally with the spicy yoghurt mixture. Cover in plastic wrap and refridgerate. Marinate chicken for at least 4 hours or over night.
4. Preheat oven to 180C or 350F. Place chicken pieces on a wire rack over a large baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until chicken pieces are tender and cooked through.

Well, Chocolate Girl, as for an easy curry dish I found this recipe that I have not tried myself but reads and looks good. When I make a curry, I usually make it the way my mum makes it. It is really easy but you must have good quality curry powder mix. If you have access to some, I'll give you that recipe. If not, here's the one I found in one of my favourite cook books. Red Chicken Curry.
2 tbsp ghee or butter, 2 medium onions sliced, 1 medium red bell pepper chopped, 4 colves garlic crushed, 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground corriander, 2 tsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp hot chilli powder, 1 tbsp tomato paste, 425 g can tomatoes, 1kg chicken thigh fillets, 2 c chicken stock, 1/4 c cream or coconut milk, 1 tbsp concentrated tamarind.

Directions: 1. Heat ghee in a large pan, add onions, bell pepper, garlic, ginger and ground spices. Cook till onions are browned lightly.
2. Add paste, undrained crushed tomatoes, chicken and stock, simmer covered about 20 mins or until chicken is cooked through.
3. Stir in cream or coconut milk and tamarind. Simmer uncovered about 15 mins or until mixture has thickened slightly. Serves 4-6.

Sesamee Beef Stirfry

Simple, easy and tasty. In 30 minutes or less! Of course this is best served with freshly cooked Jasmine rice. So to start, get your rice started in your rice cooker or pot. Then, thinly slice a 10-12 oz of your steak choice. I used top sirloin but this would work well with a lower grade cut so long as you slice it across the grain. Marinade this in about 4-6 tbsp of soya sauce,1-2 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp sesamee oil, 2 tbsp of roasted sesamee and 1 tbsp of sugar. Marinade well and lastly add 1-2 tsp of corn flour to the beef. Set this aside and wash a good portion of yau choy or bak choy. Cut the veg into 2 inch lenghts. Next heat your wok or non-stick pan to high with 2 tbsp canola/ corn or peanut oil. Add in 1 clove of minced garlic. When lightly golden, add marinated beef. Stirfry till meat is separated but not throughly cooked. Then add veggies and cook till just tender. Add a little water, stir till well mixed and then turn off heat. Serve hot with steamed rice. Its nice to toss a little more roasted sesamee on the beef before serving.

Mini Flower Cup Cakes

Don't these look cute? I just love how they look and they taste pretty good too! Pre-mixed cakes are easy and convenient but I find that it always taste better when you spruce it up with something else. In this case, I like to brush my cakes with Grand Marnier or Kahlua or Cream Sherry before giving them a dusting of icing sugar or a coat of butter icing. Then to make them pretty, my favourite way is to use royal icing flowers that I made myself earlier. These royal icing flowers are hard and can keep for a very long time. If I'm out of these, I'll just pump flowers out of butter icing. Here are what my cup cakes looked like before they got decorated.

Baking- its been a while

Its seems like its been forever since I last baked. If I recall correctly, the last time was when I made a birthday cake for a collegue's little girl. She is such a cutie. A blondie with beautiful curls so I made her a doll cake according to her specifications. She wanted a white cake with white icing for her dress with pink, yellow and purple flowers. I always enjoy making doll cakes. They aren't too difficult and the results are wonderful.

Feeling a little under the weather tonight, I needed a little pick me up and this is when I usually like to bake. So I made cup cakes of 2 sizes. They are cooling and awaiting icing tomorrow.

Green Curry Chicken

So how would you say this? Green curry chicken , green chicken curry or chicken green curry? I love making this when my hunny is out of town. One reason is because he doesn't appreciate the taste of the coconut milk with the blend of spices in a green curry. Another reason is that I get to have this all to myself! *grin* Those of you who think this is difficult, its actually very very easy. I use the cheat method! Just buy green curry paste from your oriental grocer or look in the asian isle of your local supermarket. Thai food has become so popular now that it is easy to get most of the ingredients for it.

Most of these instant pastes come with instructions like this one that I used. All you need is 400g chicken, sliced or cubed, 400ml coconut milk and you can add baby aubergine or in my dish, since I do not like aubergine, I used cauliflower and red pepper and Thai basil to garnish. If I remember correctly, you will need to heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pot, add the paste and fry till fragrant (about 1 min). Next add chicken and stirr till well coated and cook till most of the pink is gone. Then add coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Next add vegetables of your choice (zucchini is also a good substitute for aubergine). Cook till desired tenderness . Add 1-2 tbsp of fish sauce if desired but I highly recommend this. Serve with Thai fragrant rice or noodles (pasta would work well too) and garnish with basil.

Tom Yum Soup

This is a well popularised Thai soup. Coming from Malaysia, I do so enjoy a good Tom Yum soup. But eating out in Vancouver isn't always the most convenient or pocket friendly. Tom Yum refers to spicy fish or seafood soup. But it can also be chicken or other meats, too. It is generally hot and sour. A real hot Tom Yum should draw your sweat and tears.
4 cups water, 3 kaffir lime leaves, 1 lemon grass
1 cup shrimp, 5 mushrooms, 8 pieces okra
1-2 limes, 2 tablespoon fish sauce, 3 chili peppers
5 sprigs cilantro, 1 tablespoon Tom Yum paste

Start boiling the water in a 2 quart pot. Peel and devein the shrimp and set them aside. Cut lemon grass into pieces, 5-6 inches long. Use the back of your knife to pound the lemon grass, just to bruise it to release the flavor. If you want, you can tie the lemon grass into a knot to make it easier to manage. Drop the lemon grass in water and let boil for 5 minutes. Put the fish sauce and 1 lime's juice into the bottom of the bowls you will serve the soup in. Crush chili pepper and add to the bowl. Remove the stems from the kaffir lime leaves and add the leafy part to the pot. Add the tom yum paste. Clean and halve the mushrooms and okra and add them to the pot. Add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Shrimp gets too tough very quickly, and will cook even when it is just sitting in the warm broth. Scoop the shrimp and liquid into the serving bowls immediately. As soon as you add the liquid to the serving bowl, you will see that the broth becomes cloudy because of the lime juice. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve. Be very careful, the peppers can be hot. Take a small sip at a time. Add more fish sauce and/or lime juice if it tastes bland. It's right if it's good for your sinus.

Tips and substitutions: Unfortunately, for the true taste, it is difficult to substitute anything for the kaffir lime leaves. The richness of the sour taste comes from the complement of the different citrus flavored ingredients. I serve this soup directly into individual bowls for each person. If you don't like it hot, cut down on the chili peppers or do not cut them up, but leave them whole for decoration.

Chicken Alfredo

I've been craving something creamy and I instantly thought about Spaghetti Carbonara. But those of you who know how it is made would know it is full of fat! All that bacon and heavy cream, tasty as they are, I thought I'd better make something a little healthier.

Chicken Alfredo isn't too much better but I used half and half instead of heavy cream. Start with boiling water and cooking your pasta. As always, I sauteed a little bit of minced garlic in some evoo. Then I added left over roast chicken from the local deli and strips of back bacon. Then the half and half plus frozen peas. Let this simmer for a few minutes to reduce the sauce. Add some parmesan cheese to the sauce to thicken and add flavour. When your pasta is ready, drain well and add to the sauce and toss till coated with the sauce. Serve immediately with more parmesan cheese and or freshly ground black pepper. It helped curb the craving for now. Hopefully this will carry me till October since I only try to make Speghetti Carbonara for Reno Man's birthday. It is a favourite of his.

Zerelli's Mediterranean Market

A lovely day for a walk to Elgin Corners and a visit to Zerelli's Mediterranean Market to get freshly baked bread for lunch. The market is quite large for a little neighbourhood mall. Its filled with lots of goodies from greek salads, assortment of cheeses and meats to sweet treats to olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The bread featured here is foccacia. Made fresh everyday. Aside from bread, we also bought some very nice and lean capicolo and a piece of baklava.
I was starving and quickly slapped these sandwiches together and put them in a make shift panini press. I used a regular non-stick pan on the heat, put the sandwiches on that pan and used a cast iron pan to press the sandwich.
One sandwich had roast beef with jalapeno Havarti and organice greens. The other had capicolo, goat cheese and organic greens.
Both turned out pretty yummy. Perhaps next time I might not turn the heat on so high as to not scorch the bread.

Vroom.. Vroom...VROOOOOOOOOM!

This is not a food article! I could not resist but I had to write about our fabulous, heart pounding, adrenaline racing day Renovation Man and I had yesterday afternoon. For whatever reason, Reno Man got a call from Jaguar, BC to invite him and a friend to come test drive either the Range Rover or the Jaguar. I was thinking, oh well, just going out for a car ride. I almost didn't make it because we were expecting a delivery at home but our awsome God had a plan! And oh boy! what an exciting fun filled blessing it was for my hunny and I.

Does this picture above look like a snippet from a James Bond movie or a day in the life of the rich and famous? Well, this was very much like the afternoon we had, minus the fancy hair, dress and heels! We arrived at Boundry Bay airport to a huge white tent. Our car was valet parked and we were ushered into the VIP tent that was filled with the latest cars from Land Rover and Jaguar, food and drink. They even had a barrista on hand with some espresso coffee from BOSA foods. Another plus for us since we love espresso.

It wasn't long before we were driven in a Range Rover Sport to a off-roading terrain to experience the car's full capabilities. I can only describe it as a slow motion roller coaster ride. It was exciting and amazing to see what this car could do. At some point it felt like we were going to roll over because we were tilted so far off to the right and we were climbing and descending such steep hills one might think we would loose control, but the car was in its prime element and did nothing but impress us with its capabilities. This was impressive but nothing compared to what we experienced next.

We got to test drive the Jaguar XKR Coupe (left)and Convertible (first image above) out on the main roads. Then on a short circuit track. We had a professional race car driver take Reno Man out first on the track and then Reno Man (actually I think I should give him another name after yesterday) took me out for a spin on the track. Oh my! I kid you not. My heart was thumping so fast and my adrenaline was just racing when we made our first stop. I could not believe what this car was capable of. But there's more! Before I could even catch a breath, our instructor told Reno Man to shift it into sport gear which would give it an even better handling and more speed. O Ho! I think I must have been on the verge of being sick when we got back the second time. I had no idea I married a sports car driver in the hiding! Not only was I impressed by the car but my hunny's slick ability to manouver this car at lightning speed through the red cones that was set up, without coming close to any of them! WOW!!! It felt very much like being one of Bond's special girls. I almost didn't recognise this tall and good looking, shade clad speed monster.

I too managed to test drive the XKR Convertible. Nothing like the speeds my hunny got to but it was sure a sweet ride. Even after that, it took me at least a good half hour before my heart and adrenaline came back to somewhat of a normal state. Even then, I still couldn't get over what we had experienced. What a great opportunity and experience. We are still running on a 'high' from yesterday's event. Check out the interior of the XKR Jag.

My kind of comfort food!

It certainly seems that as I keep making posts, that alot of the time, I am just trying to make really fast no hassel food. Tonight was another one of those nights. I resorted to feeding Renovation Man left over spaghetti meatballs and making instant pho' noodles with beef balls for myself. Its not something my hunny likes but certainly hit the spot for me. Throw in a handful of leafy veg and some hoisin and Vietnamese chilli sauce for dipping and I'm a happy gal! There's just something about a steaming hot bowl of noodle soup that just reminds me of my Oriental heritage. Add this to a great Survivor episode and a glass of coke just made my evening. I guess I've mentioned how satisfied I was already.

BBQ Chicken & Mixed Veg

Very simple but healthy lunch. This time I grilled the chicken we got from Costco and didn't burn it. I used, cauliflower, broccoli, red pepper, mushrooms, carrots for my stirfry with a healthy dolop of minced garlic and evoo(extra virgin olive oil). Yum. No seasoning necessary. So far I have posted our meals. I wonder what other home menus are out there. I would love to hear from anyone out there! BTW, anyone interested in attending EAT-VANCOUVER, the food festival with me?

Spaghetti Meatballs

I am certainly finding that I am not very inspired to do anything fancy on the days I work. So last night, I got my hunny to get dinner together. It was really very good though none of my pictures turned out. That's from trying to take macro pictures with my phone that has only 1.3 MB capacity. He made us a lovely tomato and red onion salad marinated in balsamic vinegar and extra vergin olive oil then topped with crumbled goat cheese served with freshly baked bread. Yum! Its one of our favourite salads. Renovation man also grilled 2 pre-marinated ...chicken breasts from Costco which was very tasty. He actually enjoyed making dinner this time. I think this was so because everything was very tasty. Hopefully this will inspire him to cook more often eh?

Today's lunch was spaghetti meatballs with brown mushrooms. Surprisingly enough, it turned out tastier than I was anticipating. The only difference that might have changed the taste was the addition of a packet of beef stock from OXO. It just seemed to bring out the meaty flavours in the sauce. I could have had this with just the sauce and pasta.

Asian Concoction

Here's one of my own recipes. I often throw a few ingredients together and hope for the best! I used something that is unusual to North America but more common in ... Oriental cooking. I marinated a pork tenderloin that I cut into thin strips with soya sauce, Chinese cooking wine, sesamee oil, a little sugar and 2 tsp of cornflour. I sauteed some minced garlic till golden in some canola oil and added the pork. I cooked it till is was nicely browned. Then I added chopped yau choy and stir till wilted. Then I added preserved green mustard stem in chili oil that have been cut into strips and oil removed. Here's what the preserved green mustard stem in chili oil looks like in a bottle. Then I threw in about 500g of Hokkein noodles. I tossed it till well mixed and heated through. Then I added a little more Chinese cooking wine and soya sauce to taste. Serve hot with sliced chili. My hunny, Renovation Man thought this was a good flavour combo.

Eat-Vancouver!

Its the everything food and cooking festival. It looks and sounds really good to a foodie like me. I have not been to one here but if I can find someone to go with me, I'll be there! Check out their website at http://www.eat-vancouver.com/

West Restaurant, Vancouver, BC

WOW! My hunny and I went to this restaurant last night and it was fabulous! We even managed to sit at the chef's table. Its a booth that is close to the kitchen where you can see all the action first hand. It was certainly like ... watching an episode of Hell's kitchen (with out the swearing) or Top Chef or Iron Chef. The restaurant was running like a well oiled machine. The food was fantastic! Probably one of the best meals I have ever had. The service was impecable. Check out their website at http://www.westrestaurant.com/

This was a special occasion for us celebrating the day we got registered for marriage in Malaysia. Its been 4 years and also 4 years since I moved to BC, Canada.

We ordered a bottle of red wine, first courses were seared Quebec foie gras with candied grapes, honeycombed wine and lime syrup (I love foie gras) and my hunny had the spotted prawns(photo on right). Both were excellent. Then for the main, I had the organic Peking duck 2 ways with seared foie gras, carmelized endive and apricot jus(photo on left below) and hunny had Alberta prime beef with a warm salad of wild mushrooms, horseradish chantilly and red wine jellies. Again, just wonderful tasting dishes. I didn't manage to get very good pictures with each dish so I'm just showing the ones I got best.

Then ofcourse we must have dessert. My hunny being a great fan of green tea ice cream had that and I had the chocolate tasting menu. Ah! Chocolate girl would have been envious. Each bit oozed of a version of chocolate. The flat piece of chocolate dessert is a chocolate torte with candied almonds. The middle is a chocolate espresso cake with Bailey's ice cream. The combination was just spectacular. And the little cup is Manjari chocolate cappucino with mocha espuma. I finished it off with a glass of Quail's Gate late harvest Reisling. They weren't stingy with the serving of this either! This was the icing on the cake! Oh! what an evening. We were totally satisfied. A high quality restaurant definately to be recommended, a place we will visit again.

Chinese Style Fried Rice

I must be getting lazy. I make this when I have leftover rice in the refridgerator and am not in the mood to make anything fancy or creative. The most creative part of this meal was the simply carved flower tomato and the new plate this was served on. First thing I did was to dice up ...
1 cup of carrots which I sauteed in a large wok with
2 tbsp of canola oil and
2 cloves of minced garlic. Then I added in
1 cup of frozen peas (thawed and drained). For some spice or kick as Chocolate Girl would say, add
1-2 minced bird's eye chilies. Next add
2 cups of left over refridgerated rice (leftover plain white rice from Chinese take out works very well for this too). Stir out all the large clumps of rice. Next, scramble
3 eggs seasoned with a little salt and ground white pepper. Push rice to the sides of the wok and pour in eggs. Let it cook for a few minutes before turning the eggs and folding the rice into the eggs. Stir fry till eggs are cooked. Next add
10 medium prawns or diced ham in the middle of the wok and cook till half done before stirring in the rice. Next add
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tsp sesamee oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp powdered vegetable stock(optional). This would give the rice a little more flavour. Garnish with sliced tomatoes and cucumber or shredded lettuce. Of course there are many variations that you can make fried rice. This is just one of them. You can use diced chicken, rost pork, minced beef instead of prawns or ham. To change the flavour, try adding some sambal or some curry powder or even use some tom yum paste.

Potstickers with Korean Rice Cakes

Here's another one of my fast meals. It was 2:30pm by the time I got home for art class. I was going to have just an instant cup noodle but because my hunny was home and also hadnt eaten, I decided to make up something quick. I used ...
10 frozen potstickers from Costco that I pan fried with a little canola oil just till the pastry is a little crisp. These potstickers are often a life saver when I am in a time crunch to get a meal on the table. I have used them is stirfries and soups. Quite versatile.Then I add
1-2 cloves of chopped garlic to the pan and
1/2 a bag of frozen Korean rice cakes (you may have to pre-boil these first depending on the brand you get). Stif fry for 2-3 mins then add
1/2 tbsp sambal
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce. Stir till mixed well. Then add
1/4 cup water and
enough Bak Choy to compliment the dish. Stir till combined and cover with a lid to cook the vegetables. When vegetables are tender, this dish is ready to be served.

Char Siew Meen

I finally found some time to cook again this week. This is meal is a variation of a traditional hawker stlye noodle found in Malaysia. I used ...
1 portion of fresh shrimp egg noodle (you could probably get this from an oriental grocer)
1 portion of Chinese BBQ pork sliced
1 handful of cut and washed Bak Choy

Bring to boil a pot of water. When boiling, add bak choy and cook till prefered tenderness. Remove and set aside. In the same pot of water, cook the needles till prefered tenderness. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce for the noodles. Mix together,

1 tbsp of cooked onion oil (you can do this yourself by cooking thinly sliced shallots in oil. when the onions turn golden , remove from oil and use it as garnish.)
1 tbsp of think sweet soya sauce
1/2 tbsp of regular soya sauce
1 tsp of fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

When noodles are cooked, drain well and addd to the sauce and toss till evenly coated. Plate as seen in the photo above with bak choy and sliced BBQ pork and golden fried shallots. This recipe serves one. Do try it if you are adventureous. Let me know if you have any questions. Sure was yummy to me! Pity my hunny wasn't here to enjoy it with me. This is something I would love to serve my very good friends Chocolate girl and LivingSword.

Check out livingsword's website at http://www.lifeontheblade.blogspot.com/