Gifts + disappointment

Whats the worse thing to happen to a baker/cook?
When people dun appreciate the food they prepared so hard for.

I know I am not a professional baker. However, it jus means it takes more effort for me to make the things I do. I do noe when my end products aint good, I do appreciate criticism. But please dun throw my food away! Unless they turned out as a failure like the egg tarts, i will throw them out myself!

What am I whining about here?

Here's my story...

I have some canadian distant relatives that came over to singapore for a visit. There was supposed to be a farewell party for them later tonite. However, since I am leaving for holiday this evening, I will not be able to make it. As a gesture of goodwill, I decided to make some stuffs for them; caramel popcorn and coconut crunch cookies. I just thot since they had been staying in chalets, it will be nice to have some things to munch.


The coconut crunch! So pretty in the glass jar. This is usually well-liked by most. So this was not the cause of the my displeasurement here. HA!


My caramel corn. I made the whole 6 quarts batch this time round. My caramel did not turn out as good as the first and it was harder to heat them up in the oven since it was like a mountain of them. Therefore, there were soft ones among the whole batch.

Anyway, here the story goes...
My mum helped me bring those things over ydae night. Most of them were at some nearby jetty area for fishing. Left 3 adults and my own relatives. Some of popcorn was soft but still edible. Then my this auntie, wanted to be nice to bring some water to those at jetty area. There wasnt any container around so she eyed the big transparent container which held my popcorn!
You noe what she told my mum? Throw this (popcorn) away so i can bring water for them! WHAT THE HELL!! I spend an hour infront of the oven! And she jus wanna throw them out jus like that. Just because she dun eat them. Anyway, i made for the distant relatives and not her! So angry! What right does she have? How will she feel if i said i dun eat her stuffs and throw hers out? Grrr!! Lucky my mama stopped her. Hmphz!

Sorry... for my ranting...
My mum just told me the story at the wrong time when I m awake so early in the morning. Not in a very good mood!


Anyway, I will never let anyone throw my food away again! I will make a smaller batch of popcorn next time round so there will never be any soft ones.


Nicely packed popcorns for pple i love. PPle i noe who wun throw away my food!! :p

Honey caramel popcorn!

Been on a popcorn craze recently. Must be because movies is the only place to go these days. And popcorn is the best movie companion!
N browsing through the caramel corn post on 'the baker who cooks' blog tempts me to try it out on my own!!

I got my corn kernel ydae! Was so excited to work on it to realise i lack a crucial ingredient in makign caramel popcorn! COrn syrup! I really have no idea what corn syrup really is! This is why you shld always read yr recipe clearly and properly before setting out to do anything.

I really wanted to make some popcorn tonight so I kept searching for recipe! I was so glad to find a honey caramel pop corn recipe!!!!

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/popcornswe/popcornswe22.html

I am all geared to go!!!


The popped corn! I use 1/2 cup of corn kernels & 3 tablespoon of olive oil. By right, i shld get 4 quarts of popped corn! I really have no idea abt convertint quarts to normal measurement. Anyway, i got alot of corn ended up unpop so i reckon i had 3 quarts of pop corn. Jus nice for me to half the recipe!!! SMart eh!!


My caramel!!!!




Mixing the popcorn with the caramel mixture.


Gotta bake in the oven for an hour!!! Sooo Long to enjoy my corn!


The delicious yummy end product!!


No regrets except that cleaning up sux big time!!!! hard to wash sticky gluey caramel off the pans!!!!


Honey Caramel Corn recipe
6 quarts popcorn (popped)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 can peanuts (optional)

Bring to boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes, the sugar, butter, honey and salt. Then add vanilla extract and baking soda. Put popcorn into a large pan sprayed with cooking spray. Pour mixture onto popcorn and stir. Add peanuts, if desired.

Bake at 250 degrees F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on wax paper to cool.

Egg TartS! Major failure!

I tried baking egg tarts! Something different for a change. But it came out as an ultimate failure!! I mean the steps were pretty easy. Make pastry. Make custard. Line pastry in the tart case. Pour in custard. Bake! How hard is that?!!

I guess is the pastry part that fails me. The tart case were too small and soft. The pastry itself was too springy. It was so hard to shape the pastry into a tart in the tart case. The tart case became out of shape. I got pretty fed up after that.

it was not the worse thing. The worse thing to find out that my pastry was bubbling in oil in the oven. It looked like i was deep drying my tarts.

Wat a disappointment! 1 consolation was the custard part tasted rather ok. THe pastry felt like biscuit too. bleahz!

Feel so down and dissatisfied!!


Got the recipe from my mum's cookbook. LOoks nice and decent, dun u think?


Before getting my hands dirtee...


Rubbed in the butter.


After adding egg yolk & cold water


The custard mixture!!


bubbling oil!! What a scary sight!!!


The look of it breaks my heart...


Kinda look like portugese egg tart...

Chocolate chunk cupcakeS!

Starting to feel really lazy these days! Been avoiding to go out so as to restrain myself from spending!

Decided to bake some cupcakes today instead of idling my day away. I sorta half the recipe so that I dun get an overload of cupcakes. Also, I did not want to finish my whole bar of baking chocolate i jus bought. Rationing! :). Although I kinda regret it, the cakes will be yummier with more chocolate!!

Got the recipe from Matha Stewart's webbie. Happen to caught her shows in the afternoon and decide that I should check out her webbie.

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/
menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=8034f9d49f90f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=also_try_p1

Photos photos photos...












Cupcakes cups my dear fwen yx got for me!! :)


Oppz! its too brown! My cups were much smaller. Already lessen the timing by 2 mins but still..shld never play comp while baking


Eating time!!!






too little chocolate chunks!


On the right is the second batch! See the colour difference! I did it 4 mins lesser~~


Yummy.. but kinda oily~ the cups are kinda greasy!

Okie! Time to pack the cupcakes and get something else done!!!!

Japanese snacks!

Little natalie hooked me to these little yummy chocolate mushrooms when she offered me the first! It was yummy!! yummy!!

I have always seen this snack around but never thought much of trying it. I never knew it was this yummy!

I have then been searching for this snack since sat! I used to see it everywhere but now I wanna buy, i cannot find it anywhere!!



N guess what i found when i was at the supermarket! Gyoza & beef flavoured chips!! I read a review in the newspaper or magazine abt these chips! I heard it really taste like gyoza! I cant wait to taste it!!



I shld really control spending and my snacking! :P

Simpson-ise yrself!

I have not been baking over a week!! Haha! Taking a break! Been busy with my new comp!

Its alright! I am still jobless. Loads of time to bake still!

Chance upon this when i was browsing through a forum! So cute! You guys shld try it too! I wanna catch simpsons! But BC thinks it aint worth the marnee! Hopefully, some1 else will wanna watch it with me!
http://simpsonizeme.com

Does it look like me? hehe!

Japanese origami

Brought my mum to waraku at siglap road.

Met the nicest waitress or restaurent manager. She saw that we have a problem placing our chopsticks when she was clearing our plate. She started doing origami with the paper covering the chopsticks to make a chopstick stand.

She was quick with her fingers and she was really sweet. Good service!

Island Creamery

Went to island creamery with my family last weekend! I have always wanted to try this place out for the longest time!

They have local flavour ice cream and the price is really reasonable!!

Horlicks flavoured ice cream was like a hot favourite among my relatives. Top it up with either milo or horlicks powder made it even more sinful.

I like the ambience of the place. The walls are lined with countless photos of their customers enjoying their ice cream. I even found a photo of "JJ Lin". I like the way they provide free photo prints for thier customers. Its such a personal touch. Give such warmth.




Everyone having a bite of the mud pie


My teh terik ice cream~

G's dish of abalone vegetable

After watching the HK drama "House of Greed", all of us have a slight craving for abalone! G's mum decided to open a can of abanlone one night and got G to prepare it. G had previously prepared a dish of stewed mushroom that have a similar flavour to those restaurent prepared abalone sauce.

He is just so much better when it comes to cooking. He has the skills, the courage to try and the creativity.

Look at his pretty dish. Pity the abalone was too chewy for my liking. Love the mushrooms and the sauce.

Oat & Raisin cookies!

I decided to go for healthier cookies and looked for oat & raisin cookies recipe. N who has the best oats?? Quaker oats. Actually, this is only the brand of oats i ate since young. haha!

http://www.quakeroats.com/qfb_Recipes/recipe.cfm?recipeid=454

ANyway, felt really low morale at home today. It was one of those days when you dunno what to do with your life and where u r heading to. I was hoping will cheer me up. I did it in a slow and relaxed mode.

Had more fun taking pics of it hees.

Some random pic before starting. The apple was taken to remind me to have my "apple a day". Lame.


Sugar!


My wonder mama! Who have almst everything in her fridge and so organised!! Mummy is wonderful!


Flour and spices!!


Creamed mixture


Adding the combined flour.


Oats!!


Raisins!!!


into the oven we go!


Cookie cookie!!


Into mandy's mouth i go!!

Jellyhearts - I heart it!

Made jellyhearts again! Was so tempted after seeing pics of yx' jellyhearts! N i had promised TH jie that I will make some for her. It was quite funny for when I was about to head to her house to deliver jellyhearts. She smsed me when can i make jellyhearts in little cups for her. I guess she got tempted after seeing yx's pic too.

Some pics to share:


Mum taught me an easier to cut hearts out of strawberries. She said the strawberries i displayed previously was really ugly. However, i still did not managed to cut it out as nice as hers. Hers really looked like a heart.


Looking so pretty and yummy in the little containers.


My own personal container to pig out! bigger container for me!!

I am glad THjie was surprised and love the jellyhearts. zi & wing came over n visit me today and i offered them jellyhearts. They kinda enjoyed it too. :)