Burnt and Alive

Hi foodies! I am in Malaysia right now enjoying the sun a bit tooooooooooooo much. I am burnt and have turn a shade darker amidst the peeling skin. Ugh. I look every bit as awful as a snake shedding it's skin, a red snake for that matter.

Anyway, I just want to say that I am still alive. I haven't been able to post much food pictures/recipes/escapades because of the inconvenience of the extremely slow internet connection here. It's not a new thing that Internet in Malaysia sux even tho they give unlimited bandwidth.

I will try, try, try to post up new food recipes soon. I am very keen on the reunion dinner. My mom is making some of the most traditional Nyonya cuisine for us and rest assured, I will be helping her cook, eat and snap pictures. I think one of the things on the menu is Nyonya's Nasi Ulam ...or how should i put it...hmm...nothing comes into mind better than this translation: Nyonya Rice Salad :D It's full of herbs and spices and it's the perfect accompaniment to curries and sambal. *drooools* Alrighty, I will post soon *crosses fingers*

Have a Happy Chinese New Year if you're Chinese and have a good week!

xoxox

The Blueberry Pancake post

Since I was a little girl, I've always been fascinated by the pancakes in American commercials/movies. They were always so perfect and fluffy. My attempts on making pancakes as a child were rather insipid because they always turn out flat and thin. But I have since discovered that I was making crepes instead of pancakes; crepes post for another time..:)

But as time passes by and after eating proper pancakes that looked like the ones I saw on TV I began to mix up my own batches of batter until I came to a perfect concoction without measurements. If that made any sense.

I measured with my senses for the perfect batter, knowing when to stop adding the flour by instincts....but fret not, dear readers (and Elsie) for I have come up with a good measurement this time for a no fail pancake recipe. Blueberries are my addition of choice but you can make this plain to eat with just butter and syrup if you want.

The perfect pancake batter bettered with blueberries starts with,
the perfect pancake batter:
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of corn flour (cornstarch)
1 tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of milk

Optional: blueberries (but do try raisins and bananas, they are out of this world)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together with a whisk or a fork. Mix until you're sure that everything is combined properly.
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add milk and eggs. Slowly mix until you have a smooth and thick batter. Batter should be as thick as sweetened condensed milk from the can.
3. Heat pan on medium heat until hot. Add a bit of butter and grease the pan.
4. With a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop the batter and pour 1/4 cup's worth of batter onto the hot pan. Add blueberries in and leave the batter to cook for 2-3 minutes before flipping it over for another 2 minutes or until the it is golden brown.
5. Repeat step 3 as needed and step 4 until all batter is used up. You'll get approximately 1o pancakes.

Serve pancakes hot with butter and syrup. Serve it with bacon if you dare because I dared myself and loved it to bits!

This is going to be my last post for a while. I will be flying back to Malaysia for a trip in a few days so if any of you would like to meet up, just let me know yeah? :) My email is on the About Me section on the right hand side - feel free to drop me a line or two, do not leave your contacts in the comment section for security reasons.

All things sweet and nice!

Happy New Year folks!

I am back after a back breaking ski trip and wholesome family-style Christmas. First, before I start with all things sweet and nice, let me talk about my ski trip: I was a ball of pain when I got back. I reckon falling approx. 20 times didn't help as it was my first time ehhehe but I never ate so much snow in my life! Anyway, apart from the pain, I came out skiing better than I never did and fell much less. Oh and I also cried like a baby in the locker room too because I was having period cramps on top of the falls...BOOO. But like a champ, I stuck to it. My partner was so proud of me.

Would I ski again? Definitely. And this time, I want my own skis and not the crappy rental stuff that gives my shin bruises.

SO next to all things sweet and nice! How's your New Year's been? Time sure flies when you're not looking, I am still adjusting to the fact that I have to write 2008 now and not 1998. Ahem. And I can't believe I am getting older.....I was 17 a blink of an eye ago. Wtf? lol. *goes into denial mode*

I was suppose to get to sweet and nice stuff and look where that got me! Okay, I made this really cute and yummy chocolate gingerbread men/women/stars as Christmas gifts for my partner's family. If you want an affordable pressies that pleases the mass, nothing does it better than homemade stuff. Trust me, it's just better and you can get creative without burning a hole in your pocket.

And since I added chocolate chips into my gingerbread men, they're just delightful and surprisingly good. Frankly, I don't like gingerbreads, I made the whole batch for my partner's family :P

Here they are:


I've just rolled the dough out and cutting them with my newly acquired cookie cutters. I couldn't get over how cute they were.

Here they are freshly baked out of the oven. Warm and soft but they do harden up as they cool. It's better if you let them cool up to 12 hours before decorating them. They store very well in the freezer for up to 6 months ;)

Here they are decorated amateurishly snuggled in boxes. I bought these boxes and paper linings from the 1 Dollar store. In all, for these pretty boxes and ribbons, it costs me less than $10, how sweet is that?

Here they are all wrapped up, pretty and ready to be unfold by unsuspecting relatives. The Jack Daniels is for them to wash it down after a nibble of course...... nah, the Jack Daniel's for me especially. The silver package on the right is a beautifully adorned cast-iron teapot for my partner's mother. Really heavy stuff but she loved it to no end when she saw it :) I am just happy.

I'll let the picture do the talking here. Pfft. Shoo!

After getting back from Christmas, I was itching to bake again. It must be because I was still in baking mode after all that gingerbread men/women/stars. So when I saw sticky buns on the food network channel, I made up my mind to make some.

They are outrageously good. OUT OF THIS WORLD. Hips beware.

And to end the All things sweet and nice! post are blueberry pancakes. Use frozen or fresh blueberries for an antioxidant filled breakfast. Yum...


I know, i know. Where are the recipes? I will get to that soon :) One by one hehehe. Or maybe I will save the chocolate chip gingerbread men recipe for next Xmas!