My Favourite 7 - Get to know me Week # 3

I've been tagged by Shu Han of Mummy I Can Cook to play this game :) Thanks Shu Han for tagging me.

I'm going to select posts that most of you have never seen, which are from my first 2 years of blogging.
I have a lot of favourites, so it's hard to get only 7 out of 539 posts. LOL.

1. Barazek.
A middle eastern cookie that is my first Step by Step post. Pictures maybe horrible because my hubby was not eager to take them for me and that time, I have never used his DSLR before and neither do I know of any editing software. I love this cookie but have never made this since.





2. Palak Tofu.
I began to explore into spices after this dish after realising the wonderful aroma that a small pinch of cumin can give me. Spices in curries or heavily flavoured dishes are undecipherable, so I have never learnt to appreciate spices even though I've been eating curries since I was a kid. Disgusting this dish may look, but it's very delicious, at least to my family. Cooked this few times.





3. Fern Shoots with Hot and Sour Dressing
I love this dish, but never made this again, although I've made it many times prior to blogging.
Maybe I should to this again in near future







4. Dulce De Leche Cream Cake
I couldn't believe that with this post, I started the DDL frenzy among the regional bloggers. After I posted I began seeing a lot of bakes with DDL coming out that I've never seen before in the regional blogging scene.
But most of all, this cake marked an important milestone in my blogging life. Something that I've worked hard for, long enough.



5. Orange Bread Pudding
Delicious, even until today I still think of it at times. Made just once.
The pictures had me wowed. That time I was just learning to hold the DSLR and I was wondering why those pictures came out so nice, each of them, until I didn't know which to choose. I rarely had such luck with pictures that time. I kept on asking my hubby, "Why today the pictures so nice ah?".





6. Upside Down Apple Sponge with Demerara Caramel
Still my ultimate comfort cake..... until today. Made this twice but am still thinking of it.





7. Spicy Lala
 A delicious dish that my in laws rave about immensely. LOL. Mother in Law, brother in law, sister in law... husband... everybody loved this and I think it's the dish that they replicate the most often.




Sometimes I do think of myself..... when will I repeat the dishes. There are just soooooooo many out there for us to try. And that makes my husband complain.

Have a nice week ahead

My Garden - Get to know me week # 2

Some of you might know that I'm fussy about food names. Yam/Taro or Amaranth/Spinach. Or how sometimes when some fellow bloggers finds some weird fruit, and that will make me go on a crazy frenzy trying to identify them.

I graduated with a Minor in Horticulture. What's horticulture? In short, I studied about plants with commercial value like vegetables, fruit and ornamental flowers. Now you know why I'm soooooooo particular about such things. I'm especially passionate for plant taxonomy, and that is plant classification. LOL. Maybe it's due to an early exposure to orchids. My late dad was a self taught orchid horticulturist, who won numerous awards in major competitions and nicknamed Species King within the orchid enthusiasts in Malaysia during his time. Dad passed away when I was 12, so, my trips to orchid exhibitions were cut short..very short. But during the few years that I followed my dad around, I always helped out with placing the orchids where they belong, according to their type. That's was how I got started, since 10.

But weirdly, I don't have green fingers. Not everything I plant lives. I may know all the theory that I could remember from my coursework, but whether the plant lives or not? Up to God to determine. LOL.

Currently I'm using au naturel nitrogen rich fertilizers produced from non other than my dearie Lyanne. LOL.
Reuben's will be next.

Here are some plants in my garden right now...

Dragon fruit seedlings

They just grew when I discarded some pulp and skin intending them to turn into compost

Lemon trees

These grew out of seed. My hubby's aunt brought some homegrown lemons back from Australia. We never expected them to grow, and it was just eat and throw. :p

I do hope they do fruit later

Fennel

I purposely planted from the fennel seeds on my spice rack.

I want to see them flower and determine whether the 'jintan manis' we have here is fennel or aniseed. The colour of the flower is different for each and let's confirm the proper name, shall we?

Update 1/3/12: Name is confirmed. Read here

Bird's Eye Chilli.

A must for lovers of all things spicy. Sometimes you only need a few and it's so wasteful buying RM1 and allowing them to rot in the fridge. My FIL bought this and transplanted it into the pot.

Curry leaf plant.

Don't plant them in the ground. They make everything smell like them.

Galangal.

 Just shooted from some store bought roots. I am planting them for the fragrant flowers.

Aloe Vera.

The huge type. Good for dessert, soups or skin care

Lemongrass.

See some of those lying by the side of the pot? Actually I bought those and they were dried up in the fridge. So I tot, they should be dead and threw them into the pot to rot. But they were revived, and grew roots and shoots. Rootless, leafless, looks dead, but ressurected by contact with soil. BTW, lemongrass is so pricey nowadays. RM1 for 4 stalks only.

Mint.

Food bloggers always need some mint for decoration purposes. :)

My MIL bought some mint from the market, took the leaves off for consumption, and I kept the stems in water (like flowers in a vase) until they rooted. Only then did I plant them in the soil. Now, growing very well.

Pandan

A must in the South East Asian home.

It's growing tooooooo slow for my consumption rate.

Passionfruit seedlings.

You can grow your own passionfruit. Just throw some seeds onto the ground :)

But make sure you give them something to creep about

Purslane / Portulaca Oleracea / 马齿苋

One stalk came together with my bunch of wild amaranth (马屎苋). I just discard like that and it grew.

Never ate this before, but will try it later when it grows more. Read up that it's rich in Omega acids.

Rue / 臭草

It's 'smelly grass'. Used in desserts. My MIL got this plant for me.

Spring onions

Planted from shallots that look shriveled in my pantry.  They may not be good as shallots, but will be good as scallions or spring onions. Don't stick them into the soil. Onto the soil will be good enough.

Turmeric.

I use the leaves to make rendang. Crucial crucial!

If you're hardworking, dig up the roots instead of buying.

I won't tell what is this. You guess!

Hint: It's usually found at colder climates and the part we eat is red.

Swee San, you cannot guess. Reese also cannot. OiLai also cannot.

This plant got me jumping up and down with excitement!

 30/9/2011: Answer is :

Strawberry seedlings,

they came out of thrown out mouldy strawberries.

My "To-Plant" list:

Red Torch Ginger (Bunga Kantan)

Thai Basil

Sweet Basil

Rosemary

Kumquat

Calamansi

Lime

Mutingia Tree (Kaya fruit)

I'll be including some gardening stuff into my blog in the future,

of things that i happen to plant successfully ...

God bless my garden!

My Kitchen and FAQ on your Demand- Get to know me week # 1

First of all, a big sorry to all my readers. I promised pictures of my new kitchen even before Reuben was born. Now he's hitting 4 months old already and I'm only getting the pictures out.

So, here is my kitchen. Nothing fancy about it, just a kitchen. Before that, let me clarify that I'm not rich. I just happen to stay in a small town where property is affordable and renovation workmanship costs are much lower than in big cities. I stay in a small town, where there is no McDonalds, ok.

Just in case you scroll too fast and missed my last paragraph,
Is there anything you want to ask me, for example.............
     "Wendy, do you clean the house daily with 3 kids around"
     "Wendy, when are going back to work"
     "Wendy, don't you get crazy with the kids around and staying home"
     "Wendy, what's your favourite kitchen tool?"
More info at the last paragraph


Here's the story about 'My Kitchen'.

**********
When we decided to renovate the house, we planned to extend 21 feet out to the side, with halfway the length of the house, it's like 21X17. Sounds big right? My wet kitchen will take up 80% of that extension, with the current kitchen turned into a dry kitchen. Not totally dry, just no cooking. I was planning to turn the dry kitchen into a drinks area. And a bar with high chairs will extend into the dining area from the dry kitchen. With cookie jars on the bar counter, bakes all placed there for consumption (provided the ants don't get to it :p), and we can have our drinks made there and the kids, their milk and juice.

In my wet kitchen, I planned my kitchen to have a 3X5 marble top island, if better 3X6. Then I can have friends over to bake. My husband even suggested I have the stools built to insert right under the island like how it is in the Science lab, with cabinets underneath to keep all my baking tools. Then I want to have a 3 ft round table for afternoon tea in the kitchen overlooking the garden through the 5ft tall windows.
I wanted to have a China display cabinet for my grandma's beautiful porcelain sets.

Then changes came by... and more changes ... and more changes. The dry kitchen has to switch to a different area with a smaller space, then later, even the dry kitchen had to go.  Then we had to cut the wet kitchen to make space for a maid's room because Reuben was concieved just before work started. Now, I'm left with only 40% of the original planned kitchen space. Made me wanted to cry. No island, no bar, no separate dry and wet kitchen............... My kitchen's my comfort zone, I don't think i'll move into another house and get another kitchen. The new kitchen outlay does not permit me to have an island as it is shaped like a L. And I can't extend the kitchen anymore to the side, I wanted some space to do some gardening as well. My dream is shaaaaaaaaaaaattered.
Swee San knew about the whole ordeal, about all the changes and pooor me.

When one of my friends came to visit me, she said she must look at my kitchen, and when she did, she covered her mouth and gasped. "Wendy, I am shocked. I imagined you will have a huge kitchen with an island. I never thought it will be this small, small in terms for you." Seee............ even my friend says so.

Well, my husband said, in 10 years time, we'll knock down the kitchen and renovate it again, ok. And since the maid is just for Reuben's time, we'll knock off that room later so that the kitchen can be big once again. Do you believe him? No I don't. The maid is no where to be seen even now. LOL. But then again, frankly, I don't need one. Provided, he doesn't complain about the state of the house. Hahahaha!

*****End of Kitchen Story.********

So now, please take a tour of my ZONE

A general view from different areas of my kitchen to let you have an idea of the layout

Here's where I cook. Yes I'm using a countertop stove. I don't want a built in stove top. Much to the shock of some that I used this old fashioned stove. LOL. Some can't believe that I bought this. Well, I had enough of wiping and cleaning under the stove whenever porridge overflows right into the cabinets via the small opening between the stove and the cut out hole. I totally had enough of it. The stove is Elba but it's not that good. I wanted to get a Zanussi, but the model I wanted keep running out of stock at HSL. The hood is Kelvinator. So far ok, very powerful. Catches a good amount of oil, especially after a good ole session of Char Kway Teow. Clean it often, close the windows when using it for maximum suction power and it'll be fine.

Here's my food prep area

Here's my ovens area, a built in oven and a microwave oven. The cabinets beneath the microwave oven is full of Tupperware. Scary.. LOL.
And I've got my cookbooks right above the microwave oven. Not a huge collection. The carpenter (not an ID, I just engaged a carpenter, see?) got a shock that I wanted a bookshelf in the kitchen. My hubby told me to forgive him for not seeing anyone with cookbooks in the kitchen. LOL.
And the whole cabinet from top to bottom of my oven is filled with my baking gadgets. It's a very tall cabinet :p
Oh yes, the oven's Bosch, not something from the high range, and how was it?...... hmm.. so so la.

Here's my new drinks and snack area, with the breakfast table right infront of it. No bar, no bar!!! I use the marble table for kneading and cake deco. I've got the aircond fixed there so that I can decorate my cakes without entering the bedroom :)

And another view of my kitchen. See the distance of the fridge door (or right) to the mixer? It's only 5ft. Cannot insert any island!!! See the short curtains above my double sinks? My husband hated them, saying they look like petticoats (底裙，kain dalam) and gave the excuse that he doesn't want to stand there and do the dishes. LOL.

And this is my new toy, bought from US. A bowl lifter model. I chose this because I want to bake bigger batches of bread. I'm stingy with electricity so baking one small loaf is out of the question. And if the bowl can be lifted, I can whip my eggs with a waterbath underneath.
My sister in law lugged it all the way back for me. Since its wattage is US 110V, and can't be plugged in directly into our sockets, I used a transformer. Works just as good. I don't know if you realised, I don't bake much bread before this. Hahaha.. Actually I've got a whole bunch of bread postings in my drafts, but I don't want to post them before I show you my kitchen. I'm learning to bake bread, yes proper bread.

I know, to make a good bread, one does not need a machine, like how some manual kneading gurus will tell you. But I don't have the luxury to stand there and knead for 1 hour to window pane stage. I have kids to attend to. And to have a mixer saves me time especially for big batch baking. I love it when I made triple batch of choux pastry for Reuben's full moon. My old hand mixer smelled bad with just one batch. And I could just get the machine to beat my eggs while I prepare the rest when baking sponge cakes. If I beat the eggs with a hand mixer, I need to stand there 10 minutes holding the machine and not doing anything else, what a waste of time. Time is precious to me when there are kids.

So, let me end this with another picture of my breakfast table that I eat my daily home made bread together with my husband almost every morning... And oh yes, I sewed those curtains... all of them, including the petticoat curtain, ;p

If you have any questions regarding me, my kitchen or just anything,

as long as it's not too personal, leave a comment and I'll try to answer you in another post this week. Please take note that I have the liberty to decline answering any too personal questions.

Anonymous questions will not be entertained. Leave a name.

Reason is because that I do recieve emails with questions regarding me, my kitchen and some other stuff.

So, it'll be great to share with everybody what you want to know so that others may know too.

 My Garden and Favourite 7 will be coming up next.

Mixed Berries Vanilla Semifreddo - Blueberry Week # 3

If you think that if you don't have an ice cream maker, your ice cream will be grainy and icy. Then you should try this. It's smoooooooooooooth. Maybe due to the absense of water or liquids, this semifreddo is smooooooooooth. The yolks used here are raw, therefore I recommend that you get yourself some pasteurized eggs, available in major supermarkets in the chiller section.

Macarons with Blueberry Compote Buttercream - Blueberry Week # 2

Last 2 weeks when I went to KL to meet up with fellow bloggers like Swee San, Reese, Sonia, Ann and Veronica, Swee San brought a box of macarons. She knew my first experience with macarons was a nightmare. When she described in her blog that it was sweet til the roots of my teeth, it was actually understated. The fact was, it was so sweet that it burned my throat. She had been hoping that I would one day change my mind about these sugary UFOs. When I took the ones that she made and ate one, I was surprised that it was a lot more pleasant. It was sweet no doubt, but not that that crazily sweet that I can’t swallow. But after that, it was ok. Macarons are meant to be sweet, so don’t go about finding one that is not sweet, just not crazily sweet.