the little egg

3rd March 2014.

A friend gave us a very small egg.  Just for the fun of it, I placed the small egg and a normal sized egg standing side by side at one corner of our house.  Both eggs stood for nearly 47 hours!  I've planned to let it stand till 48 hours, but my younger daughter and her itchy hands.

classic cantonese home style pork ribs (數字骨)

30th June 2014.  I saw a video on this dish, it was super easy that I decided to cook it the very next day.  It was spoon licking good!

Ingredients
> 500g pork ribs

Sauce
> 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
> 2 tbsp dark vinegar
> 3 tbsp sugar
> 4 tbsp soya sauce
> 5 tbsp water

Method 
[1]  Simply just dump everything into a pot and cook (stew).
[2]  Start with high fire until the gravy is boiling, then lower to small fire and simmer until gravy thickens.

Recipe courtesy of  Day Day Cook.  Video link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRZV6ol6P4

CNY 2014 ~ mandarin oranges

Chinese New Year is over and I have lots of mandarin oranges left.

Here's what I did with them.

REMEMBER to remove the seeds from mandarin oranges before putting it into the juicer or blender.  The first time I did this, a few years back, I didn't remove the seeds and the juice was bitter!

CNY 2014 ~ some random pics

Min's Chinese Writing Competition before the new year.

Zhen & her classmates Chinese Calligraphy competition before the new year.

Marketing on the eve of CNY, Zhen saw a special pineapple.

A close-up of the pineapple.

3rd day of CNY.  Lunch Dana at Vihara Buddha Gotama with the children
and an AFS foreign exchange student from Colorado, US.

4th day of CNY, visiting hubby's grandma, the kids' great-grandma.

CNY 2014 ~ vegetarian dishes on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

It is the 1st day of Chinese New Year and our family observes a full day vegetarian diet, since years ago.  My sister-in-law, the chef of the house, cooked all these dishes.  Only one, the 'Loh Hon Chai' (羅漢齋) is done by me.

heart-shaped steamed banana cake

Valentine Day's round the corner.  How about some heart-shaped cupcakes?

After placing liners in a regular cupcake tin, place a marble or small ball of aluminum foil in each well between the liner and the tin to create a heart-shaped indent.  Fill it up with batter and starts baking/steaming your cake.

Happy Valentine's!

apple chips

Recipe courtesy of sally's baking addiction

糖水 dessert - tāng ​yuán (汤圆)

Winter Solstice (冬至) is here and we tried out this Granite Tāng Yuán (石头汤圆) from Table For 2..... or More.

As I can't get bamboo charcoal powder, I substitute it with green tea powder instead.  My girls have much FUN as they get to "help" out in making the tāng ​yuán.

 

snacks for girls' kindergarten graduation

I made these graduation caps for Zhen's classmates in year 2010 for her kindergarten graduation.

Three years later, is Min's kindergarten graduation.  Min and Zhen helped me in making these little teddies in cars for her classmates.

pancake

Ingredients
> 2 cups flour
> 3 tbsp sugar 
> 2 tsp baking powder 
> 1 tsp baking soda 
> 1/4 tsp salt 
> 2 cups (400ml) milk 
> 2 eggs
> 1 tsp vanilla extract
> 4 tbsp vegetable oil

Method
[1]  Mix all the dry ingredients with milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
[2]  Add in oil to mix well and keep aside to rest for about 20-30 minutes.
[3]  Scoop and fry pancake in a non-stick pan.
[4]  Roll pancake with your favourite jam and serve.