Sunday, 22 February 2009

Kak Fauziah's Home

Over the years, it's easy to lose touch with friends, even the ones that you thought will be around forever. I have recently made contact with Kak Fauziah, a former colleague of mine. We have lost touch since she left the companies more than 7 years ago.

She now lived a sweet and soulful life style after leaving the corporate world. Many years later, she still remains a bubbly single lady with outgoing personality. I visited her at her condo recently.

I was really fascinated with the interior of her house, the setting, the characters and all the fascinating decorative stuff, fine antiques and collectibles...it was exquisite!



This antique settee was custom-made and carries the old world charm. The tiles were originated from a century old house in Ipoh.









Can you imagine she laid those wall tiles all by herself?






























She is artistic too. These are her masterpiece.



Very English...







































Plates that are not meant for serving















The corner of lavish green. Some plant species are "smuggled" in from overseas






























Rustic!

Cozy and homey

Imported handmade tapestry and oil painting for sales, anyone?

Saturday, 21 February 2009

Sweet Potato Bun

If Glycemix Index (high carbo) is not your major concern, this sweet potato bun recipe is a must-try. The texture for this bun is very soft and fluffy. You can eat it on its own without any filling. As for me, I will always think that it is best served steaming-fresh from oven with hot coffee!

Ingredients:
(A)
600g Bread Flour (High Protein Flour)
50g Sugar
1 1/2 tsps Salt
1 1/2 tsps Milk Powder
4 tsps Instant Yeast

(B)
1 Egg
270 ml Cold Water

(C)
120g Mashed Sweet Potatoes
60g Butter

Method I: (Manual- do some hand exercise before you consume these carbo-packed bread..)
1. Mix (A) till well blended.
2. Add (B) and and knead till form a dough.
3. Add (C), continue to knead till form a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Make the dough into a ball. Put it in a bowl and cover with a clear film. Put in a warm place to prove for 45 minutes.
5. Knead again and mould dough into a ball and leave it to rest for a further 15 mionute.
6. Divide the dough into several 30g pieces, mould them into balls and put them on a greased 23 cm square baking pan. 16 pieces per pan. Makes 2 pans.
7. Cover and leave to prove for 40 minutes, or till twice the size.
8. Brush with eff wash and bake for 25 min on a 180 degree oven.

Method II: (Using Bread-maker/Mixer)
1. Just use the machine to complete step 1,2 and 3 in Method I.
2. Prove for 1 hour, followed by with the remaining steps.



I used a bigger pan, so have divided the dough into 20 portions. Some balls are smaller since I have used up the dough in getting 20 pieces. I replaced 100g of bread flour with whole wheat flour.
Hot from the oven...
Up close and personal with my sweet potato bread. To make mashed potatoes, just steam it and mash. Do not discard the sweet potatoes skins for added fiber.

The end result

Sunday, 15 February 2009

Potluck Cum Line Dance Party

As planned, our very first potluck cum linedance party was successfully organised yesterday. When the idea was mooted, the husbands of the husband-and-wife teams were very excited as the event would be held on a Valentine's Day. Indirectly, they can be spared from burning a hole in their pocket for a Valentine Day's Candle Light Dinner. However, I doubt they really received mercy from their honey. Perhaps the dinner can be saved but not the Valentine's Gift. I hope they got even with each other.

As for me, I was rather carefree as my hubby was not in town (Thank God!). I couldn't be bothered with Valentine Day celebration as I think the idea of a married couple spending on a Valentine's Dinner at a restaurant is rather foolish. Must we have it on on a Valentine's day, of all the days? P
erhaps I am the practical sort..

Back to our potluck party..yes it was a succesful event. Am very surprise that all my team members not only can dance, but are also good in their culinary skills!

There were varieties of homecook dishes and the pictures are available at our Team Blog:
http://cllinedance.blogspot.com/2009/02/yesterday-day-pot-luck-and-dance-party.html

I love this sort of event very much as it was a time to bond and get to know our members, including members' family too. Oh..yeah, by the way, we have our Bayu, Shah Alam team members joining us for the event. This group can also dance and cook well too.

All the dishes prepared(or bought??) were exotic and the taste were fabulous. Christina has forgotten to provide the names for the food pictures posted in our blog. Let me introduce them one-by-one, in case you have already salivated..

  • Thai Style Kerabu Chicken Feet Skin by Christina (this time the dish was spiced up with lots of shredded ginger
  • Mini Chicken Siew Pau(puff) and Homemade curry puff contributed by the Bayu's team members (Sorry, Joyce never introduced the name of the contributors)
  • Glutinuos Rice with Chinese Sausages prepared by our linedance instructor-Joyce
  • Assam Lettuce (By the way, anyone knows who was the contributor??)
  • Vegetarian Fried Vermicelli (sorry, again dunno who's the contributor..)
  • Stewed cuttle fish prepared by Joyce
  • Chicken Feet in Vinegar (This dish is supposed to be pork trotter in vinegar but then as Lam is a non-pork eater, Joyce was undertanding enough to replace with chicken feet. By the way, with chicken feet as the most popular dish amongst this group, I supposed you could have now get to know the key to line-dance till aged 60s & beyond, right? The secret is to consume more chicken feets (so you can dance like a chicken)
  • This pic look like stewed octopus....Frankly I dunno what was that and no one seemed to be able to tell me who prepared that. This dish looked great to eat with rice anyway.
  • Home-grown chicken from YoungmanLim and LengluiKim
  • Red bean and black glutinuos rice dessert from Joyce again
  • Nyonya style acar from Janice (yummy!)
  • "Mieng Kum" (Thai Leave Roll) and steamed savoury rice pudding (Now you understand why we must called upon our Bayu Team members to join us as they are expert in preparing traditional and exotic dishes which with money also can't get to buy..)
The food list was lengthy.... Some pictures were not in time to be taken as they were finished in a lightning speed! I believe the camera man when seeing this was too stunt to take further pic and told himself to better grab some food before the pot and plates got empty.

Other dishes were pandan jelly from Sister Ying. Longan and coffeemate jelly from Rui Ting. Annie's dessert (I dun get to eat this one as all other members have grabbed all and left me an empty container..so sorry for me!) Fried rice from Ya Mei. Ms Tien's curry puffs and Yuki's Tea Leaf Eggs. By the way, Cindy's vegetarian style mixed vegetables had been mistaken by Lam as a dish prepared by his mother in law. I believe Christina's mom would be happy to learn that. For her son-in-law really admired the taste of her dishes. But not the case for Cindy when Lam innocently sought confirmation. Below is the conversation recorded:
"Was that prepared by you? How come it taste exactly like my mother in law cook one??"
"Walau-way! Please don't take me as your mother in law, okay?!" That was classic!
All the food was so-so very delicious! By the way, I was lucky to have my mom-in-law's help to prepare for my potluck offering. As usual, she has demanded for perfection to the extent that she got to start a charcoal fire at our backyard to deliver her specialty-Charcoal Style Hokkien Mee.

I better pause now in case you get too hungry with the food listing...

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

No Sweat Trimming

Festive period is finally over and everyone is now back to business as usual. Most of us were having excellent time during the holidays. Only one side effect with that...in a couple of weeks of alternating resting and partying, I noticed my body has started to grow sideways...that trigger me to review my 2009 new year resolutions. One of those is to workout more regularly to battle with the stubborn body fat. I better start to put into action.

I notice when I get older, it gets more difficult for me to control my weight. It is true that our metabolism slows down considerably with the aging process. Body fat seems to be very faithful to me. I have tried to get back to my prenatal figure and after many years of trying, I started to think that I probably would be permanently maintaining my current weight, ie a plump apple forever. Coz each time when I think I have slimmed down, I put on the lost pounds just in a matter of weeks, like this festival season. Sigh..

My lifestyle is not really sedentary as I do linedancing almost every weekends and lift weights occassionally. The only problem got to do with the input and output equation. The former is alreays greater than the latter.

I think it is high time I do something about it. My weight now is in a region of 56-57kg, could be higher on certain days in the month (you know what I mean?) I will have to start changing my habit of eating and to go more frequently on threadmills and lift some weights. I have weakness for food, therefore dieting will be the last option in my to-be carried out weightloss programs.

By the way, I have come across this diet plan which claims to be a "No Sweat Trimming". The only ordeal is that you have to follow the diet menu strictly. Anyway, it is only for 3 days. It seems to be quite easy to follow and the diet plan is made up of food that most of us would enjoy everyday. I have followed this diet plan once, a long long time ago and have managed to shed off 1.5kgs in 3 days and at that time my weight was 51kg gone down to 49.5kg. Perhaps if I do it now I will shed more as I am now on the upper scale of my BMI. Anyway, I am not really keen to try out again as it nearly made me faint..coz the portion of food intake is very little. Besides, I am now having gastric problem, this diet would possibly make my condition worse, not to mention my faithfulness to carry out the plan.

Basically you have to follow the diet plan religiously and you have to stop binge-ing. As the calories intake is designed to trigger the body to start fat-burning, you also have to stop all workouts. I was about to faint as I was too eager to lose weight. I have combined the diet plan with workouts. As a result, there was a sudden surge of blood sugar after working out. So you have to stop all workouts during the dieting days. I think it is worth trying by those without medical complications. Also, if you need a quick fix urgently for some big occasion to put on your body-hugging suit, you may attest on yourself the effectiveness of this plan.


You can find all ingredients easily available in major supermarkets. If you are not overweight, the diet plan will help you to shed off at least 10 pounds (4.5kg) it claims. Somebody please try it out and tell me the outcome...

You must drink 5x8 fl oz of water each day. This diet must be followed exactly if you want to get 10lb off the weighing scale.

Day 1
Breakfast:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
1 grapefruit
1 slice toast with 2 tsp peanut butter

Lunch:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
4oz tuna (in water)
1 slice toast

Dinner:
1 slice cold meat (chicken/turkey)
1 cup string/long beans
4 oz beetroot (canned)
4 oz ice cream (vanilla flavour)
1 small apple

Day 2
Breakfast:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
1 egg boiled/poached
1 slice toast
Half a mid-sized banana

Lunch:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
4 oz cottage cheese (not cheddar cheese)
5 Ritz biscuits

Dinner:
2 chicken franfurters/sausages
4 oz broccoli
2 oz carrots
Half a mid-size banana
4 oz ice cream

Day 3
Breakfast:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
1 egg, hard boiled
1 slice toast

Lunch:
Black coffee/tea (without sugar)
5 Ritz biscuits
1 slice cheddar cheese
1 small apple

Dinner:
4 oz tuna (in water)
4 oz beetroot ( canned)
4 oz cauliflower
4 oz ice cream (vanilla flavour)
Half melon (rock/honeydew)

The diet works on chemical breakdown. DO NOT VARY or SUBSTITUTE any of the above food. Salt and pepper to be used and not other seasonings such as soy sauce or tomato sauce. Where no quantity is given there are no restrictions other than common sence. This diet plan is to be used for 3 days at a time. After that you can eat normally. Do not over do it. According to the plan, you will lose 18kgs(if you are overweight) in a month if you stick to it. Toast is to be dry, no butter or margarine. Tuna, string beans and beetroot can be frozen or eaten from the can. Ice cream have to be vanilla. Black coffee/tea must be without sugar.

Happy Dieting!!

Monday, 9 February 2009

Ang Pow

Today is Chap Goh Meh, which sounded like "The 15th Night". It is in fact the last day of CNY. So sad.. the festival is now over liao..

"Mom, it's the last day of CNY, can I open all my angpow now?"


To tell the truth, I have never expected Elgin to ask me this question. It's a clear indication that my Elgin is not a naive little boy anymore. He now has a mind of his own and is aware of his "proprietorship". I was so used to keep and spent his angpow monies in the past years that little did I expect him to be matured enough to recognise the usefulness of money.


Elgin just turned seven year's old last week. His capability in making sense of money perhaps is a clear indication of a milestone achievement..hahaha!I think I have under-estimated the Ong's family's heir...


When I was his age, I wasn't that "sing-mok"(smart). I still remember most of the time I have tendency to misplace my angpows or dropped them somewhere before they reached my mom's safe hands. I have disregard the value, yet only got fascinated with angpow packets. I have never received angpows loaded with isi(contents) as my dad usually gave us angpow with a token sum of money in a region of RM10-RM30 right till before I was married. Anyway, he has not forgotten to remind us that he was giving angpow to keep the tradition alive and we can always ask him for extra pocket money if necessary. Anyway, I used to think that my dad is rather frugal.

When I grew up and have gotten married, it was my turn to give my parents angpow. However, my parents will usually returned 1/3 of the content to me. This year, my dad is no longer there to give me angpow. However, my mom still keep to my dad's tradition and returned 1/3 of the value to me. My parents have been thrifty towards themselves and have never expected their children to give them money. I am glad to have such parents though I
hope that my mom and dad will spend on themselves and keep all the money I gave them.

I love to collect angpow packets too. Some of my 2009 collections include the follows:


Left: Astro. Right : Designer piece

Left: HSBC Premier. Right: Crab Tree & Evelyn

Front & Back: HSBC & Mid Valley Joint Venture-Ang Pow with cloth as the material. For customer purchase RM200 and above in single receipt.


Designer piece: Angpow packets with 3-D design


Left & Right: Deutche Bank


Designer Piece: Not the traditional red


Chinese New Year Ten Courses Reunion Dinner Menu

Reunion dinner is the most important dinner for the Chinese during the CNY. Traditionally, this is held during the eve of CNY when all the members of the family get home together to have their dinner.

Some families prefer to dine out for this occassion but this is really not a good idea as you would be "slaughtered" with cut-throat prices, on top of a long waiting Q. We had a bad experience few years ago to have a reunion dinner at a popular Chinese restaurant and were made waited from 6.30 till 9pm for the first course to be served. It was almost 11pm when we finished our last course. The food was damn lousy obviously a result of preparation in a haste. Ever since then, my mom-in-law(mil) sworn to cook the reunion dinner herself at home for future new years. Excellent! Think about it, if she doesn't mind the effort, I'd rather pay her more angpow money than paying to the restaurant (hehehe..)

Every year, the history repeat itself. We children have to pursuade my mil not to cook too many dishes but each and every year she has never failed to ignore our advice. Ended up we have plenty of left-over food. But then the Chinese always believe it is okay to have leftovers than not as this symbolises abundance of food for the remaining year. Below are the 10 courses menu for our 2009 reunion dinner. It is not an extravagant banquet, no abalone or lobsters but I think it is considered a deluxe meal as compared to other unfortunate families. At least we still have a wholesome get-together by all our family members.

Yee Sang- a must-have 1st course in our reunion dinner menu as all of us love to "lou sang". This tradition is only pracitised in Malaysia. Yee Sang is an auspicious dish. We simply need to toss over the assorted salads in multi-colours and crispy crackers with toasted peanut, sesame and sweet-sour plum sauce dressing. It symbolises ushering in a year of good health, good luck wealth and longetivity. "Yee
" means abundance and "Sang" means vitality.













The sashimi lovers has bought extra salmon slices and jelly fish to value add on the yee sang. For me, I prefer the vegetarian style.













Pork trotters with sea cucumber. This is a typical dish from the Hokkien clan. Another must-have in our family's CNY menu.













Fish symbolises abundance. It is also a dish not to be missed for every Chinese family.













Fish maw in sweet and sour pineapple sauce. My mil has experimented on us this new dish. The result is not very good as it gets rather watery. But the sweet and sour taste make it rather appetising. I like it though..













Stuffed shitake mushrooms with oyster and fish paste. This is also an auspicious CNY dish. Oyster sounds like "Good Market". All of us hope that the market will ever be bullish.













Fried prawn in batter. It is easier to serve prawns in this manner for kids although the adults prefers the chilly prawns more.














Lo Hon Cai - This is an all-vegetable dish. Assorted vegetables fried with home-made "meen kan" (glutten puff). Lotus roots is a must as it sounds like "the year is good"













Fried chicken wings marinated in "nam yee"(fermented beancurd paste)- a dish ordered by the grandchildrens.













"Wu-tow cow yoke" This is braised pork belly with yam. My mil's specialty. She has pre-cooked this dish a few weeks ago as it is a time consuming dish. But the taste enhances when it is kept frozen for slightly longer period in the fridge.













Bamboo shoots in roasted pork belly. My favourite dish. Normally we eat only the bamboo shoots as the roasted pork is only used to enhance the taste.













A showcase of our reunion dinner menu at 7.00pm (after lou-sang)













When everyone held back their chopsticks at 8.30p
m to toast for the moo-moo year, we still have 2/3 leftover. Moo-uuah!

Monday, 2 February 2009

In The Mood For Chinese New Year

Although I am a semi-senior adult now, I am still looking forward to Chinese New Year. I dunno why. Perhaps the whole meaning of Chinese New Year is the 'thrill of waiting". This festival seems to be the most joyful holidays kids wait for it whole year long. New year signifies a brand new beginning. During my childhood days, I have to wait till Chinese New Year to put on new clothes. And that was also the only time I got to see my late grand-uncle who came back to stay with us for few weeks once in a year. I love this grand uncle very much as he has never failed to bring back lots of goodies for us each time he came home. I especially missed our daily trips to coffee shops having dim sum and tea for breakfast every morning. Perhaps all children of our days have very simple mindset. We love new years simply because during this time of the year, we get to reunion with people we love, we get to indulge in those "forbidden things on normal days" such as icy drinks, cookies and candies. We get to play cards with small bets-"the forbidden game on normal days". We get to eat, sleep and be jollied. I really cherish all the fond memories of childhood new year. Though things are not the same anymore as I am an adult now, I am always making an effort to preserve that sort of child-like new year mood. Year by year, I am still in search for the mood for Chinese New Year, like a child did.
Due to the economic slump, the festive feel was a little sombre this year. Anyway, I have endeavoured to get into the warm mood for new year by getting all sorts CNY-related items to usher in the New Year.
A day before eve of CNY, I took a trip down to Petaling Street's flower market. It has been customary for us to get some fresh flowers to decorate the house. During my childhood days, my mom usually bought assorted species of chrysanthemums and I will put these flowers into a vase and placed it on the dining table. After grown up only I realised chrysanthemums are actually meant solely for mourning and prayers. No wonder you don't see lovers giving chrysanthemums to their valentines. I wonder why my mom never have "pantang" on all these taboo. Perhaps that was the cheapest and most lasting flowers which our family could afford. Anyway, my mom's easy-going personality makes her more adorable in the eyes of her daughter.
I have gotten some "Pussy willow" which is a typical Chinese New Year plant. As we must have the auspicious red colour to usher in the New Year, I bought another stalk of this "annonymous" plant with red seeds which cost RM28 per stalk. As I like it simple, so I decided not to hang the plants with any dangling ornaments, I don't want to make it look like a Christmas Tree. The multi-colour pussy willow and red seed plant made a very nice combination.
It wasn't new year without candies, lo kam (mandarin oranges) and ba-kua(dried meat/dragon meat). I filled up the big candy bowls with lots of sweets. Obviously Elgin and my nephews were extremely happy since they would be the benefactors. Better than Christmas it seemed.








I prefer the mini sized tangerines to the mandarin oranges. They are sweet-soury juicy and seedless. But I daren't eat a lot as it is very "damped" causing lots of wind in stomach and bad for one with gastric problems. Anyway, I have kept lots of skin for my friend to make garbage enzyme.
This is my favourite brand for BBQ dried meat. The logo is an aeroplane. The founder is from Singapore. The shop is located at Petaling Street. It has the right chewiness, sweetness minus the oily smell. I prefer the meat in slices than the minced type. I found this shop more hygenic as compared to other "chap-pa-lang" brands which the BBQ was done at the open air of a polluted city. I saw a long Q under hot sun outside Kiew Brothers. I always think that one who is a real ba-kua connoisseer will not go for Kiew Brothers as the meat is so very sweet and oily. The oil smell in particularly pissed me off. When I was young, we only get to eat ba-kua once in a year during CNY only. My parents will hide them on the top-shelf and open it during CNY or else they would be finished by us three little vultures. Unlike those days, this item is now available throughout the year and we always have several packets as gifts from friends and relatives. But the eagerness to savour this BBQ meat is no longer present due to the abundance-ness. Sigh...









It would not be called CNY without cookies and candies. Hampers and gifts are also common. I always think that this is a clear indicator of the economic condition. When times are good, hampers are aplenty. When the times are bad, hamper sizes shrunk and the liquor on the top will normally be substituted with Ribena or Sparkling Juice. Consider yourself lucky if you still received hampers in this doom & glooms period.

Cashew Nut Cookie

This is one of my most favourite cookies and I always bake it during Chinese New Year. This year, without fail, I bake it again...
I like the crunchiness and the nutty texture. Not that I am boastful, once you have tasted it, you would never want to eat peanut cookies again.
As usual, Apprentice Chef would always go for simple ingredients and easy to make type of cookies. This cookie does not require any eggs and therefore it's a perfect bake for vegetarians.

Ingredients:
260g butter
300g flour
200g cashew nuts
150g sugar
Some vanilla essence

Methods:
1. Whip butter with sugar till light and creamy.
2. Toast cashew nut in oven at 180 degree celcius for about 10 minutes (till brown)
3. Blend the cashew nuts coarsely (you don't want it to be too refined as it will lose the chewy effect).
4. Mix flour and cashew nut into the butter cream till well blended.
5. Drip in vanilla essence.
6. Once the dough is done, you need a cookie cutter to get into all types of shapes that you like and bake the cookies for about 15 minutes in a 180 degree oven.

Tips:
1. Good butter makes a lot of difference to the taste of the cookies.
2. The sugar of the above recipe has been reduced according to my taste. In case it is not sweet enough after mixing in the flour and cashew nut, you can still add it some more icing sugar according to taste.
3. For easy handling, you can cut open a big plastic bag and put some of the dough in. This enable you to roll out the dough without mess. Once you get the correct thickness (about 5mm), just press it with cookie cutter and you can finish in a jiffy.
4. You can also place half a slice of cashew nut on top of the cookie and brush it with egg wash for an even more perfect finish. This is optional, of course.