Can't wait for school holiday

Lately I was kinda busy and hardly have a free time to surf net , watch TV or even do some baking in my kitchen....why?
The answer is : started from this month May, I work half day during weekdays (from Mon-Frid) as a playgroup teacher. It is my first experience teaching young children ,it is fun although feel tiring at the end of the day.
Of course, I have to wake up slightly earlier every morning to prepare breakfast for 3 of us, send Ryan off to school and drive to work before 7.30am.

The best part that I like this kindee is it follows the government school holiday. Unlike some other kindee, they do not do so.
At least when Ryan is on school holiday, I am off from work too and we get to spend more time together. Both of us can't wait for this coming school holiday...we are counting off the days.

As for my tuition, I will have a break for one week too....at last, I can have a good rest at home.
So far, we have no plan for any holiday trip yet. so probably we just spend our quality time together at home.

..................to be continue >>>>>>

His second winning

Last week on 1st May (which was a Labour Day), I brought Ryan to join a colouring contest at one of the kindee in our town ( just for fun ). We reached there quite early and it was started around 8.30pm and lasted for about 2 hours.
The weather was so hot,but lucky for those kindee level, it was held inside the classroom (equipped with fans). Since the location is not near to my house, I just waited there till Ryan finish his colouring.

This is the result....can win or not?....

After that, we have to wait for the result out from the oven. We were being entertained with some games while waiting for the result.
After waiting for an hour.......the most tension part came.....
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Ryan 's name was called , he is one of the consolation prize winner for this contest. He received a box of Buncho oil pastel.

Well done, boy....

Ryan received his prize

Taken with other consolation prize winners

Colouring Contest ( for 1Malaysia )

Last Tuesday, Ryan's teacher informed me that there will be a colouring contest on last Saturday (20/3/2013),the location is near my house(one of the shopping mall in our town). The main problem was both me and my hubby were at work. so I tried to contact my mother-in-law whether can help me to bring Ryan for this contest .
Yes...a positive answer from MIL.....enrolled Ryan for this contest and got ready all the things that he needed.

On that night,after work. my hubby went to meet up with Ryan & MIL while I was teaching at tuition school. By that time hubby reached there, Ryan was colouring half-way. He sat in the middle,so bit far to see how is his colouring's result.  Too bad they did not manage to catch a picture of what was he coloured that night.
It started from 5pm - 7pm, after that they went for dinner at Marrybrown while waiting for the result.

Around 8.30pm, the result was out from the oven......I believed every parents were getting excited with the result.
It started from Kindergarten level  with 10 consolation prizes........and Ryan was lucky enough to be picked as the 10th winner for consolation prize. Not a big prize , he just got a bag with some titbits.

Can u spot Ryan????..(hint : sit on the stage)

My happy boy with his prize & titbits (the sport car is Ryan's toy)

From my kitchen : Preserved Rosella

I only know about this Rosella during my stay with my in-laws. My MIL brought some dried rosella home and according to her, it can also be called as "RiBeNa".
For me, the taste is bit bitter compared to Ribena juice(the one that sell in supermarket),so I always add more sugar to have the sweetness taste ..... I love this rosella drink.

So after moving to my own house, my husband planted some rosella trees at the backyard and it has harvested for few times in a year.

What I normally do is remove the receptacle from the rosella, then wash them and let them dry under the sun for a week. Once they are dried up,then just store in container and keep in the fridge.  It is  a refreshing drink especially during the hot weather.

dried rosella

 I always think what else can I do with those rosella.....can I make it as a jam or preserved it or even make  a cake with rosella?

Once, I tried to make a rosella jam and it taste not bad,but too bad Ryan did not like it. Only me and hubby love the rosella jam.

The next project is to preserve rosella...Just wondering how is the taste like. I found one great recipe on preserved rosella...and I did it. The result : it taste not bad,sweet and crunchy.

preserved rosella

Let's me share the recipe here :

Fresh rosella     110 gr (more or less)
salt                    7 gr
sugar                30 gr, 15 gr, 15 gr , 20gr

1. Remove the receptacle from the fresh rosella. Wash and ait the flowers dry
2. Season with salt for a day to soften the flowers. Give them a toss. ( I store in the fridge)
3. Squeeze out the salt water the next day.
4. Season with 30 gr sugar and leave in the fridge for 4 days.
    Season with another 15 gr sugar for 2 days.
    Season with 150 gr sugar for another 2 days.
    Lastly, season with 20 gr sugar. Once the sugar has melted (about 2 days later), the preserved rosella are
    ready for consumption.

After done with my preserved rosella, the next one that I want to do is baking some rosella cupcakes.

Stay Tuned...

I definitely love JULIE'S

I joined Julie's Chinese New Year contest for fun and never think of winning a prize before there are lot of entries which look very creative and nice.
As usual, I am using my husband's name to join this contest as it needed a Malaysian IC to enter a contest. Somewhere mid of March, I received a phone call from a lady calling from Julie's Biscuit company to congratulate my husband for winning "the most creative award", I was so surprised as I did not expect can win a single prize from that contest. And I was told to wait for my prize to be shipped from Melaka and it takes time to reach me ( about 2-3 weeks).

So last Friday, I went to collect the prize ... 2 big bags of assorted Julie's biscuit.
Thanks lot Julie's Biscuit for this great prize.

My house in now loaded with lot of biscuits...Munchy's Chocolate biscuits (which I won last year from Munchy's contest),some biscuits from CNY's hamper, Julie's biscuit and lately I also won 1 month supply of Jacob's biscuit, but I am yet to receive my Jacob's prize. Really have to drink plenty of water to kill the heatiness of eating too much biscuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my kitchen : Traditional butter cake

Yesterday was another free day for me. I was having a term break for this weekend..meaning, I do not have any classes on this weekend.
My baking mood was on..so after lunch, I got ready all the ingredients needed and started baking "traditional butter cake." Actually it was my second time baking this cake. Few weeks ago, I did bake it and I found the cake is moist and although keep for 2-3 days, it still soft and moist.

After busy in the kitchen for an hour.....at last, my butter cake is ready. I topped up lot of mixed fruits on top the cake.I also added some raisins in between the batter,but it seem the raisins are all go to the bottom of the cake.

Ingredients:
250gr   butter
4          eggs (separate egg yolk and egg white)
50 gr + 150 gr   caster sugar
200 gr  self raising flour
60 ml    fresh milk
1 tsp     vanilla essence

Method:

1. Beat egg white until soft peaks, then add 50gr caster sugar, beat till stiff.
2. In another bowl, beat butter & 150gr caster sugar until pale. Add vanilla essence ,followed by egg yolk one at a time.
3. Pour in half of the flour,mix on low speed.
4. Pour in the milk ( in 2 additions ) and lastly mix the balance of the flour.
5. Put in 1/2 of egg white into the above batter,mix well.
6. Using a spatula, pour in the balance of egg white and mix them well.
7. Preheat the oven, bake the cake for about 45 mins.

What he Loves to do...

Since Ryan joins K2 this year, he has to miss out his colouring class due to my busy schedule during weekend. I really don't have a free time to send and pick him up from the school...so just give it a miss. Instead, during our free time, I will spend about an hour to guide Ryan how to mix colour and blend the colour to make the picture looks great. Frankly speaking, I am not good in art at all,but I managed to curi  some simple techniques on how to blend the colour,etc ....from Ryan's previous art teacher.

So these are what we have done during last month and this month....... I gave Ryan some guidances and let him do the colouring part.

Recipe : Steamed Egg Cake

At last...... I have the free time to update my blog and as promised, I will  post up the recipe of "steamed egg cake" to share with my bloggers' friend.

It is definitely a simple cake and it taste good.

Ingredients :
125 gr  cake flour ( I used BlueKey-Superfine flour)
150 gr caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp 7up/sprite/100 plus (any soda drink)
1 tsp baking powder

Method :
1. Sieved the cake flour ,set aside.
2. Beat egg and sugar in high speed till fluffy (about 10-15mins).
3. Pour in orange juice + soda drink,then reduce the speed to low and continue to beat till mix well.
4. Pour in the cake flour + baking soda,mix well.
5. Steam at high heat for about 30 mins.

Let's give it a try.........

Note : For the picture of this cake, please refer to my previous post.

From my kitchen : Steamed Egg Cake

Yesterday night was a free night for me, we have an early dinner and I have "extra time" before watching the Spore Drama on AEC channel at 8.30pm.
My hand felt itchy and I started to find some cake recipe that I have in my recipe book.
Since I have all the ingredients needed for Steamed Egg Cake, I got myself busy in the kitchen for half an hour. It is a simple cake  that my family love it so much.

After beating the ingredients and steaming for half an hour (in high heat).....Here is the cake for our breakfast this morning...

We finished up this cake in  an hour time and I may consider to make one again later in the afternoon since I have extra Sprite(soft drink) in my fridge. Yes... Soft drink like 100 plus or Sprite or 7 Up is one of the ingredient to make this cake.

Urban Decay Naked Basic Giveaway

Looking pretty is every girls' dream and to make yourself look prettier, you may need to apply some light make-up. For me, I prefer to go for those simple make-up stuffs like foundation,eyeshadow,blusher and lipgloss.  I would say that it is a must have items in my make-up pouch.


And now the big news ....... I came across this blog "Million Dollar Beauty" is having a giveaway and the last day of submission till 21st April 2013. This giveaway is only open to Malaysia resident.
So what you can win is .... One (1) Urban Decay Naked Basics palette. Such a good prize,right?

Hope can win this great prize.....

...........,so don't miss this good chance. Let's blog about this giveaway and you may be one of the lucky winner.

Cheddar CheeseCake

Cheesecake is always my favourite cake. The other day when I was doing my grocery shopping, I grabbed a pack of cheddar cheese for Ryan. Ryan love to eat cheese and sometimes I will just make a simple cheese sandwich for his tea time at school.
I was wondering whether can I make a cheesecake using this Cheddar Cheese.....how does it taste like??

Then I started to find some recipe online on cheddar cheesecake.At last, I managed to find one good recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover's blog.

From my own experience, preparation of this cake is more time consuming because you need to beat the egg white and egg yolk separately. And it is my first experience baking a cake in "water bath" method.

And the result........

....... SomeThing that I love to ......

..it is nothing than receiving a prize from the contests that I have joined before. Although they are just a small prizes,but I felt happy that I won something from my own efforts. I received all the prizes before Chinese New Year. Due to my hectic schedule and interruption on my internet network, only today I managed to get this 'post' done.

Won from Yvonne's blog

Won from Ling's blog (method contest)

Won from Yakult Facebook contest

Ryan's 6th Birthday

This is a backdated post....

Today is the fifth day of Chinese New Year 2013. Nothing special, we just spent our days at home (really have a good rest) before Monday comes.School will start on Monday,but for me, tomorrow I have to start teaching again after off for a week.

Back to the topic....Ryan's birthday was fall on 1st Feb and we just have simple celebration at home. This year I never prepare meesuah for Ryan's birthday,instead, I cooked steamboat for his birthday celebration. It has been long time never have steamboat at home and that night, I invited my in-laws to come over for dinner.

We have a very full dinner ,so far for cake cutting we have to delay till 8+ pm and Ryan just could not wait cutting his birthday cake. After dinner, he has been asking me non-stop when he could have his birthday cake. Ryan loves to eat cakes (same like me...we both love to eat cakes).


Teng Teng Teng.....at last the clock stroke 8.30pm and we got ready for the cake cutting, at first we sang a birthday song....snap some pictures....then cut the cake....and of course, we ate the cake too. Since Ryan could not take any chocolate, so I just ordered a  pandan cake with kiwi filling and topped up with some fruits

   * Happy Birthday , Ryan *

From my Kitchen ... Peanut Butter Cookies

After I have done with the "German Cookies", I started to bake another batch of  "Peanut Butter Cookies". I got this recipe from my sister. And this year is my second time baking this cookies for Chinese New Year.

Let me share with everyone this simple recipe...

Ingredients :
250 gr peanut butter (I used LadyChoice brand)
200 gr icing sugar
400 gr plain flour
200 gr corn oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg yolk (for garnishing)

Method :
1. Mix all the ingredients: peanut butter, icing sugar,plain flour,salt and vanilla essence.
2. Add in corn oil and mixed well.
3. Make a round shape and apply egg yolk on top.
4. Pre-heat oven and bake for about 15 mins.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.

** Happy Baking **

From my Kitchen .... German Cookies

Chinese New Year is coming soon... and since today is a Public Holiday, I make myself comfortable at home by baking CNY cookies. As usual , I always go for something simple and easy to make and today I am baking "German Cookies".

 












Let me share with you the recipe :

Ingredients :
A) 250 gr butter ( I used WestGold )
     80 gr   icing sugar
B) 250 gr potato flour
     100 gr plain flour ( I used BlueKey brand - superfine flour )

Methods :
1. Mix A together, stir in high speed till fluffy.
2. Add in B and mix well. It is advisable to keep the dough in the fridge for about 1-2 hours.
It will help to make the dough firm and easy to make the round shape.
3. Make into small round shape, press lightly with a fork.
4. Pre-heat the oven , bake the cookies for 170'c for about 15-20 mins.

Note : Never add flour to increase the hardness of the dough.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.

** Happy Baking **