Cherrie turns 4!

Our pampered princess turned 4 on 16 May. Its actually the date we brought her back home 4 years ago. Damn time flies!! That little girl brought so much joy and laughter to our house. Especially for mum and Eli cos they spend so much time with her at home.

We decided to get her a cake. Yes, she can't eat chocolates. So we gave her the cheese part only. Just a bit. But we did sing her a birthday song and lit the candles for her. Plus she received lots of extra cuddles and walks that day hahaa.

Dad got her some "sio bak" three layer pork cos she loves them for her big day too. That she can eat at least. She's already fat but oh well. Once in a while. Figured she gets to use her "but its my birthday excuse" too..

Mum and Kev are actually in Taiwan now. We sent them photos and videos and within 10 mins or so it seems, mom posted a photo of her new phone cover on FB. Its a photo of Cherrie in dad's arms. So fast! She captioned it: happy birthday my baby! Hahah guess mum's missing her princess too.

I posted this on Dayre just now but I'll say it again. I'm worried about possible diabetes at the rate I'm going. I keep wanting to eat/drink sweet stuff. =.= Scared. Scared of a hyperactive child. Scared of diabetes. Scared of being fat.

Last night after dinner I dragged Cs to Mcd drive through for an Oreo Mc flurry. Shared one and when I finished scraping all the ice-cream at the bottom and sides, I turned to him and said: not enough...

Him: .....har? Did I eat too much?

I just kept quiet. Which means yes! Hahah. Greedy much.

Mmmmhmmmm tell me about it. That's me. I haven't stepped on my treadmill for about two months now (me thinks).

Made this for Cs' supper one night. I'm looking for easy recipes that I can make at night for him. I kinda miss cooking. 

This is an easy adaption from Kampungboycitygal's Dayre. 

I used 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped. Fry it till golden brown with some oil. Add in one diced tomato. Add in chopped hot dog/ham/mushroms whatever you want to add in. I added in some carrots too cos I'm sneaky like that. 

When its slightly browned, add in pasta sauce (from the jar). I added about 1-2 spoons full only with some water cos my ham is actually smoked ham so its salty already plus I was gonna add a slice of cheese on top. Add in water if you want and pepper. Taste as you go. Can add mixed herbs or rosemary if you want but Winnie said no need..cos the pasta sauce from the jar has enough taste already.

Pour the whole thing into a ramekin. Make a hole in the middle and crack in a whole egg. Into the oven for 20 mins at 180 degrees. The egg will be almost cooked by then. If you want half cooked eggs, less time in the oven for you. Add a slice of cheese on top and 5 mins more in the oven. Toast a slice of bread and use it to mop up your sauce. Yum. 

This is an easy enough recipe for night time supper or breakfast, I suppose. Not too much preparation or washing up to do. 

OK bye. Update next time.

Omelette du fromage

It's been a while since I cooked anything. Been living off mum and eli's awesome home cooked meals. :)

Today I made this for win and I. Semi healthy omelets. Tomatoes, hot dog, and eggs with cheese. Lettuce on the side.

Now we're watching mortal instruments- city of bones. I love Saturdays!

Mum's birthday and hot pockets!

Mum's birthday fell on Sept. 4. We all had a quiet simple dinner at home this year. No celebrating in the pub this year. We finally grew up out of it. Heheh.

Mum loves pizza too so we tapau-ed pizza hut for dinner. Mum or eli made mushroom soup (love their version), and some vege dish. Kev tapau-ed some KFC cos he can't live without meat. Meh. Men. 

****

Winnie and I continued our cooking spree. Looked up some interesting recipes online and decided to test it out. Good thing that there are two of us. Oh plus Eli too. So between the three of us, its not as tiring as if there's just one of us. You get what I mean?

We wanted to make pizza hot pockets. It basically looks like curry puff only bigger. Like cornish pasty size. I love cornish pasties btw so I tried to search for the recipe too. 

It requires beef actually, which I don't want to use cos dad doesn't take beef, and we wanted everyone to taste it.

In the end, we came up with this:

Not bad if I may say so. :)

Ahh screw modesty. It tastes freaking yum ok. Hahaa. 

I adapted the recipe from here. Go experiment yourself too. 

Eggs IN toast

Like always, I suddenly thought of this and had to go Google the recipe and try to make it myself..

Eggs on toast only funkier. Heh. I've never had this before, btw. Its not something that is widely available in Kuching!

It took me all of 5 minutes to make this. And plenty of time to take photos and edit with my phone.

First, make a hole in the middle. I used the bottom of my glass to press a circle then cut it out with my scissors.

If you look closely you can see the shadow of my Rabbito's ears. Hahaha..

Next put a little oil or butter (if you prefer) in the pan. The videos say medium heat but I turned it on smallest heat so I don't end up burning my toast.

Put the toast in like so. Crack an egg into the center.

Add a little salt and pepper.

Now we wait patiently and take photos.

When you think its cooked enough, you can either turn it on the other side to cook the yolk throughly, or you can take it off the fire. Which is what I did.

I love love love half cooked egg yolk.

As an afterthought get a slice of cheese because PMS makes me think irrationally and against my better judgment, toast another slice of bread.

To cover on that slice of cheese. The hot toasted bread will cause the cheese to melt slightly.

End result: a very happy husband.

Last photo of that runny yolk. Mmmm..

That little circle of bread you cut out in the first photo will come in very handy in mopping up the yolk!!

I think I will make this again tonight for myself. :)

Love for breakfast

Trying to post a photo a day..kinda like project 365.

Lets see how long I can last.

Cs made me this for breakfast this morning..

Cheesy baked rice

Tonight I made cheese baked rice with minced chicken and mushrooms.

Being the chef, I have plenty to nitpick but Cs loved it. And that should be good enough..

How to screw up your husband's dinner

...which is LAYERED POTATOES!!

I have wanted to make these for the longest time ever since I read them on Kimberlycun. But I had to wait till I have an oven. Now we do. Yay!! Next thing I'm going to make is Pizza. Don't care that I can't finish it. I will make Cs eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner! :D

So. Let's start at the beginning. I thought it would be so easy to make. And it was really. All that went wrong was one lousy can of soup.

I didn't follow the exact recipe from Kimberly. I went and googled for similar recipes because I am like that. I need more sources, and yet somehow or other, I manage to screw this up. Slightly lah.

The recipe called for 1 can of Campell's mushroom soup. I very gungho went to Giant and bought a can of Cream of Chicken. Mistake ok! Not on purpose. I thought it was a can of cream of chicken soup. Damn damn damn.

When I poured it out, the whole thing was a big gooey glop. Jelly like texture. Omg. My precious potatoes! Did I fuck up??! I even went to check the expiry date. No leh 2012. What the hell went wrong??

Read the instructions at the back, which said: mix can of cream with a bowl of water. Heat it up, and stir to mix. =.= I'm so damn smart lo. Fail!

So yea. In short, that is how to screw up layered potatoes.

But its ok. Because I am genius, I fixed it. I scooped the cream out of my precious potatoes and put them into a pot with water. Stir to mix. And poured it all onto my potatoes.

Notice what's wrong yet? I poured ALL of it onto my potatoes! Why Amy why?! I was too kancheong ok and didn't pay attention.

I was supposed to fill the potatoes up to about the topmost layer only. Now my potatoes and cheese are swimming in chicken soup. =.=

I was ready to call Cs and tell him to just tapau some fast food for dinner already by then. Fook it. Fook the Campbells soup. Most of all, fook me.

But ahh..my oven was preheated already what. How much more harm can come out of it, right? Right? So I stuck it into the oven at 180 degrees as instructed by a lot of people on Google. Set it for 60 mins.

Ehh lucky I keep going back to check ok. What 60 mins? Cheat me. My potatoes were done/cooked in 20 mins. I don't know why. When I stuck my fork in, it went though easily. I think my hot chicken soup helped cook the potatoes! HAHAH. Damn smart.

The end result was not bad lo! Tasted very very very yummy! But it was too salty. The cream of chicken was salty in itself, and I might have put in too much salt and cheese. Either one but next time I definitely know what to do already. Phew. So yea.

I saved dinner. =D

First step: wash and slice up 4 small potatoes, really thin. As thin as you can make them. Then layer them like this, overlapping one another. Add salt and pepper to every layer.

Cs didn't like onions so I put in a bit of garlic per layer.

And because I am only making this for dinner for the two of us, as a main meal, with nothing else, I added 2 hot dogs (also sliced thin). I also added a slice of cheese to this layer because I love cheese. :)

Don't know why its not mentioned in even one single recipe that I've read to add in cheese somewhere in the middle. Its nice. Its awesome, its to die for. Creamy, melted cheese. Cannot skip this step.

This was after I added the chicken soup. Hahaa my potatoes, hot dog and cheese are swimming below the soup. So as an afterthought, I added another slice of cheese because I want a brown bubbling top.

Wrong! Brown top turned out to be BLACK top.

Bubbling away..yumm. Smells heavenly.

And tadah this is my layered potatoes! I used my fancy app to try to save the photo hehee. In real life, it was kinda err dark coloured on top.

This is what you get once you scoop it out. Lousy photo. No need to edit lah. No way to make this look good. But OMG it tastes good!!

Serious! Even with my mistakes above, I did it! Layered potatoes! Finally!! I know it doesn't look very appetizing but fuck it lah.

And yah, I really need to stop swearing I know.

Chicken chop and baked potatoes!

Cs and I just recently bought an oven. Oh dear I forgot the brand name again. Tefal (wait isn't that for pots?), Midea? Yea, think it might be Midea..

And to celebrate our first inaugural meal from the oven, I made chicken chop and baked potatoes!!

When I said I made chicken chop, what I mean is Cs pestered me day and night begging me to make him chicken chop!! =.=

I was happily flipping through recipe books, searching recipes online for something that rocks my boat, and whenever I asked Cs for an opinion, all he could come up with was: chicken chop! (with a lot of crispy chicken skin on top) Men.

So I did lah! :)

Home made chicken chop with baked potatoes!

I rock!

Hehe I know its easy to make bla bla bla, but if you knew me, you would know that I don't cook much. So this is not bad! Not bad at all.

The recipe:

I actually went to Google it and read through various sources and different types of oven baked chicken before I made it. To this end (and I mean when cooking only), I am meticulous like that.

Nifer once told me before that I am fierce in the kitchen, and would scold people if they don't do things my way, because I have to follow the recipe step by step. (Haha sorry Nifer!!) Its actually very true. I scold Cs if he tries to mess up in my kitchen! :)

For this version, I used boneless chicken thigh. Defrost the meat beforehand. I took them out of the freezer the night before and left them in the fridge. The next day, I wash them and pat them dry with kitchen towels.

According to sources on Google, you have to pat the chicken dry, so you get crispy skin when you oven bake them. So yea. Just listen to more knowledgeable people.

After that, rub olive oil, salt and pepper (quite liberal amounts), garlic (chopped) rosemary/thyme/whatever herbs you have on hand.

Then you stick it back in the fridge for a few hours, until you need to bake them before dinner time.

If I remember correctly, I used 180 degrees Celsius for about 15-20 minutes? Just keep an eye on those birds you can't go wrong. When you think they are cooked, turn the fire up to about 200 degrees to brown the skin slightly.

Ooh forgot to mention the potatoes. No brainer lah. Wash, peel, cut and arrange on plate. Stick into oven with the chicken! :)

And there you have it. Voila:

The smell of the herbs in the oven mmm...delicious..

Crispy chicken skin. Check.

And I also made coleslaw with cherry tomatoes to go with our meal.

I made too much coleslaw for the both of us. I always end up eating it for dinner and lunch the next day. And throw the rest down the drain because I can't eat it again for dinner. (Not as wasting as it sounds ok..it was just a few mouthfuls left).

Btw, I love these photography apps man. They make my photos look good even though I have no skill. Awesome stuff.

And if you think my face looks weird in the photo above, you're right. I used Face Cam to try to make myself look more..er..presentable. But me thinks I overdid it. Now I just look weird.

Cherrie still looks gorgeous though.

Don't judge a book by its cover please.

Despite its appearance (dammit should have used some fancy app to save the photo), it actually tastes pretty good.

That, ladies and gents, is a peanut butter salad. Never heard of it? My mum used to make this at home. Cs came over for dinner one night, tried it and loved it. Then, as usual, pestered me to cook it for him. So I did.

Lemme just take you straight to the ingredients:

- one chicken thigh, cooked and sliced really thin

- one cucumber, peeled, sliced really thin

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 4 tbsp peanut butter

- 1 tbsp sesame oil

- 2 tbsp sugar

-2 tbsp vinegar

-2 tbsp "tou ban jiang" (Ok I'm not being very helpful am I? In English, I think its called Salted Soy Beans. I bought the Yeos brand.)

- 2 to 3 eggs (hard boiled and sliced)

Did I miss anything out? (pauses)

*Shrugs*

And that's it. Toss everything into a bowl (except eggs) and mix together. Add the eggs in last so you don't mash them too much.

Oh wait. No. I forgot something. Don't add in all the sauce at one go. It will be TOO SALTY (like mine is). Add it in slowly. Taste as you go so you know how salty you want it to be.

I really don't think I'm being very helpful.

Because it was a tad too salty, we had it with bread (as our dinner), and now, it tastes perfect. Just about. Self praise is no praise.

And I know the photo above is a bit unsightly. So, here are some very mouth watering photos for your viewing pleasure:

Winnie had this. /drools all over phone keyboard!!

Looks friggin yummy! Looks too good to eat!! She had it in Singapore btw. So yea bo kang tao to us people in Kuching.

This was mum's slice. Still gorgeous but I prefer the strawberry!

Last one of Cherrie and me before I go. I edited the photo above too with Face Cam. Somehow I look worse. How is this possible? Haih! Fail!

K bye!

Cooking attempts

Because i realized that photo below of my tuna pasta salad looks quite er..unappetizing.

So..here are some photos to document my cooking.

This is my attempt at coleslaw. Healthy indeed! :) I took the recipe from kimberlycun and modified a bit i.e. less mayo and no nutmeg but instead used mix herbs and lemon juice instead of vinegar. Worked out fine and I feel healthier eating this, instead of my staple mee goreng for lunch in the office.

I loved KFC's coleslaw recipe so i went to google it up. There were many claims to be the "original" kfc coleslaw recipe. From what i can tell, the kfc coleslaw recipe all includes about 1 or 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, milk AND buttermilk, in addition to other stuff.

This revelation kind put me off from eating their coleslaw in future. Too much sugar. Haih better make my own. Cheap and easy!

Fried noodles attempt: a success! I don't exactly remember the exact ingredients. Hmm from the photo below (I really have no talent in taking food photos lah haih), you can see eggs, carrots, cabbage and hot dogs. Recipe was googled from a few websites, and modified slightly to whatever I had in my pantry again.

I also made potato salad. Also credits to Kimberly again. Thanks btw! :) I always wanted to try out her recipes cos she makes it look so easy and delicious. Lihai.

Yum! I added hot dog to the potato salad so I could eat it as a main meal, instead of as a side. More filling. :)

I would like to cook more often but for now, we haven't really settled into a routine yet. Both sets of parents wants us to go back for dinner or tapau food for us, and I want to try to cook my own meals, and at the same time, some times all I want is grab a takeout and go home to rest.

So yea, I need to set up a routine real soon..

And that's it for now. More updates next time.

Recently

I tried blogging from my phone. All photos from my phone, but then it turned out to be too much of a hassle, or I'm not used to blogging from my phone yet. Aahh anyway I gave up and used the laptop instead. /shamefaced. Oh well.

So, I made tuna pasta salad for my lunch on Friday. (Practicing healthy living and living up to my words of eating less instant noodles these days) Even boiled an egg to go with it. Healthy. But in my hurry to get to work on time, I forgot to pack a fork or spoon. Brilliant work sister!

Btw, I realized trying to eat healthy in Kuching can get quite pricey. Haih. I want to drink more milk and yoghurt, and fruits in the hopes that I can go to toilet easier. Some more, when trying to cook at home, buying all the ingredients are quite expensive.

Not expensive lah but it makes me think why don't we just go for a kolo mee/laksa/fried noodles etc for RM 3.50/4.00. Much cheaper, less hassle to cook, and simple food to just get it over with.Particularly for dinner when both of us are already tired and on nights when he has to rush off to work again. Boo. Oh well, at least I try. I will keep trying especially when I get my oven! :)

Thanks to Xiaxue and her apps (haha), Winnie and I are on a photo editing spree. I've downloaded photography apps such as leme leme and instagram but never the face makeover or facecam she recommended. Its so easy to use.

This photo of Cherrie below is edited using Instagram and Princess Cam. Also another app recommended by Xiaxue. Its very cutesy and fun to use. As you can see, Cherrie looks so much cuter now. Haha. Miss the lil cutie.

Here are a few more examples below. This is a before photo of Emily.

After photo of Emily. Ya, I know its way too bright. I'm very lazy when it comes to editing still. Lazy to tweak and learn more from the apps. :)

Unlike Winnie. Maybe her app got more features. This is her before photo:

Winnie after. Added lightening features, skin looks smoother. I think she also added liquify cos her face looks slimmer too. Apparently you can make your eyes bigger too. Kinda cool. Never knew it was that easy to edit photos. :)

Btw, in case you ever wanted to know the difference between camera quality of an iPhone 4 vs HTC Sensation, observe:

This is a photo taken with my iPhone 4. Horrific. My skin looks yellowish from the flash. I don't mean that the camera is that bad. Most of the other photos turn out okay, not that bad.

But actually most of my photos are of food, or I add leme effects or sepia or what not. So, I never noticed. But that day cs happened to take this photo of me with my phone, and then one more with his phone. Look at the difference:

Taken with iPhone 4.

Taken with HTC Sensation.

If you don't know already, HTC Sensation comes with 8 mega pixels, compared with iPhone's 5 MP. HTC also has dual LED flash at the back whereas my phone has only one. I didn't think there would be such a difference.

Cs and I are constantly trying to compete with each other over who has the better phone/apps/design. Haih but in this end, its kinda obvious. Husband 1; wife 0.

Actually, I was no iPhone fan at all. I initially wanted to get the HTC Incredible S, but cs who wanted to buy it for me on my birthday said it was out of stock. That is why I got my iPhone 4. No complains. I love my phone. Hypocrite fail! :)

After adding face cam, and princess cam. Voila!

This is another edited photo of the three of us, coincidentally all dressed in hot pink! Winnie and I were attending a wedding. Cs sent me from home, and Winnie went with Kevin, and mum went out with dad. Anyway, it was totally unplanned lah.

I'm so behind on my 10 day challenge. I'll get going on that soon. And if you're wondering where the hell are my wedding photos, its because I haven't got them yet! Waahhh..bawls endlessly. Its only my big day, no big deal. I'm in no hurry to see them really. Waaahh..

Wipes tears and takes big breath..

Cherrie.

OK bye.