Roasted Chicken with Onions and Potatoes

Was feeling a little under the weather so I was not keen in cooking too elaborately in the kitchen, even with Thermomix. I needed the rest more. So we got a whole leg for the boyfie and the thigh part for myself from the market. We asked the guy to deboned it for us.

I cleaned up the chicken a little and started marinating them.

10g Olive oil
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper
a dash of mixed spices

I mixed the these up and then pour them over my chicken. Rubbed it in. Then I took one potato (for the carbs) and washed it thoroughly to make sure there is no more sand left on the skin. Roughly cubed them, threw into the marinated chicken. Wedged the onions, threw it in as well.

Put them in the fridge and got the boyfriend to bake them when he wants to eat it. I on the other hand, went to bed for a nap.

Woke up to this.

I am not sure how long he baked them but you can bake them at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes? Make sure when you poke it, there's no more pink blood gushing out. But I think if you debone it, it is easier to cook? I don't know.

If you know me well, I did these without following any recipes cause I'm lazy like that. =P But it turns out good!

Hiatus

It's funny how when I was rushing for my dissertation, I would blog like 2-3 times a day and right after I submit, I stopped blogging. I know I have promised to show the clothes I bought but I cleverly packed everything and brought home before I could snap any pictures. So will wear them during CNY and dolled up and then ask my sisters to snap for me.

Right after I submit my dissertation, I went home to clean my room. Reorganize everything since we had little renovation going on and changed some furniture. Then I went to SP to the boyfriend's place and 'nua' around for few days.

When we got back, we rushed to launch D'Sparkles collections and baking frenzy began. Baked German cookies and pineapple tarts. On top of that, I basically did nothing much. I did not go shopping cause my bank account was drying up. This entire week was dedicated to selling fruits in the market. 2nd year helping Daniel's aunt to sell fruits. Chinese New Year's crowd is MAD. There's so many people asking for prices, passing you their basket of fruits to weigh, pack and calculate. Some will just ask how much, or if it's good, and then complain this and that and want discounts.

Then there's sorting out the rotten fruits from the good ones and repacking them to sell and sweeping the floor. And lots of calculating. My mathematics has been put to rest for YEARS so it was really a challenge for me. Every day when we got back, we would be lying on the bed, dead exhausted. And we will take like 2 hour nap (we got up at 6.30am or latest 7am every day. Except on Thursday we overslept till 7.45am. By the time we are up it'll already be like 4pm or 5pm and soon we'll have dinner and then slack the night away or hang out with friends.

So this week has been crazy!!! I've not much going on for CNY (for now) so I expect lots of resting and checking on D'Sparkles stocks before I come back next week to prepare for my viva. Will claim this rest first before I even think about my viva.

Food I've attempted to cook

I find myself quite impressive..if I were to go overseas, I think I can survive...now time to get some local delicacies recipe into my recipe file..

Made tortilla wraps. Slightly thicker as we did not roll it out thinly.

Suddenly had the urge to make Lemon Yogurt Cupcake and went out to buy yogurt and lemon. Taste wise is okay but slightly dense. I am not sure if it's cause I overmixed it or if it's cause I anyhow dump two bottles of yogurt though recipe ask for 250ml. =P Mine total was 280ml.

Made Muar Chee. Gave Jen Jen the recipe and she made it too. Mad proud of myself.

Made Christmas cookies. Did not manage to make to give out as I was so busy!!!!

 

 

 

  Basically these are what I've made, I think I have more but yea...overall, I made quite a bit of stuff with Thermomix. Kinda fun. Things I would not have done otherwise. Boyfriend is baking more bread too. Love him for his enthusiasm in cooking with me. And his ability to finish up the food. What's the point of cooking if you can't finish it right? Also, we need to start thinking about sharing =P

Baking from scratch

Enjoying baking so much more now that I have Thermomix!!!

And I enjoy learning new things about baking. Like how my muffin will be dense when I overmix it. =P And I learn and I'll improve next time. The good thing is that it's edible. Just not as nice as I wish it would be but it's edible. So I improve from here!!! =) Got to prepare the wet ingredients before adding the dry ones.

And with my baking, I get great breakfast!!!! =) Happy!!!

Can't wait to finish up my whole dissertation and then spend more time reading and be in the kitchen. I have decided that nobody can help me if I don't help myself. So need to prepare an exercise regime and timetable. Do it while I'm still young!

2013 Resolution - Be Happy and Be Healthy :- Physically, Mentally and Spiritually!

Upgraded

Since Jamie, my Thermomix came to my house (like 2 days ago), I've stopped cooking on the stove (COMPLETELY). I've been cooking rice, stir-frying, blending, making soy drink and kneading bread with my Thermomix. She has officially cooked at least 5 types of food by now. Not bad for a beginner. Trust me, I've only been to the demo twice (like recently, don't talk about 2 years ago okay?) and I've managed to make so much.

Proud of Jamie and myself and the boyfriend. =P Just showing what I've been cooking for the past two days.

Day 1 - Rice with Stir-Fry Vege cause we bought Ayamas. Just came back from training. Too exhausted to cook.

Day 2 - Eat the same stuff as the day before. Freshly fried vege and leftover ayamas. T_T

Day 3

Rice, Sweet Sour Chicken, Stir Fry Broccoli and Carrot

Soy Drink

Wholewheat Sausage Croissant

Never had such juicy, crunchy sweet broccoli and carrot. I've never been good with broccoli cause I always ended up under cooking it, making it taste bitter. Or over cooking it and make it turn yellow. But Jamie does it best.

Forgive the excessive sauce. Was trying to cook my usual dish with Jamie, my Thermomix. It worked, just a little too wet. But it taste AWESOME.

Soy Drink. With all the fiber, VERY HEALTHY

Wholewheat sausage bun with cheese (some only) for the boyfriend to bring to KL. And also to bring home. Free from preservative!!

This marks the end of my week 1 cooking as I'm going home tomorrow!!! Stay tune for next week!!! I'm very proud of myself, the boyfriend and Jamie. Thank you God for blessing us with Jamie, our Thermomix!

 

 

 

Choc Moist Cake

Whipping it hard with hand whisker

Had a panic attack when I thought we were to present our proposal next week. So that very night, we decided to bake choc moist cake cause I needed something to calm me down. Started at about 10.20 pm and done baking by 11.20pm.

Happy Boy gets to whip also

 Love how the boyfriend enjoys helping in the kitchen and cooking. Takes burden off my shoulder when I'm lazy or tired. He needs more love from me. =P I've been rather moody and snappy lately.

Done. See the holes? We were just making real sure that it's cooked. :P

 We poked poked poked to make sure that it's really done all the way through. We used chopstick cause we are too cheapskate to buy a cake tester. =P

ta-da...left to cool and then packed to give to the family.

No recipes as we used the pre-mix. The family lovesss it with cousins taking 3 pieces (at least) and mum's other staff ate some too. And they are rather picky eaters for boys. So I'm happy. I got kind feedback from all who tried but oh well, it's better to have some cakes than none right?

Invitation to Judith's kitchen

While everyone lined up for the BR craze last Wednesday, I got an invitation (because I damn thick-skin) to Judith's house to make cake pops. Glad I took up that invitation cause the line for BR is insane, I'm amazed by my fellow countrymen. Their patience and determination is to be applauded (or not). The boyfriend is not amused cause they caused traffic jams and I know very well how the boyfriend hates having people hogging/blocking the road and causing traffic jam.

Anyways, back to the cake pop story. Judith is my sister's schoolmate and I somehow stumbled upon her blog and soon added her in my facebook. She bakes a lot and she enjoys cooking. I love to see pictures of what she cook but I never follow her recipe cause she doesn't cook simple meal and I'm lazy.

She stays relatively near to my place and so we went over to her place to bake. She was baking the pops when I reached. So I joined her students in her kitchen with the boyfriend. We had fun decorating the cake pops. The boyfriend had fun too. I'm glad the boyfriend loves baking and cooking as much as I do although I usually do the mixing and he do the stirring.

The Deco items

Boyfie trying to coat one.

cake pops before deco

rainbow cake that she gave us some to sample

beautifully coated cake pops

more!!

 

 

 

The sister has been asking me to find for the cake pop molds cause she wanna make some too. Couldn't find it anywhere. Anybody knows where we can get it in Penang? =)

Cream Puff with Custard Filling Attempt #1

I have been trying to make some easy to go snacks so that the boyfie can bring to work or munch at home. Now that he is not working anymore, I am going easy on that. Anyway, if I were to make anything this week, I have him to do it with me. Baking alone can be quite tiring especially if you have one medium-sized oven and you need to make many batches. If your oven is huge then it's okay cause you can put a few trays at one time.

Back to the cream puff story, I got the recipe from a friend's facebook (Lily) and jumped onto the task right away (after months of procrastinating) without really research on a proper steps and stuff. So that's my first mistake. Second mistake was that I did not look up for a yummilicious custard filling first. Will work on that. I just googled for another recipe and you can follow this recipe as well. =)

So this recipe is really pretty easy

Ingredients you need
For the pastry
250 ml milk (can be replaced with water)
85g butter (or margarine)
160g flour - sifted (I used super fine flour but I think normal wheat flour will be okay)
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you are using salted butter)

Method:-
1. Heat water (milk), salt and butter to a rolling boil; reduce heat. Tip in the flour and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms into a ball, about 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat. Add in the eggs, one at a time while beating until dough mixture is smooth.
3. Heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit
4. Use rounded teaspoonfuls (or tablespoonsfuls, depending on the size you like) or a piping bag to make mounds of dough set about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. I made smaller ones.
5. Bake puff until they are puffed and golden brown. About 20-30minutes and let it cool.
6. Slit each puff halfway and put in custard filling.

** Reminder: Do not take the puff out to check on them or switch off the oven before it is well cook, otherwise it will collapse. Happened to mine. =(


Custard Filling
3 egg yolks
200 g sugar (adjust the amount to your preference)
750 ml milk
20 g flour (1 1/2 tbsps)
20 g corn starch (1 1/2 tbsps)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:
1. Beat yolk and sugar until white. Pour in milk bit by bit while mixing until sugar is melted.
2. Put in flour, cornstarch, vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils and is thick.
4. Cool before putting into puffs.

I did not follow this custard filling recipe cause my friend did not put custard filling and I don't know how to make it. So I randomly put custard powder and sugar and water and make into very rich yellow cream. Not as nice. Just found this and I'm all excited to make cream puffs again now.

iBake

Now that I don't teach as much as I used to, I procrastinate a lot by reading novels, playing stupid games and occasionally (like today only) I decided to bake Blueberry Muffin with Choc Chip toppings. The boyfie gonna bring me to Sim's Company that sells wide range of baking supplies at reasonable price.

 

Muffin in the making. Before the oven.

After the oven. With lots more choc chip sprinkled on top and then editted with apps. <3

The taste AWESOME!!! And the boyfie is asking for more!! And I cooked some Korean food over the week as well but I don't have any pictures. More to come!

Baked Mashed Potato

Got this idea from my CG friend.

It is SUPER easy to make.

You'll need:-

3 Potatoes (actually depending on how much you want to eat, I made 3, you can make 10. Just agak-agak.)
RM 2/3 minced meat (put more if you have more potatoes)
1 packet of Enoki Mushroom
Chopped garlic
Cheese (Parmesan / normal sliced cheese will do)
Butter (to mix with the potatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. First, boil your potatoes.
2. At the same time, fry some chopped garlic. Put in the mince meat and Enoki Mushroom.
3. Put salt and pepper to taste.
4. Mashed your potatoes and mix in some butter.
5. Put your mince meat in a plate (suitable for baking) and put the mashed potato on top of it.
6. Line the cheese on top of the potato and bake till the cheese has melt.
7. Get ready your tummy for a yummilicious snack.

It's good, trust me. And SUPER EASY!