Unwrapping A Package Of Stroopwafels...

I received a wonderful surprise in the mail. Stroopwafels!!! OMG. It was my first, and now I'm hooked!

Braised Mushroom Noodles

This is one of my experiments! I braised three types of mushroom (shitake, enoki and straw) for an hour or so, and added it to some egg noodles. It was pretty good!

Thursday's Breakfast...

I'm not the sort to have breakfast in the morning, but I couldn't resist the little mochi that my sis sent over in one of the care packages!!! The white one has a mung bean filling, the tan one has a peanut filling, and there's a black sesame paste in the the last one. Delish!!!

Hamachi

For lunch, I had some sliced hamachi. It was sooooo good!!! Note that the package says "For Institutional Use Only". That was $20 well spent!

Carrot Cake Cheesecake

What sort of dessert does one bring for an office potluck? Who knows. For some reason or other, I decided to bake a carrot cake cheesecake. Not that I've ever made one in my lifetime. Actually, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. Both of the cake batters were a breeze to assemble, but the frosting recipe didn't look quite right to me. Uh-huh. If anything, I'm a frosting sorta girl. Hence, I was forced to come up with an alternate concoction! Picture time!!! Here's a shot of the cake, sans frosting.


And here's a shot of the frosted cake...after I've done my bit of decorating!

Sherried Glazed Walnuts

What do you do with a pound of walnuts? Why, one should definitely glaze them with a dry sherry mixture!

Broccoli and Beef...

Or is it Beef and Broccoli. Meh. I forget. Not that it matters. I've never quite mastered the art of stir-frying. After a quick search through my vast collection of cookbooks, I found a recipe I wanted to try. The veggies were steamed (piece of cake there!) and the beef was marinated (in a concoction of soy sauce, sesame oil, dry sherry, pepper and sugar) before a quick fry in the wok. It turned out quite tasty!

Mama's Grilled Pork Chops

A pinch of this, and a pinch of that. That's the way my mum makes her pork chops. Unfortunately, that never quite works out for me. My 'pinches' always seem to turn out differently and I'm never able to duplicate what mama makes *sigh* Still edible though.

Satay Chicken

Instead of threading chunks of marinated chicken pieces on skewers, I decided to simplify things by marinating the chicken for three days and grilling them on Ethan (George met with an untimely death, and Ethan's his replacement).

Chicken Biryani

Ingredients: Basmati rice, Chicken, Water, Tomatoes, Yogurt, Vegetable Oil, Onions, Cashews, Garlic, Ginger, Salt, Chili Powder, Black Pepper, Cardamon, Tumeric, Cumin, Mint, Cloves, and Cinnamon.

Leftovers

I haven't been cooking much lately. In fact, I've been eating out quite a bit *embarrassed* Here are the lovely leftovers I brought home from Romano's Marcaroni Grill. Looks almost as good as homemade, no?

Making Whoopie...

Well...whoopie pies, actually. Pillowy chocolate shells with a rich cream cheese filling. A colleague brought this in for my birthday treat. They were scrumptious!

Sayur Lodeh

A popular Indonesian coconut vegetable stew that goes well with steamed rice. Since I couldn't get my hands on all the ingredients I needed to make a proper Sayur Lodeh, I settled for an improvised version.

Ingredients: Tom Kha spice mix, cream of coconut, fried garlic, minced onions, shredded cabbage, chopped zucchini, french beans, flash frozen fresh mushrooms and tofu curds.

Fresh Mozzarella with Rotini

A tri-colour rotini and cubed fresh mozzarella, tossed in a basil mushroom marinara sauce. Delish.

A Liquid Holiday Dinner...

Every year, Jones Soda Co. produces a limited edition 'Holiday Pack' of holiday-themed sodas. At the end of 2006, I finally caved and shelled out some hard-earned cash to see what the hype was about. Heck, I even found three somewhat-willing participants (my sis, my BIL and my mama) for my taste test experiments! Here's what we thought of the sodas:

Turkey & Gravy Soda - This was exceptionally gross. It tasted like sweetened brown gravy! Thankfully, we could not detect the turkey element in the soda *shudder*

Pea Soda - This wasn't too bad. It smelled like veggies, but it tasted rather bland.

Sweet Potato Soda - This was actually rather pleasant. It tasted like canned sweet potatoes.

Dinner Roll Soda - OMG. This one takes the cake. It was deceptively mild at first, but the butter aftertaste was definitely unpalatable!

Antacid Soda - This one tasted just like the pink stuff (i.e. Pepto-Bismol). My mama actually liked it and remarked that it reminded her of rootbeer?!?

Verdict? It was unanimously decided that we should stick with the regular sodas!

Chocolate Rum Hedgehogs

The nondescript lump of cookie dough I previously blogged about has blossomed! After allowing it to mature in the fridge for three days, I worked on it this evening. Voila! Chocolate rum hedgehogs - the perfect touch of whimsy and indulgence for the adults who remain kids at heart.



While the hedgehogs were chilling in the fridge, I assembled a bunch of supplies to package them. I thought about poking holes in the plastic baggies to let the hedgehogs breathe, but decided it might not be a good idea to let the rum vapours escape! All done and ready to be handed out tomorrow!


A forlorn hedgehog, waiting to meet its new owner...

A Cookie Teaser...

This is one of my favourite holiday recipes. Hence, I prepped a double batch of it this weekend!!! For optimum results, the mixture needs to hang out in the fridge for a couple of days before consumption. Rats. I'm not a patient person, and I'll admit that I've been sneaking a few bits, erm, for quality control reasons...obviously.

A Sprinking of Powdered Sugar...

Does wonders! It transforms mounds of pale, ugly cookies into snowballs! These cookies are also known as Russian Teacakes! For this batch, I chose finely chopped pecans as the nut component in the cookie mixture. In the past, I've experimented with finely chopped almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. Honestly, I can't pick a favourite out of the lot...they're all good!

Pecan Crusted Chicken Tenderloins

This was the weekend for holiday baking (more on that later) and when the madness died down, I realized that I had a cup of finely chopped pecans left over from the morning's activities. After checking the contents of my freezer, I decided on a baked chicken dish. The chicken tenderloins were given a liberal coating of mayo before they were dredged in a mixture of pecans and seasoned breadcrumbs. While the chicken was cooking, I whipped up a dipping sauce of spicy brown mustard, honey, and mayo (yes, I love mayo). All looked well, and I was feeling rather smug. Well, all was NOT well. As I started putting away the condiments, I dropped my newly purchased 32 oz of mayo on my kitchen floor. Thankfully, the jar was plastic. Unfortunately, it still shattered. Is it any wonder I eat out as frequently as I do?!?

Tofu and Minced Meat Stir Fry

Last night's dinner. Simple. Nourishing. Hits the spot.