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.

Let Us Give Thanks...

For family, good friends and good food. Thanksgiving 2006 was a quiet and laidback affair. Just two people...and plenty of leftovers!

We uncorked this while cooking!

Out of the oven, and ready for the tummy!

Savoury sausage apple cornbread stuffing

Fat-free and giblet-free turkey gravy

Garlic mashed potatoes

Herbed Green Beans

Orange Cranberry Compote

We cooked all morning but we were done eating in half an hour.

Last but not least, a slice of sweet potato pie!

Baked Mac and Cheese

A classic macaroni and cheese recipe, spiced with hot pepper sauce, ground mustard and Worcestershire sauce...and baked to perfection!

Amish Macaroni Salad

A rather straightforward recipe of creamy dressing, chopped hard-cooked eggs, relish, chopped celery and cooked macaroni. I omitted the red peppers since I can't handle them. It was alright when I made it up, but it was a tad dry when I had it for lunch. Perhaps I need to add sour cream or something to the mix.

Chana Masala

Also known as Chana Chole. It's chickpeas simmered in a spicy sauce. The recipe usually calls for the addition of potatoes. Since I'm eating it with basmati rice, I decided to omit the potatoes.

Veggie Fried Rice

A great meatless option, since I'm not consuming any meat, poultry or seafood items until Thanksgiving Day. First off, I'm not all that keen on carrots...but I like it in my fried rice! This version contains minced garlic, thinly sliced shallots, carrots, peas, eggs, and of course, rice. In place of the usual seasonings, I decided to go with a freshly ground coriander, pepper and salt mix.

Sandwich Fillings

For our office Halloween potluck, I decided to prepare a couple of sandwich fillings - spicy mustard egg salad and cranberry pecan chicken salad. The egg salad recipe is an old standby that I've had in my recipe stash since my 'can't cook but need to eat something decent' days. Over the years, I have tried many versions of chicken salad and they have been mediocre at best. Hence, my mission was to get my grubby fingers on the best chicken salad recipe ever! CC came to my rescue! She raved about her perfect chicken salad recipe...and she's right. It is perfect!!!

Sweet Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup

For some reason or other, when Autumn comes around, I'm in the mood to prepare big vats of soup! After a quick survey of the contents of my fridge and my pantry, I decided to make a batch of hearty veggie soup with crumbled sweet Italian sausage.

Honey Lemon Chicken

The chicken breast pieces were marinated for 24 hours in a tangy honey, lemon, and tomato sauce before being grilled on George.

Keema Mattar

A Northern Indian and Pakistani dish featuring minced meat (in this case, beef was used instead of lamb) and peas!

Tea Shortbread

Well, it's not tea AND shortbread. It's tea flavoured shortbread! Brilliant, no? I baked half batches, using three types of tea: Double Bergamot Earl Grey, Jasmine Green Tea and Masala Chai. As I was preparing the cookie dough, I couldn't resist sampling the goods. They were very good. The finished baked versions are just as awesome!! Each cookie is buttery, fragrant, and crisp. I can't wait to experiment with other varieties of tea. Perhaps I should also consider replacing the tea leaves with flowers (rose, lavender, linden)!

Murgh Makhani with Garlic Naan

I 'accidentally' upped the cayenne content for the murgh makhani (butter chicken) and it's really, really, spicy!!! When I'm not feeling lazy, I usually cook a pot of basmati rice. This evening, I decided on garlic naan instead. It was a good dinner!

Quick Foo Yung Hai

If you order Egg Foo Yung in an American Chinese restaurant, you usually get a deep-fried egg patty filled with vegetables and meat or seafood, with a side of gravy. What's up with the gravy?!? That's not what I grew up on! My mama's version is sort of a scrambled omelette dish with crab meat, veggies and roast pork...and definitely no gravy on the side! This evening, I made a simplified version with shredded carrots, eggs and imitation crab meat. Not as good as mama's, but still edible!