2011 Birthday Present

On the eve of my birthday, I was chatting with my Sis, nephew and niece through Facetime. The kids made me a Lego birthday cake and sang me birthday song. It made me really homesick. I made me drop a few tears but I got back to normal pretty quickly as well. That's something I have to constantly adjust and get use to. Can't have everything in the world. I gain some and lose some.

Enough of all the emotion, back to happy event. Past midnight, I was still chatting with Sis and Mr. suggested I better start hunting for my present. Last year, he hid my present as well and it only took me less than a minute. That was because I knew what he was planning. Accidentally spotted him on KA website. This time round I was total clueless, I was shocked! In fact I spend 2 minutes repeating this question " You really bought me something? When did you have the time to sneak a trip to the shop?". When I finally believed him, I didn't know where to start. Although the current house is not extremely big but there's 3 rooms plus quite a bit of storage cabinets. Most important, I don't know what I'm looking for! How big or small is the present???

The kids got involved started giving me suggestion and asking where am I etc. It did take me a while as I'm expecting a small gift. Don't ask me why but that was the 6th sense at that moment. But I was wrong. The gift was huge and heavy! Definitely something from Matchbox when I spotted the wrapping style.


Same wrapping paper and ribbon as last year.


Kids were both excited when present was found and kept shouting for me to open it up quickly as they were curious too.


Did you manage to guess it right? It's a KA food processor. A kitchen appliance which being missing from my kitchen counter .

It was definitely a surprise. How did Mr. know I wanted one? I had never mention to him before. In fact I was still trying to come up enough reason to convince myself that I need one.

While admiring my new toy, Mr. again suggested to start searching for present #2. This time round I spend even more time reassuring that wasn't something he made up to give me a good work out before bedtime.

It was a lot harder to hunt for present #2. Again without knowing what I'm searching and already looked at all the highly possible areas, I hadn't left with much choices. I almost wanted to give up but Mr. said if I can't find it, it will go back to the shop :( No idea how true but I chose to believe it. Sister who was still online was helping by suggesting areas to look even though she had never being to my place before.


Finally I found present #2 hidden among all the unfolded packing boxes we had in the study room.




It's a Pasta Press attachment for my KA stand mixer!

Mr. know I being eyeing on a pasta machine and decided to buy this when he came across it at the shops. I was shocked how expensive it was when I surfed KA website the next day. Well I can't really scold him for spending so much right? Lucky it's only once a year. :P

Yesterday I finally had the time to study, learn and play with my 2 new toys. It took me awhile trying to figure out the food processor. It has a total of 3 bowls and 2 blades. A large working bowl which matches the big blade. A 4-cup small bowl which matches the small blade. What about the medium bowl? The mini blade is too small and the large blade is too big. After reading the manual at least twice, I finally figure out that the medium bowl is require only when using the shredding disc.

I made a batch of pasta. Using the food processor to make the pasta dough and the pasta press to make the pasta. I only play with 1 pasta disc out of the 6 which came with it. Felt I had too little dough to play with all. I wasn't feeling very confident too and had a Plan B as backup if I needed to.


It didn't take me long to feed all the dough thru the pasta press. 


I didn't end up with lots of pasta as well. Just enough for dinner for 2 and Mr. night supper. It tasted alright but both of us felt the pasta was a bit too thick. Not too sure because of the type or because the dough. Need to have more play to find the answer.





I didn't follow the basic pasta recipe from KA manual book. Came across another recipe while I was researching on the pasta press before playing and decided to try that instead. Plus it was a smaller volume recipe. I tweaked it further by using just egg yolk instead of whole egg.

Egg Pasta Recipe 
1 1/2 cups Italian '00' flour (original called for all purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g egg yolks (original asked for 2 eggs)
1 tablespoon oil
Enough water to mixed into a dough (original didn't state water but mine seem too dry)

Comfort food - Mince Chicken with 3 Eggs(salted egg, century egg and egg) Congee

 Congee with You Tiao(chinese donut)


Congee is definitely my comfort food. I love love love congee, a bit of white pepper, drizzle a little sesame oil and I can have 2 HUGE bowl at a time. Though it's my favourite food, it's definitely not for Minster. It's one of the few dishes which he dislike. I even have to force him to have congee when he's sick. But recently he's beginning to accept it and able to finish a reasonable potion by himself. c") 


There's a huge variation in congee: Teochew style, Cantonese style. Different country has their own different way of cooking congee too.


My favourite is cantonese congee. White rice is cooked till it's totally dissolved. Texture of the congee is smooth, like thick liquid. It's not easy to achieve that consistency. Long hours constant stirring standing in front of the stove is required. 

My trick to shorten the process but still able to achieve that is to

# 1 - Use broken rice

# 2 - Soak the rice as long as possible (Best is overnight)

# 3 - Use my tiger thermal pot!!! It not only save on gas bill, it also save me a lot of time from standing in front of the stove and also chances of burning my congee is zero.

I also like to cook it with chicken stock if available instead of water to make it more flavoursome. I also like to diced up carrot, potatoes and dump everything in while cooking. It makes the congee sweet and I'm having my fibre intake.

Cookware Purchased on Boxing Day

This are the two cookware which I purchased during Boxing Day sale. I had tried using the 20cm fry pan and I love it. As for the wok, it's kept safely in my storeroom at the moment. I will only take it out when my current wok start giving way which I reckon won't be too far away. 

2009 Boxing Day Shopping

Ho ho ho ho!!! CL and me just got home from Doncaster Westfield. Got there after 8am to report for boxing day shopping. Spend 5 hours and ended up with a gigantic hole in his credit card our pocket.

I manage to buy a really nice jacket!! A pair of shoe and half year supply of intimate apparel. CL manage to buy some tops which we happened to hunt them down by luck.

I added some cookware for the kitchen again. This time a 20cm Jamie Oliver pan and a Jamie Oliver wok. Will post the photos up later.

Mei Cai Kou Rou (Pork with Preserved Vegetable)

The 1st dish I cook with my newly purchase 27cm Oval French Oven is Mei Cai Kou Rou (Pork with Preserved Vegetable). It's a Hakka dish which I learned from mummy and I haven't cook it for quite some time.

The size is just right. I'm amazed that the content doesn't get overflow when boiling even with the lid fully closed!

Last night, I cook a pot of Korean style beef soup with my 20cm black French Oven. Opps I didn't manage to take any photos. I will try to remember next time. :)

Dinner tonight will be grilling some thinly sliced beef and pork purchased from Suzuran with the square skillet. Yummm.....can't wait!

Le Creuset

The title says it all! I just own a Le Creuset cookware.

Not one, not two but three pieces!!!!!

The plan before we left the house to Doncaster Westfield was to search for the best bargain on a Le Creuset skillet grill. I never expect to find it at DJ + a 50% discount! I'm definitely getting it.

As DJ having promotion on all Le Creuset cookware range for 30-50% discount. CL decided to let me buy more since I have being "eyeing" it for so long.



After some discussion especially on what size to buy, what color, what shape etc. We finally came to a decision.


A blue 27cm Oval French Ovens, a black 20cm French Ovens and a 26cm square skillet grill.

Kitchenware

It's time to change the old Jamie Oliver tefal frying pan which we when I first landed in Melbourne. The non-stick layer isn't really a non-stick anymore + it's peeling off.

This time round, I chose a Scanpan Fusion 5 frying pan. CL paid for it :)
This is a slightly bigger and much heavier pan. I'm beginning to love this pan because it's easy to heat up plus retain heat really well. Does takes a bit of time getting use to coz it doesn't have the non-stick coating. CL still prefer a pan which is non-stick but since I'm the 1 doing most of the cooking and kitchen is my territory. He let me chose it. We are still hunting for a smaller frying pan with non-stick coating for him though.



He also bought me another Scanpan item during the boxing day sale. It's a 7 liters pot. I always wanted a big pot for me to boil chicken stock, fish stock etc. Since I have the space to freeze the stock, it should be economical rather than using packet stock.

Op Shop Discovery: Ice Cream Maker

During my lunch break last week, I went to the nearby pharmacy to get more cough mixture (yes, I still have the nasty cough which I went back to the doctor on Fri and got a much stronger antibiotic + a puff) and popped into the op shop to look for more story books. Yes, I admit. I'm buying story books so much faster than I able to finish reading them. I can't help it! It only 3 for $2 which I did get 3 books.

I also found a ice cream maker!!!
It was rather dirty, old looking, manual operated ice cream maker. I spend some to inspect all parts and it's all in working condition. Only concern was the inner container which I will need to freeze before using. If the liquid doesn't freeze very well, it also mean I won't be able to churn the ice cream probably.

But it's something which I always wanted to add to my kitchen. It's small, just nice for 2 of us. Manual operated which I like (make you work before eating). It's MADE IN JAPAN! (antique!)

The lady initially told me it's selling at $10 but offer me at $8. Hmmm a good bargin isn't it? Alright, can't do much with $8 nowaday and decided to give it a try.

After cleaning it, it looks new isn't it???

Started freezing the inner pot + mixing all the ingredients for Green Tea Ice Cream yesterday. Started churning it just now. OMG! It's really manual work but I like it :)

Before churning

After 25mins of manual churning.

The instrustion in the box actually state churning for 20mins but no harm giving it another 5 mins right? The only problem I have is how do I tell it's time to stop during churning???



End product ready to be popped into the freezer to continue freezing.

Will try to get CL to tast some tonight and see what he thinks. I'm still trying to resist the temptation before I fully recover.

Homemake ice cream party anyone???

Excursion to Prahan Market

Activity for this morning was excursion to Prahan Market! Finally CL wasn't working this weekend and suggested to go Prahan Market last night. Of course I happily agreed.

Prahan Market is a dangerous zone for me therefore CL try ways and means not to enter. You will slowly discover why as you read on.

We woke up really early! Even earlier then my normal working day. We were afraid having problem finding a parking spot.

1st priority was to fill out hungry tummy. I had scrambled eggs on sourdough toast while CL had egg benedict and with our favourite Mocha.

Breakfast wasn't very fantastic but we love their sourdough bread. They also sell fresh baked bread. In the end we bought 3 small dinner rolls for tomorrow dinner.

Next stop was The Essential Ingredient. I totally loved this place! It's my shopping paradise! They sell everything you need in the kitchen! Cook books, food (spices, all kind and types of oils, rice, flour, nuts, jams, pasta etc....you name it, they have it) cookware, bakeware, good set of knives and electrical appliances (they have a roll of KitchenAid stand mixer is all available colors!....hinted CL that I like to have a PINK 1 on my kitchen bench top when we purchase our own shelter...hehe).

Price tags in The Essential Ingredient are on the high side too. I wanted to bring the whole store home! But CL stopped me if not who knows how much less in my account when I step out of the shop. The only purchase we did was a small frying pan which will be used to fry egg (CL loved to have an fried egg with his instant noodle)
CL and the new purchase.

As we were browsing in the fresh food session, I was also looking out for Monsieur Truffe booth. I read about its chocolate truffle from a few Melbourne food blogs and wanted to try for myself what is so great about his chocolate. When we walked past, "I heard they are very famous" is what I told CL. He wasn't tempted but he knows I am therefore we stopped to check the booth out.

There were 10 different favous of truffle on display for tasting. Hazlenut was the 1st we tried and immediately we bought a box of 12. I continue tasting and went for the Mexican Chipotle Chilli. It wasn't spicy enough for me. He suggested to try Passionfruit and Lime. I was surprised when I pop the lime truffle into my mouth. I love the chocolate melting and at the same time adding a slight sour taste. I love it but we didn't buy any as CL don't really like it. But we bought a box of 6 for Passionfruit. I know CL will like it when I tasted it and insisted he tried some.

Box of Hazlenut Truffle of 12.

We also ended up buying Wagyu Beef Burger. We are going to have that for tomorrow dinner with the dinner rolls. Can't wait to taste it!

As for tonight, we going to have Sashimi with some sushi and fresh oysters. Yum!!!!!

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a day to shop in Melbourne. Myer start trading at 0600 in the morning. David Jones at 0700 and all other major shop at 0800.

Hubby and me were at Melbourne Center before 0800 on Boxing Day. He just knocked off from work at 0730 and suggested to head straight to the city to do our shopping. Planning to finish by noon and head back home for his precious sleep. It wasn't a bad idea for me as long as he is able to take it.

1st stop: Sportcraft at Melbourne Center. We were their 1st customer and Hubby bought a pair of casual pants at $70(one and only one) and me a scarf at $19.

2nd stop: Country Road but it wasn't open yet so went to Myer. At Myer Mens Department, he bought 2 long sleeve shirt from Country Road. Usual price $140 each but selling at $90. We had a further 20% discount because we are Country Road member which also mean the shirt only cost us $67.50 each!

3rd stop: Myer Kitchenware Department. I wanted a good set of knives and was hoping to get a good bargin. I was disappointed because there isn't much knives left. :( But we got a juice Extractor. Hubby loves drinking juice and this has being on our list for at least 6 months. It cost us $160. I tried it out yesterday and it is powerful.



4th stop: Myer Electrical Department. DVD Recorder + Digital Decoder was next on the list. After discount, I still found it too expensive. So was strike off from our list. There isn't any discount offered on ITouch so Hubby didn't mention of getting one.

5th stop: Myer Womans Department. Running low of my facial stuff. Even without discount, I still got to have it. Manage to get a free gift :). Mini facial stuff which is handy when I travel or going to gym.

6th stop: Mens Department again. Hubby needed more underwear. Got a pack of 6 Bonds. Before discount was more than $20 and we paid $18.

7th stop: Country Road at Melbourne Center. I tried on a dress. Before discount cost $250 and now selling at $170. Hubby insisted of me trying them on as he find it nice. I did and size 10 was too big and size 6 was too small. In the end, I save $170.

8th stop: French Connection at Melbourne Center. Hubby did not manage to get any jeans. Most of the sizes were sold out.

9th stop: Adairs at Melbourne Center. We needed an extra set of bedsheet for Summer. After spending more than half an hour deciding, we bought a 1000 tread Sheet Set for $190. I don't used to believe spending so much on bedsheet but an ex-colleague used to tell me he spend a lot on bedsheet. He believed each person spend half of his life on the bed, having a good bed + good bedsheet is very important. After I bought my own 1000 tread bedsheet last year, I discover the different and agreed with him.

Last stop: King of Knives at Melbourne Center. I bought a set of knives. It cost so much that I didn't even dare to mention the price. We save more than $100 after discount. Good bargin? It's something I wanted long ago and told Hubby to get it for me as X'mas present. Prepared dinner yesterday with them and OMG! They were so sharp and cutting has become an easy job for me. I will be taking very good care of them and hope they will last me for ages.

At the end of the shopping spree, we were happy and sad. Happy because we bought a lot of stuff and did save an amount. Sad because we burn a big hole in our pocket.
Hubby says he is going to do his major shopping during mid year sales and Boxing Day sale. But we have to shop on the 1st day it start, if not we won't be able to find the right size especially on clothing. He plan to shop before Boxing Day ,make a list of item with sizes and just grab and go during Boxing Day. That way we won't have to wait for fitting room and waste time shopping around. I was pretty surprise that he is able to think of that....haha

Sassafras, Mt Dandenong

I just got home from Sassafras village at Dandenong Ranges. Peter, my boss bought me there for lunch last year when we were working at Glaxo in Boronia. Being wanting to bring Hubby there and I did today.
Sassafras is a little village about 45km away from the city. It took hubby about an hour to drive. Activity we did were shop and eat, very typical of us.
We shopped at their local shops like Bluestone Candles which we bought an aroma candle (it can burn for 65 hours!!) which is made from Bee Wax. Learn about Bee Wax and found it so cool + environmental friendly because no chemical is used. Now the car booth smells like lavender because of the candle. We were quite amazed by the power of the candle. Plus the candles made purely from Bee Wax smell like honey!
Finally found a teapot we both love at Tea Leaves. When we enter Tea Leaves, Hubby commented if we can't find something we both like here, we can forget about getting a teapot because they have such a huge range of teapots, cups, teaspoon, tea filter, anything you can think off when you think of tea. There are over 300 varieties of tea for you to choose from!


We had our lunch at Miss Marple's. I read about the place from a Melbourne girl blog and went to check it out. It was located at a very good location, there is no way you will miss it. The place is small, cosy and crowded! I'm quite surprised that they don't allow for reservation. Although it's crowded, we managed to get a table within 15 minutes wait. It was hard to decide what to eat because everything in the Menu seems so nice.
Btw, photos are taken using Hubby Nokia N80 because we onlu found out that our Canon digital camera wasn't working when we were there. That's why no photos on the place itself.
Miss Marple's Menu
Miss Marple's Interior Design

I decided to try their famous scones and Hubby a beef cottage pie. We even ordered their famous finger halfway though our meal as Hubby still has space in his tummy...hehe

Hubby patiently waiting for his food.

1st to arrive, Hubby IPSY WIPSY... Soft-drink spider + my pot of tea at the back.

Also 'Miss Marple's Own' delicious home-made jam and freshly whipped cream for my Scones.
Next were
Cottage Pie: Beef
This Country England speciality is a delicious potato topped pie accompanied by Miss Marple's Own sauce.

Devonshire Scones
Miss Marple's world renowned specialty - 1 Plain Scones and 1 Fruit Scones

Me and my Scone covered with Jam

Lastly,Miss Marple’s Famous Finger:Fresh Chicken, Chesse and Asparagus Finger

Let talk me introduce the pie 1st. There isn't any crust on the pie. It uses a oval baking dish to contain the food. The beef is finely minced and juicy, smashed potato is smooth. It taste fantastic.
As for the Scones, it is tall and huge! It taste so good that Hubby say this is the place if we have craving for Scones. It's not too soft or hard and most important it does not taste dry. Together with the jam, it just make me fall in love with Scones.
We actually wanted to have dessert but notice that a lot of customers are having fingers. Decided to tack along with them an ordered a share. OMG! We did not make a wrong move. You should see Hubby expression when he took the 1st mouth. I kept asking him how he find them. "You got to taste it yourself" was his answer. It is so nice! Moist on the inside, super crunchy at the base and fully covered with melted cheese. Seriously no idea how they do it.