Why bother?

I cannot decide if I just want my nails painted or get acrylic nails for our wedding dinner next month. I was thinking of getting my nails done here before going home because I might not have time when I get home to get my nails done plus I don't know a manicurist. I was talking to a BFF last week about having acrylic nails. Some people told me that it hurts a the beginning when you get acrylic nails but then you will get used to it and some people told me that he doesn't hurt at all. So me being me the crazy one decide to just get the nails painted but now I wonder why do I even bother wasting time and money getting the nails painted. I didn't want to get acrylic nails yesterday because I knew that it would not last till next month so I thought painting it yesterday would be a better option anyway it is not that the manicurist didn't do a good job but the problem here is I am too rough. I have housework to do and I think I have already chipped a few nails. I now know why people get acrylic nails because it is suppose to last longer and doesn't chip that easy. One of the few housework that needs to get done everyday is washing dishes. Since I am not working I don't expect hubby to wash his dishes after he eats because I am home. I think I chipped my nails doing dishes but I'm not sure because I had to wash the dogs leash and vacuum the carpet too.
BFF have a manicurist that she goes to every two weeks and I'm hoping that by the time I get home I will have time to visit the manicurist (I only trust a certain manicurist because I've heard that some people don't sanitize their equipment etc) since my friend goes there all the time. If not I guess I will just get it painted probably at a near by mall.

I just want to give up..throw up the white flag!!

I think hubby is right. I think we should give up the two dogs (although deep in me still wants to keep one). Sadie did it again. She pooped on the carpet yesterday night and JUST NOW! I thought keeping a close watch on her or just tying her by me would stop it but it was too late when I saw it because I was on the computer!Yeah I can be blamed because I was not paying attention!But I just can't sit and look at her all day long. I guess if I do want to keep her this is what I'll have to do or put her in her crate. After that incident I put both her and Milo in the crate. I can't deal with them at this time. I know is not Milo's fault but then both their leash had some poop on it too so I have to wash them and keep them crated..I just wish everyday that she will be accident free. Everyday I am about to announce that she/they are accident free she does it again..I think I'm about to give up! No wonder hubby just want our lives back with just Stanley. We went through a lot with Stanley too but then he eventually got trained thank god!I love both of them too much to want to give up but I don't have the will power to do it now.

Lazy or busy?

When I first started dog sitting I barely did anything around the house. All I could do was cook in the kitchen because I wanted to confine the dogs in the kitchen so if any of the guest had accidents it was easy for me to clean. Anyway I could not longer sit in the kitchen and not really doing anything apart from cooking and cleaning my kitchen. I had a few laundry basket that was FULL with clean laundry and it was getting wrinkled from being taken out from the dryer and just sitting there. I still don't really trust Milo (the black chihuahua) and Sadie (the brown chihuahua) yet. At first we thought that Sadie was housebroken because she didn't have any accident the first day she was here while Milo had two and a half(half was because he squirted a little but I managed to catch him in time) then it all went down hill. She pooped twice (once on my carpet [thank god we need to change the flooring anyway] and once on the kitchen floor) and pee twice which I think it was my fault she had to go really bad and I was taking my sweet time while getting them ready to go out. The first time when she did it on the carpet I was taking a shower and hubby was suppose to watch them. I was so proud and was going to announce to Aunt and Uncle Richie that they were day 1 accident free until she pooped near where Aunt sat..argghhh...told hubby that we have to watch them because they will get into trouble! (that's the reason why hubby doesn't want to keep both and have three dogs because he doesn't like spending all his time keeping an eye on them) Anyway the other time was hubby took her out in the morning and didn't tell me that she didn't poo so I allowed her to run around thinking she did and when I turned around there was poo on my floor (arghhhh)!
I am not able to do anything because I need to watch the two of them closely just in case..It is very easy to spot if Milo needs to do anything but Sadies is a little more difficult. ANYWAY.....I actually managed to do some stuff around the house. I cleaned the shower, and the sink, vacuum the floor upstairs and folded and kept the mountain of laundry before hubby came home. I did all these after I came home from lunch with hubs. I had to leash them up to the stairs railing so that they can see me and I can see what they are doing and yet not let them roam/round around freely in the house.
I am also in this HUGE dilemma. I love both of them dearly and hubby wants to find Milo and Sadie a good home but I do want to keep one of them..*headache* I know for sure I can't handle THREE dogs and I cannot keep Milo and Sadie but the worst part is I don' t know which one I should keep. I love both of them sooooo much...Hubby wants our life to be "normal" again just with Stanley. I want our life to be "normal" again too but then both of them are so very attached to me. Hubby with be carrying one of them as soon as I sit down both of them will start jumping on my lap. Even if I am carrying Sadie (she jumps on me once she sees me sitting) and other people (ie hubby or aunt/uncle Richie or anyone else) or if anyone else carrying either of them once I start sitting both of them WILL come to me. The other day hubby and I were sitting next to each other looking on the computer; hubs had Milo while I had Sadie the next thing I know Milo starts climbing over to me so I gave Sadie to hubby she sat on hubs lap for a while and climbed back to me then I pass Milo back to hubs and he'll sit for a bit and climbed back to me..yeah you get the story back and forth..so I just end up holding two!How can I choose?How can I even let them go? I am not sure what I should do??I wish that one of the family member can keep them but it is impossible so I am not even going to look into that route..

Pigging Out

Most weekends hubby and I eat really well (most weekdays too). Hubby and I (me more so) get so stuff during the weekend that working out during the week is just a waste or you can say to burn off the pounds that I put on weekend.
I actually started my feast on Friday when I ate a huge breakfast and then hubby came and pick me up for lunch for some Mexican Food (for some reason we are ALWAYS stuffed after a Mexican meal). Dinner we resorted to just snacking because we were still full.
Saturday I got up very early because I was really hungry from not eating the night before. I told hubby I wanted Japanese food and off we went to a Japanese buffet place. This place was really nice and the food was pretty good but the price was pretty steep. I didn't know that it was so expensive because when I read about this place on the Internet the price there was cheaper. I might have gotten this place confused with another one and we should have asked how much it was before digging in! After that we walked around the mall for a little bit and headed home. At night we feasted again. To make things worst we weren't really hungry but because I already defrosted the steak and I didn't want to go to be hungry again I decided that we should cook dinner. Dinner consist of Steak marinated with home mix spices, Saute mushroom, Saute peppers with onions and Scallop potatoes. Once again we were STUFFED!..

Meat Marinate

Ingredients
3-4 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of paprika
2 teaspoons of ground pepper
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of coriander

Method
Mix all spices together.
Sprinkle generously on meat.

I normally try and marinate my meat over night or for days. Sometimes when I am not feeling lazy I will marinate my meat and freeze them up separately so when I/we want to cook them we just defrost a pack of it. If I am in a hurry I just dump the seasoning on it and leave it to marinate until ready to cook. I also mix up a bottle of this seasoning so when I need is ready to go.

Sunday we got up and had breakfast. I op for something light which is granola with milk while hubby had french toast, eggs, sausage and bacon (I ate some of his bacon too). We then just hung out in the house trying to clean and unpack stuff etc...We invited Aunt and Uncle Richie over for dinner because we were going to grill some hamburgers and brats. For dinner we stuffed ourselves full again O_O (Nothing new now). I mixed some ground beef up with some barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, dried onions, crumbled crackers and two eggs. I think I should have just used one egg because hubby said that it was breaking apart..Trial and error..I always mix my ground beef with different stuff (more like what ever I can think of and what ever I have handy) We had some chips, Scallop potato, baked beans and pickles. No dessert because I didn't have time to make anyway. Before we made dinner we were busy running around to get our house ready for the couch we got.
I really need to get my fat ass to the gym this week to lose all the fat!The worst and most unhealthy thing about me is when I ate the steak I normally and love to only eat the fat part (don't ask me why I just loved it) and the side dishes..So yeahh I need to lose some weight before I get home end of the month or else...*faint*

My Three Little Pigs

When hubby first brought home Milo(Black one) and Sadie(Brown one) they barely ate I think is because they are trying to get adjusted etc. The next day Sadie was showing signs that she was adjusting pretty well because she would eat anything given to her on the other hand Milo would only eat the biscuits that I made. Finally he would eat a couple of dogs food here and there when I fed him from my hands. He would not eat from the bowl too and finally one day hubby put his food on the floor and he ate it all up from there. Milo is tiny and a very slow eater which sucks because Stanley and Sadie would gobbled up their food and prey on Milo's food that's on the floor. I have to yell at them to get away from Milo. When Milo is eating I cannot do anything else except watch him because the other two pigs would rush to eat his food. I noticed yesterday even Milo wants to eat all the time hence I have THREE little pigs now. I try to give Milo a huge treat in the middle of the day because Milo is just skin and bones. He's so skinny that hubby said we have to help him put on some weight. Yesterday while I was busy making dinner Milo jump on top of the dog food container and tried to open it/bite the cover so I quickly took a treat and dump it in the crate and lock him up so that he can eat his crate in peace while I'm cooking. The other two just sat in front of the crate looking at Milo. I feel bad but then I don't want to feed the other two too much because I don't want to be fat!

Everyone wants to be on mummy's lap..*smack head*

Sadie is very attached to me because every time when I sit down on the chair she will jump on me and Milo will follow after her. Milo is just like a little cat jumping everywhere!Anyway since they are both always on my lap when I'm there I think Stanley feels it too because he will jump on me too. Can you imagine having three dogs on your lap all at once. I am trying very very hard to give everyone the same attention because I don't want anyone especially Stanley to feel slighted(Stanley is used to all the attention he used to get before we found them). We try to give Stanley more attention cuddling him and telling him we love him when we are in bed. I hope that he understands that he's still very important to us that we will never ever get ride of him.
Anyhow we kind off feel that three dogs is quite a lot for us especially if we kind off planned to try for a baby next year. Ideally it would be nice to get ride of both together in the same house because they belong together but then I do want to keep one. I really do want to keep both but then I cannot watch two at once and Stanley. In our hearts we kind off know who we want to keep but then hubby is kind off think that it would be a great idea to just give away the two of them. I have put ads up about them being missing and so far no one has come forward to claim them back.

Key Lime Cheese Cake

Last Saturday I was going to the store to buy one lime for the fajitas we were planning to make but then I don't think I saw ONE lime for sale so I bought a whole bag of lime. It was not that expensive and hubby said that if we managed to use half of it and the rest go bad it would not be that bad. Aiks with the current economy of course we need to save more and not waste any food right. I told him that I would squeeze the lime one by one and put it in the fridge before it goes bad so that we can always use it. Anyway with all the lime I have I decided to see what I can make with it. I googled and found Key Lime Pie. I didn't think that I was a Key Lime Pie fan (although I've never had it) and then I remembered seeing Key Lime Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory and I have been having cravings for cheesecake. I was going to bug hubby and uncle Richie(See which one would take me there first) to take me to The Cheesecake Factory but I was thinking I should probably try baking a cheesecake myself and if I'm still not satisfied then I can bug them. Anyway I made a Key Lime Cheesecake. I took a small bite from scooping it out for Uncle Richie because I was having dinner at that time. I got too full after eating dinner because I cooked up a storm yesterday too so I am going to attempt to eat it later. Hubby said that I should quickly eat it before uncle Richie comes back over tonight to finish it. Uncle Richie loved it so much that he took about half home. He said that as long as I keep baking this for him he's a happy camper and mind you he's supposed to be on Atkins diet I didn't think that he would take a huge slice home but as long as someone enjoys it I don't really care.

Key Lime Cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. grated lime peel

1/4-1/3 cup of fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Method
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar, peel, juice and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended.

POUR into crust.

BAKE 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Top with whipped topping just before serving. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

p/s: I omitted the whipped topping because I didn't have any and to save some calories and I decorated my cheesecake with grated lime peel. I think I might have put too much lime so it's a little sour for my taste. Adjust the lime accordingly to suit your taste.

Chimichangas and Red Sauce

Our Thanksgiving turkey was not that big but because we had so much food on the table the turkey was barely touched. Yesterday I decided to make some Chimichangas with the leftover turkey. They are so easy to make and is really delicious too.

Chimichangas
Ingredients:
2/3 cup picante sauce or your favorite salsa
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken/turkey, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 green onions, chopped with some tops (about 1/4 cup)
6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
shredded cheddar cheese, for serving (Optional)
chopped green onion, for serving (Optional)
picante sauce, for serving (Optional
Method
Mix chicken, picante sauce or salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions.
Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.
Fold opposite sides over filling.
Roll up from bottom and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.
Brush with melted margarine.
Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until golden.
Garnish with additional cheese and green onion and serve salsa on the side. (I pour red sauce on top to make it wet)


Red Sauce
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons flour
5 teaspoons red chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
6 ounces tomato paste
2 1/4 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
Method
Melt butter/margarine in a sauce pan.
Make a roux by browning flour in melted butter/margarine.
Add spices and tomato paste; stir until well blended into roux.
Add stock gradually, stirring constantly.
Heat until boiling.
Continue simmering and stirring until desired thickness is achieved.
Taste often to adjust spices as needed.
Pour over Chimichangas, Enchilada, Buritos etc before serving.

Apparently my Red Sauce was a little too spicy for hubby. I guess is because of the cayenne pepper. I made extra chimichangas and red sauce so if hubby wanted some he can just pop it in the oven to reheat again. I like this chimichanga because is not oily like the once you get at the restaurants.

Christmas Gifts

I cannot believe is already December. Time really flies and Christmas would be around the corner. I have already started my Christmas list not for myself but for family and friends. The most difficult person to buy a Christmas gift for is hubby because hubby has a lot of wants. Some of the price for the tools he wants is just outrageous! Also since we have moved so far we no longer have access to some of the tools that we could use if we were still living up North.

Maybe I could just go to La Police Gear and buy some cute tools for him. I know he don’t go hunting no more but then he does have plans to probably go back up North for deer hunting next year so maybe some of the tools/toys that I can get from here would be useful to him next year. I could probably get some for FIL and BIL too since they will go hunting every year.

Maybe buying Christmas gift for the guys won’t be that difficult after all this year. Now all I have to do is find something for the ladies. I wonder what hubby would be getting me for Christmas this year.


*this is a sponsor post*

Three Monster "Day Two"

I was awoken by a phone call at 3:30 am this morning and it was SIL. At first I thought that she might just have accidentally called me so I did not answer then she called hubby's phone. Her hubby is working and she had this terrible migraine and she wanted to go to the ER. She asked if I could go to the hospital with her and I said ok. We waited in the waiting room for about two hours and then waited again for about 10 minutes before a physician actually saw her. So much for EMERGENCY ROOM...*shake head*...Anyway they gave SIL a shot of something and then we had to wait about another 30 minutes again I think is to see if she was alright after the shot. She started to get drowsy so I dropped her off at her apartment and went home. I quickly took the two lil one out and went to bed. Asked if Hubby to deal with Stanley before he left for work so he took Stanley out and fed him then brought him back up stairs in bed with me. I slept on and off until about 1 pm..The two lil fellow was whining and then Stanley started barking after he hears them argghhh...just back and forth and back and forth...I was actually able to make lunch while tying them up to the door. I had a baby gate between the kitchen and the living room but the two lil fellow always try and work together and push the gate down and run out to the living room *slap forehead*

Trying to get a picture of all three

Laying on hubby's lap

Stanley and the black one

At about 3:30pm I left all of them in their respective crates and went to the gym. Hubby got back before me and I was hoping that he dealt with them but NOPE I had to deal with them when I got home! They are good dogs and they are both 100% lap dog which makes it difficult for me. They both want to be on laps and suddenly Stanley wants to be on the lap too...I only have a set of hands and legs..I can fit two lil fellow my legs or carry them both together but I cannot have Stanley too...I try and give Stanley more attention but then I have to watch the two lil fellow because they are not house trained. When hubby gets back he's not a great helper...he wants to be the nice person and let them run around but he doesn't freaking watch them closely! Accident here and there! I said to take them out he does other wise...argghhhhh.....They proceed to sit on him or if they sit on me i'll ask him to play with Stanley. Yesterday I had one on me and one one him and he had Stanley with him too. We don't want Stanley to feel left out in any way. Poor kor kor aka older brother (Stanley) they both don't really want to play with him and all kor kor wants to do is to play with them. They are starting to tolerate each other but we are not sure if we still want to keep the two lil fellow. I told hubby that is going to be so difficult if we want to have kids. We are going to need to deal with 3 dogs and a kid of two *faint* we have to decide if we do want to keep them both. I love both of them but then I have to think about the future too. We still haven't decided what to do but if someone can provide them (they have to take BOTH) because they are like siblings and they get along and they do stuff together we will be willing to give them up mean time we're still scratching our head!

p/s:I was thinking of naming the brown one Sadie what about the black lil male??Any suggestions?

Busy Busy

One would reckon since I am not working I have all the time in the world to do anything I want. At the beginning it was fun because all I had to do is look for jobs and apply for jobs, clean the house a little, maybe think of what to cook for dinner when hubby gets back and then go to the gym. Most of the time when I have to cook I don't go to the gym so I will do my stuff. Sounds relaxing right??I could sleep in till about 11 am take Stanley out, feed him and then do my own things.

Female-the brown one

Male- The black one

Now...is so different...it all started with Thanksgiving week. First I had to think of what to serve and had to go get the stuff and prepare stuff that I could pre cook before the actual day. At that same moment I had to dog sit Bailey. After beloved Bailey's parents came back from their vacation which was Monday I thought that life would be somewhat "normal" again. Yesterday while hubby was driving around he found two chihuahua TWO chihuahua by a busy intersection abandon! Well we are not quite sure if they were really abandon. It took hubby about 30 minutes to persuade them to go in the truck with him. The dogs has no collar, leash what so ever on them. All they had was a miserable looking flea/tick collar on them so had to drive around asking people if they lost their dogs! Hubby then went to a animal hospital to see if they were microchiped. Nope they were not microchiped nor are they fixed.
When hubby texted me I was freaked. I mean I didn't think that we were going to have more dogs soon we just gave away Bailey a few months back. I am not sure at this time do I want more dogs. First I told hubby to drop them off at the shelter/SPCA on his way home then I changed my mind. I was confused and didn't know what to do. Anyway hubby stopped at a pet store and bought leashes and collars for the dogs. I was at the gym when hubby returned home with the dogs when I got home I saw the new collars and leashes. Back in my head I am thinking "don't tell me we are going to keep them now?"..OMGosh I cannot handle THREE dogs!!!
They are really cute dogs..my heart melted when I saw both of them. Even manly uncle Richie was cuddling them! When we brought them in the house I saw stuff jumping on my floor I told hubby OMG don't tell me they have fleas/ticks??*&^ what are we going to do now? Stanley was pretty close to them then $50 plus later we came home and bath all 3 dogs! The two had to be bathed several times to make sure that the fleas is dead. We bought flea collar (which is useless according to the vet) for them because we are not suppose to apply frontline 24 hrs after we bath the dogs. Now I am going to have to spend more money to buy frontline for them to make sure that the eggs and stuff on them is dead..argghhh....anyway we decided that we will wait a little while to see if anyone claims them back and hubby said that they better have a damn good explanation on why the dogs was in the middle of the intersection and did not have any collar or ID on them before he will give them back. If they did not have any good explanation he might not give them back to those irresponsible people.
My dilemma is if we keep them we have to keep all 2 of them because they come in a "package" that would mean that I would have THREE dogs granted two really tiny once. We will have to spay and neuter them and get them their shots and I've already called up the animal hospitals which also means more $$$. The WORST part is the black one don't get along with Stanley and brown one that's suppose to be miss goody I don't know what she did to Stanley because he's afraid of her! I need all of them to get along if I'm going to keep them. Stanley and them have to get along because I will never want to let Stanley feel threatened. The black one keeps having accidents in the house (well twice now actually).

p/s: We have not named them because we don't know if we are going to keep them!

Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving dinner was a success. The only problem I had was that the cooking didn’t really go out as I planned. We bought a smaller turkey this year and it cooked faster than planned so we had to call SIL and tell her that dinner would be earlier thus I was a little behind with my dinner rolls. My food actually turned out great and there was so much food left.
I am so glad that hubby is here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me. FIL, BIL and some of the other guys normally go up to the cabin to go deer hunting. Ever since I know FIL every year he’s really persistent on getting a deer every single year. He would go up to the cabin way before deer hunting season starts to scout out places that has lots of deer. Every year he would spend a lot of money preparing for deer hunting but not once got a deer. This year however he was lucky enough to get a deer the first day of deer hunting season. He was determine to get another deer but deer hunting season ends tomorrow so I doubt he would get one. I should inform FIL that Nikon is currently having a promotion on their long range shooting system then maybe he could get more than one deer if he quickly buys it. Hopefully FIL is quick enough to get this good deal.

*this is a sponsor post*

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving people!!Will update soon...

Thanksgiving Day Menu

This year we will be our very first Thanksgiving in Houston. This is also the first year in hubby’s life that he’s not able to go deer hunting at all. I know he’s pretty sad about it but I hope that he’ll be alright eventually. I think he just miss hanging out with the guys ie FIL and BIL during those times.

We/I have a lot to be thankful for this year and because hubby cannot go deer hunting this year and will be celebrating thanksgiving (although ever since we’ve been together he normally skips that weekend and spend thanksgiving with me anyway) I’ve decided to try and make a yummy meal for him and our guests (SIL and her hubby).

Menu for Thanksgiving dinner:
Roast Turkey
Green Bean Casserole
Scallop Cheesy Potato
Cherry Pie - Done
Pumpkin Roll
Dinner Roll

*Everything is made from scratch except the Green Bean Casserole.

I'm trying to make as many things as I can in advance so that it'll not be so hectic on thanksgiving day. I can just make the turkey and the side dishes and not have to worry about so many different food I have to make on the actual day. So far I’ve made the Cherry Pie which for some reason the Pie Crust didn’t really work out this time however I still used what I could.

I’ve seen pumpkin rolls recipe here and there before and didn’t think of trying it because hubby never mentioned about it before then I was talking to Y and she said that she was going to make pumpkin rolls for her thanksgiving meal and is suppose to taste wonderful. I am not sure it’ll work out for me this first time but I just had to try it since it sounded so divine. I’m in the process of making the pumpkin roll so fingers cross that I don’t screw up quite that bad.

I wonder what else I should add?

Homemade Dog Biscuits

I've always wanted to make treats for Stanley ever since we got him but ever single time when we go out I'm always too busy thinking of stuff to buy and hubby will try and stop me so I'll always tell him Stanley needs treats. He'll be like didn't we buy it the last time and then I'll be like he needs different flavors. How do you like it if you always eat the same thing right? So he'll be fine with it but then now hubby very smart. He's seen my stashes of treat, raw hide and toys so now when we go out not allowed to get anything for Stanley unless something he absolutely needs.

Out of blues I decided to make some homemade treats. I figure since I'll be having the two monkeys might as well I make some healthy treats for both of them although Stanley still has a ton of treats and Aunt L bought some over for Bailey too.

I actually needed baby food for the recipe but then I don't have any. I was too lazy to get into the car and go get some baby food. So I cut and clean a few sticks of carrots and celery then proceeded to steam it. I thought steaming it would maintain the nutrient instead of boiling it in water. When it was soft enough I took it out and mashed it with my food processor (see how much I use it. I think is a good investment!lol). I actually added a couple of Strawberries because we had some left and I didn't want it to go to waste. It actually smelled really good for some reason

Pureed carrots, celery and strawberries

Then I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix the ingredients for the biscuits.

Baked cookies.

Ingredients:
3 Cups of whole wheat flour
3/4 Cup of rolled oats
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 egg
5 tbsp of oil
water as needed
2 cans/bottles/jar of baby food (any flavor, all natural and no preservatives)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients together and make a thick dough.
3. Knead on a slightly floured countertop for about 4 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth.
4.Sprinkle a little more flour over the dough to make rolling easy.
5.Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.
6.Use cookie cutters or a small drinking glass.
7.Bake on a ungreased cookie sheet for about 22 minute.
8.Let doggie biscuits cool for at least 1/2 hr before serving.
9.To keep fresh, package these in sealed containers.

I don't really have much cookie cutter so I used what I had which was the heart and angel (Christmas)cookie cutter. My heart shape cookie cutter is from Wilton and the angel one is a cheap one and I find that is much nicer and easier to use the Wilton one. I would imagine all cookie cutter would work as good. I guess I should start looking for more Wilton cookie cutters

I know I'm going to hear about making cute cookies for the dogs when hubby gets home because I made him some almond cookies last week and it was not shaped at all. I didn't even bother to actually rolled it out really nice. I kind off just plop on the pan. Will blog about the almost cookies soon.

I think baking the biscuits for the two monkeys is all worth it. At least I know what is in it and I can give him more than a couple if I like.

p/s: If you don't want to make your own puree you can use apple sauce or peanut butter too.

Dog Sitter

Neighbor aka Aunt and Uncle Richie has escaped from this cold weather (we are suppose to get a cold front this week) to go Hawaii for a nice and warm vacation. I volunteered to watch all 3 monsters of theirs but they decided to put the two big monster at the boarding place. I am going to be watching Bailey (the dog we found after the Hurricane Ike). I will be having TWO MONSTERS for the whole month until they return in December! It'll be a lot of yelling and smacking for the both of them. Bailey and Stanley are both equally notorious! I do miss Bailey and I'm glad that she's just living next door. I am also glad that she and Stanley get along pretty good. Aunt Richie normally just let her and Stanley play together because the other two monster are quite large hence it'll be a havoc if all four of them played together!
I'm glad that we found an extremely good home for Bailey. Bailey is just so spoiled by Aunt Richie and Uncle Richie is just constantly complaining that she spoils him too much. I guess that's the other reason why she's not being put in the boarding place and it saves them money too.

Partners in Crime!!

Is going to be real interesting watching both of them. *faint* they are sure going to be a hand full and I am pretty sure I'll be happy to take her home when Aunt and Uncle Richie gets back.

Beef with flat rice noodle/Sap chow ngau hor

So last week I had craving to cook something with rice noodle. We were eating out a lot and I was pretty sick of eating out. I knew I had beef and choy sum in the refrigerator/freezer. I know that I didn't have any rice noodles/Kway Teow but I was not afraid because I knew how to make it. Well I made my kway teow but I still ended up putting it in the refrigerator that evening because we went out to eat again! Anyway the next day I was damned that we would go out and decided to try to cook my noodle. Apart from my home made kway teow I just followed Lily's instruction.

Ingredients:
A pkt of fresh hor fun/flat rice noodle
1/2 lb Beef fillet/sirlion - slice thinly across the grain
1/2 cup drained canned straw mushroom - cut into slices
1/4 cup sliced carrot
1/2 lb Choy sum - wash and cut into 2 inch lengths - put on a plate and microwave for 2 mins.
1/4 cup of sliced young gingers
Oil for frying beef and noodle
Marinate
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1/2 egg white
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp water
2 tsp cooking oil
Gravy
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp cornstarch

Method:
Knead the marinate except the oil, thoroughly into the sliced beef and when well mixed, add in the oil and knead again. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Fry the hor fun/flat rice noodles like you would for Wat Than Hor
Heat 1 cup oil and when it is hot, fry the beef by batches. Fry beef until 3/4 cooked.
Remove all the oil and leave 2 tbsp. Fry the ginger slices, then add in the beef and choy sum. Stir fry, then add in the gravy ingredients. Cook gravy thickens and pour over the noodles.

Serve hot.

* Since I made my own kway teow and and to refrigerate it just quick nuke it in the microwave to soften it. The texture is almost like the once I buy from the oriental store.

I am not too happy with my results. I'm pretty sure number one is because my pan not seasoned. Hubby is not to keen with this noodle too. I am not sure does this make a difference but I did marinate the beef 24hrs because I didn't get to cook it that day and only had a chance to cook it the next day therefore I found the beef a little too salty (I am not too keen on eat very salty)I kind off think I messed up some where I'm pretty sure is supposed to taste better! I might decided to try this again.

Pie Crust II

Hubby lurvesss pies especially apple pie. Every time when we go to the store he'll want to buy an apple pie however he will refrain himself because he knows that I don't really care for it when he buy the pies at the store because is normally full of sugar and is always over priced anyway. I don't really do any baking in the Summer because is already so hot hence I don't really want to increase the heat in the house by baking. However I love to bake in fall, winter and spring because the heat from the over will help warm the house up. Since it's been pretty cool this few weeks I've been keeping myself busy in the kitchen. I've been trying to find/experiment with the pie crust recipes because I want to find a pie crust recipe that will work with sweet pies and meat pies. The reason is when I make my chicken pot pie I like to keep some of the gravy from the chicken pot pie but so far the pie shells (except the ready made once from the store) that I've made will absorb all my gravy thus making my chicken pot pie dry.

So far the Pie crusts have tasted pretty good but I do not dare to try making chicken pot pie with it because I'm afraid it'll be dry. On another note...I absolutely heart my food processor. I had been itching to get a food processor that I could use to make pie dough too and when we were up North after a very very long time of looking I finally decided to get one. I barely use my food processor at that time because I had a small kitchen when I was living up North. When I moved down here I finally decided to use my food processor to make dough but to my horror there was no dough blade! I was really pissed by then because I researched and researched on which food processor to get and I purposely got the Black and Decker Pro II so that I could make dough/pie crust (yes I'm dumb even though I have a KitchenAid mixer sitting on my counter). I was freaking out too because it's been like 1 year plus since I bought the food processor and I didn't think that they would replace the dough blade for me. I made up so many stories in my head so that when they ask me I can tell them smoothly a story but they just asked me some numbers and told me that they would send me the dough blade. At that time I was just relieved (lurvee Black and Decker customer service) but I did complain to hubby that they didn't even question me and I spend so many time thinking of all different stories to tell them and I didn't even have to use them!Anyway I really love how easy to make my pie crust with the food processor. I have been making up batches of pie crust or grinding food and mincing meat with my food processor. Is so convenient!!

Last weekend we looked high and low for little pie pan so that hubs can have little pies (like in the restaurants)

I decided to make a smiley.

Pie Crust
Ingredients
2 C of Flour
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar (if making sweet pie)
1/2 C of shortening
1/4-1/2C of butter
1/2 C of ice cold water
1.Chill everything you will be using in the fridge/freezer.
2.(Because I'm using my food processor) Put flour, sugar and salt in the food processor and mix it.
3. Add shortening and butter.
4. Pulse it until it resemble like pea size.
5. Add water a table spoon at a time and pulse until it becomes a huge ball.
6. Separate it and wrap with cling wrap. Refrigerate it at least 4 hours or overnight (this process ease the rolling process).

* you want to work the dough as little as possible because the lease you handle the dough the flakier it gets.
** After pulsing several times if it still doesn't stick together I normally just take it out and knead it to a big ball.
***My second batch I didn't have time to refrigerate it and I did have a difficult time to roll it out. If you have a difficult time rolling it and putting it on the pie pan; roll it between parchment paper or cling wrap.

Hubby loves this pie crust but he loves all the pie crust that I've made so far so I would have to see if it works with the chicken pot pie. It's still a keeper anyhow! Everyone wanted a piece of the pie that I didn't even have time to take a picture of it after came out of the oven.

RIP Lucky...

It was a pretty devastating day for me yesterday because BIL and his girlfriend's dog - Lucky passed away. I felt really bad because I know how BIL's gf loves the dog.

Lucky was abused when he was growing up. He would not get along with another dogs. We tried and allow Stanley and Lucky to get to know each other but Lucky just would not want to play with Stanley while Stanley would try and play with her and she would try and nip Stanley so after several times we stopped trying to put both of them together. Hence I don't even have a picture of Lucky!

I just feel bad because she has not had a good life until BIL and gf adopted her. They had her almost the same time that we have Stanley meaning about 1.5 years. They had to move out of their rental because it was infested with mold. Both of them are currently staying with PIL's family and could not have Lucky with them so they put her with BIL's gf's parents house. Lucky didn't really eat at the beginning and BIL's gf decided to spend the night with Lucky hoping that Lucky would eat. When she was there Lucky was just banging into things and the next morning which was yesterday morning they decided to take her to the Vet. The vet said that Lucky is blind and she might have brain damage. The vet can run test and stuff but was not sure if they can find anything plus is going to cost a lot of money. So they decided that is best to put Lucky to sleep. The vet said that they could do an autopsy and see what happened to see if they can find anything but again is going to cost a lot of money. They just said forget it since Lucky is already gone.

I've been quite traumatize by this incident because I am so afraid that anything can happen to Stanley. I love Stanley so much that I never want anything to happen to Stanley. I was cuddling with Stanley yesterday and told him that Lucky is gone which I don't think he'll understand. Hubby said poor Stanley because he doesn't like to be held down (being cuddle at the time)..LOL..I talked to hubby and see if there is a way we could monitor Stanley in case anything happens to him but he said that is difficult because Stanley is not human and he cannot tell us if something is wrong or if he's got blur vision or anything! Hubby said that all we can do is if we see any behavior changes in Stanley we should take him to the vet which dog lover aunt and uncle Richie agreed.

Is been clearer to me that life is so fragile that we should appreciate life more and more. We cannot take any living people or animals for granted. I just hope that Lucky rest in peace and know that we will miss him and love him no matter where he is. Let's hope that he has a better life when she reincarnate.

Piggy me!!

I think I gained weight this weekend. I have just been eating and eating and eating. Every meal I eat I eat like a horse, like is my last chance to eat (I shall blame it on the PMS)

Anyway I started my eating marathon on Saturday after we decided that we were going to have dim sum for brunch..As usual greedy me/us order so much and stuffed my face! I then headed to the Asian grocery store to buy some groceries. After that we drove around in the beltway (since we haven't really driven around here after being here for 4 months now) then found some stores and decided to walk for a few hours to hopefully burn some calories off...blekkk...sales wasn't great nothing attracted me hence came home empty handed except from groceries...We started getting hungry when we got home and I made myself a huge bowl of noodles with chicken and vegetable...I thought about it also made me think that I am really a PIG!!

Uncle Richie called and asked if we wanted to watch a movie that night and we were going to watch the James Bond movie but found out that it wasn't starting until next week and we decided to watch Max Payne which completely sucks and we would not recommend it to anyone. There was this kid at the cinema was making noise at the beginning of the movie and it actually irritated me so every time when he made noise I said shhhhh....eventually in the middle of the movie him and his friend were actually ask to leave/ushered out by the security guard.

When we were walking to the cars something which I think really cool happened (Yes I'm sick) There was a ton of kids hanging outside the cinema (don't know where their parents are) but anyway way we saw a security officer/police cuffing a boy and he told his parents to cuff another one..I was like wow..wonder what they did and I walked really slow to try and hear what happened but Uncle Richie nudge me to move faster and we were just laughing at the whole scene like how we will not go back and watch a night movie at that cinema because apparently people get locked up!

Sunday morning I decided to make some waffles because Uncle and Auntie Richie bought me a waffle maker for my birthday and I decided to try it out. I am not sure whether did I not follow the direction correctly or because the waffle maker is still new didn't taste like how I expected it to be hopefully with a little more practice it'll be like the once we eat at the hotels.

Then I went to the Galleria with Uncle and Aunt Richiee..We walked a little bit and we stopped at LaMadeline and ate again..I had a huge plate of Chicken Cesar Salad which was really awesome!Aunt and Uncle said their soups are bad ass too!!We stopped by a couple of open houses which was just beautiful and expensive before headed home...

Hubby didn't eat anything after I left and I was planning to make Hokkie Mee all along for dinner. I wasn't sure if he was going to eat it but I was just going to make it anyway. HokkienMee AKA Black Mee is one of my all time favorite food. I didn't know that it was called HokkienMee when I was growing up so I would always call it Black Mee...The last time I ate black mee was the time I went home about 3 years ago which also didn't taste good at all. So when I was at the Asian grocery store I was already looking for Lily's for ingredients needed to make this.

The only two picture I managed to take this whole weekend before inhaling them!

Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee

Ingredients:

500g fat yellow hokkien noodles (tai lok meen) - soak noodles in cold water for 15 mins to get rid of some of the potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution used to make these noodles. (I could not find this kind of noodles here so I used Udon noodles instead)
100g meat (pork or chicken) - cut into thin slices
150g prawns, shell and devein
100 g squid - cut into bite size
1tsp of garlic chopped
100g Choy sum wash and cut into 1 inch pieces
100g pork fat, cut into cubes and fried till crispy (keep the oil)
2 cups stock/water

Seasoning:

1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce(add more if not dark enough)
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp monosodium glutamate(optional)

Method:

Season the prawns and squid with a dash of salt, sugar and pepper.

Heat 2 tsp of the lard (from frying the pork fat) and saute the squid and prawns. Dish out and leave aside.

Add in another tsp of lard, garlic and brown meat, sprinkle in a pinch of salt and pepper to the meat before turning over to brown the other side.

Add in stock/water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes before adding in the choy sum.

Then add in the noodles and the seasoning, mix well, cover wok with lid and simmer until noodles is tender. Add more dark soy sauce if the color is not black enough and simmer noodles till gravy is thick.

Add in the cooked prawns and squid and more lard.

Turn the heat to high again and give noodles a quick stir. Add the crispy lard cubes before dishing up the noodles.

p/s: I love garlic and the only difference with my mee is I added garlic to it.

Serve with sambal belacan

sambal belacan:

5 fresh red chillies - cut small
2 chilly padi(optional)
1 sq inch x 1/4 inch thick raw belacan or 2 tsp belacan powder.
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
lime juice.

Grill raw belacan until it is dried and fragrant. (i will wrap with paper kitchen towel and microwave 1 minute at the time until it can be crumbled)

I do not own a mortar so i use the chopper. Chop everything up except the lime juice.

serve with lime juice. adjust the taste as some belacan can be very salty.

I didn't make the sambal belacan because I was lazy..I just ate my noodles with chili padi.

My verdict: It was not how I expected. I guess I was hoping to taste like the once we eat at the hawker store back in Malaysia. My pan is not seasoned and this is my first time however apart from not tasting like the hawker store it was really good. I really liked it. The udon noodles I used turned pretty soft so I might have to find another brand or another kind. It was the very first time in my entire life cutting/slicing squid it was so funny because I didn't know what to throw away and what to keep.Hubby didn't know anything too so I just kind off figure it out but I'm not sure if is right. I'm going to have to call mummy and ask her and double check with her that I didn't waste any parts.

Since I was the only one eating there was about two medium size container left. If I would have eaten like a lady (not eat enough for 2) I would have more left. I cannot wait to try it again..I just miss my Hokkien Mee soo much. The last time I went home I think I only at it once or twice and they were not very good so I am hoping that I can find a good one when I get home..yummyyyyyyy

Busy Beeee

I skipped gym yesterday because I was busy...well...lazy...but I did however kept myself busy in the kitchen...

I started by making Braid Bread. I got the recipe from Chow Times. It's actually called Raspberry Braid but I didn't have Raspberry Jam.

Braid Bread

Instead of dividing it into two I made 4 from my dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon yeast

Filling:

• 1/4 cup raspberry jam (or any Jam)
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted - cooled

Topping:

• 1 tablespoon butter, soft
• 2 tablespoons white flour
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Prepare the dough using the first 7 ingredients using your bread machine dough cycle setting. (I left the dough sit in the bread machine to rise for another 1 hour).
2. Roll each half of the dough into a 14″ x 9″ rectangle. Make diagonal cuts from outer edges one inch apart and three inches long.
3. Spread 1/4 cup raspberry jam lengthwise down the center third of the rectangle.
4.Fold alternate strips of dough over filling.
5.Place the braid on a greased baking sheet or parchment lined baking sheet.
6.Brush the braid with melted, cooled butter.Cover and let rise for 30 minutes or until double in volume.
7.Use a fork to mix the topping ingredients together until the mixture is grainy like.
8.Sprinkle half of the topping over each dough braid. Bake the braids at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

I used the Kaya that I made and Strawberry Jem because that's what I had on hand. I also skipped the topping because I was lazy.

Verdict: It turned out really pretty good (me)
: Uncle Richie loved it but not the Kaya one.


I had a craving for Chicken Rice this week and I knew that hubby would not care for the steamed chicken so I decided to make Roast Chicken instead. I got my recipe from Lily which turned out really good.

Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

5 - 6 LBS roasting chicken
3 tbsp margarine/butter - softened
1 clove garlic - minced
lemon juice for rubbing
5 spice powder/montreal steak/whatever rub you prefer
salt and pepper

Method:

Salt and pepper the inside of chicken and sprinkle with spice rub.

Cream together margarine/butter and garlic.

Turn chicken breast side up and work your fingers under the skin at the openings on each side of the breast. Continue into thigh and leg and make the skin as smooth as possible. Using fingers, spread margarine/butter mixture evenly under skin.

Rub the skin with lemon juice and sprinkle with more spice rub.

Place chicken, breast side up on rack and truss the legs.

Put the chicken in the oven for 450 degree for about 20 minutes and turned it down to 400 degree until cooked.

Then I made the Hainanese Rice

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE

3 tbsp oil/margarine/chicken oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic and shallots
1/2 tbsp chopped ginger
3 cups rice, washed and drained
4 1/2 cups chicken stock(use the stock from the above)
1 tsp salt to taste

METHOD

Heat up oil, saute chopped garlic and shallot and ginger until fragrant. Add rice, salt and mix well. Dish into a rice cooker, add chicken stock and taste(add more salt if required). Leave to cook until dry and fluffy.

I made my Chili using Sinner's recipe because it was so easy

Ingredients for Chilli Sauce
2 tbsp Siracha chilli sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp chicken stock
1 tsp ginger juice

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients together
(I skipped the ginger juice because I didn't have any and I used this recipe for the chilli sauce because I didn't have any fresh chilli on hand).

Verdict: Hubby loved the chicken he doesn't really care for the rice as usual (he's not a rice person)
: I'm happy with my chicken rice..is simple and yummy..

I top off with some stir fried vegetables. I used the stock from the chicken to stir fry my vegetables and it was yummy too...We didn't have any cucumber on hand because normally cucumber is served with chicken rice.

p/s: I know I have to really really work on the presentation. My presentation is like F-!Sorry for not decorating my food...no mood to decorate the food just wanna eat it straightaway!LOL

Shopping for my Halloween Costume

I have never dressed up for Halloween before and this year was not different. We never have any kids knock on our door before but this year we had a couple of kids that came to our door. Since I’ve never dressed up in a Halloween costume before I was thinking maybe next year I should dress up as a police women. I can easily shop for my police gear at the comfort of my own home because I found this cool website that sold anything and everything I will need.


*this is a sponsor post*

HAPPY HALLOWEEN....

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Hubby loves to buy Cinnamon Raisin Bread every time when we go to the grocery store. Last weekend I told him not to buy it and I will attempt making them I mean how difficult can that be since I have my trusty break maker..lol...

So yesterday I decided that I should make some as promised and attempted it

Flour coated raisins

What's left of the bread.

Ingredients

1 C of Water
2 tablespoon of margarine
1.5 C of bread flour
1.5 C of Flour
4tbsp of Sugar
1.5 tsp of Salt
2tsp of Cinnamon
2.5tsp of yeast
1.5 C of Raisins

Directions
1. Soak the Raisins in warm water for about 5 minutes so the raisin plump up.
2. Drain the Raisins and coat it with flour (to prevent it from sinking down so much)
3. Put the ingredients according to your bread maker except raisins (mine is wet ingredients to dry ingredients)
4. Add Raisins in after the "first" beep.
5. Bake on Sweet Bread setting.

p/s: I was always told not to put the salt so close to the yeast because apparently it can kill the yeast so I always put mine way at the bottom with the liquids so I don't kill the yeast.

The neighbor came over and I gave them 1/2 a loaf of the bread. Everyone liked the bread including me. See every time when hubby buys them from the store I would not eat them and I am also not sure why but I always tell him because the cinnamon taste is too strong which is not the case but anyway I took it out of the bread maker and I wanted to see if it was cooked and I ended up eating a chunk of it which hubby said that it looked like Stanley got into it..LOL...

When the neighbor dropped by earlier I asked if he wanted to take try some but he said that he wanted to eat healthy and when I talked to him earlier he said he was on his way...So I guess you might be wondering that I just moved here and it sounds like we are really close to the neighbor and that thing is yes we are really close to the neighbor. We actually always go back and forth (well actually the neighbor drops by more because we don't have so many dogs). The neighbor is actually hubby's aunt and uncle Richie that's why I could always toss them some food and be my white rabbit! That's actually where Oreo (she's call Bailey now) is living now too..when our fences was down Bailey would run over with Auntie L and play with Stanley but since the fenced is up now Stanley hasn't played with Bailey but Stanley can see from one of the bedroom that Bailey is there when they let the dogs out.

Audio Visuals Equipments

Not long hubby and I started dating we attended the same university together (I met hubby through a friend and not really at school). We all know that most universities spare no expenses when it comes to installing or upgrading their equipments. To name a few equipments that they spare no expense would be like the printers, computers, audio visual equipments etc. They were always the top of the line equipments that we had at the university. Hubby is so intrigued by the top of the line equipments he would come home and tell me that next time when he has a house he was to buy the audio visuals equipments like they have at the university!!*faint* I don’t own top of the line audio visual equipments like they have at the university but then I know the equipments are not cheap. I am just wondering if I was the person working at the university buying these equipments how would I know that I am purchasing the top of the line equipments and getting it at a best price. If that person was smart and wanted to save money for the state they would go online and do some research before simply going with a company. I did my own research (just for fun) in case we want to ever buy AV equipments and found that Reflex offers competitive pricing, technical support and much more for buying AV equipments.

If it was me buying AV equipments for the university all the time I would make sure I get the best deal and the best service thus saving a ton of money for the state which leads to saving money for the university which then leads to saving money for the students and parents because we don’t need to pay for such high tuition cost.

*This is a sponsor post*

Home made Kaya (I)

The past week I've been having cravings for some Kaya spread but have been too busy with other things to try making it. I google and found out that people DO make Kaya with their bread maker. So I brought out my trusty bread maker (which I am so very glad I invested in one last year) and started making it.

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
1 1/3 C coconut milk (I used canned)
1 1/3-1 1/2C of sugar

Method:
1. Beat eggs so that it's mixed up
2. Put it all in the bread maker and select the Jam mode. Make sure to check the bread maker after a little while in the process to make sure there is none that's is stuck to the side of the pan.
3. When is done it'll look curdy and water just transfer it to the food processor and pulse it a little.

I still need to change stuff around. I am currently sick and cannot taste that great. It taste pretty good but I think that there is still a lot more room for improvement. For some reason my Kaya is creamy looking/texture and if I'm not right is a little too eggy for my taste. I need to see what I can change or maybe google and see what other recipe out there. The weird thing is I didn't even use pandan leaves in my kaya but then it came out light green. From what I can taste so far is not that bad. I'll have to give my verdict once I feel much much better.

p/s: Actually this is my second attempt of making homemade Kaya. I forgot to blog my first attempt. It was not bad the first attempt but it took too long to stir it on the stove..Oh well..will try again until I find the perfect one!

Chicken and Mushroom Steam Pau

I've had cravings to eat steamed pau for quite some time now. For some reason I very rarely would order steamed pau when we eat dim sum so last week I decided that I would try making pau. I did not make the dough from scratch because I've never tried making pau on my own so to be on the safe side I just bought the pau flour and just mixed it up according to the direction.

Before it was steamed

After it came out of the steamer

Yummy

Ingredients

Pau flour

Filling: (marinate it for at least 30 minutes)
Mushroom (cubed)
chicken (cubed)
sesame oil
salt
sugar
garlic
salt
pepper
oyster sauce
soy sauce
dark soy sauce
A dash of Shao Hsing Hua Tiau wine (optional)

Seasoning B:
sesame oil
salt
sugar
salt
pepper
oyster sauce
soy sauce
dark soy sauce
corn flour
water
A dash of Shao Hsing Hua Tiau wine (optional)

Method

1. Prepare the dough according to the direction.
2. Marinate the chicken and the mushroom for at least 3o minutes.
3. Mix seasoning B together (except oil, water and corn flour)
4. Heat the wok and the oil.
5. Pour in the chicken and mushroom.
6. Add in mixed seasoning B.
7. Mix water (I use the water that I soaked the mushroom in) and corn flour together pour over chicken and mushroom after it is cooked.
8. Wait for the water and corn flour to boil again and turn off the stove.
9. Divide the dough into 12 (I didn't get 12 I got 9) and fill the dough with the cooked filling according to the directions.
10. Steam the pau for about 10 minutes.

The steamed pau actually came out not bad in terms of taste wise..I need a lot more practice in terms of presentation. Hubby didn't care for the filling so I'm going to have to find another filling for him. Uncle Richie thought it was weird at the beginning because he's not used to eating steamed pau but he loved it. I gave him 4 to take home. Aunt L don't like mushroom so she didn't try it. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with my end results.