Sunday, June 28, 2009

A very happy couple...

We've been wanting a king size bed ever since we got Stanley because he takes up a lot of room. Initially when we first move down to Texas a year ago we thought that we would buy a king size bed when we bought our bed. We ended up not buying a king size bed because we didn't want to spend so much money on a bed since we just arrived and keep as much money as we can for emergency.

Last Sunday I told hubby to take me to Ikea to walk around since they were having their twice a year blue moon sale. We got there had brunch and walked around. We saw a king size Hopen bed frame on sale for about $350! What a steal! We bought the bread frame and then we had to go home because my small car could not fit anything else (well actually we could but we thought we could not) we decided to go home drop off the bed frame and then go back to Ikea to get the rest of the stuff.

We went back to Ikea later to get the bed slate/base, metal base and the mattress. We than came home had a quick dinner and put the bed together. A few trips to Ikea, a couple of hours and about 2k later we got ourselves a new king size bed we've always wanted ^_^. The first night we were not used to it because there was so much room that we didn't know what to do with the extra room. The dogs loves the new bed because they can veg out any where they want.

We put our other bed in the guest room now so that when my parents comes they can have a nice bed to sleep on. Hubby asked if we should get a king size bed for them (they sleep on king size in Malaysia) when/if they come and stay with us for a long period of time next time but I told him that if they do stay with us for a longer period then we'll decided than.

I guess since the economy is bad we should help stimulate the economy huh?:)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson RIP

I was watching the news this evening and they said that they got an unconfirmed news that Michale Jackson the king of pop has passed away. A couple of minutes after that they confirmed that he is really gone. This is so surreal. He's just 50 years old and he was planning his last tour that's schedule for July 8th 2009.


Although he's a little weird but he's such a legend. I hope he rest in peace and I know that we will always remember this legend.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Assorted buns...

I've been wanting to eat bun for quite some time now. The buns soft yummy buns that you can find in the bakery back home in Malaysia or the Asian bakery in other countries. I've been craving but do not want to turn on the oven since is so darn hot outside and I've also been pretty busy for some reason. I decided to make some buns anyway. I had some char siu that I made a couple of weeks ago and I decided to make char siu filling so I can make buns with it.




Filling
Ingredients:
Char Siu (diced)
1 Onion - diced

Oyster sauce
Soya Sauce
sesame oil

water combined 1 1/2 Tsp corn flour

Salt and sugar to taste
oil for frying

Method:

Heat up oil and fry the diced onion until fragrant.
Add in Add in char siu and the rest of the ingredients.

Cook till thick.

Leave to cool before wrapping.


Recipe adapted from
Honey Bee Sweet

Potato Bread
Ingredients:
Set A:
220g Bread flour
80g cake flour

30g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant active yeast

140ml ice cold water

40g egg yolk

60g mashed potato

Set B:
30g unsalted butter, room temperature
Filling:

Pork floss
Mayonnaise
Char Siu filling
Hot dogs
Cheese Slices

Method:
Mix all ingredients in Set A in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough.
Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 20 minutes or more.

Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes.

Punch out the air in the dough and divide it into 10 equal portions.
Two of the portions, divide into 2 again, this is for the mini hot dogs, if you are using normal size hot dog then this step can skip.
Roll into balls and cover to let rest for 5 minutes.

Place all the buns on a parchment lined baking tray and cover to proof for another 25 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
Brush the surface of the buns with egg wash or milk.

Bake the buns in the oven for 18 minutes or till light golden brown.
When done, remove the buns from the tray and cool on the rack.


I didn't follow the above method. I put Set A in my bread machine. I had to keep adding flour because the dough was pretty sticky than after the bread machine knead it for about 30-40minutes I added Set B in. I had to add more flour too because the dough was p
retty wet. After that I followed the method above and let it proof etc.



Apart from the char siu filling I made I also used hot dog wrapper with cheese and pork floss for the buns. The pork floss buns were not as how I expected. I thought it was a little too dry for me. As for the rest of the buns Uncle Richie loved it. Hubby only had a bite of the char siu buns but he said he liked it. Since I added so much more flour because my dough was so sticky I should have added more sugar hence I felt like my bun was pretty tasteless. The texture of the bun was pretty good but it was softer if heated in the microwave for 10 seconds. I would try this recipe again but I was something really similar to the one you get at the bakery store in Malaysia. I'm wondering would I ever get to taste those kind of buns again here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sore body and tanned skin

Weekends here has been relatively busy for me. We kicked off the weekend by queuing up in REI for the sale. That's hubby and uncle Richie's favorite store and every time when they have their sale there would be a long queue of people waiting for the store to open. We got there about 7:30am and the queue was already pretty long. We were sitting under the hot son from 7:30am to 10:00 am when the store was opened. Luckily there was a Starbucks opposite the store and I made two runs to Starbucks to get some cold drinks but that was not even enough to keep me cool. Although I applied sun block lotion by the time I got out of the store I was already tanned. The sale wasn't that good. We didn't really got anything but I got a pair of black crocs like I bought the last time for my mom/dad who ever fits into it. In the evening we went to this Chinese buffet place for dinner with Uncle and Aunt Richie and SIL and her hubby. The food was not horrible but I would not go back there again.

Sunday we got up pretty early about 8am (for me is pretty early) to go biking. We managed to bike about 14 miles and I almost didn't make it back because I was so darn tired. My body was sore, I was hot and I was hungry (typical me).I got even darker even though we applied a thick layer of sunblock lotion before we started. Everyone including myself was pretty proud of me because I've not bike for a long time and I was able to bike 14miles with a lot of whining on my way home :P. The same evening we made pizza on the grill because it is too hot to turn the stove on in the house. That's what I assume but hubby wanted to make some cookie that same evening so after aunt and uncle Richie left he started baking his cookies which I must say taste pretty darn good. I wanted some other kind of cookies than what he was making and hinted to him but I told him not too because I won't be able to finish it at the end he still made some for me. He searched the recipe himself and he did most of the washing too :). I am pretty proud of him as I was too tired to help him..:P


I made hubby used some whole wheat flour instead of just the normal once to make it healthier. I don't know what's the second cookie called I just told him that I've been craving for the cookie with jam in the middle. Pepperidge farm used to sell those and I would buy them every time I see it.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Yogurt Bread

I normally try not to use the oven in Summer because the weather is already warm enough therefore I don't need to turn on the oven to warm the house even more. The weather is so hot that our air conditioner is running none stop. I've been wanting to try making another bread after my attempt here but have not gotten the opportunity to do so. So today after coming home from doing my groceries at the Asian grocery store I decided to try making a loaf of bread (I've been itching to use my bread machine)and also use up some of the yogurt I have in my refrigerator.


Yogurt Bread adapted from here

Ingredients
250g bread flour
100g yogurt
60g fresh milk
25g egg
20g sugar
3g salt
30g margarine
3g dry yeast


Method

1. Put the ingredients in the bread machine according to the order , first the liquids and lastly the instant yeast.

2.When dough is proven , remove from bowl of bread machine and press out the gas produced during the proof.

3. Divide it into 2 portions.

4. Round up and let rest for about 20 minutes.

5. Grease 2 loaf pans.

6. Roll each dough out and roll up. Place 2 rolls into a loaf pan.

7. Let the dough rise up to double.

8. Brush with egg wash or milk.

9. Bake in a preheated 350f oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.

This is the first time I actually made a bread using metric measurements. I always like to use American measurements because is more convenient for me but when I saw this recipe I thought I had to try it so I took my scale out and brave it. I am actually glad I tried it because it was actually cotton smooth almost like the Hokkaido Bread but not as soft as Hokkaido Bread yet very close. One of the ingredient for Hokkaido Bread is whipping cream and I don't always have whipping cream at home but I do have yogurt at home most of the time therefore I'm glad I found this recipe so that I can still make a yummy bread with the ingredients I already have on hand.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Slurrrrppppp

I finally made curry laksa that I've been yearning for the whole of last weekend (I made it on Monday night). Thankfully my mom made some curry laksa paste for me so all I have to do is mix it up and I get a yummy bowl of laksa. I just made some chicken broth to add to it and opened a can of coconut milk so that my laksa is lemak tasting.

My curry laksa looked something like this with some crockles, homemade charsiew and homemade dumpling aka won ton too. I figured that hubby don't really enjoy curry laksa so I made some won ton so that I can make some won ton and charsiew noodle for him. For some reason that night he didn't care for the noodles which I made it like that all the time. I am suspecting is the soy sauce because I changed the brand of the soy sauce. I normally buy Lee Kum Kee and I could not find it at the store the other time so I just bought another brand but I myself don't care for the smell or the taste of that brand. I wonder what I should do with the soy sauce now?

I was so happy that I even have left over that lasted me for the next two morning. So Tuesday and Wednesday morning I was actually lucky enough to have curry laksa for breakfast. I know if I was living in Malaysia it would not be a big deal because I can always have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner but since I'm living here it is actually a treat for me to be able to have these kind of food from home.

I asked hubby what he wanted to have for dinner tonight and he hinted that he wanted spaghetti and meat balls. It is quite a bit of work to make this because I was feeling lazy. Moreover I had to run all over (I took the wrong exit) this morning because I had to go get some prenatal pill since I ran out of the samples that the OBGYN gave me. Anyway when I got home I and rested for about an hour I decided that I should make it for him since I know that it will make him very happy. It took me about 3 hours plus to make this dish because I had to make the meatballs, then the sauce then I decided to make a healthier version of noodles ie my homemade wholewheat spinach noodles since I still have two packet of spinach in the freezer I decided to finish it up. After making noodles some many times for some reason this time I'm having problem with it. This time the dough is so very wet that I had to use a lot of flour. I was getting so tired, hungry and frustrated but then I didn't want to give up and waste all my time, effort, flour and other ingredients and finally made them.
Mine looked something like this except my noodles is green because of the spinach. As I predicted hubby was so happy when he walked in the house after work because as soon as he walked in he could smell the sauce and meatballs simmering on the stove.

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