FIRST

I scheduled this post a long time ago but unfortunately these two weeks I've been busy attending to my fussy baby.


For my baby's FIRST birthday I initially decided to bake him a cake. Then I thought I would just get some edible prints and stick it on the cakes or cupcakes. Then I decided to just order a cake or an ice-cream cake for him.


Well remember my wilton caddy that I bought years ago? The one that I insisted I had and will use it? Well I never did really used it before and so hubby mentioned that I've spend so much money buying wilton stuff and that I should bake our baby a cake instead of buying one!  *stress*


I decided to make my baby a grover cake because he use to like the monster at the end of this book that hubs bought the app for the iPhone and iPad. Initially I was going to make cupcakes for him hence I even went out to the store to hunt for the tip so I can pipe the fur for grover! I finally decided that cupcakes would be too time consuming to decorate that I decided I will just bake him a cake instead!

Hakka Braised Pork with Fungus or Char Chu Yoke

My late grandmother was a great cook. Our entire family loves her dishes. My uncle, her second son actually managed to learn how to cook some of her yummy dishes.


When we were over in Australia my uncle cooked this dish one night and we all devoured it. My grandma's still taste nicer but this was good too. No complains! The pork was not too skinny or fat. Lovely!! I ate so much of it!

Mantou or steamed buns or flower buns

I do apologized.. I've been away for this long. I do have a lot of recipes that I would like to share and am currently finding the time to post it. I've also been away for almost two months on vacation with my baby (DH joined us later).


We were in Malaysia and Sydney, Australia with lots of family, friends and great food. I miss having family and friends that truly care. Family and friends that is sincere and mind their own business instead of trying to butt into anything and everything they can about yours or your families' s life. Really dislike selfish and nosy people that pretends that they care!


Anyway back to my mantou, I had great mantou when we were dining in Sydney that I felt like having some. Yesterday I found a recipe and decided to attempt making them. It came out horrible and I threw every thing away. What a waste of ingredients since it was not edible at all!!

Thanksgiving Day

I have many things to be thankful for this year. I am thankful that I have a wonderful and healthy new born. I am also really thankful to have a wonderful and supportive hubby, mom, dad and my sis and her partner. I can never imagine not having an understand and supportive family in my life.

This year we decided to have thanksgiving meal in our home. A very simple meal just the few of us. Our menu for this year thanksgiving:

I was going to brine my turkey but I didn't take it out of the freezer earlier to do so. This time all I did was season my turkey with Salt, Pepper and Lemon Pepper Seasoning then I put chunks of butter between the skin and the meat.

I forgot to buy cranberry and had to make Uncle R to get it front he store

Corn from the can 

  Also store bought

I'm really proud of my gravy, I usually use gravy from the bottle but this time I actually made it from scratch! I got the oil from the turkey dripping and warmed it up in a pot. Then I added about 1/4 cup of flour (I think is a table spoon of oil to a tablespoon of flour) stir it then add homemade chicken stock. stir until thicken. 

Aunt L makes really good stuffing but aunt L was not here for thanksgiving so Uncle R made the stuffing which was really good with breakfast sausage

Stuffing that I made with the liver and gizzards from the turkey which was actually pretty good.

Homemade pumpkin pie

This year I didn't make most of my food from scratch like I would like too. Never the less I was able to make a lot of food even with a 5.5 month old baby at home! 

Thank you hubs for cleaning and doing the dishes when we were done. Thank You Uncle R for celebrating a low key thanksgiving with us. 

The Apple Family

I never thought that I would actually buy Apple. Everything all started when hubs wanted the iPod. Hubs had been asking to get an iPod for the longest time and since we both own mp3 players I didn't think that we needed the iPod (if you asked me the iPod was a total waste of money). I finally decided to give in for I think his birthday.

Yau Mei Farn II aka chicken rice and Steam Egg plant.

I love yummy yet simple meals especially when the meal is made from scratch. I had a craving for rice and chicken today but I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen so I decided on Yau Mei Farn/ aka clay pot rice (since I don't have a clay pot I just use my rice cooker)

My New Toy

Remember when I told you about my bread maker that died here. Well..initially after my bread maker died I told myself that I was not going to buy another one because it cost money and I wanted to save counter space. After using my Kitchen Aid mixer once and almost killing it I thought maybe I should knead my bread by hand instead of killing my Kitchen Aid Mixer. That never happened and I never made bread after that because I was too lazy to knead any bread by hand and worried that I could not do it. Then I thought I would find a use one to get since I'm only using the bread maker to knead my dough but I really could not bring myself to buying a use bread maker. Moreover I don't want to buy a used one and have it break on me a few times after I've used it. Hubby was also not too keen on me looking for a used bread maker although they do say they used it once or never used it who actually knows how many times they have used it and whether it'll break. At least if I get a new one I have manufacture warranty. 


So one day, while we were shopping I came across Hamilton Beach bread maker.  It is almost the same price as my old Sunbeam bread maker and the function was exactly the same! I think they are from the same manufacture but just different look.  I told hubby that I wanted to buy that bread maker because I've not made bread in a long time and I'm actually itching to make bread. Hubby reluctantly took the Hamilton Beach Bread Maker and went to pay for it since I'm pregnant and I cannot carry heavy things (although is really not that heavy but is really a good excuse).