Jars of Jam

After having made my own cranberry sauce last Christmas, I thought of making my own jams for my own consumption and as gifts. I am not big on jams but I like the idea of being able to make it using fresh seasonal fruits and give them away in nicely labelled jars :)

I saw an advert on a food magazine and went to the CSR website. There is very good information on how to make jams, the preparation and tips to making it and recipes to make yummy jams. Step-by-step instructions with photos are given. You can also print labels for your jam jars using their template! I thought that was really cool :) Now, have I tempted you to try making your own too? ;)

Soft Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I was browsing someone's food blog when I came across this recipe and decided to give it a try because I remembered that I like this cheesecake and have only eaten this in SG where one Japanese restaurant is well known selling it. People used to queue long queues just to buy this freshly baked from the oven.

This cheesecake is typically different from the 'western' cheesecake. This Japanese version's texture is lighter and softer and has a semi-soft crust on the top that makes the entire eating experience really *shiok* (feel good) and the cake really melts in your mouth. This is best if you just had your tooth extraction/surgery as you do not need to really chew before you swallow. The method of making this version and its ingredients are also somewhat different. It uses cornflour and you have to fold in the stiff egg whites and that is what makes it rise.

I am going make more of this tonight, which will be given away as gifts for my Sydney hosts :)

Free Range Chicken Soup with Korean Ginseng

When my mum last visited me, she brought over some Korean red ginseng extract for me and I was supposed to take it every so often (which I have not :p). Finally remembered and got around to make some chicken soup which I will be able to add some of this extract into the soup for extra *healthy* goodness.

100% pure Korean red ginseng and extract - gold, from ginseng roots. The stainless steel teaspoon comes with it!

Using my tall claypot, I put in a free range whole chicken and some corn and enough water to cover them. I have also randomly added some Chinese herbs to the soup - red dates, ginseng, wild yam, lily bulbs and wolfberries and also a few slices of ginger. To season it, I added soya sauce and salt. This was cooked by bringing up to the boil and simmering over low heat for about 2 hours altogether. 1 teaspoon of the extract is added about half way through.

Herbs - (left, clockwise) red dates, wild yam, wolfberries, lily bulbs, ginseng

My reliable tanyu claypot :)

I was quite pleased with the result, given that this was just my own 'trial-and-error' recipe. Unfortunately, hubby was not quite used to the taste... I suppose, unlike me, he did not grew up drinking Chinese herbal drinks and tonics. I had the left-overs for lunch today and it tasted even better!

Laundry Therapy

Ever since we bought our own washing machine, I find that washing dirty clothes and thereafter hanging out freshly washed clothes is quite therapeutic for me.

Our home comes with a clothes line on one side of our backyard attached to the fence. Hubby does not really quite like that as that spot does not get the longest amount of sunlight in a day. Some months ago, we bought a small rotary clothes line or a hills hoist line which we could install it on one side of our lawn where we get more sunlight. The other advantage of a hills hoist line is that it rotates as the wine blows, which also means that clothes will dry in a quicker time. We really quite like this and best of all, we could remove this easily if and when we move house. This portable line is only a small fraction of the cost of a large full-sized line.

Give me more clothes to wash, please? ;)

Clothes line when kept

Passionfruit Shortbread Stars

Tried making this 2 weekends ago, in an attempt to use up some passionfruit pulp in my fridge. It was really yum but I have kind of overbaked it in the oven and hence the darker colour.

I used this recipe on Taste but I added less butter than required so that it will not be too unhealthy :p It was quite popular with my 2.5 yo niece (maybe because of the star shape?).

My Heart Longs For You, My Saviour

As I reflect on what I learnt over the past weekend at BLT+, this song came to my mind....

My heart longs for You, my Saviour
I would follow You, my Lord
Your kindness and love are vast as the skies
Your faithfulness never dies
My God and my King
Your great name I sing
My offering of praise I bring

Jesus, O Jesus
I give You my life
Jesus, O Jesus
I give You my life

My soul contemplates Your glory
I worship in holy awe
In quietness and in confident trust
I rest in all that you are
I’ll sing to the world
Your glory and grace
Until I behold Your face

World's Strictest Parents

It was interesting to watch reality tv show "World's Strictest Parents" on tv last night. 2 rebellious aussie teens were sent to a SG 'strict' family to live with them for a few days.

Watch the video here.

At the end of the day? It sounds like all teens in SG wants out of studying hard is to enter a good university.... whilst it might be true for a big majority of them, this is not all true for all of them. And mind you, there are also a number of out-of-control, rebellious and dysfunctional teens in SG too! This is just a sinful world, isn't it?

Basic Butter Biscuits

I was thinking of baking some bickies (aussies' way of referring to biscuits) or cookies to bring to a conference next weekend. Hope to share with our travel mates and our group members or simply just share it over supper. I'd reckon homemade bickies are healthier than the bought ones...

Found this recipe on Taste, which is a basic butter biscuits recipe and you can vary adding different ingredients and making other types of bickies with this same recipe. I tried making the raspberry jam drops (I used strawberry instead) and sultana and oat biscuits last night.

Sultana and oat biscuits - the healthier version

Strawberry jam drops

S bought us some jam drops for church's afternoon tea a few weeks ago. I thought it tasted quite nice and since this was one of the options to vary, I thought I will try it too and they turned out quite good :) The recipe says that it makes 30 but I was able to get at least 35 out of the lot. A little more than half of the jam drops shall be brought to church for afternoon tea tomorrow... while the other lot shall be brought up to conference next week!

My Childhood Mooncake Festival Favourite

Around mooncake festival (or mid-autumn festival), I used to like to eat this biscuit before I start to appreciate eating mooncakes. This is known as 'jyu zai bang' in Cantonese or 豬仔餅 in Mandarin, which literally means piglet biscuit. It is sold in a plastic basket as above and it is suppose to symbolise piglets being bound and sold in baskets. I cannot really find the story behind it after a brief google search. Anyway, some people prefer this over mooncakes (probably mostly the children).

What I probably like about this is the chewy texture of the biscuit/cake. Other than that, it is just something that I relate to my childhood as the adults eat mooncakes and pomelo and the children carry our lanterns and eat this piglet biscuit. I am pleased to pick this up at my local Asian grocery store for A$1, which is not far from the ones you pay in SG.

Belated Anniversary Thoughts

(A week since my 4th year of blogging and 2nd year of moving to Down Under)

In the past year of blogging, I realised that I have been blogging quite a bit on my homecooking and homemaking experiences. I supposed it also made me realised how domesticated I have become (an "aunty" in SG terminology). But really, I am so thankful to finally have the opportunity to do so because being a homemaker (although I am working part-time now) is what I really aspire to be. I am doing what I do not really do when I was single and what people in SG see me as - cooking, cleaning, sewing, knitting. I was (I think) known to be going out a lot (as supposed to being at home), rarely cooked, likes baking (which I still do), frequently shopping for clothes, etc, always wearing make-up and dress quite nicely, wore office suit and heels to work. Now I like to stay at home to cook, bake, sew, knit, sometimes clean, tidy the house, shopping for groceries excites me, wear casually everyday and to work too, wear flat and comfy shoes most times. With this difference in my life, I get excited about my cooking and homemaking experiences pretty easily and blogging about them also allow my friends in SG to know what I have been up to here.

I suppose the above also relates to how my 2nd year in Down Under has been. Having lived here for 2 years and been through 3 winters, 2 summers, 2 autumns and 2 springs, I reckon I still much prefer the cool/cold weather in autumn and winter. I complain about the heat and humidity (at times) in summer and you will be surprised, sometimes in spring too! Even though I have lived through much of my life in a hot and humid country, my tolerance for that has not been really good. Well, there is aircon almost everywhere you go to in SG but not here!

The other thing I have grown more accustomed to a bit more is the aussie accent, the way they pronounced words and the way the use certain terms. It makes me speak proper English a bit more :p but I would be amused and happy when I hear a SGrean accent which I am able to almost instantly recognise it miles away. It is really funny when I hear some SGreans read the Bible in the singlish style when I am so used to hearing it being read in proper English :) I do not used to be able to differentiate the accents so clearly but now I can. I think I am also able to differentiate an American and British accent a lot better than the past. Maybe I was just too comfortable in the singlish that I speak and is spoken around me.

In short, I think I have become rather accustomed to the aussie lifestyle and the way they speak but it will take me a much longer time for me to appreciate the culture, relating to aussies and feeling more comfortable to speak with aussies and in aussie English than "talking to my kaki's in singlish" (the aussies would say "speaking with my friends in singlish") :p

Sewing Project #10 - Aprons

A pair of aprons for HIM and HER

Last month, I mentioned that I had an inspiration to sew aprons as gifts. I set out to Spotlight, to hunt for a suitable material to sew the aprons. Found something very suitable but it was a bit costly. When I was having the material cut at the counter, I was told the cream coloured fabric was about 40% the usual price. This was a good surprise but I was puzzled why the other fabric of the same material but in dark blue was not on sale. Anyway I regretted not buying more of the cream fabric.

So I sewn a pair of aprons above, estimating the size of my friends and made them accordingly and also bought some iron-on alphabets to personalise them. These (along with another pair that I made for another couple) were made for my friends whom I know like to cook and I hope that this would accompany them as they journey into marriage.

The 5th arpon I made was a surprise for hubby. Unfortunately because I had been so busy, this was a belated pressie and I only just finished it today (a week late) :p I hope this will encourage him to be cooking together with me in the kitchen... or at least it will be something to keep his clothes clean when he wash the dishes every night. I was quite tempted to make a matching apron for myself but I cannot get more of the same fabric (same colour or another) and I figure I would just save the extra expenses and just use my bought apron with cow prints.

A masterchef WINner?

SAHW - Stay At Home Wife

(Thoughts after reading an article on Boundless about SAHW)

I was a SAHW for a short while and now, I am a part-time SAHW. From the environment that I grew up in, SAHW is only something that happens to the older generation and not mine. A SAHW seem to be giving the impression that you are idling at home or that your husband is taking back so much dough that you do not need to work. I was a SAHW because I was in between temp jobs and was looking for permanent work. Now, I work part time and hence a part-time SAHW too.

I chose to work part time for 2 main reasons: (1) I will stay sane and have some time to be a SAHW to better serve my husband, be busy at home and have more energy for us to be hospitable with our God-given home; (2) I can continue to work and earn extra to save up, if and when God gives us children. It was a choice and decision that we made as a household and it was not because hubby earns sufficiently for our current lifestyle. But that we will live on one income and adjust our lifestyle accordingly to that one income. We welcome more income, but we continue to trust God to provide and at the same time, trying to be good stewards of the resources that He has given us.

To us, our current ministry (to be hospitable and various others, etc) and our future ministry to our children (God-willing) has a higher priority than bringing in more money for our current, preferred lifestyle. My being a part-time SAHW also allows me to better serve my husband as I prepare our meals and manage the household. It has been proven that I get pretty stressed when I have to work full-time and manage the household at the same time... and this does not help in our marriage, nor minister to our needs. I am happy to have the time and energy to run errands which we otherwise have to do them on Saturdays, meet up with other women on a 1-2-1 basis, help out in mother's group, able to make preparations if and when we have people over for dinner and have time to sew, knit and try new recipes. I am glad not having to be stressed about doing those and at the same time being stressed by the demands of my full-time work. I know I am not a superwoman... although I think it might be a bit easier to work full-time back in SG because I do not need to cook everyday and it is cheaper (sometimes) to dine out.

I am very thankful to God for the privilege to be a part-time SAHW and having a part-time work that is easy and useful in furthering God's kingdom. I cannot ask for anything better :)

Hubby's Birthday Dinner

We thought of saving money on dining out and instead, have dinner at home to celebrate the man's birthday. (The man said that we will eat out on my birthday and our wedding anniversary which both happens in November). In the end, we decided to have dinner out last night, since we had some overseas visitors who were here and we could also catch up once again over dinner at the Summit Restaurant at Mt Coot-tha. As we have the Entertainment book, we only needed to pay for 2 main courses and have 4 main courses, which was a great deal!

I had a salmon steak, served with spinach, potato mash and chilli jam to pack my body with the goodness of some omega-3. The chilli jam was really interesting and gave the dish a great taste! The man had a lamb shank/chop dish with a green olive mash, while our guests had steak with moreton bay bugs. The meal was generally ok, but not fantastic. Ambience was not too bad and with a view (at the top of the moutain). I think it was great to have the company of friends and had a mini celebration of the man's birthday (which is actually today) over a fine meal and the view of Brisbane from the mountain.

We do not know where we are heading for my birthday dinner and anniversary dinner but it will likely be some place where we can use our Entertainment book :)

Bengawan Solo Treats

As mentioned earlier, we just had overseas guests from SG... As requested, they brought over my favourite Bengawan Solo snacks :) Thank God that they managed to get through the AU customs legally.

One of the food I missed is those kueh (or kuih) that I can easily buy in SG. The range that Bengawan Solo has is enormous! Amongst them, I like angku kueh, ondeh ondeh, corn kueh (which I tried before but failed), kueh dadar (my SIL once made it and was good!), egg tarts, pulut inti, soon kueh, ambon kueh and kueh lapis! Of the list, our friends brought us the following 2:

Ambon kueh

Kueh lapis

I was so excited and looking at them, they look too precious to be eaten. At the same time, I could not resist them. I cut them up into slices and put some aside to be eaten the next couple of days and some wrapped up and freezed away for future enjoyment ;)

One of the aunties, my MIL's friend who is an Indonesian Chinese makes really good kueh lapis too. I do not think I will ever attempt it as it is really involves a lot of work. However, one day I may try making the ambon kueh (known as bika ambon in Indonesia) with a recipe that I found.

Another kueh that I also really missed is kueh tu tu, which I blogged about it 2 years ago. I am sure you cannot bring this to AU and it is best to be eaten when it is freshly out from the steamer.

Anyway, thanks to D and HW, I can enjoy some tastes of hometown :)

Cheese Souffle

Following our family celebration of the hubby's birthday, I thought we would also celebrate it with our community group whom we meet twice every week - Sundays in church and Tuesdays at our place to study the Bible and pray together.

Instead of baking a cake, I thought I will attempt to bake souffles. Hubby's not a big fan of sweets and desserts so I figured I will make a savoury souffle and after a bit of searching on the internet, I found a basic cheese souffle recipe and decided to try it.

This is only my 2nd attempt at making a souffle but my 1st making a savoury one. The methods are a bit similar but the difference is that for a savoury souffle, you have to make a roux. The souffle turned out not too bad, but the texture could be improved. The taste was really good and everyone agreed. Would I try it again? Maybe... only because I prefer sweet souffles :p

Happy birthday hubs!

Here is a video on masterchef how they make a twice baked souffle. Watch it as Gary gives some tips of making a souffle and the basic techniques of making the roux and sauce mixture for a souffle.

Another souffle recipe that you can try: chubby hubby's zucchini souffle.

Shepherd's Pie & Sticky Date Pudding

We had 2 overseas guests who stayed over at our place for the past 2 nights. In order to welcome them, I thought I will whip up some dinner for us that we enjoy some food and fellowship. (Incidentally, we also acknowledged/celebrated my anniversary of moving to AU exactly 2 years ago!)

Since my guests usually eat asian/chinese food (they live in SG), I figure that I will cook an 'ang moh' western dinner. Decided on a lamb and potato pie, which is very much like shepherd's pie but the recipe uses lamb mince instead of beef mince that I often see in shepherd's pie. I got the recipe off masterchef's website.

However I could not really find lamb mince so I used beef mince instead. And I have also added chopped zucchini and mushrooms with the mince to increase the veggies proportion. It worked out well and there was sufficient to feed all 4 of us (with seconds) and hubby's lunch today.

For dessert, I attempted another masterchef recipe - sticky date pudding with almond praline and butterscotch sauce. This was what 3 of the contestants had to cook during one of their pressure test. It looks easy enough and really it wasn't difficult, except that it was my first time making praline and I had burnt my caramel a bit and hence there was a bitter taste to it. The butterscotch sauce was really easy to make too and you should make it just prior to serving.

Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and (pathetic-looking) almond praline

The pudding was the more tricky bit (but really not too difficult). First, you have to cook the chopped dried dates in some water and then add some bicarb. Somehow that breaks down the dates into a mashed state. Allow that to cool and then add it into the typical cake mixture, after the usual butter and sugar mix, adding eggs and thereafter, adding flour, etc. Place the batter into moulds (I used my muffin trays instead) and bake it in the oven. What I did wrong, was I just placed my muffin trays into the oven as if I was baking muffin cakes. But really, I was supposed to put the tray onto another baking tray filled with some water. I think this might make a difference in the texture.

I kind of overcooked the date cake/pudding, even though it was a shorter time as said (My oven is always acts up, which allows me to bake something in a shorter than required time). Anyhow, the date cake/pudding turned out really good with the butterscotch sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream to complete it! It was not too sweet... and for that little effort, the result was greatly satisfying! My usually-do-not-like-desserts-nor-sweets hubby had a 2nd go at it! So for those of you who like sticky date pudding, this is an easy and really rewarding recipe!

Watch the masterchef video of the contestants undergoing the pressure test cooking this dish!

Hubby's Birthday Cake & Family Dinner

Last Friday, the family came together to celebrate hubby's and my FIL's birthdays. Their birthdays are only 2 days apart from each other (although technically speaking, my FIL's birthday is not today but another day... but that is another story).

My FIL has gout and he chooses not to indulge in rich foods. Hubby is not big on sweets, chocolate, coffee nor any alcohol. Hence I began searching for the recipe of a cake that I have not made before... I suddenly remembered that I have some pistachios in my freezer... and I found an orange pistachio cake on Taste. Along with some other cake ideas I have, hub got to choose and he chose this orange pistachio cake. I thought I will add a crumble to it and also make some candied oranges to go with it. BUT all that was reduced to a dream when my cake mix spilled all over the oven door and the floor. I was so devastated! For the next hour, hubby patiently and lovingly cleaned up most of the mess I created (looked like someone's vomit). The oven door has to be removed to properly clean up the mess. We managed to salvage part of the cake batter (you wouldn't want to know how we did that) and went ahead to bake it after the clean up.

However after looking at the sad state of the baked cake, I figured that it is not good enough for a birthday cake. So even though I was very busy, I still made time to bake a sponge cake with fruits. That did not started well. That little bit of egg yoke in my bowl with egg whites caused the egg whites not form stiff peaks even after I had whisked it for ages. In the end, I decided to redo the entire thing and the end result turned out pretty good!

That Friday, I also made the teochew 扣肉包 'kong bak pau' to contribute to our family dinner gathering to celebrate the birthdays. With this recipe that I followed, I made 2kg worth of pork and prepping the dish 2 days ahead (the blanching and frying of the pork) and hence was marinated for 2 days instead of just a couple of hours. Hence can you imagine the really good flavours after 2 days of marinating?

It took me 3 hours in total to steam the entire lot (I steamed them over 2 batches). Even though you can see a layer of oil on top of the sauce, when I used my fingers to pick up a piece to taste, it does NOT leave behind any grease on my fingers at all! I was so surprised! The whole bulb of garlic was popular with my 2 BILs, who loves garlic. It was so soft and just melts in your mouth (having said that, I still do not like it. I almost threw the bulbs away after cooking but I remembered that at least 1 of my BIL likes garlic).

The family had our biggest feast ever, with homemade kong bak (with homemade pau), homemade 算盘子 'abacus beads' , homemade egg noddles, homemade 菜头糕 'asian carrot cake', homemade shark's fin soup, amidst some other dishes, making it on par with a 10-course wedding banquet!

And last but not least, we rounded up the dinner with the birthday cake!

How Beautiful......

Last weekend, hubby and I attended the wedding of our friends at the same church that we were married in, some 21 months ago. It brought back some memories for us and most of our friends also remembered that ours was the last wedding that we held there.

A few months before I got married, I heard this song sang as a special item at H&C's wedding. I have heard of the tune before but did not think much about it. But at that moment, I was able to reflect and appreciate the lyrics of the song. The lyrics were so true, so beautiful, so truthful, praising God and talks about what Jesus done for us and our final marriage in heaven.

I wondered how nice it will be to have this song sang live at our wedding as I walk down the aisle to be married. I thought the lyrics and the music just fitted perfectly. I had in my mind, asking J to sing it at our SG wedding and hubby had in mind for K to sing the song at our AU wedding. When I walked down the aisle then, I remembered that I almost cried as emotions overwhelmed me and as I listened to the song and see the lyrics up on the screen... I held back my tears, so that my make-up will not be ruined :p

Last weekend, the couple got K to sing the song again but as a special presentation song as the couple signs the register. This time again, I get to hear the entire song sung by the same person and thinking about the lyrics, water began to swell up in my eyes. But again, I held them back. How beautiful is Christ's body sacrified for us...

How beautiful the hands that served

the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth.

How beautiful the feet that walked

the long dusty roads and the hills to the cross.

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.

How beautiful the heart that bled

that took all my sin and bore it instead.

How beautiful the tender eyes

that chose to forgive and never despise.

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.

And as He laid down His life

we offer this sacrifice that we will live just as He died:

willing to pay the price, willing to pay the price.

How beautiful the radiant Bride who waits for her Groom

with His light in her eyes.

How beautiful when humble hearts give the fruit of pure lives

so that others may live.

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.

How beautiful the feet that bring

the sound of good news and the love of the King.

How beautiful the hands that serve the wine and the bread

and the sons of the earth.

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.

E also blogged about her reflections on this song and there is a youtube video where you can hear the entire song. I am secretly hoping that I can sing this beautiful song someday... at someone's wedding to minister to the couple and their guests.