Cream Cheese Tartlets

Quick and easy dessert. It goes really well with all types of fillings; cream cheese, custard, blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream and all sorts of fruits topping. The combinations are endless :)

Easy as a pie Mince Pies

I am all into Christmas this week and really inspired by Jamie Oliver Mince Pies. After watching the video, I realized it is so easy to make and I decided not to follow the measurements from the website. Basically I just used whatever I have. Again, I only made four of these because I try to avoid any leftover. This mince pies recipe is very flexible, you can use any fruits and nuts that you preferred. Most importantly, it taste beautiful!

Adapted from Jamie Oliver Mince Pies.

Yield for 4 pieces

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp good quality mincemeat
• 2 pieces of Puff pastry (I used Kawan frozen puff pastry)
• 1 piece of Filo pastry
• Hazelnut, chopped
• Almond slice
• Dried cranberries
• Melted butter

Methods:

1. Dust working area with flour, roll out puff pastry to slightly bigger square.
2. Put some mincemeat on top, leave some space at the sides.
3. Sprinkle dried cranberries and chopped hazelnut on top, if you have clementine or orange can add some zest as well.
4. Roll it like a swiss roll. Cut into half. Repeat the same for the other piece of puff pastry.
5. Take a piece of filo pastry, brush melted butter on top. Fold it into half, the side with butter face outside and put it on baking tray covering 4 holes. I used 24 holes baking tray. Gently push the filo pastry into the hole, do not tear it.
6. Fill the 4 holes with the rolled puff pastry. Brush the top with butter, sprinkle with almond slice and dust with icing sugar.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170-180C for 20-25 minutes. Check the filo pastry from time to time because they burn faster.

Sweetened Chicken Wings

This is the only chicken dish that I successfully made all these years. So delicious, extremely easy and quick! I called this a no-failed chicken dish. Everyone can make a decent chicken dish from now on!

Recipe adapted from Pork Tocino

Ingredients:

• Chicken Wings
• 250ml pineapple juice
• 125ml cola drinks (Coke or Pepsi)
• 125ml ketchup
• 200g brown sugar
• 1 cup light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp grated garlic (2 cloves)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Methods:

1. Marinate chicken wings with all the ingredients at least 1 day.
2. Heat some oil, brown chicken wings then add 1 cup of marinate. Stir occasionally until the sauce thicken and coated the chicken.

Notes:

1. May substitute with any parts of chicken that you like or pork.

Cheese Pot Macaroni with Ramly Burger

If you are one of those who likes to eat all the delicious but not-diet friendly food, this could be a good option. I purposely made this into very very small portion for two reasons. First, we are not a big eater and we always have leftover. Second, although I want to satisfy my cravings I still want to make sure I eat moderately. This is a very simple and quick dish, basically without any recipe. I couldn't find any minced beef so I opt for Ramly Burger. Thanks to hubby for this brilliant idea :)

Yield for 4 small ramekins.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup elbow macaroni
• 2 pieces of Ramly Burger (defrost) or you can substitute with minced beef
• 1 tbsp chopped onion
• 1/2 tomato, chopped into small cubes
• 5-6 pieces of can mushrooms, sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups pasta sauce
• Cream (optional)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

Methods:

1.  Minced defrosted Ramly Burger. This is a good substitute for minced beef or chicken if you don't have any at home.
2. Cook elbow macaroni as per packaged instruction.
3. Stir fry minced Ramly Burger until almost cooked, add in chopped onion, tomatoes and mushroom, cook until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Heat up pasta sauce, may add in some tomatoes and cream to give a better taste.
5. Get ready four small ramekins. Fill each ramekin with macaroni, then pour in pasta sauce. Top with the the rest of the ingredients. Pour a bit more sauce on top. Cover the top with shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese if you want it to be more flavourful. 
6. Bake at 170-180C until the cheese is melted and slightly brown.

Note:

1. Alternatively, you may mix the macaroni and the fillings together before fill them into the ramekins.  

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 12oz cranberries
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup and find it too sweet. Start with 1/2cup and add more if it's not sweet enough) 
• 1 cup orange juice

Method

1. Melt sugar in orange juice. Add in cranberries and cook until the cranberries start popping. Stir occasionally and taste the sauce.  

How to store bird's eye chili (cili padi)

I used to have problem storing my bird's eye chili (cili padi) and keeping it fresh. Before I could finish using it, they will be all rotten or shrunken. The tips which I've learned from my mom is to keep the cili paid in the freezer instead of refrigerating it. Put your cili paid in a tupperware, throw it into the freezer. It can last for a very very long time :)

Acne Rant

Watching this video really brings back all the memories during my 'dark' period. Please watch this if you too are suffering from acne.

Perhaps I had blogged about my acne problems before, I don't know and didn't bother to check back my old entries as well. After watching the video above by Cassandran Bankson, I started to check out all her other videos about her acne updates. In one of her video, she talked about how frustrated she is about her acne and how her families and others always say that they understand her feelings, but actually they don't! I can totally relate to that and all of a sudden I feel like pouring my thoughts out.

My acne started when I was 11 years old. Initially I planned to talk about how great and perfect my life was before that but let's cut the story short. My classmate once told me, "It's okay your skin will heal one day and you will be all  pretty again". Who would have thought that 'one day' actually took more than 15 years. And my skin is not even close to flawless now, but the good thing is the acne has stopped. Thank God.

I forgot how the acne started but as long as I remember, pimples started to pop up like crazy on my face. It wasn't even pimples, I think it is called cystic acne. Normal pimples are smaller in size and once it is matured, there is a whitish/ yellowish thing inside which some people will press it out or it will burst by itself. But cystic acne is like big bumps which you can't press or do anything! I used to get those huge ones with purplish/ blackish blood inside. I know it sounds gross but yeah that's what I used to have all over my face. 

Being at the young age, I have no clue of how to treat my skin. Even my parents were as clueless as me. We lived in a small town with limited facilities and financially we couldn't afford to seek treatment. Internet was not even available at my home back then. So what my parents could do is ask me to wash my face regularly, follow whichever traditional methods which they 'think' might be helpful and control my diet. 

As if having acne is not frustrating enough, parents and relatives just can't stop giving comments, complaining and sighing at my face. Not forgetting their friends too. Wherever I go, there will be someone commenting or giving me weird looks. Is it my fault that I have acne? Well they used to said that I got acne because I never take care of my skin that's why. How ridiculous is that? Until a point of time, I started to look down whenever I walk so that nobody will see my face and I try to avoid mirrors, face to face contacts etc. Basically I had turned into a pessimistic person with super super low self esteem and zero confidence. 

That's how I spent my teenage years, dealing with peoples' comments and opinions and living in a world where nobody can understand. 

I strongly agree with Cassandra that whoever claims that they understand how do we feel, they actually don't. How can they possibly understand it if they have never been through it before? I couldn't even describe how miserable it is. 

Grandma used to ask me to follow her skincare routine which basically apply her trusty Hazeline Snow on the face to sorta cool down the face and stop the acne. Of course that's not what Hazeline Snow does lar but back then I just followed since I know nuts about skincare. And it doesn't work. Then mom asked me to follow her routine and use 'bedak sejuk' to dry up the acne. It is powder but made into little 'chocolate chips' shape. Mix some water with it and apply to the face. After few minutes it will dry up and you will look like ju-on :x The powder is very drying but at the same time it dries up the skin. So basically these are not the correct methods to treat acne. I started to use Neutrogena Cleanser since secondary and after a couple of years, I think my acne had stopped. I don't think is the cleanser though but I just got older and no longer 'ching chun' LOL. Please if you can afford, find a dermatologist and don't simply try things. Otherwise, do a lot of research before you try a product.

In the beginning of this year, I started to get many bumps again on my face; cheeks, chin, forehead. They just kept coming one after another. I couldn't figure out why so I went to a friend who is a beauty consultant to let her fix my skin. But let me tell you that beauty facials are only works for people who has no skin problems and wanted to keep their skin clean and healthy. If you have acne, first you have to treat it and make sure your skin is stable before you go to any beauty centre. What they generally do is clean and massage the face. If there is a pimple or acne, they will prick it and it hurts like hell. Then it will leave a big holes on your face.

Honestly I have no confidence with beauticians. Until a fine day I went to Sephora to get some mineral make ups for my face. Then there was this SA who recommended me Mario Badescu products to treat my acne. He also explained to me what could possibly caused the breakout. When he tried to remove my make up, he said that my foundation is very stubborn and super hard to remove. That could be the reason why I was breaking out like mad. Dirty face, clog pores, breakout.. it all make sense to me. Immediately I stopped using the foundation and I make sure my face is properly clean after I applied make up. Voila, my breakout stopped and my skin is kinda settled down. 

Such a long rambling post so I will talk about my personal experience with Mario Badescu products in other post. If you are also having acne problems, please please do not simply listen to others and try on any products. Each products work differently for different people. So better understand your own skin and condition before putting something on the face. Good luck!

Apple Pie

Nothing is better than a piece of hot piping apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on rainy days! It's probably one of the easiest dessert to make. I got this awesome pie crust recipe from my mother in law which she got it from one of the Jamie Oliver's show. I love how flaky and buttery the crust is unlike some recipes which used shortening instead of butter, the crust turns out pretty plain. I've tried comparing both side by side. The smells of the buttery dough win hands down. Another reason why I love making apple pie is I don't have to wait for the butter to soften. Quick and comfort dessert ;)

Apple Pie Crust

400gm all purpose flour

225gm cold butter

2 tbsp icing sugar

A pinch of salt

1-2 eggs

 Cold water (optional which I've never used)

1. Cut cold butter into smaller cubes. 
2. Combine flour, sugar and salt together. Rub in butter into flour mixture until the mixture become coarse and crumbly. If you have the curvy cutter you can always use it. Otherwise, like what I always do just use fingers to rub in. I like to feel the butter and flour texture, so soft :) Do it quick though you don't want the butter to melt.
3. Add in beaten egg(s) slowly until dough forms a ball. If dough still crumbly, add a little bit more eggs. If you don't like eggs, can always substitute with cold water. 
4. Separate dough into two balls and wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 

Apple Pie Filling

6 cups Granny Smith apples (you can do less or more, depending on the pie size)

1 cup granulated sugar (reduce accordingly to amount of apples used)

1 cup brown sugar (reduce accordingly to amount of apples used)

1 tbsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1. Cut apples into thin slices. Add lemon juice and toss well.
2. Mix all other ingredients together.

Assemble

Additional butter

1 egg

1. Open cling wrap and put another piece of cling wrap on top of dough. Roll dough until desire thickness. The dough might be too soft to work with but as long as you use cling wrap, there shouldn't be any problem to roll it. I don't like to flour my working space and the dough so I use cling wrap. It's easier to move the dough to the pan as well.
2. Transfer dough to the pan and prick the bottom with fork. I use loose based pan so that it is easier to take out once it is baked. 
3. Mix apples with the spices ingredients. Toss well. Reason why I didn't mix the apples with the spices earlier is because the mixture will turn watery.
4. Cut some butter and put on top of the apple pie filling.
5. Roll the other dough and cover the pie. Cut a few slits on top to release the steam while it is baking.
6. Brush with beaten egg.
7. Temperate for baking varies. I bake it at 180C for about 30 minutes and reduce to 150C for another 30 minutes. Cover the top of the pie with aluminium foil when the top starts to brown. You want to bake it really well to have that melting filling.

Since I have some additional dough left, I turned it into Apple Pie Cookie (inspired by Annie's Eats). I forgot to put water on the dough as what the original recipe called for. The purpose is to stick the bottom and top piece together so that the filling will not leak while baking. Surprisingly, my crust recipe didn't leak at all! I just gently press the ends together and it turns out pretty good. Well, it doesn't taste like cookie of course since I use pie crust but it's still good.

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

My granny is very particular in food, especially desserts in any kinds. That's because she herself is a very good cook, not so much of a baker but she makes amazing nyonya desserts. We all know that the only cake she likes is pandan layered cake so I used to go to an old bakery at SS2 to get her one. That's the only shop that sells really good layered cake and some other traditional sponge cakes. That's when I got addicted to simple vanilla sponge cake with white chocolate. Recently, the shop closed down and I can't seem to find any other traditional bakeries that sell the same kind of cakes anymore. In order to satisfy my cravings (again) I had to bake some my own. Of course this is nothing compared to the one I had before :(

Also, this is my little effort for hubby's belated birthday. He doesn't like sweet stuff so I omitted sugar for the frosting and also reduce the sugar for the cake.

Recipe for vanilla cupcakes is adapted from Cupcake Project. I didn't follow the recipe entirely because I didn't want to spend for vanilla beans without testing the recipe first. Probably it's because of that, the cupcake didn't taste that much of vanilla. The texture is good when it is freshly came out from the oven. Very soft and light. It looks pretty too. I left the cake on the table uncover for the night and the next morning, they are sweating! Obviously it is due to the humidity :( There's a reader suggested to double the butter and omit the oil, try to reduce the liquid, which could be an issue if the weather is humid. I will try to do that next time.

I must say that this recipe is a keeper if use vanilla beans and make some tweaking here and there to avoid sweating. It's very easy and fast to make. The preparation time is only about 20 minutes and baking time around 15-18 minutes.

Frosting is adapted from Diana's Dessert but again, I didn't follow the recipe completely. I omitted the sugar and added unknown amount of milk to get the desired consistency. And I didn't add that much of butter to the frosting. The end result is still pretty good but I will use better quality white chocolate next time to enhance the chocolaty taste.