Dainty Bites

My Nikon D40 is currently on home leave. Went back to Japan with my brother last Thursday. I won't be taking any photos for the time being until it comes back. (-.-)

I love cinnamon rolls and when the craze hit this island a few years ago, I was over the moon. I had to get one each time I pass by a shop. The heavenly scent of it will lead me straight to the shop and fork out more than two bucks for a bun. I have been eyeing this recipe from Baking Illustrated for a long time, but hesistated to make it since I have no underwriter (Hubby not interested in sweet stuff; Sis doesn't care for any; Brother hates cinnamon like poison). But when I have a carton of buttermilk that was going to expire, I knew I had to give this a shot. This is a Quick Cinnamon Roll cos it is not leavened by yeast but with buttermilk and baking soda. Hence they called the dough a biscuit dough instead of a regular bread dough. I was quite disappointed with it as the aftertaste was sort of gummy. I prefer my cinnamon rolls made with sweet milk bread dough. Well, now I know better. There is really no short cut to wonderful food. And in this case, wonderful bread.

Recently I have been going crazy about eating my veggies. Since my triumphant achievement of being about to pull together 3 dishes for a meal , I have been putting at least 2 veggie dishes at each meal. So each time when I hit the supermarket, my trolley is piled high with loads of veggies. But what to do with those leftover veggie odds and ends? I made this soup with them, of course! How to make this: Fine chop a big onion, carrots and celery. Peel and slice russett potatoes. Heat olive oil in a stock pot. Saute the onion, carrots and celery until the vegetables softened. Add potatoes and continue to saute until the potatoes soften. Add stock (or water) and bring to a boil. Simmer until all the vegetables are softened, about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool down slightly. Transfer the soup into a blender (you may need to do this in batches). Blend until smooth and serve! This soup is thick without even adding cream! Packed with lots of fibre and delicious. Unfortunatel

I think I am doomed with it comes to baking cakes. I am sure to make some sort of boo-boo when I get around to it. The story is that my sis has been asking me to bake her a chocolate her for some time and now when I finally got to it ... I made this! What was it suppose to be?? It was suppose to be Baking Illustrated's Chocolate Sheet Cake. Click here if you want to see a more decent picture of it and also the recipe . But I used the wrong measuring cup and ended up with less flour and sugar. How did the cake taste anyway?? Well, I gave most of it to my sis and she sent me this sms: " I've eaten 2 slices of ya cake and I've thought of d perfect name 4 it - Ultra fudgey Chocolate Decadence ." I want to think that she must have liked it alot. The cake was, needless to say, dense. When cooled, the cake has a dense fudgey mouthfeel, much like eating a brownie. As I mentioned that I used the wrong measuring cup, the cake wasn't overbearingly sweet. All thi

This is one of my favourite way of eating Japanese cucumbers. How to make this: Cut cucumbers into bite size. Put into mixing bowl. Drizzle light soy sauce, a dash of sesame oil, a sprinkle of sugar, a big heapful of chilli broad bean sauce and drizzle with chilli oil. Let it chill in fridge for 30mins before serving. Most of the time I do this by rough estimation, so this is the best direction I can provide. (^.^)

Hubby just got this for me over the weekend! Yay! How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman I am still reading through the recipes, hopefully I can post a few cooking here shortly. (^.^)

Just came across this interesting article from the NY Times entitled: " 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make ". Very interesting to know that there is such a thing as a chocolate diet. Let me check if I am making all the mistakes listed in the article. 1. Sending children out of the kitchen. My girl usually hangs around the kitchen while I prepare our meals. She would either be pretending to cook or she would just sit beside our radio and sing. She is really a good helper if she has a mind to it and would help me beat eggs, wash vegetables or getting things from the fridge. 2. Pressuring them to take a bite. Guilty as charged. But mine is more like: "Just take a bite and if you don't like it, spit it out." 3. Keeping "Good Stuff" out of reach. Her snacks are all easily accessible by her. Half of them are on our dining table! Most of the time I would be the one asking if she wants a snack cos I desperately want some myself! Haha ... 4. Dieting in front of

Did you read last Sunday's newspaper? No, not about the crashing of the a certain Ferrari , but the article about more Singaporean are tuning in to DIY bread. According to the article, more people on this island are turning to hard, crusty and healtheir European style bread as their staple. Spelt bread? Rye bread? Wholemeal bread? Not for me. Thank you. I like my bread soft and fluffy. That is the kind of bread I grew up on, and that is the bread that I want my little princess to grow up on too. I mean bread is bread. A vessel for providing fuel for our bodies. I don't need fibre in my bread. I can bite into a fruit or top my sandwich with veg. Despite the fact that I have so many bread making books, I have never found myself drawn to recipes for these breads. Strictly white bread only. And my quest for a good white bread recipe is never-ending. I will always be excited when I see a picture of a lofty loaf with soft fluffy white interior. I could almost conjure the smell wh

I can't remember when was the first time I had tasted sun-dried tomato butter. All I know is that this butter will make you forget how many slices of bread you already had and the fact that you are slathering on full fat butter. It is insanely easy to make, only 3 simple ingredients and the food processor does the work for you. I made it once before and the memories of it haunt me from time to time. I know it is just butter, right? How exciting can a slab of flavoured butter be? Beats me. Anyway, enough of me gushing all over about it, let's get down to how to make it. This was what is in my recipe book: " Drain and chop 1/3 cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes. Cut 125g room temperature butter into cubes and combine in a food processor with the sun-dried tomatoes and 1 tsp lemon juice. Blend until smooth ." Simple, right? All that you need to do is just line a small bowl with transparent wrap and scoop the sun-dried tomato butter into it. Portion according to your u