gingerbread centrepiece

our party turkey

centrepiece at conrad wedding dinner

10 Good Party Ethics

1. Thou shalt eat all the food that thou have touched with bare hands.
2. Thou shalt not be anti-social or aloof.
3. Thou shalt not be rude to thy host and hostess.
4. Thou shalt be sporting.
5. Thou shalt not hide from the camera.
6. Thou shalt not socialise only with the men. It just exposes bitchiness.
7. Thou shalt bring a gift for the host and hostess. It is a party, not a charity dinner.
8. Thou shalt not pile up food on plate sky high. It is a party, not a buffet.
9. Thou shalt not play computer games or X-box in a party. These are personal games, not party games.
10. Thou shalt not complain that party is boring. Thou shalt put in effort to entertain others and in turn, they will entertain you.

Gingerbread recipe

Gingerbread Recipe

Batter:
7 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup molasses
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup cold water

Spices (all powdered)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
2 tsp ginger

1. Mix shortening, molasses and brown sugar
2. Add water
3. Sift in all batter ingredients
4. Add spices
5. Refridgerate 2 hours
6. Roll and cut out

wow, that looks yummy! Too bad I can't have any yet!

isn't this colourful?: Loved the bbq'd capsicums

wow, hard at work bbqing

our church bbq in November....kebabs, wonderful prawn, chicken wings, etc....

Fudge cake that we did the previous time. Totally yummy.

Cooking and Baking means to me

My earliest memories of food are my mom's traditional Chinese home cooked fare, authentic despite being thousands of miles away from home and any Asian country. I loved our oven, which was built-in and old, but yet produced the most wonderfully smelling tasting baked apples. Perhaps my parents' adventurous nature taught me that no dish is absolutely beyond reach.

before they were baked. They sort of put on weight during the baking

just some of the chips we have bought. Think we have around 13 packets now. Can start a mom and pop shop!

chwee kuay at Koufu, but what I was really taking was that huge crack on the plate. Have to feedback to them...

poor gingerbread man

FGM busy at work on the gingerbread men

Desserts!

Apparently famous hazelnut chocolate mouse cake. Very nice, tastes like Rocher.

My plate of food at conrad, sushi platter, crab filled croissant, bee hoon, chicken kebab....

Spring Rolls

Yummy food at conrad with nice setting.

This pie was also last year's creation. Was it apple pie? Couldn't quite remember what fillings we did, but the before baking pic looks quite good.

It's the Christmas season again! Found this pic of the gingerbread man Slushy made last year for Christmas. They all have delicious M&M buttons and chocolate chip eyes! Yummy!

Coconut ice cream we ate in Bangkok is really nice. They are made with real thick coconut milk. They have whole peanuts as topping. Highly recommended. Do give it a try on your next trip to Bangkok.

Mussels

Mussels
Originally uploaded by slushy_mushy.

Nice juicy morsels flavoured with parsley, coriander and other wonderful things (that I now forget!). Not done by me though.

Another version of the sujjongkwa, less hot
slushy n babes

ohmija tea, sweet and sour, very nice and refreshing
slushy n babes

After finishing the ingredients in the broth, fried rice with seaweed is added
slushy n babes

A korean friend brought us to a student haunt for "cheap" food.
slushy n babes

Different types of Kimchi. Most of us are familiar with those made with Chinese cabbage but there are those with cucumbers, radishes, etc. All sorts!
slushy n babes

Food Court fare. Beef fried rice (ok, am inspired to try that out one day since fried rice is one of my favorites to cook) and some kind of hot plate item. Side dishes are picked turnip and what else - kimchi!
slushy n babes

Some noodle type food made of flour and beans. The one furthest is somewhat like bean vermicelli or "tang Hoon". Quite nice.
slushy n babes

Koreans usually use flat metal chopsticks. A bit difficult for us to get used to. They are also very smooth so food is slippery! This was the first course - kimchi soup and porridge. More to come!
slushy n babes

So many sauces, so confusing. Don't know which one to use. From left to right; clockwise: Shrimp chilli, soya, soya with wasabi, lemony chilli wasabi...ok, at least that's how it all tasted to me!
slushy n babes

Caught some of our friend's staff having their lunch in the office and decided to take a picture of "authentic" Korean cuisine. :)
slushy n babes

Fermented bean paste which was traditionally made by every family in urns at home, much like Kimchi.
slushy n babes

Sujunggwa - a kind of sweet cool drink made with cinnamon, persimmimon and ginger, topped with pine nuts and jujube (Chinese red dates). Very warm feeling on the throat and quite pleasant and different. Tried to search for the instant version but was unsuccessful.
slushy n babes

hokkien mee we ate at foodcourt

chocolate chip cookies, these were done with butter, usually i use a recipe that uses shortening so this was my first time trying this recipe. they came out ok but one batch stuck horribly to the tray and i had to dump them. Heart pain, since they were chock full of walnuts and m and ms.

tea eggs

Fried rice concoction, dark cos of dark soya sauce

I think this was my housewarming in which I made tons of pizza and cookies

cinnamon rolls that I made for a charity bakesale

A weird concoction of eggs, crabstick, onion, cuttlefish, chilli and a lot of other funny stuff I forget now

our gingerbread men for christmas 04

My mom's bee hoon, colorful eh?

Messages lost

I have sent my answers to this blog via email but just as yesterday's posting on My Babes was not posted up, this one doesn't seem to be showing either. I shall have to wait to see if I posted it to the wrong email and whether I will get it sent back to me as I smartly did not save a copy.

The“Cook next door” meme

I have been tagged by coboypb/Jacin for this meme and decided to add it here to my new blog, created today. :)

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

When I was in secondary school, I would go to libraries to look for recipies and go home to try them. However, having little cash it was difficult sometimes to buy the ingredients.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?
Probably my mom as I've grown up on her cooking and baking. But along the way I experiment myself and make a lot of dishes she hasn't tried before. My parents were also very adventurous, doing their own satay, chay siew (Chinese BBQ Pork), salted eggs (with salt from the Great Salt Lake!), fishballs (with fish they caught themselves), canned vegetables and even making their own dried prunes and apricots!

Do you have an old photo as evidence of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?
I probably don't, but most of our older photos are in a mess.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

Recently I have discovered that brownies and me don't get along. I've ruined about 3 batches. The last batch I just dumped last week. I've given up.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?
My oven, which I have dreamed of having for many years, is the best gadget. Letdown may be my grater or my spatula - I've broken two of those.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
A lot of times I mix up anything I can find at home, but I've never really offered these creations to anyone else so I don't know if they would like them.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without?
I am generally easy going when it comes to food that I really need to eat; it's more what I don't want to eat rather than what I need to eat.

Any question you missed in this meme, that you would have loved to answer?
Well then, feel free to add one!
Three quickies:Your favorite ice-cream?
Dreyer's Rocky Road. It's not too sweet and simply delicious.

You will probably never eat?
Offal, I feel naseous even if someone eats it next to me.

Your own signature dish?
Probably pizza or fried rice, which I did quite frequently when I had more time. I come up with all sorts of combinations of ingredients. Sometimes they turn out really weird.

Question added by Zarah: On average, how many times a week would you cook something to satisfy your sweet tooth?
I don't really have a sweet tooth as I prefer savory foods. The frequency also depends on how much time I have available and problem is that because I don't take much, I have to find people to eat them before I start.

Question added by Cathy: What do you usually eat for breakfast?
I have been taking cereals. There isnt' time in the morning to prepare something. I also eat out at the coffeeshop a lot.

Question added by Alice: What are your stand-by dinner options when you
don't have the time or the inclination to follow or create a new recipe?
Maybe potato salad which I learnt from an American friend and is really easy and fast to do. Potatoes are really versatile so could also be country pie, shepherd's pie or just plain baked. I also get my mom to make fried bee hoon if I feel I don't have enough food for a dinner party.

And, last but not least: Tag three people!
I'm not sure about this one. Let me think about it, since hardly any of my friends blog!