The holidays have past and I haven't updated for awhile. Due to a number of things going on in my personal life, I'll have to put this blog project aside for the next two months. Sorry!
I'll leave one more tip that I learned this past week from my MIL, my mom, and my husband's aunt:
When making Chinese soup from pork bones, always add a bit of chicken meat as well!
Interesting...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Felted crochet
I have a nasty habit of starting multiple projects at a time. As of current, I'm working on a christmas present for a friend, a vest for my husband, and a blanket for my youngest daughter.
A friend of mine got me interested in felted crochet, which I told myself that I would never do. Until I saw this:
(the BAG)
I have a huge obsession with bags. And this bag, to me, is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the colouring, the simple granny square design, yet it didn't seem tacky at all. In my mind, I envisioned a similar bag but with purple and pink colouring, and most likely a different style of bag. I also brainstormed on how to add a zipper to the bag.
Following this, I went to the closest department store, and found this:
Bernat English Rose wool yarn for felting. And I literally fell in love with this colour scheme. Although the gauge is different, I decided to buy it anyways, and bought the remaining 4 balls of yarn, hoping that it's enough for my project. They recommend a 6.5 size hook, which I think I'll follow, since in the original pattern, they recommend a size 8 hook for size 8 yarn. That means my squares will be a lot smaller, but I'll just make more.
I also made a small square when I got home, and briefly hand-felted it in hot water to see the effects, and the results were promising. As this project is wholly for me, I'll be updating as my project progresses.
My only worry is that b/c the yarn is a mix of colours, the granny square scheme won't show very well.
A friend of mine got me interested in felted crochet, which I told myself that I would never do. Until I saw this:
(the BAG)I have a huge obsession with bags. And this bag, to me, is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the colouring, the simple granny square design, yet it didn't seem tacky at all. In my mind, I envisioned a similar bag but with purple and pink colouring, and most likely a different style of bag. I also brainstormed on how to add a zipper to the bag.
Following this, I went to the closest department store, and found this:
Bernat English Rose wool yarn for felting. And I literally fell in love with this colour scheme. Although the gauge is different, I decided to buy it anyways, and bought the remaining 4 balls of yarn, hoping that it's enough for my project. They recommend a 6.5 size hook, which I think I'll follow, since in the original pattern, they recommend a size 8 hook for size 8 yarn. That means my squares will be a lot smaller, but I'll just make more.
I also made a small square when I got home, and briefly hand-felted it in hot water to see the effects, and the results were promising. As this project is wholly for me, I'll be updating as my project progresses.
My only worry is that b/c the yarn is a mix of colours, the granny square scheme won't show very well.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Shake N Bake alternatives
To be honest, I can be quite a lazy cook when it comes to dinner. Partly it's because no matter how much time I spend on dinner, my husband devours it all, provided that it's completely cooked. Of course, one might think "I bet he won't eat food that tastes terrible", but during my first pregnancy, I could not tolerate the smell of meat, and thus Ken had to eat boiled chicken breast, or boiled pork chop (no seasonings whatsoever) for 9 months. And he did with no complaints!
Oh wow, I really went off topic there, didn't I?
Anyways, being a lazy cook, I rely on shake n bake a lot. Why not? Just throw the meat into a bag, place it on a pan and bake away! The other day, I wanted to make chicken nuggets for Cassie, chicken nuggets being quite high on her favourite food list. Of course, when I need my shake n bake packets, that is the time I run out.
In a panic, I googled alternatives to shake n bake, and came across bread crumbs. Did I have bread crumbs? Of course not. However, I always use cracker crumbs to replace bread crumbs, and there are always crackers around the house, as my two little critics live on crackers.
So, with a rolling pin and plastic bag, I crushed half a package of whole wheat crackers into crumbs, added a bit of salt, pepper, and basil. For proper coating, I should have dipped each chicken piece into a bowl with a beaten egg, then dip into my cracker mixture, but being the lazy person I am, I mixed my egg with my meat, and then dipped into my cracker mixture.
The result? No picture, because the girls ate them up. Ken honestly couldn't tell the difference in terms of taste, but I felt better because I felt the batter coating was much healthier.
So the next time you run out of shake n bake, try using bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, or even cereal crumbs!
Oh wow, I really went off topic there, didn't I?
Anyways, being a lazy cook, I rely on shake n bake a lot. Why not? Just throw the meat into a bag, place it on a pan and bake away! The other day, I wanted to make chicken nuggets for Cassie, chicken nuggets being quite high on her favourite food list. Of course, when I need my shake n bake packets, that is the time I run out.
In a panic, I googled alternatives to shake n bake, and came across bread crumbs. Did I have bread crumbs? Of course not. However, I always use cracker crumbs to replace bread crumbs, and there are always crackers around the house, as my two little critics live on crackers.
So, with a rolling pin and plastic bag, I crushed half a package of whole wheat crackers into crumbs, added a bit of salt, pepper, and basil. For proper coating, I should have dipped each chicken piece into a bowl with a beaten egg, then dip into my cracker mixture, but being the lazy person I am, I mixed my egg with my meat, and then dipped into my cracker mixture.
The result? No picture, because the girls ate them up. Ken honestly couldn't tell the difference in terms of taste, but I felt better because I felt the batter coating was much healthier.
So the next time you run out of shake n bake, try using bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, or even cereal crumbs!
Pizza
When I got my new Kitchenaid mixer, it came with a few recipes, including an easy pizza crust. Both my girls and Ken love eating pizza, so I thought I would give it a try.
My goal was to make 4 mini-pizzas from the pizza dough.
I have made pizza before, and the middle always ended up too soggy, so I decided to make smaller pizzas, as well as pan-frying my toppings prior to addition to the pizza. I made a ham and pineapple pizza, as well as a chicken and red pepper pizza. I pan-fried both sets of toppings until pretty much cooked through.
I used a fast rise yeast, which allowed me to omit the first rise.
I followed the recipe exactly, and I must admit that the kneading done by my KA mixer made life much easier. It was very satisfying to see all the dough clinging to the dough hook. After the dough rising, I divided up the dough, rolled it out, pulled it a bit, and then added the tomato sauce, grated cheese, and toppings.
It only took 15 minutes for me to bake two mini-pizzas in my tabletop convection oven. Overall, it took me 2 hours from start to finish to make the pizzas.
I will definitely make these again. My little critics devoured their portions, and all four pizzas were consumed almost the moment they came out of the oven. The dough was soft and chewy, and extremely yummy.
One thing though, a handful of cornmeal was scattered across the pan before the pizzas were laid on top. What's the purpose of this? I must google.
My goal was to make 4 mini-pizzas from the pizza dough.
I have made pizza before, and the middle always ended up too soggy, so I decided to make smaller pizzas, as well as pan-frying my toppings prior to addition to the pizza. I made a ham and pineapple pizza, as well as a chicken and red pepper pizza. I pan-fried both sets of toppings until pretty much cooked through.
I used a fast rise yeast, which allowed me to omit the first rise.
I followed the recipe exactly, and I must admit that the kneading done by my KA mixer made life much easier. It was very satisfying to see all the dough clinging to the dough hook. After the dough rising, I divided up the dough, rolled it out, pulled it a bit, and then added the tomato sauce, grated cheese, and toppings.
It only took 15 minutes for me to bake two mini-pizzas in my tabletop convection oven. Overall, it took me 2 hours from start to finish to make the pizzas.
I will definitely make these again. My little critics devoured their portions, and all four pizzas were consumed almost the moment they came out of the oven. The dough was soft and chewy, and extremely yummy.
One thing though, a handful of cornmeal was scattered across the pan before the pizzas were laid on top. What's the purpose of this? I must google.
No crocheting?
I have been posting mostly cooking posts mainly because my current crochet projects are for Christmas gifts. Hence, no posting about them until they have been completed and opened by their receivee. Sorry!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Cake balls
Another one of my favourite sites is Bakerella. I'm not good with decorating, so I just love going through that site and looking at the pretty colours and yummy baked goods. After some thought, I finally decided to try making cake balls, as it seemed pretty easy.
I didn't make cake from scratch, and just used cake mix.
Step 1. Bake the cake.
Step 2. Let the cakes cool and then crumble into a bowl. I did one cake at a time, and added half a can of whipped frosting to each.
Step 3. Mix throughly. Form small balls from the mixture.
Step 4. Freeze for 15 minutes.
Step 5. Decorate. I chose to dip them in chocolate, but I had a lot of trouble doing so. I ended up finishing, but the chocolate remained a bit sticky. I also decorated them with some sprinkles.
I gave Cassie one to try, and she really liked it. Ken thought it was raw, so I assume he didn't like it. He did take half of the batch to work, and all his co-workers loved them, so I guess they are quite good. I think I'll stick to cookies though. Cake just isn't my thing.
I didn't make cake from scratch, and just used cake mix.
Step 1. Bake the cake.
Step 2. Let the cakes cool and then crumble into a bowl. I did one cake at a time, and added half a can of whipped frosting to each.
Step 3. Mix throughly. Form small balls from the mixture.
Step 4. Freeze for 15 minutes.
Step 5. Decorate. I chose to dip them in chocolate, but I had a lot of trouble doing so. I ended up finishing, but the chocolate remained a bit sticky. I also decorated them with some sprinkles.
I gave Cassie one to try, and she really liked it. Ken thought it was raw, so I assume he didn't like it. He did take half of the batch to work, and all his co-workers loved them, so I guess they are quite good. I think I'll stick to cookies though. Cake just isn't my thing.
Wintermelon pastries (aka. wife cake or lao por bing)
I always like eating lao por bing, and when one of my favourite blogs posted up a recipe, I couldn't wait to try it. The recipe is posted there, so I won't bother repeating it.
Of course, such an endeavour (it is a complicated recipe!) wasn't without complications. Looking for candied wintermelon took quite awhile, simply because I had to travel further in town to get some. I eventually found some for a low price at a Chinese herbal shop.
Issue #2 was trying to figure out the conversions as I didn't have a kitchen scale. I ended up using three different websites in order to convert everything (you can visit them here: one, two, and three).
Onwards and forwards.
The water and oil doughs were more difficult to make than I expected. Seriously, how hard can mixing flour and oil be? The problem was that more oil was needed to make the oil dough, and less water was needed to make the water dough. I had to make the water dough twice because the first time, I just dumped the water into my mixer. I would recommend for each dough, to mix all the dry ingredients first, and slowly add oil or water as needed to make a nice dough.
I also made the doughs the day before and let them rest in the fridge overnight. It made the dough nice and easy to work with. I also couldn't figure out which dough was on the outside and which was in the inside, but the textures of the dough solved that for me. The oil dough was crumbly, and impossible to roll out, while the water dough was soft and elastic-y. So, the oil dough went inside the water dough.
Since I didn't have a kitchen scale, there was no way I could divide the dough into 10 g portions, so I just eyeballed it. I ended up dividing each dough into 11 portions, but I think 10 portions would be better for future reference.
The wintermelon mixture was a big headache as well. Again, there seemed to be too much water in the recipe, and I couldn't figure out what "boiled drinking water" meant. Is it boiling water, or cooled boiled water? I ended up using boiling water. I first creamed the sugar with the margarine, added all the other ingredients, and slowly added boiling water until I had a thick mixture. I wasn't sure how to "knead" this mixture, so I just mixed it well. It got thicker as it sat, so maybe I was supposed to use the full amount of water.
The assembly of the pastries was pretty fun until I got to adding the wintermelon mixture. I couldn't make it work properly, and if anyone has any tips on how to wrap a thick liquid mixture in a pastry, please let me know! I just sealed it the best I could, and hoped for the best.
The egg wash is absolutely essential, and gave a nice colour to the final result.
After baking, I was relieved to find only one casualty, the rest didn't leak. After letting it cool a bit, I shared one with my little critics. The pastry was definitely flaky, but not much flavour. It didn't seem as flaky as the pastries I buy in bakeries, but I think it's probably because of the fat content in the doughs. The wintermelon mixture was the right sweetness, and blended well with the pastry. I probably should have flattened the pastries more prior to baking, to have a more typical spherical shape.
My little critics enjoyed the pastry, and asked for a second after they polished off the first one.
I wouldn't say that this recipe was a complete success, but the results were quite decent. I might make them again, considering I still have half a bag of candied wintermelon.
Of course, such an endeavour (it is a complicated recipe!) wasn't without complications. Looking for candied wintermelon took quite awhile, simply because I had to travel further in town to get some. I eventually found some for a low price at a Chinese herbal shop.
Issue #2 was trying to figure out the conversions as I didn't have a kitchen scale. I ended up using three different websites in order to convert everything (you can visit them here: one, two, and three).
Onwards and forwards.
The water and oil doughs were more difficult to make than I expected. Seriously, how hard can mixing flour and oil be? The problem was that more oil was needed to make the oil dough, and less water was needed to make the water dough. I had to make the water dough twice because the first time, I just dumped the water into my mixer. I would recommend for each dough, to mix all the dry ingredients first, and slowly add oil or water as needed to make a nice dough.
I also made the doughs the day before and let them rest in the fridge overnight. It made the dough nice and easy to work with. I also couldn't figure out which dough was on the outside and which was in the inside, but the textures of the dough solved that for me. The oil dough was crumbly, and impossible to roll out, while the water dough was soft and elastic-y. So, the oil dough went inside the water dough.
Since I didn't have a kitchen scale, there was no way I could divide the dough into 10 g portions, so I just eyeballed it. I ended up dividing each dough into 11 portions, but I think 10 portions would be better for future reference.
The wintermelon mixture was a big headache as well. Again, there seemed to be too much water in the recipe, and I couldn't figure out what "boiled drinking water" meant. Is it boiling water, or cooled boiled water? I ended up using boiling water. I first creamed the sugar with the margarine, added all the other ingredients, and slowly added boiling water until I had a thick mixture. I wasn't sure how to "knead" this mixture, so I just mixed it well. It got thicker as it sat, so maybe I was supposed to use the full amount of water.
The assembly of the pastries was pretty fun until I got to adding the wintermelon mixture. I couldn't make it work properly, and if anyone has any tips on how to wrap a thick liquid mixture in a pastry, please let me know! I just sealed it the best I could, and hoped for the best.
The egg wash is absolutely essential, and gave a nice colour to the final result.
After baking, I was relieved to find only one casualty, the rest didn't leak. After letting it cool a bit, I shared one with my little critics. The pastry was definitely flaky, but not much flavour. It didn't seem as flaky as the pastries I buy in bakeries, but I think it's probably because of the fat content in the doughs. The wintermelon mixture was the right sweetness, and blended well with the pastry. I probably should have flattened the pastries more prior to baking, to have a more typical spherical shape.
My little critics enjoyed the pastry, and asked for a second after they polished off the first one.
I wouldn't say that this recipe was a complete success, but the results were quite decent. I might make them again, considering I still have half a bag of candied wintermelon.
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