Vegetable Fruit Cupcake With Yogurt Frosting

Baby A turned 1 two weeks ago, we had a great party with love ones and close friends over the weekend.
I was still yet to recovered from the preparation of party, there actual day came and I was thinking of taking the shortcut to just get some shop bought cupcakes and candies for his celebration in Daycare.

So I went to the supermarket to look for something ready for babies... After reading like 20 labels with chemical terms that I can't even pronounce, I decided that what I cannot give to my own child, I cannot serve them to the little pumpkins in the daycare!

So I went home and baked a dozen of mini vegetables and fruit cupcakes with greek yogurt frosting... I also manage to made some chocolate coated strawberries for the kids!

The babies loved the cupcakes and we had a blast at the daycare that afternoon!

Seafood Crispy Rice Noodle

Last week was a very bad week for me and baby A, it was Friday afternoon and he started showing signs of fever, his fever spike up to 104 F that night, we brought him to his pediatrician first thing Saturday morning, apparently my poor baby had ear throat double infections, no wonder he refused food and nursing completely. 

Worrying that he will be dehydrated I had to forcefully give him liquid, he swallowed with great difficulty and lots of tears.

To cut the story short, it was 5 days and nights of no sleep and lots of tears for both mommy and baby. When he finally nursed after 5 whole days of nursing strike... I sigh with relief and promise to myself that I will never complain about his night time marathon nursing again!

So today after sending the baby to the daycare, I decided that I want something that could comfort me and compensate the harsh week I had! I set out to make this crispy rice noodle. 

There is this restaurant near my parent's house that made the best crispy rice noodle ever. I tried to make this as close to the one they made back home as possible. This recipe tastes slightly different than the one I liked, but not bad as a home cook version, not bad at all.

我娘家门口有家餐厅做的炒粉非常好吃，尤其是这道香底米粉。它的做法是把干米粉先炸脆沥干油后淋上煮好的海鲜和汤汁。

炸过的米粉淋上滑蛋汤汁滑滑软软的，夹着没淋到汤汁的部分，带点脆脆的口感，是一种很不一样的饮食体验哦！

Mooncake Golden Syrup -- The first step of making Cantonese Mooncake

The Mid-Autumn festival (中秋节）is approaching again. It is time to make the famous mooncake!

A group of us in NJ get together around this time of the year every year to make mooncake together, some of us will prepared the fillings and some of us made the skin dough, we made so many different kind of mooncakes, ranging from Shanghainese meat/salted mooncake to the sweet treat like Cantonese mooncake.

The debate of which should be official -- the salted version or the sweet version is always one of the heated debates during our get together, the debate will continues to the next few weeks when we meet again to eat our mooncakes and celebrate Mid-Autumn festival together with a lot of yummy pot luck dishes. We can never remember who won the debate,but the memories of celebrations, good time, good foods and food friends are always in our mind.

This year I decided to make a batch of golden syrup, even though I could not make it to the mooncake making get together due to personal reason. 

The Chinese Forum - Wenxuecity that I was honored to be appointed as a moderator (版主) is currently running a Mid-Autumn Festival activity. I figured if I can't write a post about mooncake, maybe I can submit this Golden Syrup as part of the show/Activity.

【南瓜椰子酱 】Pumpkin Kaya（Pumpkin Coconut Jam / Vegan Kaya )

小时候最爱的早餐之一就是抹上牛油(Butter)和椰子酱(Kaya)的烤土司再加上两只半生熟蛋，每次吃都那么让人满足，那滋味至今仍然让我念念不忘。

每年一到南瓜季节我总忍不住要买一些回来，这个南瓜椰子酱在网上流传已久，我一直想做一次，今天终于如愿，出来的效果太让人惊喜！金灿灿的颜色也让我非常欢喜！

I went out to the pharmacy to pick up a few things yesterday and was surrounded by Halloween decorations in the stores! It is a good reminder that pumpkin season is here again! I am a big fan of pumpkins and would love to try just about any recipes that called for this golden color treat!

This particular Coconut Jam/Kaya recipe has been circulating around bloggers for a good couple of years, I have read about it and thought it was such a smart and brilliant way to make this renown coconut Jam vegetarian friendly! I bumped into this recipe again not long ago, and since I have a big piece of pumpkin sitting in the fridge, guess what I did yesterday?

Yupp! I made this jam and the outcome is so great that I can hardly take my eyes off of it! I hope my pictures do justice to its beauty. 

I also enjoyed a piece of toast with butter and Kaya right after I was done making it. Now the idea of fall approaching is not that depressing anymore.

【阿多博卤鸡】Chicken Adobo

好吃到不行-- 阿多博卤鸡 （Chicken Adobo），终于知道菲律宾人为什么老夸他们这款卤鸡了，香浓，软糯，入口即化的鸡肉配上热腾腾的白米饭，减肥的人请自行绕道而过！

As I mentioned in my previous post that I was reading a couple of Filipino food blogs and could not but to notice that everyone of them rave about their yummy national dish -- Chicken Adobo. I made a mental note that I definitely have to try making it once. And how glad am I that I did! This dish is super yummy and I had to drag N and baby A out for a 3 miles walk to burn off the extra rice I had for dinner!

【焦糖核桃】Candied Walnuts

第一次吃这个焦糖干果是多年前有个朋友从亚洲来纽约出差，顺道来我家玩。

当时他带来的手信就是一包他在纽约街边买的焦糖干果。我不是一个嗜甜的人，对于甜味的干果总有点抗拒，我更喜欢原味或者咸味的做法。

前几天跟妈妈聊天，说起侄儿侄女很爱吃零食，外边买的又不健康，较后在厨房里看见还剩下大半包的核桃，就想尝试做一次焦糖核桃，以后回去可以给小朋友们做了当零嘴。

It has been raining cats and dogs today, it really is not helping with my mood. Baby A has been waking me up several times every night for more than 2 weeks now, I have ruled out teething, sickness and even growing spurt... It is really tough living with broken sleeps every day nowadays.

This morning after sending baby A to the daycare, I came home planning to work on some paperwork. So I turned on my laptop and begin to work, out of sudden I just could not proceed anymore, I could not even look at my computer screen. 

All I wanted was to rest. I turned off my laptop and went to bed, after about half an hour of tossing and turning, I got more irritated and tired. I was probably so severely sleep deprived that my body doesn't know how to relax and just rest anymore.

So I get up and made this candied walnuts, cooking is always therapeutic for me, seeing my own creation just makes me forget about things in life for a bit. 

When I was done, I went to bed relaxed and manage to nap for 45 minutes. Life is all great again!

【黑椒鸡扒】Chicken Chop with Black Pepper Sauce ala Malaysian Style

宝宝不晓得是不是正值猛长期，这几天每晚都夜奶无数，而且每次都要吸好久。无奈的妈妈只好边夜奶边拿着手机阅读。也就是这阵子开始读了几个菲律宾的美食博客。看着看着我就开始想念东南亚的美食了。奇怪的是，一直萦绕我脑海不去的却是这款鸡扒。

这道美食在马来西亚是有名的“西餐”。西餐厅里，咖啡馆里，甚至小贩中心里的西餐摊子都可以看见它的踪影。是各个民族非常喜欢的一道美食。出国这么多年，却从来没有在美国或欧洲的餐厅里看见过一样的做法。想想应该是一款被本土化了的西餐了。

想念那个诱人的味道，我忍不住今天就做了这个鸡扒。NS非常欣赏，下午给做了4 oz的还吃不够，晚餐又让做了两块 4 oz的才过了瘾。吃完还问以后可以经常做这个鸡扒吗？

I was reading a couple of food review blogs from the Philippines and was amazed by the similarities between Malaysian and Filipinos cuisines, some of the name of dishes were similar if not exactly the same. I had a lot of fun peeking into the day to day lives of the people in my once neighboring country, was completely immersed in the wits and humors of those bloggers too! 

Odd enough, after plenty of reading, it wasn't the typical Malaysian/South East Asian food that caught my attention. It was somewhere between Chicken Adobo (which I fully intended to try soon), Afritada, Crispy Pata, Lechon and Pancit that I started craving for this particular Chicken dish -- Chicken Chop ala Malaysian Style.

This is a "Western" food as far as Malaysian are concerned, it is sold in most restaurants, cafe or even hawker stalls in Malaysia. A steak house without Chicken Chop? Not a good steak house!

As I was standing in the kitchen chopping, seasoning, stirring and reflecting on my past life, I realized that I have never seen this Chicken Chop anywhere in the menu of restaurants here in the States let alone in Europe! 

Then I started thinking of the reasons behind and slowly it started making sense! Malaysia is so diverse in culture that the Malay (Muslim) doesn't consume pork and many of the Indian and Chinese do not consume beef due to religion and beliefs. So it is only natural that the restaurants find the need to create a chicken dish that suits the majority! 

So I think the Chicken chop was a derivation of pork chop, well, I could be wrong though. This Chicken "western" dish was a marriage of the west and the east, a western dish with a local twist!

Today's recipe of my chicken chop was an impromptu and it turned out exactly the way I liked! 

I made this for lunch and NS requested for it again for dinner, I doubled his portion in the evening with lots and lots of vegetables, he managed to clean his plate too! 

Grilled Potato Chips

I saw a picture of this grilled potato chips long back on FB and thought, woww this is really neat! 

So this morning I got up with such craving for a good juicy Chicken chop with Black Pepper Sauce that I thought I just have to make it no matter what! 

Together with the chicken chop, I made some steam vegetables and this yummy grilled potato chips as side dish. Lunch was really great, and NS said it reminds him of our days back in Malaysia. Both of us are a little nostalgia today I guess......

Blueberry Buckle

I have to say that today is really not my day, I woke up this morning with stuffy nose and crushing headache, I guess a few nights with little sleep to care for a sick baby finally takes its toll. So I cancelled my morning walk and lie down with Baby A, he was surprisingly cooperative today so we both got like 2 more hours of eye shut before sending him to the daycare. 

Woke up feeling much better and baby A away in the daycare. I thought I will blog about this beautiful pastry that I made over the weekend for a get together at our friend's. So here I spent about an hour typing and composing the post and god know what get into me, I cluosed the page without saving the work!

Pudina Dal（Mint lentils Soup) 薄荷豆子汤

I have a pot of mint at my front yard, I must have planted it when we moved into this house in 2008. It went dead the first year during the winter. So I thought that it was gone for good like many of my plants. 

To my surprise, it show up again the next spring, flourish as ever and never failed to showed up ever since.

So if you follow my blog closely, you will see that every summer I have to find ways to make use of my mints. Here is another one for this summer, mint lentil soup/Pudina Dal.

I have to say that this dal is not quite the ordinary dal we used to have at home, it is very refreshing, nonetheless.

薄荷是夏日很好的一个食材，这道豆子汤带有薄荷清凉的口味，是高蛋白低脂肪的一道菜。

夏天院子里的薄荷疯长的时候，可以这做这个汤试试！

Chocolate Coated Strawberries

We were invited to a pool party last weekend. The host made it clear that we need not bring any food but dessert is welcome. So I made this beautiful chocolate coated strawberries that I had so much fun making and the kids had so much fun eating!

Baby Cereal Pancake

I have been giving Baby Arjun solids since he was 6 months old, he loves whatever I gave him so far. With 8 teeth and few more on their way, he has been chewing pretty well when I let him tried our food. I had mean to make his finger foods as much as possible at home.

So here is one of them, homemade baby cereal pancake...

【牛油果鸡蛋三文治】Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich

我经常做鸡蛋三文治吃，最近家里经常都买有牛油果给宝宝当点心，这个周末我就做了牛油果三文治，夹着自家种的番茄吃，真的很creamy很好吃哦！

We love egg salad sandwich as breakfast or snacks. As much as I love the taste of mayonnaise in the salad. I have been thinking of making a healthier version using Avocado, part of my eating right and losing weight plan.(Well, that deserves a whole new post I figure).

So I finally made this sandwich as we always keep some avocado at home for baby A. The creamy texture of mashed avocado is just perfect for this sandwich! I must say I really liked it! Yumm!

Kari Kapitan （Captain's Curry) 甲必丹咖喱

When I was young I often think that Kapitan is a mysterious Malay word that means someone in power or royal sort of character. Not until much later that I figured Kapitan is nothing but "Captain" in English. 

That makes the name of this dish all the more interesting, here is the version of the origin of the name of this dish I heard from my pals in Melaka:

It was said that in 18-20 centuries, the British colonized the then Malaya. 

Many of the British officers (a.k.a Captains) were based in Melaka for its world famous seaport. These officers often keep the local Chinese or Baba Nyonya as domestic helpers, most often time, Nyonya as a cook for they are known for their culinary skills.

Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup【意大利香肠豆子汤】

We love Carrabba's Sausage Lentil soup so much that I decided to try it at home. This recipe is my third attempts and it is so delicious and satisfying!

我和老公都很喜欢Carrabba's的这个豆子汤。我在家里做过几次，尝试过两个食谱，再根据自己的喜好做了点调动，这样做出来的汤很好喝。

没胃口的夏日午后来一大碗豆子汤也很满足哦！

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

It's summer again!! All I could think of is some cold sweet sourish dessert!

I got hooked to the frozen yogurt last summer, this year I decided to try a homemade version, it turned out sooooo yumm!

Masala Kaju (Spiced Cashew Nuts) 【香辣腰果】

公公婆婆来的时候买了一大包的腰果没吃完。上个周末去朋友家聚会的时候我就做了这个香辣腰果。很受欢迎呢！

I made this Masala Kaju for a get together at our friend's house, it goes so well with beer and some drinks!

Green Chutney Ice Cubes -- A brilliant way to store your chutney!

It is kind of hard to prepare chutney in small quantity and when I do prepare in bulk, storing is always another challenge, the taste and color of the sauce will change over time.

One day when I was doing my routine squeezing lemon juice to make ice cubes for my daily lemon water. I suddenly thought, maybe I could do the same for Chutney!

So the next time when I make green chutney, I made sure that I had enough to fill a ice container! It turned out to be very beautiful, the best part is, every time when I defrost 1-2 pieces, they always look and taste like fresh!

【泰式粉丝虾煲】Koong Ob Woon Sen (Thai Claypot Glass Noodle With Shrimp)

泰国的粉丝煲其实比较出名的是螃蟹粉丝煲，小时候每次到泰国玩都一定要吃的一道美食，它是泰式中餐的一个代表，融合了泰国饮食和中式饮食的做法，味道特别让人惊艳！

在家做的话，虾比螃蟹方便，所以做个粉丝虾煲也好吃的不得了哦！

This Clay-pot noodle is one of my favorite Thai dishes, a must have every time we visited Thailand.

We normally ordered the crab version in the Chinese restaurants, and since I don't like to prepare crab at home, I made it the shrimp version, it is a dish full of flavor, a good blend of Chinese and Thai culinary culture, the result is very satisfying and not at all difficult to make at home!

【泰式绿咖喱】Thai Green Curry Chicken (Gaeng Khiao Wan Gai)

天气渐渐暖和了，前年种的疯柑树长得比去年更茂盛了。并没有因为藏在屋里一个冬天而停止生长，去年的香茅也还活着，我就一直想着做一次绿咖喱。自己家里磨的咖喱酱就是好吃啊！

The Kaffir Lime Tree That I planted two years back has been thriving, though it was kept indoor during the winter, it still grows like crazy....

There is no better use of Kaffir Lime leaves than In green curry....

Indian Sweets-- Rasmalai (Cheese balls in sweetened milk) 【印度奶汤圆】

I often jokingly called Rasgulla, Gulab Jamun and Rasmalai the three musketeers of Indian sweets. They are well loved by many and are part of celebrations many a time.

I have made Rasgulla many times and was always thinking of making Rasmalai at least once, the reason why I have not attempted to make Rasmalai yet is because Rasmalai has to be eaten fresh and consume as soon as possible. On the other hand, Rasgulla can be kept in the refrigerator for much longer time.

In conjunction of Diwali celebration this year, I have made Rasmalai and it turned out really good!

这个甜点在印度东部非常出名，和Rasgulla，还有Gulab Jamun齐名，都是奶香十足，香甜可口的甜点。

Rasmalai的做法和我曾经做过的Rasgulla类似，两者的区别在于Rasgulla是球形的，而Rasmalai多数是扁圆形的。Rasgulla是泡在糖水里吃的，而Rasmalai则是泡在甜奶之中的。两者皆冷食最佳。

Braised Trotter with Mee Suah

As I have some braised pig trotter, I made this Mee Suah for lunch, this thin noodle is traditionally consumed in the southern part of China-- The Fujian Province, and widely used as cooking ingredients in Taiwan  Singapore & Malaysia.

This dish is to be eaten for good luck in Taiwan, normally after something bad happened, or when one wishing for luck, so now, lets all get some good luck!

【百叶结烧猪手】Braised Trotter with Tofu Knots

买了两只猪蹄炖烫喝，炖了两次就有点腻了，换个口味做红烧吃吧！刚好家里有包百叶结，加入一起烧，吸了汤汁的百叶结更好吃哦！

I bought two trotters thinking of making soy soup -- the famous Chinese lactogenic food, with just one attempt and took me 2 days to finish one pot of soup, I just can't think of having the same soup again !

So the remaining trotter pieces were made into this dish with my favorite tofu knots, the tofu knots taste way better than the meat after soaking up all the gravy !

Peda/Pheda/Pera -- Indian Milk Fudge

Sweets is part of celebration in Indian culture, we used to buy sweets from "Methai Shop", you could choose different kind of sweets and they charge by the weight, last few years I have made it a point to make at least 1-2 types of sweets at home for the celebration.

This peda is one of them this year, not to mention that it was over wayyyyy before diwali!!!

【香蕉炸糕】Mashed Banana Fritter （Cucur Pisang/Cekodok Pisang）

念小学的时候爸爸每天会给我四毛钱的零用钱，每天学校早休的时候，我就会花两毛钱买糕点吃，这个香蕉炸糕是我经常买的一款糕点，我还清楚的记得，两毛钱可以买五颗乒乓球那么大的炸糕。

香香糯糯的总吃不够。这款糕点是家里过熟香蕉的好去处喔！还非要特熟的香蕉才能做出好吃的香蕉炸糕呢！

I used to get 40 Cents for pocket money everyday when I attended primary school. Back then 40 cents is good enough for a kid to buy morning snacks and some tidbits.

One of my favorite snacks to buy during school days is this Cucur Pisang, a Malaysian version of Banana fritter.

It is pretty easy to make it at home, a good way to use overripe banana beside baking into banana bread!

Applesauce Bundt Cake

As I said, I made the applesauce to bake a cake! Here it comes my Applesauce Bundt Cake!

Crockpot Applesauce

A good friend of mine once told me that applesauce is a good substitute for butter in Cake, and makes very moist cake.

As I have so many cooking apples lying around in the house, I decided to make a batch of applesauce, and later when I have time bake a applesauce cake!

Egg and toast -- a good simple breakfast

Breakfast will be the simplest during most days in my house. Simple doesn't means lesser in taste and nutrients... here is one of my favorite, cool looking yet tasty, it has got everything I need to kick start a day!

Simple Dal (Moong Dal)

Dal is comfort food for many Indians, and this simple dal recipe could be made and serve in under 20 minutes, time saving healthy food indeed。