All Categories - Paul & Karine with Morris

Date night is <3

9/7/2018

Dinner date at Jack's place is ❤️❤️❤️.

The challenge for long-term couples is to get out of the routine that they have fallen into and put in some effort to make their lives together more fun and joyful. The best relationships require effort from both individuals.

We are fortunate to have the support of grandparentsKWAN on such precious night out. It need not be long but it is always awesome to be alone as couple. 🙂

我在老莲家升级了，当姨姨了

9/3/2018

Dedicating this post to my dearest 老莲 whom we have been around each other for 23 years already. Not the whole life but long enough to go through most of the moments in life. 😊

Congrats on Motherhood and welcome you to join me now on this wonderful journey together. So proud of you on your delivery process and you did awesome! It’s going to be fun for you and Eric and I’m sure you guys can handle it well. For now, take good care of yourself on route of confinement recovery. Love you lots ❤️

“Being a Mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed”
But don’t worry! Eileen Ong and myself will be here cheering for you!

With ❤️ from the 老莲S

Purple Spiral Mooncakes With Taro & Salted Egg Filling (千层芋泥酥)

8/26/2018

As Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, we decided to join a class to learn how to make the traditional Purple Spiral Mooncake. A great Girlfriend dating session today as we made the Purple Spiral Mooncakes With Taro & Salted Egg Filling (千层芋泥酥). Learn some new techniques and pretty much impressed by the tools used to make the yam paste.

For foodies who like yam or taro, this is a mooncake that you should not miss. It is full of yam fragrance and goes well with the aromatic flaky crust and salted egg yolk combination. ✌🏻

Good Bye NYK, Hello ONE.

2/28/2018

Good bye NYK, thank you for the past 3 awesome years. It’s fruitful journey with good learning curve. Along the way, we meet some great friends from all over the world.
All the best to the upcoming difference in paths as well as the greatest challenges ahead. I know we will nail it so to make it a better day ahead.
Good bye NYK, hello to ONE. 💪🏻
“Chance made us colleagues,
Our craziness made us friends. “

Our Zoo Adventure

2/25/2018

One of the awesome memberships we took up will be friends of Singapore Zoo because we have attempted to head down to Zoo and River Safari monthly. In fact, Morris has always been looking forward to the Zoo adventure whenever we told him about. He will always come to us and tell us what animals he will like to see for the day. As what daddy suggested, we usually spend about 2-3 hours in the morning to cover portion of the area. This will prevent us being too tired from the trip for the day and also spread out the places to visit so that Morris will be less bored over time (100% effective on this strategy).

Till next Zoo's adventure~

Chinese New Year Celebration

2/16/2018

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! This is the 3rd year where Morris is celebrating Chinese New Year. Started the first year being in my arms and the year after where he run around curious about everything. This year, he socializes more where he invites his cousins to join in mini games like “London bridge is falling down”. So adorable!

his outfit for school's celebration

We started the eve with the boyfriend and papaTan to fetch me off work so that I can rush home to make steamboat for the eve’s dinner. Some last-minute marketing for fresh groceries and it was crazy at the Sheng Siong down my block. Because of 2 days closure, the supermarket was selling fresh groceries at a steal since they are perishable. I managed to grab 2kg of clams at $2, 3 peaches at $1.50, 1 bunch of asparagus at $1 @_@

We invited GrandparentsKWAN over for Reunion dinner this year. Our usual steamboat session prepared all by myself. Something special goes to the beancurd ring roll, Saba prawn as well as the korobuta pork & wagyu shabu slices! These shabu slices from don don donki were awesome! Will definitely head there again to grab the meat if I want to make steamboat or bbq again.

新年初一 ~ CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 1

新年初一 ~ CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 1 BREAKFAST!

Woke up at 7.30 am on 初一 to make breakfast for the family. One of our culture where we always start Chinese New Year’s daily breakfast with scrumptious food spread to kickstart the day. It will also fill our stomach before we head off for visiting sessions. First stop of visiting to GrandparentsTAN ‘s house before we head off together to GreadGrandFather’s house.

My OOTD for 初一 : Lularoe Amelia Dress with JuJuBe DSS be set large piece.

GrandfatherTAN prepared for lunch.

We ended the visiting around 3-4pm before I head home to prepare the PEN CAI 盆菜for 初一’s dinner. PEN CAI is a traditional one-pot Chinese dish from Cantonese origin which has become very poplar dish in Singapore for Chinese New Year. There are plenty of layers of ingredients which are cooked separately before layered and filled with an assortment of seafood delicacies such as abalones and scallops. This signifies abundance and richness in the coming year. 😊

Auspicious symbolisms of Pen Cai ingredients:

Fat choy (dried moss) sounds like “fatt choi” (striking it rich)
Prawns (sounds like “ha” in Cantonese) symbolizing laughter (笑 “哈哈”) and happiness
Green ingredients (broccoli): 青春常驻 (perpetual youthfulness)
Red items (carrot and wolfberries): 鸿运当头 (good fortune)
Abalone: 年年’包’有余 (increasing abundance). They also looked like ingots (ancient China currency symbolizing wealth)
Golden ingredients (scallops, tau kee, fish maw, tau kwa): 翩地黄金 (abundant wealth)
Carrots cut to flower shapes: 花开富贵 (blooming success).

Prepared the following ingredients that layered up within 1 delicious pot:

Cabbage
Fish maw
Beancurd skin
Yam
Mushroom
Duck
Roasted Pork
Scallop
Dried Scallop
Abalone
Sea Cucumber
Saba Prawn
Broccoli
Carrot

Karine's version of 盆菜.

Mahjong session after dinner is a MUST for our Chinese new year celebration

新年初二 ~ CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 2

On 初二, we will always prepare our breakfast early so that we can 开年。We are having Braised Mushroom with roasted pork, dry oysters and lettuce as well as pig stomach soup (焖冬菇，猪肚汤). My Pressure cooker were extremely useful when we need to braise and simmer dishes. Most importantly, we do not need to monitor unlike cooking over stove.

Many will ask me what does 开年means, 开年开个好意头，全年顺顺利利。“鸡”与“界”方言同音，谐音寓意“好世界”，即兴旺发达;开年的汤圆不同于元宵节汤圆的团圆意义，而是水开汤圆浮起，取“发”的意头;桔子谐音吉利。

焖冬菇

猪肚汤

We will usually visit papaTan’s sibling house for dinner session during 初二 but this time round we decided to head back to GrandparentsTAN’s house instead. This will be the last CNY reunion session at their place since they will be shifting house already. We had dinner at the Indian Muslim stall before heading home for more Mahjong sessions.

Collection on my baking during Chinese New Year 2018.

2/1/2018

#DIY BAK KWA 肉干

DIY 肉干。

#2 PINEAPPLE TARTS 黄梨塔 (Selling this year~)

#3 SALTED EGG COOKIES 咸蛋饼干 (Selling this year~)

#4 ALMOND FLORENTINE 杏仁片 (Selling this year~)

#5 CRABSTICKS 蟹条片

#6 RAINBOW BUTTER COOKIES 彩色饼干

Very blessed this year to have so many friends whom ordered their Chinese New Year goodies from me. All based on trust and support where they choose to purchase from me after seeing posts on my Facebook. I am glad to receive positive feedbacks that keep me going with the baking mania just before CHINESE NEW YEAR. For the record, I have baked over 1800 pieces of pineapple tarts & 1000 slices of almond florentines. Crazy it may sound hahaha! I might have to think twice again if I want to bake for business next year though because it is really tedious and time consuming.

Mont Blanc - ABC COOKING STUDIO

10/24/2017

A Mont Blanc is a dessert of puréed, sweetened chestnuts topped with whipped cream. The name comes from Mont Blanc, as it resembles a snow-capped mountain

Managed to book the Mont Blanc class for 3 of us. It is the first time that I have Jacinth and Teri together, but I know they will hang out well together because both of them are superb nice people whom I have met in my life 😊 I have always thought that the mont blanc is made with swiss roll and top up with cream frosting, but I was wrong after attending the lesson. Surprised by the taste of the chestnut and felt it is rather unique tasting cake.

Selfie session!

Strawberry Chiffon Roll - ABC COOKING STUDIO

9/28/2017

Targeting to go for baking class monthly is still achievable so far. Most importantly, I get to meet up with my girlfriends for the session. Checking out on one another and sharing our updates is something rather luxury for a mom since most of our time is focused on our family instead.

ABC cooking studio have been introducing their monthly premium trial class which is very interesting. I think this is also one of the smart marketing tool they use to entice the members to introduce more friends to their studio or to promote more awareness. For the month of September, the special trial lesson is Strawberry Chiffon Roll. This is very popular among my friends as many of them were asking me to referral them to the class. Referral by member for trial class is $28 instead of $35 (UP $48 for walk-in).

Chatted with Mei Fong & Qiu Ling and we managed to form into a table of 4 so that i can book a premium trial class with the instructor. One challenge i have been facing with my favorite instructor is that she is getting very busy with her schedule as many others will opt for her as well. But i must say, those sessions held by her is very enjoyable in my opinion. No pressure and she is very motivating.

The Japanese Chiffon roll is lighter and fluffier in texture which is a good combination with the light cream filling. The technique used is something different from the usual Chiffon cake where we must separate the “wet” and “meringue” before mixing them together. Instead, we beat up the meringue before adding yolk in and mix well.

STEP 1: SEPARATE THE EGG WHITE AND YOLK

STEP 2: BEAT THE EGGWHITE while splitting the sugar into 2 portions to add in. Start adding 1st portion when the egg whites are beaten up like beer foams. Continue to beat till soft peak before adding in 2nd portion of the sugar and beat till stiff peak.

STEP 6: TAKE OUT THE CAKE, cool it on cooling rack and can cling wrap to prevent moisture loss. Upon cool down, slice about 1 cm of the cake edge (diagonally across) to facilitate nice closure for the roll up.

We were given the ABC fan to fan the cake so to quicken the cooling process before we move on to make the fillings.

STEP 3: ADD THE EGG YOLKS in one by one while mixing them on low speed. Upon completely mix (do not overmix), sift in the flour and start doing “J fold”

STEP 4: MIX MELTED BUTTER, VANILLA ESSENCE AND MILK TOGETHER before adding to the mixture. Add any fruit mixture inside that you like. (Do not overfold).

STEP 5: POUR THE BATTER INTO CAKE PAN (at 1 go – to minimize air bubble), and spread the batter across 4 corners first before spreading it evenly across. Tap a couple times to remove air bubble before we can send it in to bake.

jiejie

meimei

Macarons making : ABC Cooking Studio

8/25/2017

I am always grateful that I have meet wonderful friends in life and Teri is one of them. She is my partner-in-crime for baking lessons in ABC Cooking Studio. We decided to make it into a monthly event so that both of us gets to meet at least once a month. To just spend some quality time together and making something that will make us feels proud of it. Lol.
We decided to challenge 3 stars difficulty level and pick to make the Macarons. Always wonder why is it so expensive when we are to buy from the shops when these are just like egg whites and sugar? Well, after this class, it changes my mindset. Macarons are honestly very tedious in making as there are sooooooo many steps to make one bite size dessert.

The thing I like about ABC cooking studio is that it is fuss free. The ingredients are measure to requirement and we do not need to wash the tools used. This shortens the time taken in class since the class duration is about 2 hours only. First thing, we will need to make the meringue by adding egg white and sugar and whisk together. As the portion is 1:1 (1 portion of egg white : 1 portion of sugar) the whisking time is rather long to achieve the stiff peak forms.

Whisk to bubbles like beer bubbles, add sugar

Almost ready, still can whisk a little more.

Done! turn the whisk and see if there is any kind of light suction feel.

We were provided with a macaron template to place underneath the baking paper. This is especially useful as it gives us a good gauge to pipe the macarons out. On Scientific terms, we are supposed to pipe 3.5cm circles of batter (1 shot) but seriously, who will measure them!!! So these small cheat sheet is awesome! 😊

We took the tray and started to knock the tray against our palm many times to ensure that the batter do not have any “nipple” (the sharp pointed edge at the top as we pipe out).

Our instructor told us that we will need to dry the macarons first before baking them. Suggest drying in an Air-conditioned room for about 1 hour. It is easy to identify if they are dry and it is by touching the edges of the macarons to feel that slightly hard. We were told not to make macarons during raining days (resembles the bread proofing lesson earlier on too) which makes the macarons harder to dry.

50 cents Feast @ Chinatown

7/30/2017

I was really excited last weekend when I chanced upon the 50 cents feast advertisement on TV and immediately thought of grandparentsKwan since it brings back those old memories. Went to google about it and understand that it is the 4th year that Singapore Food Festival has held the events. It is set up with an 80s makeover with street hawkers and there will be long lost dialect recipes such as the Hokkien Rickshaw Noodle, UFO (Fried Oyster Cake), Hakka Abacus Seed, Red Glutinous Wine Chicken, Teochew Ah Balling, Ice Ball and more! Most importantly, the dishes will only cost about $0.50-$2.00 per dish depending on stalls.

The grandparents are really excited about the event as well as we decided to head there for early lunch to avoid possible queue and crowd. Event starts at 11am and we arrived since 10.30am and managed to secure a table for 6 of us.
Sounds good? Read on.
We noticed that the food sold was mediocre, nothing fantastic about the taste and the portion given per bowl is pathetic. Each stall was lined up with plenty of people queuing for food. As the venue was crowded with people, it was frustrating to queue for every single food and extremely humid since there is poor ventilation.
Poor grandparentsKwan ended up not wanting to queue for any hawker stall as they cannot stand for long so we have them seated at the table and wait for us to buy back the food. After going around buying from various stalls for almost 45 minutes and finally head back to rest and eat, it disappoints us because none of them is tasty. Felt total waste of time, money and calories as we munched down the food with grandparentsKwan nagging about not wanting to come for such event anymore.
To make things worse, none of us was full despite spending over $48 on the food! Will not recommend going for such an event in future. BOOHOO!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

6/11/2017

My 3rd Attempt for Pandan Chiffon cake. Apparently the first two times went bad where cake shrink and lost the fluffiness of the chiffon signature. Was kinda dishearten because of the repeat failure but somehow i decided to try 1 more time today. The Pandan Chiffon cake i tried this time round uses Cream of tartar to stable the egg whites which seems to work better as compared to the first couple of times. Cracked but at least, it is still rather fluffy!

Step by Step: 9 egg white recipe
Ingredients:
Yellow Team
Egg yolks 6
Castor sugar 100g
Corn Oil 115ml
Coconut milk 140ml
Cake flour 200g
Baking Powder 2 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Pandan juice 2 Tbsp
Vanilla essence 2 tsp
Pandan essence (optional) 1 tsp
White Team
Egg whites 9
Castor sugar 100g
Cream of tartar 1 tsp

Will attempt again!

My Trial Class in ABC Cooking studio (BREAD)

6/9/2017

The trial class for JUNE : Cheese and Bacon Fondue Bread. Seems pretty impressive and decided to invite Teri to join me for this girlfriend session. Been a long while since i last met her and we have sooooo much to talk about. The motherhood talk goes endless and i am just so glad that i met this wonderful woman! :)

A gift from the lovely husband!

6/7/2017

PapaTan bought this samsung gear fit 2 for me after he gonna irritated with me borrowing his Garmin watch for my routine run lol. Nah, he bought it cause i say it is chio looking since i saw it on my colleague and i thought it might be good for run! Woohoo! ❤️yay to more runs!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST HUSBAND!

6/6/2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Dearest Husband! This year i decided to bake you a cake to celebrate your birthday since we are celebrating at home this time round :D Something small but time consuming as you know i am not well verse in baking yet. Hope you like the cake as much as i do! Thank you for your effort in creating an awesome roof and support for Morris and me. We love you <3

May this special day be filled with love and laughter. One year older and one year wiser.