'Tis the Season...and plans get changed - again and again!

This Christmas was going to be a bit different - for all of us. For me, personally, it was the first christmas that my grandmother wasn't around. She passed away early in the year. For The Lovely Wife, it was her first Christmas without her father, who passed away in September. With that, traditions and what we normally do on Christmas would be different.

Usually on Christmas Eve, The Lovely Wife, kids and I go to her parents house where we are joined by the other siblings and sometimes TLW's uncle and family for Christmas Eve dinner. That has been the tradition ever since I got married. My parents on the other hand, usually go to my Grandmothers house.

This year, the original plan was to have Christmas Eve dinner at our place with TLW's family and my parents. However, all plans sometimes go awry and TLW got called back to work for something urgent on the 22nd and she reckoned she could possibly be tied up on the 24th as well. So... we decided to call off Christmas Eve dinner and notified the rest of the family to 'go do their own thing.'

Come Christmas Eve however, The Lovely Wife managed to finish off all that she had to do and my parents suggested that we go out for dinner. I suggested to The Lovely Wife that we get her family over after dinner for dessert as I had already made the dessert. We could all then open up our presents as we would normally do on Christmas Eve. That sounded like a good plan.


Late in the afternoon of the 24th, we were out shopping and so on the way home, we decided to stop at a restaurant nearby to make reservations for dinner. Would you believe that at 4pm, they were already fully booked for Christmas Eve dinner? And here we thought that everyone would be at home on Chrissy Eve!

I decided then that rather than go out somewhere I would cook a simple meal. As I said, dessert had already been made the day before so it was just deciding on the main meal. I decided to keep it really simple and just get some bread and toss up a pasta as well as some fried sausages. That would be enough for my parents and the 4 of us.

It was then that The Lovely Wife asked if since I was already cooking, could I make extra and invite her family over as well, rather than just getting them to come for dessert. No Problem!

So...rather than just make one pasta, I made two. TLW's family bought some Pizza too and brought that over so there was plenty. It was really good having everyone over and the meal was enjoyed by all.


So for Christmas Eve Dinner, this was what we had:


Pasta Salmone - Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Portobello Mushrooms in a creamy sauce lightly flavoured with Salmon stock and tomatoes.




Spicy Vegetarian Pasta - Zuchini, Fresh Thai Basil and Red Capsicum tossed in Chilli Flakes



Sausages fried with Basil




Triple layered Chocolate delight - Oreo base layer, baked mousse layer with nuts and topped with a final layer of Chocolate Mousse.

Not forgetting the garlic bread and the bought pizza :)

Dessert didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but it was still a mighty delicious dessert nonetheless. I had wanted the baked layer of the dessert to be softer but it turned out more like a brownie thanks to me adding in too much flour, forgetting that the cocoa would act as a binder as well. (I redid the layer a few days later and I'll post about that soon - I hope!)

We didn't put up the Christmas tree either this year either so the kids decided that our reading light was going to be the Imaginary Christmas Tree...



...and all the presents were placed under this light in lieu of the tree. After all, the tree is usually place in this spot anyway!



A week earlier, I had ordered a new TV for the family as prior to this we were still in the Stone Age with an old CRT TV - thats Cathode Ray Tube TV for those that have never seen a fat old TV Set before. I took the opportunity to take a picture on Christmas Eve night since all the other presents were being opened and this was by far the biggest present! Note the small ribbon that we put on the TV...



Now we have the latest but probably not the greatest, but still a marked improvement to what we used to have! The kids love it and so does The Lovely Wife! I have to admit that watching football(soccer) on the big screen is so much more fun - especially so when I have hooked up the sound to my audio system!

The best part about this dinner was getting the whole family together. Christmas Eve dinner is rarely about the food and more about just getting together with lots of love and laughter!

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Blessed New Year ahead!

Michael makes Pesto for a Presto Pesto Pasta

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

I've always believed in that saying and I try and put it into practice with the kids. I always like to teach them how to do something so that they learn how to do it themselves - instead of always doing it for them.

The same thing applies in the kitchen. It's no point always cooking good food for them if they never learn how easy it actually is to cook! That's one of the reasons why I've always encouraged my children to help out in the kitchen and both of them are more than happy to help. I'm slowly trying to get them to do more things in the kitchen on their own in the hope that one day they will be able to manage themselves in the kitchen and maybe cook a little something for us on their own.

A few posts back, Sarah helped me out with a batch of Choc Chip Banana Muffins and in fact, since she did most of the work, I gave her all the credit for it!

This time, Michael wanted to help me make a pesto as The Lovely Wife (or in this case, The Beloved Mother!) wanted a pesto pasta for lunch. This is the step by step of Michael making the pesto - with just a little help from me.


We used Cashew Nuts instead of pine nuts. After weiging out the nuts, the first thing with Cashews, as I learnt from MY Mother, is to always break them in half to check for sand, mites or any other foreign object. Get your sister to help out too!



Next, wash the basil leaves and place them in a colander to shake the water dry. Get the nuts and the basil leaves ready.



Get the food processor out and place it together with the basil leaves, nuts, olive oil and cheese on a table.
Yes, we forgot the garlic but more on that later...




Process the Basil leaves into a nice smooth paste.




Add in the nuts and process till smooth. Some people like the pesto a bit chunky so process it however fine you want it.



Oopps!! This is where I realised that we had forgotten the garlic. No matter, add it in as everything is going to be whizzed up anyway!



Next, Add in the cheese and process together. The mixture will get a little thick at this stage. Use a good quality cheese like Pecorino or parmesan although cheddar works as well.



Next, Add in the olive oil, a little at at time till the pesto forms a nice paste. The more oil you add, the thinner the paste - again, a matter of choice.


Finally, add some salt, dip you finger in, scoop up a little bit and taste it, adding more salt as required!



Hey Presto! Here's your Pesto!

Ingredients
3 Cloves Garlic
50g Sweet Basil Leaves
100g Cashew nuts
100g good quality cheese - grated
Olive Oil

Method
Blend everything up together in a food processor, adding the oil a little at a time at the end till the right consistency is achieved. The consistency is basically up to you.

To make a Pesto Pasta, boil your pasta of choice till Al Dente, then drain and toss together with your pesto. Again, how much you want to use is all a matter of taste.



I whipped up some meatballs to serve together with the Pesto Pasta for a little more body. The Lovely Wife however, preferred to have it just with some sliced cherry tomatoes. Did I mention she loves Pesto??!!



Michael was very proud of himself and so was I! As usual after eating, both kids thanked us for the meal. This is when I quipped, "Thank yourself! You made the pasta!"

You should have seen him beam!

Michael is proudly bringing this pasta over to Aqua from Served with Love who is hosting Presto Pasta Nights this week. Presto Pasta Nights is the brainchild of my friend Ruth over at Once upon a feast



I hope you not only enjoy this dish as much as we did but have just as much fun in the kitchen making it! Remember, kids are never to young to help out in the kitchen and cooking with kids is such good fun!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Just a little pictorial of the kids putting up the christmas tree. My job is always to fix the tree, check the lights and then put them up while the kids and The Lovely Wife decorate the tree...
It's certainly looking a lot like Christmas!

Disciplining your Child - The Daily Tiffin

It's Daily Tiffin time again and last month, I actually forgot to put a link on my blog to the article I wrote at the Daily Tiffin!

For this article, I discuss discipline and how I think it is very important in bringing up children. I also discuss how I feel about 'Sparing the Rod'. So if this interests you, head over to the Daily Tiffin to read my article on
Do you Disclipline your Children

A lesson in French Tiles - Daring Bakers

It's Daring Bakers time again! First Daring Baker's challenge for 2009. I actually contemplated sitting this one out because time is just getting harder and harder to come by. Thankfully though, I squeezed it in Just Under The Wire!! Yes, I made these on the 27th morning (Thanks to the Chinese New Year holidays) and with the posting date on the 29th, I really made these at the last minute!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.


So what is a Tuile? It comes from the French and means a 'tile'. It's basically a light, dry cookie and the name is the reference to the classic tuile which is shaped around a dowel to look like a curved tile. For those of you keen to know how to pronounce these little things, apparently they are pronounced "Tweel". But I'm not French and I dont speak it either, so don't take my word for it.

These were a lot of fun to make and not terribly difficult. What I really liked about this challenge was that if not for the fact that it was a DB challenge, I would never have attempted to make these. I suppose that sums up a lot of the DB challenges - it makes us attempt things that we would normally never do!

The hardest bit about the Tuiles was spreading them thinly enough. I didn't use stencils and just simply spread the batter as thinly as I could and then rolled them up into cigar shapes.




I did try and make a butterfly by piping out some batter and then spreading it out thinly but I guess the butterfly didn't quite look as it should have. My daughter was pleased with it though and thought it was wonderful!



I paired this with Strawberries and Cream and the kids were very, very excited when I brought the dessert out and asked them to pose with it.



To say it was a hit with the children would be an understatement. They thoroughly enjoyed it and my son wanted to know what those "nice, rolled, up crunchy things" were called. Good thing I had checked on the pronunciation eh! They attacked it like there was no tomorrow...



... and then promptly proceeded to devour the entire dish! This was after lunch and here I was thinking that it could last for dessert after dinner. WRONG!



This was an extremely satisfying challenge as not only did I get to do something new but it was something that the children absolutely adored and to me, that's a winning challenge! So thankyou so very much Karen and Zorra!

Watch out for next months challenge which is being hosted by my lovely friend, Wendy and I am privileged to be Co-Hosting with here! Stay Tuned for February!!






Following is the recipe taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

Daily Tiffin - Christmas Gift Ideas

With Christmas fast approacing and with no idea what to get your kids or loved ones, why not have a look at my ideas for toys and games for you children in my article over at the Daily Tiffin?.
I'd love to hear some of your gift ideas too!

Seven Years Old Today!

Today is my son Michael's Seventh Birthday. How time flies. This year, we decided to keep thing simple and are not overdoing things like we usually do - we're not even inviting anyone although his grandparents and cousins will probably drop by later this evening. Making cake is a must though and this year he asked for a chocolate cake. He wanted a Transformers theme and initially I thought I'd do a design of one of the Transformers. However, since the icing for the cake would be chocolate as well, I thought that it may ruin the taste by using butter icing on top of the chocolate icing.

I then hit upon the idea of using the Transformer logo's for the design but rather than icing the design on, I would make my own stencil and then use dusting powder over the stencil to create the pattern.

I made the cake yesterday and since I am so used to my chocolate cake, the cake itself was a breeze. Decorating it is always the challenge and this is what I did.


First was to source for the logos from the internet. I then sized them both to the equal sizes and then printed it out. Fastening the paper to a piece of thick cardboard, I used a pen knife to cut out the pattern.

This took a lot longer and was a bit more cumbersome than I expected. I should have prepared the stencil ahead of time but as usual, I always think I am too clever for my own good!

The stencil was then placed on top of the cake and dusted with yellow dusting powder for the Decepticon logo and Blue for the Autobot. Some of the icing stuck on to the stencil and I had to touch it up. I had planned to make the icing thicker than normal but I thought it would firm up enough as it was - another case of thinking I'm too clever... Will I ever learn??!! :)
Nonetheless, I think the cake turned out pretty well.

My little princess, Sarah, had her paedetrician's appointment yesterday morning for her checkup. Michael had started a fever the night before that and so we decided that both of them should go and see the doctor. He said that Sarah was fine and that we should watch Michael. He prescribed some antibiotics for him but said to watch the fever for three days before starting on the antibiotics. Fortunately the fever is not as high as Sarah's was so we will just have to monitor the situation.


Michael slept with The Lovely Wife last night while I was relegated to his room! See, Fathers make sacrifices too!! :)
This morning we all wished him Happy Birthday in Mummy's room rather than in his own room like we usually do. We even hid his present under Mummy's bed! (I've always wondered why its Mummy's room and Mummy's bed and not Daddy's... or even Mummy and Daddy. Oh well.)

Happy Birthday Michael!!

When a Child is Sick...

In my latest contribution over at The Daily Tiffin, I talk about a very recent experience of my daughter being in hospital. It was certainly not a fun time either especially when she was down with a bacterial infection called Myco Plasma. What's that? I didn't know either...

Read the full article over at the Daily Tiffin

A Baking Weekend

What could be more heavenly than a weekend that includes Brownies with Ice Cream and Cupcakes?

It all started with a trip to the Bicycle store to get my little princess a new bike. My son was at school - on a Saturday. You see, sometimes schools in Malaysia have 'Make-Up' classes for an optional or occasional holiday granted most often to lengthen the time off for the kids. As an example, the kids had the whole week off for Hari Raya when in actual fact the public holidays are only for two days. So the three days off had to be 'Made-Up' or paid back. Sometimes I explain all of this so that at least I remember how it works too!



So anway, while Michael was in school, The Lovely Wife and I took Sarah to get her a new bike. She chose the bike that then needed some minor adjustments to the brakes and training wheels. So while this was being done, we moseyed over to the new bakery next door.

We always like to try out new bakeries, especially the cakes, as its quite difficult to find bakeries that make really good cakes. The Lovely Wife and I shared a chocolate sponge ganache kind of cake that we both thought was pretty average since we both reckoned that mine was probably better. Sarah was torn between a cream eclair and cupcakes so I told her to try the eclair and if she wanted, I wuold make her cupcakes later at home. After eating the eclair, she proclaimed that my eclairs were nicer and insisted that I please make mini cupcakes when we got home.

So that was how I ended up making cupcakes on a Saturday afternoon. I made some mini vanilla cupcakes decorated with sugar sprinkles. I also made some normal sized cupcakes and spread some chocolate glaze on it. Rather tasty I must admit! Half the mini cupcakes were devoured immediately after baking them and the rest were polished off later that night when my parents, my two brothers and their families popped round for cupcakes!


The next day, the kids asked if they could have Brownies! Other than the fact that they "just felt like having brownies", they also wanted to take some to school for their break time too. How can a Daddy say no to a request from his kids? So I proceeded to make brownies on Sunday.


Later that night, I cut a large piece of brownie, zapped it in the microwave for a little bit and then placed a scoop of vanilla ice cream over it and served it to the kids. Sometimes presentation does make a difference and they were thrilled to have it served "just like in the restaurants".


I love my brownies with ice cream too and although I did make this for the kids, I am glad that they asked me to make it as I could indulge as well!!

I Love You Daddy Cookies

Father's Day was celebrated in Malaysia on Sunday, 15th June. My son and daughter made me a batch of cookies that my daughter calls "I love you Daddy Cookies." She learnt the recipe from her kindergarten and actually made a batch in kindy for Mother's day back in May = although when she made them for Mother's Day, they were called I Love You Mummy Cookies....

Both the kids with the help of The Lovely Wife surprised me with these cookies. I was taking an afternoon nap on Saturday thinking that the kids were napping with Mummy too. When I woke up a short while later, I heard some noise downstairs and realised that everyone was awake.

I went downstairs and as soon as the Kids saw me coming downstairs, they looked at the Lovely Wife and broke out in smiles. I new something was up when they all started giggling as I went to the kithcen to get some water. As I opened the fridge, I saw two plates of these cookies inside!

What a wonderful gift for me! This is the recipe (as explained by my daughter who also insists the recipe is hers!). There are no real measurements as you just need to estimate everything.

Ingredients
Corn Flakes
Raisins
Almond nibs
Chocolate Sprinkles
Heart Shaped Candy Sprinkles
Chocolate

Method
Crush the corn flakes in a bag, Put into a bowl. Cut the almonds and add into the bowl. Add the raisins and chocolate sprinkles. Mix Well. Put the chocolate in the microwave and melt till it becomes gooey and hot. Mix the chocolate into the bowl and mix everything together. Scoop the whole thing into small cupcake cases. Then put the heart sprinkles all over on top. Put into the fridge to set. So easy!



Yes! That's the way my darling princess explained it to me. According to her, you also MUST have heart shaped sprinkles because the cookies are "for people you love, so you need to have heart shaped sprinkles." Both she and her brother made the cookies and I must say they were indeed delicious!



Thank you so much for my lovely Father's Day Cookies!

Daily Tiffin - The GirEleCroc

It's time for another post at the Daily Tiffin. This time, I talk a little about the creativity of kids and how imaginative they can be. That's somehow so very different from when I was a kid where we were expected to conform to certain norms.

Read the full article over at The Daily Tiffin

Oatmeal Biscuits / Oatmeal Cookies

Baking is always a lot of fun but baking with the Children is so much More Fun! The Lovely Wife is the Cookie expert in the house. Sure, I make cookies too but with far less frequency than the wife. This is partly due to my impatience with having to shape / drop the cookies on to the trays and then bake them in many batches. But I do so love to whip up a cookie mix and then leave the baking to someone else!!



Incidentally, did you know that in Commonwealth countries, cookies are actually known as biscuits while in the USA, biscuits refer to a type of bread - most commonly small breads made without yeast, also know as quickbreads. As language has evolved, cookie generally refers to the softer, chewy kind of biscuit.

In my home however, we use the term biscuit and cookie interchangeably whereas by right, it should be Biscuit, since we have a colonial past, speak English (rather than American!) use Metric measurements, drive on the left side of the road and spell using the British system( you know colour, organise, centre... to name just a few). Nonetheless with the influence of television, I can't very well tell my kids that the Cookie Monster should be the Biscuit Monster can I? Then it would have to be "B is for Biscuit, good enough for me.." rather than "C is for cookie, good enough for me...."

Heck! Even I grew up on Sesame Street and the Cookie Monster. I used to wonder from a very early age what the difference between cookies and biscuits are and coulnd't really accept that it was just a language/cultural thing. I then used to wonder why we eat Beef instead of Cow, Pork instead of Pig but we eat Lamb, Chicken and Duck.

This explains why I still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the unnecessary. My friends and relatives still make fun of me for this reason but I see nothing wrong with an inquisitive mind and this inquisitiveness seems to have rubbed of a little on my two kids. I guess it's true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Anyway, getting back on track, these biscuits were made by my wife and kids back in November. My son loves taking biscuits for his snack time at kindergarten and he loves nothing better than Mummy's home made biscuits.

Interesting story. Early in the year, he took some of my Chocolate Brownies to kindergarten and shared some with his teacher and classmates. The teacher asked my son "The brownies are very nice, did Mummy make them?" My son replied that it was actually Daddy that made the brownies and that Daddy is the one that makes the cakes at home.

A few weeks later, my son started to take the Lovely Wifes home made biscuits to kindy for his snack time. The teacher then asked him "Did Daddy make these too?". My son explained that Mummy made the biscuits and not Daddy. The teacher then quipped "Oh, so Mummy has become clever now."

The story is much funnier when it's told in person and even more so when my son tells it......

Anyhoo. These are the Oatmeal Cookies the Lovely Wife likes to make and that the kids love to eat. This is the first time that they helped in the making of the biscuits and they had a lot of fun with it.




The recipe comes from Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection - Biscuits. The Lovely Wife loves the Cordon Bleu collection and the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100g brown sugar
125g castor sugar
125g unsalted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp grated orange rind
160g rolled oats
125g raisins

Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking trays with bakingpaper. Sift together flour, sodium bicarb, bakingpowder and salt.
Cream together the sugars and butter. Add the egg, vanilla and milk and beat till smooth. Sift in the sifted ingredients and mix well. Stir in grated orange rind, then the oats and raisins.
Scoop up balls of the dough with a tablespoon and drop on the prepared trays. Space them about 5cm apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until just brown.
Remove from baking trays and let cool on a wire rack.



The kids really enjoyed baking cookies and are now looking forward to helping to bake all the cakes and biscuits for Christmas!