Homemade Pan Mee

Made pan mee for dinner yesterday as I have ran out of ideas on what to cook for dinner. Usually on Sundays, I have no mood to cook and I always ask hubby the same questions: What do you want to eat, what do you feel like eating, tonight eat what, etc. And his answers will always be the same: Up to you, you cook what I eat what, you decide, etc.

A lot of work needed to be done to make this so-called simple meal, but it was all worth it because hubby kept praising it tasted so good and tasted like it was bought from the hawker stall.

I had some chicken soup left in the fridge by the way. While that was heating up, I fried ikan bilis and shallots until fragrant. Added water into the chicken soup, and pour the sizzling ikan bilis and shallots mixture into the boiling soup. I boiled for 30 minutes, added salt to taste.

Next, I prepared the "liew" (condiments). I blanched mushroom, choy sum and assorted balls in a saucepan (separately). Then I fried ikan bilis and minced pork in another wok (separately also).



Oops, I almost forgot to write about the main ingredient - the dough of pan mee, haha. I prepared the dough about 2 hours in advance and let it sit in a bowl. I used 2.5 cups of plain flour and water, that's all. Kneaded until it reached the suitable consistency. No measurement for the water, it's all agak-agak.

Pinched the dough in small pieces and dropped into the soup when it was boiling. Lots of work, but well, it was well worth it.

Thank God

I had my usual monthly antenatal checkup done 2 weeks ago, on 5th March when I was 34 weeks + along. As usual, my gynae scanned my baby, measured the head diameter, etc. Usually the head diameter tallied with the weeks of my pregnancy. But on that day, baby's head diameter only measured at 32 weeks, whereas I was already 34 weeks + ! I panicked and worried, but my gynae was not concerned. He said 2 weeks difference is still acceptable, but still, I didn't feel good right away. I immediately had negative thoughts running into my head, like the baby is not growing, the placenta is not working properly to bring food and nutrients to the baby, etc.

He scheduled me for another checkup a week later. My baby was lying face down and that day was the 1st time he was laying faced down. All along during my checkups, he lays faced up. So I was assuming could it be the laying position? I prayed hard to God that it was because of its laying position and I talked to baby a lot asking him not to be naughty, please be normal, healthy and fine.

During the 1 week wait for my next scan, I did not have any mood for almost anything. I forced myself to drink a lot of milk as I assume milk will make the baby grow bigger. I could not accept if my baby stopped growing at week 32 because this time, family and colleagues commented that my tummy is bigger and seems that baby is larger. And also I boiled a lot of nutritious soups and tongsui during this pregnancy compared to the first pregnancy. So impossible my baby is not growing! I totally had no mood the whole week while waiting for the next checkup.

Fast forward, I had my next checkup at week 35+ which was last Tuesday, 12th March. Reached the hospital as usual at 8am. My gynae usually comes at 9am. The 1 hour wait is like a 3 hours wait. I was called in, and my heart was beating very fast. Thank god baby's head measured 36 weeks+ this time! He was laying faced up. Phewwwww. So I could conclude that the culprit was because of the laying position.

Thank God for everything.

Sweets For My Sweet

During the weekend, I baked mostly sweets for my sweety Kenzie boy as I wanted to explore my amateur baking skills and also introduce more varieties of food to him. He is such a picky eater and he only likes sweet foods (but not all things sweet because he dislikes ice cream though, hmmmm). I cooked fish and tomato porridge for him on Saturday morning and I mixed 1 mashed boiled egg yolk before serving him. He totally hated it. Only had two mouths of porridge. Frustrated, I then quickly made honey cereal mixed with milk, and only two mouths of cereal went into his mouth. Giving up, I turned to liquid food. I boiled barley "fuchuk" tongsui the night before, and it was already ready in the morning, fed to him and he finished half a cup. I am really worried that he is not getting enough nutrients as his tummy is only loaded with sugary drinks and milk. Sigh.

Anyway, for dinner, decided to try something different. I baked bread and butter pudding topped with chocolate chips and he just ate a few mouths. That was it? Sigh. But at least something went into his tummy instead of just milk.

I spreaded margarine on both sides of six pieces of bread (crust removed), arranged them in my baking bowl. The milk custard was made using 200 ml milk, 2 tbsp brown sugar and 1 egg. Baked them for 30 minutes.

Bread and butter pudding topped with chocolate chips

Yesterday for breakfast, Kenzie's menu was oats with a bit of condensed milk and french toast (dipped in egg whisked with sugar and then lightly fried with a bit of cooking oil). He ate the oats but hated the french toast. Maybe he did not like the texture of the oily bread. French toast is one of my favorite food and I still remembered when my mum made french toast, I jumped with joy and I could wallop the whole loaf of bread.

Went to my mum's place and Kenzie had lunch there. Mum cooked pork chops with onions and lots of gravy. So Kenzie had some rice with gravy.

Came home in the afternoon and I was in the mood to bake some mini apple butter cakes for a change instead of the usual banana or orange butter cake. Oh, coincidentally  it was the Chinese Valentine's Day yesterday (Chap Goh Mei). Haha. So I was thinking to bake for my hubs, too. Anyway, same ingredients, the only difference was I used chopped apples and mixed into the batter instead of the usual mashed bananas or orange zest+juice. Simple ingredients with simple instructions: 1/4 bar butter, 1/2 cup self-rising flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp milk, 1 egg and wee bit of vanilla essence. Ooh, and about half an apple, cubed. Mix everything together with a whisk (I just used a spoon). Butter the baking mould and scoop the batter into the mould. This recipe could yield about 12 pieces of mini apple cakes.

I did not bother marinating the apples in cinnamon powder and brown sugar as I do not have any cinnamon powder at home. I had to say the apples inside the cake tasted bland (with only some hint of apple taste), but overall it tasted very good and melted together with the cake. If the apples were omitted, it would make a very tasty butter cake. Hubs gave thumbs up for this cake. Maybe this coming weekend, I will attempt on pure butter cake since I have some good quality butter left in the fridge.

Fed some to Kenzie, and guess you already know what will happen next. He had a few bites, then threw the entire cake on the floor! Oh, rascal.....

Rest Day

Stayed at home the whole of yesterday as we have been going out everyday from last last Saturday (Chinese New year eve) until last Saturday (7th day of Chinese New Year). So yesterday, Sunday, was the last day of the Chinese New Year holidays, also the day before work starts as usual and working life back to normal again, we just stayed at home as we did not have any mood to go anywhere.

In the morning, I have decided to bake a banana cake as I was craving for banana cake for the past week. The ones bought outside usually are very sweet, and full of banana essence on first bite. But I was very disappointed as the cake failed on my first attempt! I think it was too heavy, thus, cannot rise nicely. It looked perfect in the outside, but the texture inside looked like steamed cakes. Nevertheless, hubby supported the cake and finished half of it. He kept saying it was delicious. The remaining half, I brought it to work today for breakfast.

Ingredients: 1 cup self-rising flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 bar butter, vanilla essence, 2 tbsp milk, 2 eggs and  3 mashed pisang emas (in future, I will just reduce to 1 banana).

Had lunch around 12pm, and then afternoon nap with Kenzie around 1.30pm. At 4pm, I wokeup and got ready to cook.

Since we have decided to stay home on Sunday, I had already thought of what to cook for dinner on Saturday. What I had in mind: Roast chicken and tuna maceroni. So I marinated the chicken on Saturday night - with salt, pepper and beer. I got this beer idea from hub's boss on Saturday morning when we visited him in his house. We were chatting about food and suddenly, he was talking about roast chicken with beer. So for a change, I tried it since we have enough cans of beer sitting in the fridge.

Anyway, I already took out the chicken from the fridge to sit at room temperature at about 2pm. So by 4pm, it was already at room temperature. I baked the chicken at 200 degrees with some butter. After about 40 minutes, I threw in some cheese-sausage puffs as well. While the chicken was baking halfway, I thawed 4 slices of frozen pastry, dabbed tomato sauce on each of them, rolled half a cheese-sausage into each slice of pastry together with some onions and baked them together with the chicken for about another 20 minutes.

While the chicken and sausage puffs were baking in the oven, I worked on my maceroni. It was a simple dish, with minimum ingredients. I only used: 1 tomato, 2 medium-sized onions, 1 can tuna, 1 can of Campbell cream of mushroom and 2 slices of cheddar cheese (as topping, optional though).

My style: Boil maceroni in a pot. In another wok, fry onions and tomatoes in olive oil. Then, throw in the can of tuna. Once the maceroni is soft, scoop the maceroni into the wok and mix in the can of cream of mushroom (no water needed) as I wanted the gravy to be thick and creamy. Stir until everything is mixed, top with cheese and serve (no baking needed).

We enjoyed our dinner very much and hubs kept saying everything was very delicious. The chicken was fantastic, with its crispy skin and buttery gravy. After dinner and doing the dishes, I was thinking of a refreshing dessert. A fruit shake perhaps? Made with apples, strawberries and bananas. Just cut everything into pieces, blend with cold water and add a wee bit of sugar. Serve with ice cubes. Kenzie enjoyed every sip, too.

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

Today is the 6th day of Chinese New Year and I have started to go back to work. Here's a recap on what we did for the past whole week:

1st day of CNY - wokeup around 8-ish am, gave Kz his red packet, then off to mil's for brunch (vegetarian food). Mil cooked: cabbage with "meen kan", varieties of mushroom with black fungus & "fun si" with "fuchuk" dish. Went to my parents' place around 11-ish am, went home as it was Kz's nap time, went back to mil's after Kz wokeup and stayed there til dinner time.

2nd day of CNY - went to Jusco Cheras Selatan for grocery shopping, went back home, went to mil's after Kz wokeup from his afternoon nap. Nothing much to do as most visitors came on the 1st day of CNY.

3rd day of CNY - went to my aunt's place for lunch, went back home for Kz's nap, went to hub's friend's place around 4-ish pm, went to Taman Billion Sweed's cafe for a simple western dinner.

4th day of CNY - Boiled beef soup in the morning (beef, potatoes, carrots and onions). And since we have no more friends to visit, decided to bring Kz to the paed as the clinic has already opened today. Just for consultation and a peace of mind (he has ugly ridges on his left last finger since few months ago). Paed said it was nothing. If it was malnutrition, it would have been on his 10 fingers, and not just 1. Made sense. Well, paid RM30.00 for a peace of mind. Went home. Wait for Kz to nap. Went to mil's for dinner (overnight food). Simple day.

5th day of CNY - Valentine's Day! Sent Kz to the nanny in the morning, hubs and I went to Sunway Pyramid mall to celebrate some couple-time and Valentine's day. Bought some groceries at Jusco. After that, we still had time before the restaurant opens at 12pm. I bought two new pairs of shoes. Finally, at 12pm, buffet lunch at Shogun Japanese restaurant. Left the mall around 1.30pm, picked up Kz from the nanny and stayed at home for the rest of the day. Had instant noodles and bread+tuna for dinner as we were still very full from the buffet lunch. Cooked simple maceroni+cheese for Kz for dinner separately.

6th day of CNY - Sent Kz to the nanny as usual. Hubs fetched me to work (yes, I started work already. Hubs will start work next Monday). Hubs will have his own activities today, which he called it his "freedom day", haha. He will go for "cha kar chap" with his family after he fetched me to work. Then I think he will go for a movie, hair-cut, buy diapers for Kz, etc. He will pick me up afterwards at 5.30pm. No fancy dinner as we will heat up leftover food in our fridge tonite. There's soup and white-cut chicken from mil, chicken feet mushroom from my mum. Sigh.

Butter Cookies

Attempted to bake butter cookies yesterday as I am already in Chinese New Year mood now. I tend to associate CNY with cookies. Moreover, I love butter cookies, especially store-bought Danish butter cookies, so I have decided to attempt to bake it yesterday.

I baked the cookies after dinner yesterday. As usual, I reached home at about 6.40pm. Oh, before that, I had already called hubby to take out the butter to let it set at room temperature on the way back from work. When I reached home, hubby has cooked dinner and laid everything on the table. After dinner and doing the dishes, it was about 7pm (we are fast eaters). I then started preparing and mixing the ingredients, started baking at about 7.20pm, and by 7.50pm the cookies were ready and I could go to have my shower. Easy peasy as the recipe is only for 16 pieces of cookies.

Here's my version for just two persons, yield about 16 pieces of cookies, depending on how you shape them. For me, I just rolled it into balls with my hands (as I don't possess any fancy cookie moulds or whatsoever cookie cutters) and gently pressed them to form a flat circle.

I used: 1/4 bar good quality butter (SCX brand), 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, some vanilla essence, 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp milk powder and chocolate chips (optional). I used my hand to mix everything in a bowl until it formed a clean, dry dough.

Pre-heat oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 170 degrees before putting the cookies in. Bake for about 20 minutes until cookies turned slightly brown.

Result? Hubby said it tasted better than any other commercial CNY cookies selling at the stores and commented I could consider baking my own cookies for the next upcoming CNY, haha. What a joke! The cost of baking my own cookies to distribute to friends and relatives would be more than then current DIY method which I am using for this upcoming CNY: Buy 2 or 3 kg worth of cookies from the sundry shop (only cost about RM30 or less), put it in cookie jars (recycled from last year), sealed nicely and ta-daaa, I don't have to buy any cookies to "bai nin" during CNY (yes, these cookies are just for "bai nin" and usually people will just chuck them aside and recycle the cookies when they go "bai nin" with somebody else later). 

Cookies are getting more costly each year, up to RM28 per jar, crazy !!! Last year, I was a fool to spend close to RM400++ on just cookies. And yes, just to distribute to friends and relatives during "bai nin" session and not for own consumption. Anyway, I don't have guests coming to my house for CNY (everything will be at my parents' or in-laws'), so I don't prepare any cookies at home. I only standby some boxed drinks or carbonated drinks, just in case, that's all.

Cream Puffs

Backdated post. I made this during the weekend as I suddenly craved for cream puffs. Most bakeries are selling cream puffs with whipped cream filling, but I prefer custard filling. And I know one cream puff shop that sells 3 pieces for over RM12++, call me stingy, whatever, but I was stunned at the overpriced puffs with just whipped cream filling. So I decided to make my own.

For the puff: 1/4 cup butter, 3/4 cup flour, 125ml water and 2 eggs.
Boil water and butter in a saucepan. Once boiling, add in the flour in one go, stir quickly until it forms a clean lump. Remove from stove and cool the lump. Whisk 2 eggs and stir hard. I used a spoon to scoop 1 spoonful onto a baking tray, already lined with parchment paper. 1 spoonful for 1 piece of puff. Bake at 220 degrees for 20 minutes.

For the custard filling: 1 tbsp custard powder (I used Bird's Custard), 1 tbsp sugar and 8oz milk.

Prepare the custard following instructions on the custard packet.

Cool the custard. Slit the puffs into two, fill them up with custard using spoon. Hubs and I finished half the puffs on the same day. I put the remaining puffs in the fridge and it still tasted good when I ate them the next day, better, because the custard was cold and melted in my mouth!

Maceroni And Sardine Puffs For Dinner

Again it was a public holiday yesterday so I had mood to cook dinner again. Maceroni and puff again as the bag of half-full maceroni is still in the cabinet. But this time, I did not put the puff on top of the maceroni as I bought another two packets of puff pastry when I went for grocery shopping during the weekend, so I can make more puffs rather than just layer two miserable slices on top of the maceroni just for the sake of finishing it previously.

Anyway, here was what I cooked: Sardine puffs with mayo and baked maceroni with brown sauce.

The sardine puffs - I used:
5 slices of frozen puff pastry (I used Kawan brand)
1 small can of Marina sardines (gravy drained)
Japanese mayo (I used Kewpie)
Some chilli sauce
Spread mayo and chilli sauce on the thawed pastry, followed by a spoonful of sardines. Fold according to preference. Bake at 200 degrees until puff becomes golden brown.

The baked maceroni with brown sauce - I used:

5 handfuls of maceroni

2 white onions, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

Minced meat 

1 packet of meatball gravy (I used Ikea meatball gravy)

Salt and pepper

Boil maceroni. In a saucepan, cook the brown gravy according to the instructions given on the packet. Put aside. In another wok, fry onions, tomatoes and minced meat in olive oil. Pour the maceroni into the wok, mix in the brown gravy, stir, add pepper and salt to taste. 

Scoop half the maceroni into a caserrole, layer with cheddar cheese. Scoop the remaining maceroni and layer with more cheese on top. Bake at 200 degrees until the cheese melted.

Roast Chicken And Baked Maceroni Casserole

Was in the mood to make dinner yesterday as it was a public holiday. Made something simple: Roast chicken and baked maceroni casserole with cheese and puff pastry.

I marinated the chicken with salt, pepper and butter. Baked them for about 1 hour at 220 degrees.

I also made maceroni casserole. Very simple maceroni with cream of tomato, carrots, onions and minced meat, topped with cheese and puff pastry, since there are two pieces of puff pastry left in the freezer for almost a year already. I boiled the maceroni for 10 minutes. In a separate wok, I fried the onions, carrots and minced meat. Once the carrots (and pasta) softened, I scooped the pasta over, mixed it together with everything, and poured in a can of tomato soup. Added salt and pepper to taste. Here was how it looked like:

I then added 3 pieces of cheddar cheese on top of the maceroni, and two puff pastries on top of the cheese. Here was how it looked like after baking for about 15 minutes at 200 degrees:

Mini Butter Orange Cakes

Somehow my baking mood could not stop and I had the mood to bake some mini butter orange cakes yesterday during dinner time. Yes, during dinner, after work. Hubby was cooking, and since dinner was not ready yet, I took the opportunity to whip up some mini butter orange cakes since I have a mandarin orange sitting in the fridge for a week already.

Here's my recipe, very mini sized cakes, enough for two:

1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 bar good quality butter (I used SCX brand)
2 tbsp of orange juice and zest of 1 orange (I used mandarin orange because I do not have normal oranges+the mandarin has been sitting in my fridge for a week)

I just mix and whisk everything in a bowl.

Pre-heat oven for 10 minutes in advance at 170 degrees, grease baking pan, scoop batter into the pan and bake for 15 minutes or until fork comes out clean.