Chocolate Chip Cookies

Darling son KW came home from school and requested for chocolate chip cookies. "Just chocolate chips. Without the M&Ms.". All the cookies I have baked so far are crispy cookies. And chocolate chip cookies were never on my bake-list!

The recipe was adapted from AllRecipes.com. As usual, I halved the recipe, in case the cookies didn't turn out to our liking. I am suppose to get two dozens of cookies, but since we like our cookies to be petite, I end up with three dozens. The cookies were crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. The smaller ones were just ... cripsy. And they were highly addictive! I had to stop myself from eating, after having popped like four.

I just couldn't stop =p

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1/2 cup White Sugar

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1-1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chip Mini Morsels

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
• Cream butter and sugars till smooth.
• Beat in egg and stir in vanilla extract.
• Stir in flour and baking soda.
• Stir in chocolate chips.
• Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for about 10 minutes, or till the edges are nicely browned.

I omitted the salt, since I used salted butter. Instead of mixing the baking soda into hot water as stated in the original recipe, I added the baking soda directly into the batter, together with the flour. The batter is stiff, and it drops onto the baking sheet easily, without making a mess.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. On the day the cookies were baked, we ate more than half of them! The next time I bake these cookies, I will reduce the amount of white sugar, as I find it a little sweet. However, there were no complaints from the boys =)

Doraemon

Meet Doraemon, the cute but strange cat.

Strange because he doesn't have any ears, and a tail.

Hello Kitty is another strange cat who is without a mouth.

Here's the sketch of Doraemon and the different parts of his face, using different ingredients. You know how it feels like when you have to drag yourself out of bed early in the morning. Then you stand in the kitchen, wondering what you have to do next. Your mind is still in dreamland, even though your body is in the kitchen, ready to start work. How does Doraemon look like? That will be the last thing on my mind. On such mornings, I find the sketch very useful.

Do you see the rectangle on the bottom left corner? That is the sheet of nori that is used to wrap the riceball. Cut out the circle and the little slits around the edge. Then place the sheet over your riceball. The circle reveals part of the riceball, which is to be the face, while the slits enable you to tuck and wrap the nori around the sides of the riceball.

In the bento, there's oven-baked panko and parmesan chicken thigh fillet, cauliflower and broccoli, and the Doraemon riceball.

It has been a long time since we last watch an episode of Doraemon on DVD. Maybe the boys will want to watch it this weekend after seeing it in their lunchbox today =)

3-2-1 Blast Off!

Ok, I admit I'm getting a little lazy. Look at the rocket. No quite rocket-like. My consolation was that the boys did not bring the rockets home.

In the bento, there's chicken karaage, the boys' all time favorite, broccoli, and rice. I could have done a better job assembling the rocket. To make up for the sloppiness in my work, I baked a batch of banana muffins for the boys, to be eaten after school.

These banana muffins don't look very exciting, do they?

Look like any other muffins ... or so I thought.

The moment I sank my teeth into the first one, my hands reached for a second while the first was gone in a flash! The boys came home and had two each, plus a couple of mini ones. These muffins are addictive! They are moist and soft. My boys love the chunks of banana hidden inside the muffins. And did I mention they were very easy to make?

The recipe is adapted from RasaMalaysia. I halved the recipe and made some changes to the quantity of ingredients ... for my convenience =)

1 cup All Purpose Flour

3/4 tsp Baking Soda (Erh, I used Baking Powder by mistake and it turned out ok)

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, melted

1/2 cup Sugar

3 Over-riped Bananas

1 Large Egg

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

• Preheat oven to 375F and line muffin pans with baking cups.
• Melt butter and let cool slightly.
• Mash two bananas.
• Break the third into half, and put it into the mixing bowl, together with the flour, baking soda, sugar, egg, vanilla essence and melted butter.
• Beat the ingredients with a mixer for 3 minutes, or till the ingredients are blended.
• Fold in the mashed banana with a rubber spatula.
• Spoon the batter into the baking cups.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or till the muffins turn golden brown.
• Let cool on rack.
• Makes 12 small muffins, and 12 mini sized muffins.

In my hurry to bake, I used baking powder, instead of baking soda as stated. However, the muffins turned out ok, phew! By evening, only a quarter of the muffins were left. I will definitely be baking these muffins again, using baking soda, just to check out the difference =)

Mr Penguin

What a lovely day today! It was still a little chilly in the morning, but it was nonetheless, a very sunny day!

In the bento, there's grape tomatoes, florets of broccoli, oven-baked chicken thigh fillet and rice sprinkled with a little furikake. The chicken thigh fillets were deboned, and seasoned with a little sea salt and paprika before sending into the oven for baking.

Mr Penguin is all ready to play. Are you ready to join in the fun too?

Makkuro Kurosuke Meets Mr Fishball

A very simple and light lunch for the boys to bring to school today. Fishballs, rice wrapped in nori, a slice of ham, and some florets of broccoli.

We were very excited to find these fishballs at the asian mart. The brand? QQ fishballs, haha. They were indeed very "QQ"! These fishballs are very small, and they are not the best we have eaten. But for the time being, they are good enough to satisfy our craving for fishballs =)

Braised Kecap Manis Chicken

I bought a small bottle of Kecap Manis from the asian mart last weekend. So far, I had used it for Nasi Goreng (non-spicy version). I knew I could use it for chicken, just that I was not sure how. A google search brought me to the recipe of Braised Sweet Soy Sauce Chicken at PigPig'sCorner. The sweet soy sauce refers to Kecap Manis. I was delighted and decided to give it a try, since it was supposed to be similar to Tau You Bak! The best part of this dish? Put everything into a big pot and let it cook! No frying, no mess!

So here's the soy sauce and bottle of Kecap Manis. I was happy to peel and crush the many cloves of garlic, and then sliced the ginger.

And soaked the chinese mushrooms too.

Reserve that water from soaking the mushrooms.

8 pcs 3-joint Chicken Wings, cut and separated

12 pcs Dried Chinese Mushrooms, soaked

3/4 cup Kecap Manis

3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 tsp 5-Spice Powder

1 tsp White Pepper

3 stalks Spring Onions (I omit this as I don't have it at hand)

15 slices Ginger

1 bulb Garlic, Peeled and Crushed

• Cut and separate the drumstick, wings and tips from the chicken pieces.
• Discard the tip.
• Wash and clean the chicken pieces.
• Put them into a big pot.
• Wash the dried chinese mushrooms.
• Soak the dried chinese mushrooms in warm water for about 20 minutes.
• Remove the mushrooms and reserve the water for later use.
• Place all the other ingredients, excluding the water for soaking mushrooms, into the pot.
• Add the mushroom water, enough to cover the all the ingredients in the pot. If you do not have enough mushroom water, add water.
• Give the contents in the pot a quick stir to mix well.
• Leave for at least an hour.
• When ready to cook, bring the pot to a boil.
• Reduce heat and let simmer for an hour to 1.5 hours, or till meat is cooked and tender.

The ingredients were prepared in the morning, while my boys were at school, and left to marinate till the evening. In the evening, as the pot of liquid bubbled away, I was free to supervise my boys in their Chinese homework. After one and a half hour of simmering, the chicken pieces were cooked, and were very tender. Although quite a fair amount of liquid was used to cover the ingredients at the start, half the amount of liquid had evaporated at the end of the one and a half hours. Just enough for us to drizzle the sauce on our rice ... yum yum!

This is such an easy dish to prepare. It is definitely a keeper, and a regular on my dinner table!

Phineas!

Look who's here! It's Phineas! And Candace will probably be shouting her little brother's name whenever she can ..... PHINEAS! I'm sure my boys are glad that they don't have an elder sister =p

In the bento, there is pan-fried miso-marinated chicken thigh cubes, blanched broccoli and cauliflower, sprinkled with a little furikake, and rice (hidden under the sheet of nori).

The 2 pieces of chicken thighs were marinated with 2 teaspoons of miso paste, 1 tablespoon of shaoxing wine, and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. The pack of chicken was left to marinade in the fridge overnight, and I took it out to pan-fry this morning. I could use 1 tablespoon of miso paste the next time, as the chicken pieces were not salty enough. The amount of miso used greatly depends on the type of miso paste.

It's April, and it's snowing again! No, it's not an April Fool's day joke. I made a quick trip to the supermarket this morning, racing against the rain clouds. I was panting by the time I reached home, and the moment I set foot in the house, it started to rain. Then snow. Check out the ice/snow on the bikes.

I love it when the aroma of baked cakes fill the house on a cold, rainy and gloomy day. So the first thing I baked after coming home from the supermarket was brownie cakes! The preparation was a breeze, using Betty Crocker's Fudge Brownie mix. I added an extra egg as the boys like their brownies to be cakelike. I was in the midst of mixing the flours into the cream cheese mixture for the Japanese Cheesecake when Mr Mailman knocked on my door. Oh, a parcel for me!

A bright and cheerful card greeted me when I opened the parcel!

This card certainly brightens up a gloomy day!

Together with the card comes a birthday present from an old friend!

A special edition, Hello Kitty, of the X-mini!

Thanks, Jean! Am I 40 already?

I'm not shy of announcing that I've reached the Big 4, even though I'm young at heart =)

Well, it's Friday, and it's going to be a "delicious" and delightful weekend .... brownie cakes, Japanese Cheesecake, and trying out the X-mini! And I'm looking forward to the International Food Fair at school tomorrow!