To Infinity And Beyond......

Soooo Halloween's almost here...and still no Halloween cupcakes to boot. I'm a wreck! On the bright side, I think Ethan's finally "settled" on ONE costume! As you can see, it's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command/Toy Story. Doesn't matter.... COZ tomorrow's gonna be one hot day so this outfit wouldn't work after all. I got this costume about a month ago and debating to keep it till today (yah, I've to wait till the every last second to do this *sigh*). I decided to...not keep it!! It's just way too stiffling to wear that in the heat and my poor boy would be sweating like crazy! It's gone; I have returned that to Disney. NOTE TO SELF: NOT GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM DISNEY ONLINE AGAIN, I WAITED ON THE PHONE FOR 1 FULL HOUR FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!It's too ridiculous!!!!

Saying that, I think I'm going to totally enjoy this weekend. I've planned out my schedule for it and hopefully I can keep to the timetable. *cross fingers* It's going to be fun, there's nothing better than Halloween. It meant that Thanksgiving's not too far and of course, Christmas would be here in a bit...oh lovely!!!! Besides, it's also Daylight Savings, so we get an hour back....WOOOOHOOOOOOOO......now...to get my son to understand that he needs to sleep an extra hour on Sunday! :)

Tune in for Ethan's final Halloween's costume...:)

Picnic At the Park

We are having some seriously great weather here in Texas right now!! No kidding!! After a really really long (never-ending it seems) and sorching summer, Fall has finally come to North Texas!! HOORAY for Mother Nature....I guess you haven't forgotten us..:) Just check out the bright blue sky...and did I mention...great cool weather?? :) Ok...'nuff said....

Following our usual Monday ritual, Ethan and I went to the Arboretum for some fall activities there and to meet up with some friends. He loves that place; he could run till his heart content, splash as much water as he wants, chase as many squirrels and birds till they are totally terrified of him (SIGH) and pick up as many bugs as he could find (EEEWWWWWW.....), what's there not to like! And as usual, Ethan gets to choose the "theme" for his face paint!



The past week was a spider and he wanted it blue...hmmm...a very creative mind.... As I wanted to take a good picture of Ethan, I told him he needed to stay put for a while like he does during "night night". Soooooo Ethan thought he might as well pose like he's taking his nap as well. So there you got it, a pretend napping position with a nibbled apple. Needless to say, the minute the shot was taken, he had taken off like lightning!!

Let's see what tomorrow will bring....I heard it's gonna be another great day...boy, can't wait to picnic again....on a negative note... my "famous" pumpkin bread took a "fall". For some reason, all the bread I made today collapsed after it was cooled. Hmmm...I guess no pumpkin bread to give out tomorrow when I meet the mothers....but I think I'll do it AGAIN later tonight...I really don't know what happened, it never happened before. Guess there's always a first....hmph!

Of Things Lycopene

These days people are more and more aware of what they are putting in their bodies. Thank goodness for TV and endless researches (trivial it seems they are) out there, people are getting more involved in making the right health choices.

Nevertheless we still can't get over certain food dislikes even though they are "supposedly" good for you. My husband, Ed, seems to have a distinct dislike for tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato-based sauce and even ketchup, well, he would only eat it with fries or eggs. Most of the time, Ed would avoid it like the plague! Because of it, I have devised many clever disguises for the tomatoes so that Ed would eat it.

Now you would be wondering why in the world would I be "forcing" him to eat tomatoes. Why not just let him be. Well, other than tomatoes, he also doesn't like/eat if he could green veges unless if they are deep fried, he also doesn't like eggplants, fruits, well actually, most veges in general. So why tomatoes in particular?? Reason=LYCOPENE. It's a powerful antioxident which in a recent research could prevent prostate cancer and various other cancer as well. Now tell me, wouldn't that be a good incentive enough to eat your tomatoes!! :)

So with all these "disguises", Ed would eat tomatoes and sometimes not even realise that he did eat it! What a laugh. Probably he had a bad experience with tomatoes once, who knows, the point is, what he doesn't know he wouldn't stop himself from eating it! Thank goodness Ethan loves his tomatoes...maybe got that from his mommy??? ;)

As for the picture above, it's a grilled open face tomato-cheese sandwich. I sliced some homemade maple-oat wheat bread, some roast beef on top, add slices of tomatoes and then a slice of cheese, placed in the grill and just melt the cheese, ready to be serve. It's just that easy.

Pandan Buns

The wonderful aroma from baking these buns is simply incredible....that is if you like the fragrant leaves of the screwpine plant, better known as pandan. Other than being a natural roach repellant (what's there not to like already), it also emits a sweet smell when cooked. Simply delightful!



So wonderful that I decided to post TWO pics of it!! LOL If only there's such thing as aroma-net, that would be so awesome! :) Nevetheless, it's a pretty easy recipe, no major cleanup since I have a breadmaker which kneaded and proofed the dough and all I did was mould, proof a little more and into the oven it goes. I used the sweet bread recipe from KC and just added a little pandan essence and paste to get that bright green color. Just amazing, for those pandan lovers out there, try this out! Goes great with butter if you like but my husband likes it as it is.

Snow Skin Mooncakes

YIPPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a total of two failed attempts in one week plus one pitiful attempt last year, I finally did it!! I finally succeeded in making a batch on Mooncake Day itself!! :) Took more effort and time than I expected but I did it, I did it!!!!

It was a different recipe from what I tried before and this one is a definite keeper!! The texture is like that of mochi, slightly chewy yet very soft, almost like a melt in your mouth sensation. It's not too sweet which made a refreshing difference from the usual ones.

I made two types of snowskin mooncakes; one pandan/screwpine flavor and the other, almond flavor. I added the different essence in each and had only red bean paste for both. I was truly surprised at the end result, it was much better than I expected, a real treat for Ed and Ethan!

We "celebrated" our Mid-Autumn Festival with Ethan walking his little battery operated musical "lantern", compliments of a dear friend, L. Ethan walked around the neighbourhood and had fun, so say the least. He had some mini mooncakes that I had also moulded just for him, it was so funny, coz all he wanted to do was hold them in one hand and hold his lantern in the other!! Oh well...one way of celebrating Mooncake Fest!!


Of all, I'm most grateful to one friend in Singapore who generously sent me this mooncake mould, a mooncake cookbook, plus lanterns. Thanks Linda, you know who you are!! I truly appreciated what you did!! And we definitely had a great time! I would like to dedicate these mooncakes to you and your husband, have a great Mid-Autumn Fest! :) Take care!

Last of the Summer Cupcakes

Yup, the last of the summer berries are almost gone. You can still find some residual summer berries but these days, plums, plum-related fruits (eg, plouts) and varieties of apples are now in season.



These are some of lemon cupcakes I had done before summer ended although Texas weather still feels a whole lot like summer. I still need a lot of practice in decorating with frosting so I guess I'll be doing some other cupcakes for Fall.



After a few disasterous attempts of creating rosettes from my darn piping piece, I decided that fruits would be a better "decoration" piece...besides, I like the whole berry decor...:)

For those who are interested in the lemon cupcake recipe, I used the basic cupcake recipe from 500 Cupcakes and added a little of Boyajian Lemon Oil instead of the vanilla essence that was asked for. I also switched from plain flour to cake flour making it a lighter and fluffier cupcake.

As for the frosting, it's a mascarpone frosting instead of the regular cream cheese frosting or buttercream. I used 1.5 cups of mascarpone and 1 cup of confectioners sugar, beat them well with a mixer till fluffy, about 2-3 mins.

Eggplant Stir Fry

I love my eggplants but I just feel I don't know enough eggplant recipes to really explore all its potential but nevermind, I do what I can for now...:) This dish goes real well with white rice (staple food in this household) and most of all, satisfied most of the food groups required for a healthy balance. Even for Ed who claims he doesn't like eggplants (although I had caught him eating AND even ordering it when we eat out!!!) likes it! Most of all, it's rather easy to make, so that takes a bit of thinking work out of the equation!

Recipe
Ingredients
-4 Japanese Eggplant
-Shrimps, Shelled
-Green Onions, diced
-Garlic, minced
-Oil
-Mushroom flavored Sauce
-Sesame Oil
-Salt, Sugar and Pepper

Method
-Rinsed and dry eggplants, slice diagonally.
-At this point, you can either do a quick dip in hot oil or place them lightly salted, peppered and olive oiled in the oven for about 10 mins. Either way's fine.
-Heat very little oil (approx 1/2 tsp) in a wok, add garlic and shrimps.
-Fry till shrimps are almost done, add eggplants.
-Quickly seasoned it with mushroom sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper and toss a couple more times before adding in the green onions and then dishing out to plate for serving.