Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Just got a book on cookies from the library recently and was inspired to try making some of them inside the book. What is great about this book is that it has a pictorial step by step section showing how to go about doing all the steps so for an amateur like me who seldom make cookies, this book really motivated me to give those cookies a try....:) although it is in chinese so I had some problem understanding what are some of the ingredients on the recipes....:(

Anyhow, I decided to try my hand at the walnut chocolate cookies which looks simple enough. I was quite happy with the end results since most of the cookies turn out almost the same size. It would seem that the effort to roll them into small little balls before placing them on the baking sheet does help to ensure the size does not differ too much. Don't forget to ensure there is sufficient space in between as the biscuit does expand quite a fair bit. My nieces and nephew are the happy recipients of these cookies and they immediately polish off 8 pieces at one go......I am glad they turn out well enough and it does gives me some additional confidence to try more cookies in the days to come....:)

Fruit cake

I had always wanted to bake a whole cake but never had the opportunity or the motivation till I came across the cake recipe book from the library [think it's called Alex Goh Baking Class]. The cakes inside the book are really beautiful and since I am most confident in baking butter cake, I decide to bake a fruit cake which also is a favourite cake for my parents at home.

It's a pretty simple cake yet great for everyone old and young, big and small...:) I made some adaptions to the recipe though...instead of adding the glazed cherries, dried apricots etc, I bought a batch of mixed fruits instead (had raisins, mixed peel, green red glazed cherries) and use that in the fruit cake and I added almonds and walnuts instead of macadamia nuts. But I felt that the cake is a bit dry and in my next attempt, I will definitely add in some milk to make a smoother texture cake.


Fruit cake
Ingredients
200g butter
150g brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tblsps golden syrup
180g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g almonds
100g macadamia nuts (I did not add this)
100g walnuts
150g dried apricots
50g glazed red cherries
150g raisins
4 tblsp orange juice

Method
1. Mix all the dried fruits with orange juice and set aside for 1 hour.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light. Add eggs (1 at a time) and golden syrup and continue to cream till smooth and creamy.
3. Sieve in flour and baking powder and mix until well blended.
4. Add the fruits and nuts and mix until well incorporated with the batter.
5. Pour into a oiled and lined loaf tin and bake at 170C for 1 hour.

Moist Walnut Banana Cake

Cake recipe dug up from old recipe file kept by my sister...apparently it has been a tried and tested recipe many years back by my sister so I am pretty confident it will take out well. :) The cake is really simple to bake and the cake is really soft and yummy. I already had an order to bake this cake....:) this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Banana Walnut Cake
Ingredients
250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 cups self raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 large ripened banana, mashed
100g walnuts, chopped

Method
1. Cream butter and sugar till light. Add eggs one at a time and continue to cream till light and creamy.
2. Sieve in flour and mix until it is well incorporated.
3. Add in mashed banana and milk till a dropping consistency is obtained.
4. Pour the batter into a bundt cake tin (or any cake tin of your choice). Smooth the top with a scrapper and top with chopped walnuts.
5. Bake at 180C for 50 minutes.

Yakitori Chicken Bento Lunch

Have been busy at work lately and with all the hectic travelling on the job, I did not have the time and energy to go groceries shopping and cooking. However, after having canteen food for the past few days, I am really really quite sick of it and was wondering if I could put together a simple lunch for tomorrow. A quick glance at what is in my fridge "uncovered" my "withering" broccoli and baby carrots which is growing "old".....thought I better "finished" them off rather than to see them ended up in my rubbish chute....:p

Just had a very nice yakitori chicken don yesterday at Sushi Teh and was wondering if I could put together the same item.....:) A quick stir-fry of the onion, chicken slices, a few tablespoons of yakitori sauce, soy sauce and black soy sauce and my yakitori chicken bento is completed!

Yakitori Chicken Bento
Ingredients
100g chicken, diced (my mother sliced the chicken instead!)
1/2 onion, sliced
3 tblsp yakitori sauce (available in Japanese section of any major supermkt)
1/2 tblsp soy sauce (to marinate the diced chicken at least 15 minutes before)
1/2 tblsp black soy sauce
1 tblsp water
1/2 tsp Cornflour (to be dissolved with some water to form a cornstarch solution)
Blanched broccoli and baby carrots

Method
1. Heat some oil in a pan and stir fry onions till its fragrant and soft.
2. Add the marinated chicken and quickly stir fry till its almost cooked.
3. Add all the sauces and water and continue to stir fry till chicken is cooked.
4. Stir in 1 tblsp of cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce.
5. Remove chicken from heat and top on white rice after it has cooled off.
6. Add blanched broccoli and baby carrots (or vegetables of your choice)by the side.

Teriyaki Meat Balls Bento

I am back into making and packing bento again! This is the two bento I brought to office today. This one is for me (I love the cutie bunny bento belt).....


And this is lunch box I prepared for my lunch kaki.



This is two of my new bento box from my bento collection. Over the past 1 and a half year, I have accumulated more bento boxes than I can imagine in the course of my travelling. Ever since I started bento-ing, I just couldn't resist buying new bento box each time I see one although I will usually use the regular 2 - 3 boxes. However, I have decided to put most if not all of the boxes to good use instead of allowing them to accumulate dust in my kitchen cabinet. So here they are.

The boxes are actually pretty small in size (only about 470ml each) so it's quite amazing I managed to "squeeze" everything into the tiny box! Sure can help to control my food intake if I consistently stick to using these bento boxes :) The contents of the 2 bento lunches are the same. Teriyaki meat balls and stir fried broccoli, carrot and bamboo shoots.


I shall have to chew slowly to make my lunch last longer given that the proportion is smaller than my usual lunch....hahaha......