Muesli cookies.

Today I decided to make muesli cookies 

because we have a box of muesli

and no one eats it.

So I searched google and you can get the recipe here.

These are the ingredients, we only need 5. 

 The 5th one is flour, mixed with the muesli. How simple is that?

Here's what it looks like after mixing. I swear it smells so good already.

And after baking, it smells like Famous Amos, I'm not gonna lie.

Packed it up and BAMMM, great gifts for Christmas I'd say!

Bonjour Bakery Cafe.

Went over to Intermark for brunch with mum and her friends today.

The first time I had Bonjour was with dad, so this is probably my fifth time there.

I decided to try something new, so I had Reuben. 

It's basically beef pastrami with sauerkraut and cheese.

The sandwich is pretty good, and it's a rather big portion.

I think there's too much meat in there,

and I shouldn't have finished the salad first.

I also ordered their mocha, and the coffee taste was rather strong.

I want some more of the sandwich now, with less meat and more sauerkraut please.

Bacon Jasper Pancakes.

Now playing: Could This Be Love - Seduction

I know this is the second pancake post

for this week and I can assure you that

I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH PANCAKES!

I am not. 

I just appear to be sick of other food

and we have nothing else left at home

and I appear to have spare Jasper (my sourdough starter)

so sourdough pancakes it is!

Today I decided to make bacon pancakes. 

Yes. Bacon.

So I went to the freezer and got out a pack of bacon.

I like this brand's bacon.

Just right for me, not too fat.

And like usual, some Jasper pancakes.

You can get the recipe here.

I followed the recipe,

and I have spare pancakes waiting for me.

Just to kill y'all a little if you're craving for either one of these.

And I still have that much left.

Gonna have to refrigerate it I guess, 

unless my sisters finished it for me.

Bacon pancakes? 100% would make again! 

Sourdough bread Part 2.

I made my dough late last night at 10pm 

and I left it to rise overnight.

I woke up and poked a hole in the middle

to find the entire thing collapsing.

So I googled for answers and apparently

I should leave it in the fridge if I were 

to let it rise overnight.

So I tried my luck, add more flour and starter,

mix it with my dough and let it bulk ferment again.

It rised, thank god and I shaped it.

Baked it at 200°C for 40 minutes with cold water on the top rack.

I realised it didn't brown nicely,

so I increased the temperature up to 225°C and let it brown for 5 minutes.

Here's how it looks like after baking. 

I like how it looked like as it's far better than the previous attempt.

It's actually not bad! It looked far better than the last two 

and it's not as tough.

It's softer, and not as dry as the last one.

However, the bread is tasteless. 

It is still sour, but it's not as good as I imagined.

All I have to do is to work on the taste and it'll be great.

Sourdough pancakes.

Now playing: Linger - The Cranberries

This is officially the best sourdough 

pancakes I've ever made! 

Been searching for different recipes and this

is the best so far.

I only use half of the recipe because it makes 14 pancakes 

and I'm only eating it alone.

So yeah. 

The pancake is fluffy, which surprised me.

And it's a little chewy, probably because of my starter.

100% would make it again! 

Get the recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sourdough-pancakes-recipe.html

Pre-CNY 2015.

Second day at gramps',  and we're making good food.

It's a hot day, like plenty hot -.- 

It was rather boring and I've been waiting for hours till they started making things.

Been drinking on sweetened Tetra Pak drinks and napped all day.

Here's a picture of Yong Tau Fu, quite literally. 

Inverted tau fu pok filled with a mixture of seasoned minced pork and prawn.

Then the tofu was deep fried and damn, 

first time trying it and I know, it's gonna be one of my favourites.

Mummy's homemade char siew. Her secret recipe.

And my cousin loved it. Yay her!

Bad lighting but hey, can't say no to cheddar cheese filled meatball.

A remake of Old Chang Kee's meatballs and I have to admit that it's better! 

Maybe because of the meat and seasoning. I don't know.

Salmon fish head curry. 

Nothing beats home cooked food.

Last but not least, my attempt to make Devilled Eggs.

Grandma helped with the hard boiled eggs.

My sister and I did the rest. 

Honestly, it's not good at all.

To me, at least. 

No one complained, some said it's a little salty, one said it's sour.

I think there's too much mayo and it's just missing something.

It's really hard for the eggs to be perfect.

The yolk would be a little off and it's hard when you're not home and 

you have incomplete equipments.

However, credits to grandma with all the frying. 

Tenggggssss!

Tokyo Kitchen.

Went to Ikon today before we went back to my gramps' 

and we tried their Tokyo Kitchen.

This was their table mat and I'm loving it.

I had their Grilled Chicken with Cheese sort of thing and it comes with salad, miso soup, tofu and chawanmushi.

The chawanmushi wasn't in the photo because it wasn't ready yet, but it came later.

My sisters ordered chicken curry katsu don and some chicken spaghetti thing.

One is fine with her katsu don, the other hated her spaghetti. 

My dad said "It's like that."

(Clearly he didn't liked it.)

And I'll let you be the judge of it.

My mum ordered their chicken teriyaki don and she seemed fine with it. 

I had my set, and I would say it's rather filling.

However, I didn't really like my main dish. 

It's cheesy, at the same time it's kinda blerghhhh.

I wouldn't come back here. 

Nope. Sorry.

P/S: In their menu, they serve MEGA sushi! I'm tempted to try, but it's a lil pricy and it seemed to be quite jelat if you were to finish it all by yourself.

Sourdough.

Now playing: Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars - Mark Ronson

I had sourdough bread once in my entire life. 

And I realised how much I liked it.

So google helped me, 

and I'd like to make my own sourdough bread.

With the help of a few links from the internet (bottom of the post), 

I managed to make my own starter.

They said I can use any kind of flour, except for self-raising flour. 

So I used regular flour, and slightly warm water.

I use a plastic container for Jasper.

This is Jasper, and yes, I named my starter.

Day 1, 6:30pm.

Just mixed 1/2 cup of regular flour and 1/2 cup of slightly warm water and covered it for 24 hours. 

Day 1, 10am.

Woke up in the morning to see some bubbles, and I'm all excited already.

Day 1, 6:15pm.

15 minutes before feeding for Day 2 and it's all bubbled up! Much more bubbles than the picture I took at 10am!

Day 2, 6:30pm

After feeding Jasper for the first time, and he's still bubbly.

Day2, 9pm

Jasper almost in double after feeding.

Day 3, 6:30pm

Fed Jasper today and he's now 2 cups big! (Makes no sense but ok) 

Day 4, 6:30pm

Jasper here is making beer!

 He wreaks and I had to distant myself as I feed him.

For day 4's feeding, I removed the top layer of flour and the beer, 

and then remove 1 cup of the starter.

Fed him a cup of flour with 215ml of water instead of one whole cup (250ml).

I find Jasper a little too soupy,

so I decreased the amount of water.

Day 4, 3pm

For some reason, Jasper is a little less bubbly today :( 

But Jasper is still making beer, 

so I guess he's fine.

So I'm starting to get a little worried that my yeast won't be active enough.

I found out that when it's making beer, it's really bad. 

Apparently I should feed every 8-12 hours when it outside at room temp! 

However there's a way to fix it, and it'll put the link down below. 

Day 5, 6:30pm

I just fed Jasper 1 cup of flour and 50g of sugar along with 165ml of water instead.

I reduced the water because I want the starter to be more viscous.

I hope adding the sugar and help Jasper to be more alive again, 

making more bubbles instead of hooch (which was the right term for "beer").

Day 5, 10:15am

Jasper's looking rather bubbly today. 

That's good and no hooch were produced.

There are marks all the way to the top of the container.

I'm not sure if Jasper rised all the way to the top overnight or not. 

Someone might have moved it, but I doubt they'll tilt it over, 

so I believe that Jasper rised all the way up since I always clean the sides after feeding.

Weeks later

I was gonna travel so I fed Jasper and placed him in the fridge. 

And one day I had this crazy idea

I thought that the only way to keep Jasper 

"alive" enough is to add some dried yeast.

During one of the feedings,

I activated some yeast, probably half a teaspoon 

in warm water.

Then I just let it sit in the fridge.

Yes it seemed more lively and I'm happy with it.

Sunday, 8 Feb 2015.

I brought Jasper out of the fridge 

and fed him because I wanted to make bread the next day.

I saved the starter that I usually throw out 

to make some Japser pancakes.

Monday, 9 Feb 2015.

Woke up to find Jasper going nuts!

Thank god he didn't make a mess! 

Poured him out and find him filling up just nicely filling up a huge bowl.

This Jasper dough took forever to rise

and I thought Jasper ditched me.

It took approx 4-5 hours to rise at home.

Internet told me sourdough takes longer.

I had to move Jasper into another container to prevent the super rise 

from happening again.

The ugly duckings. 

I got the recipe here. 

But I don't follow the steps when it comes to baking

because I don't have some of the equipments.

Definitely need to practice more.

The bread is a little sour,

I liked it.

However, it's tough like a freaking 5 days old stale baguette.

Even after a few days,
the sourdough bread still smells great.

Self reminder: Don't just dust the tray with flour, or you'll have a hard time.

Where I refer to:

http://m.wikihow.com/Make-a-Sourdough-Starter-Without-Yeast

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/sourdough-troubleshooting-faq

http://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/01/sourdough-bread-a-beginners-guide/

Rosemary Cheese Crackers

I came across this recipe on BuzzFeed

and I've been dying to try it out.

I don't know why,

but I've been baking 3 days straight.

Guess I just miss class.

So I went to the grocery shop and 

get the cheeses and get it started.

I'm pretty happy that it looked neat.

But the end result is totally uneven :(

The crackers are not bad,

but one may not like it because of the strong cheese taste.

It smells so great while I was baking it.

And I substituted the fresh rosemary with the dried ones,

so you'll have things to pick out from you mouth.

Ugh.

They are a little tough to chew,

thank god they're bite-sized.

And I realised I get really thirsty after eating one or two.

I wouldn't really do this again, because 

1. the cost isn't low.

2. time consuming as I have to rest the dough 

and cut it out.

3. most people wouldn't like it

4. yield is low 

5. it's sad that the second batch wasn't

evenly baked as well :(

But I'll do it if people requested for it.

Depending on my mood, of course.

Here's the link: 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/rosemary-cheese-crackers?s=mobile

Nana's Green Tea and Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Now playing: Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

Went over to One Utama today and

tried Nana's Green Tea.

My mum's friend recommended it as it's famous for its desserts.

When I walked in, 

it really gave me the Japanese feel.

Like how most restaurants in Japan would be,

except that it is far more spacious.

I miss Japan :(

So I ordered their lunch sets,

and this is Set E; Tori Soboro Don

along with their Thin Matcha Green Tea.

It is just basically minced chicken served with a nicely half-boiled

egg on top of their millet rice. 

Their matcha is very rich.

There is no way one that loves green tea doesn't enjoy it.

And I think the miso soup that comes with it is a win win! 

Then I got home and I remembered that I gotta make the Red Velvet cupcakes for my sister.

So I just mixed the batter, happy with the given colour

and simply made the cream cheese frosting

with the remaining amount of cream cheese we have. 

I'm actually happy with the end product,

it's the first time I made something that came out nicely.