Auntie tips (1)

Tip 1:
A fat-free idea anyone can enjoy on a hot afternoon : freeze a whole orange and slice it when you feel thirsty. Sucking on each cool, juicy piece will quell the heat and leave you feeling refreshed - plus, you get a boost of vitamin C!

Tip 2:
To prevent your stove from getting rusty, wipe it with a clean cloth dampened with vinegar and warm water. Do this regularly.

Tip 3:
To keep tofu from breaking into pieces when you fry, try this : Soak the tofu in hot water for a minute before frying.

Tip 4:
If your child has a bad bout of diarrhoea, try giving him/her porridge water to drink, and a banana later. The porridge water will clear the diarrhoea while the banana will firm up the stool.

Tip 5:
To get rid of lingering odours in plastic food containers, soak them in tamarind water overnight.

From: The Singapore Women's Weekly - March 2006

The Munroe Melt

Once again, this auntie here, has made her own dinner. Wanted something fuss-free, with minimal preparations and cleaning up, and does not make the whole kitchen smelling of food. So a sandwich is the answer.


The two pieces were then supposed to be put together. Yes, I'm an idiot to put the cheese on top of both, which in the end, became too "cheesy". Though the sandwich ham I bought turned out to be a little too salty for my taste, I must say that the overall tasted like a pirated Subway sandwich. Not too bad at all... and extremely well-suited for lazy people like me.


The Munroe Melt (from : allrecipes)

1 serving

Ingredients:
1 crusty sandwich roll, split
1 tablespoon prepared Dijon
mustard mayonnaise blend
2 slices deli turkey
1 slice Swiss cheese
2 slices deli ham
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 slices deli roast beef
2 slices tomato
1 slice Muenster cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2. Open the sandwich roll onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread the mustard-mayonnaise blend on one half of the roll and top with the turkey, Swiss cheese, and ham.

3. Spread 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise on the other half of the roll and top with the roast beef, tomato slices, and Muenster cheese.

4. Broil the sandwich open-faced until the cheese melts and begins to bubble and the ham begins to crisp around the edges. Remove the sandwich from the oven and put both sides together.

A joke for the day

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the curb."Excuse me, Your Holiness," says the driver," Would you please take your seat so we can leave?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a Cardinal, and I'd really like to drive today."

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

"Who's going to tell? Besides, there might be something extra in it for you," says the Pope with a smile.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel.
The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 105 mph. (Remember, he's a German Pope.)

"Please slow down, Your Holiness!" pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

"Oh, dear God, I'm gonna lose my license -- and my job!" moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

"I need to talk to the Chief," he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five.

"So bust him," says the Chief.

"I don't think we want to do that, he's really important," said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed," All the more reason!"

"No, I mean really important," said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, "Who ya got there, the Mayor?"

Cop: "Bigger."

Chief: " The Governor?"

Cop: "Bigger."

Chief: "The President?"

Cop: "Bigger."

"Well," said the Chief, "Who is it?"

Cop: "I think it's God!"

The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, "What makes you think it's God?"

Cop: "He's got the Pope as a chauffeur."

Dinner for the in-laws

I realised it was actually quite fun to cook for others. Not that I didn't cook for others before. But previously, it was usually just grandma and me, and we always had simple dishes, one veg and one fish/meat. So there was not much "variations" back then, though I'm really thankful for that time of the opportunity to work on my basic cooking skills.

However, for this past one year or so, it became quite challenging and fun to cook. Never mind it was just the husband and me. It was challenging becoz the husband prides himself being some kind of food critic, and it was actually not easy for him to like the taste of some food. Fun becoz of all the different cooking style and ingredients all the different recipes brought me. Also, I'm sure that there is at least one person who had to eat whatever I whipped up. Heh.

Since we were supposed to be meeting the in-laws for dinner tonight, I suggested to cook a soup from a packet of readily available soup base. But the husband thought it would be good if I could whipped up something for his family. So, we bought some chicken parts for the soup, veg (heng cai) and salmon (yes, again... becoz it only needs baking).

Everything turned out quite all right in my own opinion, except the quantity of the salmon and veg were a little too much. I actually didn't feel any stress until I was sitting at the dining table, and watched while my in-laws put the food into their mouths. Nothing much was commented about the food but my mother-in-law did advised to get rid of the chicken skin and the layer of fats under it before cooking any chicken soup next time to prevent the excess oil. As for the other opinions, got to wait to hear from the husband. Oh, I actually forgot to take photos of the dishes. Hmmm.

Maybe my own family will be next. The previous few times I cooked for them, they all complained that my dishes were not salty enough. I think it's time for me to try again. Got to see what else to cook... definitely not salmon anymore.

Aglio Olio with baked salmon

Got a piece of salmon from Mama and decided to get rid of it soon before I forgot its existence in my freezer. So, found a salmon recipe and made dinner last evening with the remaining linguine.

I didn't actually follow the recipe, just used whatever I had at home, minus the bread crumbs and thyme. It still turned out good and crispy, though I guess with the bread crumbs might be crispier. By the way, please be prepared to have a kitchen and your whole body smelling of baked salmon if you ever want to do this.

For the linguine this time, I followed Yun's and Kenny's advice (since they sounded like experts on it) to add some olive oil while boiling the pasta. The result : maybe there was a teeny weeny bit of improvement, as in the linguine didn't feel as uncooked as before.

Aglio Olio

4 - 6 servings

Ingredients:
- Spaghetti
- Olive oil (about 4-6 tablespoons)
- Lots of garlic (at least 3 cloves)
- ½ teaspoon chili peppers (optional)
- ½ teaspoon seasoned salt
- 4 tablespoons parsley(or any other greens, like spring onions)
- Parmigiano Reggiano (about 2 handfuls)


Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti until barely al dente (about 7 minutes)


2. In large pan heat the olive oil and seasoned salt and sauté until garlic is barely golden. Stir in parsley and remove from heat.

3. Drain spaghetti and add to pan with oil and garlic. Add parmesan cheese and toss quickly.

4. Transfer to serving dish and serve immediately. Sprinkle with parmesan to garnish.


Lemon Herbed Salmon (from : allrecipes)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 to 1/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
- 1/2 (3 pound) salmon fillet

Directions:
1. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, thyme, lemon peel and salt; mix well. Add 4 tablespoons butter and toss lightly to coat; set aside.

2. Pat salmon dry. Place skin side down in a greased baking dish. Brush with remaining butter; cover with crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.

Garbage Fried Potatoes

Today is another after-work-no-tuition day. So decided to cook something simple for myself.

Yes, that's the name of the dish... Garbage Fried Potatoes. And yes, too... the dish turned out looking more like fried carrot cake than potatoes.

Anyway, this is a really simple dish to make, especially for 1 - 2 persons.

Took me about an hour to finish everything. Although not a really healthy cooking method, it's a pure vegetarian dish, and really filling coz of the potatoes. If you look through the recipe, the person who posted this up explained why the word "garbage" is in the name.

If you are not a fan of the green and red bell peppers, you can try to substitute them with other stuff. I used the US Russet potatoes, which soften in about 35 minutes, about 10 minutes faster as the stated time in the recipe. In addition, I felt that 15 minutes is just right for cooking the onions but a bit too long to be cooking the bell peppers. They turned out too soft for my liking.

Also, the recipe states to cut the potatoes into thin slices, which I think, should turned out something like potato chips in the end. But obviously, I didn't follow that. The reason being I felt it's much easier cutting them in cubes than in slices. In another word, lazy. Heh.

Garbage Fried Potatoes (from : allrecipes)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 large baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 (4 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the potatoes, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you think they are about halfway done.

2. Mix in the mushrooms, red pepper and green pepper. Continue to cook and stir until potatoes are golden brown and somewhat crisp, about 15 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Spaghetti Al Limone

Saw this dish on David Rocco’s Dolce Vita on Discovery Travel & Living channel. It sounded like a simple enough, yet interesting dish and does not require much cooking, except for the cooking of the spaghetti. Best suited for lazy people like me. Ha. And at least healthier than instant noodles.

So I decided to give it a try tonight since it was my free day, which means an after-work-no-tuition day.

As there was still half a packet of linguine left over from Sunday, I used it instead of spaghetti as stated by the recipe. Everything was going well until I tasted the final result. It turned out that I had cooked a bit too little linguine, and the juice of half a lemon was too much. It became damn sour. So, I cooked another handful of linguine. I completed it in about 20 minutes or so. The taste was something completely different from the normal tomato or white sauced pastas. A bit tangy sour, with the slight saltiness from the cheese.

However, I haven't mastered the skill of telling whether the pasta had been cooked al dente or not. Seems like 8 to 10 minutes, as stated by most recipes, is not enough. The linguine felt cooked on the outside but was still a little too hard on the inside. Or maybe different pastas have different time for them to turn al dente? Guess got to do a research on that. Or are there any experts to advise me on that?

Spaghetti Al Limone (from : David Rocco)

4 servings

Ingredients:

- 1 lb spaghetti (457g)

- 1 garlic clove, for rubbing

- lemon juice from 2 lemons, freshly squeezed

- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (74ml)

- salt to season

- 1 cup parmigiano cheese, finely grated (235ml), plus extra for sprinkling

- a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

- the zest of 1 lemon, freshly grated

Directions:

1. Place spaghetti in a pot of boiling salted water and stir immediately to prevent from sticking.

2. Cut garlic in half and rub exposed area along the interior of a large serving bowl. This way the flavour of raw garlic will cover the inside surface of the bowl. Discard the garlic.

3. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and slowly drizzle in extra virgin olive oil while stirring. Stir well until the ingredients have emulsified.

4. Mix in salt and parmigiano cheese.

5. When the spaghetti is al dente­, drain and add to the serving bowl. Mix well.

6. Sprinkle with parmigiano cheese, parsley and lemon zest. Serve immediately.

Dinner at Haldhi

Went for dinner with the ICT team and Amalina at Haldhi, an authentic Indian cuisine restaurant along the banks of Singapore River. The boss got $200 from the school rewarding our department being the best department or something like that, and with Sam's $120 Haldhi vouchers from the sacrifice of being "Pamela", we decided to have a feast with $320 to spend.

We had outdoor seatings with the Singapore River just behind us. It was actually quite relaxing and enjoyable to be able to sit there and have a meal or just a drink. There were so much to see... the boats ferrying tourists around the Singapore River, the people walking through the streets and not forgetting the buildings on the other side of the river. We couldn't stop taking photos... especially Ray and Sam, as they had smuggled out the new Nikon D40. The both of them took turns romancing the camera.

As it is an Indian cuisine restaurant, I was quite worried about having to take spicy food. I'm not really a fan of spicy food. A little is ok, but too much, I'll start to feel numb around my nose and cheeks, then my nose starts to run and my eyes will tear.

After asking Dass and looking through the menu, I ordered the eggplant with Indian spices (requested for less spicy) and the prawn briyani. Dass mentioned that the bowl of white stuff, which came with the briyani, may be cold yoghurt, but none of us tried it so we didn't know if it is really yoghurt or not.

When I first tasted the eggplant, the spiciness was still bearable. However, it turned out that the briyani was the killer. After a few spoonfuls, my throat started to feel a little too hot, and my nose started to run. But it tasted good and after a few sips of my lime juice, I bravely continued on, maybe it was becoz of the big, juicy prawns and the exotic taste of something new. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for the eggplant. It tasted somewhat as a normal dish to me.

But it was all not meant to last. I began to feel a strong burning sensation at the back of my throat, and my nose started to run faster, and this time, my eyes started to tear, which means that I had reached my "limit". If my eyes didn't tear, I could still continue on. In the end, I exchanged my briyani with a piece of naan from Ray. And after a cup of Coke, the "flame" slowly died down.

Even Dass mentioned that his mutton was too spicy. I couldn't imagine myself tasting that. I believe if a FBI (full-blooded Indian, as Dass so loved to call himself) said something is very spicy, then it must be so damn bloody spicy hot!

Anyway, I also had a taste of Indian dessert. Ok, I forgot the name for it. But it's made of sweetened condensed milk, frozen together with bits of almonds and pistachios. So the end product is kind of like ice-cream, which tasted real sweet. I guess it is to kind of balance out the spiciness of the main dishes.

As expected with any outing, there were no lack of silly-looking photos.

Such "spontaneous" photos were never any hardship for Amalina and Sam. Me, I would do it most of the times but I haven't reach the "level" of Amalina and Sam yet.

Dass, he's one good boy. That slightly disturbing pose of his with the cherry was an idea from Sam. Good little Dass followed Sam's instructions and did everything perfectly. Heh.

Ray's shot was a candid one... just wanted to show him using his hand to eat. Wanted to applaud his effort for trying and he's practicing real hard whenever there is an opportunity. Another good boy.

Last but not least, the boss. Those who know him will know he would never take any silly-looking photo unless he's in the mood. (Hope he won't stumble into here anytime soon. Haha.) Oh yes, he likes to take photos. But only those which shows him looking cool and suave. He's real strict when it comes to looking good in photos.

Anyway, the total bill came up to $280+, which means we still had another $40 or so left for a simple meal. :)

Garlic Shrimp Linguine

Finally got another dish on my to-cook list struck off. Was planning to cook it for lunch but the dinner plan at the in-laws was cancelled, so I made it for dinner. Took just about 30 minutes or so to get everything done.

Overall, it didn't taste that bad. But somehow, the sauce was too little. Maybe I didn't add enough wine or use the right amount of butter, so the linguine was a tad too dry in the end... not like the usual ones with loads of sauce. Maybe I'll try to stir-fry the linguine next time round.

Garlic Shrimp Linguine (from : allrecipes)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 1/2 pound uncooked linguine
- 1-1/2 teaspoons butter
- 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons white wine
- 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese
- 1-1/2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat; add wine, cheese, garlic, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Increase heat to medium high and add shrimp to skillet; cook for about 3 to 4 minutes or until shrimp begins to turn pink. Do not overcook.

4. Divide pasta into portions and spoon sauce on top; garnish with Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley, if desired.

To the cinema : Ratatouille

Went to watch "Ratatouille" last night with the husband, Qing and BT. Heard many good reviews about the show and finally found time to watch it. I'm sure most of you would have already watched this by now so I won't go into the summary of the story.

Ok, to a kid, it's a funny and cute story about this little blue rat finally getting what he wanted to do, and the good guys had good ending, while the bad guys did not. And hopefully, the kids also know that they have to wash their hands before touching any food. But to an adult audience, what do you really think is the message behind the movie, other than the obvious entertainment value and the "Anyone can" attitude?

You see, Remy, even though he knows he's a rat, he has big aspirations and is not afraid to pursue them. Even though his father is not encouraging and supportive, he still believes that he can fulfil his dreams. He believes in his own abilities and that his sensitive nose is a gift for him for greater things, as what he had said at the start of the show. I also remembered him saying that he has to move forward, to be the change himself, before leaving his father and returning to the restaurant.

In the real life, I'm sure some of us may have been caught in this dilemma. Do I want to be what I want, or to be what my parents want me to be? If I follow my dreams, will my parents be supportive? Will I be able to make it out on my own? What if my parents are right all along and I can't be what I dream to be? Should I listen to my parents? Will it be disrepectful to not obey them?

I guess most of us had these problems when growing up. I firmly believe it is like a kind of cycle. Your parents worry about you. You, when you become a parent, will worry about your kids.

So, my thoughts at the end of the day. As a child, do you follow your own dreams or let your parents decide your future? As a parent, if your kid tells you he/she wants to be, or wants to do something that was never in your plan for him/her, would you be the support or the wet blanket?