New year, new beginnings! There are many things I can look forward to in 2013. I believe it would be good, and so it would be. Haha... That's me and my optimism! But if I were to add on for what I really want out of life, it would be purpose and fulfillment. And in the new year, I also hope to continue staying active - to exercise, and to take better care of self.

But I do have a few indulges. For one, I'm a fan of shepherd's pie. Think cheese, potatoes and more cheese! It's a great comfort food and this is a fantastic recipe shared by my friend. Most are made using minced beef, but mine is made using minced pork and chicken.

Preparing the Meat Sauce:
Ingredients
1kg of minced pork
200g of minced chicken
2 yellow onions, diced
1 bottle of tomato sauce
White cooking wine

Methods
Marinate the meat with herbs (i like rosemary), pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours for the flavors to develop.

When ready to cook, heat up a large pan with oil. Cook the diced onions till it's softened (ie. translucent-looking). Add in the minced chicken and pork. Keep stirring till it's cooked.

Pour in the bottle of tomato sauce, followed by some water. Make sure there's enough liquid (like the picture below). At this point, you can add in more herbs if you like. Lastly, add in some white cooking wine. This helps to impart a nice subtle flavor.  Cook for a few minutes to let the alcohol evaporate. Turn off the fire and you should have a nice meat sauce now!

Preparing the Mashed Potatoes:
Ingredients
8 russet potatoes 
50g salted butter, melted
100g cooking cream, heated up

I happened to have cream on hand, thus decided to use this instead of milk. One can also play around with flavors and make it creamy with the addition of sour cream / mayonnaise.

Methods
Boil the potatoes with skin on till it's cooked and very soft.
Peel the skin off and mash the potatoes up.
Add in the melted butter and cream, and stir till it's well combined with the potatoes. For a stronger taste, you can add in more salt, black pepper and herbs (i add oregano) to the mixture.

Layering the Food:
In a large oven-proof dish, place the food in the following order:
- Mashed potatoes, Cheese, Meat sauce, Mashed potatoes, Cheese

I use a mix of mozzarella cheese and red cheddar for the middle layer.

As for the mashed potatoes, I like to spread it out thinly... Why? So that I can put in more meat sauce hee...

Finally, top off with mozarella cheese.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 200C for 20 mins till the sides are browned.

In all, the above portion can fill two rectangular baking dish. That's really a lot, which I served over 2 different Christmas parties. Though it requires a bit of effort to prepare, it's so yummy I'll probably do it again in smaller quantity for my family's consumption =)

It's the season to be joyous! Falalalala...

December is also the time I find myself "pigging" out with my loved ones. To me, that's one of life's simple pleasure - It just means we meet, eat and catch up on each others life.

Celebrating Xmas with my closer JC classmates is an annual event I look forward to. Over the years, contacts with each other is reduced as we move on to different life stages. But Xmas is the time we re-connect again. It's amazing how we can share the same jokes about our classmates and teachers over again, and never get tired of hearing it. It must be the shared experiences we had gone through that bonds us together.

This time, hubby persuaded me to get our first Xmas tree. We chose a real pine tree from Ikea, which we transported back on our own. And we love the smell of the tree in the house. So fresh and natural! Only downside is it keeps shredding pines, especially when my mischievous cat tries to play with the decorative balls.

There she is... checking the tree out!

We managed to put it all together. Ah.. my beautiful tree! And it brings warmth to my heart as I sat on my sofa looking at it, seeping my favourite drink. I must say it's therapeutic in some way, seeing the lights lit up the tree.

All dressed up and looking good!

To immerse self into the festive moods, I decided to bake. (How can I miss this chance to use my precious mixer and oven? *grin*) It's non other than the classic gingerbread men! As usual, the recipe I chose caused it to ballooned up, and it went from slim to... FAT.

Designed by me

Nonetheless, it still looked cute right? Even hubby tried his hands at designing one...

Designed by him

But he gave up after two, as my royal icing was a bit stiff for him to handle.

I finally realized it's the baking soda that causes it to change its shape. I tried another recipe and the shape holds well. But taste wise, the one with more baking soda tastes better. The rising agent causes the cookie to be more chewy and fluffy (meaning not so dry). But if we are wanting to use it for decorations, a drier cookie would be better. Ultimately, it's your choice. Think I'll stick to my "fat fat" cookie recipe for now. I just like the taste better as it calls for less molasses, and more butter.

Recipe (taken from allrecipes)
- makes about 24 large gingerbread men
 
Ingredients

A: 375g plain flour
     2 tsp baking soda
     (will reduce it to 1/4 tsp.. don't want the shape to change too much) 
     2 tsp ground cinnamon
     1 tsp ground ginger
     1/2 tsp clove (which i omitted)
     1/2 tsp salt

B:  225g butter, softened
      220g brown sugar
     1 egg
     30ml molassess (abt 2 tbsp) 

Method

• Mix everything in A together. Set aside.

• In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk, then the molasses. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture (A) just until mixed. 

• When everything is well combined, divide the dough into 3 parts, and roll each into a ball. Place each ball between 2 sheets of parchment paper / wax paper. Using your palm, flatten the ball into a disk, and roll out into a 1/4 inch thick. Chill dough for at least 30 mins, or until firm. 

• Cut out cookies with cutters, using whichever shape you like, and transfer cookies to a baking tray (lined with parchment). Gather the scraps, reroll, chill and cut out more cookies.

• Bake cookies at 190C, for 10-12 mins until the edges are faintly golden. Let cool on the baking tray for 1 min, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Can check out my previous posts on making cookies for tips on rolling and cutting into desired shapes.

While checking FB, I was reminded by my friend that Xmas is a time of giving. Not in terms of monetary items such as presents, but in terms of your time. When was the last time you called or met an old friend, or expressed your love and concern for your parents and siblings? Now is the time.

Wishing all a Merry Xmas filled with joy and meaningful time connecting with those whom are important to us!

This may come a bit belated but I really want to share pictures on the ghoulish treats I had for my office's halloween party.

I took AM off, but woke up at the usual time for work to bake. Here's what I did:

I tried this last year, which turned into fat monster fingers. This year, it's looks so much better.

Witches' fingers

Still, it appeared bigger than I expected. I had chilled the fingers prior to baking it, and despite having done that, the dough spreaded out a fair bit in the oven. 

Overall, I'm still happy with it. Woo... doesn't it look eerie with a bit of spiders in it? I had also painted the almonds red which made it look more life-like. Too bad I don't have any red food gel. If not, I'll definitely add it it in to give the fingers a squishy look. 

My colleague managed to find these.

Here's other treats we had at the party:

Scooping out the "liver"

Spiders in the jelly

Syringes for the blood suckers - actually it's jelly too

Recipe for Witches' Fingers (from Martha Stewart)
- makes 30

Ingredients:
2 tbsp red food coloring
30 blanched almonds
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
113g butter
100g icing sugar
2 tbsp caster sugar
233g flour
pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with Silpats (French nonstick baking mats) or parchment paper, and set aside.
2. Place food coloring in a shallow bowl. Using a small paintbrush, color one rounded half of each almond. Set aside to dry.
3. Separate 1 egg. Set aside the white. In a small bowl, whisk together yolk, remaining egg, and vanilla. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Add egg mixture, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the flour, and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic, and chill until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Divide the dough in half. Work with one piece at a time, keeping remaining dough covered with plastic wrap and chilled. Divide the first half into 15 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece back and forth with palms into finger shapes, 3 to 4 inches long. Pinch dough in two places to form knuckles. Score each knuckle lightly with the back of a small knife. Transfer fingers to prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. When all fingers are formed, brush lightly with egg white. Position almond nails; push into dough to attach.
7. Bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool completely.

It's bread again.

Am making a conscious effort to blog... and all these made possible with an Ipad and a ultrathin keyboard (that's super duper cool!) Whenever I whip it up, people would go "wow", and I don't have to worry about clumsy fingers trying to tap on the screen. I love it! All thanks to my wonderful dear who gave it to me as a present. *Blessed*

This was meant to be a panda bread. But my skills are rusty now, so I ended up adding too much water to the green tea and chocolate powder. The color ended up in streaks. That's how it became a tri-colored bread.

It's still pretty! And I tried to practice my braiding. Ended up with these:

Will post up the recipe when my panda bear is up =)

My MIL always have things to give us whenever we visited. This time round, we got some dried cherries, initially not part of her intended gifts.

It started with her sharing on her latest buys from the organic shop she always frequent. Then we saw the dried cherries. My husband took a look at the ingredients, and immediately told her it's a "no-no". She is diabetics, but I tried to speak up for her, "It's ok to eat something sweet once in a while (and in moderation)". He insisted the cherries can't remain in my MIL's house... and you know where it ended up next. *Wink*

I decided to make muffins.  Muffins are easy. Measure out everything, mix them together and it's ready to be popped into the oven. Here's mine - rustic looking with sparks of reds peaking out =)

Recipe - makes approx 12 muffins
modified from here & here

A: 250g flour
     3 tsp baking powder
     1/2 tsp salt
     170g sugar

B: 120ml vegetable oil
     180ml buttermilk (made by adding 3/4 tbsp of vinegar to milk)
     2 eggs (beaten)

1 cup dried cherries (chopped into smaller pieces)  - I used 106g

Method
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients in A together.
In another bowl, mix all ingredients in B together.
Pour B into A. With quick gentle strokes, mix everything together.
Add in the dried cherries. Mix well.
Spoon into muffin tins. Bake at 200C for 18-20 mins.