A taste of Duncan Hines

So, I've been selected for the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Duncan Hines. I'm really into trying out cake mixes because that's how I get my first taste of that particular cake, and after that, when I trial and err with online recipes, I know what to change to improve on the taste to either be better than the one I got from the cake mix, or get closer to the cake mix..

I believe every household that does a little entertaining once in awhile should have boxes of cake mixes stocked up in their panty. If you have guests coming last minute and need to prepare some food to share, you can whip up a cake in minutes and share them over coffee! I mean, like really, who doesn't like CAKE?! My friend calls me a carnivore. I say, CAKIEVORE! I can't live a week without cake. *guilty*

I was really in the mood for carrot cake, with all the cold weather, and spices in winter, I think carrot cake really gets me in the mood! I took this opportunity to grab a box of Duncan Hines Classic carrot mix. It's a new and improved recipe by them, and it belonged to the decadent range, where they add in a pouch of real ingredients! Decadent. Desserts are supposed to be like that right?

After I came home, I checked out the Duncan Hines website to see what other flavours of cake mixes were available, and was surprised to find out that they had a recipe in which they tweaked the cake mix to add a few more ingredients to make it different so you never get bored or feel traditional! I chose the Carrot Cake Chewy Oatmeal bars. And quickly got to work on the recipe.

Here's whats in the box. A packet of premixed cake mix, and a separate pack of real carrots and raisins!

They're all dried up at this moment... you just have to pour in hot water.... and..... TADAH!!!! It soaks up the liquid and plumps back into yummy juiciness!

Melt the other ingredients in a pot...... Stir well to mix it all up...

Mix your dry ingredients well.

Add the egg into dry ingredients then mix in the cooked sugar mixture., till well incorporated..

Bake, and refrigerate.

Stack as many as you can on a plate and sink your teeth onto all of them.

I would recommend taking it out of the fridge 10 mins before cutting into them. As you can see I cut into mine too soon, and it was a little hard, thus, the crumbly and uneven edges. Taste wise, biting into it when it was cold made it a little too hard for my liking. But after devouring the first 2 pieces and letting the last one warm up room temperature, I would say its awesome. I love oatmeal, and have been looking for a oatmeal bar recipe for quite some time. I failed in a few before. Too hard, too raw, too sweet, too sticky.But I'm glad I finally made a pretty good tasting oatmeal bar, and am excited to experiment with other flavours and oatmeal. Try it and let me know how it goes! Meanwhile, I'll be experimenting more in my kitchen! Till then!

Meal planning tips

Do you hate cooking? Does anxiety strikes when you have to cook a meal? Do you often open your fridge only to blank stare and not know what to do with the ingredients inside? Well, you're not alone. I often feel like that too!

Where I stay now, is very different from Singapore. None of the food places are within walking distance. Its quite costly to eat out. The simplest meals are a minimum of USD$10 per person, not including tax and tips. You'd still have to drive miles and miles out to reach to the town to get the better food. Sometimes, after adding all the costs and inconvenience up, its still better to cook and prepare whatever I'm craving for at home.

Having to cook all 3 meals a day, and sometimes supper too, can be quite tiresome. I have to keep looking and searching online for new ideas on what to cook for the husband. I'm quite fussy in what I put in my mouth, I need colours and variety. I hate repeating dishes so I try to find new recipes all the time to prevent that.

I find that meal planning really useful, as I have the entire list of meals I will be preparing the following week, therefore, on the weekends when I go out to get my grocery, I know what to buy. I have this weekly planner pasted on my wall that acts as a whiteboard, so I can just fill it up on weekends and see what to defrost and prepare on the night before.

Side note: Club Sycamore is what I call my house, because we throw the most "happening" parties in this area! Or at least what I try to make myself believe.

I used to print weekly planners online, and plan my meals ahead, then draft out my grocery list to bring out on my weekend grocery trips. That way, when meal times come, I won't have to tear my hair out to think of what to cook later.

I also take photos of the food I cook, and load it up to a folder on my Facebook. From there, I can see what I've cooked before, and if it turned out good, I can use it for inspiration for future meals when I run out of ideas. I will be posting my meal plans and recipes on this blog in the future as well. I figured if that help me, I'm sure it can help someone else as well. Plus, its also another way I can use as a reference when I need new ideas.

I have been trying out several recipes and writing them down to create my own recipe folder, where I experiment with new recipes and improve them to suit my own palette. Hopefully it will eventually be good enough to share on my blog. I haven't got to the stage of developing my own recipes yet, so I still do get alot of inspiration from other blogs, and my ever - growing cookbook collection.

I have alot of upcoming plans for this blog, and have been slowly changing the layout and planning out the things I want to write about and share here. Tried and tested recipes, travel tips and photos, and reviews of products I've been given to test out. I also plan to do a blogging marathon soon! There's like tons of things in my head I want to share here, and that blogging marathon will force me to post everyday. If you have a particular topic you want to hear my views on, feel free to drop me an email, or leave me a comment!

Check out my "Unfinished Biz" tabs to see my upcoming endeavors I hope to achieve.

Follow me on Twitter @natxwang to be updated on my latest posts, and my daily nonsensical ramblings.

Recipe: Pandan Chiffon cake

I've been craving for Pandan Cake for awhile, being in USA and not being able to conveniently get "local" food from stores is killing me. I've been cooking and baking a storm in my kitchen since I've started "playing" in the kitchen. Its where I let my creativity flow, and cook my heart out for my hubs and friends.

I've did the cake 3 times, each time changing the recipe a little. This is the one which got the best feedback, being the softest texture. It did sink alittle, but its really soft, as what the tasters preferred. Its a wee bit sweeter, so I'll go about reducing the sugar next time around.

1 cup all purpose flour (150g)
3 heaping tbsp of corn flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 egg yolks
9 egg whites
1 + 1/4 cup of coconut milk (300 ml)
4 tbsp pandan leaf extract
160g castor sugar
1/2 tsp pandan essence ( I use the indonesian brand, which also gives a green colouring to the cake)
1/2 tsp cream of tar tar

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix coconut milk and sugar in a sauce pot and let it boil slightly. Stir to prevent from burning. Leave aside to cool.

Mix all purpose flour, baking powder and salt in a big mixing bowl.

Separate egg yolks and egg whites into separate bowls.

Mix the yolks, coconut milk mix, pandan leaf extract, and essence in a bowl, and whisk.
Add yolk mixture into flour mix. Use the whisk and stir till smooth.

Pour egg white, castor sugar, and cream of tar tar into a large mixing bowl. 
Use hand held mixer to whisk it to stiff peaks.

Gently fold with spatula egg white mix into egg yolk mix, till thoroughly mixed.
Pour into ungreased tube pan.
Level and bake 45 minutes.
Let cake cool upside down in pan for 1 hour.
Run the back of butter knife through the sides of the pan before popping it out to slice
Done!

Still not perfect, but getting better..

Some things I've learnt along the way:
-Take care that the coconut and sugar mix is not too hot to cook the yolks when you pour it in to mix.
-It will take awhile to whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.
-When you fold the egg white mix into the egg yolk mix, careful not to let more air bubbles into the mixture. Its best to do as gently as possible, while allowing the both ingredients to blend with each other as much as possible.
-The mixture will be very watery, but don't worry about it. When did my first cake, I was worried that it wasn't going to rise, or that its too watery, it will come out as gunk. But it came out quite well, and we finished it in an hour out of the oven.

-To remove as much air bubbles as possible from the cake, drop it from about 2 inches above the table carefully. Or you can hold it firmly with 2 hands, and slam the bottom of the pan onto the table.
-It is very important to let the cake cool completely before taking it out of the pan, or it will crumb terribly. My first cake had to be eaten in handfuls rather than slices.. because I could not wait for it to cool!
-It is important not to grease the pan as you want the cake to "cling" onto the sides of the pan to rise as much as possible.
-Do not fill the pan to full as the cake will rise, and will result in a dome bottom. I fill mine to half, or 3/4 full.
-My last try, I lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, as I had alot of problems removing the cake from the pan, even after running my knife through the sides. It did not change any consistency of the cake, and allowed me to remove the cake easily from the pan.

Please try and share with me your photos! Let me know how I can improve this cake if you've done some experimenting on your own.. ;)

Men are hardest to please!

They say the best way to a man's heart, is through his stomach. I followed that, and learned how to cook. Just when I thought I've reached his heart, and wanted to do what I enjoy most, baking, he hit me with another.

"You shouldn't start trying other things till you can cook well!" 

"I've been feeding u everyday with homecooked food for the last nine months, is it still that bad?"

"No, its good! But you should practice till you can see a piece of meat and have a list of things you can do with it!"

I mean like seriously? My husband is really getting picky! Not only is he expecting more out of me now, he's picky with his food! I let him tell me what he craves for everytime, so I get challenged to do some new recipes from time to time. While surfing other food blogs, I jot down what I want to try too. I feel that in some way, cooking/baking challenges my mind to try something new all the time, and I truly enjoy it.

But from someone who can't even cook a proper instant noodle, to my current daily cooking spree, to being able to cook a full 4 -5 course meal, its not easy! I came to USA not knowing how to cook, both our parents were so worried for the both of us, worried that I won't be able to feed the both of us, or that we had to stick to microwave foods all the time, which is totally unhealthy. Look where I've progressed to!

I occasionally buy the food magazine to get some new inspirations for recipes or holiday cooking, and my husband happily flips through the magazines during his toilet breaks, screams my name, and goes, "Here got recipe for clam chowder leh! Fresh one somemore!" flips a few more pages, "Dear, maybe we should do our own lasagne, eh, here got __________ , I never try before." 

Its like those are not subtle hints! He's name dropping the dishes he wants to me to cook for him! I like the challenges he throws at me, cuz its been pushing me to get better at cooking. But, hey, who said that men are easy to please?

My husband likes it when I make so called restaurant food at home, although not as high quality as those in restaurants, but being able to taste and knowing its made with love from his dear wife, he'll just happily gobble it all down, and ask for seconds. Followed by, "Dear, I saw today so and so bring _________ to work leh! Maybe we can try to do at home!"

With that, I got a whole list of food ideas of what to cook for him in the days ahead, and at the same time, a feast to prepare in the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I have a husband who likes to try, and if its good, he wants to SHARE with his friends, means doing it all up again, so he can bring it to work for his pals. Luckily, I'm still enjoying my time in the kitchen, with all the experimenting to do, I'm happy to have all the guinea pigs to test for me.

Are your men like these too?

Windows Live Writer ate my post!

Darn it! I typed an entry earlier on, and saved it, then went about to do my own things. I came back, wanted to edit it, and add some pictures, and the damn software just wouldn't start. I've restarted my laptop, ended some applications, tried to update it, but just wouldn't work. I read somewhere that Live Writer was good, that it could help upload photos faster and such. But no, its not working for me. It ATE my post! I forgot how I wrote it, and having to re-type it makes my creativity flow into the drain. ARGH.

Anyway, just wanted to showoff update on my new kitchen additions. After our little arguement, I went off to buy the needed groceries, and went on to check out the cookwares section. I needed a roasting/baking pan and a cooling tray badly, since my previous one just rusted it way out. The cheaper brands are always like that, they get rusty so easily. I didn't mind paying more to get a better brand, with non stick capabilities, that might help stop the rusting too.

I headed out to the Wilton section, and checked out the trays. I've been wanting to get a tray for to make the Pandan cake I've been craving for, but I guess that's gotta wait. I wouldn't want the Hubs to kick me for buying new equipment every week. The food has to taste awesome to justify the amount I spend to update my pantry. While I like my food to taste good, I still want to keep on experimenting with new ingredients, and new dishes. I have the choice to blend into the community I am in now (the USA), so why would I want to keep on cooking Asian dishes, day in day out? I want to try new stuff, I want to try food that they cook for meals here, of course, the healthier versions.

I picked up my stuff and left. Spent about $14 on the trays, and another $40+ on groceries. More spices, and new trays to bake, and grill, and experiment in! 

Yup, take a look at the picture in the tray, and I guess you'll know what I'm really excited to experiment next. =D 

I heard that they manage to find mutton/lamb in Costco and we're heading out to find out this weekend. I'm really craving for mutton curry, which my Ananth's mum always cook during Deepavali. As most would know, I'm not a spicy food eater. But the meat is something I'm craving. What did I say? I'm a CARNIVORE. I couldn't find any alternative curry paste here, so I thought I'd try out this Thai paste, unless I can find some at the Indian shop that we're going to check out this weekend.

I've been using alot of herbs and spices in our food recently, after reading that its healthy, brings good flavour, and most of them are anti-oxidants! I use up cinnamon in at least 2 dishes per week. And nutmeg is a new addition to my spice rack. I've been encouraging the Hubs to join me in eating oatmeal, and he's slowly but surely eating more of it.  There was a glimpse of excitement when I added 2 tubs of it into the trolley. So I'm looking to experiment with oatmeals and different toppings. I bought nutmeg after reading alot of people use it as a topping. I personally love cinnamon to bits but Hubs is the total opposite. He hates it and finds that it has a strong smell. I'm hoping he would love this instead. I'm sneak some into his next bowl of oatmeal and see how it goes. ;)

Our 1st Anniversary Dinner

Its hard to find a place to eat here, there's no place here that excites my taste buds, neither are there any places that spells romantic. The best foods around here, are the fast food restaurants. On days I don't cook, and we stay in MH, I'd rather just grab a Mushroom & Swiss from McD.

Since our anniversary fell on a weekday, and my hubs is working morning shift. I decided to prepare a "surprise" romantic dinner in our own home for him. So he can just come back from work, bath, eat, have some wine, and laze on the couch with me. Perfect isn't it?

The menu of the day:
-Potato Salad topped with raisins.
-Filet Mignon with sauce
-Strawberry Cheesecake

All paired with Parma Ridge Sweet Blush Wine 2005.

I have no idea how to put romance in our dining area, based on the fact that the weather has been cold, and walking to buy decorations and carrying them back is not gonna be an easy task. I used what I had on hand.

The plastic wine glasses are from Dollar Tree's Valentines Day sales. I did up the potato salad in the early afternoon, and left it in the fridge to chill. Next, I prepared the sauce for the filet mignons. I had no idea how to prepare it, as the commiss had ran out of red wine, which was what I intended to use initially. I searched for some recipes online, but decided to replace the red wine with shaoxing rice wine, and added a little sugar instead. 

Here's how I set it up. I even wiped the dripped sauce off the plates. Must be watching too much Gordon Ramsay's shows. Sigh. 

I warmed up the sauce that I prepared, and drizzled it over the filets, and topped it with lots of onions. The sauce was fantastic. I loved it. Hubs raved about it. He said it was the happiest day ever since we got married. ;)  

I thought we could have a good sit down dinner, and talk and romance over dinner and wine. However, the meat was still quite raw in the center. The recipe recommended to cook the meats for 6 mins on each side, which I followed to the second, for medium rare meats that the Hubs liked. However, it turned out to be too raw. Had to run back and forth the kitchen to refire the meats to make them slightly less red and more edible. I would reccomend to cook them for around 12 minutes on each side and that should make it more edible. 

Candlelights, and wine.. What more could I ask for in a romantic dinner at home, for less than $20. ;) 

Happy Anniversary Hubs, love u always. Recipes on how to prepare the food step by step... Coming up next!

Portabello Mushrooms with Tomato and Mozzarella Cheese

I've read a few times how Portabello mushrooms are like steaks to vegetarians, but I couldn't understand why. I've wanted to try cooking with portabellos for sometime, but felt intimidated by the size of the mushroom cap. So the other day, when we went to get our groceries, I decided to just grab a pack of 2 caps to try cooking for lunch the next day. I mixed and matched it with whatever I had in the fridge, and it turned out so good, the guys wanted me to cook it again next time. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
2 portabello mushroom
salt & pepper
McCormick steak seasoning
1 tomato, diced
Mozzarella cheese, shreded

1. Preheat oven to 395F.
2. Scrape out gills from underside of mushroom cap. Rinse clean.
3. Season with salt and pepper and steak seasoning.
4. Spread out tomatoes on the underside of mushroom cap.
5. Top with plenty of Mozzarella cheese! I love cheese, so I used plenty of it.
6. Put mushrooms on tray, and put in oven for 20 mins, checking every 10 mins.
7. Slice when its done, or eat the caps whole!

This tastes amazingly juicy, its almost like a burger without the bun. A good lunch would be to put the mushroom between a burger bun, and its almost gonna taste like a mushroom swiss! The guys loved it, and I'm crazy over it. I'm quite sure i'll be doing another one soon.. Its easy to make, and very healthy, since all of it is vegetables and cheese. I've always wanted to try cooking with tomatoes, and I believe if I kept eating it, I would eventually come to like it. And I was right! ;) More tomato recipes to come!

Parmesan Herbed Flounder with Bread Crumbs.

When we first arrived in Idaho, settled down in our house and started shopping for our groceries, it was difficult to find Asian food. Its a necessity to cook everyday, as the guys had to bring lunchboxes to work. There's hardly time to drive around to buy food, plus, the only food available to purchase was Burger King. Well, I'm a loving wife, who cares about her husband's diet, and I wouldn't want him chewing on that everyday.

We've come a long way, it started out that he was the one experimenting in the kitchen and doing all the cooking on his own. Then I started having slight interest, and tookover some of the dishes. As I studied more and more recipes and foodie blogs online, I started doing more and more of the cooking, trying out new dishes. It has now come to a point that I've completely taken over the cooking, with joy, and him, taking over the laptop and tv, with greater joy. His tummy is happy too. With new flavours and new dishes to try all the time.

I prefer dishes with lesser ingredients, easy to prepare, but a burst of flavours. It isn't easy to find reasonably priced fish where we live. In Singapore, we can easily buy fish in the market. But here, there's only supermarket. No wet markets. They upsell the fishes in the "fresh" section, but the colour didn't look fresh, and its probably frozen before. Its expensive! We didn't eat fish in the first few months that we were here, and it came to a point, when we wanted to eat fish, we'd go for Fillet O Fish. How pathetic is that!

On one of my afternoon walks, I decided to walk to the commissary and check out the food available. When the husband isn't around, I can take a good long walk around and study each ingredient available to me, so I can take a mental note to what I can find within my reach, and look out for new  recipes to try. I headed to the frozen seafood section. What surprised me was, there were lotsa fish available there, and while at first look, the prices were $10 and above, at closer look, there's many fillets inside. We've been paying $1 per small fillet before that, its almost and indulgence to have fish in USA. So when I saw that buying fish that was frozen before, the price was more affordable and can be a good addition to our meals.. I bought a packet of flounder to try first. It was the cheapest of the lot. And I'm sure, I'll be hitting on Tilapia and salmon next.

Here's the recipe for my Parmesan Herbed Flounder with Bread Crumbs. We originally wanted to fry it, but I decided on a healthier baked version.

6 flounder fillets
4/5 tbsp McCormick Parmesan Herb
2 tablespoon dried parsley
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Season the first with salt and pepper.
3. Coat the fish with a light coat of olive oil.4. In a dry bowl, mix the panko bread crumbs with parmesan herb and parsley.
5. Press the bread crumb mix into fillets.
6. Lay the fish in baking tray lined with aluminium foil.
7. Bake for about 10 mins and turn the fish over.
8. Bake for another 8 - 10 mins until fish is cooked through.

Although baking it was a healthier route, I would probably try to fry it the next time around. It was flaking too easily and the fish kept breaking up as we tried to pick it up with a fork. It was quite dry and not really juicy. But it might be due to our fillets being too thin and small. Might be good to bake when cooked with a thicker cut. The seasoning was tasty and just right. Hubby thought his had a little too much cheese. But I liked mine the way it was. Cheesy and tasty. ;)

Let me know how yours turned out! ;)

Recipe: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This isn't a very positive month for me, and I hate blogging about negative stuff. Celebrate and share the good times, and forget the bad ones. I've been trying to focus my time on cooking, and hoping this will pass my time quickly. It seems I've been getting in giddy and the low blood pressure is back again. This week especially I've had a few giddy spells and feeling weaker than usual. I want to get back up to my exercise routine, but I don't want to push myself too hard.

Please bring on the positive stuff and let this month come to a good end.

As mentioned in the earlier posts, I wanted to try some new foods. I'm tired of sticking to purely asian dishes, and wanted a wider variety in my cooking, with different foods. Yesterday I experimented with brussel sprouts. I feel that vegetables are meant to be healthy and cooked with minimal ingredients. I usually do a stir fry, with oyster sauce and garlic for my leafy veggies.

This is my first time cooking with brussel sprouts and I wanted to cook it simple to taste the flavours of the leaves, so I can think of what to pair it up with next time... I googled for brussel sprouts recipes, and came across this one. Its really simple and easy, and the ingredients are staples in every kitchen. It turned out really good! Here goes:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

nocoupons

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt ( I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.

I thought these tasted like potato chips. Especially those leaves that fell off the sprouts, and after I removed them from the oven, they were so crunchy. I could eat these like chips all day. When you roast it the leaves get alittle crispy and when you bite it, it becomes like a chip. I'm thinking of cutting the sprouts into halves next time so hopefully it will turn out even more crunchy, and we can munch on it while watching movies. Talk about healthy living! ;)

Recipe; Five Spice Beef & Pepper Stir Fry.

Yikes! Been lazing for a long while. Its been awhile since I gave my body a good workout. I need to workout a sweat. But at the same time, my body has been aching, I've been getting headaches, and I'm feeling tired all the time. Its a bad sign of a over-lazing body. Either that, or maybe I've been feeding my body too much recently, now that I'm always excited to try new recipes.

Last few days, I have been trying some old repeated recipes, Hubs says its always good to retry and retry until we get the perfect mix that we like. So I've done Sweet & sour pork on Monday. The taste is getting alittle better. We added more corn flour this time, to give it a better crisp.

Over the weekend, we headed out to Boise for Grand China Buffet ( a review will be coming up soon), and headed to Ross for some last minute shopping. I wanted to try to get some stuff for my Dad. We've bought stuff for most of the family except my Dad. I just didn't know what to get for him. He's birthday is coming up soon, and I still have no idea what is good for him. Hopefully something will catch my eye soon.

Here's the recipe for the Five Spiced Beef & Pepper stir fry which I cooked today for the guy's lunchbox.

Ingredients

• Jasmine rice or short grain white rice, 1 to 1 1/2 cups, prepared to package directions
• 2 cups beef broth or stock, paper container or canned
• 2 tablespoons wok or clear oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 1/2 pounds beef sirloin or beef tenderloin tips, trimmed, placed in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes then thinly sliced
• 2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced into 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 cup dry cooking sherry
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, eyeball the amount
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder, found on Asian foods aisle of market
• Cracked black pepper
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle, for garnish
• 1/2 cup smoked whole almonds, available on snack aisle, for garnish

Directions

Boil water for rice and prepare to package directions.

Place beef broth in a small pot over low heat to warm the liquid.

Heat a wok shaped skillet or pan over high heat. Add oil (it will smoke) and meat bits. Stir-fry meat 3 minutes and remove from pan or move off to the side of the wok. Return pan to heat and add peppers and onions. Stir-fry veggies 2 minutes. Add meat back to the pan. Add sherry and stir fry until liquid almost evaporates about 1 minute. Add soy sauce to the pan. Dissolve cornstarch with a ladle of warm beef broth. Add beef broth to the pan, then add cornstarch combined with broth, the five-spice powder and black pepper. Stir sauce until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Adjust seasonings. Add more soy or salt if necessary. Remove stir-fry from heat. Fill dinner bowls with beef stir-fry and top with a scoop of rice. Scoop rice with ice cream scoop to get a rounded ball. By placing rice on top of stir-fry, rice will stay firm and not soak up too much sauce. Garnish with chopped scallions and smoked almonds.

Recipe taken from Food Network, Rachel Ray.

Taste test:
The sauce was a little thick and creamy for my liking, probably shouldn't have added too much corn starch. Didn't add enough black pepper, and needed more colour! I hate bell peppers, so I left them out. I might try this recipe again, with a light dose of sesame oil, and more five spiced powder. Oh, and be careful not to over cook the beef, and really cut them into thin slices. I hate problems chewing into my beef. =(

What to expect from this blog?

I've been reflecting on myself, since we came to the US, I've made alot of changes to myself, my lifestyle, my interests, my character.

What I never used to do, never used to take note of, never spared a thought on, has currently taken over me, and I've been working on all of them constantly.

I'm currently a housewife, moved to USA with my husband, and will be here for 2 more years. We have no kids yet, and with so much time currently in my hands, I was able to explore different interests and learn new stuff.

Currently I'm into:
-Trading -  Thanks to Dad.

I've been into it for sometime now.  Its the most challenging and difficult to learn, yet, its also the most rewarding. I own alot of books on trading, and as I read and improve on my own skills, I hope to be able to share them on this blog too.

-Cooking & Baking - Thanks to hubby.

As a housewife, having my hubby to be out working hard all day, in a place with 4 seasons. Seeing my husband going to work everyday and taking a beating from the weather, while freezing in winter, and sunburnt in summer, has made me want to reward him every single day that I'm able to. I guess food is the #1 way to reward a tired man. I wanted to be able to cook with love, and fill his stomach with food that we miss from back home. Of cuz, food is also the key to a man's heart. ;) As Asians living in the USA, we're not able to get Singapore food as easily as back home, and I have been studying recipes and trial-ing and erroring both our mummy's recipes, & if u're keen on learning how those hawker food were cooked, or if u're like me, living abroad, and want to learn how to please your tastebuds, the recipes with photos will be coming up soon!

-Traveling - Thanks to my parents & my husband

Since young, my parents always used my grades as a gauge to where I would go on my holiday. The more 'A's I got, the higher the budget for my holiday. It got me excited about scoring well, to get out to have fun. Traveling was always exciting, you get to see different culture, different living standards, you actually experience alot and grow from there. While hubs and me were dating, we travelled a little bit to nearby countries and each experience was different. We enjoyed exploring different places together, and till now, we're still doing that. Its evident in our road trips to our nearby states. And we've only been here for half a year. I can only imagine more travelling to come our way.

-Photography. This is really thanks to Glen.

I used to be crazy about photos and I always believed photos are the best memories of special moments in life. I've kept most of our dating photos since 8 years ago till now, and we're still adding on to our collection. Since young, I've always loved what Mother Nature has to offer us, and I love beautiful scenery and animals, and insects and all the living things in this world. I would take photos of them with my cheapo compact cameras and never thought of going for higher end cameras for fear of not having the knowledge to use them. Thanks to Glen, his passion, and him sharing his knowledge with me, pushed me to get myself a Lumix FZ-35, a super zoom, that hopefully will allow me to take great pics of landscape and nature, for me to share with u guys.

Fitness - Thanks to USA, for having such high elevations compared to Singapore, and causing my chest pains.

I first started exercising in winter, to keep myself warm, cuz I needed to sweat. 2ndly, when we first drove down to Utah. where the elevation was higher, and it was winter, I had trouble walking to our car in the car park. I had terrible chest pains and I was breathless from just walking. I had to hold on to hubs to stable myself. Since then, I've pushed myself, telling myself I don't want to go back there, and I want to enjoy this journey with hubs as far as we can.

-Marriage, Love, & relationships - Thanks to hubs and people around me.

You can still call me a newly-wed (at least that's how I feel!), even though I'm almost approaching my 1 year anniversary. I enjoy reading self improvement books, and I believe in making changes to improve oneself. Therefore, you can expect alot of self reflection, and alot of thoughts on life. Jotting out my thoughts and thinking through them allows me to reflect on myself, and thus, improve myself to become a better person to my hubby, my family, buddies, and the people around me.  You'll get tips on being a loving wife, housework short cuts, and much more!

I love sharing, and I love jotting the little bits of info every now and then, so that I can come back to them in the future and go thru them again.

Would you enjoy these topics? Or am I too boring for u? What would u like to see posted here?

3 weeks without alcohol...

We've been here for quite awhile now. 7 months passed, and I must say, this place is still as boring as it is, the only difference is, the company you have with you.

Its true that being in the USA, where alcohol is cheap and no "kopitiams" around, the tendency to end the day with a bottle in hand on the sofa is often very tempting.

By cheap alcohol, I'm talking about maybe 50 cents a can of beer here? Its about the same price with coca cola back home in SG. Here being mostly surrounded by hubby's friends, all beer loving guys, its inevitable that myself, would start frequently drinking too.

I started drinking alot when we just came back on our last trip from Vegas. I drank alot at Vegas, there was hardly a moment after 1pm I was sober. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. And since that trip, I was drinking and buying alcohol every few days. I would drink everyday, some light cocktails which I bought for $3 for 4 bottles. They tasted great, made me feel happy. I called them my happy juice.

The furthest I ever gone was 2 days without it, and I would make up those 2 days with drinking extra bottles of BJ. That's the brand of my favorite alcohol drink here. I sometimes would go up to 4 bottles a day. get quite high and happy, thinking that it was helping me to get to bed.

However, drinking that amount, also made me wake up in the middle of the night, needing to pee. While it never gave me hangovers, it made me wake up the next day with slight aches in the body. I know alcohol isn't good for me, but I thought that it was good to help me doze in bed faster, and it kept me feeling happy!

With my recent craze in health and exercise, I've been reading up alot, and trying to get active in my lifestyle. It started when 3 weeks ago, I started doing my exercises more frequently, about 4 days a week, and I read that drinking alcohol would hinder muscle development. That would make all my exercising put to waste. And if I drank, it would make the next day terrible for me to exercise, since I would be aching. So I put aside the drinks and tried to go as far as I could without it.

So here I am, at week 3 and I know I'll be breaking the rules shortly, like this weekend, where I will be on my road trip cum vacation, which I will not be exercising, and will be stuffing my face with delicious food. And will end up at Vegas on the last day of the trip, where the casinos serve Cosmo on the rocks for $1. Something I can't avoid.

I'm not a strict diet person, I'm thinking of going for more nutrition in my food choices and all, but I'm someone who enjoys her food and choclates, and I will never go on a diet to starve myself. I eat about 5 meals a day, get a bloated tummy, but i still love myself & my body.

Hopefully this vacation I will still manage to get some "active" in. I know i will be taking alot of great photos and those "lunges" and "squats" to get those great shots, should help my bum somehow. ;)

Update: Did not exercise since Sunday, which I've been feeling guilty about. But I will definately push myself to workout tomorrow to clock some for this week before I leave for the trip.