Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream Cake

One last post before I go. This is the ice cream cake that I made and had to have a piece of. It's a combination of chocolate cake and cherry vanilla ice cream. I will post the recipe later when I come back from vacation.

Aspen...here I come!!!

I'm so sorry I haven't been trying new recipes lately. I been sick for the past 2 1/2 weeks and I finally, I think, got my sense of taste back.
Currently, I making...well to create a chocolate cherry ice cream cake and so far it going well. I really had to rush and try to decorate my cake before the ice cream melt. Right now, I waiting for the all the icing and ice cream to harden so that I can put little cute purple flowers on it. I wanted to give this cake to my friend Kak Ida for her Raya Haji open house today but I didn't have time to put everything together. I'm going to give it to her tomorrow since my Christmas vacation/ holiday starts after I get out of work at 3pm. Yahooooo! And speaking of holiday...
Guess where I going this year. Aspen Colorado! My friend Kak Rozi lives in Superior, Colorado and we are going up there to visit her and her family. She has been bugging me to come and see her for ages now. So we will be visiting Glenwood Springs and skiing down the slopes at Aspen. I can't wait. I haven't been on vacation for quite a long time. The last time I went was when I was in college in 1998 to the Sunshine State. After I was done, I had no money to go anywhere so I went job hunting. Ended my butt at Summit as a factory operator. I don't mind. As long as it pays the bills. Anywho, before I blabber on and on and on about my depressing life (LOL) I won't be around for a week or two. So I see you all in the new year.

Happy 2008 y'all.

My cat Boboy

I was bored one day and decided to work on my photographing skills. I love these 2 pictures of my cat Boboy. Of course I did some editing. :)

Wutchalookinat Malaysia

Yah...I know it's a mouthful. This is my brother's blog that he is doing when he has trouble sleeping. I don't know what it's about yet but I know it's a mixture of everything. I'm just here to give him the support and may the blogging force be with you...LOL

http://wutchalookinat.wordpress.com/

Berry Trifle

Yet another Foodnetwork.com recipe. I have to admit, Food Network is one of my favorite tv channels. When I am bored and home alone with nothing to do, Food Network is my friend. Yesterday, I saw Tyler made this recipe on his show and it looks really yummy. I haven't tried it yet but I want to post this recipe here so that I don't lose it. I'm going to make this weekend for Izuan graduation party along with his Tiramisu cake. :)

Recipe: Berry Trifle

Things you need...
Berries:
1 pint blueberries
1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut into thick slices
2 pint raspberries
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Lemon Cream:
1 quart whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (11-ounce) jar lemon curd
1 cup store bought pound cake, slices 1/2-inch thick

Place the berries into a large bowl and sprinkle with half of the lemon juice. Lightly toss.
Combine the berries, sugar, cornstarch and remaining lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
Bring to a simmer and cook just until the berries begin to break down and give up their juices, about 3 minutes.
Take the berries off the heat and let cool; the mixture should thicken up as is cools.
In a clean bowl, whip the cream with the sugar and the vanilla to soft peaks.
Put the lemon curd into a second bowl and stir in a little of the whipped cream to loosen it.
Then fold in the rest of the cream.
To assemble the trifle, spoon a layer of the lemon cream into a large glass bowl.
Add a layer of pound cake, breaking the slices into pieces that fit.
Then soak the cake with a layer of berries and their juices.
Keep going to make a 2or 3 more layers, depending on the size of the bowl, finishing with a layer of lemon cream.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Enjoy....

Something to ponder..

I love this video clip. Why? See for yourself.

Salmon Curry

Been sick for the past few days and didn't have the appetite to making anything interesting. I did manage to cook a simple Salmon Curry for my hubby. Cian...he has been eating McD's for lunch and at Rasa Ria for dinner. I also did some picture taking practice on it. I could improve alot more. I really need to change the lighting in the house, since I can't go out in the snow to take pictures :) This weekend I'll probably try to make pulut panggang (if I can find me some banana leaves) or make a trial run on a Tiramisu Graduation Cake for my friend Izuan. I don't know yet. We'll see.....

Tandoori Chicken

It's been awhile since I have done this. Since winter is here, I had to bbq it in the oven instead of on the grill. :)

Recipe: Tandoori Chicken

Things you need...
1 whole chicken cut into small pieces
1 packet of Shan's Tandoori Chicken BBQ Mix
1 lime yogurt
1 juice from a lime
1 juice from a lemon
3 tbsp of ginger
3 tbsp of garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Once you have cleaned and cut the chicken into small pieces, in a big bowl add all of the ingredients above.
Make sure you mix it well and set aside in the fridge overnite to get all the yummy flavors into the meat.
The next day, fire up the grill or your oven to 350F and cook until done.
Very easy and simple to do. I'll post a picture when I get a chance to make it again. Completely forgot about it. :P

UPDATE:
This is a how to video on Tandoori Chicken I found on youtube.com. It is alot easier to understand what your are making and how it should turn out.

Source: meady100
http://youtube.com/user/meady1001

Roasted Honey Ginger Chicken

I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com and did for the Thanksgiving dinner. It's very simple and easy to do.

Recipe: Roasted Honey Ginger Chicken

Things you need...
1 whole cleaned chicken
4 crushed garlic cloves
a thumbsize crushed ginger
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup of honey
1 whole orange juice
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of minced orange zest
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, add all the ingredients in and mix well.
Add salt and pepper to taste before adding in the chicken.
Add in the chicken and coat it well.
Marinade overnight in the fridge.
Next day, heat the oven to 350F and cook until done.
Enjoy...

Lemongrass Shrimp Fried Rice

This recipe is fairly easy with most ingredients readily available in your kitchen.

Recipe: Lemongrass Shrimp Fried Rice

Things you need...

a handful of shrimp

a thumb size lemongrass crushed

2 Shallots crushed

1 a small bowl of cooked rice

5 chili peppers crushed

1 tbsp of ginger puree

spring onions chopped (for garnishing)

1 tbsp of fish sauce

1 tbsp of soy sauce

1 tbsp of calamansi juice/lime juice

2 kaffir lime leaves chopped

salt & black pepper to taste

Heat up cooking oil in a pan and add in shallots, ginger and lemongrass. Cook until fragrant.

Next, add in the shrimp and cook until well done. Add chili peppers and kaffir lime leaves and stir for about a minute.

Go ahead pour in the cooked rice and mix well.

Add fish sauce, soy sauce and the calamansi juice or lime juice.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Before you serve the fried rice, add in the spring onions and stir for about a minute.

Enjoy...

Green Bean Casserole

This recipe is for my friend Adeale who missed our Thanksgiving dinner.

Recipe: Green Bean Casserole

Things you need:

1 1/2lb green beans of course

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom

1 cup of sliced mushroom

1/2 cup of butter

1/4 cup of onion powder

1/4 cup of garlic powder

1/2 cup of milk

French's® French Fried Onions

Salt & Pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Add a pinch of salt and green beans. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Rinse and drain the green beans in cold water to preserve the nice green color. Cut the green beans to bite-size pieces and set aside.

In a pan, melt the butter and saute the mushroom.

Add in cream of mushroom, onion powder, garlic powder and stir well.

Add in milk, salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven at 350F.

In a baking dish, add the green beans and pour the mushroom sauce over it.

Bake it for about 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Lastly, generously add French's French Fried Onions on the top and serve.

Enjoy...

Kuih Siput

It was a good Thanksgiving weekend. However, it wasn't long enough. Didn't do any shopping this year though. A friend of mine ask me the recipe for the kuih siput that I made during raya, so here it goes....

Recipe: Kuih Siput

Things you need:
2 garlic gloves
1 shallot
1 tbsp of dried shrimp
1 tsp of Baba's curry powder
1 tsp of chili powder (depends how spicy you want it)
1 1/2 cups of unbleached powder
1 bar of butter
2 cups coconut milk


Blend or pound garlic, shallot and dried shrimp together and put aside (mixture A).
In a bowl, mix curry powder, chili powder and coconut milk, like you are making curry and set aside (mixture B).
In another bowl, mix butter and flour together.
Add mixture A into the bowl and mix thoroughly.
Add in mixture B slowly until a dough forms. If this doesn't do it, add it more coconut milk. If you like alot of curry powder, you can add that in too. All depends on your liking.
Grab a small portion of the dough and rolls it out on the siput mold.
When you have enough, heat oil at low heat and slowly deep-fried the siput until golden brown.
Enjoy....

Kuih Makmur

This is one of my favorite kuih that my mom always make for Raya. For the past 9 years that I have been here, my mom, despite her busy schedule fulfilling Raya orders, she always managed to shipped some to me. This year I was brave enough to make them by myself.

Recipe: Kuih Makmur

Things you need...
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup ground roasted spanish peanuts
1 stick of butter/ghee
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg
icing sugar

In a bowl, mix in the flour, sugar and peanuts thoroughly before adding in the egg.
Melt the stick of butter in the microwave for about 35 seconds and slowly add it in the mixture until it forms into a peanut dough. If the mixture does not form into dough, just add more butter. It won't hurt. :)
Take a small piece of the dough and roll it into a small ball.
Preheat the oven at 350. The key to this is to cook it slowly on low heat. I once cook it on high heat and it turn out as hard as a rock. Nasib baik tak patah gigi. :)
Once it is done, about 20 minutes, move the kuih into a small bowl and add icing sugar over it. Make sure the kuih is cover in sugar completely.

Enjoy...

Ayam Percik (Malaysian BBQ Chicken)

I have tried and absolutely loved it. I'll try and make it again this Thanksgiving and upload the picture, but I want to post this recipe so that I don't lose it . Here are the ingredients for this recipe...

Recipe: Ayam Percik

Ingredients
1/2 a chicken
2 tsp tamarind juice
lemongrass (white part only)
1 cup coconut milk
1.5 tbsp sugar
salt to taste

Marinade: to the chicken add
salt
sugar
chili powder or depends how spicey you want it
tumeric powder

Spice Paste:
a few crushed candlenut/macademia nut/brazilian nut
2 crushed shallots
3 gloves crushed garlic
6 to 10 pounded chilies/depends how spicey you want it
sugar

Marinade the chicken overnight.
Heat the oven at 350 and cook the chicken for about 15 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the spice paste.
On medium heat, fry the garlic and shallots until fragrant. Then add in the chilies, lemongrass, candlenuts, coconut, tamarind juice and salt to taste. Cook until the paste thickens.
Take out the chicken from the oven and start up your grill.
BBQ the chicken and add the spice paste until the chicken is fully cooked.
Served with nasi minyak. Really yummy.

*note: the thickness of the coconut milk and the sourness of the tamarind juice is based on individual taste. You don't have to follow the recipe completely. Feel free to modify it.

Shrimp Rolls & Fried Fish Balls

This is what I had for breakfast today. On my Raya open house, a friend of mine bought me a package of shrimp rolls. It was real good but lacking of some few ingredients. You know me, always try to add a little something... so I decided to make my own shrimp rolls. The friedfish balls my hubby bought in Ann Arbor. All I had to do was fried them. I found the recipe for keropok lekor. Will be trying it out next weekend. I'm so excited...hadn't eaten it for a long while. I'm so hungry...:)

Recipe: Shrimp Rolls

Things you need...

10 or more raw shrimp

spring roll wrappers

onion powder

garlic powder

chili powder

sesame seed oil

salt & pepper (black & white) to taste

1 egg (beat lightly for sealing purposes)

Remove the shell of the shrimp but leave a little bit of the tail on.
In a bowl, add 5 dashes of onion powder, 5 dashes of garlic powder, chili powder however hot you want it, add white and black pepper and salt to taste.
Marinade it for about 15 minutes.
Add a few dashes of sesame seed oil before you wrap it with the spring roll wrapper.
Deep fry the shrimp rolls until golden brown.
Serve hot with chili sauce.
Hope you enjoy.

Snow

It finally snowed. I got out of work today with a little suprise from mother nature. Snow!!! I love the first day of snow and I can't wait to drive in it tomorrow morning. I know I sound weird, but I love the challenge. Now that I got all wheel drive and such... :) Ask me again in a week what I think about the snow. I'll say it sucks!!! Not to sound crazy but I think this is the only thing I'll miss when I go home in a couple of years. *sniff* *sniff*

Baju Kebaya

I have been looking so long for something like this. I have always wanted to start my own little boutique. I know that Raya has gone and passed, but it is never too late to order one. I have ordered 2 kebayas, one in purple and one in blue. One is Thai silk and the other is Chiffon. Both sizes are L (Bust: 36-37++Waist: 29-31++Hip: 38-39++) I'll be selling it for $45 plus $5.95 shipping and handling. Everything you see in the picture is included. If anyone is interested, please email me. Thanks... :)

Plain & Simple

I don't know how many times I have changed the look of my blog. I was never satisfied by the layout and wanted more. I wanted a simple and clean template so today, the whole day, I had wasted my time going online and searching for blog templates. I know that you can rearrange the look of your template but my HTML days has gone by and I don't...well, I'm a dummy at it now. :) I guess I can settle for this one. Until I learn how to write the codes again.

Beef Kebab Koobideh

I was craving for kebab and I found this recipe on RasaMalaysia.com and thought I should give it a try. All I did was add...

Recipe: Beef Kebab Koobideh

1 small chopped onion,

1 tsp turmeric powder,

1/2 tsp chili powder (or however spicey you want it),

1 or 2 glove crushed garlic,

a handful of chopped parsley leaves,

1 egg,

salt and pepper to taste,

to about 1lb of minced meat

I mixed them all together and set it aside for about 1/2 hour before I put on bamboo skewers. I then grilled them and brushed olive oil to keep them from drying up while they were cooking. The easy way to grill this is, if you have a flat pan, grease it with some olive oil and carefully place the kebab on it. I didn't feel like grilling outside in the rain. I also made a quick tabouli salad along with it. All in all, it was fast and tasty. Sorry the picture didn't turn out as good as I hoped for. I couldn't stop eating them long enough to take the picture. :)

Another month has end..

October went by pretty quick and now that November is here....that means Thanksgiving Sale!!! Although I say every year, I don't feel like buying anything since I've already have everything, which in translation means...I'm going shopping first thing in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving for something that I don't really need and will regret later... typical. What else am I going to do with that big money I earned at Summit...LOL **wink** **wink**

Rasa Malaysia--Butter shrimp/prawns

I tried her butter prawns recipe today. It turn out pretty good except I forgot the garlic and had to substitute grated coconuts with coconut milk and didn't have any leftover curry leaves from the Raya open house the other day, so I sprinkle a little bit of Baba's curry powder just enough to give it that mouth-watering aroma. I tried taking pictures of the processes and it went dead after 3 shots....arggghhh....I'll try this recipe again and with fully charged batteries. :) Highly recommend for simple dinner or when you just malas nak masak....

cookingismypassion

Yah! I found her!!! This is her website http://www.cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/ I should change my blog that says eating is my passion, gaining pounds and proud of it!!! LOL
Her mango cupcakes look absolutely delicious. Maybe I'll try it this weekend also with the apam suri ayu. I have been looking for this recipe for a long while...try 11 years. I loved it when my great grandmother makes them. Before I transferred, I wanted sooo bad to ask her to make them for me, but didn't have the heart to force her. Same with all other tradisional kuih/kueh that my nenek and mama tua used to make. You know I regret not learning it from them since I spend so much time with them. I remember waking up...I think it was 4 in the morning to help my nenek to make her kuih since she sells them at a nearby elementary school. Well, I didn't wake up at 4am. I only opened my eyes and went back to sleep and wake up again when I hear my nenek nagging at me...hehehe... I miss those days... I still wonder why she locks my door at night when I go to sleep???
And I would like to thank banyak-banyak to my friend Dini for remembering the name of the kuih that I wanted so bad and searching the www for the recipe. Kecian dia... she went to bed at 3 in the morning!!! Anywho, I hope it turns out as good as it looks in the picture she sent me. :)

Rasa Malaysia

As usual, what I do every weekend...look up Malaysian recipes that I can try at home...been here for almost 10 years and missing all the masakan kampung, the variety of kuih and drinks...OMG!!! :-0 I haven't had Sarsi for awhile.... :) Anywho, I give kudos to this one young lady where I stoled her delicious recipes from.
Her website is http://www.rasamalaysia.com/. She has alot of good recipes...so Tajul, if you are reading this...tengok dia punya website k... I found another website...a very good cook as well, but can't seem to find her in my favs file...I'll put up a post later when I find it again...

It's cold!!!

Raya is over and I have gain all the weight that I lost during the fasting month. Sedihnya... anywho, we went sight-seeing at Fitzgerald Park. It was beautiful minus the allergies. It wasn't that cold when we went up there. Suprisingly, it was 81F in Lansing. A good day to take fall pictures. Now that summer is officially over...here comes winter...

Raya

We all had a good time at our Raya open house. More than a handful of people showed up which made it more merrier. There were people everywhere, in our garage, our kitchen, on our stairs, anywhere they can find a place to sit. These are the few that stayed awhile to keep us company. :) Happy Raya 2007 everyone.

p/s Forgot to tell you all. Make sure you keep an eye out for our picture in Utusan. We thought that this picture was good enough to be included in the Salam Raya column... :)

Selamat Hari Raya

Yay! Raya is around the corner. Alhamdullilah, we have completed one of our obligation this year. Selamat Hari Raya to all. Banyaklah minta maaf ye...for silap kata and attitude towards you all.

I couldn't believe...

I got an email from a friend of mine with this video attached to it. At first I thought it was one of those stupid prank video that ask u to stare at it for a couple of minutes and a guy pops up and scares the hell of you. But what I saw was unbelievable. It took me quite a long time to process what it was. I thought that someone had painted the body of the baby with black paint and then I took a good look at her eyes...words cannot express what I was feeling at that time. I read the story that my friend had sent me so I try to translate it as good as can...it goes....

This happened in Makkah, somewhere around this year (2007), the lady that happened to was pregnant with her third child. Her first 2 children are girls and she was very anxious to have a boy. However, during her regular exam, the doctor had done a scan and told her that her baby was a girl. She was quite depressed and sadden by the news because she really wanted a boy. Throughout her pregnancy, whenever anyone ask her whatever her baby is a girl or boy, she would reply that she was pregnant with a baby snake. On the day of her baby's delivery, she gave birth to baby girl but the only thing that was different about her is that her physical appearance does look like the markings on a snake.

Please be warn! You may not like what you see!

After watching the video, I was speechless and I cried. I cried because she doens't deserve this. All babies are innocent.

:)

Hello again people. After being sick for 3 days it's finally good to be back and posting. Actually, there is nothing to post anyways. I had a fabulous 4 day weekend which was cut short but a slight fever/flu in the forecast. Wasn't very happy about it. Anywho, raya is coming..... :)

What to cook?

It's that time again. The time is 4:45pm and I don't know what to cook to buka puasa today. I took lamb out of the fridge, but what do do with it. So I started looking at recipes online. Didn't work out in my favor. The more I read about it, the more my stomach growls. Went to amazon.com to look for aaaannnyyy Malaysian cookbook. Found some but there was one that didn't make sense....selling an old cookbook for $99!!! Who in their right mind would but it? I found these 2 that look decent enough....

the pictures looked good but comes to the most agonizing part...when will I actually start cooking from those cookbook. Maybe I'll just cook lamb rendang today but I kinda have a craving for anything masak lemak though.... ermm

Apple & Peach Picking

Today I took my friends', Kak Rozi, parents to Coloma to pick some apples and peaches. They were very excited and exhausted, but they had enjoyed their experience. We went again the following week. Here is one of my fav. pic of them as well as a video for all to enjoy. This was taken at Fruit Acres, Coloma, MI.

River Rafting 2007

Here is the video as promised. I still need to do a little tweeking on it, but for right now, it's viewable.

Video River Rafting 2006

This video was taken last year. I thought that I would share it will everyone all the fun we had on that day. I'm currently working on this year's river rafting trip slides. Will keep you guys posted. Enjoy the video... :)

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=3804746aa81604a756f42b&skin_id=406&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

My Abu

It has been 3 months and a day my beloved Babu passed away. I still can feel his presence around the house even though I can't see him anymore. He will be in my heart forever. He was a very intelligent cat and no other can compare to him. His last days I cherished so much. We did alot together and it felt good to make him happy. At least he was pampered, loved and held on the highest pedestal when he was alive. Babu, you are my angel.

The winter of 2007

This slide show is about winter here in Michigan. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://www.slide.com/r/ELad1Oyaoz86IkCYFCdXIol5B4oQBqP8?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Tunnel Park Beach

Pictures of us at the beach. Gotta love the song. :)

http://www.slide.com/r/zrR2I4vF7j-0WXcdq5JShI2JYdeusP3C?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

1st pic slides

These are some random pics put together to make this slide. It turn out pretty good and I'm hooked on it. Here's the link for everybody...

http://www.slide.com/r/DPS9vlOu3T8FO5dgJ8Dh_3Ry8e4BhLhC?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

I'm blogging

Just couldn't resist it. I'm going to start moving all my previous friendster blogging to here. So if you guys (my honorable friends) are wondering where it went...here it is....will be transfering all the picture slides here...senang...so you guys won't have so many junk mail from me... :)