Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Another Dreary Day

Urrgh, it's pouring cats and dogs again. It's wet and dark out and makes me feel like snuggling up in bed with a good chick-lit and a steaming mug of milo. This however goes against the hardworking grain in my body. ;)

So I did the next best thing. I whipped up a batch of cookies and was cheered up by the ooh-to-die-for smells of butter wafting from the oven.

I tried my hand at a new receipe. From who else but my very own goddess herself, Martha. It's a sweet-savory mix - Pinenut Rosemary Cookie. I know it sounds weird but the savory rosemary tempers well with the nutty-buttery sweet dough.

Check out the recipe here.

Muchas Gracias

To pay off my debt to my personal consultant on computers and all things electronic, I made a dessert for a party that she was hosting. What better way to make your way to anyone's heart than through the stomach and especially if you let chocolate lead the charge?

As a celebration of Martha's release from prison and my own re-entry into the blogging world, I decided it would be most apt to use a recipe from the Apr issue of M S Living magazine.

The cake was a breeze to make, much easier than it looked. Only grouse is that chocolate is tough to handle in our hot humid weather. Yes, even with my marble top, air-conditioned kitchen and all. It was a real pain in the butt to constantly re-freeze the chocolate leaves whilst painting and unmoulding them. Otherwise, this is a perfect cake to make if you need to throw together something quick but still want it to have the 'wow' factor.

Here's my Mint Chocolate Torte, specially for Nat. Thanks for all your help!

Beware of Greeks (or rather, Relatives) Bearing Gifts

For my birthday this year, I received a spanking new nifty Philips waffle maker from my one and only, and dearest sis, May. Ah, I thought it to be a excellent accompaniment to all my other cool kitchen gizmos. Alas, the gift came with a price. May had bought the waffle maker for me so that I could make her waffles for breakfast on weekends! Such a neat plan, huh? Knowing full well that if she had bought the waffle maker for herself, it would only be left languishing on the shelf collecting dust. Instead, she bought it for me (making only a small dent on her volumous pockets), leaving me, her good old big sis, to make her one of her fave breakfasts, waffles.

May practically foisted herself & the folks over to my place this Saturday for waffles. The plan was that she'll come early to help out with the prep work. The arranged time came and went. June did all the work herself. May was nowhere to be found until June was just going to pour the 1st batch of batter into the moulds. Such perfect timing! :)

Anyways, the waffles were a success and a big hit with dad. I used the recipe for traditional waffles this time and the waffles came out with a nice crisp exterior and a soft fluffy interior. I also discovered that the color was much nicer using an unoiled mould. A warm golden brown versus a splotchy in places waffle is worth the extra care and effort whilst prying the waffles out of the mould.

We tried the waffles with all the various breakfast condiments that I have in my well stocked larder and found that it tasted best with butter and the Argentine specialty dulce de leche (caramel spread). Dulce de leche is vastly superior to maple syrup for waffles not only in taste but also in texture. Being of a thicker consistency made it easier to spread it into the squares of the waffles instead of dripping all the plate like maple syrup.

To give credit to May, she did all the washing up, including the tough part like scraping the hardened bits of batter that had overflowed out of the mould onto the waffle maker. Next time I'll try the recipe for crispy waffles...

PS. May brought the lovely flowers from her own little garden!

Oversupply Creativity

Hi fans, Martha Wannabe's back! Yippee! Hip Hip Hooray!

A brief update... So, with my new work arrangements, I've been going to work early. So much so that I've been unable to make smoothies for hubby & I for breakie. I'd bought 2 bunches of bananas and had clean forgotten about them which led to bananas falling all over my wash area (I hang them up to reduce bruising). Being the super homebody person that I am, I thought to freeze the bananas and use them some other time. Brilliant! :)

Today's the first Saturday that I'm totally free, free as a bird in a long while. What's more, hubby's out of my hair the whole morning on his bike training (he's actively training for triathlon meets). What better way than to bake a cake as a therapeutic salve for a stressed out week? Ahhh, it's so soothing to fold the flour slowly into the rich, creamy mixture of sugar and butter. A flick of the wrist here, a scoop there... Bliss!

A huge tupperware of frozen bananas and an inherent chocoholic nature naturally lead to an inescapable conclusion of a Banana Chocolate Chip Cake. All went well until I folded the mashed bananas into the mixture. I noticed that the batter looked lumpy (it's normally smooth as silk). I hoped that it was due to the ice particles in the bananas as I had not defrosted them completely. With my fingers crossed I popped it into the oven and hoped for the best. Mmmm, the delicious aromas that wafted across the house assured me that all was well! Now all it had to do was pass the taste test. With trepidation bordering on the ridiculous, I popped a small piece of cake into my mouth. Ahh, the taste of sweet success! The crispy crunchy crust was tempered perfectly with the soft fluffy moist cake interior. And if you were so lucky as to bite into a chocolate chip, a sweet googey mess would explode in your mouth. Heaven!

Conclusion:
1. Bananas freeze really well
2. Chocolate and bananas are a match in heaven

Welcome back, Martha W!

A Brief Hiatus

To all my eagerly awaiting fans out there, a sincere apology for having been MIA. Unfortunately due to some changes in my work arrangements, I have had to put on standby my Martha Wannabe ambitions. I'm also taking up the government's challenge to 'upgrade my skills'. I've burned my last 3 weekends (and the forth coming one too) attending seminars. I've not stepped into my beloved kitchen for way too long! Everything's covered by an inch thick layer of dust...

Anyways, I should be back in action by the end of October. See ya all real soon!

Virgin Moon & Buffalo Horns

Starting off my entry on the Mid-Autumn Festival. Ain't it auspicious? :) As folklore would have it, the Chinese celebrate this festival to commemorate Chang Er's tragic love story (if you're a die hard romantic) or in memory of the 14th century chinese patriots who plotted, rebelled and overthrew their Mongol rulers this fateful day.

To celebrate the festival, we're having a gathering at my grandma's who'll deck out the garden with lanterns and prepare a naughty after dinner feast of baby yams, pomelo, special brewed chinese tea, and of course all varieties of mooncakes. It'll be lovely out in the garden under the blessings of the bright and full moon and the magic of fairy lights. Grandma had a sentimental craving for lin jiao that she used to eat as a little girl so I went to market this morning to look for it. Also because I hadn't eaten it before and was curious to try it. :)

As you see in the photo, lin jiao are shaped like miniature water buffalo horns. They only appear in the markets around Mid-Autumn Festival during the 8th lunar month. I have yet to determine if it's classified as a fruit, root or nut. I believe they grow underwater like lotus roots. Help me out here! To eat it, the cooked horns are given a hard whack to reveal the sweet goodnesss inside. Being the scientific kitchen explorer that I am, I promptly did that, to a raw, albeit washed lin jiao. How else will I know the difference in taste between a raw and cooked lin jiao? The raw nut tasted like a cross between a sweet potato and a chestnut gao luck. It's sweet with a definite crunch to it. The taste grew on me (yes, even raw) and I can see myself popping these as a (healthy?) snack. To cook lin jiao, place them in a pot of salted water and bring to a rolling boil for half an hour or thereabouts, and then they're ready to be eaten. The cooked nut taste more powdery than the raw and it has a 'cow-y' smell. Not sure if I did them right. I hope they pass grandma's strict taste test!

Introducing...

... a guest author - my sister! She's going to be a regular (I hope!) contributor, largely on food-related issues.

My sister is a Martha Wannabe and, before you say I'm being mean, let me forestall all accusations by pointing out that not only is she proud to be a Martha Wannabe, she also came up with that name by herself! She (my sister I mean) is a great cook, and she makes the meanest tiramisu. Pity she only makes it once a year, and only for her hubby's birthday. Yeah, we grew up together and she ONLY makes it for her hubby nowadays... So, whenever it's his birthday we all find an excuse to pop by, just so that we can get a taste of the cake!

Anyway I digress. Without further ado, I welcome June with her very own category and icon:

Domestic Goddess Without Domestic Help