Little Joy Factory

I baked this flaxseed sourdough bread with my whole wheat sourdough starter yesterday. I noticed sourdough starter made with whole wheat flour is much more active than the one made with all-purpose flour.

最近，我迷上了西式的酸面包。用自己培养的天然酵母引子(sourdough starter) 成功地烤了 普通酸面包 之后，我上周又接连烤了几个核桃果干酸面包。果干是以前就一直用朗姆酒浸着收在冰厨里的，现在派上了用场。刚出炉的酸面包, 芳香四溢，外脆内软，有嚼劲。 面香、酒香、盐香、果香、乳酸香, 沁人心脾!

When I first read about the sourdough bread, it reminds me of  Chinese old dough  mantou  (老面馒头), a steamed bun with wild yeast starter before commercial yeast was commonly used. Growing up in northern China, I have been eating old dough mantou as an alternative staple to rice during my childhood. 

I love homemade bread, I always do. Under such a hot weather like today, it's the perfect time to bake bread at home.  The yeast is activated easily, and dough rises really fast.  I plan to try a different recipe, and I am glad I did.

Entering April, the temperature in Singapore has been hovering over 30°C for a week.  A meal cooked on a hot stove has become a challenge for me.  Anything quick and easy for dinner?  This Salmon recipe from Canada Living  seems a perfect choice. 

Wechat 相当于中国的Facebook, 在华人圈子里很火, 你知道吗？我在偶然的机会里，在2013年才和Wechat结缘，认识了来自大江南北的朋友。Wechat 信息丰富，四通八达, 成了我在网络上最喜欢"逛"的地方。如果说，Facebook 主要以英语为媒介，那么Wechat 则以华语为主导。连我70多岁的妈妈也在Wechat 上和我们作日常的交流。一句话，Wechat 势如破竹，锐不可当。 最近在Wechat 美食群里，结识了一班美食爱好者。大家切磋技艺，让我受益匪浅。 群里的姐妹们最近都在鼓捣面食。要知道蒸花卷馒头可是我这个北方人的强项啊。我特意做了这个玫瑰花卷来凑热闹。它看起来难，做起来非常容易。赶紧把它学起来，真的很可爱啊!

在所有的美食中，我还是觉得烘面包最轻松，又有满足感。从第一次做面包起，从没有遇到面团发不起来的问题。一方面食谱很重要，另一方面，要归功于这里的气候。炎热潮湿特别适合面团发酵。我这个喜欢DIY美食的北方女子，最终爱上了新加坡这个热带岛国，可以说面包也是“功不可没”的。

What will you do with minced beef? I have made beef ball and beef lasagna before. Yesterday was Good Friday, I was in a mood to make a special dish with exotic flavors. Chili con carne sounds gorgeous to me.  While the origin of this dish remains controversial,  many food historians agree that chili con carne is an American dish with Mexican roots. Chili con carne means "chilli with meat". Though there is no one recipe for this dish, the basic ingredients are more or less the same: spicy chili with ground beef, red kidney beans, tomatoes, onions and garlic. 

March school holiday is a short break for both students and parents. It feels good to rest in the middle of school terms and get fully charged before new term starts. Travelling abroad has not been in my agenda for some time, not even to the neighbouring countries. There are already so many things to do in Singapore, we are spoiled for choice. Going slow, exploring local attractions, and enjoying home-cooked food are my family's holiday theme of this March holiday.   During holiday,  we eat brunch at home before set off.  I like brunch as I have enough time to prepare a few dishes and serve before noon time. Stir-fried fish fillet with ginger and spring onions (scallions) is one of the dish I usually cook for dinner, and now I serve for brunch.  The cooking method is similar to  stir-fried chicken .  The fish fillet is marinated and lightly fried till almost cooked. Then, cook it with ginger and spring onions. Actually, the marinade is origin...

To prepare for Chinese New Year reunion dinner, I have been trying Chinese recipes for the last few months. It's been some time since I last cooked western food. My daughters start missing butter and cheese.

Stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts is a timeless classic dish with gorgeous colors and tastes - it's quick and easy to make,  perfect for a weeknight dinner.  This dish is popular among Chinese people also because of its symbolic meaning.  It means "a bumper grain harvest" -  wǔ gǔ fēng dēng (五谷丰登) in Chinese. Another saying is, cashew nut (腰果) resembles gold because the nut's shape symbolises the ingot of ancient times. So, we cook this dish during Chinese New Year in a bid to get wealthy.

I accidentally created these crunchy and fragrant peanut cookies last week.  It's not the traditional melt-in-the-mouth peanut cookies,  nor the peanut butter cookies made with peanut butter spread. It's made of real butter, ground peanut, and peanut oil. These are taste-bud-pleasing peanut cookies. By combining butter and oil, you end up with cookies that have the great buttery flavor and the soft crumbly texture that you ever could with pure butter or pure peanut oil.  I call them my "happy little surprise". Brought some to the office, everyone loved them and requested for more. Before I tell you how I came up with the recipe,  I have to say I don't like the cookies with peanut butter spread. With its added emulsifiers, sweeteners, and hydrogenated oils,  they are too artificial to me.  I don't like shortening and margarine either. Did I tell you what happened to the can...

爱上了烘焙，就好象在我原有的生活空间里打开了一扇明亮的窗。透过它，我看到了外面色彩斑斓的美食世界。也是透过它，我才知道马来西亚有这么多擅长烹饪的高手。 这源于马来西亚是东南亚风味美食的聚集地，传统美食在当地得到了很好的传承。尤其是槟城和怡保，无论是当地人还是游客，说起那里的美食都啧啧称赞。 食物，还是旧时的美味啊。

Do you love to buy food and groceries in bulks for your family? I do. I loved the Costco experience during the stay in U.S a few years ago. When I heard Fairprice Warehouse Club follows the model of Costco, I was very excited and could not wait to visit it . With the high cost-of-living in Singapore, buying quality goods in bulk definitely helps to reduce cost. Since its opening, I have patronized the warehouse club twice and have spent a few hundred dollars there. 

My age must be catching up with me ... I forgot that I bought one pack of Greek yogurt, and bought another pack again. Now  I have 2kg of Greek yogurt in my fridge! Being a cost-conscious housewife, I have to make sure they are consumed before the expiry date. The initial plan for Greek yogurt was to make a healthy cheesecake. With 2kg of Greek yogurt,  I baked different flavours of cheesecakes almost every week.  After 3 weeks, I have used up 1.5kg of yogurt. My family seemed to have had enough of my " cheat cheesecake " for now.

送走了忙碌的二零一四年，二零一五年在宁静祥和中悄然降临了。也许是我生日中也带数字15的原因吧，感觉和2015年有着自然的亲近感。那种浮躁疲乏的心境随2014一扫而空，仿佛暴雨过后的清晨，凉爽而清澈。 今天是女儿的生日，标志着她正式步入了青少年时期。而明天, 又是开学的第一天, 她即将展开中学直通高中六年的学习生涯。可以说是女儿生活中里程碑的日子。全家决定好好庆祝一下。一早起来，烤鸡炖鱼，蒸煮烹炸，很有点过年的气氛。饭后女儿自己去取回提前预订的生日蛋糕， 在欢声笑语中点燃蜡烛，许下生日和新年的愿望。。。看着她快乐的脸庞，我的心里也充满了喜悦。 居住在新加坡，感受不到四季的变化，时间仿佛过的格外快。人人脚步匆匆，日出而作，日落而息。 有了假期，又马不停蹄地出国旅游，在忙碌中度过。这样的日子，十年如一日，偶尔会感觉茫然。看到一页页翻过去的日历，有时真的不知道时间都去哪了。庆幸家有少女初长成，让我看到时间流逝带来的惊喜和变化。相信再过六年，我们又会收获另一份成长带来的满足。那么就让时间在指间悄然滑过吧，父母安康，孩子无忧无虑的长大，这就是一切努力和付出的回报了。