Little Joy Factory

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!

Do you know the coldest temperature ever recorded in Singapore? It's 20.6 deg C on 2 Dec 1964. That's amazing for a place situated near equator!   Though it happened almost 50 years ago, it's generally cooler in December with average highest temperature of 29.9 deg C.   On a cold rainy day like today, enjoy a steaming bowl of homemade soup, it not only warms the body, but also the soul.   After almost 3 months since I noted down creamy pumpkin soup recipe, I finally made it last Saturday.  I was surprised and delighted how inexpensive and savoury this creamy soup was. The wonderful thing is , it did not take too much time as I thought. I used microwave to cook the pumpkin. Chop it roughly, put into a container with some water. Heat up for 10 minutes. The pumpkin chunks are cooked through and can be peeled easily. In a saucepan, fry onion and garlic with olive oil until fragrant. Add store-bought chicken broth ...

Inspired by tasty soups from Souper Sundays , a weekly blogging event hosted by Deb in Hawaii ,  I bought a piece of butternut last week and intended to prepare a bowl of creamy pumpkin soup for my family.  One week has passed, the butternut still quietly lying in my fridge. Maybe we are really not a  "soup" family?  Nobody seems bothered to check with me about the soup.     Before the butternut started to rot, I decided to make my favorite Chinese pumpkin cake instead. I tasted pan-fried pumpkin cake for the first time during a trip to Shanghai few years ago. These small cakes were served as a dessert in a Chinese restaurant. They were orange in color, soft, chewy on the inside, and crispy on the outside. So delicious!    I searched for the recipe immediately after the trip,  and found a good simple one. Made a few times at home, they are as ni...