Little Joy Factory

It's end of the year, and company do not allow to carry over any balanced annual leave to next year. So, I decided to take the last 2 weeks of December off and be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mum).  It feels good to spend more time with children, and prepare meals personally for the whole family. On some days, I would "take order" from everyone before meals; On other days, I would just cook based on what I have in the fridge. In-between meals, I would flip my recipe book and do some leisure cooking. I really enjoyed being a SAHM for this 2 weeks. My younger one is a big fan of sausage buns.Whenever we walk into a bakery shop, she would order sausage buns without doubt. As expected, she requested for them again when I asked her what bread she wants me to bake today. I have some cocktail chicken sausages bought from TESCO, JB during our 2D1N trip to Malaysia. These sausages are of premium quality and make perfect for mini sausage buns. ...

Just returned from 2D1N trip to Hello Kitty Town and Legoland in Malaysia.Through this trip, realized my daughters have grown up faster than I thought. Both of them feel the two theme parks sort of "boring". They have no intention for a 2nd visit, especially Hello Kitty Town. Nothing wrong with the two theme parks, it's just that they are designed for younger children, at least for the crowd younger than my two daughters. Overall, it's a memorable family outing as we spent Mayan "doomsday" in theme parks and 5-star hotel rather than the bomb shelter at home. The world is intact, so are we! Though it's a short trip to neighbouring country, we were exhausted due to the heavy jam at the customs. 30 minutes drive from hotel to home turned out to be 3 hours, and reached home at almost 2:00am in the morning. Well, after a good 10hr sleep, woke up and felt fresh again. Still have time for some Christmas cookies. Scottish shortbread is in my ...

December is my favourite month of the year, not only because of Christmas, but also because my birthday falls in this month. One celebration followed by another, and New Year's Day is just around the corner!  Listening to Celine Dion's "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" again and again , can't help asking myself what I have done in 2012? So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over A new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear ones The old and the young ... It's time to reflect the past, and also time to look forward. To me, Christmas fruitcake is a good way of getting into the spirit of Christmas. How about you? Almost one month ago, I have already soaked dried mixed fruits in rum, in preparing for this classic, irresistible cake. After celebrated my birthday, on this rainy Sunday afternoon, I spent one and half hour baked this cake. It's wonderful on a wet day...

Among major Chinese festivals, my love for Mid-Autumn Festival is just next to Lunar New Year. It is all attributed to my madness for mooncakes. Every year, I start to buy mooncakes as long as they appear in the market, even one month before the festival. My mom ever joked that the mooncakes I have eaten over the years should be about the same size as me if they were piled up. This year, the idea of baking my own mooncake popped up for the first time. After some research online, I decided to register for a baking class since it’s just two weeks away from Mid-Autumn Festival. The 4-hr hands-on session turned out to be very fruitful. In the following two weeks, I made 3 types of mooncakes at home: Snow Skin mooncakes , Cantonese style mooncakes and Shanghai walnut mooncakes. Maybe we are too used to the traditional mooncakes, Shanghai Walnut mooncake seems to be the most popular one in my family. Everyone loves it at first bite. Its pastry, which has rich buttery...

My grandpa used to say: "No food is more delicious than dumplings;  n o position is more comfortable than   lying down”. It’s a rhyme if translated into mandarin: “好吃不如饺子，舒服不如倒着”. This is how much we northern china people love dumplings, homemade dumplings. In my family, it’s a tradition to make dumplings on happy occasions like Lunar New Year and family members’ birthdays. We also make dumplings when bid farewell for family members who are travelling away from home. Other than these special moments, dumplings are made whenever we have spare time. Served either as main dish or side dish, dumplings have never failed to satisfy our appetites. Typical northern chinese dumplings are famous for its bigger size, thinner skin with rich and juicy fillings. There are a variety of fillings in chinese dumplings, which we adjust according to our tastes. When making dumplings, the most difficult part is to prepare the skin. It takes years of prac...

Since young, I like to play with dough. It's very satisfactory for me to knead a messy sticky dough into a smooth elastic ball. The best part is proofing. Watching a dough growing like a self inflatable balloon, isn't it interesting? Thanks to the tropical weather in this "red dot", the proofing process takes less than an hour under room temperature! That reminds me of those old days back in my hometown, especially during winter time. To make those buns, we had to cover the dough with thick cotton quilt, and put it near the heater for 3-4 hours... Okay, let's come back to our beautiful day today. It's a Sunny Saturday morning. After a late breakfast, I decided to bake something for high tea. In my refrigerator, some spring onions, eggs, ham and cheese lying around quietly. "How about Cheese & Ham buns or Spring onion & Ham buns ?" The idea just crossed my mind, and the next moment, I have already flipped my recipe book to Soft...

Yam Paste with Ginkgo Nuts is often seen in an exquisite 10 course Chinese dinner menu. Garnished with coconut milk, it has a creamy consistency with rich coconut milk flavor. It's so delicious that whenever I attend a wedding dinner, I can easily finish 2 servings of this dessert even though it is served at mid-night! To relieve cravings for such high calorie food,  the only way is to make it a slighly healthy version myself. After much reserach and several trials,  I developed my own simple, healthy,  yummy yam paste recipe. Share with you, let's enjoy together. YAM PASTE WITH GINKGO NUTS INGREDIENTS - Yam (~800g-1kg ) - ½ cup of olive oil (replace pork lard, I did not fry shallot in oil as it tastes the same to me) - ½ cup of sugar (reduced sugar) - ½ cup of water (optional, depends on your liking of texture) - ½ cup coconut milk GARNISH - Ginkgo nuts - Coconut milk DIRECTIONS Remove yam skin and cut into ...