I'm a full-time mummy

One of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family.

Shocking?

I guess you should be. You see, I only cook for my kiddos. The rest of the mealtimes are pretty much handled by my MIL and sometimes my hubby when he is free from his ever busy work or when he's into one of his food making craze.

So, yeah, back to my resolutions. To learn to cook for the family.

Now my first soup experiment is the: Szechuan Vegetable Soup. A close buddy of mine shared this recipe with me and the ingredients are so simple and the steps are easy to follow that I decided to make this soup my first attempt in soup making journey. Do note that I deviated a bit from the original recipe:

Ingredients:
* 1 Szechuan vegetable (palm size) (soaked in water for 30 minutes and then sliced) (** My notes: I used 2 small size Szechuan vegetable which is about my 4 years old boy's palm size and sliced them up and soaked in water for 30 minutes - very worried that it will turn out salty and spicy that I did the other way round, which is sliced and soaked :P)
* 4 tomatoes (** My notes: I used 2 tomatoes and quartered them up)
pork ribs (rinsed and scalded with boiling water) (** My notes: I used about 250gms of pork ribs, rinsed and boiled for a few minutes)
* 3 soup bowls of water (** My notes: I used 2l of boiled water)

Methods:
1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add pork ribs, sliced Szechuan vegetables and tomatoes.
3. Simmer for 1 hour or more until the ribs are tender. Serve hot. (** My notes: I used slow cooker instead of gas stove to cook this soup, so I put on high for about 1 hour, followed by low settings about 4 hours)

Outcome:

This soup I made is too diluted, maybe I added too much water as I didn't factor in that I'm using slow cooker instead of gas stove. Also because I chose to slice and then soak the Szechuan veggies for half hour instead of the other way round, I think I have made the soup less salty and NON spicy. Whoopsss.... Nevertheless, I told myself, first attempt. Try to do better next time!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I first saw a picture of this cute doggy cookies on my SAHM group network on FB and decided to give this a try after getting the recipe. It was such a coincidence as well because I asked my almost 4 years old boy what animals he like and he said 'Dog!' There's a slight variation to the original recipe as I added blended Cornflakes to my dough to give it a crunchy feel. So here it goes:

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT AN HOUR

Ingredients / Tool Required:

What to Do?

* Sift flour and sugar. Add Cornflakes and chopped soft butter. Rub in with fingers until they resemble bread crumbs.
* Add 1/2 tablespoon of very cold water and vanilla essence and knead lightly. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
* Take a tablespoon of the dough, put in about 2-3 pieces of chocolate chips in the dough and wrap them into a ball. Decorate the dough with 2 pieces of Koko Krunch cereal as the doggy's ears and put 1 chocolate chip as the doggy's nose. I also put some chocolate rice as the doggy's eyes.

BAKING PROCESS

So there you go.... my DOGGIES COOKIES recipe!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

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You know what's nice to belong in an awesome mummy group that helps each other and share their recipes? I am so happy to learn this recipe from the mummies in this SAHM group I joined in and decided to give this a try.

Now what you do is:

- Buy ikan bilis (aka anchovy) preferably those that are already cleaned and without heads and tail.

- Wash the ikan bilis to remove the excess salt and domoic acid (this is what I read from other website)

- Drain the ikan bilis and arrange them as a flat layer on a baking tray.

- Bake at 170C for about 10 – 15 minutes.

- Blend them into powder form.

- Store in airtight container and it's ready to use when you cook!

Btw, just to share my initial reactions when I tried the ikan bilis powder (I made noodle soup) - it had some burnt after taste and upon finishing my bowl of noodle, I found the remnants of the ikan bilis powder at the bottom of my bowl. After checking with the mummies in my SAHM group, I was informed these observations are normal.

Burnt after taste might be due to over baking - so I need to either reduce the temperature or cut down the baking time. As for the remnants (also known as 'jah' in Cantonese) this are perfectly normal as the ikan bilis powder is not water soluble so it is alright to have remnants left. And now I ponder why the ikan bilis stock powder that we bought from the supermarket is easily dissolve in water... hmmmm...

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you give this a try too!