Tuesday 31 March 2009

Home Pizza

Home pizza for dinner!



Total of 3 pizza I have baked today, first pizza that I baked turn out as pan pizza. Hubby and Wayne don't really enjoy.

As for second and third pizza of mine turn out quite well, hubby loved it so much and asking for more serving. As for me, personally I prefer thin crispy crust than the pan pizza. Here is the thin crispy crust pizza of mine.



Today's topping:
Capsicum
Honey baked ham
Shiitake mushroom
Canned sliced pineapple
Tomatoes

Ingredients:
250g Plain Flour
250g Bread Flour
4 tsp Instant Yeast
300ml Lukewarm Water
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Method - By hand
  1. Mix flour and instant yeast together.
  2. Add in lukewarm water and salt to form dough.
  3. Add olive oil, continue kneading for 10 minutes or become smooth and elastic.
  4. Lather the dough with olive oil and wrap or cover dough with cling wrap and let it proof for 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Preparing the base
  1. Punch down the dough to let the air out but do not over punch it. Knead for a couple of minutes.
  2. Split the dough into four equal balls.
  3. Using your knuckles, press each dough ball to your desire size.
  4. Brush with oil, follow with pizza sauce then toppings of your choice. Lastly will be the cheese.
  5. Preheat oven to 200C and bake the pizza for 10 – 12 minutes or till golden brown
If you want a pan pizza type, let the base proof for about 30 minutes before you start with the toppings.

My New Phone

Here is my new phone - Sony Ericsson W910, just delivered to me this early afternoon!



Thanks hubby!

Sunday 29 March 2009

March2009 Excursion

Since last month Feb2009, we traveled to Malaysia, Genting Highlands till now, we hardly bring Wayne out, either we have visitors or we are too tired to organise any outing.

Last minutes decision, just make up our mind last night, Singapore Zoo was the place that we picked.

In the morning, he was so excited when we told him that we are bringing him to Singapore Zoo. He gets himself ready - finished his milk and tuck in his clothes without any assist, happily sitting on the sofa waiting for us.

Managed to get out from the house at 8am, and reached there at around 8:30am. We didn't spend much time visiting the animals, our main objective was to bring him to the wet park. Just along the way, whichever animals we see, then will describe and discuss with him.

Here is one of the snapshot taken where Wayne standing in front of the train before we entered to Rainforest Kidzworld.



Wayne really had a good day and enjoyed himself at the water park for almost 2 hours. This is what we are looking for as a parent, to see our child enjoyed themselves and have a happy childhood!

Tuesday 24 March 2009

My Little Girl's Name

With the whole name list on hands, we had finalise and pleased to announce that we had decided to name our baby girl as Enya Tan! Her Chinese name will be 陈恩雅!

Sunday 22 March 2009

Japanese Style Sweet Bun Dough

Here is my Japanese Style Sweet Bun Dough for the day!



The texture of the bun is soft and fluffy as well. Love it so much when it is freshly baked!

Only problem that I encounter was my bun surface was not as smooth as those shown on their blog. I have no idea what went wrong but definitely I will figure out one day. Just practice and bake more!

Ingredients
375g bread flour
100g plain flour
35g milk powder
75g caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sachet (7g or 2 1/2 tsp) instant dry yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
150ml (approx.) lukewarm water, adjust as necessary
40g butter, cubed
Water-Roux Paste (湯種) *

Method
  1. Sift bread flour, plain flour, milk powder, caster sugar and salt onto the working surface. Add instant dry yeast and mix well.
  2. Form the flour mixture into a well. Add lightly beaten egg and lukewarm water roux. Fold gently into flour mixture.
  3. Gradually add just enough lukewarm water to form into a slightly sticky, soft dough.
  4. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. During hand kneading, the dough also needs to be thrown onto the working surface once every few minutes between kneading to improve the dough structure.
  5. Knead in butter until incorporated. (Knead by hand: stop kneading when the dough sticks to the work surface and stretches like chewing gum when pulled.)
  6. Form the dough into a round ball and let it rest for about 50-60 minutes or rise double in size in a large greased bowl, cover with cling film.
  7. Punch down, knead briefly and form into a ball shape. Then divide into 16 equal portions and rest for 10 minutes.
  8. Shape and fill the buns according to recipe. Place all finished buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let it rest for about 50-60 minutes or rise double in size.
  9. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

How To Prepared Water-Roux Paste

Water-Roux Paste (湯種) *:
25g (just under 2 tbsp) bread flour
125ml (1/2 cup) water
* Water-Roux is basically 1 part bread flour to 5 parts water.

Preparation
  1. Mix flour and water in a small saucepan.
  2. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring continuously until it reaches 65ºC. It should have thickened to a paste at this stage, that is when you stir you can see the bottom of the pan.
  3. Remove from heat, place a cling film over the paste and leave until lukewarm, or room temperature, before using.
**Alternatively**
If you don’t have a thermometer, cook as before until it starts to thicken, then continue to cook for about 1 more minute before removing from heat.

**NOTE**
This water roux can be kept in an airtight container after cooling in the refrigerator for 1 day if not used immediately. However DO NOT USE if it turns grey in colour, that means it has gone bad.

Adopted this recipe from SeaDragon.

Saturday 21 March 2009

Butter Cake From Aunty Yochana

Today I managed to buy flour and whipping cream from the shop to bake my milky bread. All my ingredients are ready on the table but realize that I have bought cake flour instead of bread flour. Oh gosh! I have to change my plan, can’t bake bread today.

So with other ingredients ready, plus cake flour and evaporated milk, here I am ready to bake butter cake again. Hopefully hubby doesn’t complain butter cake again!

This is my 3rd attempt baking butter cake using different recipe, the ingredient slightly different. Here are the ingredient listed below and adopted from Aunty Yochana.

Ingredients:

125 gm. Butter
125 gm. Cake Margarine
100 gm. Sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence

90 gm. Egg Yolk
1 Tbsp. Evaporated milk

200 gm. Cake flour
5 gm. Baking powder

160 gm. Egg White
100 gm. Sugar

Note: For a more buttery taste, use 250 gm. Butter instead of 1/2 butter 1/2 margarine

Method:

(1) Beat butter, margarine, sugar, salt and vanilla essence until light and creamy.
(2) Add in the egg yolk one at a time and beat until creamy. Add in evaporated milk.
(3) Fold in sieved cake flour and baking powder.
(4) Whisk egg white and sugar to a soft peak and fold gently into the creamed butter mixture.
(5) Pour into a 20 cm. round tin and bake at 175C for about 45 mins. or until cooked.

Thursday 19 March 2009

I am Sick!

I am down with flu and cough badly more than 2 weeks, not yet recover! I get this virus from Wayne.

Most frustrated is I have to wake up every hour in the night due to the irritated tissues of the throat and didn't have a good night sleep. During the day, I hardly sleep for more than 2 hours, just makes me so weak!

Visited the doctor twice, and the same advice was rest more and drink more water. Medication given was Lozenges to soothe the throat, Phenexpect CD for cough, Paracetamol for fever, Vasican for phlegm and Chlorpheniramine for running nose. Taken all the medicine and I can't see any improvement, maybe due to my pregnancy that cause slow recovery!

Hopefully I can recover before I deliver my baby! Pray hard!

Saturday 14 March 2009

I Have Make Up My Mind

Done! I have make up my mind and decided to starts blogging using Blogger! I am quite happy with the features and flexibility given, is just so powerful!

Once I have the time, I will try to move all my past blog from http://audrey90199.spaces.live.com to my new blog in Blogger.

Friday 13 March 2009

Went For A Movie

Today MindChamps Preschool is celebrating their Staff Appreciation Day, open half a day only. Therefore we have to fetch Wayne back after his lunch.

Since hubby on leave today, we plan to bring him out for a movie - The Tale of Despereaux, at GV Plaza Singapura, after his afternoon nap. Yeah! We are there 10 minutes early and managed to enter the cinema with a set of popcorn combo.

This is not the first time bringing him out for a movie, but is my first time seeing him sits and watched the entire movie without moving around. Is so amazing! I think the cute little character attracted his attention. Maybe he is mature enough to understand what's happening in the story. Most important he enjoyed it!

33 Weeks!

I am in my 3rd trimester, 33 weeks now, another 7 weeks more to go! I am so excited, can't wait till the day to meet my little girl.

I have appointment today, at 10:20am for my prenatal checkup at TMC with Paul Tseng. Hubby and I reached TMC early by 1 hour, so before going up to meet him, we had our breakfast at Delifrance, TMC. I love most of the breads, sandwiches, classic viennoiserie and pastry from Delifrance but today seem I am not enjoying at all, for the time being I can't eat tuna, missed my tuna croissant so much!

Since January till now, hubby haven't seen how his little girl behaves in mummy's tummy. So this round of visit, he requested to have a scan, he wanted to have a look on his daughter and to ensure she is fine.



The scan only shows her face, not the whole body. So can you find her little eye, nose and mouth?

Thursday 12 March 2009

Abandon Blog

Wow! This blog has been left aside for quite sometimes ever since hubby and I created it. Too bad, our newly created blog not actively use!

So far from so many blog that I have visited, I think this tool is quite powerful, but just only I have to take sometimes to explore and get familiar with it.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Butter Cake From Baking Mum

Come across with another butter cake recipe from one of my favourite site - Baking Mum, and would like to have a try. Her lovely butter cake really gives me motivation to try out as her recipe looks very promising and easy to follow, not that complicated. Most important is in 'grams', not measurement cup! I don't hate using the measurement cup, only I have to invest one.

Here is my freshly bake butter cake, my hubby loves it so much, so does Wayne. A big accomplishment for the day!



Here to share with you her butter cake recipe.

Ingredients:
250 gm butter
200 gm caster sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
300 gm self-raising flour (sifted)
½ to 3/4 cup of evaporated milk

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Beat the butter with the caster sugar until white and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well. Then add is vanilla essence and evaporated milk and mix well.
3. Lastly fold in sifted flour into the butter mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and lined cake tray and bake for about an hour.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Hair Cut From Grandma

Wayne had his very first hair cut at the salon since last year August2008. That will be his first and last to have his hair cut! From that day onwards, he never entered to salon anymore. I have no idea what makes him so afraid and stops him from entering. Maybe he had phobia cutting his hair at salon. Left with no choice, grandma has to 重出江湖, to cut her grandson's hair.



As you can see, he is very cooperative, he is more willingly to let his grandma to cut his hair than in salon. Good point was definitely much cheaper than cutting his hair at any salon. A hair cut can easily cost us S$6 on him, now he is helping us to save some money!

Even till now he still tend to avoid having his hair cut at the salon, all his hair cut done at home now by grandma.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Yummy Banana Cake

Here I come across with this link - Baking Mum, where she shares her baking experience and recipe. One of the recipes that I picked for the day is to bake a banana cake.

In case you only want the banana cake recipe and not others, so I listed out the recipe from her blog for your convenience. Yeah!

Ingredients:
180 gm. Butter
180 gm. Fine sugar (I cut down to 150 gm)
2 nos. Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly
250 gm. Cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 gm. Bananas - mashed
50 gm. Dairy whip cream (I use evaporated milk)
1/2 tsp. Banana essence (I replace with 1 tsp vanilla essence)
2 bananas - slice

Method:
(1) Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
(2) Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
(3) Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
(4) Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
(5) Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
(6) Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked.

I followed the ingredients exactly, except I did turn some into muffin. Here is the banana cake that I have baked this afternoon.



I like the texture of the cake, is just so soft, fluffy and moist! This is the recipe that I was looking for and it just suits my taste. I just loves it so much and will definitely bake again!

Here are the muffins I mention just now. It takes about 20minutes to bake at 175C. It turns out well either!



What's for next? I target to bake bread. I have not decide what type of bread but would like to have a try!

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Is Tight!

Without noticing that Wayne has grown up so fast, only when we tuck him into his wetsuit then we realise. This was what Wayne said to us when he was been tuck into his small size wetsuit, "Mummy, see, is too tight for me!" That day, we have left no choice but to cancel our trip to swimming pool.

We had shop for many places yet to find a suitable wetsuit for him. At last, we have to make a trip down to Tangling Mall by taxis, where I know there is a shop selling swim wears for adults and children, hopefully we can get one for him.

Not much choice left to be select, what I mean was the colour, not the size. We tried size5 on him, he claim that neck area too tight for him, then put him on size6, guess what, surprise us, size6 was the right size for him! Wow! Wayne, you are big boy now! Did you know that the sales girl told us size6 is for age 6 kids!

Here's the new wetsuit for Wayne!

Quick Update

I have so many things to blog and share, yet have no idea where to start! Hahaha... ... My laziness will be the root cause! Ya, don't blame! Embarrassed

Let's start on me first, then will update bit by bit, whatever comes in my mind. Here a quick update about me, I am in 32weeks, 3rd trimester now, my EDD will be end of next month, April2009. Currently, I am unemployed, not because of the economy crisis, I quit my job to have a good rest - to replenish my energy! Then here comes my little girl!

I will be going for my routine checkup at TMC (Thomson Medical Centre) next week and see what I can update.