cornflakes chocolate chip cookies.

 It's long weekend once again. For family gathering, i'm making coffee cupcakes and cornflakes chocolate chip cookies. It's very easy to make. I'm not sure where i got the recipe, i think it was from random channels on youtube. 

Ingredients:

• 125 g butter (at room temperature)
• 1 1/3 self-raising flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chip
• 1/2 cup cornflakes (crushed)
• 2 eggs
• vanilla extract

rainbow butter cookies.

Since rainbow cakes are totally overrated and i've already got the chance making it, i would like to try something new, that is to make rainbow butter cookies. The recipe i'm using is the most simple butter cookie recipe. It's very easy, but you got to be patient to do this.

All you need:

• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Beat in the egg, and stir in vanila
3. Combine the flour ans salt, and then stir into the butter sugar mixture
4. Divide in 6 or 7 sections, color them each in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
5. Cover doughs with plastic wrap, and pop into the fridge for at least one hour
6. Roll the purple dough until round and long, followed by rolling the blue dough and make it into a sheet. And then wrap the purple dough into the blue dough.
7. Do the same with green, yellow, orange, and finally red dough. At this points, you want to have a quite big red dough with other colors inside
8. Pop in the refrigerator again to prevent the dough becoming soft
9. After that, cut the dough into thin pieces and then cut in half. You want to have a half circle shape that looks like rainbow.
10. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C, assemble the cookie dough pieces on to a cooking tray
11. This is optional, you can sprinkle sugar on top of the cookies before you pop them into the oven.
12. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden at the edges. Remove cookie from the tray and put them in the wire racks.

crepes.

This morning i made a super-easy crepes recipe that i got from AllRecipe.com. It's the quickest and the easiest way to prepare your breakfast. Go try!

All you need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
  
• you can add 1 tbsp sugar if you like

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt, butter, and sugar; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.
4. For the filling, you can use anything from nutella (or other brand of chocolate spread, hazelnut i'd prefer), peanut butter, strawberry jam, or whatever. Or you could simply sprinkle confectioner sugar over the folded crepes and you are ready to go. Have fun!
   
   
   
   

super-fluffy wholemeal pancakes.

Happy Sunday morning!

Since this is a long weekend, i'm having so much fun at home with my nephew and niece and get the chance to cook something again. This time i want to try a super-fluffy wholemeal pancakes recipe from Best Recipes.

All you need:

• 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Method:

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Make a well in the centre, add eggs and buttermilk
3. Whisk until smooth
4. Pour a quarter cup of mixture into a non-stick frying pan brushed with a little bit of oil
5. When bubbles appearand the edges start to dry, flip over and cook on the other side
6. Serve warm with you choice of toppings. This time i use powdered sugar, butter, honey, and bananas.

Enjoy your lovely breakfast!

spaghetti meatballs.

Another weekend recipe to make at home. Easy, delicious, but not quite healthy, haha. I made this for approximately 3 to 4 people.

All you need:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 pack already made spaghetti sauce (yeah, too lazy)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1/2 package angel hair spaghetti pasta
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and pepper

How to make:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic and onion and cook until lightly browned.
2. Stir in spaghetti sauce, sugar, oregano, bay leaf, and add beef stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer while preparing meatballs.
   
3. In a bowl, mix ground beef with thyme, salt, and pepper. Roll into 1 inch balls and then drop them into the sauce.
4. Cook meatballs for 20-30 minutes in the sauce.
5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil and stir in the spaghetti. Cook 8 to 10 minutes and then drain.
6. Serve the meatballs and sauce over the cooked angel hair spaghetti.
   

honey baked chicken wings.

February 29th, 2012.

You may got bored already because i haven't posted anything besides cupcakes all this time. That's because i've got so many people ordering my home-made cupcakes, so i haven't tried another cake recipe ever since. Well, maybe because i haven't got much time to try new cake recipes. But since i have to prepare meals for my husband, i think from now on to a couple months forward, i will try out some of savoury recipes. Last Wednesday i've successfully made this honey baked chicken wings recipe that i got from cooks.com. Here goes :)

What you need:

• Chicken wings (i only use 6, cut in half so you have 12 pieces)
• 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp ketchup (this one i didn't use)
• 1 cup honey
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Season chicken wings with salt and pepper to taste
3. Mix together with remaining ingredients until well blended. Place chicken wings in baking dish, top with the sauce and cover. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
4. Remove wings from sauce and set aside.
5. Pour the remaining sauce to a small saucepan and then simmer for 15-20 minutes on loe heat. This sauce we're gonna use for basting.
6. Bake chicken wings in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour, or until wings are well browned. Baste frequently with reserved sauce.

thai prawn salad.

February 19th, 2012.

Hello! Just got back from a very amazing honeymoon trip to Phuket. All i can tell you is each and every Thai food i found there is super delicious. I love the tangy taste every food has, and the combination of sweet, sour, and spicy just blew me away. So when we got home, i miss eating Thai food and i want to learn how to cook Thai food. And here's my first attempt: Thai Prawn Salad.

I got the recipe from taste.com.au, here's the ingredients and how to make it:

• 1 stick lemon grass (trimmed, thinly sliced)
• 1/2 lime juice (you can use lemon juice, but it doesn't taste as good as lime juice)
• 2 tbsp peanut oil (you can use canola or sunflower oil)
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp palm or brown sugar
• 2 small red chillis (deseeded, thinly sliced)
• 1 kg green king prawns
• 2 Lebanese cucumber (peeled into long strips) - optional
• 2 green onions (thinly sliced diagonally)
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1/3 cup mint leaves
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts (or cashew nuts, roughly chopped)

And then i added:

• 1/2 tomato (chopped)
• 1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)

Directions:

1. Place lemon grass, lime juice, oil, sugar, fish sauce, and chillies into a large bowl. Whisk until sugar dissolves. If it's to sour, you can always add sugar. Remember, it's all about balancing the taste.
2. Place prawns into a shallow ceramic dish. Reserve 1/4 cup lemon grass mixture. Pour remaining lemon grass mixture over prawns. Toss to coat. Refrigerate for one hour.
3. Heat barbecue plate (or simply use a pan) over high heat until hot. Lighly grease plate and cook prawns for 2 or 3 minutes until pink. Transfer to a plate, and then cover to keep warm.
4. Place cucumber, onions, coriander, and mint into a bowl. Pour over reserved lemon grass mixture, and then toss to combine. Arrange the salad on serving plate. Top with prawns and nuts. Serve.

i used the remaining onions and dressing to cook so-called Pad Thai fried rice and adding sweet sour sauce and Pad Thai sauce. Happy tummy!