Blessed

Recently, I know the Lord is doing a deeper work in my life. He has been reminding me how much I am loved. This is the verse He has given me during the past few days to meditate upon. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fear has not been made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18. This song, I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever can be found in this YouTube link.

These words, found on the CD cover of Blessed, 1 of Hillsong collections, inspire me:-

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; they will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man [and woman] whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of weeping (baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills [the pools] with blessings.

They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power]; each of them appears before God in Zion... For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [presents] grace and favour and [future] glory (honour, spendour, and heavenly bliss)!

No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts in You. [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, and that without fear or misgiving]! Psalm 84 (Amplified)

Celebrating Our Wedding Anniversary in Macau

My husband and I have just came back from our 15th wedding celebration in Macau. I have bought so much snacks from Taiwan and Macau that I don't think I need to bake anymore CNY cookies. Here are some food photos that were taken in Macau.

This is the shop where I bought the popular Macau almond cookies.

This Macau pork chop bun was bought from the stall with the red signboard as shown below. The pork chop was too salty for my liking.

I wonder if the pork chop bun from this stall would taste better. We were too full to eat another bun.

These yummy Portuguese egg tarts were from Margarat's Cafe e Nata.

We ordered these 2 dishes (African grilled chicken & tender chicken with rice baked in broth) while dining in 1 Portuguese restaurant near our hotel.

This African grilled chicken was from another Portuguese restaurant which was near St Paul's church.

This hot almond soup with glutinous rice balls was from a well-patronised dessert stall near our hotel. The wall menu is shown below.

We were on our way to St Paul's church area when this crowded coffee shop caught our attention. The above 2 photos show what we ordered on 2 separate days. The bottom photo shows what we had for breakfast while the other was for afternoon tea.

This beef porridge was from 1 stall selling cooked noodle and rice dishes. We tried their shrimp wanton noodle soup as well as beef ball noodle soup. We found them too salty and concluded that Hong Kong's versions are better.

Disney and Sanrio Friends

I have just finished making my pineapple tarts. I was so eager to finish up my tarts making that I was not so keen to take photographs of them, since I have already done that last year. But towards the end of the process, I've leftover quite a fair bit of tart dough. So I decided to put my Disney and Sanrio characters cookie cutters to good use. Many of them were still in their unopened boxes. So adorable, they really put a smile on my face.

My favourite is My Melody!

Recipe for tart dough

450 g plain flour
120 g fine sugar
250 g salted butter
1 egg

Method

1. Cream sugar and butter until creamy
2. Turn to slow speed and add in the egg
3. Add in plain flour slowly in 3 batches
4. Roll out dough into 3mm thickness and use cookie cutters to make your desired shapes
5. Bake cookies in oven at 180 degrees C for 10 to 12 minutes
   

Taiwan holiday

Year 2008, my family (hubby, 3 kids, my mother-in-law and myself) spent our Christmas in Taiwan.

The above 2 photos were taken in Ximenting 西门丁, a popular shopping and eating district. 阿宗面线 is always mentioned whenever people talk about 西门丁. The bottom photo shows fried carrot cakes and fried oysters. Personally, I prefer the fried oysters from Shi Lin Night Market.

This 汤圆 stall is in 九份. I have never tasted 汤圆 dessert that is so delicious. I'm not sure if this dessert is seasonal but if ever I were to go back again, this will be a must-eat item.

This stall was recommended by our tour guide. But we didn't get to try it because when we wanted to buy the hotdog, the queue was too long and we had to rush back to catch our tour bus.

From Mister Donuts. I've only managed to take 1 photo because I was told politely by the salesman that no photography is allowed.

芒果雪花 from Shi Lin Night Market.

Besides 芒果雪花 ， I also bought a takeaway bowl of 汤圆豆花, to be enjoyed when we were back in our hotel.

We didn't have time to order from this store. But it was one of the highly recommended stores in Shi Lin Night Market.

Braised beef noodle - my favourite Taiwan food.

Tagged

I am honoured to be tagged by Yuri - to provide 7 random facts about myself. Here it goes:-

1. I love Japanese food. My favourite restaurant is Sushi Tei and my must-eat item is salmon roe.
2. I'm working in Science Park 1 area and I have been in the present job since 2000. At my age, I don't think there will be any chance of me changing my job environment.
3. I came from a disfunctional family (my parents are not on good terms with each other). I struggled with low self-esteem. The greatest thing that ever happened in my life is knowing Jesus and inviting Him into my life. I am very blessed now.
4. I am attending Grace Assembly of God church which is located at 355 Tanglin Road and 1 Bt Batok West Ave 4. The website is http://www.graceaog.org/
5. The schools that I have attended are Tanglin Girls' School (primary), Crescent Girls' School (secondary), Barahuddin Vocational Institute (graphic design) and Temasek Polytechnic (multimedia).
6. My next dream holiday destination is Hokkaido though I'm not optimistic that this dream will come true, especially with the yen value keeps going up and the present financial crisis.
7. Finally, I've come to the last point. The top item on my wish list is the latest MacBook.

These are the list of bloggers that I wish to tag. I hope they would not mind.

1. BerryFood
2. Passion & Living
3. Shirley's Photo Journal
4. A Homemaker's Journal
5. Honey & Clover

Here are the rules for tagging:

1. Link to my blog (tagger) on your blog.
2. Give seven facts about yourself.
3. Tag another seven bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and letting them know they were tagged and listing them (and their blogs) on your blog.

Green Tea Breads

On the left is a plain green tea bun.

The opened bun has Japanese red bean filling in it (bought from Daiso). I've only added a small amount of the paste into each because it was too sweet for my liking on its own.

I suppose there will be more matcha creation coming up because I have just bought 1 kg of Japanese green tea powder and I have used only 8 gram for this recipe :P. I've used the recipe from The World of Bread by Alex Goh.

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Pots

I love fresh raspberries. I first fell in love with them when my family was having a self-drive holiday in the southern island of New Zealand. We stopped by this farm to pick and ate on the spot strawberries and raspberries. I can't remember if blueberries were in season. The sweetness of freshly-picked raspberries was unforgetable.

I'm always curious how fresh raspberries will taste like with dark chcolate. I got this recipe from 2007 December's issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. After attempting this recipe, the conclusion I have is, it is better that dark chocolate and fresh raspberries be eaten separately. But I must say the 2 colours blends well together.

Because this recipe is so quick and easy, I will definitely use it again, but I will omit the fruits.

Ingredients
150 g frozen raspberries
125 g dark chocolate with a minimum of 60% cocoa solids, such as Valrhona, chopped
300 ml double or whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
3 tbsp castor sugar
cocoa powder for dusting


Methods

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Divide frozen raspberries among six 125 ml ramekins.
   
   
2. Put the chocolate in a saucepan with the cream and set over a medium heat. Bring slowly to the boil and allow the chocolate to melt. Stir in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool slightly.
   
   
3. Put yolks and castor sugar into a bowl and stir together using a wooden spoon. Pour in the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins, then put them into a roasting tin. Pour enough boiling water into the tin to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 25 mins. Remove from oven and cool, then cover and chill overnight.
   
   
4. Remove the ramekins from the fridge half an hour before serving to allow them to reach room temperature. Just before serving, dust with cocoa powder.

Preparation time: 20 min, plus chilling
Cooking time: 30-35 min
Serves 6

Grace's 2nd birthday cake in this blog

I've been overwhelmed by work lately. Because of inflation, the prices of baking ingredients have increased tremendously. Due to the lack of mood as well as cost factors, I have cut down on my baking frequency and limit myself to baking only when necessary.

How time flies. This is exactly the 2nd birthday cake for Grace since I started this blog. That means this blog is already 1 year old. I am satisfied with how my baking and cake decorating skills have improved since last year. I did not expect I would come this far. Thanks to like-minded friends who have been inspiring and spurring me on.

Green Tea Mini Mooncakes

I am not a person who can take food that is too sweet. That's why I'm always not so enthusiatic in making mooncakes every year. I remember last year I did not even bought any mooncake paste when I accompanied my 2 friends to buy them from the store. It was only after 1 of them made some for me to bring home, which resulted my children pestering me to make more for them that I started doing my own snow skin mooncakes. Oh well, I'm beginning to enjoy mooncake-making as much as my family members enjoy eating them.

For this batch of green tea snow skin mooncakes, I did not expect the green skin to be so dark. However, looking at the photos here, I think the green colour really blends very well with the tea pot in the background.

White Lotus Mini Mooncakes