I Forgot AGAIN

The roses I got this morning for our wedding anniversary

This morning my husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of red roses.  I thought it was for my birthday but then my birthday is not until end of the month. Before he could say another word, I said "OMG I forgot AGAIN".  Every year without fail I would forget our wedding anniversary and every year without fail he would remember our wedding anniversary and will send me flowers or buy me flowers, get me a gift and even arrange a wonderful dinner for the both of us.  The first few years of our marriage, I  used to do similar things but when I had my babies, motherhood caught up with me I guess. But then it is no excuse to forget our wedding anniversary.  Last year I made a wow to remember our anniversary and to wish him before he did. So I put a reminder on my phone and first thing in the morning, I wished him "Happy Anniversary Darling. Ha ha I beat you to it this year." He just smiled and said "It's not today honey, our anniversary is tomorrow!"  

This year since our anniversary is one day before Deepavali and I was busy with the preparations, I completely forgot all about our anniversary.   It is so sweet of him to remember our anniversary year after year.  Love you Babe........Happy Anniversary to you too.

Deepavali 2015 Treats - Pandan Melon Seed Cookies

I have started baking cookies for this year's Deepavali festival.  I made my first batch of cookies today and this is my husband's favorite cookie.  My husband has his favorite cookie, each of kids have their favorite cookies and I try to make all their favorites each year.  I will be posting each cookie recipe as I bake them for this year's celebration.

Ingredients

250 gms salted butter, at room temperature
120 gms icing or confectioners sugar
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pandan* paste
450 gms all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup melon or kuaci seeds, roasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup red cherries (for baking), roughly chopped

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 °F 180 °C.
2.  Sift all purpose flour with baking powder and set it aside
3.  In a bowl, whisk butter and icing sugar until the butter is light and fluffy.
4.  Next add in the egg yolk and the pandan paste and beat well.
5.  Fold in the sifted flour into the butter mixture.
6.  Place the cookie dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
7.  Roll out the cookie dough to about 5mm thickness and cut out the cookie with your favorite
     cookie cutter.
8.  Place the cookies in a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the middle rack for
    about 20 minutes.

Note:
* You can find pandan paste at any asian grocery store

Pizookie or Giant Cookie Cake

This week we celebrated my middle child's 16th birthday.  I asked him earlier in the week what kind of birthday cake he would like.  His favorite has always been cheese cake and I made strawberry cheese cake for his 15th birthday.  So I thought he would want a cheese cake this year too.  In fact I had already bought a big block of cream cheese and it was sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be baked.  But he said he wanted a 'pizookie'.  I said 'what'!  "I never heard of such a thing before". I thought he meant some kind a gadget or something and then my daughter said "Mom, it's a pizza cookie... pizookie,...get it". I was like huh....okay so what is it actually. My daughter said "it's just a giant cookie" and my son said "that's what I said" and I replied "why didn't you say so, I'm sure I can do it".  And I did do it.  I just used Mrs. Fields Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and formed the cookie dough into a 12" round cookie.

First I lined my baking tray with parchment paper and I placed my "Kaiser Stainless Steel Adjustable Cake Ring" over the parchment paper and adjusted the cake ring to form a 12" circle.   I spread the cookie dough to cover the base of the cake ring.  The rest is as per the directions for the chocolate chip cookie recipe.   I did bake the pizookie for an extra 5 minutes than what was required in the recipe though.

Of all my years of baking and decorating birthday cakes for my kids, husband and family, this was by far most the easiest and fastest birthday cake to make!

Quinoa Tofu salad

Ingredients

1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup julienned green apples
1 firm tofu, sliced thinly and deep fried
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
some finely sliced scallions or cilantro leaves

Dressing
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, whisk all the dressing ingredients together until they are well blended.
2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and toss well.
3.  Serve with some extra toasted sesame on top and garnish with some cilantro leaves

Deep Fried Oreos

 My daughter said that she ate these wonderful deep fried Oreos during a visit to a fair near her university.  She made this for her brother on his birthday.  This was the first time I have ever tried deep fried Oreos.  I never expected that the deep fried Oreos would be so delicious.  It was like eating a soft moist chocolate cake with creamy frosting and a crunchy outer layer. These deep fried Oreos taste so much better that the moist chocolate cakes I make. Bravo Girl. You're simply amazing and birthday boy was also very touched. I think he finished the whole plate.

Ingredients

1 cup pancake mix (any brand will do)
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 (18oz) package of oreo cream cookies

vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions

1.  In a bowl, add in the pancake mix, egg, milk and the 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and whisk until
     the ingredients are all well combines.
2.  Heat the vegetable oil for deep frying on medium high heat until it is hot or reaches a temperature
     of 375 °F or 190 °C.
3.  Dip an Oreo cookie in the batter and deep fry it for about 2 minutes. Deep fry only 3-4 cookies at
     one time and avoid overcrowding. Overcrowding will make the deep fried cookies pretty oily and
     soggy.
4.  Drain on paper towels and repeat step no.3 for the remaining of the Oreo cookies.
5.  Dust with some confectioners sugar and serve warm.

3 Ingredients Sesame Balls or Ellu Urundai

toasted sesame seeds

I get this occasional sugar rush moments and although I try to resist it, I normally fail at almost every attempt.  Well it happened again today and since I couldn't find anything sweet to satisfy my craving, I reached out for some toasted peanuts that was sitting in the oven, some sesame seeds and jaggery (indian palm sugar).  I toasted the sesame, ground all these 3 ingredients in a food processor, made them into balls and popped them into my mouth. It felt very good indeed but it I think I grew like 1" on my waistline.  I'm guessing that I must have popped quite a few.  

I remember my mom making these sesame ball or ellu urundai when we visited my grandmom during my elementary years.  My mom used to pound all these 3 ingredients in a stone mortar with a long stick. She would throw the stick in one hand and it would land right smack in the middle of the mortar and bounce back only to be caught by my mom with her other hand and she would throw it back and keep repeating this until all the ingredients were finely pounded.  I used to watch my mom in her rhythmic action, pounding the ingredients to make these sesame balls for us. Her version is usually very rustic and very flavorful.  Mine was a bit too soft since I used a grinder.  If I had ground these ingredients longer, I believe I would have made sesame-peanut butter!

Ingredients

1 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup jaggery, chop it up first before measuring
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method

1.  Roast sesame seeds on medium low heat until the sesame seeds are golden brown in      
     color.  Keep stirring the sesame seeds while roasting to get an even color and also to 
     avoid the sesame seeds from getting burnt. So this means both eyes should be on the 
     sesame seed.
2.  Once the sesame seeds are well roasted and brown in color remove it from the pan and 
      leave it to cool to room temperature.
3.  Place the sesame seeds and roasted peanuts into a grinder and pulse it for a few seconds. 
      The seeds and peanuts should be roughly chopped at this time.
4.  Add in the jaggery and cardamom powder and pulse for a few more seconds.  You need          to pulse the sesame seeds until you can form a ball with it.  Don't pulse it for too long 
     otherwise it will become a paste.  The sesame seeds and peanuts should be slightly rough 
     to maintain the texture.
5.  Form into small balls and store it in an airtight container.

Seaweed Tamagoyaki

I usually make tamagoyaki for sushi but I made this for lunch yesterday and it went pretty well with steamed rice.  I used a sushi rolling mat to roll the tamagoyaki after frying it and it made some lovely ridges on my tamagoyaki.  It's a good idea to strain the beaten eggs so that you don't get the white spots on the tamagoyaki, from the egg whites that were not beaten well. Well you can probably guess that I was in a hurry or was simply just too lazy to do that extra step.  I think the whites spots look nice on the tamagoyaki! Well it's your take on it.

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 nori or seaweed sheet
1 teaspoon cooking oil

Directions

1.  In a mixing bowl beat the eggs sugar and salt together and set it aside.
2.  Heat a frying pan on medium low and spread the cooking oil all over the frying pan.
3.  When the pan is hot pour in the beaten egg and spread the egg all over the frying pan. Quickly
     place the nori sheet on the egg before it starts to set.
4.  When the eggs are half set i.e. the bottom is getting firm but the top is still watery, fold the edges
     of the omelet over the nori sheet to follow the shape of the nori sheet.
5.  When the omelet is like almost done, start folding the omelet like a swill roll with a flat spatula f
     from the shorter edge. You should be able to make like 3-4 folds. Cook the rolled  omelet for
     about a minute or so until the omelet feels firm and there is no uncooked eggs oozing out from the
     roll.
6.  Once the omelet is done, transfer it to a sushi rolling mat and roll it firmly over the omelet. Secure
     both edges of the rolled sushi mat with a string or rubber band.
7.  Once the tamagoyaki(omelet) is cool, remove the sushi mat and slice the tamagoyaki.