So our houses lastest addition!

No his is not our dinning room although... i wouldnt mind the flooring! But here is our new table and chairs! This table and chairs is replacing this set we currently own,

And yes this is our actual dinning room!

Yay I Baked My First Loaf of Bread 2nite!

And i am kicking myself for not taking pictures! I made the master bread dough in my book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, By Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I took my first loaf out of the oven and my husband and son came swarming in, even though my poor husband had 4 teeth pulled today, he was soooooo hungry for a taste of the nice hot loaf i pulled out the oven!! The bread looked delisious! I baked it in a loaf pan i flipped it out on my board and pressed it a lil to see how it felt the crackling of the crust on this bread was mouth watering just listening to it crackle! The inside of the bread OH MY GOD! im not allowed bread but i cut a tiny slither off a slice i cut for my son and i couldnt believe the flavor!!!!!!!! I thought i could take pictures after it had cooled but unfortunately.... the loaf of bread was GONE before it had time to cool! The boys sliced it off and put a lil butter on it and ate the loaf of bread with the left over chilli from the nite b4! BUT thats ok i will bake another loaf 2morro! And its only going to take me 5 mins! (not including the 25min baking time that is :P) Bcuz the bread dough is already made up and sitting in my fridge waiting for me to cut a ball of dough from it form it and toss it in the baking pan! I love this book! I can not wait to start making some of the other fantastic breads they have listed in this book! This bread dough only has 4 ingredients in it also! They are yeast, whole wheat flour, salt and water! When this dough is all finished up i plan on making my friends bread which is yummy also! Angie makes a nice sweet loaf of bread and my guys love that as well! Now that i have gotten my hands wet and actually baked some bread i have a lil more confidence! BYOB!

Taste Of Home

So thursday night i attended the Taste of Home Cooking Show which was held at the Maumee Rec Centre! Here is the website they have some great ideas for recipes and what not! http://www.tasteofhome.com/

The show itself was alright the woman doing the cooking annoyed me some what.. sarcastic and some what bland at the same time... I went to this show with my mother in law we actually had an ok time all up besides the fact that the cooking show went WAY to long... the doors opened at 4 and the cooking show itself didnt start till just after 7 we left the building at around 10pm... Boy did my butt hurt after sitting there the whole time... Anyway we left with a gift bag filled with some nice stuff but we werent one of he lucky gals who walked out of there with gift baskets from the sponsors that were there.

Beef Curry and Roti

Malaysian Beef and Potato Curry served with Roti

(recipe available if you want just ask)

Recipes to come!

Baked Mexican Style Veggies

Gather your fav veggies

(pictured here i have:

Sliced Red Skin Potatoes

Sliced Carrots

Sliced Onions

Sliced Peppers (sweet)

Frozen Sweet Corn)

Spray your dish with olive oil

Line your dish with our fav veggies

Sprinkle veggie layers with a lil seas salt and cracked black pepper

Take your fav Salsa i used a local salsa that my family loves!

Take a couple of tablespoons of the salsa and spread it over the top layer of your veggies!

Spread about 1 heaped tablespoon of crushed/minced garlic over the top

Drizzle with Olive Oil

Bake in he oven at about 385'F for about hlf an hr

Then remove from oven and cover the dish with foil.

Return to the oven and bake till your veggies are as tender as you like.

When cooked mix your veggies up and serve!

Baked Mexican Fish

Easy Cheese Biscut Loaf

Spicey Miso Beef and Bok Choy Noodles

A lil info about me :D

So i am orginally from the land down duner! Australia that is BUT i was not born there...i was born in Malaysia Johor Bahru to be exact! My mum is full blooded aussie and my dad is full blooded malaysian. I spent the first few yrs of my life in malaysia with my mum mainly as my dad was in the malaysian navy! I dont remember to much about living there but i do remember the great food thanks to my mum who is a fantastic cook! She learnt how to cook tradional Malaysian dishes from my dads mum! Growing up i didnt care much for cooking i liked the eatting part :P it really wasnt until i met my hubby i found my passion for cooking! I love cooking BUT as i have mentioned before i find it very hard to follow recipes! I go with my gut feeling and with my nose i usually know what to add by smelling the aromas coming from the pots on the stove! Also thanks to my mum malaysian cooking isnt the only style of cooking i know, i can cook greek, chinese, italian, mexican, indian and much much more! I love cooking anything i have yet to bake bread tho bread that u use yeast for anyway! But thats going to change here very soon!



This is my beautiful mother "Cindy"

When Things Go Right!

So im not goin to go on and on about my whole experience i had with the online bag company but i will share the fact that they finally did something right! My first bag i ordered threw them.... lets just say it looked like someone used it then sent it bag from the ware n tare of the handles! It took me wks to finally find something i liked so i could use my $25 giftcard i had threw them..... After the first bag was sent back and many emails back and forth with their customer service department they finally offered me a sweet deal! I was to choose the bag i liked i could have my $25 gifcard back plus 25% off plus i could take advantage of any sales they were having on any of the laptop bags as well as free 2 day air shipping! So i found this lovely bag

Its an over sized bag seein my boys got me a pain in the butt sized laptop... that doesnt fit in any normal bags..... Anyway so it was on sale for like 90$ but full price it was 179.95 i got $25 off it plus the 25% off the sale price and i got a lovely suprise when i was goin threw check out that i had been given a gift code which after processing baught my bag to $49! What a bargin! Even if they caused me stress! It worked out awesome!

But my bag comes in a "case" to keep the bag safe when im not using it i guess? weird....

"2009 A Year of BYOB! (Bake Your Own Bread)

So ive been extremely busy today with tidyin the house balancing the check book...UGH... planning my veggie garden, playing with Loche, giving all our pets some attention... Doing dishes...and more dishes seeing Hubby and Kev decided these last couple of days dishes could wait till the wkend.... even tho they both work saturdays! Anyway im having some time to myself now if u can call it that :P im sitting up in bed listening to

And i am surrounded by the cats!

So technically im not alone :P oh and the dog is squished under the bed sleeping as well! Loche is down stairs enjoying his curious george dvds and having a snack :) ahhh peace and quiet!

Now onto the title of this blog! while sitting here looking threw my blogs i follow i came across a blog that was title ""2009 A Year of BYOB! (Bake Your Own Bread)" and i just thought oh cool! this is so how i wanna be! here is the link http://bakersbench.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-year-of-byob-bake-your-own-bread.html i am so doing this! My book arrives soon and 2morro maybe even 2nite when the guys get home we might head to the store so i can look at what i need to purchase to begin this journey! I cant wait to start making beautiful loaves of bread filled with yummyness and healthyness!

KidzWatch

OH MY GOSH i love this place! u know what this means???? Hubby and i have our date nights bac YEEEWWWWWWW! i am so happy that we finally took the time to drop in and have a tour and the fact that they take drop offs is even better! Loche loved it! he was in his prime! he did not want to leave when we went back to pick him up after he had been there for 2 and a hlf hrs! Which only cost us $20 something dollars! Which included the non refundable $15 registration fee, we did get 20% because Loche has paramount healthcare. Anyway the fact that they have awesome hours is thrilling! and exciting for us! And this way Loche gets some socialising with other kids his age!

Thursday What a Day!

So my thursday started out with a doctors visit to the dermatoligist which went well nothing to much to report there... but afterwards Hubby and i headed to LevisCommons to the BooksAMillion out there cuz i was hunting a book.. Which online they said it was in stock and i later found out after much searching that the only copy they had.. had been sold and no one entered it into the computer :P boo i say! But anyway this is the book that i was hunting for which i later purchsed!

So im VERY happy! And i cant wait to start learning how to make bread for my family... Its definately something ive wanted to try.... and one of my best friends does it all the time but as much as i love cooking... baking bread has always intimidated the heck out of me! And after many reviews on this book i figured ya know what the heck im gunna do this! Ive found myself with so much more energy and what seems to be spare time on my hands i wanna start tackling things ive always "wondered" about... bringin me on to my next rant so to speak... My hubby and i last night arrived at one of our fav italian resturants about 20 mins b4 they closed... but they welcomed us in as they do :) the resturant of our choice last night was Carrabbas we ordered 2 antipasta's for our meal which worked out perfectly! which were :
"CALAMARI ricardo, Our Calamari served with a spicy Italian pepper and lemon butter sauce" and "COZZE IN BIANCO, Mussels steamed in white wine,basil, lemon butter and Pernod" both very delish! With me having had my WLS i dont eat all that much so this worked out perfectly! Anyway while we were sitting there in our candle lit booth we discussed my "itch" i guess and im so glad to have a hubby who supports me no matter how crazy i can get :P so i told him that my plan for spring was to get the rest of my veggie planter boxs done bcuz i dont want to purchase any veggies come time from a store i wanna grow it all myself! and btw our garden and our bestfriends across the road this should work out! i did a garden last yr was my first one and i did pretty good considering it was the first time id done it... My mum and dad have always done veggies gardens and done well at it.. me however im pretty good at killing plants and believe u me its a full time job being as good as i am at killing plants :P well Angies good at it to! hehe one of the many reasons we get along so well! hehe <3>

But this thing is amazing! ive had my nose in it ever since she left it here last wk! And when we finally got home late last night i finally had the chance to write down everything i wanted to order! almost $50 later and only hlf way threw the book... ive decided to finish up ordering 2nite while over at Joe and Angie's where i can see exactly what she is plannin on growin so we dont end up grownin a bunch of the same stuff! So the other thing i talked to my hubby about is my want to start infussing olive oil for cooking and dipping! He wants me to go ahead and do these things rather then getting a job cuz this way ill still b home with our son whom ill talk about him in another blog some other time his a one in a million child i tell ya... some of the things he says and comes up with will crack u up! anyway thats it for this blog :P until next time!

Banana Nut Muffies (yes thats Cookies and Muffins merged!)

This is a recipe i once again didnt follow.. and turned out great! AND guilt free!

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 c. unsalted butter

2 Tbsp of liquid calorie free sweetener

3 Tbsp of brown sugar splenda

4 egg whites

3 c. of oats

3 Tbsp of flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla

and a handful of chopped Walnuts

Mix first 3 ingredients together in a bowl.
Add egg whites and mix.

Add remaining ingredients except nuts.

After dough is mixed add nuts.

Batter maybe a little runny ut drop on cookie sheet anyway.

Bake at 350'F for 12-15mins.

Pasta Bake.

Ok so I made this a couple of days after I was home from surgery! Its a very simple recipe and u can throw anything into it! Plus its a great way to get ur kids to eat veggies!

Pick what kind of meat u wish to work with
Here I used 90% lean Hamburger about 2 pounds
1 Tbsp of olive oil
3 Tbsp garlic
2 small sprigs of sage
2 Tbsp of Dried Basil (fresh when u have it is better!)
1 Tbsp of Oregano
1 can of diced tomatoes (rinse)
2 C. Of V8 low sodium juice
1 large onion diced small
1 small zucchini (shredded)
2 large carrots (grated)
1 small head of cauliflower (diced small)
1/2 C. Of grated low fat mozzarella Cheese
1/4 C. Of parmesan Cheese
2 boxes of ur fav pasta noodles
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Heat olive oil in electric skillet
Toss the garlic in
Then the onion then them cook down for a couple mins
Hen throw the lean meat in and let brown and get happy with the onions and garlic!
Add the herbs (sage, basil, oregano)
Put the lid on the skillet for about 10 mins.
Take lid off carefully adding in the tomatoes and V8 juice
Let simmer for about 5 mins.
Add the grated carrots stirring them threw

then add the other veggies (cali, zucchini)
Lid goes back on for about hlf an hour checking on it occasionally and stirring when needed
while everything is cooking down boil ur water for ur pasta
when pasta is cooked ladel out a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water and add to the veggies and meat.
Drain rest of the water rom the pasta.
Turn skillet off
Preheat oven to about 350'F
while oven is preheating get ur fav cassarole dishes out spray with Olive Oil
Take ur pasta and add to the meat and veggies tossin them throughtly so everything migles nicely!
Start dishing up ur pasta and meat into ur sprayed dishes, when all divided up sprinkle ur cheeses over the top!
Add them to the already preheated oven.
Let bake for about 20 mins OR until the cheeses have all melted!
And serve and enjoy with a nice salad!

Sweet and Spicy Red Skin Potatoes and Red Peppers!

Awesome dish very easy and extremely tasty!

5 medium red skinned potatoes (leave skin on cut into chunks)

1 large red pepper (called Capsicum in austalia, sliced to a size ur fam will eat!)

handful of fresh chopped parsely

1 Tbsp of unsalted butter

1 Tbsp of Olive Oil

3 Tbsp of Kecap Manis (picture below, its sweet thick soysauce)

2 tbsp of minced garlic

Chili powder to taste

Steam ur potatoe chuncks
(i use the Glad steam bags they r my best friends in the kitchen!)

While taters r steaming heat oil and butter in ur skillet/wok

add the garlic when oil and butter have melted and become happy :D

add chilli powder and stir threw with the butter and oil

add sweet soy by now the taters should b done toss them into the sauce and stir

add the peppers toss threw with the taters sand sauce let simmer for about 10 mins
then add ur parsely!

Its up to u how long u cook ur peppers down our family likes them crunchy still!

Also we ate this with Panko Chicken Recipe coming soon!