Sunday, January 3, 2010

Give-a-Way!!!!

First Prize is a $20 gift card to Target and a 2010 Calendar by Carlene Duda called Beyond Oatmeal. Each month has a new recipe for a breakfast or a dessert, including Smooth Cream Cheese Pancakes, Lemon Almond Pull-aparts, and Blueberry Peach Cake. What better way to start those New Year's Resolutions than with a calendar with beautiful pictures of food!!




Second Prize is a 2010 Michael VaughAn Calendar of Black and White pictures of Temples, which include the Oquirrh Mountain, Nauvoo, Provo, Mt. Timpanogos, Salt Lake, Bountiful, Rexburg, Manti, Draper, St. George, Jordan River and Logan Temples.
I know that this isn't a food related prize, but I saw it and loved it and thought that it might make your day too!






To enter, add a comment to this entry of the blog and a winner will be chosen on Friday morning (January 8th 2010). Your entry can be a note about a recipe that you tried on the blog and liked. It can be an entry on what your favorite entry was on this blog. It can even be your favorite food related Holiday Tradition (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween, etc.) You can do as many entries per day that you want.
Thank you so much for checking in with our blog! We truly treasure our friends and love to sit and chat while cooking and eating great food!



Vanilla Beans

I need to talk to you about vanilla beans. I've been meaning to sit down and have a conversation with you about vanilla beans for quite some time. Because far too many recipes call for vanilla beans, and they're just not that easy to come by.

In the supermarket, or in specialty grocery stores, you can find a single vanilla bean in a glass jar for a price ranging from $10 to the value of your first born child. So you give up hope of ever making that vanilla bean ice cream, panna cotta, rice pudding, or cookie. Or you substitute vanilla extract, and it tastes fake and no longer homemade. What's the point?

I'm here to tell you that you can buy vanilla beans online, and it's not a scam. I found a pack of ten beans for $15 including shipping on beanilla.com. They have beans from all over - India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico. Whatever the difference might be, they are a deal. Here's the package I received, after I eagerly pulled out a bean to confirm that it was in fact the real thing:


Maybe you've never used a real vanilla bean. It's oily, long, flat, with a texture like thin leather. When you run a knife down its side, little beans explode from within and stain your fingers black. You scrape those little black specks into your ice cream base or custard or cookie dough and they are sticky and smell a little funky. Then you drop that whole oily bean into the cream and simmer it for half an hour, until the cream is infused with vanilla flavor and beautifully speckled. It's a bit of a process to use them, but you'll never get a flavor like that from extract.



Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
yield: 1 pint

1 vanilla bean
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/8 cup sugar
1 egg yolk

Using the pointed tip of a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the tiny black seeds into a heavy medium saucepan. Add the vanilla bean pod, cream, and milk and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 30 minutes at room temperature to blend flavors.

Add the sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot, 6 to 8 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolk in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in about 1/2 cup of the warm vanilla cream. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (at least 160 degrees F on a candy thermometer), 5 to 10 minutes. Do not boil or egg yolk will curdle.

Strain the custard into a bowl, pressing through as many of the vanilla seeds as you can. Remove the vanilla bean pod from the strainer and add to the custard for flavor. Partially cover and let cool 1 hour at room temperature. Refrigerate, covered, until very cold, at least 6 hours or as long as 3 days.

Discard the vanilla bean pod. Pour the custard into the canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer to a covered container and freeze at least 3 hours.

keje aku utk mlm ni da abis. yeay! esok ke kolej lg. utk settle props = setting. aku mmg nak blogging. entah. rasa mahu! bilik. kenapa kaw tiada magic. utk bersih sendiri. kemas sendiri.


rase macam taik. itu saje.








First of 2010!

2010 seems like such a weird number. Kind of like 2000 was. Not really sure how I feel about it at the moment. I guess since I haven't actually had to write 2010 yet it hasn't sunk in yet. But that will all change tomorrow when I go back to work! Maybe I should keep tract of how many times I write 2009.

Another reason is that it still seems like 2009 to me. Nothing has really changed, nothing new. Yes, we went on a nice date New Years Eve. And yes, I've been off work the last 2 weeks. But other than that, nothing seems different.

The dogs are still their wild selves. The house is still the same, other than Christmas decorations that need to be taken down. I guess I still feel the same too. I made a couple resolutions, but nothing really momentous!

So welcome to 2010.

2009 movies


sy baru sudah mandi. berada di dpn lappy dgn bilik berselerak dgn 1 tujuan asalnya, buat proposal utk MCP utk tnjuk pada artis. nasib baik bhgian sy sikit saje sbb sy handle bhgian PROPS. tp entah, ada bnda yg dilihat dlm page seseorg di fb, buat sy hilang mood and, terus ke mr.bloggie. baiklah. sy maw senaraikan movies yg sy dah tonton dlm 2009 lepas! sikit saje. ade yg ditonton 2x tnpa dirancang. ikut majoriti!

** merah = sy gemar!
** pink = amat gemar!

transporters 3
histeria
bedtime stories
tiren
brainscan
yes man
bride wars
pink panther 2
geng upin & ipin
house
new in town
slumdog millionaire
benjamin button
punisher ; war zone
eden lake
street fighter
burn after reading
sex drive
watchmen
12 rounds
jgn tegur
fast & furious 4
bohsia
night at the museum 2
syurga cinta
jgn pandang belakang congkak
terminator 4
drag me to hell
transformers 2
ice age 3
final destination 4
the ugly truth
papadom
surrogates
new moon
avatar
sherlock holmes
2012


WORST MOVIE - burn after reading.
trust me. it's so damn bored with zero message. try urself.


p/s; tibe2 terase bodow plak. ish. aqilah. jgn cpt percayekan org. plz.


明けましておめでとうございます

Happy new year 2010

Dah lama banget ga update blog, tau2 udah masuk di awal tahun yang baru. Sebelomnya mengucapkan ' Happy New Year' 明けましておめでとうございます- akemasite omedetou gozaimasu.
Semoga di tahun yang baru ini membawa berkah buat semua, membawa suasana baru yang lebih menggembirakan, membawa keceriaan buat keluarga semua. Amin.

Tahun ini seperti acara di tahun2 yang lalu, biasa ke PMI - pondok mertua indah- merayakan bersama keluarga dsini. BIasanya mertua hobi masak suka siapin sendiri makanan osechi, tahun ini dilewatkan aja dengan beli di spmarket...mungkin juga udah ada umur, males bkin ginian...sedangkan gw?? hoho, jangan ditanya deh, n jangan suruh gw bikin, bener2 ga ngerti...mmm, so kita mesen aja dari t4 kerjaan suami. Sebenernya gw si ga terlalu kepingin banget ,makan osechi ga doyan...tapi terpaksa harus beli, di t4 kerjaan laki gw..hoho, udah mahal, ga enak lagi!!! Apa boleh buat...

Anak2 kebagian toshidama, sejenis hong bao dari keluarga, terang aja yang paling heppi ya gw lah, kan gw yang pegang isinya...anak2 mah cuman dapet amplopnya aja..haha...ssst, jangan ngiri ya...lumyan juga isinya, buat beli fukufukuro hahha.
fukufukuro - sejenis kantong yg isinya ga bs kita tebak, belinya di mall2/ spmarket.
Kebanyakan si pada borong yg isinya baju n asesorisnya..
Ayoooo kita borong fukufukurooooo