a la Hobbits

It is a Monday holiday today in replacement of the King's birthday. I slept half of the day and sat in front of my laptop throughout until I thought of baking. So I took out a recipe from Brownie Recipes and started baking.

It only took about 20 minutes to finish the heating and mixing process before we poured the whole mixture into the roasting tin and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

The brownies came out just nice. I have cut down the amount of sugar and added cream cheese to the recipe! Hobbit love it that he managed to gulp down 1/3 of what was in the tray! :)

We had a great feast last weekend thanks to our visitor friend Deanna. She used to visit us a lot before she started working. Now that work and study pretty much dominated her life in MC, Hobbit Husband and I really appreciate her occasional visit since we don't get to see each other so often anymore. Partially, thanks to the classes she had to attend here in Bangkok, which gave us more time to catch up with each other.

When Dee started a blog sometime last year, she coined the word "cooking" as part of her blog title. Truthfully, I was quite amused for I rarely see her on apron, holding a spatula in one hand and a wok in the other! Thus, not to stop and judge at Cooking, I pursued the second word (Mis)adventures... Okay, it made sense...could mean between amateur, learning, leading to a pro...Perhaps I see it as her personal adventure towards accumulating a kitchen! Spices, sauces, cutlery, stove, oven, blender...
I guess she started with one stove and soon her adventures brought her to owning a real kitchen!
I was excited for her. Knowing that we could exchange kitchens and not only that, her visit actually brought extras to my own small kitch -- McCormick Italian Seasoning, Rosemary, and some other good stuff I wouldn't bother to buy! Yippee! :)

This visit, Dee came with her culinary skills along with a big appetite! We LOVED it!

So Hobbit and I were looking forward to try her Baked Chicken Fillet that she mentioned to us from Kim Ong's blog (I read and follow Kim Ong's blog too...such an inspiration for budding cooking dabblers like Dee and I). We started marinating the night before and baked it at lunch time. Here was the result!

Nice aroma . In fact we added parmesan cheese to the crumbs just to add flavor. Although we couldn't get the exact bread crumbs, the marinate ingredients was the main stuff that made the fillet tasty. The three of us were very much satisfied with the end result but nevertheless thought there is always room for improvements on every first attempt! :)

Thanks Dee. Thanks for stopping by and shared with us while you're in the midst and enjoying your (mis)adventures. It was a pleasure to be your chef helper! I expect more to come!! *_*

I don't have the exact measurement for the ingredients since it was a quick fix. Thus I will only list down what I used.

2 pieces of chicken breasts
shredded ginger
shallots
ready made rendang powder (brought it from M'sia)
lightly crushed cashew nuts
olive oil
fresh milk (to replace coconut milk)
salt
light soy sauce
water
celery for garnish


1. Heat frying pot and add olive oil.
2. Throw in crushed cashew nuts and fry until the cashews turn golden brown. Take them out and set aside.
3. Still using the same oil, stir in shredded ginger and sliced shallots.
3. Add the chicken breasts. Fry both sides of the meat for a minute and cover the pot for 2 minutes.
4. Add adequate water (enough to cover the chicken meat) and let the chicken sit for another 4 minutes with the pot covered. Check in between.
5. Add in the ready made rendang powder to taste. Add half cup of milk. Stir consistently and boil for another 5 minutes.
6. Add salt and light soy sauce to taste.
7. Add the fried cashews. Constantly stir.
8. Turn the fire off and let the pot sit for a minute before garnishing with celery to serve.

Hobbit husband prepared this HK style fried rice adapted from one of our Periplus Mini Cookbooks. He is really inspired to become a good cook (and a good husband of course) and plan to take over the kitchen the next time we have guests over! In fact, he has been taking over most of the time, especially in doing the dishes. As I am typing this out, he is busy baking cookies!

If you enjoy Chinese fried rice, you got to try this recipe which we modified a bit to suit our tastebuds. I really like the combination of lettuce + minced beef in this recipe. When mixed together with other ingredients used in this recipe, the lettuce + minced beef brought a lot of Chinese flavor to the fried rice. So here's the ingredients...

Marinade:
2 tsp light soy
1 tsp sugar
1tsp cornflour
pinch pepper
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup minced beef
5 tsp oil
1 egg, beaten
3 cups cooked rice
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup lettuce, shredded
1 tsp diced spring onion
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Combine all marinade ingredients except for the olive oil. Then add the beef and set aside for 10 mins.
2. Heat wok with 3 tbsp of oil and fry the minced beef until it just loses its pinkness, breaking it up with a fork as it cooks.
3. In a clean wok, heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil and scramble the egg for 20 sec. Stir in the cooked rice and saute well.
4. Add the light soy and pepper, minced beef and shredded lettuce to fry evenly. Sprinkle in the diced spring onions and the sesame oil. Transfer to a serving dish.

This measurement serves 2. :)