Cheesy Munchies

For all the cheese lovers...





Went into Nigella Lawson's website and found a recipe for Cheesy Feet. I don't have cookie cutters in the shape of a foot so Yohei used bear, elephant and rhino instead.

Verdict? A tad too cheesy for some but it's great with beer!

Dinner - Home-made Spinach Noodle

Yes! I finally got hold of the pasta maker from my sister (mom's machine is lost somewhere in her sea of unlabelled boxes haiz) and we are making spinach noodle (Yohei calls it "green noodle") for dinner. Here's the first installation (the making process...)


You've gotta wait till after 8pm for this to continue :)

2nd installation is in!

Easy peasy...

The noodles boiling happily in the pot

yummmmmm....

It's really easy to make the noodles. I used 200g flour with 1 egg and strained liquid from a couple bunches of spinach, mixed them up, gave them a good knead and let the dough rest till we were ready to get dinner going.

The pasta maker came in really handy and made the rest of the process a breeze. All I had to do was to roll the dough out thin and then cut into ribbons. In the ribbons go into a pot of boiling water, while Moobe gets the pan going with the simple tomato base (yes, again... it's Yohei's current favourite) with minced pork and mushrooms (with lots of garlic, onions and carrots).

I'll probably try using carrots for the pasta the next time if my King gives me the nod *rolls eyes*

Lunch - Home-made Pasta

Holy Molly! I made my own pasta for lunch today!

Yohei has his in little flower shapes which he helped cut out with a little cookie cutter.

Moobe and I had ours cut into long strips. The pasta is made according to Jami Oliver's recipe in "Jamie's Kitchen" - for 6 people, 600g Tippo (ok I used normal flour because I don't have Tippo) flour to 6 eggs. I made 200g today, enough for 2 adults and Yohei.

I kneaded the dough at about 10am and left it to rest, covered, till we were ready to cook lunch at about 12ish. Terribly hard work rolling out the dough so I'm definitely going to see if I can take over my Mom's pasta maker :P

The sauce is a simple one of minced pork in tomato sauce base with loads of garlic, celery and chopped tomato. Us adults had added Cayene pepper for some kick.

I really like the texture of the pasta and it's really easy to make (ok except for the rolling part).

Tomorrow, we shall try spinach noodles...

Lunch - Cold Cha Soba

Today's lunch is cold Cha Soba, boiled eggs and Moobe's version of Cha Siu (roasted pork). Sorry, no recipe haha! But I'm pleasantly surprised on the food cost. $2 for the Cha Soba from Daiso, 2 eggs @ 30 cents, pork about $3 (there's another smaller helping in the kitchen not shown). In all, I'd safely say our lunch cost below $8. Ok that excludes Moobe's labour :P !

Rich Chocolate Brownie Bars

I baked brownies this morning and cut them up into little bars. Here's what I used:

60g Unsalted butter
150g Dark chocolate (I used Cadbury Gold 70% cocoa)
150g sugar
75g Self-raising flour
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
5g salt
2 eggs
75g chopped walnuts / Hersheys chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180deg C and grease your baking pan (if required)
2. Melt butter and chocolate
3. Put together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) and mix them up with your spoon
4. Whisk eggs with vanilla
5. Pour egg mixture into dry ingredients, add in the melted butter/chocolate. stir and mix.
6. Put in the optional ingredients and give it a light mix
7. Pour into baking dish and put in oven. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes (depending on the size of your pan). Check for doneness (tooth pick should come out clean from the middle of the pan)
8. Let cool completely on a wire rack and cut into bars

You can chill or freeze the uneaten bars and warm them up when required. Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream :)