Japanese curry rice

Simple one-dish meal for weekend dinner. Japanese curry over steamed rice, with dried parsley sprinkles. Usual suspects in the curry - cubed chicked fillet, carrots, onions. Unlikely suspect : hairy gourd cubes (coz there was this large gourd sitting in my fridge!)
Here's the kiddie version, took out their portion before I added the curry mix.

English Trifle

Made this English Trifle after dinner dessert for DH's friends when they came over to our place last weekend. Always wanted to make this. First encounter with the trifle was when were were in UK in the early 80s. This dessert was very commonly available at the St Michaels/Marks & Spencer stores. I remembered that theirs had a layer of cocktail jelly as the base, thin layer of cake above that, then loads of custard and finally lovely cream. Sis, if you are reading this, let me know if my memory still holds well? Could not get over the sweet taste, and at times I would have this craving to taste that taste over again. (like I have this ocassional recollection of the taste of that chicken pie my dad used to buy from the now defunct Lakeview market).

My attempt at this turned out still ok, although it was not quite the taste I wanted. Layered some pound cake cubes at the bottom of the glasses (I only have mocha ones in the freezer), sliced strawberries and bananas in some orange juice, vanilla pudding (ok, I cheated as I used instant ones) and whipped cream on top. In my haste, I forgot to add a sprig of mint leave from my potted garden for garnishing.

I did it in the morning before going to work, so left the dessert in the fridge for a full day. I think it is better that way, at least let it sit for a few hours.

Bento #9

Bento Dinner:
Fried ngoh hiang, honey roasted chicken (stir-fried with white mushrooms and peas*) served with mandarin oranges and apple "ice-cream cones".

*My Bubbles will only have peas as her form of vege. I am at my wits end. I have bought a packet of frozen edamame, hopefully it becomes an alternative source...

Mickey sandwiches

Bubbles asked for ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast on Saturday (yes, this is a backlog post). They were thrilled to see the Mickey and Minnie sandwiches. Buttercup asked me if Mickey and Minnie were looking at the stars? I guess so. Or probably they were like me, seeing stars already! Lack of sleep last night.

Served the princesses the cutouts plus freshly squeezed orange juice. They asked to go for a dip in the pool. Since they were so good in finishing their breakfast, I happily obliged. Anyway I will not get any chance to go back to bed once the gals are up.

Bento #8 - with new bento box

Bentomania catching up! Saw this lovely My Melody 2-tiered bento box on Sunday and could not resist adding it to my kitchen. The 2 tiers have separate lids to keep the food from spilling out and the box comes with a spoon. So much thought went into the design of this box.
Here's what I filled the box today - for my lunch later. Bottom tier: fried rice with scrambled eggs, stir-fried broccoli, roast chicken which was a leftover for last night's dinner. Top tier: Sliced cucumbers with mayo (in monkey mayo case), mandarin oranges plus a choco for dessert (or as a reward to myself? hehehe)
Do you think this would be too much for lunch? I have a feeling it would be...

Bento #7 - lunch

Lunch for work - on 2 separate days. But as you can see, it is fried rice again. There will be one day in the week when I will fry some leftover rice for Blossom in the morning - kept for her lunch before she boards the school bus later. And it also becomes my lunch. 2-in-1!
Love my new lunch bag - from Daiso again.

Bento #6

Yesterday's dinner: rice with charsiew, batang fish in taucheo sauce, brown mushrooms, peas for Bubbles and carrot flower. The gals love the apple slices in the shape of bear. DH thot it was Mickey Mouse. :P

Bento #5

Contents: Rice with steamed pomfret, cherry tomatoes, baby corn, boiled eggs, sliced golden kiwi
For Bubbles:

For Blossom:
For Buttercup:

Egg moulds

My dear friend LS got me these all the way from Hong Kong, kawaii! Now I have the bear, rabiit, car and fish ones to add to my existing stock of heart and star-shaped egg moulds.
LS, here's the result. The eggs I had this time was slighlty larger than the mould. But the shapes are so nice rite? Blossom helped me with it when she came back from school yesterday.

Bento supplies

Dear sis, these are the "loot" that I grabbed when I had the 15 minute dash at IMM Daiso. Only had that amount of time, if not the number of stuff would definitely be more than this :P All for S$2 each, what a steal!

Monkey mayo container, maybe can use for peanut/jam spreads too.
Food picks - fruity ones
Coloured grass and sakura craft punch @ nori punch
Silicon muffin cases, which also doubles up as bento side containers
That's all for now. Wait till my next spree.... hehehe

Bento #4

This dinner bento was eaten in a jiffy. The cubed luncheon meat and potatoes probably explain why. With the recent luncheon meat scare, the popular brand has been taken off the shelves of the supermarkets. This one on the shelf was a little known brand to me. Its texture was softer than the 'original' and the taste was slightly different. This was what my mom and I thought. But the gals didn't suspect anything different. Again, their favourite fishballs had a place in the bento.

Madeleines

Bought a new "toy" over the weekend - madeleine baking tray. Love the seashell shapes and the other factor is to bake something that is cake-like yet crispy and thin. Something DH likes.

Seems that the history of madeleines date back to the 18th century in the French town of Commercy, in the region of Lorraine. A girl name Madeleine made them for Stanislaw Lezczynski, Duke of Lorraine, who loved them so much that he then gave some to his daughter, Marie, the wife of Louis XV. Their popularity grew from that point on and until today. We see them here in SG at the Delifrance outlets.

Receipe
200g cake flour
165g castor sugar
4 small eggs
200g butter (melted)
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp baking powder

Beat the eggs with the sugar using an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Combine flour and baking powder. Add the flour combination into the egg mixture. Add orange zest and butter and give it a quick stir. Scoop into greased mould (I put until about 80% full). Send it into a preheated 180C oven for about 15 minutes or until brown.

The aroma of butter plus citrus filled the kitchen when it was baking - wonderful!

The madeleines came out of the mould in perfect shape. It tasted really lovely piping hot, crispy and soft. Even more delicious when partnered with tea or coffee. When cool and on its own, I though it was slightly dry.