KookyCulinary

I have been using so much flower decor that this bento looks a little plain compared to the previous ones.  This is a simple bento but it does contain Lil’ C’s favorite food. It consists of Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Roll-up Ham, Chips & Banana. I wish I have one of those cool banana holders! Will have to try to get one soon.

I remember during my childhood days, whenever there were festivities, we would always go to a local shop and buy a pound of fresh popiah skin. I love watching the “popiah maker” make the fresh skin. He would hold a ball of dough in one hand, rub the dough on a hot flat plate to form the skin and pulls the extra dough off with a “plop”.

Unfortunately the only popiah skin that are available here are the frozen ones. Normally I use them for making fried spring roll. They are good but sometimes I crave the non-fried version. I have tried to make my own. The dough turned out good but I found out that that rubbing & plopping requires a whole lot of skill!! I just don’t have that skill!! :(  Then someone told me to try steaming the frozen popiah skin, and so I did. To my surprise, it turned out pretty good. Of course, the fresh ones will always be the best but this will do for now till my next trip home.

I forgot to take a photo of the filling. The filling consists of jicama, pork, dried shrimp and chinese sausage.

Today’s lunch: Fiori pasta with mini meatballs, peas and carrots, applesauce and cherries.

Lately Lil’ C is crazy about this flower pasta. I tried using the shell-shaped or penne pasta and she was not too happy about it. She didn’t finish her lunch but when I use this flower shape, she always finishes it with this shape. Kids!! I guess it does prove the fact that even preschoolers care about how their food looks. So if your kids are not good eaters, try playing around with the presentation of the food and you might just see a whole world of difference.

The weather has been awesome this past week. So we have been trying to spend a lot of time outdoors, thus leaving me no time to cook. It’s been lots of one-pot meals or sandwiches lately. Here is one of our favorite one-dish meals - Fried Rice.

Fried rice is so simple yet so versatile. You can just about add anything to it except the kitchen sink! For this fried rice, I’ve added Spam (or luncheon meat), carrots, peas and corn. Served with a side of spicy sambal, it always gets cleaned off the plate.

For me, the trick to getting a good fried rice is to keep all the ingredients dry. So if you are adding chicken, pan fry the chicken, remove and drain it first. Then add it back in to the fried rice later when it’s almost done. That way the rice does not get soggy from the liquid from the meat. Of course if you have a super hot wok like those in the restaurants, forget the above tip and just fry everything together.  

Today’s lunch: Penne in marinara sauce, steamed broccoli, cheese doves and rice krispies bar.

You may notice that I use a lot of cheese, instead of nori for decoration. That’s because Lil’ C doesn’t like nori and also by using cheese, it just ensures that she gets her daily cheese intake.

Summer is coming up soon and that means it is time to plan for road trips. This summer will be extra busy for us because my parent will be visiting us. The last time they were here, we traveled south to Oregon and California. This year I think we will go up north instead to Canada. Since we won’t be able to fit everyone into my car comfortably for this trip, we plan to rent a car. I have been busy trying to check out deals for car rental. It seems like Advantage has some great specials going on right now. A van sounds like the right size vehicle for us. What about you? Do you have any summer plans? Don’t forget to check out Advantage for car rental discounts when planning for your road trip.

We just got back from a weekend of camping. It was 40 degrees, wet and freezing. I think we were a little out of our mind but we just got so tired of waiting for the warm weather to arrive. So we packed our car and took off to our favorite campsite, a nearby state park that overlooks the sea. To most people, camping is all about the nature, the hikes, the outdoor fun and such but to my dear husband, camping is all about the food!! He says that even hot dogs and baked beans taste better when it is cooked over open fire & eated outdoors. Do you agree?? : )

While my husband indulges in his meat-laden camp food, I indulge in this sinful dessert - S’mores!!!

Roast a couple of marshmallow till they are a little burnt, then place them on a graham cracker, add a slab of chocolate then top off with another graham cracker, and you’ll have a delicious s’more. The heat from the marshmallow is suppose to melt the chocolate till they are gooey. Unfortunately the chocolate in my s’more didn’t melt much because I had to cool the marshmallow a little before giving it to the little one. I didn’t want her to burn her tongue! But it was still delicious! The little one kept asking for more.

What happens when you let a 3 year old roast her own marshmallow? (with supervision, of course!) You will get marshmallows on fire!!

Part 1 was all about kitchen gadgets for Malaysian delights. This is part 2 - bento equipments. Frankly even I didn’t realize that I had this many. It took me forever to take photos of them!

Containers with lids

Open containers. The ones one back row are solid plastic containers while the ones in front are soft silicon ones which also doubles as jello cups.

These are multi-functional. They can be used as cutters, molds or containers.

Lots and lots of cutters. I also use this for my baking & cake decorating.

Cute food picks, forks and spoons

Bottles for sauces or seasonings

The 2 in front are egg molds. The 3 at the back are actually ice-cream sandwich molds which also works as egg molds

All sorts of disposable cups & silicon cups

Bento boxes. My favorite right now is actually the clear lock & lock box. It’s not as pretty as the others but it’s more practical. I love the compartments inside.

Another bento box with the bag and 2 bento box straps

A tulip hot dog cutter and Hello Kitty large & mini sandwich molds in the back photo. The front photo shows food dividers, more food picks, and stencil which is good for decorating with furikake.

When I first share this with a South American friend, she thought that it was empanada. Even Lil’ C calls it empanada. She learned it from Dora! She refuses to call it curry puff! I guess they are pretty similar since both are stuffed pastry and they are wrapped the same way.

Back to my curry puff, I have tried making a few different types of curry puff but I always find myself coming back to my shortcut curry puff which is using store bought pie crust. They are so easy and most importantly, taste really good. Yes, I do deep-fry it instead of baking the pie crust. If you like to make it from scratch, I usually use the spiral curry puff recipe from Jo’s Deli.

Mise en place: cooked curry chicken filling, hard-boiled egg & pie crust

Want one?

By the way, out of curiousity, do you put a wedge of hard-boiled egg in your curry puff? I grew up eating Old Chang Kee curry puff which does have hard-boiled egg in it. So I was a little surprised when some of my Malaysian friends thought it was strange to have eggs in their curry puff. What do you think?

As seen on my blog, I cook and bake a lot. I also shop a lot, mostly for baking tools and kitchen gadgets. I used to love going to baking supply shops and browse around for new and interesting gadgets. However now that I have a preschooler, it is very hard to do that anymore. So I tend to shop online nowadays.

Shopping online is very convenient but the downside is that it makes us more vulnerable to identity theft. Identity theft is a very serious crime and it could ruin all of us financially. This is where Lifelock comes in. Lifelock helps to protect our identity with the latest identity theft protection system. How does lifelock work? First of all, they will set up fraud alerts with all the major credit bureaus so that you will know immediately of any suspicious activity. They will also help to remove you from the junk mail list and pre-approved credit offers. If you are an online shopper like me, don’t forget to check out Lifelock before you start shopping.