First leg: Geneva

Greetings from Geneva!! It’s been 4 days since we arrived and we are just about settled Bubba in to a different time-zone! Man, who knew jet-lag can be such a challenging concept to grapple for little ones!

We took the 1am flight and we both had high hopes that Bubba would sleep through it all. Unfortunately, the moving about messed up her schedule and she woke up right after we checked in. She did manage to sleep after we took off and did a good 5 odd hours stretch during our 12.5hr flight. For the rest of the flight, we had to keep her duly entertained with her snacks and letting her burn of energy by running down and up the aisles. Bubba also cried a couple of times so I would imagine some of the passengers did throw us daggers that we avoided because it was quite dark. But we survived the flight and treated ourselves with some yummy macarons before continuing part 2 of our journey to Geneva to meet up with the BEST family.

Straight off the flight and after a hearty lunch at Entrecôte, we did a spot of shoe-shopping for the little one! New high-top boots for the holiday! Chose a simple one in a metallic brown hue that would match most of her outfits.  Here’s Bubba with the little Style Princess Jie Jie who’s all grown up now but looking ever so stylish! I had to raid her wardrobe this trip and drool over her bags and lovely coats that I now no longer amass.

Under-estimated the weather by a little and it was pretty cold, so we layered Bubba to keep her warm! Piled on lightweight long-sleeved tops with knits and leggings for comfort.

In the day, we are pretty thankful to dear Aunty E who spent the day with us keeping Bubba company as we played tourists to famed sights around Geneva.
Not forgetting the rest of the family who have been awfully sweet to us all! Bubba took a while to warm up to the family but it was really nice to see her acknowledging them and calling them by day 3. 🙂

Like I said, didn’t expect jet-lagged to be such a challenge but it was! Bubba took a while to adjust to a whole new time-zone and as I’m typing out this post, she’s in her lala-land, still not up from her 5.30pm nap! We have decided not to wake a sleeping baby up for the major meltdowns she gave us when we did that were pretty epic and memorable!

That’s all for now! Bags are packed for part 2 of our trip to Italy!!

Healthy Chips?

Well, step aside deep-fried potato chips, for there’s a new recipe in town and I think it’s here to stay!

Polenta.  Never used it before.  Don’t say I liked it tonnes but I’m impartial to its taste.  I didn’t even know polenta is another term for yellow corn-meal until the colleague grabbed me a packet of these just because I wanted to whip up some corn muffins and needed some yellow corn-meal as the recipe suggested.

So, like I said, this was a first for me.  Cooking Polenta and experimenting with what I could do with it.  And I would be lying if I didn’t say that it was partly because of this recipe by Lianne over from foodmadewithlove that kinda got me all excited about using polenta!  Chips that were sorta healthy?  Well, I’m definitely willing to try!

And I did just that!  The Man was going to roast a chicken and I was left in-charge of sides again.  Wasn’t satisfied with just greens and grilled portobello mushrooms, so I suggested Polenta Chips.  I had the Polenta and some of the ingredients needed for the recipe, so I quickly got down to work!  An 1 hour later, these golden brown polenta chips popped out on to the dining table, and I was pleased with the results.

Here’s my version of the Polenta Chips!

Polenta Chips (adapted from this recipe over at foodmadewithlove)
[Serves 4, small portions]

Ingredients:
– 100g of polenta
– 400ml of water- 25g of unsalted butter
– 50g finely grated parmesan (I used mozzarella since that was the only cheese I had at home then)
– 2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
– salt & pepper, to taste and garnish

Method:

1) Line a tray with grease-proof baking paper allowing 2cm to overhang (I didn’t have sufficient baking paper so I made sure that my dish was well-buttered). Boil 400ml of water in a small pot, then reduce the heat to low. Do note that the amount of water is different for different brands of polenta, so please do check how much water is needed for the amount of polenta.

2) Stir in the polenta in a slow, steady stream, then cook and stir continuously for a couple of minutes or until it has thickened.  You’ll know it’s done when you see the mixture bubbling like a volcano.

3) Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, cheese and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and spoon it into the tray and smooth the surface. Press it down and make sure the polenta is really compact. Allow it to chill for at least an hour.

4) Remove polenta from dish and onto a board. Cut it half lengthways, then cut it into 1 1/2 cm thick chips or whatever way you desire.

5) Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. In batches, fry the polenta chips, turning, until golden and crisp.

6) Drain on the paper towel and keep warm in an oven or serve it immediately with a sprinkle of salt.

I served the chips with a Thai Green Chilli dip with Mayo.  We had brought back some awesome and super spicy green chilli from Bangkok.  To dial down the spiciness of the green chilli by a couple of notches, I added some low-fat mayo along with the chilli.  It still tasted superb and went really well with the chips!  🙂

Baked Salmon Parcel

I’m on a hunt for recipes with Salmon in it and couldn’t be happier with this new recipe that I found over at Bev‘s.  It’s my quick-fix dinner for weeknight when I try to stay away from carbs.

This honestly cannot be any easier to make!  Parcel-wrapped Salmon!

All I need to do is to get a slab of salmon (approx 200 – 300 grams) and place it on parchment (baking paper).  I then use whatever vegetables I fancy for the evening, from asparagus to carrots, peppers (you get the drift).  Then place a couple of cherry tomatoes on top of the salmon, add to that some sliced red onions (for that added sweetness), sprinkle sale and pepper, plus a tiny pat of butter.  Wrap the salmon package up like a bag.  Bev’s receipe called for a tablespoon of chicken stock before you seal and fold over the package tight but I usually omit this step.  Taste just as good.  Bake the package at 210celsius for 11 to 12 minutes and you are done!

It’s important not to go over 12 minutes or the salmon may be over-cooked.  Even at 12 minutes, the fish is cooked with a silky smooth center and it really just melts in the mouth.  Try it for a hearty and healthy dinner

Yummy recipe for keeps!

Woke up to a lower back ache and after an hour of restorative yoga, felt slightly better.  Didn’t want to waste the rest of the weekend, so decided to try out a new recipe for a lazy weekend breakfast.

Rachel from the Pleasure Monger recently contributed this recipe over at ‘A dollop of me’ Kitchen Exploits series.  These 2 lovely women run an amazing food/photography/styling/family blog separately and their blogs are fall under my ‘must-reads’.  If you haven’t already checked their blogs out, do so and bookmark them immediately.

Back to breakfast!  Didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand but a quick walk out to the supermarket nicely did the trick and within an hour or so, my belly was oh-so-happy with these yummy fritters.

You can hop on over for the full recipe but here’s my slight adaptation to suit portions for 2-3 pax.

Corn and Bacon Fritters with Avocado Salsa

Recipe for the Corn and Bacon Fritters:
Ingredients (yields about 8 – 10 pieces)

• 195g tinned corn kernels soaked in water (got the Waitrose brand)
• 120g streaky bacon, diced (about 6 slices – you can use more if you like)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onions (used a mixture of white and red onions)
• 100g self-raising flour
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1 tablespoon fresh milk
• Ground black pepper to taste
• Olive oil, for pan-frying

Method:
1. Sautéed onions and bacon until bacon bits are crispy. Set aside and let them cool slightly
2. Drain corn kernels and discard any liquid. Set aside.
3. Add bacon bits and finely chopped onion to corn kernels. Then, add flour, eggs and milk to the corn mixture, and season with black pepper (to taste). Mix thoroughly and form patties that are about 3 inches in diameter and 0.5-1cm thick. I simply spooned the batter and gently placed them into the hot frying pan.
4. Generously grease a non-stick frying pan with some olive oil, and pan-fry the patties on medium heat, until both sides are golden brown and slightly crispy to touch. This should take a few minutes.

Recipe for the Avocado Salsa (Guacamole)
Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 0.5 medium onion, finely chopped
• 0.5 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large tomato, diced, plus extra for garnishing
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander, plus extra for garnishing
• 5 dashes of Tabasco sauce (you can omit if you are worried about the heat)
• Juice of half a lemon
• Sea salt to taste
• Ground black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Mash everything together with a fork. For a chunkier bite to the mix, you do not need to mash the avocado too fine.
2. This goes really well with the corn and bacon fritters, so serve them together.  And if there are leftovers, you can serve your nachos/ pita chips with it.

Superbly yummy and pretty simple to whip up too!  The Man doesn’t fancy avocados but pairing them with the fritters, that’s another story.  🙂

Make time stop..

Loving this pic where time felt like it stood still for us.

 

Seriously yummy corn muffins!!

When I first saw this post from Sherie over at Maameemoomoo, I bookmarked it almost immediately!  Corn muffins were something that I’ve always enjoyed especially the ones from Kenny Rogers which I used to order – best eaten when dunked with the sinfully good mac and cheese.  I made a mental note to must bake these corn muffins one day.

Then I saw this post by E over at missusC’s reverie and I was really itching to make me some of them corn muffins!  So I did.  Turned out it wasn’t that difficult.  Although I did experience some difficulty in trying to look for yellow cornmeal in the supermarket but turned out, yellow cornmeal is actually polenta!  Colleague of mine got some for me while doing her grocery run. 🙂

Sweet Corn Muffins
(makes 10 muffins)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (or polenta)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
113g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
120g corn

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.
2. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until pale and fluffy.
4. Slowly drizzle beaten eggs into the mixture, beating until fully incorporated.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low, add one third of the flour mixture and half the milk. Repeat with flour, then milk and then finish with flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated and batter is smooth.
6. Add corn and stir to distribute evenly.
7. Scoop the batter into the lined muffin tin. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C and bake for another 12 – 15 minutes, until the muffins are golden in color or when the cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the center of a muffin.

These were soo good that we couldn’t resist popping one into our mouths the moment they popped out of the oven.  I had to stop the Man from eating them all before I took a photo of them.  Hehe..

And like what E said, this recipe is definitely for keeps!  I can see myself making them over and over again!  🙂

Granola Snack Attack

I’ve been trying to perfect my granola recipe and after one failed batch and one somewhat successful batch of maple granola, I was itching to make more.

So over the long weekend, I did just that. I experimented with another new recipe for I wanted my granola to be in a cluster form. This recipe from Kitchen Simplicity seemed fairly simple and one that I could hardly mess up.

This time round, I threw in candied fruit (you know those orangey bits in hot cross buns?) into the mix for I really liked them. Also in my granola were Pecans, Almonds, Walnuts and Sunflower seeds.

I did cheat a little for I wanted my granola mix to be a little crunchy and I realised that even though I toasted the oats with the nuts, it wasn’t as crunchy as I liked it to be, so I popped it into the oven for about 15 minutes. But it still wasn’t as crunchy as the other batch that I baked, so I took it out and let the granola cool down before storing in.

How did I like this batch compared to the previous one? Well, this batch of maple granola was a tad bit too sweet for my liking. Even though the recipe didn’t have oil added to it, the sweetness from the maple and the candied fruit was a too much for me. I’m sticking with the other recipe for now and maybe tweak it a little further the next time.

Stay tuned for more granola adventures to come. 🙂