New year...new beginning.

New year,new beginning...and my house has a new member too! (^o^)

Here is Pinky - our new bunny, which I adopted just on New Year day!

Well...don't think that it is because of the Rabbit Year which is fast approaching!! Husband and I considered carefully before we derived the decision that our current Miffy is rather lonely. So, we thought it may be good to find her a companion. And due to the fact that Miffy has not been sterilized, we decided it to find her a sister instead!

And my search to adopt another bunny begins.... So, we ended up adopting from her owner this Netherland Dwarf - a very sweet white rabbit with pink and red eyes! >o<

Pinky is a very clean and healthy bunny. She has this very unique characteristic; that is - "routine mealtime"! She only eats during certain hours and when I tried to feed her with slice of apples, only Miffy will quickly finishes up her portion and as for Pinky; No mealtime, No food!!! hahhaha....

The slow introduction of both bunnies are rather successful and a great relief to me. Initially, I thought Miffy will be domineering towards Pinky since she has been with us for about 3 years, and also the fact that Miffy is older and bigger size rabbit causes some worries. The first two days was a careful lookout on both behaviour and reactions towards both bunnies. No surprise on the initial stage, they were both defensive due to their nature that they are both prey!

Few days down the road, I am relief that Miffy chases Pinky in the house to play with her.... We can tell that Miffy is rather excited with a companion, she loves to hop into Pinky cage to share Pinky's pellets. Another good influence is the Miffy now enjoys hays which she dislike all the while (now Miffy will nipple some hays whenever she visits Pinky's cage).

At times, despite Pinky is smaller in size, Miffy is kind-of afraid of Pinky when she gets mad! So, more story of Miffy and Pinky begins here ... ....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wishing All... a Joyous Christmas Holiday
& a Happy New Year!!

Marinated Fruits Dessert

We had an early celebration of the mooncake festival last night at my sis place. My sister-in-law prepared a huge tub of the marinated mixed fruits salad to the party; they were well received by all the guests. Since I love them so much and had ate a huge portion, I thought I should try to make some as she had shared the recipe in her blog.

These marinated mixed fruits consists of Chinese pear, guavas, red and green apples which are so refreshing when served chilled! They can be served as either an appetizer or a salad!

To enhance the refreshing taste, I have added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and minced some lemon zest so that it has a stronger citrus flavor imparts to these marinated fruits.

One will not regret after having tried them, despite the much cutting and slicing during the preparation.

Ingredients (Serve 8-10) 2 large guavas 2 green apples 3 red apples 1 large Chinese pear 2 pkts preserved mandarin peel (15g each) 2 chillies 10 calamansi or limes some lemon juice some lemon zest Methods 1. In a small pail of water, squeeze some lemon juice into it and set aside, for the sliced fruits. 2. Peel and seed both the guavas and Chinese pear. Seed the apples and sliced all fruits to approx 2mm thickness. Soak them in the pail of water,to prevent browning. 4. Minced or chopped the mandarin peel thinly. 5. Remove the seeds of the chili, chop or slice them into tiny stripes. 6. Obtain the calamansi juice and chop up 1 calamansi. 7. Drained and mix all fruits, mandarin peels, calamansi and its juice, lemon juice, lemon zest and chilies together. Toss to mix well. 8. Transfer into a container with cover, store in fridge for 4 to 6 hrs or longer. 9. Serve chilled.

Black Rice Pumpkin Fried Rice

For some of you, black rice may not be commonly used in your kitchen. Well, at least it was the case for me; until one of my good friend introduced this wonderful rice to me two years ago. If you want to know the nutritional value of black rice, please read here.

With no dark sauce added, the rice looks purplish-black when cooked.

An additional okra (lady's fingers) side dish added.

Dinner

This is my first Yee-Fu noodles(伊府面), got the recipe from a friend long time ago and didn't had a chance to try until today (I think I added too much carrot and the colour actually looks more orange in the photo). Frying was very simple as compared to the preparation. Hubby - J is out-stationed and therefore he missed the chance to be my guinea-pig. Everything was fine except that it was slight sweet than saltish... Never mind then...practise makes perfect! I should be able to fry better on my second trial.

Vegetarian Fried Kuey Tiow in Creamy Sauce

Since I have a packet of kuey tiow in the fridge, I decided to try my hand on cooking my favorite fried kuey tiow in creamy sauce for dinner.

Ingredients A
1 tbsp sesame oil
500g kuey tiow
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce

Ingredients B
1 tbsp oil
some fresh mushrooms
some cut cabbages
some chye sim
a little carrot, sliced

Seasoning
2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
1 tsp vegetarian mushroom seasoning
some pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
600ml water
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 3tbsp water (for thickening)

Method
1. Heat up oil, stir fry the kuey tiow at high heat until fragrant. Add in the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and stir-fry until well mixed. Dish onto a serving plate (as shown on above photo). (U may use a non-stick pan where oil can be omitted because kuey tiow are always coated with a layer oil to prevent sticking).

2. Heat up oil, add in ingredients B and stir fry until aromatic. Add in the seasoning and bring to boil. Thicken with cornstarch water.

3. Pour the creamy sauce over fried kuey tiow and serve with green chilies.

I like my version of this fried kuey tiow in creamy sauce, which is not too salty nor oily as compared to what we have at Zhu Chow store (^o^)

Spicy Vegetable Curry With Black-Eyed Peas

I made the second attempt of these black-eyed peas mixed vegetable curry, but... this time is the spicy version.

Instead of broccoli which I used on my earlier post, I replaced it with potatoes chunks which is husband favorite!

The cooking method is similar to the earlier post; I merely added more of the raw mustard seeds, two cut green chilies, one tablespoon of each of curry powder and chili powder.

Somehow... the colors and photos looked the same, but this version was spicy which goes so well with rice or bread!