For The Love Of Baking :: FoodBlogging Events

December 29, 2006

House Sweet House, Literally

I made these Gingerbread Houses because Dewi Anwar encouraged me to. If not by her persistence, I would have not made them at all. Thanks, un

Coincidently, Sugar High Friday #26’s theme is Sugar Art. I’m not sure if this post is qualified, knowing that gingerbread house is very common in western countries. But I sent my entry anyway (hi, Danielle

).
(Update: Check out her wonderful roundup here!)

At first, I almost cracked from the pressure and intimidating thoughts of how hard it would be. Silly, huh? I mean, even kids can do it! Maybe it’s because I tried making it last year and it was a total failure due to the wrong cookie recipe. It crumbled to dust, it didn’t even make it to a wall. So it’s very important to use a good recipe that is not only delicious, but also firm enough to make a sturdy house.

Dewi suggested a recipe from Wilton, and I was soooo satisfied with the result. It’s firm, delicious, and smelled wonderful! The corn syrup’s sugary smell enhanced and locked the aroma of the spices, giving it a long lasting smell that would still be intact days after baking. It’s also important to use good quality spices as they distinguish your gingerbread house from the store-bought mass-products.

Enough for the rambling, now let’s build a house.

(more…)

December 5, 2006

WBD After Hours Party: Yorkshire Pudding

I’ve been wanting to try Yorkshire Pudding for like years. I know it’s a simple quick bread, what’s so special about that? But I’m always interested on anything European. So when Zorra invited me to the WBD After Hours Party, I thought it’s a great opportunity to finally try it!

The British eats Yorkshire Pudding as an accompaniment to roast beef. It does suit the taste, though. It was puffy, a little bit tasted like choux pastry to me, and better served immediately while hot. It would also fill your kitchen with very nice egg biscuit smell.

Recipe from Tulosh’ blog. Thanks, Tulosh

Note:
To achieve the best puffy-spongy texture, make sure the butter and the oven are already very very hot when you pour the batter into the muffin pan.

Thanks for the invitation, Zorra! I had fun!

Techorati tags: WBD ‘06 After Hours Party, WBD ‘06

November 22, 2006

Food Blogger’s Welcome Dinner

I was tagged by Burcu of Almost Turkish Recipes with this meme, initiated by Angelika of The Flying Apple. Dash off to her lovely blog to find out more about it.

Oh, boy! I’m so terrible at entertaining, let alone constructing a menu. But I do have some favorite dishes I hope my foodblogger guests would enjoy as much as I do.

(more…)

November 13, 2006

Retro Recipe Challenge #4: Koninginne Soep

Rain, rain.. come again another day
or today whenever you may
bless the grass, bless the earth
with my window glass you flirt

Laura Rebecca hosted Retro Recipe Challenge every month on Retro Recipe Challenge Blog. This month’s theme was Fall. Well, we don’t have Fall here, but the cold wind that comes with the upcoming rainy season makes my front yard all covered with leaves. It’s Fall in my front yard. So I’m up for this theme.

Retro, short for retrospective, is a modern term used to describe things from a bygone era. -Answers.com

Oooh, comfort food. Nothing beats the comfort of slurping a big spoonful of warm homemade cream soup in a cold windy days. Rain had began to visit Jakarta every now and then, peacefully taking its turn with the pinching hot sun. Although wet season is not really here yet, clouds are now hanging on the sky and cold wind is breezing through my window. Maybe it’s gonna rain tonight. Hopefully.

Flipping through my old recipe book, where I kept recipes I collected when I was 8, there were plenty of choices I could use. Traditional hot drinks like Bajigur, Angsle, Wedang Ronde, Sekoteng, would be very nice choices. But I just can’t resist the image of me gulping those creamy homemade soup and feel its smoothness caressing my tongue and its warmth swirling in my tummy afterward, leaving soft tasty broth in my lips.

I clipped the recipe long ago from Gadis Magazine belonged to my big sister, October 1980 edition. It adapted the dutch name: Koninginne Soep, which is basically cream soup with mushrooms and chicken chunks. I used big straw mushrooms and followed the recipe word by word, including making the broth from scratch and boil it for two hours. And oh it was so good! At first I though the mushrooms were too many and my soup began to smell like damp straw. But then the magic happened when the milk was poured. The whole soup became so soft in everything. Soft taste, soft smell, soft texture.

No more store-bought soup for me.

(more…)

October 17, 2006

Irish Soda Bread for the World Bread Day

Isn’t it great there’s a day dedicated for bread? Zorra is hosting this event, go visit her blog for more about this day and –of course– the round up.

I love yeast bread. And for this special day, I decided to try an ancient recipe. So from this ancient book, I chose Buttermilk Rolls, which sounds simple but hearty. I started preparing the flour, milk, salt, then the disaster began. I was soooo sure I bought a box of instant yeast last week. But there was no yeast anywhere in my kitchen cupboard! It’s almost Maghrib time and I have to prepare for breaking (from fasting). So I told Agus, the helper, to go to the nearest grocery store after maghrib and buy a box of instant yeast. Phewh, so close.

(more…)

Mixology Monday VIII: Exotic - Red Mystery

Exotic. To my husband, this word means “food or drink that is served in an extremely minimum amount of quantity”. LOL.

To me, exotic means “a journey to the unknown”. That’s why I love pure adventure game, which by the way, has nothing to do with food whatsoever

Anyhow, Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey? is hosting this event called Mixology Monday, coming up to its 8th round already. So watch her blog for the round up.

When Meeta decided to chose Exotic as the theme, I suddenly remember the fruits I bought the other day. The unknown fruits.

(more…)

October 10, 2006

Monthly Mingle #5: Take Two!

I’d been wanting to participate on this month’s Monthly Mingle hosted by Meeta, but something always got in my way.

I bought the sage, zucchini, eggplant, took a picture, then I made Zucchini and Eggplant Salad (recipe by Santap Magazine). But it’s gone before I had a chance to take a photo! I never knew my hubby loved the dish that much. As far as I know he hates purple eggplants! So you see, this was totally unexpected.

I already put aside the idea of participating when I was cooking this dish the other night, when I realized I just substituted the cucumber with zucchini. So I thought, what the heck, let’s try throwing a little bit sage in it! Let’s see how the dish turn out, then I can make it as my entry for Monthly Mingle #5.

This is an Indonesian common stir-fry dish of carrot, cucumber — which in this case I replaced with zucchini–, small chillies and shallots, spiced with ground fresh turmeric, candle nuts, ginger, shallot and garlic, enhanced by vinegar and sugar. We usually call it “Acar Kuning“, means “Yellow Pickles“. It doesn’t look like a ‘pickle’ to you, I know. But what am I gonna do, I didn’t name it in the first place

But it does have that tangy-sweet taste you usually found in regular pickles.

Well, the sage, I’ve got to say, softened the spices a little bit. I also added black pepper to match with the sage. There were some corns in my fridge, so I threw them in as well. When my sister came by that night, her maid frowned,“What did you throw in this yellow pickles?”
“Any vegetables I had in my fridge,” which was true. If I had some cauliflowers I probably would have thrown them in too.

About the photo, not a very good shot though. I took it in a hurry that night, while it’s still in the wok, before the dish disappeared again into our tummies.

Thanks, Meeta, for hosting the event!