Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Venice Lace Wrist Wrap

A close friend of mine had her birthday last week and she had a small celebration at her place.  This is my gift for her - handmade with love!


Can't tell what this is?


It's a Venice lace wrist wrap (I'm not sure what it's called actually...).  My friend is a bellydancing teacher and I hope that these wrist wraps can be useful in her performance.


I had to ask my son to help me model this which he gladly agreed (so long as I just focus my camera on his wrist!).

Now I have to make one for my princess as well!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Fried Rice for Busy Moms

I have a basic fried rice recipe which I use quite often, all I need to make it more interesting is to change the ingredients.  It is simple to make and a popular dish for dinner in our household.

I know most people make fried rice from left over rice, but our family is big (there's 6 of us!), so very seldom do we get left over..  So I usually cook the rice about 2 to 3 hours before I make dinner. Once the rice is cooked, I fluff it up by stirring it around with a pair of chopsticks and turn off the rice cooker.  Also I added in 2 cubes of chicken bouillon, so there will more flavor to the rice.


 Then I'd open up the fridge and cabinet to see what we have to throw add into the fried rice.  Sausage, eggs and sweet corn is quite standard in our family.


I would also add in finely chopped sweet radish and garlic, which I usually throw into the blender to do the job for me.  I'd put about 5 to 6 cloves of garlic coz we love the smell of fried garlic! 


This is the radish I got from the Thai store.  It says "Salted Radish"....


but buy the one that has "Sweet" on it.  The other one was so salty we felt like raisins after I mix it in eggs to do fried eggs....


Fry the sausages first, then take them out and throw in the radish and garlic mixture.  Fry till it's fragrant and add in the rice.


Once the rice and the radish and garlic mixture is properly mixed, I'd push the rice aside and crack in the eggs.  Then I'll stir them around until they are very scrambled.  After that, I'll bring the rice and eggs together so they can mix around and be good friends.... (ok, now I'm talking strangely...)


However, if your pan is too small.  You can scramble the eggs separately and add them in later, the reason why I'm doing it this way, is just because I'm too lazy... >.<"

I'll then take out a small portion of the sausage and set it aside...

That is, if you have this little face staring at you when you're making food.... otherwise you can skip this totally unnecessary step.... 

And just put in ALL the sausage into your fried rice!


Stir around a little and add in the sweet corn.  Stir around a little bit more and turn off the heat.  You're done!


Dig in!

Fried rice (For 6 persons)

Ingredients:
4 cups of rice
2 chicken bouillon
100g sweeten radish
5 cloves of garlic
5 sausages - diced
4 eggs
1 small can of sweet corn (or any other vegetable of your choice - diced)
2 tbsp of oil
Dash of white pepper

Method:

Do this step about 2 hours before you start frying the rice.  Cook the rice like you normally would in the rice cooker and add in the chicken bouillon.  Once the water starts heating up, use a spoon to dissolve the bouillon thoroughly and blend well.  Let the rice continue cooking till it's done.  Then use a pair of chopsticks to fluff up the rice and turn off the cooker.  

Finely chop the radish and garlic and set aside.  Add in 1 tbsp of oil and stir fry the sausage until they're done.  Remove them from the pan.  Add in 1 tbsp of oil into the pan and fry the radish and garlic mixture till fragrant. Add in the rice and stir well.  Add in eggs, sausage and sweet corn.  Stir everything well together and turn off heat.