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Friday, February 11, 2011

Hi guys

Remember when I said I am working on my thirty day cook book? Well I know I haven't been keeping you guys in the know about it but I will treat you to the introduction. Don't tell anyone though. =p Yes, I know my english isn't all that great but deal with it.

"Dear potential great cooks! Welcome to my thirty days of cooking. This is my first book and also my first attempt to cook for thirty days straight. A lot of people have been asking me this question, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to come clean. My friends think that I am cooking only because I want to keep my mind off certain things, which is true to a certain extent, but I have always cooked before. So, in this book, I will take you on a journey through the basics of food, shopping and cooking with fresh ingredients.

Over the past thirty days, I’ve been amazed with the reaction people have given me. The amount of support is just unbelievable. You would think that people who start cooking would be in their mid twenties, but I tell you that is not the case. Classmates in my baking class are in their mid twenties, married, singles, working class and all sorts of people who are just passionate or interested in baking / cooking. They all have different reasons for coming across cooking, but the one thing that I hear the most from people is that they wish they were my age when they started cooking.

In this book, I am going to tell you how good food has changed my life. I use to not care as to what I put in my mouth and ate fast food or quick fix meals all the time. I learned that it is pretty easy to cook! In this book,  I have included in this book recipes with easy to buy ingredients for and I will show you how a few simple ingredients can change the way a dish tastes. For instance, if you take a basic salmon fillet and bake it slowly in the oven for eight to ten minutes, it will give you soft and tender meat.  It is simply the quality of the meat and the benefit of being patient.

During the course of my cooking, I felt that times have changed dramatically. It amazes me as to how some people can be totally up to speed and knowledgeable in many different things such as sports, fashion, technology, and music but don’t give a rat’s behind about what they put in their mouths. Not only is cooking important but shopping for the right       ingredients is significant as well. There are many products filled with additives. What I want to do in this book is lay out where to shop and what to look for. For instance, fishmongers at a Chinese supermarket are labeled as some of the worst workers. Yes, they are skilled in what they do but they do not take care of their products like they should. A excellent fish should be a laid down on a fresh sheet of ice bed, it should still have an oily shine on it’s body and the eyes should not be cloudy. Some fishmongers simply don’t care and even when the fish is not fresh, they shine on some red lighting on top of it to deceieve customers. Am I being too picky or what? Well you have to be! My mom always tells me that when purchase food, make sure it is a well-supported brand name that we trust and know.

Now you are thinking to yourself, that I am being unreasonable and just plain crazy. But the more I think about it, the more I understand about food and how it works. I think what we can all agree on is that good food is important. Food has always been a bare essential and it represents either the good times or the bad times. Either way, they draw people together in ways other things cannot. But now with our busy lives and high-end technology such as microwaves and frozen dinners, we have moved further away from good foods. We are losing the importance of home cooked food. All I am trying to say is, cooking should be as normal to you and me. It is important to learn the integrity of homemade food.

So having said that, I am going to share with you my journey throughout these thirty days of cooking. This book was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s books and also inspired by my will to change and make a difference. I hope this book will help you and motivate you in ways you never thought a cookbook could. Since you eat everyday why not learn how to make it. "

Tomorrow is my baking class! Well actually today. Wait for pictures. =)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Apparently today is everyone's birthday! Some chinese new year thing. Today we had a mini dinner party at home, my grandma made some pretty nice dishes. There was chicken, choy, tofu and other stuff I forgot. I loved it! Sometimes being Chinese is awesome! And there's still more dinner parties to come.

Anyways aside from that, I have been really busy at work, home and personal stuff but I am excited overall because I don't know where my job will take me but it's really fun and challenging. My co-workers are okay, I fit in so far and there are no office politics. I find myself sitting a lot and designing at a very fast pace environment. I made some new friends of course and they are very nice to me. Some human and some cats. Haha.

Some eye candies. =)

Charlie

running chicken!

its important to have short term goals =)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Today was my first day at work, it was very tiring and stressful already. I am trying to fit in and still trying to learn the new system.

Other than that, chinese new year dinner still goes on. Today we had dinner at atji's place and we had some intense food. I will post pictures in a bit =)



drew

the feast!

family <3
Hello hello

Today I went to Winterlicious at Auberge du Pommier. It was a great experience but it was pretty pricey for the food you get. The environment was very fancy and classy. So you are basically paying for the atmosphere.

For those of you who don't know what winterlicious is, it's an event that lasts between January and February. There is a set price for a three course meal and only various restaurants have it.

The place that I choose, took around an hour to make reservations and it was booked a month in advance with American Express pass too!

Anyways the food was okay, here's what I had.

Starter:
Millefeuille au Fromage de Chèvre
puff pastry with C’est bon goat cheese, fine herbs and grilled courgette antiboise

Entree:
Coq au Vin
boneless chicken marinated in red wine with pommes purée, smoked bacon and button onions

Dessert:
Mousse au Caramel Salé
salted caramel mousse with caramelized white chocolate torte, banana and chocolate sorbet

Felt so good and it was pretty filling. I need to look up table manners and teach my friends. Sometimes they just don't know any. Haha. Or I don't know any.

Anyways, new job tomorrow! Wish me luck and goodnight. =)
















Sunday, February 6, 2011

Ball now, update later. =)








Hi Hi!

Today I had my fourth dinner party with some of my good friends and it went pretty well. Ivan, my manager at wendys' came and I haven't seen him in the longest time! It was nice catching up with him and cooking him food.

Lam, my long time high school and OCAD friend showed up as well. Him and I go way back even though at time we hated each other, we see our friendship as a whole and it was awesome seeing him. He enjoyed my food a lot as you can tell from the pictures, especially the meringue. Haha

Janice, my God sister. She knows me very well and I was very happy to see her go at my dessert like it was the main course. She loved it! And wanted to take some home. She makes me smile with her laugh. Haha.

Check out my pictures for the three course meal. They took some pictures too and I will update this blog with their pictures as soon as possible. Nothing I haven't done. =)

I love food. =)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Oh the title? It's from boyce avenue - only girl in the world. So good, gets me alll the time.

Hi Guys!

I know, I know, I haven't been updating at all and you guys are probably mad at me and never going to come here again. But this weekend I have been active! Let's start with Friday.

Friday class was special this week, we didn't take any thing home at all. Instead we learned how to do "masking" which is covering the sponge cake with a layer of butter cream. The tool that we used was an offset spatula and pipping tips. Personally, I found this kinda of boring, maybe I am not a cake decorating person or maybe I was just tired, oh well. During this process we learned many different types of piping techniques and it was good because you can't learn it from a book.

Below are some pictures of my piping skills. Haha. I don't have any.


my lovely grandma, thank you for everything so far =) love you

royal icing

mia

teaching us how to mask

butter cream

the best I could do =\





Today we had a Chinese New Year party at church. What we had to do was to bring in different groceries so that we can put it all together in a rice cooker. Everyone was in charge of bringing something but Gabriel made me in charge of making dessert!

The first question that popped up in my head was. How many people am I cooking for?
The answer to that question was 20+! I was quite shocked and on Friday night, I was pretty stressed but I pulled it off! =)

Friday night, I baked vanilla cheesecake till 2:30am! this time what I did differently from the previous time was, you need to grease the pan inside and out. Plus the wax paper too! And instead of using the electric mixer to mix the butter and digestive biscuits together, you would use just a spoon. By doing so, you will have a much more solid and thick crust.

Things to remember:
250grams x 4 = 2 pounds
When you are baking, place a sheet of foil on top of your cake so that it doesn't burn.
After you are done, let it cook but DO NOT cover it. ( it did it last night and I think it cooked a bit more. so it cracked a bit )

That is all for the cheesecake.

After ball today, I spent 2 hours making the meringue. Some things to keep in mind is try to make more cream then you really have to. I find that using white eggs actually makes the meringue more white. Other than that, everything was pretty good. I finally got the caramel sugar right. The key is, don't be afraid and just fire it up! When you see the liquid start to yellow, turn it down right away and place cold water under the pan. Let it cool a bit and then drizzle on top of your meringue!









Tomorrow is another dinner party. I am so tired but what keeps me going are my friends. They are so supportive and when they are happy, I feel a sense of satisfaction inside me. Even though I don't get to try the stuff I want, I really just want honest feedback.



Keep going Daniel Oliver. =)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Oh my, I am so sorry. I've been so busy! I want to post but I can't. I am at my friend's girlfriend's place at the moment so even if I were to upload pictures, I can't. But stay tuned! I am going to school tonight and we are going to be piping.

Then tonight I am going to make cheesecake. =) Update you guys in a bit.