Oliver's First Birthday Celebration at Wondermama Cafe, Bangsar

Oliver's first birthday is in November, Iven and I are cracking our heads thinking for the theme of the party. We wanted a party that makes every guest happy, we have kids which loves a party that allows them to run around enjoying themselves with other kids and the other hand we have a bunch of parents which wish to enjoy a hearty lunch but of course a good ambiance is very ideal. But again, this is supposed to be Oliver's First Birthday, location has to be kids friendly.

We have decided to use "air plane" as out theme, just like how boys always wanted to be an aviator when they when they grow up. Ok, themed chosen! We spend nearly 2 weekends looking for door gifts, at shopping malls but ended up we found a shop in China Town which sells nice handy crafts. Iven was so amazed and ended up we bought 80 pcs of them.

We fully utilized our creative skills for this party as-though we are getting paid (laughing) but again this will quench our thirst, of course.

An exquisite air planes with 6 designs.

Big sister Olivia at work. She is in the midst of packing the door gifts for
the Oliver's party. A helpful 姐姐

Door gift with specially designed packaging that compliments the party

Colors and crayons for the kids to paint

Let's paint the SKY, kids

Finally, we found the perfect venue for Oliver's party. It's Wondermama Cafe Restaurant in Bangsar Village 1. The owner is a very flexible guy which permitted us to apply whatever we have in mind to his restaurant. And nevertheless both the restaurant manageress Yen & Bryanne are pretty helpful, responsive to our request. We have the whole first floor occupied.

Here we are! Oliver's Birthday Party @ Wondermama

A very well designed restaurant which makes such a big impact with all it's decorative item.

A simple menu board duet with a creatively design lamp shade, which was converted from an ancient noodle siever.
(If you were born before the 80s you will probably seen this in your childhood)

8.30am : working on floor plan & seating before the guest arrive at 12 noon

A must have! Party hat..

Menu of that day!

Mummy cum Creative Director for this party!

Weel Done Backdrop by Iven Tham (Daddy of the Birthday Boy)

Table setting

Please tag yourself kids, make sure Mr. Clown aka ABC gor gor did not missed you...

Birthday Boy

Birthday Boy getting ready for the party... 3..2..1

Big sister is all geared up for the party..

Mummy with Birthday Boy Oliver

Nicely decorated scene

Hearty Nasi Lemak 2.0, you will love this local cuisine with a touch of fusion
which was compliments with "fried soft shell crab" bliss...

Beef Bacon Sandwich, no ordinary Sandwich.

Happy & satisfied guests.

Uncle ABC is the attraction of the day. Kids love him so much.

Gangnam Style in Action!

Lovely cake from Bisou. The air plane goes pretty well with our theme.
I'm a big fan of Bisou, their cakes & cupcakes never failed.

Cheers!

My little Oliver.

Drained & exhausted little Oliver has got a shoulder to rest on, thank you Pik Lin.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

An afternoon tea with some girlfriends, gossips with your favorites neighbors.
A slice of Pineapple Upside-down and a cup of feshly brewed coffee is just blissfulness!

Olivia, is my best fan ever. She is the first who tried, first who comment and
hopefully the last to say NO..haha

Pineapple upside down cake is way before my time. This is a very old technique probably started centuries ago. If you are wondering what is Pineapple Upside-down cake, here are some info.

*The first recorded recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake According to John Mariani's ( The Dictionary of American Food and Drink , Revised Edition, 1994), "The first mention in print of such a cake was in 1930, and was so listed in the 1936 Sears Roebuck catalog, but the cake is somewhat older." In Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads (1995), Sylvia Lovegren traces pineapple upside-down cake to a 1924 Seattle fund-raising cookbook...While rooting around in old women's magazines I found a Gold Medal Flour ad with a full-page, four-color picture of Pineapple Upside-Down Cake--a round cake with six slices of pineapple, candied red cherries, and a brown sugar glaze.

*information courtesy of http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/PineappleUpsideDownCake/index.htm

Preparing for the set, shooting for blogspot.

Ingredients

120g Flour

1/4 teaspoon Soda Bicarbonate

2 Eggs

100g Canola Oil

110g Sugar

I Can of Pineapple (5slices)

50ml Pineapple Syrup 

5 Preserved Cherry (halves)

Directions

1.Pre heat oven at 175 degree. Prepare the base of the baking pan with some sprinkles of sugar
   and arrange the pineapple (as shown from my photograph)
2. Sift flour and soda bicarbonate in a mixing bowl.
3. Combine Canola oil, sugar, eggs, pineapple syrup in a mixing bowl, beat till dissolves.
4. Add in flour bit by bit, until well blended.

5. Transfer the batter into the baking pan that has pineapple slices at the bottom.

6. Bake for 25 minutes or test it with a skewer, when the skewer comes out clean that means
    your cake is done.

My kids love it, I'm sure no one could resist this since it was made from canola and not butter... a healthy snack!

I personally like the spongy feel of this cake.

Corn Flakes Cookie

This is kinda fun...

Chinese New Year did not comes early (giggles), just that I would like to share this recipe with all of you which we made last Chinese New Year. Olivia has gave me a hand with the chores, and she made a pretty good sous chef though :-)

Corn flakes cookie is famous among kids and adults, nice & crunchy at the outside and soft from the inside. I did add some raisins, but if you like it plain and original, you may skip the raisins part.

Corn Flakes Cookies

200g Butter

150g Sugar

2 Eggs

300g Flour

60g Cereal/Corn Flakes (crushed)

1tbsp Vanilla Essence

30g Corn Flour

1. Beat butter and sugar till soft and fluffy. Add Vanilla Essence. Stir in beaten eggs.

2. Fold in flour and corn flour. (Mixture must not stick hands)

3. Scoop batter into crushed corn flakes.

4. Place them on pachment paper

5. Bake for 25 minutes with 200 degree celsius. (preheat oven)

Olivia started with her dough mixing.

Crush..crush..crush.. (mummy wants them crushed)

It tasted very good too.. ops! (Olivia was caught red handed)

Scoop the batter with Ice Cream scoop, then coat it with corn flakes crumbs.

One canister of corn flakes cookie, ready to go!

Mini Pizza for Sunday Lunch

Mamma mia! Who doesn't like pizza? This oven-baked, flat, round bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings is an all time favorites! Kids love them, even me couldn't resist the yummy melting cheesy topping.

This Sunday, we are having pan pizza for everyone at home. You choose your topping, isn't fun? Yes! Olivia will be the first who jump up and down for her long awaits pizza.

Let's shop for ingredients. Olivia has choosen the typical Ham & Sausages for herself.

Turkey Ham

Whole Grain Mustard, which is a must have for me. I like it's taste and grainy texture.
I like to add little dash of mustard at the base of my pizza.

Prick the crust before baking.

If you are a busy mum but wish to cook for your family like me, then you could swop the crust with Pita which you could get it from the supermarket. Some called it Arabian Bun. First, prick the pizza dough in the center in several places.This prevents the dough from forming huge air bubbles when you bake your pizza crust. Drizzle a few drops of Olive oil and spread them evenly on the surface before pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes.. 

Getting all the ingredients ready.

Yummy Olives, a must have!

One of the ingredient,Mayo egg which make a great combo with ham. My kid loves this!

Spread the pizza bases with pizza spread, I just use plain tomato base paste.

Plain Tomato paste. One jar of this 500g tomato paste can be use for 10 pan pizza.

After pre-baked, remove them from the oven. Let them cool down for 5 minutes, then you could start dressing the pizza with the topping of your choice.

Pizzas are ready to be baked.

Our first batch is done.

This seafood pizza is for my seafood lover husband.

A happy patron!

Pork Chop with Potato Wedges

If you are a big fan of deep frying food, then you will love this pork chop with cabbage and potato wedges. A simple dish with not much per-preparation needed. All you need is a piece of loin pork or you could get a pork chop cutlet at any non-halal section of the supermarket. Go to Jaya Grocer, they have nice meat with reasonable prices.

Ingredients
1 piece of Pork Chop/loin/rib (up to individual)
200g Potato (wash and peel skin)
Cabbage (shred)
1 Egg (beaten)
50g Breadcrumbs

Methods
1. Marinade or apply salt and pepper on to the meat. leave for 15minutes.
2. Dab the meat with the beaten egg, then coat it with beadcrumbs
3. Deep fry the meat for 10-15 minutes each side.
4. How do you know if the meat is cook, if you notice juices coming out from the meat, then yes.. it's cook!

Potato Wedges

Pork Chop

Stir Fried French Bean with Chinese Sausage

I love Chinese Sausage 臘腸 merely because it tastes so good that you could just pair it with a bowl of plain rice. I like exploring new recipes, so this round I had experimented Chinese sausage with french bean and it turned out perfectly nice. I love it, hope you will love it too. This sausage has been processed and preserved so it could lock it's taste and essence for very long period of time. Chinese family usually eat it during Chinese New Year or winter. All you need is a good Chinese Sausage and french bean, nothing more than that.

First, I blanch the Chinese sausage with hot water for 10 seconds, just to peel off the outer layer. Then cut the sausages and beans in long around 5cm per piece. When you got everything ready, preheat the frying wok with a few drops of cooking oil, put in sausages, stir fry till you smell the fragrant of the sausages (similar to BBQ dried meat / 肉干). You will realised that the sausages will release it's oil and lard so this is the time you add in the french beans. Stir well, and add salt to taste.

Claypot Chicken Rice

Claypot Chicken Rice is nothing new among the Chinese community. It's an all time favourite, I would said. People will go for it lunch and dinner. Like me, I like to have this Claypot goddess at home. Make your own claypot chicken rice with the least hassle and mess. Do you remember the the charcoal stoves for cooking claypot rice? Now when everyone is looking for the simplest way to achieve delicious food and I hope to share my recipe with you all.

All you need is to invest in a good claypot. I bought this at a local kitchen ware store for less than RM40 and it can last you for sometimes.Then, cook the rice in this claypot and another wok/skitlet cook the chicken. After the Semi cook, set aside. Put the chicken on top of the rice and cook them together for another 10 minutes.

Chicken with Oyster Sauce Gravy

Ingredients

1kg Chicken (I used 2 whole leg, cut them into pieces)

1 Cup water

2 teaspoon Corn Flour

3 teaspoon Oyster Sauce

2 teaspoon Minced Garlic

1/2 stalk Spring Onion

salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. marinate the chicken with dash of Soya sauce and rice wine.

2. In a heated work, brown minced garlic, when it started to turn light gold or smells good put in
    chicken. Stir fried for 5 minutes with medium fire.

3. Add in oyster sauce, keep stirring. Add corn flour into water, when mix well put all in. Turn to high fire.

4. When it's boiling, keep stirring the chicken until the water reduced half it's portion.

5. Place the chicken with some gravy on top the rice you cook earlier on in a claypot.

6. Cook it again with low fire for 5 minutes.

7. Place some spring onion on top before served!

Stir Fried Yau Mak with Fish Fillet

Some tedious days you just don't know what to cook for dinner. Dish like I'm going to share now will never fail you. Stir Fried Yau Mak (Romaine Lettuce) with fish fillet, I used Dory but you could use any fish you like. Simple yet appetizing and kids will love it too. Try it...

Ingredients

1 Whole Yau Mak (Romaine Lettuce)

1 Clove Garlic (sliced)

500gm Dory Fish Fillets (cut into 4cm x 5cm)

2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce

1 Cup Corn Flour

1/2 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Starch

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

1.Marinate fish with salt & pepper.

2. In a frying pan, add oil sufficient for deep frying. When oil is heated, coat fillet with corn flour 

    then deep fry. Set aside.

3. Wash, drain and cut lettuce.

4. In a frying wok, add in oil. Add garlic, fried till yellowish.

5. Add lettuce, stir well with garlic. Mix water with oyster sauce. Add into the lettuce.

6. When boiling, add fish fillet, stir well with lettuce and lastly add in starch.

7. Remember to add salt & pepper to your own taste.