Thin Crust Sausage Pizza 创意脆皮披萨

*Updated*

Pizza, I think of it as an open-platform. It provides a simple base so versatile that it can easily "integrate" with nearly all ingredient, from meat to veggie to seafood. (pardon if I sound geeky :))

My personal favorite is thin crust pizza, with loads of toppings and melted mozzarella cheese... The thought of it already makes my tummy grumbling. Ethan loves helping me to spread the pizza toppings & the cheese, he does mess up a little (with bits of cheese or olives on the floor) but we certainly have fun! :)

Preparation Time: 45 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serving for: 2 Large Pizzas

Christmas Eve Get-together: Simple Home Cook

Finally Christmas is only a day away, and this time we invited my in-laws and family for Christmas eve dinner at our cozy home.

These are the meals served for tonight, all prepared within 3 hours as I was held back at work. I got to admit I amazed myself with my speed of cooking (yes, without any helps).

It certainly helped to have the cooking sequence pre-played in mind as I was driving home, and my recipes readily available in my own blog. So once reached home, I just defrost all the meat, fish, clean all the vegetables and start marinating them right away.


A close up of what I've cooked tonight...

Happy Meal: Smiley Face Series

Ethan received this smiley Food Face plate as early Christmas present from his favorite uncle living abroad. I saw this online a year ago but was not keen to get one as it is made of porcelain and I though that is too fragile for little ones. Well, now that we have got one, I can offer alternative option to little Ethan's weekend Happy Meal and since my little boy is much older now, let's hope he will not drop it.. *fingers crossed*

Since there are so many possible combinations to make with this plate, I shall be uploading more photos from time to one, so stay tuned ;)


Happy Mustache Man

Smiley man with curly hair (scallop noodles and stripes of fried eggs), brown mustache (sausage) and green collar T (broccoli).

With the same soup base (using only veggies and homemade anchovies powder), my 1yo baby girl had her share of this yummy meal too. Minus the sausage and eggs of course.

Refer here for the anchovies powder recipe.


Interested to get one for your little ones too? I was told quite a few kitchenware stores in KL carry this product, so here's how the packaging looks like. Good luck hunting!

Mrs Happy 
Meet Mrs Happy Food Face, she loves to smile and she has lots of jewelry.. ;)

Mr Happy Hawaiian 

Mr Happy with blond beard and a messy hair made of fried rice and raisins :)

Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones 冰筒小蛋糕

I'll be attending a small potluck party with my duo, so was scratching my head on what to prepare, something that will be different from the usual party food and yet not too time consuming.

So I flipped through my recipe books for idea and found a particular one that is easy to make but with stunning result.

The outcome - cupcakes in ice cream cones, in chocolate and vanilla flavor.

Ice Creams in a Box

"Chocolate ice cream"

"Vanilla ice cream" with heart sprinkles

Interested to make some too? Just read on..


Preparation Time: 30min
Cooking Time: 25min
Decoration Time: 10min
Serving for: 12 cupcakes
Utensil / Tools needed: Mixer, 12 hold cupcake tin, spatula, measuring cups

Ingredients:
Refer to the my orange chocolate marble cake recipe here
12 flat bottom ice cream cones

For decoration:
- 500gm butter cream
- 2 table spoons cocoa powder
- Mixture of sprinkles, chocolate chips and pearl balls for topping

Alternatively, you can prepare DIY Butter Cream (mixer required):
- 300gm icing sugar (original recipe calls for 500gm but that's really too sweet)
- 250gm unsalted butter, soften to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 teaspoon warm water (optional)


Recipe for butter cream modified from "Fabulous Party Cakes & Cupcakes".



Step-by-Step Guides:

1. Preheat oven to 150c.

2. Scoop 2 spoonful of batter into ice cream cone or until 2/3 full, place them into cupcake holder tin and bake for 25min in the medium rack or until fully rise. Prepare buttercream while waiting the cakes to be ready.

3. If you choose to DIY, whisk butter and sugar together in a clean bowl until fluffy, then add the vanilla essence and water (add water if the mixture is too thick). Whisk on medium speed until you get a creamy white texture.

4. Scoop few spoonful of the buttercream into a separate bowl and mix evenly with the cocoa powder - now you get chocolate flavored buttercream.

5. Let the cupcakes cold on a rack. Start decorating the cupcakes by spreading a generous layer of buttercream, then sprinkle with chocolate chips, rice sprinkles or pearl balls. Let the cream hardened (preferably Aircond room in you live in hot climate like me) before serving them.

That's it, your cupcakes in ice cream cones are ready, now go and impress your friends and family! ;)

A week later, I made these bunch of birthday cupcakes for grandpa's birthday. Same ingredients, same method, different presentation. The only extra is some fondant and modelling tools.

Note:
Since the buttercream topping is rather sweet, I would suggest not to make this on regular basis, too much sugar may cause a child to be hyper active.

Unfinished buttercream can be kept in box and stored in fridge up to a week.

Rainbow Rice with Fish Nuggets 彩虹饭

Wouldn't it be nice to have your little ones running to the dinning table for dinner instead of having to drag them to take the meals, or having to keep reminding them to eat the food?

That was what happened when I told Ethan we are having Rainbow Rice for dinner. He rushed to the dinning table and offered to open up all the covers for me to reveal the rainbow rice underneath. He then happily ate his meal and kept telling daddy that rainbow rice will make him strong (coincidentally he was wearing a super hero pajamas, haha)

The Rainbow Rice set, with the bowl/cover on (it keeps the rice warm)

Ta da..

Kids Meal: Happy Face Rice with Steamed Punters Fish

Here's a quick and healthy meal made for my duo today.

I made steamed Punters fish today, 1 fillet shared by mommy and the duo. It's really easy and delicious provided you use fresh fish, and must keep watch of time as you won't want to over-cook your fish.

Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 5-8 min
Serving for: 2 little ones

Ingredients:
1 block fillet about 1" thick (Punters 马友鱼, Garoupa 石斑鱼, cod 鳕鱼, red snapper 红鳄鱼, these are among the fish with less bones)
5-10 slices of ginger
1/2 teaspoon of salt

For Seasoning (I exclude this for my baby):
1 teaspoon of premium soya sauce
Few drops of sesame oil


Step-by-Step Guides:
1. Clean the fillet, dap dry with kitchen towel and rub a thin layer of salt over it evenly using hands. Sprinkle the sliced gingers on top and set aside.

2. Boil a pot of water for the steamer, once water is boiled, place the fillet (with the plate) into the steamer.

3. Steam the fillet for 5-8 min (depending on thickness of the fillet) with the lid on. Once the meat turns white and the flakes can be separated with a fork easily, your fillet is ready.

4. When serving, add the seasoning on top (adjust according to your liking).


That's it, yummy steam fish in 4 simple steps!

Serve it along with rice and other food. I prepared stir fried onion and cucumber with scrambled eggs, so I made used of the eggs and cucumber to arrange a smiley face meal for my boy.

For my baby girl, I prepared this nutritious porridge with diced onion, carrots and Japanese cucumber. I mixed in the steamed fish only when feeding (I usually store the fish in a separate container for second feeding). She absolutely loved it and kept asking for more. :)

Simple, no fuss family meal. Anyone can do it. ;)