Tea

I enjoy a cup of tea every now and then, especially on a cold winter night. My favourites are green tea and black tea with milk. Actually, I should say, I like milk tea.

I've made the difference between tea with milk and milk tea :

Tea with milk has more tea than milk. Usually at least a 70% tea, 30% milk.
Milk tea on the other hand, would be, for me, 50% tea to 50% milk.

Heard of arguments that say milk isn't good for tea and that it takes away some of the nutrients in it. What's it called? Catechins, that's right. Then there are others that say drinking tea after a meal is harmful to health as well. Oh dear.. does it matter to me? Not really. I don't drink it aften after a meal anyway.

I loke the fmell of tea, especially when I have plenty of them stashed in a cupboard and when I walk past the cupboard, this light aroma of tea leaves fills the nostrils.

Cooking with tea leaves takes some experimentation too. Sometimes, I'll sprinkle a pinch of green tea leaves into my rice while it cooks in the rice cooker for that light tea taste, or in my meat and vegetable stir-fries. I prefer Longjing tea leaves when I cook because the leaves are edible. They give a light bitter-dry taste when you first chew it, but after you swallow, it has a tinge of dry-sweetness.

My favourite tea dish is the tea egg. I've not successfully done it myself, but everytime I walk past a herbal shop that sells it, I'll surely buy a couple. It's done with some herbs, I think, with tea leaves and soy sauce. Smells good, tastes good!

Then there's green tea ice-cream, green tea jelly, oh and ginger tea! Stumbled upon this website dedicated to tea.. It has recipes for tea. Chai Tea Oatmeal, Chocolate Green Tea Sorbet, Earl Grey Mushroom Risotto with Brown Rice....

Makes my mouth drool just writing about it! Have not tried any of the recipes, but they all sound amazing!

Egg and avocado

My little princess has recently decided that she would not eat egg yolks. The only time she'd eat them would be if they were scrambled. Hard boiled and poached eggs don't work.

Yesterday, I thought I'd try something new with her. I put the eggs in the rice cooker to cook and shelled them when they were cool enough to handle. Cut the eggs in half and scooped out the yolks.

I also scooped out half an avocado and mashed the yolk and avocado together to form a paste. Spread it back into the egg whites and served her.

She ate them!! Avocado egg yolk. Yum. Problem solved and it was a no mess hard boiled egg too.

If you have any other healthy and child-friendly methods, let me know too!

Cutting and Chopping Onions

Onions are not the best vegetables to chop up and I avoid them at all cost, until recently when I discovered that they don't make me cry anymore!

If I had the time, I'll peel off the layer of skin and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Otherwise, if I forgot about it, I'll still do the same with the skin, chop it up into quarters and rinse it in cold water for a few seconds.

No more problems with my onions anymore!

Try it and let me know if it worked for you!

Light, fluffy eggs

Cooked an omelette a couple of days ago. Had some cream on hand, so I stirred in 2 tablespoons into 4 eggs. Love my eggs! So light, fluffy and melts in the mouth!

It'll work with scrambled eggs too.

So, next time you want to enjoy some fluffy eggs, try adding in some cream. Milk will also work, but you might need to put more because milk isn't as thick as cream is.

Oh, and by cream, I meant the ones that are still in their liquid form. Not whipped up cream.

Fun foods for children

Do you have picky eaters? Children who would only eat certain colours of food or vegetables only or meat only or must-have-milk...

I'm fortunate to have a little one who eats all the food that we place on her tray as long as she can chew them.

Have found a few websites that have very interesting food that will appeal to children. Easy to make, appealing and fun to eat. Well, could be a little too nice to eat. =)

1. Familyfun.com
This site has just about everything from main meals to desserts to snacks and finger foods.

2. Milkdeliveries
Have children who can't have enough of dairy or don't want to have anything to do with dairy? Try these.. Main meals, desserts, shakes, smoothies and more.

3. Pork 4 Kids
Well, the name of the site said it all. Pork recipes for children. They're categorized by age group, so starting from 6 yrs old to 15 yrs old.

4. Kidspot
An Australian social networking site for parents, it has foods for all occasions and ages.

Hard Boiled Eggs

I've boiled eggs countless times. I've been disappointed and annoyed by them just as many times.

The traditional way of boiling eggs was to put the eggs in cool water, then bring to a boil Depending on the hardness of the egg, you boil for certain amount of time. Some egg lovers have also poured boiling water over raw eggs, cover up and wait about 7 minutes for a half-boiled, very soft egg.

This method is very costly in many ways:
1. Water wasted.
2. Time wasted.
3. Energy wasted.

I was sent an email some weeks back and since then, I cooked my boiled eggs differently.

Try this and you'll love the simplicity and efficiency!
1. Place a paper towel in your rice cooker.
2. Depending on the hardness and number of eggs, either sprinkle water or put in 5tablespoons of water.
3. Turn on the rice cooker to cook.
4. Once the rice cooker indicates it's keeping warm, you can remove the eggs and enjoy!

There's a bit of trial and error here with the number of eggs and how cooked you want it to be.

Try it, test it and you'll come to see what I mean.

Not going back to the water boiling method anymore.