Vanilla-rum colas recipe

Need:

Cola

Rum

vanilla essence

Ice

Fill each glass with 3/4 full with ice. Add 1/2 cup cola, 3 tbs rum, 1/8 tsp vanilla.

Squeeze in lime, orange, or any citrus fruit. Serve.

*I used bacardi. Very nice!!

This is from martha stewart's recipe site.

Salad in 5 minutes- with Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

Salad- Lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, celery, anything in the fridge :0)

Dressing:

1/4 cup oil

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

1/8 tsp salt

chopped onion and garlic

Mix all and serve with salad. Easy easy easy!!

Sausage pasta recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients:

250gm penne pasta

340gm sausage

A little oil

garlic, onion

1 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp basil, rosemary (or whatever herbs)

pepper, salt

cheddar cheese

1) In a large pot of boiling water with a little salt, cook penne pasta until al dente. Drain well.

2) In a large skillet, pan, heat up the oil. Then, add the garlic, onion, and fry till fragrant.

Add in the sausage, fry till it looks crispy. Set aside.

3) In the same pan, make the sauce. Put the 2 tbsp of butter in the pan, wait till it's melted, remove from heat. Slowly mix in the flour, stirring, so that it doesnt become lumpy. After that, add in the cup of milk, continue stirring till it becomes a sauce, and put it back on heat.

4) Add in sausage, pasta, basil, rosemary, pepper and salt. Combine till nicely mixed.

5) Pour into a serving dish and grate cheddar cheese on it.

(Alternatively, bake in preheated oven for 10-15 mins to let the cheese melt and form a crispy crust on top)

After Work Party Menu

All of this can be done in less than an hour, and with some help it'll even faster.
And if you go through the recipes later, you'll find that most ingredients are normal ones that can be found in the supermarket/ mini market nearby. So, if i need to entertain at the last minute, I'll just pick up the ingredients before i head back home.

Sausage pasta
This is really comfort food, I feel really satisfied after the meal because it's just delicious, and the best thing about it, I didn't slave in the kitchen for it!!

Salad

Our Veggies need only cutting and then combining with a herb vinaigrette.

Vanilla-rum colas
Yes, some do prefer to have the rum alone....hahaha...but if your friends are going to drive back after the party, it's best if they don't have too much alcohol. So, this should be just perfect!!

Dessert
Ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yum!!

Simple entertaining- After Work Party for 4

After a long day at work, I feel like relaxing with some of my friends. But, with a budget and very little energy left, we need a quick delicious fix. So, i came up with this quick dinner.....menu and recipes and pictures coming soon...

Fastest Tuna Dip in 2 minutes (tea party recipe)

This is a 2-minute tuna dip:

Use a can of tuna, add mayonaise.

Chop up some onion, add in.

Add bit of mustard.

Mix it all in.

DONE!!!

(checking time: hmm...maybe 2 minutes 10 seconds... haha)

Serve with nachos. (curry ones goes with this dip....yum!! )

Tea Party Recipes -chocolate peanut butter cups

This is really easy, you need only 2 ingredients, and less than half an hour. It taste like chocolate with peanut butter filling. warning: IT's really RICH, but goes well with tea!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter cups: (Makes 4-5)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips (dark/milk)
5 tsp of peanut butter

1/8 cup biscuit crumbs (optional)
(I didn't use this, but you can put this in)

How to do it:
1)Grease 4 muffins cups with little oil.
2)Melt 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. There are 2 ways to do it, microwave it 30 sec, and stir it. (see note below), or melt it in a bowl over hot water.
3)Then, spoon mixture into the 4 cups. Freeze it for 5 mins.
4)Microwave peanut butter for 30sec. Stir. Spoon on top of frozen chocolate. Freeze 5 mins.
5)Melt another 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. Spoon on top of the frozen cups.
Freeze another 10 mins.
6) Use sate stick to poke the side, and the choco peanut butter cup should slide out of the muffin cup.

+If freeze overnight, it taste even better.

Note: When you microwave chocolate, you have to very careful. If it's too long, the chocolate doesn't melt, it hardens even more. So, if you are not sure about your microwave oven, microwave 20 secs first, try stirring it. And if it hardens suddenly, then use the other method to 'rescue it', melt it over hot water, and stirring it continually.

Note 2: If you want to add biscuit crumbs, to make it not so deadly rich, add it to the base layer.

Simple tea party menu

A tea party needs:


1)TEA!!
Lady Grey Tea
Lady Grey is a light, refreshing tea, pale gold in colour and infused with the flavours of orange, lemon and bergamot. Brew for 3-5 minutes. Drink black or with a little milk, or with a fresh slice of citrus fruit.

2) 2 sweets
Chocolate Peanut Butter cups
Chocolate

3) 1 savoury
Tuna dip with nachos

recipes tomorrow..

Simple entertaining- tea party!!

I had a friend who came over for a visit , and 2 other friends and I wanted to have a cup of tea together. Although we're all so busy for the weekend, I still thought that it would be a good idea to have something special for my friend. Hence, a simple tea party will just be ideal!! Menu and recipes on the way...

Doggie Bone Cake--How-to and recipe

Ok, I've to admit i couldnt find the mould for the doggie bone, and I lost my rectangular pan. So, I had to do with what i had.....so, this is what i did.

Any recipe works fine with this. Butter cakes works very well.

The 2 side parts are part of a small cake.And the 2 middle ones are 2 muffins.

For the small cake: cut the top and bottom part off, trangular shape.Make sure it's cut off equally. Then, cut it apart, and put the 2 muffins in the centre. The muffins sides have been cut off to match the height and also to stand nicely.

Then, ice it with white icing.
( Do all this on a baking sheet, so that later all the mess can be cleared and transfer over for presentation)


White icing recipe:
3 cups icing sugar
1 cup butter
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 salt

Start beating all of this together on low till it's all mixed well. Then, continue beating on medium for 5 minutes. If you see that the icing is quite thick, add A LITTLE milk till right consistency. (Spreadable, not too thin)

Take 4tbs icing out in a small bowl. add a little more water (1 tsp). Now, spread it on the sides of the muffin to stick it with the other parts. Next spread it on top, it's ok if some crumbs come out. Stick it in the fridge for 5 mins or till it's a bit hard on top.

Then, spread your actual icing on the top of the cake. To make it smooth, get a cup of hot water, put a metal spoon in it. After a while, quickly use a clean cloth to wipe off the spoon, and use back of spoon to apply heat on the icing to smoothen it.

It's a lot of work to ice the whole cake, so if you are already tired, you can actually pour it the top and leave it like that too.... :0)

Doggie Bone cake

What better way to have a movie night than having a cake that fits the theme.
There are a few ways to do it:
1) Use a doggie bone cake mould/pan (which you have to find in baking shops)
2) Draw a doggie bone on a piece of paper, cut the shape out and place it on your cake (rectangular shape), then cut it out according to your shape.

Movie night-doggie movie menu

Very simple menu...

Oreos
Chocolate love letter biscuits
Chips
Lots of Popcorn
Doggie Bone Cake

Soft drinks
Punch with fruits

Simple entertaining- Movie Night- Doggie Movie

My friends and I just had a movie night. The movie- Bolt!! Very cute doggie and sidekicks.

We had a group of 10, including 2 kids.. Planning was pretty easy, junk food galore!! Or maybe not...We have to have some healthy food too....popcorn? That's good fibre... haha...Will be posting menu soon..

Easiest game in the world

After food, you'll definitely need a game to make the party more memorable!!
This is the easiest game in the world- 3, 6, 9.

How it goes: Get everybody in a circle, and start with a person. That person will start by saying "one". Then, the next person says: "two" and consequently the other running numbers.

Now, the catch is, people who have the numbers 3, 6, 9, or any number with this digits, should not say the numbers, but clap their hands.



Eg: 1 2 (clap) 4 5 (clap) 7 8 (clap) 10 11 12 (clap) 14 15 (clap) 17 18 (clap)



The person who loses 3 times has to face punishment.... i'l leave it up to your imagination.



Note: 30-32(clap once), 33 (clap twice), 34-35 (clap once), 36 (clap twice) and so forth..



Have fun!!

The magic of 7up!!

Fruit punch, there are so many types that we can make. But in line with simplicity, we just need 3 things. 7up, apple juice and fruits. Here's what we do, the formula is 1 part fruit juice 3 parts 7up.

So, pour in a beautiful glass bowl the fruit juice and 7up. Add ice in. Next cut up fruits that can stay afloat. For example, starfruit, cut in star shapes and float it. Or lemon slices, or kiwi fruit. I've tried simple fruits like apples and it works too, just make sure it's cut and soaked in salt water first, to avoid browning. There!!

You have a fruit punch minus all the complexity!!

(thanks to G for wonderful photography)

Chocolate slice recipe

For the potluck, i made the dessert. Here is the recipe:

Chocolate slice:

Base:
125g butter
2Tbs cocoa
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla

topping:
250g chocolate, melted



Base: Melt butter and cocoa. Add beaten eggs and sugar and beat it together. Add sifted flour, baking powder and vanilla. After that, add in raisins, and just mix it up. Pour into 18X30 pan, and bake for 20 mins, 180C. Allow to cool.


After making topping, pour over cake.


Topping: Melt Chocolate in a bowl placed over another bigger bowl of hot water. Depending on chocolate, add sugar to suit your taste.

Almost Vegetarian Potluck Menu for 15 people

It looks like we'll be having a nearly vegetarian potluck this time, not by intention, just that everyone prefers if we have more greens. That's no problem, that would mean that we have to balance it out with a little more carbo main meals.

So, after asking around, the menu will be:

Asian:

Fried Noodles

Fried Rice

Stir fry brocolli

Mixed vegetables

Fried Vegetable dumplings

Vegetarian meat ( specialty stores)


Western:

Pasta salad

Creamy potatoes



Dessert:

Chocolate slice

Konnyaku jelly


Drinks:

Fruit Punch

Simple entertaining- Potluck for 15 people

Next up is quite an easy project. I'm hosting a potluck for 15 people who will be gathering for an informal welcome to a friend who is visitng. Since it's potluck, it'll be quite straightforward. Menu plans coming up....

now for the budget report.....

Here is rough budget report:

Meat: RM150

(I bought the extra 2 kg of pork ribs and that was finished.

However, we had a leftover of 20 chicken wings and a bit of beef.

So, my earlier estimate was right)

Vegetables: RM 30

Desserts: RM 30

Drinks RM 40

Others: RM50

Result: Overall, it was just a little over budget. I was very surprised that a simple menu like that was enough and satisfying for everybody.

Work off that barbeque!!

Now, after all that food, we need some active games, but not that active, for fear of indigestion.!! First, you should get the organizer or anyone with a powerful voice to organize everybody into two groups. Then, explain the game is a group game, where they have to work together.

Guess it! game:

Organizer: In a box, put in 5 places, 5 occupations, 5 malaysian words.
Eg: occupation: rubbish collector, fishmonger
Eg: places: leaning tower of piza, Australia.
Eg: malaysian words: nasi lemak, KLCC


How to play: Get 2 people from each group to come out. Organizer pulls out a word from box. Shows it to the 4 people. Now, each group is suppose to act out the word and let the other members of their group guess it. They are not suppose to talk at all.
Organizer announces the category (there's only two: either person/place or malaysian).

Rules: The actors are not allowed to talk, just act. No sign language, no writing out of words.
Time limit: 1min
The word must be exact. Eg: if it's KLCC, then, twin towers is wrong, it must be exactly
KLCC.
The group who gets the answer first has to show some signal.
Eg: All stand up, all put up their hands....

Winner: The one who guesses the fastest wins!!

Barbeque Recipes and To do list

Here are some simple ideas and recipes based on the menu

(remember this barbeque is for 20 people)
1) Fish
After cleaning and scaling the fish, freeze it till the barbeque day. On that day, defrost it, and then season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. If using foil, just leave lemon in the fish, to make sure it stays moist. You'll taste the freshness of fish with a bit of lemony taste.


2) Chicken wings
Marinade the chicken wings the day before. A simple marinade is

4 whole garlic, crushed
2 medium size onions
12 tbsp soy sauce
8 tbsp honey
4 tbs tomato sauce
8 tsp grated ginger
1/2 cup oil
black pepper
Some commercial barbeque sauce (i use LIFE)

3) For beef and pork
Marinade the meat a day before

Handful of Garlic
Handful of Onion
3 squirts of mustard
2 cups ketchup
8 tbs brown sugar
8tbs worchester sauce
4 tbs vinegar
Lemon/ Lime juice
Mint, thyme, mixed herbs

4) Easy potato salad

1kg potatoes(peeled, cut to bite size pieces)
300g bacon
Mayonaise
salt and pepper to taste
basil, mint or any herbs

1) Cook potatoes in salted water till almost soft. (careful we dont want mash potatoes).Drain, set aside.
2) Fry up bacon with a bit of oil. When it looks crisp, dish out. Crumble it. (Use knife and chop if you want)
3) Combine all.
4) Serve hot. WONDERFUL!! And Voila!! Simple, right?

5)Dessert
Use a piece of foil and put a banana with skin in it. Slit the banana, and place a piece of
chocolate in the middle. Seal the packet and barbeque it for 5-10 mins. Serve with ice cream.

To-do list
Before the actual day: Buy all the meats, marinade ingredients, bread, drinks, fruits, other ingredients. Prepare the salad dressing for the vegetable salad, marinade the meats. Extra garlic can be mixed with melted butter for the garlic bread.

Actual day: Get your friends together and have some talk time while preparing the food. Ask the girls to prepare the garlic bread, chop up vegetables for the salad, set up drink counter, dessert counter including cut the watermelon while you make the potato salad and wash the corn. An hour before the crowd comes in, ask the guys to set up the barbeque and start off with some of the meat.

Barbeque menu for 20 people

Meat:
Estimating about 200gm per person, this should be more than enough for everybody with extras too. ( if your friends have a huge appetite, then consider getting more chicken wings, or 2 kg of pork ribs)

1 kg Grilled Fish
40 Chicken wings
1 kg Beef
2 kg Pork Chops

Salads:
We need vegetables to balance the barbeque meat, and salads are really refreshing and goes wonderfully with barbeque.


Lettuce and tomato salad
Potato salad
Garlic bread

Others:
Corn

Dessert:
We need desserts too. So, in line with our barbeque theme, we'll have:

Chocolate bananas
Watermelon

Drinks:
Soft drinks

Depending on how our budget goes, the balance can be used to buy wine or beer.