A Pleasant Surprise to Start the Week

Posted on June 1, 2015 by The Giddy Tigress

surpriseharvest

See those two white radishes?  They were part of my edible garden harvest today!! I hadn’t even planned on harvesting them, but this morning, as I was pulling out weeds in my containers and planters, I noticed these white radishes peeking through from the soil.  I didn’t even know they had grown so big!

I have a few more growing in my planters but they aren’t ready for harvesting yet.  These two homegrown white radishes will go into our vegetable soup this week!  Hurrah!!

Hopefully this is a sign of more exciting surprises in store for the week!

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Our Easy and Healthy Dinner Last Night

Posted on May 29, 2015 by The Giddy Tigress

As a mother who takes care of three kids, runs errands on a daily basis, manages the household chores (dishes, laundry), does gardening, runs her own online business and of course oversees meal plans for the week, it goes without saying that I often rely on fuss-free meals for the family.  I try my best not to do fast food though.

My guidelines are that is has to be SIMPLE, NUTRITIOUS and LOVED.

Yesterday, I had planned on making a carrot and corn soup for the kids, but the grocery store I visited did not have corn available.  So I had to change my meal plans on the spot and ended up getting some vegetables for a simple-to-make dinner.

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Here’s the soup I made.  It’s a chicken vegetable soup.  So easy to make…and great if you have kids to help you out in the kitchen too!  Here I used chicken breast fillet, chopped celery, sliced brown onions, carrots and tomato.  I added a bay leaf and some seasoning and served it with boiled penne pasta and some homegrown basil leaves.

The kids loved it and even my 2-year old toddler kept asking for more!  She ate everything, including the celery and the onions.

I also whipped up a healthy and yummy side salad using sliced cabbage, sliced brown onions, chopped green apples, celery, cherry tomatoes and dried cranberries.  I dressed it with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.

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What did you have for dinner?  Do you have a simple dinner dish for the family that you can share with me?

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My Dear Laptop is in Hospital

Posted on May 21, 2015 by The Giddy Tigress

 Vaio1

After having my laptop for 5 years, I finally had to bring her in to the hospital today. For the past week, she had been exhibiting signs of some illness: unable to shut down completely and connection to the wifi was erratic and sometimes tremendously slow.

When all methods of home medication failed, I decide to send her to the doctors who would do a thorough checkup of the hardware and software and hopefully fix whatever is wrong.

The checkup would take about 2-3 days so I won’t be seeing my laptop for that duration of time. I am currently blogging from the iPad. Praying that she will soon be healed and be restored to her former healthy self again.

Missing you much, my dear Vaio…

Getwell

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A Humble Harvest

Posted on May 15, 2015 by The Giddy Tigress

As my little edible garden continues to grow and grow, I am so pleased that in addition to the spring onions I harvest on a regular basis, I now have other edibles I can use in my kitchen too.  Here’s what I brought in yesterday:

harvest1On the left, I have my Genovese basil, which, to my delight, has been growing extremely well since I fertilised it with organic sheep poo, and also because it has been raining quite regularly nowadays.

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The red spiky fruits are roselle calyxes from my organic roselle plants.  I’m storing them so that when I have enough I will be able to make my own roselle juice.  These roselle plants are super easy to grow as they require full-on sunshine.

I had only one lone okra for yesterday, which I will add to my collection in the refrigerator.  I have about 4-5 okra plants now, and I have also been able to share the fruits of my labor with friends too.  The okra is actually very sweet-tasting…even little Emma likes to eat them!

I used half of my Genovese basil to make spaghetti aglio olio last night, and the other half I was thinking of perhaps cooking a pot of basil chicken in a couple of days’ time.  It’s so much fun cooking with my homegrown food, and you know what…my kids have even said that my homegrown spring onions taste far better than other spring onions they have tasted!

I’m looking forward to harvesting my soon-to-be-ready turnips!  Woohoo!!

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Ultimate Moist and Fluffy Butter Cake – The Giddy Tigress Way

Posted on May 6, 2015 by The Giddy Tigress

After experimenting with various recipes and tips, I am pleased to announce that I have finally perfected the recipe for the ultimate moist and fluffy butter cake.  It is now my go-to recipe when I need a quick and easy cake that is guaranteed to satisfy and is loved by all.

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Usually I’d bake the butter cake au naturel, i.e. plain yellow, but today I decided to tweak the recipe a little to turn it into a marble cake.  All I did was scoop up about half a cup of batter and mix in about a tablespoon of cocoa powder.  Then I layered the cocoa butter in the middle of the two yellow layers, and used a fork to swirl it around before baking.

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This cake is perfect for any occasion: birthdays, weddings and yes, it complements that hot steaming cup of latte or cappucino too!  Best of all, it can be whipped up in a jiffy!

I’m going to share with you now my two secret tips to make this butter cake fluffy and moist:

  • The butter needs to come straight from the refrigerator.  NOT room temperature.  Take it out of that chiller and cut it into cubes.  Rough cubes will do, there’s no need to measure them all to be the same size.
  • Eggs need to be separated and the whites need to be whipped into stiff peaks.  I usually do this before I start mixing the batter, just so I have the egg whites ready to go when I need them.

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You will still produce an edible serving of butter cake if you don’t follow the two tips above, but I cannot guarantee the moistness and fluffiness.

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Ultimate Butter Cake – The Giddy Tigress Way

Ingredients:

  • 250gm butter (straight from fridge, cubed).  Some bars of butter come in 227g.  You can use just one of those.  24g difference doesn’t make much of a difference, as my recipe is quite forgiving.
  • 200gm caster sugar
  • 250gm flour (self-raising) or if you don’t have self-raising flour, use 250gm all-purpose/plain flour + 3 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp salt
  • 4 eggs (separated)
  • 200g UHT/fresh milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer until fluffy.
  2. Add in egg yolks and mix until creamy.
  3. Add milk, vanilla and the flour mixture.  Mix until combined.
  4. Whip egg whites until you get stiff peaks. Fold in the cake mixture until incorporated.
  5. Pour into lined 9″ baking pan and bake at 170ºC or 335ºF for 40 mins or until set.
  6. Share some with me! 😀

 

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