It’s Christmas all year round in San Francisco

I literally gasped when i laid my eyes on this.

When we were driving up the hills to capture the shot, the name “Christmas tree point” came up on the GPS.

The perfect name for the perfect spot.

Can you guess which city this is?

Maybe this might help,

That’s the Bay bridge all right,

and this is the beautiful beautiful city of San Francisco.

And i am so appreciative of each and every twinkling light from the city that made this crazy view possible!

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Exploring L.A-la Land

Hi all!

Sorry i havent been baking.

I have  been busy celebrity sighting

That’s right. That’s the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I am currently vacationing the city of Los Angeles! And i absolutely absolutely love it here!

Can you spot the celebrated “hollywood” sign?

Sorry for the bad picture. This was taken while i was on board a city tour bus.

I didn’t know how to get nearer to the sign.

Is it even possible to get nearer to the sign?

Well, at least this sign is bigger.

THE Beverly Hill.

The city with the most luxurious homes and perfectly manicured lawns.

Homes of the rich and famous.

Not to forget Rodeo Drive.

The shopping district tenanted by the highest fashion brands, with the corresponding steep price tags to prove.

I also had a milkshake.

A milkshake crafted by teen sensation, Miley Cyrus. for the Milkshake shop, Millions of Milkshake.

It was vanilla ice cream, blended with cookie dough and reese’s PB Cuups.

Miley really knew how to design a milkshake.

I smiled for a mile as i walked and drank this milkshake.

Despite all that, i unfortunately didn’t spot any celebrities.

except for these two bozos, Buzz and Woody.

Two best friends chilling and chatting on the streets of Hollywood. 🙂

 

With all these going on, baking will have to wait for now.

I have to explore this wondrous city of LA.

Where the people are all so friendly,

And the weather so fine and balmy.

YAY for LA!

I spread Nutella on everything!

So i like Nutella.

I like them in cookies,

i like them in brownies,

and i like them in pastries.

And  now i like them in donuts.

Chocolate hazelnut goodness piped into a piece of fluffy light deep fried dough.

It’s totally worth going to the gym for.

Speaking of which, I wonder whether most people go to the gym because they need to burn all the excess calories they ate?

Or do they go to the gym so that they can eat excess calories?

I belong to team eat first, gym later.

I will eat this, and vouch to go to the gym.

And 30 percent of the time, I deliver.

For the remaining 70 percent, i just sucked it in. Literally. I suck in my stomach.

And then i make more donuts,

this time for my niece, who loves sprinkles everything.

And like all girls her age (3), pink is her favourite crayon.

but lets not digress, for this post is dedicated to NUTELLA.

And i am not done with showing you what i’ve got.

That’s a generous spoonful of Nutella.

It took quite a bit for me not to just shovel it into my mouth.

Because i had grander plans,

And that’s to spread it on a piece of crepes

Then top it with Bananas

awesome-ness! 🙂

Egg Sandwich and Baked Sweet Potato Fries

So we had egg salad sandwiches for breakfast today.

It was creamy, and delicious.

 And i learnt how to hard boil eggs.

The trick was to Place eggs in a pan full of cold water, taking note that all eggs are fully submerged,

then to heat the pan over medium high heat till the water comes to boil. 

After the water came to a boil, switch off the heat, cover the pan with a lid, and walk away.  

You would need 10 mins before the eggs get cooked in the hot water.

You can pretty much do whatever u want during this time..

I took this time to get started with making some sweet potato fries.

Baked, not fried, to offset the not-so-healthy mayo in that egg salad.

 Seems like making crispy baked sweet potato fries had its own tips and tricks too.

I am not yet an expert. But for this version, the sliced baked potatoes were rinsed in cold water, patted dry and tossed in egg whites.

And if you think tossing sweet potatoes in egg whites are weird, you are not alone. I too thought the same way.

But somehow, the egg whites did manage to dry surfaces of the sweet potatoes. My sweet potatoes came out pretty crisp on the surface, but still retained its moistness within. 

It was a good breakfast !

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries from Natural Noshings

Mini Pizza Bites

I knew i had to make these the first time i saw it at Annie’s eats.

Mini Pizza Bites.

Mini buns of pizza dough, wrapping around cheese and pepperoni.

Totally handy to eat.

Because they dont drip and droop they way pizzas do,

and because they are bite sized.

They are also not crazily coated with pizza sauce. Which makes them light enough for breakfast.

Hmmm breakfast…

 I am a morning person. Breakfast is totally my favourite meal of the day.

But if for some reason, sauce-less pizza bites for breakfast dont fly with you,

You can totally have pizza dipping sauce at the side (I just warmed ready made pizza sauce).

Either way, they were wonderful. And they are totally making it to my breakfast staple list.

Pizza Bites taken from Annie’s Eats

 

Eggs in Purgatory

This dish has such a fancy name to it.

It’s called “Eggs in Purgatory”.

Originating from Italy, the signature appearance of this dish is that of a poached egg swimming in a sea of hellish red hot sauce.

That pretty much explains the name doesnt it?

I am unsure of how it is done traditionally.

But i had tomato sauce based pasta with meatballs the night before. And i had leftovers.

Waste not, want not. Right?

My Eggs in Purgatory lies on a bed of leftover cooked pasta.

To which i spooned my leftover tomato sauce, and a poached egg.

You might want to be really really careful in transferring half cooked poached eggs. I hold my breath each time i have to do it

My tomato sauce looks a bit pale. I originally used canned whole tomatoes as a starting point for the sauce. But found the taste to be too sharp.

I added milk into it in an attempt to tone down on the acidity.

]The taste did soften a bit. So did the colour.

Nevertheless, pale coloured or not, It still made for breakfast.

Along with the company of the leftover meatballs and french toast.

A dinner turned breakfast. 🙂

Breakfast!

I have a new obsession.

It’s called making breakfast.

I dont mind waking up early, just to make breakfast.

I am not good at it though, cause most of the time, it involves cooking.

Take this cheese, ham and egg crepes for instance.

It involved cooking the crepes on the stove top first.

It took several tries, and a few youtube videos, before i somewhat got the hang of it.

Then, we arrange the crepes.

You would want the yolk to sit right smack in the centre.

That’s not easy, because eggs are slimy. They slid all over the place.

But thankfully, these made for breakfast.

In the quiet break of dawn, when the rest of the world is still asleep,

And when there is no one to annoy you.

Or break your focus as you try to flip crepe batter,

or attempt to hold runny egg yolks in place.

Ham, cheese and Egg Crepes from Framed Cooks

Ham and Cheese Sandwich

What you are looking at, is an attempt at making hamburger buns.

Go ahead, laugh if you want.

I know i have a long way to go in my shaping skills.

These may not look like hamburger buns, at least they still function as one.

Here it housed a slice of ham and cheese.

I would have totally put on some lettuce,

and maybe tomatoes.

But i didn’t have any of that fancy veggie stuff in my fridge.

I did however, used the leftover egg wash mixture for the buns,

to make scrambled eggs.

 

I hope everyone had a good breakfast.

I know i did!

Asian Sweet Bread Recipe for the Buns.

Fruit Tart

I made cream tarts today.

And topped it with strawberries and dragon fruit.

That’s health food allright.

 

 

It doesnt matter the butter in the crust.

Or the  full fat milk and whole yolks in the pastry cream.

Having fruits on the tarts offset that.

In fact, having fruits on anything is healthy by default.

Right.

Fruit Tart

Sweet Tart Pastry

250gr butter

110 gr icing sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

430 gr AP flour

1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla,

2. Beat flour into butter mixture till incorporated

3. Bake at 170 degree celcius till golden brown (about 15 – 20 mins)

 

4. Pipe pastry cream into baked shells

5. Arrange fresh fruits on pastry cream

Pastry Cream Recipe from Martha Stewart.

Black Bottomed Ovaltine Banana Bread

I bookmarked this Black Bottomed Banana Bread when i was searching for a banana bread recipe to use up my last batch of  mottling bananas.

I wanted to make this badly. But i couldn’t.

I was lacking the one ingredient that gave this banana bread its unique black bottom.  

Ovaltine.

Banana Bread and Ovaltine,

Are you sold on this yet?

I know i am.

In fact i am so sold on  this bread that i am thinking of ovaltin-izing the whole cake instead of just its bottom the next time i make this.

Just saying. 🙂

Black Bottomed Ovaltine Banana Bread from Meals.com