Cranky Domestic Goddess

Come this Monday, we’re gonna have another user-friendly meta search engine. It’s called Earthfrisk.org. It promises a more effective and concise search, which means less spam and denotes a better ranking system versus Google’s (Yay! Finally, we can kiss google goodbye!). It’ll also come with a downloadable toolbar for IE and Firefox. Let’s take a look at How Earthfrisk.org Works. Here’s to a better future with searching for the information you need. For someone like me, who’s constantly using search engine to search for information, I surely cannot wait for Earthfrisk.org to roll out next Monday!

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Gonna get out of the house and get some fresh air tomorrow. It’s the weekend before Christmas Eve. So the supermarkets and shopping malls will be sardine-packed with throngs of people doing their last minute shoppings. I’m not one of those last minute shoppers but I would like to catch some best buys since I have the time to “kill”. Quite a number of shops have started their sales at the start of this week. So I am hoping there will be more shops and hopefully Stockmann will be ripping off more discounts on their stocks.

Are you all set for Christmas? Or do you still have some stuff left on the list to buy? Better do it tomorrow. The weekend is going to be busy … you might not be able to get what you need by the weekend. Get the grocery list ready so you won’t miss a thang over the long holiday! I’ve got my grocery list ready and the thing I need most is a 2-3kg ham.  Or else Christmas Eve dinner would be a disaster. Oh yeah, my hubby is going to smoke a salmon. And yeah, I’ll have to put that down. Really wonder what’s with him … FISH FOR Christmas? Eeeewwwyyuccckk …

I made cheesy potatoes and onions casserole just a few days ago. 1kg of frozen potatoes and onions. You can get this from the supermarket at the frozen stuff section. 1 packet of 250gm shredded emmental cheese. 2 packets of cream for cooking. A few dashes of black pepper.

Set your oven to 200C to preheat for 20 minutes. In the meantime, spread even the potatoes and onions in the casserole pan (whatever shape and size you desire), then pour in the cooking cream and lastly the shredded emmental cheese and black pepper. Once the oven is ready, put in the casserole for an hour of baking at 175C.

It goes with any kind of dishes. We had it with homemade meatballs in brown sauce and lingonberry jam. Ideal lunch or snack for little fellas. I normally made it and store in the freezer so that I can heat it up in the micro and serve it to my boy for lunch or dinner later.

I’m lazy to put this simple recipe in perfect order. Tired. Real tired.

Two weeks ago, my friends and I went to Bossa & Boteca located at 21 Annankatu Helsinki for a girls’ night out. It was also a pikku-joulu for us. It’s been a while since we last had a gathering. I think the last time we were out all together was on Chinese New Year where we had Yee Sang at YP’s place.

Bossa Boteca hosts a varied choice of Brazilian dishes. From the menu, we know that tapioca is a main food staple for Brazilians - just like rice to Chinese. I had deep-fried chicken with steamed/ boiled tapioca. It may looked like a simple main course - dang! It was sure filling! Seija and I both had the same. YP had grilled lamb ribs, P had vegetarian and L had the best of all - beef steak! It was a large portion and considered quite cheap for just 25euros. The portions may seem a little small but it’s really filling.

The atmosphere was not so inviting. A bit too simple and doesn’t carry a Brazilian feel. The setting of the tables was quite disappointing as we had to squeeze ourselves and sat bump-to-bump with patrons seated behind of us. Service wise, we’re very happy about it. Our dinner was overly delayed. I think we waited like 45 minutes for our main course to be served - so you can imagine the hang of it right after some mouth-watering appetizers. Our stomachs were already screaming for MORE … We had the waitress over a few times asking her when our dinner would be served. Then I quickly added that we shall all be compensated with desserts for the long wait. WOW! I got it for us. We had yummy yummy desserts, tea, coffee and espressos after the dinner. The girls had red wine during the meal while I only had orange juice - I’m allergic to alcohol! How pathetic!

Too bad, there isn’t a site for Bossa & Boteca yet. It’s newly opened and it’s first premier was 29 November. I’m sure they will have a website coming soon! And oh by the way, I don’t recall the name of the food. Was too busy snapping pix of the food without thinking of a pix of the menu. Anyway, here are some pix:

Here’s the website of a sister restaurant in Turku.

This summer, my boy picked berries and fed a family friend at my in-law’s summer cottage. I love this pix. It definitely depicts child bonding.

This pix made me realize that my boy had never fed me this way before. Why didn’t I encourage him to do so? It’s a kind gesture. Probably I was being too obstinate, thinking that the berries are (still am) too dirty. Was also thinking maybe he might hurt himself or picked the wrong ones to eat. After checking this pix, I changed my mind. Will definitely get him to do it next summer. Child bonding is essential. This family friend in the picture is a dad and a granddad. So he has all the experience needed for child bonding. He is very good with little children. I guess patience is the number one factor that he has but I don’t. My boy was very nice to him. He seem to understand him eventhough neither understood what each other was talking about. He spoke finnish and my boy spoke hokkien and english. *haha* It was definitely funny watching the chicken communicating with the duck

I was so tired today, I just sat in front of the laptop and watched a TVB series the whole day. I had porridge with fried ham, ikan bilis and eggs. Added a little bit of ¨O Tau Yew¨ to go with it. It was the yummiest breakfast I had since I came back from Malaysia in August. I’ve been pretty lethargic lately. I also have this sudden craving for food, just anytime of the day. Even just right after a meal. Darn, I’m so afraid to gain the extra weight - let’s pray hard I won’t.

About 5pm, I decided to bake some muffins and pippari (finnish gingerbread). I have taken pix of them but will post them later together with the recipe. I am in the midst of trying vegetarian muffin (without eggs) and with veges (supposed to be salty - ideal for light dinner). Since, Christmas is just around the corner, everyone is busy baking gingerbreads and torttu (finnish pastry with plum jam). It’s a tradition. The doughs can be bought ready-made from the supermarket but I prefer to prepare the dough myself as it is less greasy. The ready-made ones are oily and yucky! They don’t stay crispy after a day.

Lots to prepare for the coming Christmas as we’re gonna be celebrating Christmas at home. Just the three of us. I’m gonna be preparing our Xmas ham a little different this year - Seija’s recipe I call it. Oki doki, this tired mama has to kick in now. Will post the recipes tomorrow or day after. Depending on the weather and my mood.

What you need:

3 eggs
3 dl baking flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla sugar / 1 tsp vanilla essence
6 dl milk
2 tbsp of butter - use real butter (margarine not so good)

How you make:

Add milk and eggs to flour. Mix them well.
Add in salt (normally I just add in a pinch of salt or don’t add any at all) and the vanilla sugar / vanilla essence
If your butter is frozen. Warm the knife in hot water. Slice a small piece from the butter. Melt it in the micro. Then pour it into the mixture. Set aside for half an hour
Heat up the oven at 200C for 5 minutes
Prepare the baking pan for the mixture - put a piece of baking paper on the baking pan so that the pancake doesn’t stick to the pan - an easier method versus brushing butter over it
Pour in the mixture and put in to bake for 20-30 minutes

How you serve:

Freshly brewed coffee
Strawberry jam
Syrup
Sugar - my favorite

How many servings:

8-10 portions

Occasions:

Snack
Afternoon coffee break on Sundays
Supper

I’ve always had trouble using the old fashion kitchen scale. To be honest, I hate reading the measurement. Each time, it looked like the hand was trying to delude me. I just despise it! Ever since I moved here, I hardly use any weighing scale to measure the amount of flour needed to bake my favorite butter cake and cookies. I used the measurement cup instead. But measurement cups can be misleading sometimes. I am fed up. Now I am looking for a new digital kitchen scale. Have been hunting and scouring the internet for days and finally I found this real fancy Escali Primo digital scale which is not only perfect for kitchen use. It is also ideal for office use - measure the weight of mails or papers. I have also seen pharmacists using it to measure the amount of medicines. It’s a multi-purpose digital scale. What surprised me most is that it’s so affordable. I thought a digital kitchen scale costs over a hundred bucks. Looks like I am wrong! I’m going to get one from ScalesEtc.com since I’ve got tonnes of ginger bread cookies (hubby’s favorite) and torttu (finnish Christmas pastries) to bake this Christmas.

What you need:

2 chicken breasts (cut into cubes)
5-6 dried chillies (soaked and cut)
1 onion (sliced)
1 fresh chili
1 bell pepper - green or red
cashew nuts
oil

Marinade:

1 tbs Chinese cooking wine
1 tbs light soy sauce
2 tbs corn flour

Seasoning:

3 tbs Black Vinegar
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs water
Corn flour mixture (just add water to it - thickening agent)

How you make:

Marinade chicken for at least an hour
Stir fry chicken to get rid of excess water for a few minutes - varies from one person to another
Fry cashew nuts in oil until golden brown - set aside
Heat oil and fry onions for 1 minute
Add dried chilli and fry till fragrant (about 30 seconds)
Add all seasoning except corn flour mixture
When the sauce boils, gradually add in the corn flour mixture till the sauce thickens
Add in the chicken and stir-fry for a couple of minutes
Spread cashew nuts over the dish

How you serve:

Jasmine rice
Far Kuen - flower buns
Chinese tea

How many servings:

3-4 persons

Occasions:

Lunch or dinner