Four Cheese Chive Souffle

This is a cheesy, savoury soufflé that you can serve as an appetiser. We had this during New Year's Eve dinner at home.  The soufflé is light and airy and can be an impressive start for a gourmet meal, but it's very easy to make. I asked my teenaged son to help me with this (well, he practically did almost everything...but he just didn't know it!)

Baked Mushroom Crisp

This mushroom dish is so easy to make that my teenaged son makes it by himself. It's actually adapted from Jamie Oliver's Italian Style Baked Cheesy Mushrooms but we modified it by using Asian mushrooms, and putting the bread layer on top of, instead of under the mushrooms. When we tried putting the bread underneath the mushrooms, they turned mushy after baking. :(  Thus, in this dish, my son opted to put the bread and cheese on TOP of the mushrooms instead, making a crispier texture which is much better than Jamie's version.

Easy Puff Pastry Fruit Tart

My Pear & Strawberry Tart, served with a Berry Ice Cream.

This is a quick dessert. It's beautiful, delicious and healthy, and takes no more than 30 minutes to prepare.

Homemade Baked Apple Granola

Homemade baked apple granola, served with sour cream.

This is a simple, healthy breakfast treat that you can make, instead of getting commercial granola. It has the healthy crunch of oats, the fragrance of dessicated coconut and the vitamins from green and red apples.

Bihod (Fish Roe) & Clam Pasta

This is a very easy seafood pasta to make, made from bihod, which is fish roe from the Philippines. I suppose you can use other kinds of roe, but the one I use comes in a bottle, and what must be a thousand tiny fish eggs are submerged in olive oil. I don't think it's available in Singapore; I either buy it in Manila when I go there for a trip, or friends and family bring it over for me.

Mulled Wine: Christmas in a Mug

My Mulled Wine. Christmas in a Mug!

I first heard of (and tasted) mulled wine from my very good friend +marica velasquez-bautista, creator of blog Mama Munch's Kitchen. She has lived in some countries with very cold, icy winters. Marica gave me a bottle of this delicious brew a few years ago one Christmas, when we were both living in hot, humid Singapore.

Mulled wine always reminds me of Christmas, because of, not only its warm temperature, but its warm spices, like cinnamon and cloves. So even if we're here in hot and humid Singapore, it always reminds me of winter!

I recently made some a few days ago for a Christmas party at my home, and all my guests were impressed....and giddy. One of my friends who spent her childhood in Canada exclaimed, "This reminds me of Canada in the winter.....even if we're here in hot and humid Singapore!"

That's what my family calls the "Ratatouille Effect," from the Pixar animated film "Ratatouille". The food critic suddenly remembered his Mom's cooking when he tasted the chef/rat's food!

This recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver's.

Our Matcha-misu

I was going to make some of our favourite Mango-misu for our Christmas Eve dinner (that's another recipe altogether), but there were no good mangoes at the grocery. :( Darn! But I had already brought the cream and the mascarpone cheese a day before, so it would be a pity not to push through with tiramisu. So I quickly thought of other tiramisu flavours to try and thought of Green Tea.  I walked to the Japanese section of the grocery, and luckily, found some matcha powder!