Oatmeal and Raisins Cookies

Yes it has been a long while since I cooked or baked anything, please forgive my laziness at times. The important thing is that I am back! Cookies have to be one the easiest items for those who enjoy baking but I still post this up because it means more than just a tray of simple Oatmeal and Raisins cookies, it marked the re-beginning of my cooking habits. I am driven not just for the love for food, I am driven by my passion and will to cook, bake, create, serve, love and eat of course.  No matter it makes much sense to you or not, it makes perfect sense to me which is most important. I followed Bill Grander's Everyday recipe (thanks http://gastronomousanonymous.com/ for the recipe book! ), simple and ready to eat within an hour for sure! Oatmeal and Raisins Cookies, Enjoy! :)

Christmas Eve Dinner - Turkey

I know it is a bit too late but Merry Christmas everyone! It is better late than never right? :) ... I missed the chance to roast up turkey during Thanksgiving so I got to make it up somehow right? Christmas would be the perfect time to do so. It was Christmas Eve 2010 and a simple home dinner was all I wanted. My aunt invited me over for dinner on this special night because she was having TURKEY!! I was lucky enough that I only needed to show up and eat, but I felt bad so I helped her with the turkey by ... readjusting the it and put in more stuffing ... HAHA ... would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to my aunt for inviting me over and I would like to share the wonderful feast with all of you!

The Gingery - Winter Collection 2010

The title of this post hides no secret, it literally means Winter Collection for my freshly baked Gingerbread Men / Ladies! It may seems odd that I am doing such a thing but let me explain how I got inspired to work on this late night project. Inspiration: (1) Hong Kong Fashion Geek's coverage on their recent H&M x Lanvin craze, (2) my recent desire to crate stuff and (3) my recent Gingerbread Man Jamming session at Christmas Fair Tiffany (and my semi-shirtless gingerbread man). Actually there was a 4th inspiration which was from V who kindly gave me some of her first batch of gingerbread men this year (see attached pictures at the end of this post, their cuteness inspired me to do the same and bake some of my own gingerbread men! Thanks V). During the recent H&M x Lanvin 1-day sale, I saw many people lining up outside the store 4am the morning before with blankets and folding chairs looking at the display window that hosted the collection which they were so anxiously waiting to buy. Was is worth the wait? I cannot be the right person to judge unless we are talking about queue and food. It would be weird for me to line up just for the sake of experiencing the hype and part with nothing, so I decided to create my own collection, one that I design, one that I require no queuing to experience and one that I can EAT! ... The Gingery by Jason - Winter Collection 2010 is official launched!

Spam Party

Some like to call it Canned Food Party, I prefer to call it SPAM PARTY! The whole point of this party was to prepare snacks and food using only canned food. Most of the items included Spam / Luncheon Meat so Spam Party is perfect! I would like to take this opportunity to extend thanks to Mochachocolata Rita for preparing most of the items, details of the relevant recipes can be found ~~ HERE ~~~. You can check out Gastronomous Anonymous' version HERE as well.

Char Siu / BBQ Pork Cupcakes

Crazy? I denied it! It is through a bit of craziness that inspired new creations. This post is 100% inspired by @mochachocolata's idea. I forgot how the topic came about but somehow we talked about the many cupcakes around town, all of them are sweet as they should be; but why can't we have char siu (BBQ Pork) cupcakes which are non-sweet? Do we still call it cupcakes then? We don't know but we like to call it Char Siu Cupcakes anyhow. The modified yoghurt-based char siu cupcakes recipe is adopted from vanilla cupcakes from Joy of Baking which is now my other source of inspiration when it comes to baking.

Banana Muffins at 10:30pm

There is nothing wrong with baking muffins at 10:30pm! I was bored so I baked, time was not of importance! I hate bananas but I love all kinds of banana by-products such as banana pudding, banana muffins or even banana shakes. Most recipes are for 12 muffins so being the lazy person that I am, I decided to make 6 muffins and 3 mini loaves! My recipe was a combination of these two from Cat Can Cook and Joy of Baking. I like mine less sweet and with strong banana flavor.

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you are hungry in the middle of the time, the best thing to do is to pour yourself a glass of milk and bake some cookies to go along with it! My new best friend, aka the new oven, inspired to on this late weeknight to do exactly that with the help of Ms. Betty Crocker and her Chocolate Chips cookie mix.



Recipe
The bag of cookie mix can make 3 dozens cookies but that would be too many for me on this late night venture so I used 1/3 of the mix & try to make larger cookies instead

• 1 egg (recipe at the back of the package suggest 1 egg for the entire mix but I don't know how to divide a raw egg by 1/3 so I used 1 whole egg instead)
• butter (recipe at the back of the package suggest 1 stick of butter but since 1/3 mix, 1/3 of a butter stick only)
• 1/3 of the cookie mix

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 375F or about 190C. Stir softened butter and egg in bowl. Then stir in cookie mix as well until soft dough forms.



Step 2 - Drop the dough onto un-greased cookie sheet. Use a teaspoon to do so to ensure consistency. (make sure you leave enough space in between cookie dough for it to expand, I learned it the HARD way ... see below)



Step 3 - Slide in the tray into the oven and bake for about 10 mins (or 13 for larger cookies)



Oooops, FAILED!! HAHA ... I forgot that the dough would expand during baking and they were no longer bite size but they were simply HUGE! They were sticking onto each other, turning my tray of cookies into a tray of double chocolate brownies. HAHA ... 1.5" apart is the golden rule! By the way, it was my FIRST time baking cookies! so I am learning it the hard way!



Step 4 - let it cool for about 1 min before removing from tray. (PLEASE don't laugh at the size of the cookies! I now know that the golden rule is 1.5" apart and never over-mix it because it will flatten out!)



Great! The cookies looked much better after plating! Don't you agree? HAHA ... (some whip cream to go along would be nice!!) I still have 2/3 o the mix left so I will make better cookies next time :)