Santa has arrived!

Finallyyyy, Santa (aka Mr.Mailman) arrived at my house this morning! We all have to understand that he has been working hard for all of us. He had to fly all the way from "the almost north pole country" (aka Canada) to Bangkok, Thailand. So, we have to forgive him for his delay. :D

I have been looking forward to getting my sister's Christmas package! Thank you, Sis! xoxo We all love the presents that you sent, especially your homemade christmas cards! I felt like a little kid when I was opening the hugh DHL box. hahaha

Well, now it's time to tell you what I got! 

First, a lovely beautiful card that is made by my sister! I wish I know how to use illustrator as good as her! My sister specially made a card for each of us. So, the first one (below) is for me, the second is for my dad, and the third is for my mom. Since I love baking, she made a gingerbread house for me! :D I think she should start making cards and sell them on Etsy!

 

My second present is Starbucks's nesting tea cups. They only have this in States and Canada, I believe. Starbucks's Christmas merchandises here in Bangkok is totally different from North America. So, I'm happy to get these lovely tea cups! New props for my photos!

My third present is the cake tester from Crate and Barrel. The top of the tester is in the shape of cupcake. It's so cute. I wanted this for while now. So, I finally get it! Now, I don't have to use little toothpicks that never long enough to test the cake. hahaha. Sweeeet!

Last but not least is the candy & deep fryer thermometer. I'm so excited to use this to make some homemade salted caramel, peanut brittle, pates de fruits, and many more! Stay tuned. I will make them soon!

After all, I have to give a biggest thank you to my beloved sister! xoxo

Happy Holiday!

Happy Holiday to you all. I wish you all have a wonderful

holiday filled with love and sweetness!

Canadian Butter Tarts

" Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

had a very shiny nose.

And if you ever saw him,

you would even say it glows.... " 

Oh, Christmas is almost here. Can you believe that? I'm still remember this time last year I was baking orange and pecan rugalach and nanaimo bars for my school's Christmas party. A year has gone by so fast!! It's scary to think about it.

Since it's holiday shopping time of the year, there are different events happened around Bangkok. Couple weeks ago, there was a shopping fair at a mall near my house. They had booths held by different countries around the world. Each of them sell food and products from their country. And of course, I had to stop by the Canadian booth! The booth was quite small compared to States and UK, unfortunately. They had the good old Canadian maple syrup and some baked goods. And they even had the Canadian butter tarts. It was so tempting to buy, but I didn't because I knew I can bake them easily.

My first time eating these lovely butter tarts was probably 10 years ago when I first moved to Canada for high school. I lived with a lovely host family for 3 years before I moved to Kingston, ON for the university. They are pretty much my "Canadian" parents. My host mother who is such a good cook and also the best baker made these butter tarts for Christmas.

This year, I'm sharing this lovely Canadian butter tart recipe to you all. I hope you enjoy my special hand-drawn recipe too. For those of you who never have the butter tarts before, I hope you enjoy them.

Happy whisking holiday, Everyone!   

Strawberry Shortcake

Sometimes, life can be so chaotic. Everyone do deserve a break. So, today I have a quick dessert idea that all of you will love it. Who like Strawberry Shortcake put your hand(s) up? Yes, I am one of them!

I am not sure whether I can say it is Winter in Thailand now even though it is still 30C in Bangkok, lol. But, the weather in the northern of Thailand is much cooler (maybe around 17C and even cooler if you go up on the top of the mountains). We start to see some fresh strawberries from Chiang Mai, and I am excited to see them.  I have to buy them!

Here is some notes I have for the recipe. The recipe I gave below has no measurement in it. Since we want something easy and fast, why bother mearsure out all the ingredients. Right? If you like lots of strawberries, go ahead buy a lot and cut in halves a lot. If you are a big fan of whipped cream, just keep whipping it!

I hope this will be one of the perfect ways to end your day. Hope you all enjoy the recipe!







Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberries, halved
honey
Balsamic vinegar
Whipped cream
Store-bought pound cake, sliced

In a medium bowl, cut strawberries in halves. Add a little of honey and balsamic vinegar; 1-2 tsp is just fine for 10-12 strawberries. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 mins. This allows strawberries to release all the yummy juice. To serve, place a piece (or more) of the pound cake on dessert plate. Top with strawberries and whipped cream. Don't forget the juice!

Homemade Granola

My morning hardly starts with a bowl of cereal anymore. There are so many options for breakfast that I can choose here in Bangkok. I can say that typical thai breakfasts always involve with rice. You can have congee with ground pork and ginger, sticky rice with bbq pork or chicken, or even a bowl of rice with curry for breakfast. That's why I barely touch cereal at all. So, this morning I decided to come back to my good old homemade granola. My favourite way to eat granola is just to simply topped on a plain natural yoghurt. That's is how I started my day. Have a good day everyone!

Homemade Granola
(my baking without a recipe!)

1 C Quick cooking oats, toasted
2/3 C Almonds, coursely chopped and toasted
2/3 C Unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
1/3 C Sunflower seeds, toasted
1 C Mixed dried fruits (your choice; I used dried strawberry, apple, mango, and banana)
1/4 C honey
1/4 C brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven at 325F.

In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, and mixed dried fruits. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, combine honey, brown sugar, butter, and salt. Bring the honey mixture to a boil over the medium-low heat. Stir. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes or until all the butter and sugar are melted. Remove from the heat. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture. Mix well. Spread the granola on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Tea Time @ Lenotre, Bangkok

After spending the whole afternoon checking out furniture stores with my mom around Bangkok's downtown area, we decided to stop at Lenotre at Siam Paragon for our tea break. It was my first time here. I didn't know that there is a Lenotre store existing in Thailand until my previous visiting at Siam Paragon. The place is nice, not too many people at the time.  There aren't many tables offered in the store which might be bad for the weekend traffic. But, I'm glad that I visited on the weekdays, so I can just sit and enjoy the cakes with pots of tea with my mom, without feeling rushed. 

There are so many cake selections. It was hard to decide what I want, believe me. The only negative comment that I have is that there should be a desciption for each cake. It was hard to know what it is inside by just looking at the cake and its name. I did ask the server to explain couple of them to me. Just feel a little bit bad if I have to ask for all of them (lol). So, I ended up ordering the cake called "Emeraude" which is layers of pistachio cake with vanilla bavarian cream in between. At the center of the cake, there is raspberry gelee which is quite tangy refreshing and works very well with the sweet pistachio cake and vanilla bavarian cream.  On the top, they decorated with raspberry coulits, half raspberry macaron and a small piece of chocolate with their signature. For my mom, she ordered this tasty peach tart which is also very good. I also ordered a pot of vanilla rose tea for myself and hers is mint green tea.

Last but not least, I came home with a box of macarons. The flavours are chocolate, pistachio, raspberry, vanilla, and coffee. Surprisingly, it cost 3$ (CAD) for the box! That's pretty good deal!

PS. I can't wait for my next visit!