Is it B, B or A?

When I started planning for my home renovation, looking for a suitable built-in oven was one of the very first item I researched on. It has been 3 months since, but, I have yet to make the final decision (^^')

It was only after reading through comments and reviews from various online forums, I learned that there are many features and functions available in built-in ovens. Terms such as pyrolysis cleaning, catalytic self cleaning, tangential ventilation got me really confused. Pardon my ignorance...for the past few years, I have been using this simple, small (20 litres) table-top oven with only a set of heating elements at the top; whereas even the most basic built-in ovens have got top, bottom heating elements with a fan. To make things more puzzling...different brands use different terminology when it comes to naming the numerous cooking functions available..eg. Traditional Pulsed, 3D hot air, Multi-cooking sounds different but they actually refers to the same function. I had to study and compare the various catalogs in order to fully understand the differences.

After going through all the information I have gathered, I decided that I will only need a very basic oven. I do not need one that comes with self-cleaning functions, since I do not do that much of roasting. Furthermore, most ovens that come with pyrolysis self cleaning (heating the oven to 500degC for 1 ~ 2 hrs to 'burn' the stains on the walls to ashes, so no cleaning is needed, you just need to wipe away the ashes) would require a loading of 15 or 16 Amp (our current flat can only take up to 13Amp). Even if a separate socket is installed, the air condition and oven is not to be operating at the same time, to prevent tripping of the electric power. I do not need an oven from a higher end...eg one that comes with 10 cooking functions as I doubt I will use all the functions. So the very good ovens from brands such as Miele and De Dietrich will never get into my list. Since I am not a professional cook or baker, I would probably not be able to do justice to using such good ovens. Even if I have the budget, I would rather spend the money on a holiday trip ;)

Besides the price, the main selection criteria when it comes to choosing an oven for my 'new' kitchen will be the oven door! The oven door has to be sturdy and will close tightly. The oven should come with tangential ventilation, ie, when the oven reaches a certain temperature it will blow out hot air to cool down the oven. I am also looking at ovens that have got triple or at least double layers of glass doors.

After visiting showrooms to look at the physical products, I have finally narrowed down to 3 choices...they are the basic range from Bosch, Brandt and Ariston. They are all within the same price range, offering similar functions. In fact, they are so similar that I am not able to make up my mind which one I should get?!

So, will it be this B...

Bosch HBN331E2J

* Capacity: 52 litres
* 5 Cooking functions:
  - Conventional top and bottom heat
  - 3D hot air (top, bottom and heating element
    around fan)
  - Bottom heat only
  - Hot air grilling (grill and fan operate alternately)
  - Full width variable grill
* EasyClean enamel coating
* Electronic clock with timer
* Double layer glass door (removable for cleaning)
* Oven accessories: 1 universal pan, 1 split grill tray
* Energy efficiency class: A
* Country: German Brand
* Retail price: $749




or this B?

Brandt FE811XS1

* Capacity: 52 litres
* 6 Cooking functions:
  - Traditional Pulsed (top, bottom heat and fan)
  - Traditional (top and bottom heat)
  - Fan Assisted Grill (top heat and fan operate
    alternately)
  - Grill (top heat)
  - Pulsed Oven Shelf (bottom with light grill and fan)
  - Special Poultry (top with some heat from bottom)
* Activemail interior (anti-stain, anti-corrosion,
temperature resistant enamel)
* Timer function
* Double layer glass door (not removable)
* Oven accessories: 2 safety grid racks, 1 large drip tray
* Energy efficiency class: A
* Country: Made in France
* Retail price: $899


and what about this A?

Ariston FZ 61.1 IX

* Capacity: 58 litres
* 6 Cooking functions:
  - Traditional (top and bottom heating)
  - Multi-Cooking (top, bottom, circular and fan)
  - Barbecue (top only)
  - Gratin (top and fan)
  - Pizza (bottom, circular and fan)
  - Baking (rear heating and fan)
* Inox clean stain resistant surface
* Timer function (w/o auto cut off)
* Triple layer glass door (removable for cleaning)
* Oven accessories: 1 dripping tray, 1 grid
* Energy efficiency class: A
* Country: Made in Italy
* Retail price: $709




Decision, decision, decision...

Which one will you choose?

The end is the beginning

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” ~ T.S. Eliot

It took me 4 days to clear away every single item from my house. I was really surprised by the amount of 'junks' I have been keeping for the past 14 years (^^')

Even though I must have thrown away half of our 'possessions', I still ended up with 30 boxes of barangs barangs (personal belongings). Here's some stats to illustrate...I sold away:
~ 100kg of old textbooks, activity books, worksheets, assessment books, magazines, etc,
~ 50kg of old clothing, bed sheets, towels, etc
to the karung guni (modern form of rag and bone men). I 'earned' a total of $15. I also sold away my fridge, washing machine, two fans and a radio for a total of $70. I got $10 by selling away my king size bed.

I managed to clear away 90% of our old furniture, and I do hope my 'new' house will not have more than 8 pieces of furniture. I am a minimalist...but this time I will work even harder to keep everything simple...my main aim is to minimise daily cleaning and maintenance :)

After 4 days of hacking, my whole flat was stripped down to its core. Here's my kitchen...it looks almost like a war zone!

There will only be bottom cabinets for my kitchen...and a tower unit by the side. This is my first step of reducing storage space. You may think I am crazy since most people ask for extra storage space. For me, the more space I have means I will fill it up with more junks! I used to have a row of top cabinets which I used it as a 'store'...keeping things I hardly use at all. One classic example: we have been keeping bottles and bottles of Coke which we bought during our holidays overseas. I spent close to 20mins opening 40 bottles (or more!) of Coke and pouring away the content before I could dispose off the empty glass bottles. Not forgetting the numerous cans of Coke I have throw away several years back. This is something I don't wish to happen again.

This is my guest/common bathroom...I have re-positioned the entrance so that the new entrance will be at the service yard instead of the kitchen.

New entrance to the guest/common bathroom. I won't have to see my younger child doing his business in full view any more ;)

This is yet another step to 'reduce' storage space. The entrance of the store will be shifted from the kitchen to the bedroom. I am going to convert the existing store room to a 'walk-in' wardrobe...literally. The space is only 1m by 2m...just enough for a person to walk into the closet to retrieve the item. Yes, it is going to be a tiny closet...but I am the sort who can survive with less than 10 sets of cloths, the space is more than sufficient. Without a store room, the only problem I am going to face is to find storage space to keep my kids' books...I hope the new build in wardrobe cum book shelves will be big enough to address this issue.

Although I have no intention to convert this into a renovation blog, I won't be able to post anything on baking for the next couple of months. I hope I don't bore you too much with this post (^_^).  

Purple Sweet Potatoes Chiffon

This must be the longest October for me.

I spent the first two weeks of the month sourcing for renovation contractors, reading up on renovation, visiting tile shops to select tiles, shopping around for lighting, bathroom sanitary ware, cooker hobs, oven, etc, etc. This is in preparation for my upcoming renovation of our house. The next two weeks were spent packing, packing and packing. On top of that, it was an anxious week when my elder son took the PSLE examination. I am glad that all went well, but before I could take a breather, it was soon my younger child's turn to sit for the year end school examination! Finally, his exam is over today. I am not done with packing yet...I still have to conquer the kitchen...which I have no choice but to leave to the last.

Anyway, I miss blogging...so I am here to share with you yet another chiffon cake recipe, before I dismantle my desktop computer and pack it into boxes.

This chiffon cake was made with purple sweet potatoes. I have came across two types of purple sweet potatoes...one of which comes with purple skin but the inside is yellow...and the other with both skin and the inside purple. This chiffon cake was made with the latter. It was by chance that I bought a bag of purple sweet potatoes. I actually wanted to get some spring onions and nothing else...but I was too shy to ask the stall owner. So I looked around and spotted the sweet potatoes...in the end I only paid for the sweet potatoes and the stall owner gave me the spring onions for free (^^')

There was no surprises when I went about preparing this chiffon cake. Although I must say, it was like attending some Chemistry lesson. I was amazed that the egg yolk batter, which was a deep purple because of the sweet potatoes, turn into a pretty pinkish batter the moment the few drops of lemon juice was added to it!

After the past few experiments in making chiffon cakes, I was quite satisfied with how this one turn out. The cake rose well in the oven, and it didn't shrink too much upon cooling :)

A few readers have asked me how I managed to unmold my chiffon cake nicely.  This time, I made it a point to take step by step photos to show all of you. I guess, the trick is to use a very thin bladed knife. When running the knife inside the cake pan, try to slide the knife as close to the inside of the pan, avoid slicing the cake crumb. I am not sure whether it is because of the quality or the type of cake pan that I am using, I am able to remove the cake effortlessly, without creating any mess. See photo 3 above...upon unmolding, there were not much crumbs left inside the pan.

I think it is also the type of cake pan that I am using, I always end up with chiffon cakes with 'pork-floss' like crust.

This chiffon cake was very soft and moist. The crumbs was a light pink...if the lemon juice were to be omitted, the crumbs would end up dull purplish. It was a fun experiment for me! This cake tasted really good, but I would still rank that banana chiffon cake as the best chiffon cake I have ever made ;)

I won't be sharing any baking post for the next two months as my kitchen is officially closed for renovation starting from today. However, I will still try to update my blog...but it will probably on the progress of my renovation or the holiday trips that we have planned.
 

dessert in a toast box

十月六日...对很多人来说，只是一个普通的日子。不过今天对我的老大来说却是个大日子。今天是小六会考的第一天！真相希望他在考场能够有所发挥 :)

It's the start of the PSLE today. In a week's time, the examination will be over, and it also means that my elder child would have completed his 6 years of primary school education. How time flies! While I was packing up our old photo albums, I couldn't help but laughed at how cute he looked when he was in primary one ;)

As the examination drew closer, I found myself more relaxed. I believe I have finally reached the S4 level as a 'leader' based on the Situational Leadership model (by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey) and my child as a 'follower' has moved to the D4 level (someone with high competence, high commitment – experienced at the job, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well, may even be more skilled than the leader.)

Two months ago, I noticed my elder child began to pick up momentum in his preparation for the exam. He demonstrated a zealous attitude in wanting to do well...he planned out his revision schedule and time tables, and even set his own targets for each subject. I didn't even have to sit down side by side with him to go through his work. He did his revision mostly by himself. Whenever I felt guilty, I would spend a few moments of my time just to check that he was doing ok on his own. When it was down to 4 weeks before the D-day, I was too preoccupied with the planning of my home renovation. I am glad that without my close supervision, he was still able to study hard, real hard, I must say, for he is still a child. Sometimes, I even joked that it was as though he was preparing for some university entrance exams...you will be amazed with the piles and stacks of files, assessment books, etc, lying all over our house. As the day drew even closer, I found myself giving him lots of hugs everyday...I am so pleased with his learning attitude. My role as a 'coach' now, is to keep encouraging and assuring him that he will be fine. Very often, he worries that he won't pass with good grades...he lacks self-confidence. So I have to tell him, with the effort he has put in, I am sure even if the end result is not as expected, he won't live with regrets. I hope he understand what I meant when I told him..."The process is more important than the results. Some other people may think otherwise, but to mama, your learning attitude is more important than anything else, and I want you to hold these values with you all the way to your adulthood." I know very well his limits and potential. I don't expect him to pass with flying colours (it will be a miracle), but I am assured that he won't do too badly either. What more can I ask for?

On a lighter note, I will like to share with you this sweet treat...Dessert in a Toast Box! I happened to chance upon a video clip when I was looking for recipes on how to make Korean mochi buns. This is something so interested that I wasted no time to try it once I managed to bake a decent homemade pullman loaf.

It is basically a bread 'box' topped with fruits and scoops of ice cream. Inside the 'box' are layers of toasted bread 'cubes' drizzled with honey. I also topped it with some homemade breakfast granola. Sounds delicious isn't it?! I have tried with both a plain white loaf and a wholemeal bread...both are equally good. I hope the instructions I have posted below is clear enough...and if you happen to try it, I am sure you will have fun both preparing and eating it!

Sweet Treat

Dear Reader,

Here's wishing you a Happy Children's Day :)

Children's Day is a good time to remind ourselves that we were once kids, and we should take this opportunity to recapture our childhood innocence, shouldn't we?

This year, it will be the last day we are celebrating Children’s Day on 1st October. Starting from 2011, Children’s Day will be celebrated on the first Friday of October instead. The rationale is to offer an extended weekend to students and to give parents more time to spend with their children :)

After a fun-filled day in school, my kids were still in a merry-making mood...and upon their request, I made them some caramel popcorns for their afternoon treat.

This is not the first time I am making popcorn at home. I used to think that popcorn can only be made with a microwave oven...using those microwave popcorn packs. After stumbling upon some video clips sometime back, I realised that popcorn can be easily prepared with a pot over a stove. After watching the video and looking at some online recipes, I jumped head-on to pop my first bowl of popcorn. My first attempt failed miserably, there were far too many unpopped kernels left in the pot and the popcorn didn't taste as light and crispy. On my second attempt, I burnt most of the popcorn (^^'). It was only after spending 15 minutes watching a free demo session by a lady who was promoting some anodised woks in a departmental store, that I learned the correct method of popping popcorn. By following her method, almost every kernel pops, and I have not burnt any popcorn since!

The caramel for the popcorn is very simple to prepare...you use need to melt some sugar in the wok before tossing in the popcorn with some grounded peanuts and sesame seeds. This is a delicious treat both children and adults would enjoy. If you ever happen to try this, I hope you will enjoy making the popcorn as much as eating it. Once again, Happy Children's Day!!!