Homemade Cranberry Jam

This is my first attempt at making jam of any kind. I bought a bag of cranberries 2 weeks ago and they are positively unfit to eat- sour, bitter and unripe. I don't want to waste them, so off I went to see a good friend of mine- Mr Google. He introduced me to recipes of cranberry sauces, cranberry jelly and cranberry jam, after weighing my options, and also weighing the contents I have in my refrigerator, I've settled for the simplest of cranberry jam from Food in Jars. All I need is cranberries, apple cider vinegar, sugar and lemon (I don't have lemons but I have some limes, turns out I don't need them after all)

I didn't follow the recipe exactly since I didn't have a whole pound of cranberries, just a bag. I experimented with half a bag of berries, guestimate the cider and sugar (half a cup cider and half a cup of sugar), some water and put it on the stove to cook on low heat. They made a nice popping sound when they burst, other than stirring occasionally, I just let the whole mixture cook till thick and the liquid almost evaporated. It shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. My family members all turned up their noses at the sharp apple cider scent, I have asked my dad to taste some but he refused, he said he prefer to eat his 'Longan berry'. Unsupportive at all.

I poured it into a mug and let it cool in the fridge, the next day we made some toast, spread it with butter and my homemade cranberry jam. It was rather nice actually, and it taste like jam! Woots! My dad still refuse to try it though. The verdict, all is good except for the too sharp cider scent, maybe I would use less of it next time, or dilute it with more water. Perhaps I could replace it with other milder vinegar ( don't take my word for it, I'm still experimenting) If you want the exact recipe, go to Food in Jars for it. The link is embedded, just click.

Brightly colored cranberries

Before boiling

Toast with butter and jam

Its yummy!

Pizza Night

After the cleaning, chopping, frying up ingredients, its time to assemble our Pizza. We had so much fun mixing together the different ingredients. It's really satisfying to devour it as well, at first we think it won't be enough to have one tortilla per person, so we're set on making two each, but it's surprisingly very filling. Must be all the toppings. We'll definitely do it again and experiment with different ingredients. Can't wait to get a new oven when we move house so we can make a pizza with proper crust, or we could even use the barbecue grill?

What oven are you using? Do you have any recommendations or advice on what we should be looking for? Any suggestions are appreciated since we're noobs when it comes to getting a good oven.

our assembly station

Heat the tortilla and spread tomato paste on it

Heap all the toppings you like on top

Scatter mozzarella cheese and wait for it to melt a bit

Different combinations of different toppings

The possibilities are endless

Pizza night (prep)

In preparation for Pizza night, we got a lot of ingredients such as tomatoes, green peppers, pineapples, Cheese, pepperoni, bacon, tortilla, olives, button mushrooms and tomato paste. This was inspired from a post from Oh! I See Red. I thought it was a good idea when I first saw it in her blog, especially when all it requires is a frying pan, no oven needed. This is actually a backdated post from October, I'll be splitting it into two post as there are too many pictures. Although I already tried reducing some. Pictures of ingredients and our preparation process. My sister and I cleaned, chopped, sliced and fried up everything we need so we could have a smooth operation all the way, I assumed that we need to work fast for fear of burning the tortilla.

Tomatoes, green peppers

Cheese, bacon, peperoni

Australia Flour Tortilla, pricey but good

Interesting seeds inside

Fascinating but geli at the same time

Chop to bits

Western Family canned pineapples

Canned pineapples

Tomatoes

Slice tomatoes

Colorful like the colors of traffic lights

Heat oil in frying pan

Fry bacon

Pepperoni

Fry pepperoni

Dropped a Pepperoni, dog gobbled it up

I hoped this picture isn't offensive to you guys.

Button mushrooms

Sliced

Pitted olives

Sliced olives

Tomato paste

Check out what we've done with all these in another post coming soon!

Fresh Lemonade

Made fresh lemonade the other day, I have 2 lemons in the fridge but nothing to do with them. Since I bought a new citrus juicer from Daiso for only RM5, I decided to make some ice-cold lemonade. 2 lemons can really go a long way: just squeeze the lemons for all its juice, pour into a tumbler and add water all the way to the top. If you have a large tumbler, use more lemons and then add sugar or honey to taste. Pop it into the fridge for a few hours or add plenty of ice-cubes.

 Nothing like a cold lemonade to refresh you in a hot day. I rarely buy lemons as I didn't know what I could do with them, now I have this citrus juicer, I could make lemonade or orangeade anytime I liked. There are lots of nifty and useful stuff you could get with just RM5 at Daiso, like my Popsicle mold from this post . I'm keeping an eye for an apple corer and a meat tenderizer hammer and perhaps some baking utensils for when I have an oven.

Citrus Juicer

Lemon halves

Flan

Made Spanish style flan with caramel sauce using Jello's powdered custard, it's easy just following the instructions given at the back of the box or you could just as easily google a simple flan recipe. One box makes 4 to 5 cups of flan. I'm going to try something new with the pictures this time, as it looks pretty boring on its own. The recipe calls for 2 box of milk, but since I have some leftover cream in the fridge, so I decided to use that and 1 box of milk instead.

Stir flan mix with the milk and cream in a small saucepan and bring to a full boil on medium heat, stir constantly. Pour into individual bowls and refrigerate until set, I poured the caramel sauce last instead of at the beginning. Not that it matters, the end results are yummy flan. I'm going to try making flan without using the flan mix next time, I'm sure it won't be too difficult.

Mom's stuffed tofu

My mother's stuffed tofu pok cooked in oyster sauce, the recipe is from my paternal grandmother, the one mentioned in my Grandpa's garden post Here. This is one of my all time favorite dishes. Wash the tofu pok first and drain them with a colander, next we shall prepare the minced meat filling, chop up two to three cloves of garlic, mix well together with one part lean minced pork and one part fatty minced pork. Make a hole in the tofu pok and stuff them with the minced meat. This makes around 20 tofu poks. I tried to ask my mom regarding the amount of minced pork to use, but she couldn't give an exact measurement. You'll have to agak-agak (guesstimate) yourself how much minced meat was needed. I don't blame her, she could cook this dish with her eyes closed and was adept enough to eyeball the amount of ingredients needed. 

In a small bowl, mix a little water with 5 tablespoon of oyster sauce, place the stuffed tofu pok into a pot, pour the oyster sauce mixture in and fill up the pot with water just enough to cover the tofu poks. Let it simmer under medium to high heat until the sauce is thickened, by that time the meat fillings should be cooked through already. It taste lovely while hot from the pot, and even better, in my deranged opinion, eaten the next day for lunch at work (while both the rice and tofu pok, cold) Definitely not for the faint hearted, but I'm not normal.

Rose Milk Popsicles

I've decided to experiment with popsicle making. We used to make some during our childhood, usually with Milo poured into little tubes of plastic bags, what fond memories. I've bought a popsicle mold from Daiso- RM5, which could make 6 popsicles at a time. 

My kitten Nommy will be my partner today: I'm using 2 boxes of full cream milk, a couple of dried rose petals, and some sugar to taste. Its really simple actually, just heat milk in a saucepan, after it came to a boil, stir in sugar until melted and turn off the fire. Toss in a few dried rose buds, put the lid on and let them sit in the milk until the mixture is cooled down enough to pour into the molds. Do not pour boiling milk straight into the molds, those are made of plastics, it would either melt or cause the plastic to release some chemicals into the milk. We definitely do not want that. I placed the popsicles into the fridge for a whole day, milk takes more time to set. 

My popsicles have gotten some mixed reviews. Some say they're not sweet enough, I had added 2 tablespoons of sugar and I thought that was too sweet. Can't really taste the roses in it, perhaps I could try adding some rose essence in it next time. 

When adding sugar, be sure to add a bit more because the sweetness will lessen once they are chilled. If you're health conscious, you could try using honey instead, but its best to wait till the milk is cooled down before adding it. Popsicle making is all about experimenting, don't be afraid to try something new. I'll definitely try out other combinations next time. Frozen fruit juices can be made into simple fruit pops too, if you don't want too much fuss.

Have fun trying. 

5-6 rose buds

Molds from Daiso

Boil the milk

Stir in some sugar

Toss in your rose buds

When cooled down, pour into molds.

Place into the fridge till the next day.