Baked Chicken in Tomato Sauce

One of the easy food  If you have lots of veges in the fridge and want to use them up, you can chuck them into the tomato sauce and make pasta bake.

<Tomato Sauce>

Just saute chopped onion, garlic, mushroom etc…  Add tomato tin, and simmer for few minutes.  Season.  You can add herbs for more flavor.

* When you saute the veges, you can use a lid while cooking.  This technique is from a French chef.  ”Stir fry with steam”  This takes out the most flavor and juice from the food

Now, pour over this delicious tomato sauce over the cooked pasta.  Sprinkle cheese (Mozzarella) and bake in the oven!  Easy.

You can add chicken, tuna…  enjoy the variety

Chinese Restaurant in Kardinya

This Chinese restaurant “South Ocean” is one of my favorite Chinese restaurant in Perth.

The place is not so big, but the food is really nice!  I have been there only for dinner but every time I have to make a reservation.  This place is always full, even on weekdays!

There is a waiter who I always talk to; he seems like a floor manager.  At first, to tell the truth, I didn’t like him at all:p  I thought he was rude and bossy because he always tried to decide the menu for us.  But then, it turned out that the food he choose is always delicious and just what we wanted.  His choice is always our favorite.  He is really nice, I like him:)

Tonight, I had Sang Choy Bow, Fillet Steak Peking Style (which is my favorite), Chicken with Snow Peas and Japanese Tofu with Seafood and Broccol.  These are really really delicious and we ate them all!

Front:Fillet Steak Peking Style, Back:Chicken with Snow Peas

Seafood with Japanese Tofu

I can recommend this place to anybody!

A Trip to Swan Valley

Just half a hour away from Perth city you can enjoy totally different scenery.  Swan Valley is pretty popular tourist destination in WA and famous for their wineries:)  I don’t usually drink wine but when I visit there I do the wine tasting and sometimes purchase few bottles.  

On Saturday, I had a trip to Swan Valley with my partner’s family.  We headed to a strawberry farm first, which is located at the corner of Wilson Rd and Toodyay Rd.  They were selling not only strawberries but also some other veggies and trees such as nectarine.  We tasted the strawberries and they were really sweet and nice!  so we bought 4 packs of those:)

Next, we headed to famous chocolate factory.

I bought a pack of Premium Fruit & Nut and some Macadamia nuts coated with chocolate.

 When we were leaving the chocolate factory we saw a sign saying “Free Honey Tasting in 1km”  so we decided to try :p  The place was actually somebody’s house, and there were few bottles of honey in their shed.

Those 100% natural honey is of course made in WA (Jarrah Honey), and there are few kinds of products.  2 kinds of honey (one was not sweet, and another was normal), Cream (mixture of those 2 kinds of honey, interestingly the mixture looks like cream and it can be spread on toast) and Pollen.  I didn’t know that you can actually eat pollen.  The person who owns the place told us that some people have an allergic reaction to pollen.  You should try a few grains first, and then increase the amount.  This will strengthen the immune system and you can actually control hay fever if you have.  I thought this was very interesting! (even though I don’t have hey fever)

We finished our trip at Lancaster winery.  This is located in front of chocolate factory and we tasted few kinds of wine and cheese there.  We purchased one bottle of dessert wine and headed home.  The sky was blue and it sure was a lovely day tour:)

My favorite bakery in Japan-2

 

Boulanger Bakery

This bakery, Naoki’s Boulanger has many shops in Western side of Japan. (around Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Shiga …)  The reason why I love this bakery is not only their variety and the taste, but also their price:)  ALL the products in this shop is 105yen (about A$1.00).  Everything, even a roll or sandwiches!!  And I can’t believe they are all 105yen, the size of the products is not small, and the every product uses lots of ingredients such as mango, sausages, potatoes, egg etc…

Everyday the shop is full of people, especially with mums and kids.  They also have dine-in area and you can order a meal set as well.  

In the kitchen there are 3 sections; one is for baking, one is for wrapping the rolls & sandwiches and finishing the decoration of products(like glazing danishes), and another is for cooking.  Yes cooks work there as well.  They roast the chicken and deep-fry the prawn flitter.  Those food are for meal menu and sometimes used for rolls.

Why I know so much about this shop??  It’s because I used to work there before :p  I know how many denominations of bread they have!

They also make yummy drinks such as iced moca and coffee, smoothies and hot tea.  Further more, they have special sweets menu too.  Parfait and some Japanese style sweets.  They are really really popular!

Chocolate Chip Cookie

“These cookies are the pinnacle of perfection! If you want a big, fat, chewy cookie like the kind you see at bakeries and specialty shops, then these are the cookies for you!”

I agree!!

<Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie>

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 2 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 170 g unsalted butter, melted
• 220 g packed brown sugar
• 100 g white sugar
• 15 ml vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 335 g semisweet chocolate chips

* Preheat the oven at 165.

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the lined cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 7.5cm apart.
2. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

From All Pecipes