Mad about Cookies

In the past one week, I baked 6 different types of cookies. And all for the excuse of Chinese New Year. Frankly, I didn’t have to do it. Simply ‘cos no one visits my house (we don’t really celebrate New Year) and I can buy them readily everywhere.

By right, people would have finished baking their New Year goodies at least 1 week before the big day. But because I started so late, I didn’t have a choice but to sacrifice my precious leave to do it. These were what I made:
1. Tee off (above and below left) – I first saw these golf-ball sized pineapple tarts at a Selegie Road bakery and they were really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make my own pineapple filling and bought them from Sun Lik instead. But they were a little sweet and too big.
2. Nutty Nuts – Chinese peanut cookies usually sold during this time. They’re really easy to make.
3. Snowy Melts – Almond sugee cookies that melt in your mouth
4. Green with Envy – Hazelnut sugee cookies flavoured with green tea
5. Hunky Chocky – my all-time favourite chocolate chip cookies
6. Rugged Hunk (below, right) – Really crunchy corn flake cookies

I’m planning to bake more during this long weekend break. Watch this space for fresh bakes from Yummy Chewie’s kitchen. [Yummy Chewies is the brand name of the cookies I sold a charity event ; ) ]

Here are more pixes...

JaJang（炸酱）Salad

Last weekend, we had a gathering at a friend’s house. There were four of us, two with spouses and kids. Usually, the host would cook or it would be potluck. Because I didn’t have my own place, it was not that convenient inviting them to my house. So, this time round, I offered to prepare a few Korean dishes for everyone.

This was the menu:
Appetizers/Side dishes:
Kimchi (from Food Republic)
Seasoned Mushroom
Soft Tofu with Spicy Sesame Sauce (pix below)
Simmered Lotus Roots

Main dishes:
Kimchi Soup
Spicy Rice Cake
JaJang Myeon

Drinks:
Cinnamon Ginger Tea

And my own verdict? Not everyone likes Korean food. And the dishes can certainly be improved. The mushroom was a bit overcooked. The spicy rice cake wasn’t spicy at all while the kimchi soup was too spicy. (I've cooked the spicy rice cake, or ddeobuki 4X and it has never failed me before... 섭섭해요) And the jajang sauce was a bit too thick – the dark clumps simply weren’t attractive at all. (Next time, I'll add some mixed veggie bits on top to add some colours to it.)

There was quite a bit of leftover jajang sauce and since I didn’t want to waste it, I brought it home. And came up with Jajang salad instead (pix above). This is just right for me as I don’t really like to take carbo food like noodles or rice. Doesn’t it look a bit like Bibimbap? Maybe I should call it Bibim Salad ; )