Tofu cheesecake

Saw this recipe from HHB, but didn't realy go through it thoroughly...

Until the day SIL made for MIL's birthday, wow, the cake is so simple to do and delicious... I made it again for my mother's birthday and early father's day ceebration.

I did not add in strawberry sauce as what SIL did. ES commented is a bit sour ( with the lemon juice that i had added in. even though i had cut down from the original recipe to 2 tablespoon lemon juice )

Ingredients
(makes one 18cm round cake)

crust:
95g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
50g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon light brown sugar

filling:
6 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons gelatin powder
250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
150g silken tofu
45g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
5 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice


Method:
Crust:
Line the base of a 18cm round pan (with removable base) with parchment paper. Combine crushed digestive biscuits, light brown sugar and melted butter together in a mixing bowl. With the back of a spoon, press the biscuit crumbs firmly onto the base of the prepared pan. Chill in the freezer compartment for at least 1 hour. (To ensure the crust is even, I used the base of a flat-bottom glass to press down the crumbs.)

Filling:
Measure warm water into a small bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin powder (without stirring). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to bloom.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, silken tofu and butter in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides if necessary. Add in sugar and beat till fully incorporated. Add in lemon juice, beat till fully incorporated.

The gelatin should turn spongy by now. Stir the solution with a spoon. (Note: not all the gelatin powder was fully dissolved when I made this, but it was not a problem as the mixture was added to the cheese batter through a sieve). Pour the gelatin solution through a sieve into the cream cheese batter. Beat the batter till fully incorporated. Stop to scrape down the sides when necessary. (The finished batter is rather thin and runny.)

Pour the batter onto the chilled crust based. Tap the pan lightly on table top or smooth the surface with a spatula. Refrigerate until set (at least 4 hours).

To unmold, place pan on an inverted glass (or a canned drink or any canned food). Carefully slide the removable pan downwards to release the cake. Transfer cake together with the base to a serving plate. Serve with fresh berries sauce.

Popo's birthday, Father's and mother's day....

We celebrate popo's birthday, father's day earlier this year ( when gong gong, popo, ah yi travel to Penang on 17 May ) as we need to travel.





Tofu cheesecake prepared by Mummy...




Even MSLS loves the cake very much, just like the previous time.

Outng to the nearby playground

MS had seizure!

We went to search for sofa set at lazy boy after attending Sunday mass. During mass, MS asked ah ma to carry her for "oh oh" ( sleep). We thought it might be due to yesterday night she did not have a good sleep.

After coming out from the furniture shop, it is about 12 noon, and it is time for her milk. I made her a bottle of milk and she drink in the car while daddy is driving. Half way during she is drinking milk, I noticed she dropped her milk bottle. And I was wondering how come she will give me the bottle without finishing, this is not the usual MS that we know. She will finished all her food and milk most of the time. So, I tried to feed her. To my surprise, she did not suck the milk. And she seems to be no response, but just sitting there without any reaction when I called her. And I tried to touch her hand, no response from her. I brought the thermometer with us everywhere we go now. It is 38.4c. I told daddy this is something not right. We need to bring her to see doctor.

We drove to the nearby emergency centre. The doctor came out and confirmed she is having seizure and he told us the rescue team will be coming soon. After the rescue team reached, the ambulance reached within a minute. She was brought to Providence St Vincent medical centre. The nurse measured her temperature and she cried when she sees so many strangers around her, and some more in a place where she is not familiar with. I tried to calm her down by singing her bedtime song. She was given tyenanol. One of the MD, Dr Moreno came in and check her after awhile. He checked her and said she had ear infection on her left ear. Blood test done and shown no infection.

As only her left hand is moving during the seizure ( as inmost of the cases for fibroid seizure, patient will have disorder on their whole body, hands and legs will move but uncontrol ). Dr advised to go for CT scan, just to make sure no block in her brain. Daddy disagreed as CT scan will have radiation and increase risk of cancer. With some discussion, dr suggested MRI the next day or later. But the conds of MRI is need to use anaethesia drugs as the patient need to be in the MRI machine for Almost 25 minutes. We proposed to monitor her throughout the night and see how. A peds also came in and examined her again. this time, he confirmed there is no ear infection.

She become more calm at after few hours. dr decided to let her stay one night in the hospital as it will give ambetter monitoring. She was given ibuprofen at 9pm and her body temperature was normal till the next day. Another dose of ibuprofen at 3 am, after six hours of the first dose. She slept from 12am till 8am.

Dr Ian came to examined her at about 9:30am and decided to discharged her as she did not have fever anymore. She was prescribed with EEG and MRI, just to confirmed everything is alright. We are quite happy with the medical service and standard provided here - their patience, clear communication with what will be the action taken and next step.

Handle the children during long flight

When we are preparing for our journey to Portland, one of the worried is to travel long distance flight with the 4 years old daughter and 18 months old twins.

I had searched online how to handle babies and toddlers during long distance flight. I had also bought a princiess snap card and barney sticker workboook for ES so that her time will be occupied when she is awake. For the twins, we had made sufficient buns ( raisin buns and chocolate buns ) for thek in case they are hungry and noisy. after adviced by our family doctor, we decided to give them a low dose of promethazine, which cause drownzy.

Daddy also thought of where to transit and how many hours of waiting time in between transit will be better for our trip.

The day had come!

Guess what, I find that this trip is more relax when we trave ltogether with our kids, rather than traveling alone. But, daddy didn't agreed as he didn't really sleep well during the flight.

We took the morning flight, 7:45 pm flight from penang to Hong Kong, LS was sleeping whereas MS just take a short nap. ES was enjoying her meals and the 3 hours plus journey was alright.

We stopped by Hong Kong for about 3 hours. Our intention is let the kids play around and get themselves tired. ESMSLS were havin their
porridge in one of the play area. We took the 2:45pm flight from hong kong to San Francisco, it took about 13 hours. Immediately after boarding, they took promethazine, which will last for 6 to 8 hours according to the PI.

ES was too tired as we woke up at 4am and she did not sleep after that. She knocked off after the plane taking off. MS and LS were crying at the beginning. I took MS for a short walk in the flight, showing her that everybody is sleeping, and after 3 hours of eating and playing, she fall asleep. I was carrying MS sleeping for half of the journey, from 6 pm to 1am Malaysia time. She does not want to sleep on the seat. I was carrying her during her sleep time. I feel it is alright as long as they do not cry.

Daddy was taking care of LS and ES was sitting with ah ma. ES played with the toys given by the air stewardess. After awhile, she feel bored. And I started to take put the things that I prepared - I gave her the Barney sticker and workbook. Just a simple ABC writing books with some vocabulary. I was amazed by her concentration in writing the alphabets and it lasts for hours, to keep her occupied.

After that, she started to get bored. And here comes the princess snap card. She loves princess character, therefore I decided to buy her the card with princess when I accidentally saw it in Giant

We had about 4 hours waiting time in San Francisco, heading towards Portland. The kids were busy eating our homemade buns. We finished up all the buns that we prepared earlier. They had their raisin buns, chocolate raisin buns, kaya buns ( kaya prepared by popo), and banana cheese buns.

We are wondering how to carry our 11 pieces of check in luggage and 3 hand carry bags when we reached San Francisco, as we need to recheck in our luggage after reaching US. As in Penang, we had ah gong and Joy to help in. As Penang airport is under construction, he have to push our luggage withntrolley from ground floor oto 1st floor, the departure hall.

Things were too simple as what we thought it will be quite challenging for us when we reach US. When we picked up our luggage, we saw a big trolley and daddy was wondering can we used that we carry our 11 pieces of luggage. The airport workers mentioned only they can used that, if we need their assistance, we will need to pay them, just by tips. We are so glad when we hear that, and the Chinese man helped to carry all our luggage to the united airline check in counter. And we are glad also that the United airline's counter is just about 100 meters away from the pick up, that we thought it will be very far.

We took the 3pm flight fromSan Francisco to Portland and we reached Portland at 4:47pm. Daddy's colleague had came over to airport to help us to carry our luggage to our new house. As we had estimated even with a 7 seaters car, we will not be able to take all our luggage in. Thanks to weng hoong!

FInally we are here in Portland

Daddy had been relocated to US for his work. After some plannings and preparation, Ah Ma, Daddy, Mummy, ESMSLS had finally arrived in Portland and spent our first night in Hillsboro after a long journey.

Simple way to make pizza

When I visited local pizza shop previously, i was amazed on how they can make such a delicious pizza, in my heart, i thought it must be very difficult to make a pizza.

I started to make simple and fast recipe at home for my family, as we need to cut down the frequency to have meals outside after we have our lovely twins, a bit challenging to handle three children when we are having meals outside.

This is a simple recipe for pizza dough and you can make it into any flavour that you like with this basic pizza dough:

Basic Pizza Dough ( makes 3 12-inch (30 cm) pizzas )

1 tablespoon instant dry yeast
1 1/2 cups (350 cc) warm water
3 1/2 cups (500 g) flour
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt

(1) In a bowl, add in the yeast in the center. Then follow by olive oil and a pinch of salt.Using a spatula, draw the ingredients together.Then mix with your hands to form a dough.

(2) Sprinkle some flour on the work surface. Place the dough on the floured surface. Knead the dough briefly with your hands pushing and folding. Knead just long enough for the dough to take in a little more flour, and until it no longer sticks to your hands.

(3) Spread a little olive oil inside a bowl. Transfer the dough into the bowl.Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth, and set the bowl aside for approximately 1½ – 2 hours until the dough doubles in volume. The time required for rising will depend on the strength of the yeast and the temperature of the room.

(4) When the dough is double its original size, punch it down to eliminate the air bubbles. On a lightly floured work surface, cut the dough into three equal pieces. On the work surface, using a rolling pin and your hands, shape one piece of dough into a thin round layer. Make a pizza about 12 inches in diameter.Make a pizza about 12 inches in diameter and transfer it to the pan. Using your fingertips, push from the center to the sides to cover the entire surface of the pan with a thin layer of pasta. Repeat this step with the other 2 dough pieces to make 3 pizzas.

(5) Arrange slices of mozarella cheese and followed by other ingredients like tomato paste, mushroom, onion, pineapple, tuna/ chicken/ prawn/ salmon .

(5) Bake at 260 C for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Homemade dinner & lunch at Mansion Thirty Two

Popo, gong gong, auntie Su Wei and auntie Su Xuan came to visit us last Sunday. As usual, MSLS cried and asked for mummy to carry them when they first saw them.

On Sunday night, as usual, we had prepared our usual menu for family gathering - tuna pizza, prawn pizza, seafood spaghetti, red bean soup and roasted chicken. All of them like it very much...


We went to mansion 32 restaurant located at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang on Monday afternoon for lunch. I used to organise talk here and once awhile having lunch with my team members after achieving team target.The restaurant is along the north beach and it prides itself on offering a wide variety of cuisines that are unique and interesting. The perfect setting for a meeting or lounge, and it has a great view of the beach. This restaurant offers Western favorites, and with a reasonable price for set lunch, range from RM28++ to RM50++.

There are a few different setting in the restaurant itself. At the entrance of the restaurant, there is a lounge.




After the entrance, on the left...a nice place for couple and family....







There are choices for asparagus soup and salad for the start...
Piquant salad with spicy lemongrass vinaigrette. The



We had ordered some garlic breads to go with the soup...



Chicken Mushroom Pie... The pie was so crispy as all of us rate it as one of the delicious main dishes that we had ordered...




Charbroiled lamb rack... worth to try....




Lasagne... It was cheesy and the taste was just right..



Grilled cod fish.




Finally, we were served with dessert of the day, including vanilla ice cream which is ES's favourite ( she always mentioned about this word recently ).


We enjoyed the food and ambience there. Both MSLS were very corporative. They were on their high chair till we finished our meal.



After our lunch, we walked to the side of the restaurant, there is a great view of beach there....Thanks for all your precious time and we really enjoy the lunch together

Ah ma's birthday cum mothers' day

Ah ma's brithday's falls on mothers' day this year...
Our birthday girl, Ah ma had cooked a few dishes including loh bak, daddy prepared roasted chicken, pizza prepared by mummy and gugu had made a tofu cheesecake for the big day.






Tofu cheesecake prepared by SIL.







ES & HL enjoying their cheesecake...

MSLS too...

And also HY.... feed by Auntie Su Yan

The cake was finished by the end of the party.... Saw this recipe from happy home baking but didn't really have time to really go through the recipe. SIL commented this is an easy making cake and after tasted it, recommend that this to be add in the must try list.


After the party was over, MSLS went to their room, preparing to sleep.
Mummy: is the cake good?
MSLS: nod their head and keep their finger up ( means good )

Mummy: are you all happy?
MSLS: nod their head again, swing their body to the left and right. ( they still thinking of happy birthday song)