It’s been a very loooong time since I have posted anything on this food journal.

You might be wondering why…

Since my last post in October 2011, right before I went on holiday to Hawaii, there were lotsa big changes happening in my life that have kept me preoccupied. I am now moving to Hawaii in a few weeks and so I have been making all sorts of preparations for the past couple of months since returning from my holiday.

I still find the time to cook and bake as it is what I really love doing. But this kind of hobby is very time & energy consuming. So for the past 2 years, I have ditched my bulky camera and have come to rely on my iphone for quick documentation. It always took the clearest, most vivid photos but for some reason, my iphone camera started to get very fuzzy & started to lose it’s focus once I upgraded to the newer software. Alas! Goodbye to quick & easy snap shots! It was really frustrating making beautiful 7 delicious new dishes, taking photos, only upon reviewing them to find that they were creating a dizzy spell. I had discard most of them as I don’t want to make you all dizzy too. It’s terrible & sad, I know. :( 

Fuzzy as they may be, I have 2 of them which were of the evil birthday cupcakes I made for my nephew. They turned out so cute I just had to show you. These 2 different designs come from the same batch of candy crazy treats. I had placed in a mixture of different candied chocolates inside with assorted Lindt minis, Cadburry hazelnut bar, Nutella spread (yes, you read that right!), semi-sweet & milk chocolate chips, halved hazelnuts, chunks of white chocolate, a bit of desiccated coconut and whatever evil thing I could find in my pantry and fridge. Hey, why not?! It’s a pool party with a bunch a kids that can burn all that sugar. Besides, I didn’t want to deprive them of what delicious evil I had when I was young.

So here’s the batch that went well. Iced them with vanilla-nutella. Decorated these with the Philippines local version of M&M’s, sprinkles and wafer sticks. All bought from the convenience shop at the corner shop.

And this is the batch that I filled up way too high that when baked, created pockets of air and craters in them. :( So I had to get creative - I iced them with vanilla-nutella & to fill in the craters, I chose a variety of candies: like sour worm gummies, chocolate gold coins, wafers sticks and the Philippines local version of M&M’s.

I stuck in a wafer stick in each cuppy and accidentally broke 2 of them so I decided to go with it and make that look intentional on all the cupcakes. I added a worm, some gold coins & piled on the rest & voila! Treasure hunt theme!

These were so much fun to decorate even when they seemed to be a bust at first. I calmed myself down…hummed a few Oms and figured out a quick & easy remedy. Funny, I had an absolutely fun time coming up with the whacky design which the 7 year olds loved. I wanted to include these to show you that anyone can decorate.

Luckily, I was able to capture photos of other cupcakes I made from my actual camera. Two of which are firsts for me.

I made these chocolate chip cupcakes designed with grassland animals for my friend’s baby’s christening. I already had these ready-made animal candy decorations in my pantry and just made some green vanilla icing, rolled them in toasted coconut and stuck these cute animals lollies in the middle. There were only a few so I used sprinkles for the others. So quick and easy to make.

These wedding mini-cupcakes were requested by my Pilates client for her friend’s wedding. She really had no idea what design she wanted and there seemed to be no theme or color motif for her friends wedding. She told me that her friend was very much into environmental conservation. She valued every drop of water & really did not want to waste any bit of food at her wedding and so they requested the tiniest of cupcakes. Easier task as it may seem, it was far from that. I still had to come up with a design that would depict celebration, love & union and not make it your typical flower & hearts decoration. I knew I was in for it. I researched on wedding themes. I was looking for something simple and classy but unique. I have always enjoyed origami and saw that paper cranes were hung from the ceilings in some weddings. It’s Japanese cultural significance points out that a thousand paper cranes are traditionally given as a wedding present by the father, who is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the couple.  I came up with a sample of chocolate chip cupcake, iced with vanilla, with a flapping paper crane docked in the middle, surrounded with a soft fluffy cloud of grated white chocolate mixed with desiccated coconut - to soften the look, scattered tiny hearts and finished off with silver balls for a bit of sparkle and shine. They loved it! I had to cut each origami paper into smaller sizes to fit each mini-cupcake and fold each paper crane.  This was laborious work but well-worth the effort. :)

Although, there are no recipes, looking at these past creations, makes me feel happy & inspired. I love decorating food. It’s fun & you can do it with friends and family. I wanted  to share them with you so as maybe to inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and try and make your own cupcakes and decorate them too. :)

I am excited to experiment and use new ingredients local to Hawaii. Once I settle in, I promise to rejuvenate this food journal with more exciting food ideas.

Recommend this blog by clicking http://www.tumblr.com/directory/recommend/food/theficklekitchen 

“Experience little bites of heaven.”

Ingredients:

• 250 grams of Fusilli
• 250 grams of Farfalle 
• 2 cubes of vegetable broth
• swiss brown mushrooms
• cloves of garlic

Boil your Fusilli & Farfalle with vegetable broth until al dente.

Slice the mushrooms

Finely chop the garlic

Saute them together

Add the cream, stir…

Add some dry basil and parmesan. For a vegan version, you can use finely ground cashews.

Take the pot off from the heat.

Chop the fresh parsley to fine bits. Add the to the cream base.

Place in a large bowl, the pasta with the cream mushroom base.

Add a few drops of truffle oil to taste

and using a microplane (fine grater) zest some lemon grind

Toss together…

Then top with fresh basil and some pepper. Ready to eat! Quick & easy!

**This dish is good for Vegetarians but has a Vegan option.

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“Experience little bites of heaven.”

Ingredients:

• 1 cup finely grounded oatmeal
• 1 ½ whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Diabetic sugar mixture: blend in an Osterizer, the 320 grams of tofu, 1 cup of soy buttermilk (1 cup soymilk + 1tsp apple cider vinegar, sit for 10 mins) & the 6 pitted dates
•  1/3 cup coconut oil
• ¾ cup coconut sugar
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla
• dash of cinammon
• 2 dashes of cardamom
• 1 cup whole goji berries, soaked in alkaline water to soften, then drain
• ¼ cup of cranberries, soaked in alkaline water to soften, then drain
• 1/8 cup of whole flax seeds
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• ½ tbsp molasses

Procedure:

1. Line cupcake tins with your favorite wrapper 
2. In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients: flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom. 
3. In your kitchen aid mixer, stir together coconut oil, sugar, raw honey, molasses, vanilla. 
4. When all is dissolved & blended well, add the diabetic sugar mixture. Then add in the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time. Add the desiccated coconut.
5. Once smooth, take the bowl out from the kitchen aid and hand stir the berries with a wooden spoon. 
6. Preheat your oven to 350°F
7. Fill in your cupcake trays with the batter using a small spoon. Then dress with flax seeds.
8. Bake for 18-20 mins

Your breakfast mini-cupcakes are ready! 

**This dish is good for Vegan and diabetics. 

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“Experience little bites of heaven.”

These summer rolls were the first thing my boyfriend ever made for me when we were first dating. This scored him big points! Definitely a favorite of mine (as well as my mom’s). A best seller among my friends lucky enough to have tasted Chris’ Fresh Summer Rolls. 

This is so easy to make. I pre-washed and prepped everything and packed them all in little ziplock bags wrapped in paper towels to keep them crisp from moisture, stuffed them into a cooler and brought all the ingredients with us to a surf trip. All Chris did was make the sauce with a bowl & spoon and showed us how to assemble & roll. Camper style! Too easy! Nutritious, crispy and oh so delicious!

Summer Roll Ingredients:

• Basil leaves
• Mint leaves
• Cucumber
• Romaine lettuce
• A variety of sprouts you love. I used some tamyao, mongo/lentil sprouts, micro arugula, (alfalfa and radish sprouts are also delicious options which I often use but the shops didn’t have any at that time). I would have used all if they were available. Sprouts are the best! They make everything taste good and are highly nutritious as the plant is still in it’s infant, two-leaf stage and therefore chlorophyll-rich. It’s a superfood!
• Some Vietnamese extra thin rice paper rolls
• Big bowl of room temperature alkalized/mineral water - To infuse moisture to the rice papers and soften in order to make it easy for rolling. I suggest roll one at a time before eating to keep it fresh.
• Vermicelli Noodles (*optional) - this makes it just a lil heavier if you’re feeding a lot of people but you can skip it if you want to be eating more greens since the rice paper is made of the same thing anyway. If you like the idea of a little noodle in your roll, boil some water and add some salt or a vegan broth cube and boil for a bit til noodles are glassy. Drain from water immediately and set aside for use later to cool off.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

• A jar of chunky peanut butter
• Hoisin sauce
• White vinegar
• Water

All leafy greens - soak with a tsp (or 2) of baking soda, wash & rinse several times. Whether it’s organic or not, bugs & chemicals are not something healthy to ingest…Unless you’re into eating critters. Do this for the mint & basil.

The cucumber must be peeled, de-seeded (it’s easy if you use a spoon) and cut into finger strips.

Do the same process of soaking, washing & rinsing with the romaine lettuce and tamyao. Cut the bigger pieces of lettuce in half to fit in the rice paper.

Wash the micro arugula really well. Small leaves equals small hitchhikers and dirt sediments. 

Local mongo sprouts tend to smell a lil funky when it’s been sitting even just overnight in the fridge so make sure to do the same washing process.

Soak each rice paper until a wee bit soft. Do not over soak or it will rip fast or fold and stick together. 

Now you are ready to assemble.

Take a little of each ingredient, start to roll…remember, to tuck first fold the sides in, pinch and roll tight. Make sure each roll will easily fit into each person’s mouth for easy bites.

To make the Peanut sauce:

The largest component is the chunky peanut butter (a small jar), measure only about 1 tsp -2 tsps hoisin sauce. This will make it sweet. Remember, a little goes a long way as hoisin is strong).

Add the vinegar as this will break down the thick texture into something smoother. You can always add some water to make it a little more fluid. Mix to your own taste.

You can use a little heat but this may make the peanut butter a little oily like it did with mine. My boyfriend makes this sauce better than I do.

Sorry folks, it’s a bit like chemistry and this was the first time I tried making the sauce on my own. You have to practice making the sauce a couple of times to get it just the way you like it. Now, this tastes good however way so I really didn’t mind.

Now you are ready to assemble, roll your own, dip & munch away like a happy little rabbit!

These taste so fresh, as my mom says, “Tastes like a garden”.  Enjoy! :)

**This dish is completely Vegan. 

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“Experience little bites of heaven.”