Chiffon Cake (Orange) - The Making of

Jia Tyan taught Jia Nin how to bake a chiffon cake, which we ate as the dessert portion of the reunion dinner. Yummy!

Adding orange zest to egg yolks, flour (sifted and mixed with baking powder, sugar), orange juice, oil.

Our Kitchen Aid stand mixer, a great labor saving device.  Just remember to start off slow and increase speed gradually unless you want flour all over the place!

In a separate bowl, beating the egg whites with cream of tartar.

"Soft peaks"

"Stiff peaks"

Folding meringue into batter. "Cut and sweep" method.

Into the pan.

Out of the oven.  Cooling upside down to prevent the cake from collapsing on itself from the weight.

Done.

Out of the baking pan.

My slice ;-).

CNY Reunion Dinner (Early)

Steamboat ingredients (clockwise from top): stock, silken tofu, spinach, scallops, thin sliced lamb and pork, egg, 沙茶 sauce that Jia Nin mixed for dipping

Stock with ingredients: 福州 fishballs that contain pork, eel or fish roe, cabbage, mushrooms

Near the end of the meal, using vermicelli to soak up the concentrated stock, egg is beaten and drizzled over the top

Happy Chinese New Year to All!

Fresh Eggs - Really, Really Fresh

The egg yolk is firm and doesn't flatten out.  Its color is a rich, deep yellow, bordering on orange.

Yes, it doesn't look very appetizing.  But that really is the sign of a fresh egg.  The egg white is still gelatinous and not watery like most eggs we get from supermarkets.

The Michigan State University has one of the top agriculture programs in the U.S..  Some of the farms sell their produce to the local community through their MSU Diary Store. The most popular product is their ice cream.  The quality and taste is simply amazing!  As a related product, eggs are also sold at the store from their poultry program. Jia Tyan brought some over to teach Jia Nin how to bake a chiffon cake.

Movies - 2011 First Batch

Movies again.  Finally had a small spot of time after the post-holiday back-to-work rush.  Most of these are end-2010 movies, but most are pretty good.  I got motivated to check them out after the Golden Globe nominations.

Excellent

The King's Speech (dialogue between the characters blew me away and the movie flows well)
Unstoppable (suspense is sustained at a good level throughout the movie)

Good

The Tourist (predictable and a bit slow, but Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp are pretty good in this one)

OK only

True Grit (slow, wild-west type of movie; not quite my thing)

Megamind (yawn and too predictable)
Green Hornet (wanted someone to shoot the irritating green hornet character 15min into the movie, Jay Chou is OK as Kato)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (not bad)
 

To watch (still, sigh):
Centurion
Robin Hood
The Expendables
Tron 2: Legacy (started, but it was so slow at first that I paused and did something else)
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (brain turned off when they started spouting about the economic crisis)

The Social Network

Happy M M X I

Happy Two Thousand and Eleven!

It's hard to believe that I've already spent ten years (and five months) in the U.S..  In that time, I've gotten married, earned a Masters degree, held two job positions, owned three cars and had six different addresses (four of which were rented).  Although I stayed mainly in one state, albeit in three different cites in three different counties, vacation traveling has led me to or across ten out of the fifty states.  The number of miles I've walked, driven or flown are uncountable, not because there were too many, but because I'm not sufficiently OCD to keep detailed track.

Sadly, only two trips back to Singapore were made in all this time, mainly due to the daunting twenty-two hour flight.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Well, that and the thirty pounds (on average) I've gained since I came to the U.S. has made those small airplane seats even smaller. While I've been away, my niece/nephew count has grown to thirteen from two (or was that three?), making me feel alternately old and young, and old again, occasionally.. when I think about it... sometimes....  See?

There.  Ten years (and five months) of my life summed up in numbers.  More enterprising members of my family can try to divine some sort of Toto or 4D winners (consolation also can) from these numbers.  I wish everyone a Happy New Year ahead!