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Gluten free . Coeliac . It was when I came to Australia that I first heard those words. And then I kept hearing it, and hearing it. People who have coeliac, or celiac, have immune systems which don't react well to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. Many restaurants here cater to people who require a gluten free diet because it is that common. Over time, I started hearing about more people with different allergies. A story of a kid who can't have nuts or peanut butter, another story of a kid who can't have nuts, dairy, gluten and some other stuff, and schools which decide to ban things like peanut butter and nuts altogether because some kids have allergies so bad that if you touched peanut butter then touched the kid, the kid would go into anaphylaxis. This is serious and can be threatening. This happens every Spring here – everyone talks about hay fever. Of course people in Singapore have allergies – nut allergies, shellfish aller...

Okay, I was trying to find something that rhymes with "brunch" so I went with "punch"... which does make sense because it was pretty yummy. Anyway. It was nice making an effort for homemade brunch: Mushrooms and chives, stir fried with butter and garlic Toasted garlic bread – La Famiglia is our go-to Bacon and eggs with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, baked at 200 degrees for 15 minutes in oiled muffin trays Fresh cherry tomatoes

Ingredients 250ml coconut milk 5 eggs 230g sugar 7 pandan leaves Directions Blend pandan leaves for 10ml of essence. If dry, add very little water. Sieve, then press down with a spoon to get the essence. Heat pot of water – bring to a boil. Add the mixture of sugar and eggs to it. Mix nicely, then pour in coconut milk and leaf essence. Stir every 10 minutes so it hardens evenly. Do so for an hour until there's a good consistency. Let it cool. From... must be somewhere. Made it a few years back and wanted to document it.

These were made on different days.  The pie was on a day we had leftover stew. I popped it in a bowl with some store-bought pastry layered around it, and baked it. Decided to have some fun with it and do a "F < 3 I". Easy and fun! The dark brown parts are where the egg yolk sunk in more.  The red velvet cupcakes were on a day I came home later and Ian had dinner all ready, plus pretty cupcakes to boot! There was some oozy yummy custard in the middle. We had cupcakes for dessert for three nights after that.  People think it's usually the girl who bakes. But hah! Not in our house.

Morning. Breakfast time. Open the fridge. No milk to go with cereal. Hong peah stash all gone. Open every other cupboard – bread, peanut butter. Okay. Toast bread. Wait. See pears on table. Hmm. Slice pears thinly. Spread peanut butter on toast. Layer pear slices on top. Crunch. MmmmMMMMM! Soft sweet pear, sweet and salty peanut butter, then crisp, freshly toasted bread. Textures and tastes. Mm. Having it for breakfast again tomorrow. Maybe you'll eat this for breakfast tomorrow. Or maybe tea or supper today ;)

Was it because we just watched an italian-food episode of My Kitchen Rules? Possibly, because we went right out to get ingredients for pizza and pasta, and from Coles too (the MKR sponsor). But well, we always shop at Coles anyway. It wasn't entirely homemade since we used store-bought bases which were a little thick. But still, fun and yum nonetheless!

10 minute afternoon snack:  Mix flour with salt and pepper, coat egg tofu with flour mixture, fry with a good layer of oil and top with fried shallots if you'd like. Kind of looks like my mama's. I'm happy ;)

Birthdays: Celebrating people, reasons to have a nicer-than-usual dinner (ha ha), occasions to make loved ones feel special, and at times for some, time to panic that our age has gone a number up.  But really, we don't quite grow in "years". Rather, we grow daily, moment by moment. In that sense, age is more of: Day 1, day 2, day 3... day 31... day 365... day 9490. Or, XXXXX moments. Perhaps birthdays, other than times of celebrations, are times of reflection. -- Last night we had a cosy dinner celebration at Guhng with D&D. It's a Korean charcoal BBQ restaurant – my favourite in Melbourne. It's in the Melbourne CBD, so it's easy to access if you're visiting Melbourne.   Here goes part of our super filling and yummy meal: ^ We got the Premium set and added Yuk-Hwei, which is light-seasoned beef sashimi, sliced raw tenderloin with egg yolk, pear, cucumber, sesame oil and gal-sal dressing, which was yums. Considering that I don...

Had a Vietnamese themed dinner with Eugene and Lillian today at our house and it was yums! Simpler to make than I expected.  For the Rice Paper Rolls, we followed the recipe on One Handed Cooks . Basically you cook rice vermicelli, pick a mix of meat and vegetables you want, and make simple sauce. We had thinly sliced pork fillet, chinese lettuce, and carrots. The sauce was mega yums – hoisin sauce (hoisin, peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, water), and Vietnamese dipping sauce (fish sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar, chopped garlic, chilli if you like spice). You can eat it with herbs if you'd like. Herbs like basil, coriander and mint.  And you need the rice paper rolls which just need to be soaked in water for like three seconds. The great thing about this dish is that you only have to cook the meat and rice vermicelli. Plus, the DIY rolling adds to the fun, and you can mix the ingredients however you want. We made beef pho too. W...

I'm home alone today and will be having lunch and dinner by myself (woke up too late for breakfast), I decided to finish off some ingredients in the fridge before they go bad. So on the menu for lunch and dinner today, are corn fritters and bacon!  The stuff I share isn't always exactly unique. There are tons of corn fritter recipes out there. But well, I share so family can see what I'm up to now that I'm away, and I'm disciplining myself to write, think, and maybe take good pictures as well. Yep. But anyway, the point is: Corn fritters! Maybe the point of what's shown here is: If I can do it, you can too! Like,  if Yan can cook, so can you .  ^ Remember this guy? ^ Good catchphrase man. I still remember it today. My mom used to watch that. But I'm not as good as Yan. So really, being the kind of cook I am who gets put off by seeing long recipes and so only chooses to do simple things most of the time – if I can do it, you can too. ...

Hello! We've got new neighbours across the street and have been wanting to say hi, but Ian says we should go with something in hand – like a baked cake for example. But I don't quite bake so, hm. Yesterday we were visiting a church life group and had to bring a dish, so I made some Chocolate Ripple, and since I was at it, I made some for the new neighbour as well.  Considering that I can make this by myself and from memory too, it means this is a super simple recipe. I learnt it from Ivie a few years back. Arnott's has their version  which is in cake form and non-crushed biscuits, but I prefer Ivie's version. • • • C H O C O L A T E  R I P P L E ^ Ingredients ^ Arnott's Chocolate Ripple biscuits (250g packet) Thickened cream (300g) Caster sugar (1 tsp) Vanilla essence (1 tsp) Caster sugar is just finer than regular sugar and hence easier to mix ^ How to make ^  Pound the b...

Super fun craft day with Lillian today! A mix of cooking, origami, coaster painting, and making buttons, recycled paper, and peanut mochi.  I love mochi. It's a sort of Japanese rice cake with a variety of fillings. It's easier to make than it seems. We followed the recipe from Issue Eight of Kinfolk Magazine, contributed by Diana Yen. Previously, we tried it with red bean paste. Today, it was peanut filling. Yums. Chewy and flavourful, sweet, but not overly. Here's an adaptation of the recipe. • • • M O C H I ^ Ingredients for the dough ^ Glutinous rice flour (1 1/2 cups) – must  be glutinous Granulated sugar (1/2 cup) Water (1 1/3 cup) Cornstarch to work with ^ Ingredients for the filling ^ It depends on what you want. Here are two options:  ^ a) Peanut ^  Mix ground peanuts with some sugar to sweeten it,  and water to make it a little paste-y. b) Red bean It's like boiling red bean soup, but w...