Waffles...and my first green-tea flavoured whipped cream!

First of all, who has known that yesterday (23 Jan.) was the Chinese New Year's Day?? The Chinese new year starts with the new moon on the first day of the year. This year is the year of Dragon, according to the Chinese calendar! (Last year it was rabbit year) The Chineses believe that Dragon (my Chinese Zodiac sign) is the symbol of power and prosperity, so we should expect a better year. Well, there's no bad point expecting a better year, so why don't we do so?

This's the prediction of the year 2012:
"Expect this to be a very energetic year, filled with optimism, power and entrepreneurship. This year is of water dragon which means that even the most powerful will give a patient hearing to the weaker, and will try to see through their point of view, better alliances and decision will take place."

Now let's talk about my waffles!!! I mentioned in a post in December that I got a waffle maker. Then I've used it a couple of times. Last Saturday my son asked if I could make some waffles again...and they were done!! :) He loves them with chocolate chips. Guess what came into my mind about a matching topping! One of my friend brought me a sachet of green tea powder when she came to visit me. A green-tea flavoured whipped cream sounds great on top of waffles! You know, I never made fresh whipped cream before. The result was; the taste was incredibly good...but please don't give importance to the aspect...ahahaha!! As in the picture below, it had an ugly shape. I may be going to buy a right tool to shape a beautiful whipped cream topping.

And now...I'm proud to present my home-made Waffles (with chocolate chips assortment) and my very first Green - Tea flavoured Whipped Cream!

To do the waffles, I followed the recipe of Two Good Eggs (a breakfast blog), a nice and creative  breakfast blog I'm following. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for waffles:
1 1/2 - cups flour
4 - teaspoons baking powder
1/2 - teaspoon salt
3 - teaspoons sugar
2 - eggs (separate yolks from whites)
1/2 - cup butter (melted and cooled)
1 3/4 cups whole milk

Directions:
1. In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well.
2. In a small bowl or cup mix yolks, butter and milk together then pour into dry mixture. Mix well to combine.
3. Take the whites of the eggs and whisk them into stiff peaks.
4. Then fold the stiff whites into batter. Mix to combine.
5. Take a laddle and a half and pour into your waffle iron and press. Should take about 5 min. to become fully cooked and golden.

Let's move on to my green-tea flavoured whipped cream!
(I'm sure all of you are better than me whipping the cream.)

I left the bowl and the beater in the fridge before using as suggested in some websites. I poured 1 cup of whipping cream into the bowl, whisked it quickly until obtaining bubbles. Then I added 1/4 cup of white sugar (should reduce a little bit if you don't want it too sweet as I did), continued beating quicklier and after some minutes I added 1 teaspoon of green tea powder and continued working until I got a well whipped cream!

You should believe, it was superb!!!

Christmas in Thailand

Christmas is intensely in the air! Yesterday, I and my two great friends met up in the centre of the city. It was full of people and "lives". The atmosphere of the greeting seasons was perceived and I love this feeling very much. It was such a cold day but I somehow felt warm and embraced by all people around. We had so many conversations and some good laughs.

I've always been in touch with all my family and friends in Thailand for nowadays we've so many rapid ways to contact people around the world. Thanks to the hi-technologies the world's getting smaller. You can reach the other side of the world in a second! Certainly at the moment everyone of us talks about the up-coming holidays. Although the majority of Thai people is Buddhist, Christmas is very celebrated! We love every joyous celebration. Thai people have accepted various foreign cultures and we sometimes go crazy about them! You won't have too much difficulty if you want to have success in my native country because people are mostly open-minded. They welcome new things quite eagerly.

Christmas celebration in Thailand is however different from its original tradition where the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated and the family get united as the most special moment. For us it's a joyful moment when you can see lighting decorations everywhere (especially in big cities). We love to exchange gifts among family, colleagues and friends. At school, a male teacher is dressed up as Father Christmas and give away candies to children. I still remember how I and classmates enjoyed Christmas together. We didn't have lessons but played a lot of games. Some families began to buy a Christmas tree for their home. Why not enjoying things at most?

I attach here a picture of a big shopping hall at Bangkok (my favorite place!). I got it from a Thai website (hoping the owner won't mind!). Oh...how I miss this place. My husband and my son love it too and they can stay therein all the day.

The origin of the picture: http://www.2how.com/board/28814.html

Merry Christmas to everybody! 

Wishing you a great time with all your beloved ones ;)

Editing pictures

This's just for fun. I don't know why but last evening after cooking a simple dish for myself, using the organic long beans from my friend's garden, I thought of the way my daddy loves to eat. Each meal, my mom always prepared the table in this way: 1 plate,1 spoon and 1 fork for herself and her children but 1 bowl and 1 couple of sticks for her husband. My dad loves to have food from a bowl and pick the food with chinese sticks. He holds the bolw in the left hand and the sticks in the right one...as if he tasted the food better than having it from a plate and fork. My mom, me, bro and sis use the sticks only when we have noodles, never use them when we have rice.

So last evening, after thinking of my dad and his bowl of rice, I decided to have rice and the long beans & shrimps in red curry sauce (obviously cooked by meself) in a bowl and to use sticks. I just wanted to fantasized a little bit with the pictures of the meal editing them by the program photoscape. And the results are...