Healthy Cranberries and Oatmeal Cookies

My cooking blue started again for past few weeks. It caused by facebook's application called happy farm, i'm so addicted to it recently. Happy farm is just small game where u can plant and harvest many kind of fruits. It is nothing compared to big game such as maple story and travian but i have so much fun playing that my friends called as a "boring game". I spent most of my evening infront of my laptop, planting, harvesting, take care my plants even stealing from my friend's farm.
Feeling so upset when i can't access my farm yesterday, so off i go, to my old favorite website, foodgawker and found this amazing and healthy cookies recipe. And why i call it healthy? because no butter in it, i even substitute canola oil with olive pomace oil, skipped chocolate chips and add more oatmeal and it still turned out great.
So, do you think that big amount of sugar is healthy as well? I would say yes, since it impossible to bake cookies without sugar ^_*

Melting Brownies

What can i say about this? well, this is the best brownies i've ever made so far. With melted chocolate in the center, my friends at work gave me two thumbs up. One of them said, she'll give me 5 thumbs up if only she have it.... From now on, i will stick to this recipe for brownies and maybe some modification with peanut butter and or cream cheese next time. To make it even more special, i also made a recipe card for this one.


Source: discussion at NCC yahoo groups and of course...with slight modification.

Wuxi Style Braised Spareribs

Wuxi is one of big city in China which is very famous with their silk and delicious dishes, one of them is this braised spareribs. More article about Wuxi can be found here. I was searching for this recipe and ended up in aunty Lily's blog. She wrote a lot of great chinese recipe and i should try them one by one. This finger lickin' sparerib is my favorite and i always ordered this dish everytime i dine out in chinese restaurant.

Mango Cheesecake

It is mango season here in Taiwan. Mango is always my favorite fruit. There is a dessert shop near my working place called Ice Monster and their 芒果芋头冰 , literally mean mango+yam mixed with shaved ice+condensed milk is really to die for. I have really really huge appetite lately with 5-7 meals a day!! hahaa...and i've been buy this mango ice for a week without break. In order to used up my half package of cream cheese, i made this cheesecake with... of course, mango topping!!

Recipe for mango cheesecake

Ingredients:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup mango flavored yoghurt
Mango, extra yoghurt and oreo biscuits without cream, as required

- Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, add egg one at time and beat until incorporated. Stir in yoghurt, mix well. Arrange oreo on the side of baking pan, pour the batter in and bake in preheated oven at 180 for 50-55 minutes, until the center of the cake has been set. Cool for up to 2 hours in fridge. For topping, mix cubed mango with yoghurt and pour over cooled cake.

Banana Chocolate Cake

I just stepped into the house when i smell something sweet from my kitchen. It was banana that i bought 4 days ago, before i left for long weekend in the mountain with some friends. For me, banana is the best fruit for baking and it always satisfying. I love combination of banana + chocolate. Wonder why no one sell chocolate with banana flavor out there.
Recipe from Stephanie Jaworski at joyofbaking.com

Caramel Flan

Hey... i'm back after 2 long weeks without update. I've been a little busy helping a friend to design her new online shop and also doing some label and banner design, haven't done with it up until now.
It is not summer yet but the weather is terribly hot here, the heatwave makes me feel exhausted, not wanting to do anything and all i want is water and something to cool down. I've been bookmarked this recipe since few weeks back, and only got the mood to do it today. The flan turned to be as smooth as it looks, with slightly sticky caramel syrup and it really cooled my evening off.

Orange Cheesecake

Browse through daring baker's blog, i found a lot of luscious and tempting cheesecake as their April's challenge is cheesecake. Their post really makes me drool and luckily i still have a pack of cream cheese and orange in my fridge.
Recipe tweaked from my previous Oreo cheesecake

Ingredients:
for base:
1 1/2 cups ritz cracker crumb
1/4 c melted butter

for cake:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup whole milk
1 orange rind, finely grated
1/2 cup powdered sugar

for topping (optional):
1 tbsp orange flavored jelly powder
1/3 cup water

- For base, mix cracker crumb with butter, press into baking pan and set aside. Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth, add eggs 1 at time, beat until fully incorporated. Add in milk, orange juice and rind, stir well. Pour the batter into prepared base crust. Steam bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 40-45 minutes. For topping, prepare jelly as directed and let it cool. Arrange sliced orange on top, pour jelly on top of cooled cake. Let it set in the fridge for about 3-4 hours.