How To : Make Your Own Potato Salad

Yes, I know that I blogged recently about dieting after Christmas but I couldn't resist the temptation of the potato salad for New Year's. It's easy and simple to make and also pretty filling so it's a good dish to bring for any potluck or gathering that you may have on New Year's Eve.

Ingredients :
1. Potatoes (duh!) - about 6 potatoes will be good enough for 3-4 persons.
2. Eggs - 2 or 3 eggs depending on your preference.
3. Honeydew - quarter of a honeydew.
4. Mayonnaise and milk.

Steps :
1. Dice the potatoes into small cubes and boil them until they're soft.
2. Boil the eggs as well and shell them after they're hard-boiled. Mash them after removing the shells, you may choose to remove the yolks if you are health-conscious.
3. Slice the honeydew into small cubes as well.
4. Prepare the dressing by mixing some milk (just very little) to the mayonnaise to make it smoother and creamier.
5. Mix the ingredients together and chill in the refrigerator. Once the dish is cold enough, it is ready to serve. Put the dish in the freezer for faster cooling action if you're rushed for time.

And ta-da! Your dish is ready for the consumption of all your hungry mates... and yourself too!

Homemade Potato Salad

Travel Review : Penang Butterfly Farm

Running out of ideas on places to bring your family during the school holidays? Why not visit the Penang Butterfly Farm? It's open daily from 9am - 5:30pm (or 6pm on weekends). Located in Teluk Bahang (near the famous Batu Ferringhi), this is an ideal place to bring your kids to. Not only do they get to learn about nature and develop an appreciation for living things, they can also join in various tours and get up close and personal with nature. This outing can easily take up at least half a day if you look at all the sections and spend time to observe the flora and fauna in the farm.

Rice Paper Butterfly - a beautiful black and white butterfly species

Priced at RM20 for adults and RM10 for children, at first the entrance price seems quite steep. But no worries, if you are a Malaysian citizen, just produce your MyKad to get a 50% discount on the entrance fees. They also give the 50% discount for Jusco and Sunshine member cards. :)

The famed Rajah Brooke Birdwing - Malaysia's national butterfly

Besides butterflies, there are also other insects like the leaf and stick insect section -try to spot them as they camouflage into the greenery! They also keep squirrels, monitor lizards, iguanas, scorpions, toads, tarantulas and tortoises among others. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list - there are many other types of animals there. Walk several rounds in the enclosure, you may have missed something on your first round.

A regular branch.. or not? Spot the leaf insect and how many?

If you feel too hot and need to cool down, head for the mini cinema which has air-cond and shows a 15-minute documentary every 30 minutes. There are also live shows where the handler will bring in some small animals and insects - the gecko, some beetles and the stick/leaf insects. You'll be able to touch and hold them with the handler keeping a watchful eye.

Our friendly neighbourhood gecko

On your way out, do stop by the souvenir shop where you can look for some good bargains and pretty trinkets as a remembrance of your trip to the Butterfly Farm. As a final reminder, please remind your children not to litter the grounds and to treat the free-roaming butterflies gently.

How To : Slim Down After Christmas Bingeing

All's been said and done, the fat lady's sung.. you've eaten a whole bunch of food and really, there's no use in crying over spilt milk.

So here we go... a good way to lose weight after all that food. Soup and bread~! Ingenious? We think so. :)

1. Take a can of Campbell's Mushroom Soup and add 1¼ cans of water to it. (The instructions say to put 1 can of water, but we find that too salty for our taste).
2. Put the whole pot to boil over a slow fire and make sure to stir the lumps until they dissolve.
3. Once the soup starts boiling, continue stirring it for 1 minute then take it off the fire to serve.
4. Prepare bread as a side dish to go with the soup - we took wholemeal multigrain bread (well, no sense in cutting out the nutrition when we're trying to lose weight). You may add butter to bread to your taste or dip it plain in the soup.

Soup and bread - the perfect start to getting slimmer!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

In the words of Shakin' Stevens...

Snow is falling all around me
Children playing, having fun

It's the season of love and understanding
Merry Christmas everyone

Time for parties and celebration
People dancing all night long
Time for presents
and exchanging kisses
Time for singing Christmas songs

We're gonna have a party tonight
I'm gonna find that girl underneath the mistletoe,
We'll kiss by candlelight

Room is swaying, records playing
All the songs, we love to hear
All I wish that everyday was Christmas
What a nice way to spend the year....

Merry Christmas all!

How To : Decorate Your Christmas Tree

It's nearly Christmas... how could I forget about the Christmas tree? Seeing one invariably evokes images of the evergreen smell, happiness, food and best of all, presents beneath the tree!

Get yourself a mid-size Christmas tree if you're just starting out. Reason being that you can slowly grow your decorations and not have to get them all at one go, which would cost a bomb! Some people add slowly to their collection and each decoration has a meaning and story behind it, which kinda gives more depth to Christmas.

Start yourself with a theme. Decide what colour you want your tree to be - a multitude of colours would just confuse the senses and give a haphazard feel to the tree. This year we went for silver and red (last year being gold and silver).

After getting your theme, make sure to balance the decorations evenly so that it doesn't seem lopsided. A common mistake is to either decorate the top or the bottom of the tree heavily, leaving the rest sparsely decorated.

Once it is done, string your lights up and put your presents under the tree. Then, all you have left to do is to wait for Christmas! :)

Our red and silver Christmas tree

Merry Christmas to all and happy holidays! :)

Food Review : TGIF Queensbay Mall

We went for lunch at TGIF Queensbay. For once, I skipped over my regular choice of the RM39.90++ set meal and went for the Jack Daniel's steak. It comes complete with the signature Jack Daniel's sauce, mashed potatoes (which were a bit too dry this time around) and some greens. I ordered my steak medium done so that it wouldn't get too rubbery.

Yum! Jack Daniel's Steak

We also got the Jack Daniel's Glazed Ribs (yup, we were in an alcoholic mood!) which wasn't as good as the steak. Probably the meat was not tender enough so it required some strength to saw through the meat. Should have just opted to use our hands and pick off the bones ala barbarian style. :)

Jack Daniel's Glazed Ribs

Took the Premium Fresh Orange which was a tad too sour for my taste buds. All in all, TGIF delivers great food as usual. But skip the orange juice if you prefer your drinks to be more sweet.

Food Review : Economy Rice

A short review of the general hawker food in Penang. Food prices seem to still be going up (I seem to be running into a lot of high priced food these days!) although fuel prices are coming down in the past 2-3 weeks.

Here's a sample of the economy fast food rice we had the other day at Golden Hawker Center near to I-Avenue, Bayan Lepas. The dishes were a spot of ikan bilis, some vege and a few fried chicken bits. The price? RM3.50. Seems a bit steep to me for that bit of food.

Economy Rice Fast Food Style

What do you think? Was the price worth it?