Easter Brunch @ Izzy's Restaurant

My two little lovers were having a happy mealtime enjoying their Easter brunch at Izzy's restaurant on last Sunday. 

                  Wow....a big bite on the pizza

First, they were excited to receive a warm welcome from the Easter Bunny the minutes they stepped into the restaurant.

 

Second, they were surprised with the Easter treat from the Bunny.

Third, of course non-other than the thumbs-up brunch with a variety and flavor combinations of buffet items from the walk-up grills, pizza, hot food, salad as well as dessert bars.

Izzy's Grill Bar

The Pizza Bar

The Hot Food Bar

The Salad Bar

Partial of the Dessert Bar

Izzy's is one of our favorite dining place whenever we dine out.  Not only that it offers a variety of flavorful food, but also at a reasonable price.  I have been visiting Izzy's frequently on my last temp stay in OR 4 years ago and it is one of the restaurant that i missed when i'm back to my home country.  I love its pizza.  It's unbelievable that almost each pizza (ranged from vegetarian, cheese, peperoni, BBQ chicken, Hawaiian Supreme, the Artisan pizza etc) that i've tasted so far from the pizza bar were mouth-watering.  Non has disappointed me so far and whenever thought of eating pizza, i would always miss the one from Izzy's. 

When i came back to OR again this year for a temp stay, of course Izzy's is one of the dining place that i won't miss.  I was delighted to find that Izzy's has added Izzy's grill to its original menu which was not there 4 years ago.  Well, i have to say that this is a must have if dining in Izzy's.  The ribs and pulled pork tasted excellence.  But sometime, i found that the ribs was not prepared as good at some of the Izzy's chain restaurant, perhaps it depends on how the chef prepared it?  :O 

Yummy Yummy Ribs from Izzy's Grill

While i don't take steak, but my hubby sure won't miss it whenever we dine there.  Want to know what is his comment?  Oops.....he just speechless with his mouth busy and full working on the steak... ;P  Of course, Izzy's grill is not limited to these menu, if you visited on Sunday for Sunday brunch, you will find that there are more scrumptious menu like whipped-cream-topped Belgium waffles and omelets etc.  

Well, the girls ended their Easter brunch with a sweet treat from the dessert bar satisfactory. 

It was an unforgettable dining experience for my little lovers with Easter Bunny hoping in, Easter treat as well as the beautiful Easter deco.

'Now, it's the goose and duckling mealtime!' said the girls.  And we proceeded to the Hillsboro library, spent the entire afternoon in the breathtaking landscape where the girls busy had fun feeding the duckling and the goose with the bread crust from my home-made whole wheat bread. 

  

 A joyous and peaceful Easter day indeed!

Spring Easter Fun

Smell the Spring?  Oh yes, with cherry blossom blooming beautifully in Tom Mccall Waterfront Park, the beautiful spring is hopping in. 

 

The first spring fun for my two little lovers is non other that the Easter fun.  It will be our first Easter  celebration since we didn't really celebrate it back in our home country.  We have activities line up for the weekend and hence, i'm pulling in the celebration with my two little lovers at home on Friday.  I prepared a surprise egg hunt for the girls and they were so excited. 

While the girls were having fun on their egg hunting, i'm working on this candy bird nest inspired from my 5yrs old who brought back her creation from her pre-K class last week.
    

This is the first time i'm being introduced to this cute little idea and she told me that it was a candy bird nest that they did in the class, she even shared the 'recipe' & 'how to' with me.  :)


My little chef's creation: Candy Bird Nest




Cute Little Easter Cupcake

Easter Day is just a hop away, and when talk about Easter, seems like Easter bunny always come into picture.  Think of Easter bunny, can't help to picture carrot.  How can Easter day baking do without carrot then? 

I've therefore made this cute little carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting, decorated with carrot and green vegetable leaves.  Since my little lovers like to eat carrot, i thought it would do better by using the real carrot for decoration instead of making one with the colouring cream.  ;)

I've made a few with filling inside for my little lovers to 'hunt' for and see who gets the one with filling inside.

The girls were having a great 'warm up hunting' fun for Easter Day.  :)

Mixed Vegetables

Mixed Vegetables I

I like mixed vegetables, not only that it is simple to prepare, but it has no limitation or fixed ingredients (so called) to follow.  One can simply mixed up any vegetables that he/she likes to make a dish.  For me, i used to mix up any veggie that i have in my fridge, especially those leftover but not enough to make one dish by itself. 

As few fresh vegetables mixed up & fry together already present a pretty flavor, hence not much of other special source/ingredients is really needed.   Just bring a wok over high heat with oil, stir-fry two or three types of vegetables with chopped garlic, add a dash of salt, sugar, and/or soy source to taste, a dish is then done.  It is optional to include the chicken/pork meat to fry together if desire a stronger flavor in the dish.  Quick & easy!  :) 



Mixed Vegetables II

  

My Chinese Sushi

My first encounter with Chinese Sushi was at the Dim Sum restaurant here in OR.  This cute little dish is new to me though I used to have Dim Sum back in my home country both in Penang and Ipoh.  They looked interesting and i tried to mimic it in my kitchen yesterday. 

Well, as what i have expected, the taste is no way close to the one selling at the Dim Sum restaurant, since i don't really know the exact ingredients to make the taste and i just give it a try.  Obviously, there are some ingredients that i have omitted to make it the exact same taste.  Anyway, i guess my chinese sushi has the look still, though the taste is not the same as the one selling, it tasted not bad and it was crispy especially with the sushi nori.  It was not a bad tried after all.  ;P   

Ingredients:

• Pork meat, minced
• 1 sheet Sushi Nori
• Cooking oil
• Tempura batter mix

Marinade:

• 1 tsp soy source
• 1/2 tsp tomato source
• 1 tsp salt

 Steps:

1. Marinade the pork meat with soy source, tomato source and salt in a bowl, stir to coat evenly.  Let stand for 15-20mins
2. Shape the pork meat into 2-inch long, bite-size pieces each
3. Cut the sushi nori sheet into pieces, big & long enough to cover each the pork meat pieces
4. Place the pork meat on top of the sushi nori pieces and roll to cover
5. Prepare the tempura batter mix, follow the manufacturer's instruction 
6. Place a stir-fly pan/wok over high heat, add the cooking oil and swirling to coat the sides 
7. Reduce the heat to medium, dip each pieces of the pork meat into batter and carefully sliding into the stir-fly pan/wok
8. Cook in small batches of 4-5 pieces, fry 2-4mins until cooked and golden brown, turning pieces over once
9. Remove, drain on papwer towels.  Transfer to a serving plate and serve

Fruity or M&Ms Candy Princess Cupcakes?

My 5yrs old attended a friend's birthday party last weekend and she asked why it's not her birthday yet?  I guess she is still not quite get the ideas that everyone will only have one birthday in a year and she is still missing her princess Rapunzel birthday party?  I then told her that even though it's not her birthday, she still can have princess cupcakes and i made this 'quick fix' princess cupcakes by simply inserting a princess fun pix in a cupcake, decorated with fresh fruit to satisfy her.  :P

What is special about these cupcakes is they are made without sugar.

Since I started my baking journey, found that the sugar in my kitchen has gone so fast and thought it would be a good idea to do some baking without sugar sometime.  Hence, I made a dozen of these interesting recipe that uses honey instead.  For many of us that has custom with the normal cupcakes, may find these cupcakes a bit tasteless since it is sugarless, so do expect it will not taste as sweet as what it taste like for a normal cupcake.  But it still has its unique taste with fruit flavor.  Next time, i may want to add 2 ripe bananas instead to make a stronger banana flavor.

Out of fun, i also decorated the cupcakes with  M&Ms candy cum raisin on top.  Wow...they look so colourful now.



Oh ya, these candy cupcakes need to be kept 'out of the sight' from my little lovers, too many M&Ms candy, they will go crazy!  These are reserved for the no saint like me to indulge myself....haha.  BTW, after removing the M&Ms, was delighted to find that it left a beautiful colour print on the cupcakes....

So, a fruity cupcake vs a M&Ms candy princess cupcake, which one will be your choice? :)

Ingredients:

• 3 tbs (45g) unsalted butter 
• 1 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg, beaten
• 45ml milk
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 100g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp & 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1 banana, sliced (for decorating)

Steps:

1. Line a 12 cup muffin pans with paper liner
2. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C
3. Cream together the butter and banana in a mixer bowl
4. Gradually work the egg, milk, honey, flour and baking powder & baking soda into the mixture
5. Stir in the golden raisins
6. Divide the mixture evenly among the 12 muffin cups
7. Bake for 15mins in the middle of the oven until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean
8. Remove from the oven and cool on a cake rack
9. Decorate with banana slices

     

White Fungus Sweet Soup/Dessert (雪耳凊润糖水）

Last weekend, i made this white fungus (also commonly known as snow ear fungus) sweet soup/dessert. 

Besides it's tasty, many Chinese believe that this after meal soup dessert is nourishing especially for the lungs (soothing purposes like clearing heat in the lungs and relieve from dry coughs) as well as helps on anti-aging. 

It is said that white fungus's collagen content is comparable to bird's nest and in view of it's cheaper, it has been considered by many Chinese as a good alternate for bird nests. 

  
Ingredients:

• 2.5L of water
• 3/4 cup of white sugar (or use ~ 30g rock sugar if you have)
• 2 or 3 pieces of dried white fungus/snow ear fungus (雪耳）
• 1/4 cup dried Lotus Seed (莲子） 
• 1/4 cup dried Lilli bulbs (百合）
• A handful of dried Longan (龙眼肉） 

Steps:

• Soak snow ear fungus in water for 30min-1hr until softened.  Discard water and trim the firm part from its bottom 
• Wash & rinse all the other ingredients under running water
• Bing the water to a boil in a pot
• Add in all the ingredients (except sugar), cook and simmer for about 2 hours
• Add in the sugar and continue simmer for another 15-30min
• Serve hot or cold by putting it in the refrigerator