Dinner! & New Cooking Books!

Well today… the guys from the construction company came again to do the ceiling. and they will still come again tml. and the day after tml. until they’re done.

Anyways, I didn’t go upstairs the whole day today. I woke up late, used the computer for a while. and decided it was time to exercise.

Got out my pilates dvd. Did around 30 minutes of pilates cardio. and went to take a bath. I soaked in the bath for maybe 45 minutes while reading a new book i bought from www.books.com.tw, speaking of which, i haven blogged about yet. Ok, i shall talk about dinner then the books.

Fish was really sweet, he made dinner tonight.

We bought a roast chicken from Woolworths a few days ago. so he shredded that and roasted it again in the oven. We also bought a loaf of garlic bread – not the ones with butter and garlic, just the aroma of garlic. So he sliced that and baked them in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper.

He also cooked a can of minestrone and added salami to it. It made the soup meatier and spicy. It was also very nice to add the crunchy bread into the soup.

We also had a premade potato salad from Woolworths and it didn’t taste good so we threw that out.. There were salad veggies too, although that was for Fish, i don’t like rocket.

Thank you darling for a wonderful dinner! =)

Now.

Onto the books i got. There are 6 books, so there are quite a few pictures. Bear with me =)

1. 就爱这样吃面包！- 200种面包的绝配吃法！

This book i really quite like. I was reading this just now when i was soaking in the bathtub. It is not entirely a recipe book. It’s about her journey with bread. her love for bread. as she introduces the reader to different kinds of bread and what goes well with bread. So she has recipes inside for food and drinks that would go well with a particular bread. and there are already a few recipes that catch my eye. She has a chapter on coffee or tea with instructions on how to brew the perfect cup of coffee and/or tea.

The book is very cute, with cute illustrations.

 
Very very cute. A light read but very informative yet personal at the same time. This book was bought at a whim and i really enjoy reading it and have no regrets about buying this book!

2. LOVE 樂活风便当

 
I’ve read a few bento books and haven’t really found one that i liked. The website i was buying from was have a discount if i bought more than TW$1000 worth of books, so this was one that i chose to bring the total up.

But. I didn’t really regret this. This is actually quite a nice book. It has beautiful yet practical bentos.

The pictures were also beautifully taken.

 
There are also recipes for mains and side dishes. A few of the recipes are definite favourites and i will definitely try them when making bento for me and fish and hui next semester.

3. 第一次做点心

 
This one was a slight slight let down. The pictures are nice etc.. but just not really what i was looking for. I will still attempt to try some of it’s recipes since they still look really good. It’s just that in comparison with the other books, this would be my least favourite. =)

I’ve always wanted to make roll cakes. They have 3 recipes in her, though i don’t really like all the flavours they’ve done, the one on the left is Chestnut and Pear, which i find interesting – so i might try that. =)

4. 3杯面粉72变 by 阿芳老师

 
This has to be my favourite book. I did buy another book with the exact title by another teacher and i think there are both good and bad in each book. but i really love this book. It comes with a dvd which is great as she illustrates how to create the different doughs and also demonstrates some of the recipes in the book.

  
This is a dual coloured mantou made of normal sugar and black sugar. The other book also had this, but instead it’s white and green – green is made using macha powder. which i don’t really really like. So i prefer this.

I actually have not got down to comparing recipes and seeing whose works better. but i shall and you shall hear from me.

This isn’t the best of pictures, but it looks so good on the book. and she has this in her dvd as well. This is spring onion pancake. does this not look at roti prata?! how will i be able to resist this! haha.. i’m so making this!

5. 名师的快手私房菜

This book is a collaboration between 阿芳老师 and 2 other chefs. It has a variety of recipes in all the major food groups.

I haven’t got a picture from this book as i have not really sat down and read the book. When flipping, nothing really stands out to me as yet. but if any does in the near future, i’ll be sure to take note of it.

The difference in this book is that the recipes all have a preceding question.

Eg: 如何让肉丸子吃起来滑嫩多汁？

Then there will be an answer from the chefs and a recipe to follow.

6. 阿芳的私房菜

This is one of her older older books. Hence her look. haha..

This is her 10 year anniversary version of this book.

Inside, she has recipes that her different family members can, and like to make. although mostly are hers, duh.

 
This is one that calls out to me… eat me.. eat me…

hehe.. it’s very much like dongpo rou. This is called 走油焖肉. which doesn’t seem to difficult to make and the picture looks delicious! so i am definitely going to try this. I’ve even bought the pork belly already.. hehe..

So there.

Those are the new books that i bought from www.books.com.tw 

I’m very happy and very full.

and i hope you are too!