Spring Cleaning and Olay Regenerist Mask

According to Chinese belief, you're not allowed to do any cleaning on CNY day, in case you're sweeping the luck away out of your house. If you really have to sweep something on that day, you're supposed to leave the dirt inside the house, to keep the luck. Thus you're supposed to do "Spring Cleaning" before CNY.

I personally think the real reason behind it is to give housewives a break, so they can join in the celebrations without worrying about house cleaning. Hehehe...

This year I got distracted. I did clean and tidy up the place, but I didn't do a big "proper" spring cleaning. So yesterday I thought I'll start by going through my skincare drawer.

I found a forgotten sample of Olay Regenerist Mask. Then I decided to use it while making use of our brand new massager. But not before reading and re-reading the ingredients list for many times, in case my sensitive skin reacted to it. I know, Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour on my part... better to be safe than sorry.

This stretchy mask claims it "helps reduce appearance of deep lines & pores", "firms skin". I still don't have lines (yeah, boasting my youthfulness) so can't verify that claim. I do find my pores looked smaller, my skin also felt firmer and smoother after application.

The mask juice (anti-aging serum) left a slightly sticky feeling, wiping my face with wet cotton pad solved the problem. Love the calming scent.


This morning my skin still feel smooth. No breakouts, which means my skin is loving it. A very pleasant surprise, for a supermarket brand it works well. I never thought Olay could be that good.

Verdict: Very Musical (= highly recommended)

Ingredients:

Water, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Glycerin, Panthenol, Isopropyl Isostearate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Polyacrylamide, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Laureth-7, Sucrose Polycottonseedate, Tocopherol, PEG-100 Stearate, Cetearyl Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, Allantoin, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Benzyl Alcohol, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Methylparaben, Palmitoyl PEntatpeptide-3, Carnosine, Pisum Sativum (Pea) Extract, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Sorbate, Chlorphenesin, Fragrance.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai,

Hong Bao Na Lai!

(= Congratulations and be prosperous,

Bring me red envelopes filled with money!)

Ooops, as a married person I'm not entitled to receive the red envelopes. Only children and singles are allowed to collect them during CNY period. Of course they collect the hong bao from us, poor married ones! Hehehe...

Whether you're young or old, single or married, here's my gift to you: a link to a recipe to make fortune cookies. Yum!

Spring Rolls

I found this old recipe that includes precise measurements. Hubby mentioned the other day that according to the copyright training he had at work, list of ingredients can't be copyrighted. Only the instruction portions could be copyrighted.

Though I could be "borrowing" the ingredients list from elsewhere, all the cooking instructions in my articles are my own words, thus I'm SO going to copyright them! Hehehehe...

Anyway. Here goes the Vegetarian Spring Rolls recipe.

10 sheets frozen spring roll wrappers

Filling:
2 cloves garlic - crushed
50gr mushrooms - chopped finely
120gr carrot - shredded
70 gr white cabbage - shredded

Seasonings:
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
1.5 tbsp oyster sauce
1.5 tsp cornflour

4 tbsp water

For sealing: mix plain flour with a little water.

1. Fry garlic in a little oil in the wok until the colour change. Discard the garlic.
2. Add mushrooms, cabbage, and carrot, stir for 1min.
3. Add seasonings and fry until everything turns thicker. Let it cool on a plate.
4. Place filling in the centre of spring rolls wrapper. Fold the wrapper to make a roll. Seal the end with the plain flour "glue".
5. Deep fry spring rolls over moderate heat. Make sure to keep on turning them to avoid creating burnt rolls! From experience I find that frying using coconut oil enhances the taste.
6. Drain, put in a dish lined with paper towels to absorb the extra oil.
7. Serve with sweet Thai chili sauce or Worcestershire sauce

Add cooked mince chicken for a meaty option. Enjoy!

Asparagus Soup

This is the most memorable dish in my Chinese cooking repertoire. Reason: it's the soup my mother cooks for special occasions or treats.

As in other Asian form of cooking, the amount of the ingredients and spices are quite ambiguous, there's no set amount like in Western cooking. A pinch of this, a tiny bit of that, a slice of this, a dash of that. I suppose it helps to "train" our taste buds. After some practice you'll get use to it in no time. In my opinion, it's good to have flexible recipes, that way you can always adjust the amount of spices according to your liking. It also encourages you to keep on practicing, doing trials and errors in order to perfect your favourite recipes.

The best cooking advice my mother ever gave me: always add a little bit of sugar in your cooking, it's the one thing that makes the difference. It's my late grandma's cooking secret. I've always done it ever since. So the cat is out of the bag! (Say, "thank you, Music!") Hehehe...

My mum's original recipe uses crab meat. Chicken makes a good substitute. For a vegetarian option, use mushrooms instead.

I find white asparagus give a softer taste compared to the green asparagus. I haven't seen fresh white asparagus around here, so I use fresh green asparagus or canned white asparagus.

Ingredients:
Onions
Garlic
Vegetable stock
Chicken
Asparagus - chopped about an inch long
Sweetcorn (or baby sweetcorn)
Castor sugar - a teaspoon is good for a start
White pepper and salt to taste
Egg, beaten
Cornflour - mixed with cold water: a little bit goes a long way!
White vinegar
Parsley for garnish

1. Stir fry onions. Halfway throw in the garlic. Stir fry until both change colour.
2. Pour vegetable stock. Add chicken/crab meat (if used), asparagus, and sweetcorn.
3. Bring to boil, then simmer on low heat until the meat is tender.
4. Make sure the soup is hot (increase the heat if necessary) before pouring the beaten egg tiny bit by tiny bit while stirring the soup so the egg breaks up into "strands".
5. Add sugar, white pepper, and salt to taste.
6. Add cornflour mix until the soup is slightly thicker. Remember NOT to put too much cornflour, otherwise you'll end up with a starchy lump of solid!
7. Add a dash of white vinegar to taste.
8. Done. Garnish with parsley leaves.

Serve on it's own or with croutons for a more westernised version.

When we were kids we used to add tomato sauce and chili sauce to the soup. Nowadays I like to savour the soup just as it is.

7 days before Chinese New Year!

As it's a week before Chinese New Year, I'm officially putting my Italian stories on hold. Instead I'll be talking about all things Oriental.

For someone of Chinese descent I'm not very Chinese. I've never been to China. I'm not an expert in Chinese customs. My Mandarin is very dodgy compared to Kevin Rudd's. Sure, I look Oriental enough, being a light-skinned brunette with funny Chinese nose, though my big eyes with double eyelids betray my convoluted blood line.

There was some Western influence up in my ancestry line. Back in the olden days inter-race relationships were being frowned upon, it was considered as "contaminating" the royal blood pool. No one talks openly about it, for fear of bringing "shame" to the family. You can only cover things up so much though, as many people in my mum's family have naturally light brown/blond-ish hair. Personally I think there's nothing wrong with mix-relationships, if anything, I find people of mixed heritage are better looking! Hehehe... I suppose I could trace the exact origins of my ancestors if I were to go to China, as my mother's side of the family kept a close records of their ancestry, due to the said "royal blood".

There was also rumours about my paternal grandfather being the fruit of my great-grandfather's illegitimate relationship with his local Indonesian mistress. My auntie thinks the rumour is true. I suppose DNA test could have proven it for sure.

Hubby is 7/8 English, 1/8 Dutch. So our descendant's blood will be even more convoluted.

Yes, there's a point to my ramblings. I might not be a true-blue Chinese person and apart from his fondness of Chinese food there's nothing Oriental about hubby. One thing we know, we would like to keep some Chinese traditions (read: celebrations we like and food) alive in our household. Call it trying to get the best from both Chinese and Western worlds. Let's see, that will include but not limited to Christmas, Chinese New Year, Easter, Mooncake Festival. Can you see the limitless food potentials?! Hehehe...

So here's to the countdown, 7 days to CNY (= Chinese New Year)! Yay! :)