I don’t like to cook in a hurry (kids want my attention) or when I’m hungry, or worse, when I’m hungry and in a hurry. It can be so stressing. And when I am stressed out, I would turn into Incredible Hulk. And when I turned into Incredible Hulk, I cannot focus on my cooking. And when I cannot focus on my cooking, my dishes turned out salty, what supposed to be soft and fluffy turned out rock hard, fingers sliced, plates crashed, burnt tea towels. It’s a mayhem! (ok fine, the last two did not happen but still, it could!).

I find the easiest thing to cook when I’m in a hurry/hungry situation is… PANCAKE. Can I call myself the Pancake Queen? Coz I love pancakes and I love to make them. I could eat them everyday. I could make them everyday. The batter only takes about 3 minutes to make, and you can set it aside and do something else – in my case, entertain my kids for 20 minutes.

And so the other day when I was facing the “in a hurry-hungry” situation, I made pancake sandwiches. You can use just about anything for your sandwich fillings, but this zucchini-eggplant-mushroom-beef pastrami combo is SO good! I got the recipe from my mom. And it’s still so easy to make, I promise. I use this pancake recipe but reduced the brown sugar to only 2 tablespoons.

Cut the zucchini and eggplant into thin slices. Drizzle them with olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper and bake them for a few minutes (or you can just saute them).

Take one pancake (beautiful side down) and spread it with Horseradish sauce (I use Heinz). Layer it with 2 slices of eggplant, beef pastrami, sauteed mushroom, 2 slices of zucchini and cover it with one pancake (this time beautiful side up).

And there you have it, pancake sandwich!

Kalau ada cheese pasti lagi sedap.
Ohh cheese…

My oven decided to break down the day I made baked chocolate pudding for the first time (correct me if I’m wrong but it’s also known as chocolate lava cake right?).

I only found out when I was about to bake these babies.

I was so excited and had high hopes for this one. I was planning to surprise my husband on our anniversary with homemade baked chocolate pudding because it is one of our MOST favorite desserts and it’s pretty easy to make, compared to red velvet cake. Tiba-tiba oven pulak buat hal.

My husband suggested to try using our microwave instead. I set to microwave it for 5 minutes but took it out after just 2 minutes when I saw the cake rising like this.

Looks not bad right, but it was actually overcooked! There was no ooey-gooey melted chocolate inside. It was just an ordinary chocolate cake.

I microwaved another one for just 1 minute…. and this time it was undercooked. Instead of melted chocolate on the inside, it was the outside of the cake that was melting. And no, it didn’t taste anything like the one we had at The Apartment. So frustrating!

But between the overcooked and undercooked “microwaved chocolate pudding”, I prefer the overcooked one.

Guess we’ll just have to go to The Apartment to satisfy our baked chocolate pudding craving in the mean time.

I love pancakes.

I make pancakes all the time. Pancakes for snack. Pancakes for lunch. Pancakes for dessert. Pancakes for dinner. Mmmmm…

Pancakes with mushroom and cheese omelette,
sauteed zucchini with mushrooms and baked beans.

When I run out of ideas what to cook for dinner, I make pancakes. When I feel like having a simple sweet treat, I make pancakes. When my freezer runs out of chicken and salmon, I make pancakes. When my 2-year-old refuse to eat anything else, I make pancakes.

Last night I made pancakes again. My husband is a big fan of chocolate so whenever I make pancakes, I must make some with chocolate chips. Chocolate chip pancakes are divine! Even my fussy little eater likes them. You must try it. Forget the instant pancake mix. Pancakes are so easy to make from scratch!

I usually use milk in my pancake recipe, but this time I decided to substitute it with buttermilk. It makes lighter, fluffier pancakes!

The method is still the same as this one except with an extra step: sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the pancake while it’s cooking.

Once bubbles start to form, flip the pancake to the other side. Cook for another 1-2 minutes.

I love seeing how the chocolate chips sink into the pancakes, making holes that looked like Swiss cheese. Beautiful, isn’t it?

This chocolate chip pancake is good enough on its own. But if you want to turn it into an indulgent dessert, serve the pancakes with a giant scoop of ice-cream (we had cookies and cream) and drizzle with chocolate syrup. Would be even better if it’s topped with almond flakes.

Yum!

You know what’s almost impossible to get when you have small kids?
Peaceful mealtimes.

Ayra enjoying a cup of BabyCino at Dome Cafe.
Of course this only lasted for 30 seconds before she jumped up and down the table!

Ayra is at the stage where she just wants to RUN everywhere – which is totally fine but come mealtime, it can be exasperating! Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids so much but at times they can make me go GRRR and turn me into a hungry lion!

Yes I know it’s normal for toddlers her age to act that way because they have short attention spans, and sitting and waiting at the table can be hard for them.

But the other day, we managed to enjoy our meal (or rather, desserts) in peace! It was almost 10pm and after an exhausting day at the mall with a toddler and a baby, we went to The Apartment to get our dessert fix before heading home.

A few seconds after ordering, Ayra started to throw her tantrums. It was obvious she was tired after all that running for the whole day so my husband took her out for a stroll, leaving me and Raina at the table.

When this dessert came, I texted my husband: “Eton dah datang!”.

Yes, the name of this dessert is Eton Mess. Funny name, eh? It’s actually meringue with strawberries, whipped cream and strawberry sauce. It was quite sweet but then again, meringues are supposed to be sweet, aren’t they? I still prefer Alexis’ Mixed Fruit Meringue tho.

“Mama, nak sikit”

Then came our next dessert – the Baked Chocolate Pudding. I think this is the best chocolate dessert I’ve ever had! It’s even better than CPK’s Chocolate Souffle Cake (wait, Chocolate Souffle and Baked Chocolate Pudding are the same thing, right?)

Anyway, the baked chocolate pudding.

My goodness, it was heavenly! The warm chocolate pudding is so rich and creamy with a burst of coffee in the center. It is served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream but I prefer eating it on its own.

What’s even better was that Ayra was sleeping in the stroller the whole time while we were indulging in our desserts (and Raina was as calm as ever). It was a great way to end the day.

Now there’s a good excuse to go to KLCC more often! ;p

And the Baked Chocolate Pudding….. Seriously if you are a chocoholic or having a mad chocolate craving, you MUST try it!