Italian dishes....yummy....D.I.Y.

Tagliatelle pasta.....from durum wheat

Pasta bolognese.... lasagna... .pizza..... all are yummy Italian dishes. The majority of Italian pastas have similar ingredient, taste, texture and colour. The main ingredient of pasta is the durum wheat. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognised names; spaghetti (thin strings), maccheroni (tubes or cylinders), tagliatelle (flat noodle), fusilli (swirls), and lasagne (sheets). The main component of Italian dishes that makes each dish different is the sauce accompanied them. How to prepare your own tastalicious tomato based pasta sauce? Here I share a simple recipe for the pasta sauce either by itself or can be added with meat i.e. chicken or beef. Try this if you want to impress your spouse or friends.

Diced Holland onions

Italian spice.......a mixture of dried basil, majoram, oregano, sage

You required the following ingredients: two large Holland onions (yellow onion, coarsely diced), five to ten pieces of garlic (coarsely chopped), 1 tablespoon of Italian spice mix (dried basil, marjoram, oregano, sage; just buy the commercially available product, this is cheaper than mixing yourself), chopped tomato (2 cans or from 4 deseeded and deskinned large red tomatoes; drain the fluid), canned plum tomato (drained the fluid), double concentration tomato paste, sugar (2 tablespoons for each can of chopped tomato or 1 table spoon for each large red tomato, olive oil (or natural taste cooking oil), salt and black pepper.

Chopped tomatoes.....drained

Whole plum tomatoes in can

Tomato puree or paste......double concentration

Heat 4 table spoons of the cooking oil in a sauce pot. Then fry lightly the chopped onion until transparent or clear, then add in the chopped garlic. Fry for another 2 minutes, do not brown them…..you are not cooking rendang or curry!!!!. If preferred, now you may add in the meat (250 grams) and just seal the meat juice in. Throw in all the chopped tomatoes, plum tomato as it is (do not chop), two tablespoons of tomato paste, sugar and the Italian spice. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the meat cooked. Add in salt and black pepper to taste. To add more interest to the sauce, final touch the sauce with fresh basil leaves. For better taste pasta, throw in the pasta in the sauce and lightly cook them in the sauce for two minutes. Enjoyyyy!!! J

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Converting Bedside Table to a Portable Wash-Stand (IKEA Hack)

What to do if a ready made furniture is not able to fit in the space that is available? Your choice will be either build a customised furniture or hacking a furniture for a different purpose. Hacking a furniture will cut almost 70% of the work required to build a customised furniture from zero. Here, I share a step-by-step process on one of my DIY weekend projects converting bedside table to portable wash-stand. What will be required for this project? Tools (e.g. saw, metal ruler, hand drill), sand paper and brushes for wood work, base furniture to be hacked, water-resistant paint and metal knob. STEP 1. Get some ideas on the design and materials by visiting several furniture galleries/shops. For example here, the idea was from an IKEA wash basin base cabinet, Lillangen. The material mainly particleboard, which might not be that suitable for Malaysian humidity and bathroom practice. For that reason, I choose solid wood material the project. The dimension of the IKEA...

Cinnamon Pear Cake

Another baking project for the weekend....."Now anyone can bake". Open my refrigerator and saw two pears that are still firm, just thinking what to do with them. Cake! but how to incorporate the pear with cake? So I just browsed the internet to look for recipe.....looking at what I have some adjusments here and there.....below is the final recipe. For pear topping: 2 medium firm-ripe pears (photo 1, peeled and sliced, photo 2), 1/2 cup of melted butter with some honey. For cake: 1 1/2 cups of plain flour 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger 1/2 tsp. of ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp. of salt 1/2 cup of whole milk 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract 120 g of butter, softened 1 cup light brown sugar 2 large eggs Preparing the baking pan and topping: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 180°C. Butter the bottom and sides of a 22 x 5 cm round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a round baking paper and butte...

Before you snap here and there, know your lens first

Oppsss! I think I should introduce the lens, camera parts and photographic terms first before going to image composition. This time, I just want to share and introduce the terms and parts of lens. It is applicable for whatever lenses especially for the DSLR camera. The different will only be the terminology or abbreviation used by the specific manufacturer. Lenses can be categorized to many types such at wide angle, standard, prime and zoom. Each type of lenses have specific features and is used for specific purpose. For example, wide angle lenses are usually used for scenery/landscape and narrow space photography. Each lens will be marked with zooming distance (look at the numbers which ended with mm; see photo bellow). This number will gives you some ideas about the width of view when a photo is captured. A number less that 35mm can be considered as wide angle, the 50 - 55mm as normal lens, and the 75 mm and above as zoom lens. Wide angle lens will highlight the perspective of an ...

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