So, I thought that this bread (before baking) with pieces of bacon, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds are going to make me an Italian. After all, it took me two days. But the texture is not what I had expected.

The bread is to be baked with a pan of water to make it soft. The texture is soft and the crust crispy. However, it is rather dense and heavy.

The saving grace is the pieces of bacon on top which makes the bread really yummy. We finished the one with the bacon but the other plain loaf is still standing on my dining table. I have turned it into mini pizzas by baking with ham and cheese.

So pissed that my excitement of a light and fluffy bread turned into :

Eldest son : What is this mom? Bread or cake? Like huat koay.
Husband : Why the bread so heavy? Like kueh bingka
#2 son : Like mee-koo
#3 son : Why the bread so sourish smell one?
#5 son : I don’t want the crust, take away the black-black thing…ewwsss

BTW, Babe, yes, I will do something this year. I cannot comment in your blog because I normally do not sign in to Blogger or WordPress.com with my regular user name.

So, I have until 29th August, 2008 to cook a plate of mee and then, blogged it. If you wish to participate, please read the guidelines on Babe’s blog.

Meanwhile, I am contemplating what mee to cook. Sotong Mee? Let’s see….I fry omelette in tri-colour….put lots of sotong and call it so-do-mee. Can’t help it. I wish I can stand tall and proclaim I love Malaysia. But….

So, how do we get good photos? Cameras are cheap nowadays and many of my photos are taken with cheap point and shoot cameras that cost a mere $600. And all you need from that camera is the macro mode. Macro mode is that flower shape icon on your camera. If your camera doesn’t have it, then it is hard to take impressive photos.

The other thing with food photos are the cutlery that we use to serve the foods. I have bought many plates and bowls when they are going cheap because I want the different designs. Now, I end up with all sort shape and size bowls, plates, saucers and cups. However, some of the most versatile plates and bowls are the plain, white ones as the white background brings out the colours of the foods.

(most photographed orange, I think I took 40 shots of one orange)

I have meant to get nice placemats and coasters but usually, my housekeeper kept it (as I tend to drop them where I last took my photos, normally next to windows and under bright lights) and I couldn’t find it when I want to take my food photos. So, I usually ended up with my marble table as backgrounds. So, do invest in some placemats and if possible, a huge white box or anything plain. I have a foldable ‘box’ I bought from one of the home and garden shop which I think is meant for laundry. It is very good to place our foods in an all white surrounding to cut out all those distractions at the back.

The main thing to remember is – Good food blogs don’t come by accidentally or casually. Many of the food bloggers put in some efforts and research into their photos. I too have sweated over some photo sessions when I want to get my photos just right. Usually, I will need to assemble my stool, background, camera and also to check that there are not dirty gravy sticking to my bowls that is not immediately seen by the naked eyes but look horrible when shot in macro mode with 1600 pixels.

(notice the strand of enoki mushroom stuck to the side of the bowl?)

The most tricky part of the photography is of course the lightings. I do not have any proper indoor light fixture that enhance my photos and hence, I am always very dissatisfied with my photos because I have to take them with the camera flashlight which is usually too harsh.

Most of us are not born to be photographers. But with all the easy to manage digital cameras available nowadays, one can take decent food photos if one can ‘feel’ the soul of that dish.

Normally, when I am doing my grocery shopping, he will be advocating the importance of having family meals together and ensuring that the family eats together at least one meal a day. In our busy lifestyle, many families do not have this chance as the parents may be away working while the children are with maids. But parents have to make sure that they have this family time together as it is one of the most important family bonding hour.

Since I am a full-time mom and a pretty decent cook, we have a lot of meals at home. In fact, sometimes, we have meals at home for several days in a stretch. Therefore, our family bonding time is actually those meals outside. The moment we got in the car, we will be chatting all the way to the restaurants and back.

Therefore, it is my wish that through this blog, I can help more women to prepare simple home cooked dishes so that each family can benefit from the family bonding. Sometimes, preparing a meals can also be used as time for a lot of fun and action together. My children will help me and even my husband will joke around.

So dear parents, remember to built a happy home by eating together. I have seen many broken homes who eventually cause their children to become involved in a lot of unwanted situation. Substance Abuse for example is so common. It happens even to my relatives and it is a known fact that the family hardly meets at all as both parents were always too busy making money.

My camera is filled with only photos of the elections and almost no food photos at all. However, I have not been neglecting this blog. I have actually bought a domain for this blog to better reflect its niche, i.e. Penang foods. I have moved some of the posts over but I didn’t manage to delete the remaining posts over on this site. I cannot have two similar site with similar posts so I need to transfer only Penang foods over and leave the rest of the recipes on this site.

Confusing? You bet it is. In fact, for those who haven’t got their own blog with their own domain and hosting, it sounds like a big daunting task. But trust me, once you are familiar, it is a breeze. These food blogs bring me money, enough to feed my family for a month. LOL, i.e. if we eat basic meals, of course. So, I work on them seriously.

If you have an interest, you should also think about starting your own food related blogs. You can find useful information on webhosting, domain purchase, site maintenance from site like this one which has lots of articles on how to start your own domain. They have given simple to understand tutorials and tips. I also started by reading and finding out on my own the tricks and tips on managing websites. So, you can also do them because it is not that difficult.

Beside articles on webhosting, they also have WordPress theme, forum and lots more. I hope you will find the site helpful to get you off on your own dot com!

Oh ya, I cannot reveal the new domain URL now because I have kept the site unreachable by search engines spider.