practically missing you

I have not been baking anything lately, life have been pretty hectic.
But I do enjoy a wonderful time with my family holidaying with us. All my family were here, and for once in a long long time we manage to spent a lot of times with each other, which is a very precious thing to do as we're all scattered around in different places, and when we do get together, it's often very rush and short. This time though, I make an afford to take time off and spent time with them. The funny thing about having your parent coming over for holiday is that they really just want to sit around at home and enjoy being together with you. At least, this is what my parent enjoy the most. My mum likes to share her cooking with me in the kitchen, my dad loves to tease the doggie, and my brother and I pretty much chat away, making up for all the loss time that we have not spent together. Very idyllic indeed.
Only a couple of issues with staying over at your children place is that, they dun normally have what you normally use at home! You see, I have a special love to all things beautiful but not all things beautiful are practical and functional. So i have a lot of things laying around, especially in the kitchen that are oh too pretty to look at, but they are not practical to use at all. My dad who is an avid coffee drinker, cannot find a decent sized coffee mug in my cabinet, and that frustrate the hell out of him. You see, we normally take our coffee from cafe or in the office, so i really dun have a "mug" sitting at home. that said, my cabinet is full of tall flute glasses, martini glasses, wine glasses but we're not at all an everyday drinker! I never say make sense!!
Anyway, so we went on a shopping spree to get him a decent coffee mug, but my wondering eyes took notice of this cutie soup mug instead, and of course, it found a way into my shopping basket and follow me home!

One of my childhood memory dessert was this azuki bean soup. So I beg my mum to cook it for me again, and we also added black sticky rice. It's a very simple and easy dessert and very versatile too. You can adjust the amount of beans to water ratio and adjust the amount of sugar to your desired sweetness.

Sticky Azuki Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Azuki Beans, rinse with running water
• 1/2 cup black sticky rice, rinse with running water
• 6 cup water
• 1 cup sago, soak in cold water
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup of coconut milk/cream
  

Method:

1. Put the beans, sticky rice and water into a slow cooker. Have the button turn to high, and cook for 1 hour, or until the red beans begin to split. You can also use ordinary pot on stove, just keep an eye and make sure it doesn't boiled over.
2. Put in the sago and sugar.
3. Continue cooking for another 30 mins or so, serve warm or cold with a dash of coconut milk or coconut cream.
   

I like the soup warm, slowly sipping the sweet soup with my mum in the kitchen really does bring back lot's of memory. AND isn't that a practical and functional mug that i bought?!!