Eu Jin is back...

January 3rd 2010

 

So we brought him to our church which was super near his home.After that, we had a great hang out session at this little cafe which had an interesing concept of getting its patrons to tip instead of paying for the wonderful coffee it serves. Situated off a little road when you drive along Bukit Timah road,it has a quaint little courtyard which makes you slow down your pace in this hustle and bustle of the city. Eu Jin has given thumbs up for this place which apparently is opened by a fellow ACsian. We are glad that he enjoyed himself and hoped he would be back home one day. Is always fun to have him around us.

Princess Ariel in the garden

January 2010

 

 

A day out with Baby Ariel who had just came back from the States. Surviving very well in the hands of all the aunties who hovered around her and showered her with all the attention that a Princess could ever had. Great day out with the Yellowstone gals and refreshing run in the Botanical Garden. Ended off with yummy brunch and a good dosage of Vitamin D in the sun

Neigh....goes the Riders Cafe

So my dear friend, Susan ,knew that I had been wanting to check out cool hang out areas in Singapore and kindly brought me to the Riders Cafe at the Saddles' Club for lunch. I love that place!It is situated in the lush greenery where you can spend a relaxing time chit chatting with your frens and be amused by an odd horse trotting by. Riders Café has a rare, rustic charm to it, considering the concrete jungle called Singapore in which we live. This casual eatery is in good stead for a successful future as long as it maintains its quaint and cosy allure.Food serve is excellent although I think is a bit pricey for a lunch menu. I will definitely visit it again for is relaxing ambience.Thanks Susan for this wonderful recommendation

Miss Martha,Donna and Mr Jamie

I have been really spending my time just oggling at all those nice recipes I have seen on the cookbooks.That day, I spent 5 hours in Barnes and Nobles browsing through all the cookbooks and taking down recipes.(One of my luxuries of spending hours at the bookstore during the winter break)I am so tempted to get all these books but I am worried to carry them all around with me especially we are moving around for this period of time. The
Martha Stewart Bake Book is really a fantastic book for an amature like me.Donna hay's classics have been great as well. One thing I like about all these books is they are really detailed in their description of the kind of ingredients,equipments and steps used.I think they are fabulous choices for people who want to picking up the fundementals of cooking and baking.
And just yesterday, I spent my time watching my favorite chef, Giada De Laurentiis on Foodnetwork. You see, I am especially into Italian food recently since Hubs praised that I have a flair in this area.:) And guess what, I discovered that Jamie Oliver will be starting his home show from Jan 6th onwards.I think Foodnetwork
is gonna be my favourite site and TV station

ONE vs THREE?

The only way when time seemed to run short and you want to make sure your husband has something to eat when he is back is to cook the one dish meal like my all natural mushroom vermicelli soup ( Stock base: Ikan billis;soya bean;scallops, brew for a minimum of 40 minutes) and Aglio Oglio. I am in the midst of discovering more such recipes because lazy me can have more time to do other things.Somehow, i have not reached maximum efficiency in terms of whipping up meals. SImple dish like this , it can take me up to 20 minutes of preparation time, 20 minutes of cooking and all in all 40 minutes!!!Somehow, chopping the garlic,cilantro,ginger and stuff can take up so much of my time.

But then , there are times when i feel like just taking my time to cook. IS pretty theraputic actually. So when that is the case, you can see me preparing portions beyond what two people can eat!!Three or four dishes in a meal.Now , people who came to our house will understand why our fridge is always stocked up with so much food for just two people!

I feel pretty accomplished whenever I whipped up something nice coz I rarely did:P how about you?

How to make Chocolate Fondants

Since my last attempt to make Oats cookies last Thursday was a success ( after many times ), I decided to try making Chocolate Fondants.Slurp Slurp. After looking at the video, I was even more encouraged to do so.Check out!
If this is a success, it will be on my list for the Thanksgiving Dinner Menu!

Potato Marshy just like us!

Yesterday, both of us worked in the kitchen together to whip up the dinner. Though there were small squabbles about how things should be done, we enjoyed the process of doing something together. So yesterday, the man did two pan fried salmon ( got them from Chinatown at a good deal) and I did my first attempt in whipping up mashed potato from scratch. Quite a successful attempt for the first time and I must say is easy to make. So everyone can give it a try.We deliberately moved our little dining table to the window ,lit up some tealights and while having our little homecooked dinner, we marvelled at the beautiful skylines of Manhatten and enjoyed each other company. I wished we could do this more often

We loved our new loft!

Hotpot!

I got hooked to ebay and amazon. They really have lots of good deals.
I just ordered our HOTPOT for the chinese dinner!Dah dah!!Here it is!We have been trying to look for this kind of 2 in 1 hotpot but couldn't find any around here.Finally, on amazon, I find it!!Online shopping is the way to go!

Good weekend

On Friday, I passed my theory exam and was able to drive around with a learner's permit now.I almost got into some accidents since i am a novice and that got me tramautised. But Ron was a very strict instructor and he said you would never overcome your fear if you never practised. So after much pushing and scolding, I have been driving around with sweaty palms and legs on the highways for the past few days. I wasn't able to gauge properly when to cut lanes and that was super dangerous as there were a few times, I almost crashed into someone else.Hopefully this week, I will be able to take the driving test and pass to get my legal driving license! More importantly, to pass with good driving skills and be a safety driver!



Saturday was eventful. Early morning, we began our usual routine of waking up to have a walk in one of the parks. And so this week was Eno State Nature Park which was just 30 min away. We loved this park. It has great trails. We went to the Cox Mountain Trail which was 3.5 miles in total. Very nice walk which took us across the hill and then making a return loop along the river. The park has about 82 trails and so we were mentioning that we would come back again.



Night time, we went to Kensuke's place for a Ramen Party with the other Jap folks. Gosh, i finally know what is Dashi stock after asking the Iron Chef Shigeto who was being applauded by everyone for his fabulous culinary skills. Gosh, the dinner was good!!We had some small dishes as appetizers and then all kinds of miso, salt,soya ramen with pork and egg!!We slurped the soup and noodles and did not care about making noises since we are with the Japanese.Mai was very hospitable. After that,they had sake drinking session which was followed by the dessert--green bean soup which was prepared by both Ron and I. Wahahha it was a simple dish ( we were so tired after the hike that we could not prepare anything )!!!But the Japs love it so much and kept asking for recipes!!On top of that, we still had the double chocolates chip ice-cream.

I am super full at the end of the night but I really enjoy the night as they were really nice bunch of people to hang out with.I look forward to more parties like this.I think next week , there will be a Tapas party. I am really looking forward to it.

The new kitchen chef

A new rule was being set in the RR Loft by BB. There can be only person in the kitchen at any time. Yes, he has enough of me nagging at him to keep the sink and the
area clean while he was cooking.So that day while he shooed me out of the kitchen and put on my "precious moment" apron (URGH), he finally made that declaration that he couldn't stand no more!!!!
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE CHEF IN THE KITCHEN AT ONE TIME!




I want to give him the credit for being so keen in cooking and his improved culinary skills. He cooks better than me!!I do not mind passing the chef title to him at all!!

Kitchen Experiments

Lately, I have been quite a fanatic trying to whip up more decent dishes. The food blogs I went to just inspire me even more. While shopping in the supermarkets recently, I bought alot of new kitchen tools, yesterday was a Chinese chopper ( eventually!!)which cost us US20 bucks!!And i bought another muffin baking tray on top of the ones i bought two weeks ago.
Here are some pictures which I took of my new experiments:
Bacaon wrapped with Aparagus which i learned from one of my friends,Jasmine. I bought this as my potluck dish to a party and everyone found it delicious. Is easy to prepare and looks presentable.By the way, this is a picture taken before they were baked



Simple home cooked styled steamed tofu with asparagus and mushroom.Cheapo me use the left over asparagus from the leftover above and prepare this dish. I miss this kinda of simple dishes which is so healthy and reminded me of family's cooking.



Satay with lots of onions.Hahah, the satay is nice but I haven master my peanut sauce and kueh-tu -pat hence you can't see any. I am going to retry again. So as you can see, my satay dishes has some tomato-onion proudly presented by my BB.


I have also prepared my first bah-ku teh as well . It tastes pretty decent but I din take a shot.( coz it was too dark!!Someone , please teach me how to take nice pictures of food!)On top of that,My baking was a failure because i added too much butter and eggs. I am going to retry again this week.

Ron's welcome home back dinner

I learned how to make soup and this baked sea bass from Eu Jin.Ron can't join us in time for the dinner. Still on the way back from the airport. Am sure will be touched by this pleasant surprise from his dear fren.:)

Making Jiao Zi

After Borough Market, we head off to Aileen's place to make Jiao Zi. We reckon that this is the best activity to do as a family. Everybody can be involved and you make some small chit chats along the way!!We are gg to meet up to make more stuff like truffles and brownies!Are you impressed by these skins? If you are, just want to let you know that they are not bought but freshly made!!!In fact, skin is the most crucial part of the dumplings. Smooth and thin skin will make your dumplings juicy.
If you don't believe, look at these dough we made. It all started from here!!And this can make about 48 dumplings
So what kind of filling do we need?? We need chives, spring onion, lettuce, ginger, mushroom all neatly diced to give a nice texture..
Of course, not forgetting the shrimp and the minced meat which are gg to be addded !!
So there you go, we add sesame ,egg, chinese cooking wine, soya sauce and chicken stock and there you go, the delicious filling
Taking a break when the boys are here
Ron and me
Making the dough
Learnng how to wrap which is trickyAnd the final product with some vinegar to go with.
Yummy!

Borough Market

All sorts of sausages and meat ,all neatly cut up and displayed. Not a tinge of stench and very handsome butchers!!

Fresh seafood and fishes. Look at the red snapper..i could not find anything fresher than this.There are razor clams as well.

Chocolates,nuts, cranberries,turkish delights,all my favourites!!!

Fresh vegetables. Look at how colourful they are . I simply love them. Remember to always take 5 choices of the coloured vegetables.Look at the carrots, aren't they lovely and they are just only 1 quid.
Floweres are gogeorous and you just hope to be little florist once you stepped in .you took a sniff,the frangrace will blow you away....
Look at the huge range of spread from jam to mustard,gooseberry spread,radish,i hv a great time just simply tasting and buy none at the end of the day

Bread and Cheese.My favourite. Look at the big slabs of cheese freshly made. I love them,so delicious.The cheddar is the best ..no Goat cheese please!!!And how aboout the pan and baugette...they look so tempting as well , aren't they????Wish i can load all of them onto the car.

I am so glad i woke up early in the morning to go to Borough Market with Aileen. I haven felt so refreshed after being cooped up in the house yesterday .In fact the weather has been getting real coldl.the cool air is real refreshing. Anyway, the boys are too lazy as such they will only be joining us later.

I am so thrilled at the market. They have all sorts of lovely and delicious food. Fresh vegetables and meat!!!ALL organic at a reasonable price. It is clean and there are lots of tourists swarming in at the later hours. I love the cheese store. They have all sorts of cheese and you can taste it with the biscuits. Asides from that, you can get real good toast and cofffee at this Maria store which is right smack in the centre of the market. They have freshly made bread which made me drooled coz i am so a fanatic for sandwiches . On top of that, as we winded through the little small streets, you will get to see many little stores selling wine,more cheese, more butter and sausages. Yummy, i love borough market and want to come here next week to do my marketing again.