Recent activities

Have not been updating my blog. Well, i have nothing to show off unlike luxuryhaven who have won so many awards and have so many readers. Lolz.

Anyway, just a little update on my recent activities.

I've make this little tote bag out of left over yarn from many years back.

Isn't this cute?

A close up

The base

Well, at least i have make something useful. I carry this tote bag to the supermarket whereby i put a pack of tissue paper, my house keys, my handphone and my wallet.

Make this glutinous rice and mould it into a heart shape just for presentation purpose only. Haha, anything heart shape would looks lovely, isn't it?

On the same day, i also make this yam (taro) cake.

Cut up. Look at the generous ingredients that i have added - dried shrimp, pork and mushroom.

I have top it with crispy fried shallot too. As i have forgotten to get the spring onion and chillies, so there's no garnishing. However, it still taste wonderful without the garnishing although i must admit that there's a lack of color which is my greatest mistake when come to food presentations.

Talking about food presentations, i have make this peanut dainties too. The recipe is available in my bon appetite blog. Well, as i reviewed my recipe folder slide show, i noticed that many of my food pictures are very badly done back then. As i was a lousy photographer armed with a lousy camera back then, (i'm still a lousy photographer now even though i have just bought a new camera not too long ago), many of the food pictures were badly done which is such a disservice to the many wonderful recipe shared. As i blog along, i have gained some experience on food presentations, i very much wanted to revamp the pictures which was badly taken back then. Well, today i make the 1st move by revamping my peanut dainties which melts in the mouth.

Comparatively, these pictures looks so much better than my last pictures done a couple of years back.

Mmmm......... i'm still very much into this rainbow thing. It's a pity that i missed this beautiful rainbow a couple of weeks back. I abstracted these 2 pictures from other blog and present it here for my own safe keeping. These pictures were so well taken and it's will be such a waste not to share it. Hopefully, when the next miracle like this happened, i will be able to take such professional photos too.......

RAINBOW CONNECTION

What am i doing? Painting? Playing tic tac toe? Of course not. This is actually the preparation for making the Nonya Kueh Lapis - my nephew's favourite. I have done this many times but was not able to get an even multi-layer each time i make this. Till i recently saw this food recommendation on Nonya food that give me this idea of getting a proportionate same thickness layer. Of course, my sifu also gives me a tips - she said to weigh the total mixture, after that divide it into 9 portion as the Chinese name of this Nonya cake is called JIU CHEN GAO literally 9 layer cake.

Isn't this beautiful?

A close up

Doesn't this look like a rainbow?

After making this kueh, i still have some balance coconut milk. I didn't want to waste it as coconut milk can't keep long, even when leave inside the fridge. As such, i came out with my version of Steam Rainbow Marble Cake.

Athough this is a simple cake, but it taste heavenly especially when it is just fresh from the steamer.

I know my friend is a shopaholic because

I know of this friend of mine who is a real shopaholic because by visiting her blog luxuryhaven, you would be wondering where the hell did she get so much information on SALES.

Another clue is that when i found this cute icon from cool buddy

and dedicate specially to her, haha.., she gladly accepted it and used it as her profile picture in her blog.

There's once when she went oversea, she saw this really cute hello kitty luggage bag, she bought it without any hesitation. Knowing that she's such a hello kitty craze, it isn't surprise that she got it but then guess what? She didn't want to come back with an empty luggage bag, therefore, again, she went on a shopping spree just to fill this newly bought hello kitty luggage.

Well, i'm writing this post because i want to win the preview screening ticket to the cinema show "CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC" so that i could compare which is more shopaholic, my friend or Isla Fisher? Otherwise i will have to wait a couple of days more before i could "Catch Confessions of a Shopaholic on 26 March!"

SIMPLE LUNCH

It really had been quite some time since i last cook a complete meal. Today, i woke up pretty early, do some house work and went to the supermarket with the mind set on buying ingredients for making some stuff for my weekly family gathering at my brother's place tommorow. As i was window shopping around in the supermarket, decided maybe i could cook some stuff for lunch as i'm really tired of eating out every day already. Lolz.

So for today's lunch, we have baked white snapper. This is actually a modification of baked cheesy prawn which i recommended earlier. I do some adjustment to the recipe and come out with my recipe of baked white snapper which is available in my bon appetite blog.

Doesn't this look cheesy? But actually it is not, it is infact very juicy.

Another dish which i make is Steam Salted Egg Toufu Prawn.

This is my creation from my memory some 20 years back whereby i tasted something like that.

Arrangement before steaming


After Steam

I also make a chinese cabbage with fish dumplings soup. Didn't take any picture because i think there nothing to show off about this soup. I loves to use chinese cabbage in soup because it always make the soup very sweet and tasty after 20 minutes to half an hour boiling. No salt is needed if u just drop a chicken bullion cube to the water, the cabbage and the fish dumplings will contribute to the rest of the flavour in the soup. This is a quicky to complete the meal with vegetables.

Oh yes, btw, i just bought a 3 in 1 scanner/printer/copier and a new 10.1 mega pix digital camera from the recent IT show. One more purpose of cooking today's meal is also to test out my new camera. How do you all think about my new camera as compare to the old one?

It had better looked better, * wink wink *otherwise, you may all conclude that i'm a lousy camera man. But hey, i'm at least contributing to the economy's recovery by SHOPPING.

lolz.

Crocheting

Found this crochets bag extremely beautiful. However, have problem understanding the instruction given. But i'm so lucky to find this website with the basic crochets instructions with legend, simple written instructions with abbreviation representing different stitch and even video to show different stitch step by step. Wow! Really very thankful. So i shall find time to get down to town to get my yarn and embark on this new project. Shall post my completed product if i'm successful in making one as beautiful as the above.

Sweet things elevate your mood

Went to the nearby mall just now, saw my favourite strudel having a promotion store there. Couldn't resist the temptation, so i bought a small piece to eat. This is my favourite strudel store - RITZ APPLE STRUDEL & PASTRY.
There's many branches around in Singapore, but this one that i bought from is not a permanent store, it's just a food event organised by the management of the mall, i just happened to saw it there. I know, i shouldn't be eating all this but i was thinking, since i took a 10 minutes walk to the mall, and another 10 minutes walk to get back home, so i could afford to indulgence a little.

Not really a small piece huh, heehee..... but i don't really do this very often, so why not.

Today i choose mango as the fillings because i know they are always very generous with their apple fillings, so i choose mango instead. At least i would not be eating so much of the custard fillings and piled on my calories.

Also bought this at the petrol kiosk - not so much for the candies but the container - because it's Hello Kitty. Sweet stuff does lift your mood, so go ahead, indulgence in some thing sweet occasionally.

Are you affected by the recession?

Recent conversation with colleagues and friends have set me thinking - i'm really lucky to be able to hold a job and keep the home going.



I have always grumble about not being treated fairly in the company which i think have set some of my colleagues to have the following conversation:



"Are any of your friends or relatives affected by the recent mass retrenchment?"



"Not that i know of"



"Mmmmm...... you know it's a good thing that our company have always been stingy in spending, otherwise, we might not be able to survive this economic crisis"



"Ya, and we are so lucky to be still employed and being paid promptly"



At that very moments, i was so pissed off that i feel all these are targeted at me. However, now i really feel that they could be right. Never mind the fact that the company is not affected by the crisis at all at the moment, but who knows when we may be hit, and i could be the next umemployed roaming the street.



I'm officially in the 21 years of service with my company, no awards, no appreciation gift, nothing, but i'm not complaining anymore. Because i feel i'm so lucky to be still employed.........