635: Joy?
I don’t know what joy or happiness is anymore. Just living my days one step at a time. Deriving joy from little nitty gritty, like cooking lunch for weekdays the night before, having my weekly long runs.
I just said yes to something big in my life. Not sure how things will go or how life is going to change from here on but I don’t want to regret. I don’t want to regret cause at least I tried.
Food galore next up;)
633: Tiong Bahru Bakery – treat for the senses
It’s been long since I’ve blogged about new food places. Many new food joints have sprouted around Singapore. In particular, artisan bakeries! We have Paul Bakery, Maison Kayser, Tiong Bahru Bakery and lately, Paris Baguette.
I was so moved by the simple croissant at Tiong Bahru Bakery that I felt the need to blog about it. Tiong Bahru Bakery sounds like just an old school bakery probably situated around some corner of Tiong Bahru estate but it’s not.
It’s opened by a french baker Gontran Cherrier. Never heard of him before but when I tried googling for his name, he sounds amazing! But my god, the croissants were damn good.
I’m not biased because for one, I don’t like croissants. I didn’t like the greasy feel of croissants. They were just not my kind. But these are awesome. There are non greasy, buttery, flaky and crispy. The folds were ultra cute too.
Besides these, they have awesome breads! The salted butter caramel roll was good too.
The sandwiches were good! Love the bread! They look hard but they are awesome soft inside.
I couldn’t keep my eyes off the display of desserts too. The tarts and cakes were gorgeous! It’s my dream to open a bakery cafe just like this! The interior was very simple, just simple furniture. Nothing fancy. Just my kind of place. Simple rustic.
Just me, my music, a good book, a nice croissant and a nice cuppa coffee/tea.
632: I shot for the Sky
I love the way my body feels after my weekly runs. I love the way my body feels, my arms and tummy feels after my weekly body combat classes. Love it (: The adrenaline, the endorphins. I feel super uneasy if I do not exercise at all. I will feel super guilty if I do not go for gym/run on my scheduled gym days!
AWESOME! Had an amazing run today. Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in fate? I don’t know if I do. I don’t know if I still do, or have I resigned to my fate? Been jaded all these while. I want to believe. Waiting for THE change. (:
Bluesy tuesday tomorrow. I’m starting my twelve days straight of non-stop work. Oh well, at least there’s something happy to look forward to every weekday morning. My daily happy pills! It feels so secondary school/JC all over again (:
Baked salted chocolate ganache tarts with pate sucree today. My third bake this long weekend. Why the baking spree? Because when I bake, someone finishes it for me! Sis says she’s gonna eat it up for me and she can eat it all day. AWESOME! She says my tarts are “damn good”. YAYS!
631: I baked a…
Carrot cake again this morning! Second time baking this weekend. It’s easy but just that the part when you have to manually grate all the carrots is a bit tiring. I put lotsa carrots, lotsa CINNAMON, pineapple, lotsa walnuts and raisins. 🙂 awesome mix!
630: Om-nom-nom!
Haven’t been updating this blog for a while! Just had the random inspiration to do so after manually grating six carrots, *phew* tiring. Thought I’ll just show evidences of my kitchen endeavours! Mostly lunches I prepare for work and the occasional baking! (:
614: berry blissed
Baked a birthday cake for my lil cousin’s 4th birthday today! It’s gonna be my present for her.
Oreo base, lemon-zest vanilla beans cheesecake with hidden blueberries, sour cream layer and raspberries/blueberries toppings! I’m really pleased with how it turned out to be.
592: bento :)
My two proud acquisitions! Someone, please stop me from buying cookbooks because I can’t resist. It’s pure indulgence! Ah and I have no self control whenever I step into the cookery section of Kinokuniya!
Bento love! I love packing lunch to work and I want to make something different from my usuals.
I really admire those japanese housewives who would wake up in the mornings to prepare colourful wholesome bento lunches for their husbands and children. And it’s so heartwarming to see them carry the colourful lunch bags while they go off to work and school. And imagining them tucking into their bento boxes during lunch hours! Sweet 🙂
580: Hijiki Nimono (Simmered Hijiki)
I’m taking a break from a full day of studying yesterday and today so I’m here! I know the whole world’s panicking over the upcoming board exams (THE EXAM) on Monday. But well, as usual, I’m not going to let the fluster affect me. It’s something I’ve learnt through the years (and especially through the four years in university). I’ve just got to believe I can do it. I’m doing my best, I really am and that is what’s most important! So calm and steady, face the world, just smile, take a bow and embrace everything that comes my way.
It’s been a while since I’ve documented anything food-related in this humble blog of mine. I was quite upset in the morning because I didn’t go running in the morning and I didn’t feel motivated enough to get down to studying. But I got back on my tiny feets and I’m back and kicking! Just went running at around 6pm and it was good. 4.5km this time round and I improved on my timing. Wheeee (: But the only bothersome thing is that I probably just exacerbated my old injury. I have a terribly weak ankle from the terrible crippling fracture in primary school and I often have regular twists and sprains. The best part is that I just sprained my right ankle last Thursday two times at work in a short span of 3 hours (how nice!). And after today’s run, my right ankle was so terribly painful. ):
I just wanted to share a simple recipe here and my dinners for the past two days. I’ve been all home alone the past two days because everybody (at home) is so busy. Mum’s back at work at her usual temporary job invigilating university kids because it’s the exam season! Dad’s back at his old job because his new one was unsuitable for him! And just yesterday, the parents went out drinking with their friends again! The sis has been busy with school, exams and dating. Oh wells, it’s just me, myself and I at home right now. It’s sad and lonely. And the silence can be a bit scary at times, so it’s time to blast some music.
Anyway, I’ve been dying to make some simmered hijiki since I ate it at the japanese restaurant Ootoya last time. It was (I think) $5 for a tiny portion! Hijiki is a kind of seaweed.
So here goes.
HIJIKI NIMONO (Simmered HIJIKI)
Ingredients
1) 40g hijiki
2) 4 pieces of japanese beancurd puff
3) 50g carrot (I used one medium carrot)
4) 1 tbsp sesame oil
5) 200ml dashi stock
6) 2 tbsp mirin
7) 2 tbsp sake
8) 1 tbsp sugar
9) 1 tbsp japanese shoyu (I just used the normal light soy sauce)
Soak the hijiki in hot water for 20 minutes. The dried hijiki will balloon and expand in size (it’s pretty scary a transformation). Rinse and drain.
Scald the beancurd puff in hot water. Squeeze dry and cut into fine strip. Cut the carrot into thick strips.
Heat up the sesame oil in a pot and fry hijiki until fragrant. Add the dashi, mirin, sake, sugar and soy sauce and bring to boil over medium heat. Switch to low hear and continue stewing for 10 minutes. Add beancurd puff and carrot strips. Continue stewing until the gravy is thickened (about 20 minutes).
Set to cool and refrigerate. Can be served cold or hot and it’s terrific with plain white rice!
Here’s how I ate my hijiki himono.
For dinner yesteday, I had it on top of a tiny bowl of japanese white rice and topped it with some dried shrimps (sakura ebi). And of course, my usual bowl of greens (arugula/wild rocket with alfalfa sprouts with japanese sesame dressing).
And today, I needed something to make myself happy after a day of studying. What better than to run in the evening followed by a nice homemade dinner! So I decided to use the cold hijiki I made yesterday (and stored in the refrigerator) and make something with it! This is totally Rina’s own concoction! It’s a tofu patty! I’ve seen recipes online making tofu patties with hijiki but they have been using the firm tofu (tau kwa) since it has a lower water content. But I only have silken tofu at home! Oh wells, I’m going ahead with it so I mashed it up and mixed in the simmered hijiki. Then, grease a small loaf tin with a bit of oil. Flatten the tofu mixture and bake it in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 40 minutes. It was really really good! I’m pretty amazed myself (: And of course, served with greens! Yays I’ve finished (FINALLY) my stock of alfalfa sprouts and wild rocket!
Simple homecooked meals are such comfort food and make me a happy girl! And yes, it’s even better when you know they’re healthier, haha! (:
566: Strawberry Crumble Bars
Because I was feeling so empty and helpless and down inside on a Saturday after a day of lectures, I headed home with a cup of pearl-less, 10% sugar gongcha milk green tea and strawberries to bake some strawberry crumble.
I feel strange inside me, I feel sadly empty and restless. I should be glad. I’m long done with my project report and slides after many sleepless nights and thoughts-filled days. And I managed to turn my deemed “clinically-insignificant” project around into something miraculously significant! There is much hope in this world afterall. 🙂 Learning log is almost done, short of the case reviews I have yet to do because I’m only starting my new rotation to a new section tomorrow. The only thing bugging me now is my case presentation for oncology which I have to do soon soon! But Rina can do it so no worries about it!
Made strawberry crumble just last evening! They turned out pretty and surprise surprise! The parents (even Daddy) and sis ate them for breakfast today! I used the recipe I wrote about in my previous entry!
I am so emo now. 内心的无奈无语言说！I have work later and I end at an unearthly time of 930pm. My Sunday’s gone gone gone. And then, it’s back to work on Monday morning at 9am again. SIGH emo emo emo!
565: Crumble!
I want to make strawberry crumble bars!
They look so cute.
562: Chocolate Banana Cake
Reviving the old me, one step at a time! First up, it’s been a while since I’ve baked anything. It’s been a long while. Anhedonia, one of the signs of depression. Oh, touchwood. I have in recent weeks to months, lost the interest to do some pleasure baking. I have the ingredients all ready in the kitchen but many times, I would give up deciding to bake, after preparing all the baking utensils. Only to put them back in place after deciding against baking! If that’s not anhedonia, I don’t know what is?
Picking up the pieces one by one, slowly. First step is to start baking.
I’ve been having my favourite Carman’s Dark Chocolate Cranberry and Almond muesli bar and a banana for lunch daily lately. At the end of the week, I’ve some over-riped bananas. So what to do with over-riped bananas? Bake an old-fashioned chocolate banana cake!
This was a no-mixer, all-in-a-bowl easy recipe from joyofbaking.com. The cake was unbelievably soft and moist. Oh gosh, awesome texture. The batter was awfully thin, amounting to such a awesome moist texture! And it’s healthy too because there is no butter! I used the healthy canola oil instead! And also, the usual high calcium reduced fat fresh milk!
I’m hoping this small step I make to revive the old me will make a huge difference. Rina has to be happy.
I want to catch the film “The Descendants” by George Clooney! I’ve lost touch with movies and films recently but I’ve heard about this from my friends and the reviews look awesome. Shall mark down in the calendar to remember to catch it before the film ends its run in the theatres (:
545: Sunday Breakfast (:
It brings me great joy preparing food for people I love. It is terribly great fun preparing food alongside great company (:
Tau huay (chilled soya beancurd pudding) experiment was a success! Whee (:
Sunday breakfast at the request of the sister! She wanted the fluffy pancakes I made ages ago! So I made some! Round ones and cute star-shaped ones.
Sunday brekkie is served. Chocolate chip pancakes with 100% maple syrup (ohgosh never knew pure maple syrup tasted so good. no more fake maple-flavoured syrups!); chilled tau huay and a cup of beetroot juice. Filling Sunday breakfast, so light lunch (:
I love this! This speaks volume. Have I perfected them all?
five simple rules for happiness:
1. free your heart from hatred
2. free your mind from worries
3. live simply
4. give more
5. expect less
541: Patchwork
Box full of sandwiches for a random picnic on a Sunday evening with the family. I love picnics. Simple time with people you love.
Awesome soft cranberry pullman loaf from a local bakery!
Good food doesn’t have to cost a lot. A simple bowl of hot noodle soup with simple company does the trick!
Had a craving for gongcha! I’m that irritatingly “faithful” that I haven’t tried other flavours. It’s always the gongcha milk green tea with 0% sugar!
Baked an apricot chocolate cake! Looks awesomely rustic huh? Hahaha love the tartness of the fresh apricots!
Sliced and packed away!
Cooked some mushroom farfalle carbonara for the lazy sister’s lunch just the other day. I don’t have a “thing” for cream-based pasta so it was prepared just for her.
Mcdonald’s vanilla cone to cheer us up on a dreary workday!
Lunch was Mcdonald’s happy meal for another dreary workday! 4 piece chicken mcnuggets with curry sauce! And fresh milk and apple dippers!
Had a warm cup of green tea latte on a weekday morning at Cedele! The rare opportunity to be able to sit in the cafe on a late Friday morning. Only because I went to see the doctor that morning (:
Cooked myself a bowl of sliced fish porridge with ginger because I was sick ):
A box full of homemade mini chocolate mint cupcakes with chocolate mint buttercream!
Pretty pretty macarons! (:
Super cute chocolate cookies we baked at a friend’s place! It was great fun (:
I love the miffy ones!
Painstakingly prepared shepherd’s pie from scratch for Christmas!
Good old Mcdonald’s breakfast on Boxing Day morning with awesome company!
Potato salad! Love red skinned potato salads drowned with lots of bacon bits!
Picnic food! Haven’t I said that I love picnics? When you are surrounded by the beauty of nature, simple company and simple food (:
Had an awesome day out with a good friend of mine! We went for a late morning jog, hike and climb before having this for brunch. Awesome unhealthy/healthy food (: And the day ended with Sherlock Holmes. Aw, I love Robert Downey Jnr. It’s so overt it’s covert.
My favourite vegetable tofu burger!
Hokkaido potato wedges!
Matcha latte love!
Disappointing portuguese egg tarts from KFC! I kind of miss those I had in HK and Macau 😦
I ate percy.
Durian strudel love(:
Healing tauhway (chilled soya beancurd pudding) from a lovely friend. A pity I couldn’t taste it because of the flu! 😦
Ahhh the gorgeous durian strudel (:
529: There You’ll Be
Thoroughly thrilled and excited for the coming weekend. Nothing major scheduled this long weekend but still, there are many simple reasons to be joyful about. I’m going to be making shepherd’s pie for the potluck on Sunday evening and I’m excited. I’m ALWAYS the baker for potluck and it’s getting boring baking all the sweets every time. And since someone’s getting log cake for dessert, it’s my opportunity to cook something savoury (although essentially I’ll be baking the pie after cooking the fillings). I’m FINALLY making something savoury! I mean, I love to cook too, NOT JUST BAKE!
I’m done with my Christmas shopping for gifts. It’s a special year for me this year. Yes, I really SPENT this year cause’ it’s the first year that I’m finally earning some money (yays with the year end bonus as well). Hope my loved ones will like them! I love Christmas this year. There are people singing Christmas carols in the wards every day and the wards are so well decorated with Christmas decorations. Plus, everyone’s gifting chocolates and lovely goodies to the different sections. Feeling the happy joyful christmas-sy mood!
The year’s coming to an end. It’s kind of scarily fast. A downer will be that I’m scheduled to work on the first day of the year but well, be glad that it’s just half a day and there is a holiday in lieu the next day (2nd January is a holiday) (:
I’m a brave girl. I’m almost done with this week now, with just a few days more to go. Took everything in my stride, thanks to a magic strength. Simple thoughts and simple melodies (on repeat), giving me strength to carry on and get through the week. (:
Awesome (:
When I think back
On these times
And the dreams
We left behind
I’ll be glad ’cause
I was blessed to get
To have you in my life
When I look back
On these days
I’ll look and see your face
You were right there for me
[Chorus:]
In my dreams
I’ll always see you soar
Above the sky
In my heart
There will always be a place
For you for all my life
I’ll keep a part
Of you with me
And everywhere I am
There you’ll be
And everywhere I am
There you’ll be
Well you showed me
How it feels
To feel the sky
Within my reach
And I always
Will remember all
The strength you
Gave to me
Your love made me
Make it through
Oh, I owe so much to you
You were right there for me
[Repeat chorus]
‘Cause I always saw in you
My light, my strength
And I want to thank you
Now for all the ways
You were right there for me
You were right there for me
For always
[Chorus:]
In my dreams
I’ll always see you soar
Above the sky
In my heart
There will always be a place
For you for all my life
I’ll keep a part
Of you with me
And everywhere I am
There you’ll be
And everywhere I am
There you’ll be
There you’ll be
519: Spiced Pumpkin Patty sandwich!
I love the vegetarian burgers at Cedele! Especially my favourite beetroot avocado burger! I never liked beetroot because Daddy used to make raw beetroot juice that tasted like soil (ewwwww!). But the beetroot patty was omg just so heavenly! It’s the wonderful Indian spices that go into the burger. Love indian food (:
So today, on impulse, I decided to make a pumpkin patty with the leftover pumpkin in the fridge. I’ve been on a sandwich craze lately, bringing sandwich for lunch to work everyday. Pumpkin patty just sounds so good (and vegetarian)!
It smells really good now. Made four patties and one will be for my lunch tomorrow. One will be for Mummy’s sandwich tomorrow. And the other two will be frozen and stored for my lunch on Tuesday.
I’ve no proper recipe. But here’s what I did.
I steamed the pumpkin (about 400g) and chickpeas (greater proportion of pumpkin to chickpeas) and mashed them. I toasted a slice of wholemeal bread to get breadcrumbs. After the bread is well-toasted, I chopped and mashed the bread into fine crumbs. Into a bowl, I added in the fine toasted bread crumbs, a bit of chopped fresh onions, 1/2 – 1 tsp of ground cinammon, 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, about 1 tbsp of dried parsley, 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper each, 1/2 tsp of manuka honey, 1/2 tsp of peanut butter and 1/2 tsp of canola oil. Mix them really well.
Add the mixture in the bowl to the mashed steamed pumpkin and chickpeas and mix well. Then add about 1/3 cup of plain flour and mix well. Shape into patties. Pan-fry on medium heat, about 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown.
Serve with bread or burger bun or panini bread or ciabatta. The options are unlimited! You can add in cheese, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, avocado…
Mine was just a simple mediterranean panini sandwich with the spiced pumpkin patty and cheese slices with cucumber! So looking forward to my lunch tomorrow(:
Here’s the pumpkin “mash” before shaping into patties!
Pan-frying the patties until golden brown on each side!
Tah-dah! My lovely VEGETARIAN sandwich! So proud of it (:
511: That’s why we know that it’s all worth it
Amidst all the craziness/confusion/mess that’s going on in my life right at this moment, it feel so good to just let go and have fun with my favourite girls. I cannot imagine that we can have so much to talk about each and every time we meet up. Plus, one of “us” was back from Melbourne for a short one week annual holiday, we only get to meet her once a year! Time with my favourite girls is never enough. We laughed so much, my tummy ached and I was so flushed I thought I was running a fever. I would gladly trade all the time in the world just to spend time with all the favourite people in my life. This weekend is going to be crazy because I’ve so much work to do (my poor poor Sunday) but it’s all worth it.
Had awesome company and awesome food to go along with. I love scones and I finally tried The Tea Party’s scones. The Tea Party at Sixth Avenue has been around for ages (since my secondary school days) but yesterday was only my first time there. It’s just a simple place to hang out in, no pretenses. A place when you can just sit around with friends to have food, talk or play some board games. But the scones are quite amazing! Sis has been telling me about the scones because they have an outlet in her school (and pretty popular, drawing long queues) and she often buys the scones as takeaways. It’s rare that my sis likes scones so it has to be good. It was quite good and they labelled themselves “Singapore’s best scones”. It could possibly be, because I haven’t tried many scones either. I could smell the warm scone from afar and the scone was really warm and buttery and perfect with strawberry jam! The scone may look ugly and simple but never underestimate this ugly baby. The best things never look pretty. It’s what matters on the inside. Oooh yummy goodness (:
Please, my dear Sunday, go by really slowly. I need you really badly.
And I need all the positivity (and all the holidays and weekends) in the world to get on with life as well. I need the constant reassurance that “everything will be just alright”. I need to stay healthy and not fall ill because I can feel the dry scratchy feeling at the back of my throat. So many needs. Haha!
I shall end off with a lovely new song by my favourite local singer, Corrinne May. “Beautiful Life” is the first song off her to-be-released-new-album. It’s a song to remind us that the simplest moments in life are what makes our lives beautiful. We all have different tales to tell but there is just something in our lives that makes us push on with life because we know that at the end of the day, everything is worth it.
You can tell I’m really excited for her new album that should be out early next year! I need to go for her concert too if she does have one because she’s such a good live singer, no?
That’s why we wake up every morning
That’s why we seek each other’s smile
That’s why we know that it’s all worth it
That’s why we hold on
We make the sacrifice
Smile, it’s a beautiful life.
500: Purple Rice Onigiri and Chocolate Banana Cake!
Had a purple rice onigiri filled with tuna flakes, cucumber strips, carrot strips and egg and topped with furikake for early lunch! They are shaped pretty funny! But they are just fat and cute very filling globs of rice! I am not a huge fan of rice because I would very much prefer my carbs in the form of bread or noodles. But the purple rice is just too cute to resist (:
And I had my moist chocolate banana cake for breakfast! I really really like this recipe because the chocolate cake was omg-so-moist and totally not dry (like some other chocolate cakes sold outside)! This is my current favourite moist chocolate cake recipe! It was sooo good but I had to limit myself to at most two thin slices of these for breakfast! The banana slices rock too! I love chocolate and bananas together! So basically after heating up the cake in the microwave, it’s just warm awesome yumminess! I bet it will go well warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (or better still, banana ice-cream)!
Yays I am very eggcited about my ‘tiny’ adventure later! Cannot wait (beams)! (:
On a side note, this is my 500th nonsensical post on this humble blog of mine! I sometimes wonder who reads this terribly written nonsensical blog of mine. I’ve had 8000+ views within a short span of 3 months. Whoever reads this humble blog of mine, I hope I’m not boring you out with my incoherent nonsense! (:
497: Japanese Inspired Eggs Benedict
This is so simple and gorgeous! Would so love to try this someday! I love eggs benedict with the ultra-fattening hollandaise sauce! It’s so rich and sinful, it should be just an occasional indulgence. But this japanese inspired version has a rice patty and salmon fillet. Me like! (: I’ll get down to making one of those traditional eggs benedict and this japanese inspired version someday. When I’m out of this healthy lifestyle thing or when I feel like to(:
Aside, I got a new pair of running shoes! My current pair has been giving me problems recently since I started running quite a fair bit. It has survived multiple “fall-outs” and “glue-d” many a times before a part of the sole gave way AGAIN today and I decided that it’s time for a new pair. Looking back, I’ve realised that this current pair has been with me since 2006! 6 years, amazing! It’s time for a new pair and it’s pink. Haha!
495: My Week in Photos!
Terribly busy and tiring week! Ended my vivas! Yays I passed my oral viva! There were failures! The rest have been complaining about the oral viva since it ended and all of them couldn’t sleep well after that. I was wondering if there was seriously something wrong with me then because I was the only one not grumbling or complaining about it. In fact, I told them it was okay! They were all looking at me strangely haha! My easiest reply was to ask them to ignore me because I am often living in my own world! Hahahaha! (: oh well, glad it ended well. Now awaiting the results of the written viva, pray hard!
There have been consecutive nights when I fell asleep at the desk or on the bed only to realise that I left the lights and the laptop on when I woke up suddenly at 4am in the morning. I’m back to sleeping on the bus home from work. Really couldn’t help it but I was unknowingly tired although I tried to remain chirpy and energetic the whole day! I almost missed my bus-stop today, thank goodness I woke up in time cause I am usually jolted awake when I realise subconsciously that I am nodding off!
Just some random photos to sum up my week. So glad for the public holiday on Monday! I need to run! Even though I was so physically tired today, I woke up super early to run. OMG I am crazy!
Cute chocolate bear cookie! (:
Had cheese portobello sandwich at TCC for post-viva celebrations with my friends! Quite nice because I love portobello mushrooms and there were sauteed onions with teriyaki sauce! The bread was some turkish bread that was nicely toasted so yums (:
Food at the workplace is getting kind of boring although ironically, I haven’t tried many yet since I am always bringing food from home to cheer myself up! But this was a healthy menu from the foodcourt. I love it that at the foodcourt at my workplace, they have healthy menus at each stall. I tried the grilled chicken with purple wheat noodle miso soup! It was nice! The noodles are the Koka brand instant purple wheat noodles that I like! The miso soup with japanese kelp is just simple comfort food.
And this is my favourite Mr Bean tuna pancake! I love the cheese one as well! I think the auntie who mans the store probably knows me already since I usually buy just a tuna and a cheese pancake for my lunch! It’s so convenient since there’s Mr Bean almost everywhere and at my workplace! I wasn’t a huge fan of their pancakes until I started work here! Haha! Anyway the japanese name for the pancakes are imagawayaki! The fish-shaped ones are called taiyaki, they have good cheese (and many other flavoured) taiyaki sold at the food hall of Takashimaya.
This is my dinner for today! Toasted mini pita with hummus spread, cheese
and sweet chilli with lime salmon flakes! Easy peasy and my happy comfort food! (:
And this is pita again! But this time round, it’s pita sandwich with hummus and cucumber, with a banana and baked cashew nuts for one weekday lunch!
OOooooh, fresh cranberries! We rarely get to see fresh cranberries in Singapore cause they are usually the dried ones we get! But fresh cranberries are SO sour, omg!
One fine weekday, we ventured out to the police station next door for lunch! Had really cheap and good Malay food! As usual, after ordering, I then realised that I am going vegetarian again. Haha! Habit already! The veggies just appeal to me more! And I love tempeh! (:
Daddy bought two boxes of thai sticky mango rice from Bangkok last week and I only stole a few bites. Because before I knew it, they were ALL gone! The horrors!
And I miss the yummy popiah with the special chilli sauce at an eatery in the place where I had a short external attachment! Had this for lunch for quite a few days! I am missing this but it’s so far from my place ):
BAZINGA! Season 3 DVDs of The Big Bang Theory! And my two most favourite childhood cartoons of them all – Beauty and the Beast and Anastasia! I can watch them again and again and again. They have lovely soundtracks as well! (:
And this is SO adorable I have to share! I LOVE Totoro! Someone in Taiwan dressed up as Totoro for Halloween this year! Soooooo cute! It’s just like the scene in the movie! LOVE ❤
My Aleph and One Day! I need to find time to read this amidst all the stacks of notes and papers that are screaming for me to read them!
483: A Secret Garden of Cupcakes
The title of this post is silly. Oh well, an ultra quick one today! Am so loving the new updated WordPress app on Iphone!
Baked some mini vanilla beans cupcakes with strawberry-vanilla cream cheese frosting during the weekend. Was bored out from studying plus there were people to help eat them! Baked 8 and kept only 2 for me and sis! The other 6 went to the cupcake and icing monsters! The vanilla bean cupcakes were really moist and soft! Love this recipe! I love seeing the specks of the vanilla bean in the cupcake!
Was my first time using my new piping tips too and it was great fun! Cannot wait to play with my full set of 24 tips again. My macaroons/macarons await me too.
Secret Garden songs for the night! I love Secret Garden since my secondary school days. “Song from a Secret Garden” happens to be my favourite song! There is something about the sound of the violin that I really like. I like the sad sad sound of the violin. I like sad songs! I love this song in particular! (:
Hmm lately, haven’t been having much peace at home even after a tiring day at work or during the weekends. Frequent clashes with the mum over many trivial issues that I’m too tired to even explain my side of the story. I realised I’ve been very snappish lately too. Must be the hormones! Hmm!
Crazy, I’m looking forward to waking up early in the morning every day at 5 plus! Because I’m always looking forward to my favourite meal of the day – breakfast! It’s nothing fancy, really! But I just love (mega love) eating cereal (cereal of the week is Kellogg’s Special K and Alpen No Sugar Swiss Muesli mix) with my favourite Pura fresh milk! I seriously think I am mad. I AM MAD! IF ONLY I can eat cereal with milk for lunch and dinner too! (:
Yay! Cannot wait for the public holiday on Wednesday! “Run and study” day! So happy that I have more time this week to run too! Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday! Finally taking some leave to study (:
479: Baileys Irish Cream Ice Cream
It’s been at least 4-5 months since I’ve churned or made any ice-cream. Sis brought a bottle of Baileys home and she has been bugging me to make Baileys Irish Cream ice cream. So I’ve decided to please her by making her a tub of it since I know that the parents (especially Daddy) like Baileys Irish Cream too. I was a little apprehensive about making this ice-cream because I know that alcoholic ice-cream is particularly hard to freeze. They are often pretty ‘soft’ ice cream. But well, the fears were unfounded. Here’s a pretty good Bailey Irish Cream ice cream. My first alcoholic ice-cream! Another small step in conquering ice cream making! (:
The recipe was pretty much trial and error. The base is in the usual proportions, as always. I just reduce it to make up to about 500ml volume. I find that making my ice-cream in smaller proportion is easier to churn in my maker! Hence so!
Freshly churned, still 80% soft ice-cream!
The ice cream nicely churned and froze well (YAYS!)
The spirit!
“My precious” (as what Gollum will say) – pure vanilla bean paste!
Baileys Irish Cream Ice Cream
Base
2/3 cup fresh milk
1/8 cup sugar
1 and 1/3 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp pure vanilla bean extract
Add-Ons
1/2 cup Baileys Ice Cream (adjust to preference)
1. Warm milk, sugar, vanilla bean paste and vanilla bean extract and heavy cream in saucepan until tiny bubbles appear at the sides of the saucepan.
2. Whisk together the egg yolks in a separate bowl.
3. Pour warm milk-sugar-cream mixture into the whisked egg yolks and mix ontinuously to warm the egg yolk and prevent the egg yolks from becoming cooked (aka scrambled eggs). Then transfer the mixture into the saucepan.
5. Stir the mixture constantly over low-medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scooping the bottom as your stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer.
6. Pour in the Baileys Irish Cream and mix it well.
7. Stir until cool over an ice bath and chill the mixture in a refrigerator for at least 4 hours. After 4 hours, the custard becomes slightly more viscous.
8. When ready to churn, freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
471: Weekend Food Update!
Run, run, run, run.
My favourite kind of ♥ Sunday breakfast is just simply milk-soaked cornflakes! And they have to be Nestle brand cornflakes. Nestle cornflakes are so much tastier and crunchier than Kellogg’s. And post-breakfast, I baked a mini heart-shaped chocolate cheesecake for a friend’s early birthday surprise, using the recipe from one of my new recipe books. It’s quite a great recipe. (: And I’m using my heart-shaped springform pan for the first time. Yays so happy because it turned out pretty!
And I cooked myself an early lunch today before I “Antoinette” for early dinner. As usual, I’m always tasked to clear the food in the fridge to make space for fresher ingredients that the parents bought this morning. Sighh I’m always helping them clear their ‘leftovers’. Anyway, there were two tiny slices of salmon that have been lying around in the freezer for some time and a broccoli that Mummy didn’t cook and it’s turning slightly greenish-yellow.
So I just prepared a pan-fried basil salmon with a bed of steamed broccoli. The salmon was just simply marinated with sea salt, black pepper and some dried basil. And then I pan-fried the salmon, skin-side up. Haha I love panfrying my salmon skin-side up because you get this ultra crunchy and crispy salmon skin after that. ♥!
464: Dried Apricots and Currants Scones
As promised, I baked some dried apricots and currants scones, using the recipe adapted from a blog, Treats. The scones are so tall and pretty! These are one of the tallest and prettiest scones I’ve baked! OMG I cannot wait to eat them for breakfast tomorrow! Imagine them warm or hot with strawberry or raspbery jam spread in between the scone layers! These are going to be breakfast for the next few days! Yay so happy because I’m so productive today.
Okay! Now it’s time for some episodes of The Big Bang Theory before I call it a day! (:
The recipe from Treats. I pretty much just had dried apricots and currants in 1:1 ratio to make up 3/4 cups for the scones. Otherwise, I followed really closely to the recipe.
463: A Typical Saturday!
Just a typical Saturday today! It’s October already!
Woke up early today, headed to work early as always! I’m always an hour early for work! Hadn’t realised that it’s Saturday today and traffic was ultra good. So I had more time to bum around before work. For some reason, I love the hospital on a Saturday morning. Everyone feels not-quite-awake yet. It’s probably cause’ everyone’s in a weekend mode.
Work on a Saturday was good. I had time to do my stuff, catch up on some work and do some readings. Dilly-dallied, fiddled with my documents in my laptop, did some random food surfing, fiddled with my notes and casenotes before leaving the hospital at around 2 plus! Decided to head down to town to roam around alone for a teeny tiny while. I couldn’t resist the beautiful display of macarons at TWG Tea Salon at the basement food hall of Takashimaya. They were so beauuuuutifuuuul! So exquisite looking! And I read from many food blogs that the macarons at TWG were pretty good. So I got a box of six! I’m spending money unnecessarily on food again. Anyway, this box of 6 macarons will last me for a week or two. It’s too pricey and exquisite to gulp them down all at one shot. Got to savour them slowly! The last time my box of Canele macaroons lasted me two weeks!
Anyway, I got two earl grey with chocolate (the brown ones), napoleon black tea with caramel (the black one), 1837 black tea with blackcurrant (dark pink), moroccan mint tea (white) and bain de rose tea (light pink). I should have gotten another different flavour to try instead of getting two earl grey ones! Oh wells, I wasn’t thinking right then! Never mind, another time.
I want to get down to baking macarons/macaroons soon! Mark my words! (:
And after the little town adventure, I headed home before heading out right away for a run! I’ve been craving for a run soooo badly. So I had to make sure I run! I feel good. Oh yeah! (: I’m going running again tomorrow!
Didn’t feel like going out with the parents and the uncle and aunties for dinner so I decided to stay home with sis. She cooked her usual hiyashi chukka ramen with her same old favourite flowy egg and edamame. So boring! I decided to cook myself some good old homemade pumpkin soup. Hot homemade soup warms my soul (:
Digged out some leftover pumpkin and baby carrots from the fridge. Boiled the pumpkin and carrots until soft before blending them in the blender with some good chicken stock. Added extra virgin olive oil to the pan and caramelised some onions and garlic. Throw in the onions and garlic into the blender and blend until slightly viscous and homogeneous. Transfer the blended mixture into a pot and stir until it bubbles and boils. Meanwhile, add in herbs and spices as you wish. I added in some black pepper, oregano flakes and rosemary leaves. Once it bubbles and boils, it’s ready to be served. Add a dash of dried basil on the soup and tah-dah! It’s good to eat! (:
Warms my soul and makes me a happy girl (: This crazy girl is off to bake some tall dried apricots scones (for breakfasts for the next few days) now before retiring off with some episodes of The Big Bang Theory and perhaps, some work. Alright, maybe no work. Saturday will be a R&R day and I’m NOT doing any work today! The work shall wait. Tomorrow it shall be (:
Tata (:
Rina's Silly Musings 