New hopes and wishes for the New Year!

Looking forward to the New Year - 2009!

• Continue to spend time with my family and friends
• including Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai, my Raku dinner wiff Evon
• Cooking more exciting dishes and blogging about them
• Diligently practice Pilates at home i hope!
• Working with my best friend
• Spring cleaning for the Chinese New Year
• Enjoy my 1 week break before i start on my new job
• Travel to new destinations!
• Start on a new hobby sewing maybe?
• Make babies
• Try meditation

Stir-fry pork with sichuan vegetable

Stir-fried some lean pork strips with sichuan vegetables for dinner last evening. Simple and quick dish!

My husband likes it =D and polished it off with some rice

Ingredients

Lean pork, cut into strips

1/2 packet of sichuan vegetable (bought those that come ready in strips in small packets )

Sesame seeds, to sprinkle over the dish when its done

Garlic, minced

Chilli (optional)

1 -2 tbsp Vegetable oil, which is slightly more than my usual to prevent the meat from sticking together

Dark soy sauce

Light soy sauce

Cornstarch

Pepper

Sugar

Hua Tiao wine

Method

1. Marinade the lean pork strips with light soy sauce, sugar, pepper and cornstarch

2. Heat oil and stir-fry the minced garlic

3. Add-in the lean pork strips and stir-fry

4. Add-in the sichuan vegetable (and some cut chilli if you like)

5. Add the dark soy sauce, hua tiao wine and sugar to taste

6. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the dish when its done and serve

Xiao Bai's little butt sticking out from the toilet roll core while zzz-ing

I want to be a Pottery Barn kid!

Chanced upon this website: Pretty Little Things

This is my kind of thing! Then i went on to discover the Pottery Barn kids website...and Land of Nod...would so love to own some of these sheets and bedding and the dollhouse bookcase! I would love to be in this line as well creating such girly and dreamy works with my hands and bringing things to life (~^.*)

回顾2008

What have i done in 2008? Any significant events? Let me see...

• My hamster Cuppy passed away
• Two new hamsters Xiao Hei Xiao Bai wow my no. 10th and 11th hamsters
• Discovered the wonders of Nintendo Wii and Ravin Rabbits - see my Wii muscle?
• Discovered also the wonders of Facebook & MSN...better late then never hor?
• Started this blog! And posting of recipes 52 posts and counting!
• Travelled to Perth, Bali and Hokkaido
• Started trying for a baby
• The passing away of my youngest uncle
• Resigned from my current job
• Had a biopsy done
• Attended more funerals than weddings but also welcomed more babies been buying tons of kids stuff!
• Saw the value of my investments drop?
• My green fingers husband started our garden
• Spent more time with my family and friends =D
• Put on some fats around my tummy? kept waiting for them to disappear but alas! still had to buy new jeans
• My husband passed 2 of his papers!! Woo hoo!

Karaoke - 恰是你的温柔蔡琴？

Had a battle of oldies at the karaoke at the k-box @ Marina Square yesterday...kekeke 蔡琴's 恰是你的温柔 sounded really nice surprisingly when we sang it (using our modern day voice). Even the old SBC days drama theme song 温柔的夜 was sung.

Stay @ Fairmont

My parents had a complimentary nite's stay at the Fairmont which they gave to us and we went on Boxing Day. =D Hee hee and we went on a shopping spree at City Hall and Suntec! Bought 2 tops from a store i liked - Promod and managed to squeezed into a kids (size 14A) jeans at Okaidi. Spent about S$100 on the 3 items, quite a steal!

This is the view from 16th floor, south tower.


Joted down our wished on the white floating balls to be placed at Marina Bay

Xiao Hei giving me the pleading look - it was showertime!

More muffins for Xmas, century egg porridge

More muffins for Xmas! The blueberry ones are more popular with the adults =D ran out of most of the ingredients and muffin cups already...need to stock up and experiment with different fillings!

My husband had a craving for century egg porridge and hence my first attempt at it!

Century Egg Porridge

Ingredients

2 century eggs, shelled and cut into small cubes

Lean pork, cut into strips

1 cup rice

1 handful of glutinous rice (optional)

Water

Light soy

Pepper

Chopped Spring onions

Sliced ginger

Method

1. Marinade pork strip with light soy and pepper

2. Wash rice and glutinous rice, fill water to brim of pot and bring to boil

3. Add sliced ginger, pork strips and century egg and turn down the heat

4. Stir occasionally, with glutinous rice it tends to burn more easily

5. Turn of the fire when the porridge reaches the desired consistency

6. Add light soy or salt to taste

7. Serve with chopped spring onions

Choc chip & raisin muffins

My latest muffin bakeout - Choc chip and raisin muffins were a hit with my nephew Dong Dong, heard from my mother-in-law this morning that he was even licking the bottom of the muffin cups! I have a fan! =D I used the same recipe as the blueberry muffins and just stirred in some Hershey's semi-sweet choc chips and large raisins (pre-soaked in water so that they become plump and moist). By popular demand - will be baking some more for the xmas gathering! Shall spruce it up with some candy on top, ribbons round the muffin cups and stack them up like a Christmas tree!

Went to Jurong Point and wow they have this new Japanese food street! Transports me back to Japan (^.^)

Taking care of my inner self

Ahh...i have neglected my inner self...letting it get lost in a whirl of thoughts and constantly jumping from one thought to another...my overworked mind has taken a life of its own with me gradually losing control over it. I lost the ability to concentrate just on one task over time without realising it, as a consequence of always trying to multi-task. Am i always in a rush? Must i multi-task all the time? Why am i so uncomfortable with doing nothing?

Kinda like when u are surfing the internet, some people concentrate on one window and some open multiple windows. Of course this kan cheong spider belongs to the latter. I can have clothes in the wash, stuff cooking on the stove while i'm watching tv and ironing clothes at the same and throw in nagging/chatting with my husband...no wonder i feel tired all the time.

Came across this website which gave me a new perspective - http://www.successconsciousness.com/
Some of the concentration exercises are really useful (see the free e-books section). Such as counting the number of words in a paragraph in your mind, without using your fingers to point the words out or verbalising it =D Real tough i tell u! Counting backwards from 100 to 1 seemed a lot easier. Shall practice this diligently!!

Braised Chicken Wings (with Cinnamon & Star Anise)

Finally got 2 more key condiments in my kitchen - Cinnamon and star anise! Decided to try using them (my very first attempt!) in making braised chicken wings.


It turned out real nice!
Ingredients
- Chicken wings
- 1 1/2 Cinnamon sticks
- 3-4 Star Anise
- 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice wine/hua tiao wine
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 slices of ginger
- Ground pepper
- 1 small piece of rock sugar
- 1 cup water

Method
- Put all the ingredients except the chicken wings into a pot and bring to a boil
- Put all the chicken wings in when it comes to a boil and lower the fire to a gentle simmer
- Cook till the chicken wings look really 入味

Going to use the leftover sauce to make "Loh Neng" or 卤蛋, yum yum！

I'm in love with this song!

Watch the MTV on youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yt1HHqnbcs
Ok maybe i'm biased, i like 林峰。

Flipside of being a Libra

The symbol for Libra is a pair of scales...and this pair of scales drives me nuts when i over-analyse things, to the extend that all decisions become borderline decisions or weigh the same...why do i have to make things so difficult?! Ai yoh ai yoh - Just do it! And i'm never going to look back! Pls remind me when i'm making my new years' resolutions (^p^). Resigning from a job is like breaking up with a boyfriend...just cannot bring myself to do it and feeling all sentimental about it when i have already made the decision. Must applaud Evon and my husband for putting up with this want dun want nonsense from me =D

Chicken Cordon Bleu & Blueberry Muffins

Decided to be adventurous last weekend and made a western dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu with potato salad on the side. The chicken came out really nice and tender and that was despite substituting some ingredients and skipping the ham.

I marinated the chicken thighs earlier with some oyster sauce, mirin and soy sauce. Rolled up a slice of cheese in the chicken thigh, secured the chicken roll with toothpicks, and coated it with oats (instead of breadcrumbs) and pan-fried it lightly before putting it into the oven at 200 degrees for about 25-30 mins.


My favourite blueberry muffins were a great success this time round! =D Absolutely yummy!


Blueberry Muffin Recipe (makes 12)
Ingredients
140 grams butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1 cup of blueberry pie filling
Some roasted sliced almonds

Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
- Cream together sugar and slightly softened butter
- Add eggs one at a time, vanilla essence and cream till its fully incorporated
- Fold in sifted flour to the mixture
- Spoon 1 spoonful of the mixture into each of the 12 muffin cups
- Make a well in the centre of the mixture, add in the blueberry pie filling
- Add another spoonful of mixture into each of the muffin cups, covering the blueberry pie filling
- Add roasted almonds on top
- Bake for 25 mins in the middle tray of the oven
- Remove and cool, these muffins can be kept for several days

I need some quality sleep!!

My eyebags are huge...haven't had a good nite's rest since August...yup August...gosh, its has been that long. My over active mind seems to have a life of its own engaging in its countless fantasies. The dreams make me all worned out! I must have tried everything already, avoided coffee, did exercises in the day, drank this drank dat, went to the temple, bathed with pomelo leaves...ai yoh ai yoh. I haven been to the doc's yet, keep thinking that the tiredness will accumulate and i'll just plonk into deep sleep one of these days and break this cycle. Somebody please knock me out!