Chocolate Covered Cornflakes

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and if you're broke but still want to give something sweet and lovely to your special someone, here's a wonderful gift that is easy to make, sweet looking, and cheap :)  I'm going to give you the recipe to turn the top part of this photo, into something that looks like the bottom part of this photo!

  

Cooking Instruction:

1. Melt like15cm x 5cm + 3cm of chocolate in a bowl. (Cut the chocolate into smaller cubes, then bring a saucepan with water to a boil, place a bowl on top of the saucepan, and in the saucepan put in the chocolate to melt. Stir occasionally until liquid)

2. Throw in half a box of cornflakes, and coat it completely with chocolate.

3. I add almond whole, and cranberries after that, and coat it completely as well. Feel free to add in anything you fancy: raisin, apricots, pinenuts, pistachio etc.

4. On a flat surface, place out all your paper cups, and scope spoonful of fillings to fill the cups.

5. Add the finishing touch with a dash of sugar balls! You can use any other sweet decoration as well! Go wild!

6. Takes around 45mins to cool, and you can package it after that. Stores well for weeks in a fridge!

 

Tips:After mixing the ingredient, leave the chocolate in the bowl on top of the saucepan while you fill up the paper cups. This help keeps the chocolate warm and liquid. If not, the chocolate is going to harden and make life difficult for you.

 

So once again, from left the ingredient,  the end product in the middle showing it nicely packed into a box, and lastly, the valentine gift on the right, all wrapped up with a pink ribbon! Doesn't it look just sweet?

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! xoxo

Ref:

Valentine's Day

Cat Coaster

 

My husband got a sewing machine recently (why, I don't know). But it was sitting at our study room for like a month before we actually took it out for a trial run! Above is a close up of the sewing machine, and after a few trial run, that was the first cat coaster I made using a machine! It is sooo fast! However, the quality was not as nice as hand sewed cause it was harder to control the machine, and also, there is a mass production feel to it when you see such perfect straight lines.....

Anyway it was fast! And I decided to complete my cat coaster collection. The below is the prep work of the full set of 6 cats all together. It was a patch I meant to do since last year, and I've actually completed two last year. But it was so time consuming to make them by hand. (it takes around 2 hours per coaster). But with the machine, it was faster, and I managed to finish 5 in maybe 3 hours? I didn't managed the 6th as I ran out of laces :(

 

And here are the end product of the five, with the bright red one being my favorite as it look so cheery! Aren't they cute? I feel happy just looking at them :)

Ju Hu Char

Mum decided not to cook this Chinese New Year, so what's a poor girl like me to do if she misses all her favorite food? Cook all of them of course!!! And that's exactly what I did. And today I'm gonna share with you my family's version of the peranakan Ju Hu Char. Photo here shows all the ingredient you need. Sorry, peranakan sucks at giving measurements, so just estimate ('agak') the amount.

Cooking Instruction:
1. Add oil to pan, add in garlic and shallots and fry till fragance.
2. Add pork and fry until the oil of the pork comes out. Then add cuttlefish ad fry till the smells come out.
3. Add onions to the party, and as the juices started to come out, add carrots to soak up the oil. (Remember, Vitamin A and E is best serve in oil!)
4. Next add in the mushrooms, and then the yam beans (incidentally I just learn this word today! We call it mangkuang).
5. Last add the spring onions.

Important: Stir fry it all the time, for at least one hour or until all the yam beans turn transparent and become kinda soggy. Add water (or oyster sauce with water if you like) if it's too dry, and turn up the flames if it's too watery. The end product should not be watery!


Here's our menu for our Chinese New Year meal, all cooked on the same day, within 4 hours. Everything here can be cooked in bulk, and eaten for at least one or two weeks :)  From left the right, the end result of the Ju Hu Char best eaten with Chinese lettuce leaf and sambal belacan; Asam(tamarind) Prawns with sambal belacan, and Kiam Chye Buey. (for recipe click here).

 Here's wishing you all a great year of the Dragon!

Ref:
Yam Beans!

Forlorn Eyes

Another cute picture drawn for me :) but sadly I can't remember his name except he signs it as Forlorn Eyes :)
My interesting Buaya Week of 1998-1999 in Sheares Hall. Guess I'm converting all my memories now into digital format :) There's a quote in one of the cards too which I wanted to share. But sadly I can't make out what the writing says....*roll eyes*

Ref:
Sheares Hall 

Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Cordy wishes you all a Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon! It's a special year cause Cordy was born in the year of the Dwagon! Here to share, a painting of two cute dragons I saw in the Neka Art Museum, Ubud Bali Indonesia while I was there last year for my annual holiday.

新年快樂!

Ref:
Neka Art Museum

Happy 35th Birthday Cordy!

Yes! Cordy can now legally run for the US Presidency! Vote Cordy for a better quality of life!

 Celebrated my 35th birthday yesterday in a pretty relaxing way. My home was brightly decorated with a bouquet of champagne roses from my old roomie Bella which was delivered to my office the day before my birthday. It still amuses my colleagues that I get flowers that are not from my husband :) Yes, the mysterious Bella strikes again!

Had a low key birthday as always. Went for an Egg Benedict breakfast at Coffee Bean @ Changi Airport cause my husband is too lazy to cook breakfast for me. Had a lazy stroll after at Singapore Expo before headed home. Decided to exercise on my old Aibi machine since I was going for a big dinner later that night. My Aibi is now 3.25 years old! And still working! Managed a 7.1km in 40minutes. After the workout, what better way to reward yourself than munching on macaroons?  Bliss :)

Went to Morton's for dinner. Morton is totally over the top, and so is their price, but I must say, it was the best steak I ever had! Every mouthful was bursting with flavor and juice! Lovely! Lots of cliché which I wasn't interested in, the recitation of the menu, the confetti on your table, the presentation of the menu as a souvenir, the photo taking..... I guess some people like the attention? I just like the steak :) Would I go again? For the steak, yes! Everything else, na. Le Bistrot is still closer to my heart.

Anyway, happy birthday to myself. Older and very much wiser now :) I'm more comfortable in my skin now, and seems to be able to take anything that's coming my way with ease. I'm a lot more in tune, in present, and intuitive. Life has been good to me, and I'll continue to treasure all it has to offer before I have to say my goodbye.

Related Post:
my Le Bistrot

Ref:
Coffee Bean Breakfast Menu
Morton's Of Chicago

Gurney Drive 2000

 

Was throwing away old letters the other day, mainly old love letters, and I came across this card with this drawing on it from a guy whom I went into a complicated relationship with. I threw away all his letters, but I kept this drawing. I always love drawings, poems, or art that people make for me. It kinda always meant more than whatever words they could ever express to me. This is a drawing of Gurney Drive Penang, in 2000 I think. I was there with him, my dad, and my other close friend. Strangely enough, all I feel now is missing my close friend ... :) And this drawing that reminded me of my close friend, but not the guy who drew it....How strange....

London Lodging Information - HillSpring Lodge

We stayed at a few places while we were in London. The first few days were in the center of town at County Hotel London (Cost SGD130 per night for a double room with breakfast included). During our country trip, we stayed at a Holiday Inn which was included inside the land tour package. After that we left for Paris, and we came back, we moved to a more permanent place call Hillspring Lodge nearest tube being Willesden Green Station.

 

Hillspring Lodge cost us around SGD 57 per person per night in a private twin room with private shower room and a common bathroom. Breakfast was also provided and you could eat as much as you want. It was a normal hostel, nothing fancy. Wifi provided.

The town Willesden Green were fulled of middle eastern people, and even has a Pakistani mosque nearby. Can't say its the most pleasant place to stay at if you are traveling alone and coming home late as it's some distance to walk before you reach the hostel. But there's a straight bus to town from there. The crowd is a bit rough as well, but then again, the crowd is a bit rough in London -__- Don't think I'll be back.....

Ref:
County Hotel London
Hillspring Lodge

Paris Food Information - Eating Out

Eating out a proper meal in Paris is kinda expensive for us. It cost roughly 23Euro for a 2 course lunch. Since I got my own personal patissierie, I wasn't interested in desserts. But I really really love the entrée! But let's start from the beginning.

I love dining out in Paris because they provide me with free flow of fresh bread!!! I only realize this a few days later when I was so hungry I ate all the french bread on my table and was rewarded with a fresh new basket of bread! Voila! And most of the time they leave a whole pitcher of ice water on our table, which I just love cause I drink lots of water when I'm dining. French coffee and hot chocolate are also serve is such petit cute cups and saucer! And surprisingly ciders are really cheap and good there :) Chocolate mousse are only so so cause you can always buy them in bulk from the supermarkets.

My favorite part of a meal is actually the entrée, cause that's where the herring, the liver, the soups are! And all the above are really to-die-for!!! Especially the onion soup! I have read about the famous French onion soup before, but come on, how great can onion soup taste? Right? But sadly, I had to wait till almost my last few days before I finally decided to order one! And it nearly made me cry! It was soooooooo good!!!! Nobody told me French onion soup was serve with cheese!!!! How dare you people keep such important information from me!!!

As for main course, why Duck Confir in France is fabulous!!! Totally melt in your mouth. And frankly, almost anything we order pass the test of quantity and quality! Food was definitely my favorite part of Paris :) And you should have seen how sad I was when the day to leave Paris finally approaches :(  Sigh. Hopefully I'll be able to come back here one day and dig in more :)  Although I did hear the food in Italy is wonderful too..... 

Anyway, here's a photo of the restaurant we had our onion soup, duck confit, and escargot. You can go hunt it down, its definitely worth it!


Ref:
French Onion Soup
Duck Confit
Escargot

Paris Food Information - Eating In

The wonderful thing about having your own apartment is you can always bring food back home to eat. And that's a great way to eat your meals in an expensive country for a start cause it slowly ease you into getting used to the price of the food. And the other great thing about staying around where local stay, is the cheap grocery store around where you can easily stock up on water and food!

So Exhibit A - Food you can buy from the supermarket! (bread, fruits, juices, can food, chocolate). If in France, do get: Cheese!!!! Any can liver of any animal!!! Truffes!!! and Mustard!!! You can get most of these stuff from local grocer or supermarket like Monoprix.

You can also get those pre-prepared food from supermarket, plus lots and lots of good wine! Try Nicolas for your wine supply :) Above pix is our breakfast, and our dinner. Quiche is very very nice here!!! Especially those from Paul! I had my last quiche while waiting for the train back to London.  (Side note: Paul is opening soon at Takashimaya Singapopore!)

Here are also a few things worth mentioning, the patissierie below our apartment which supply us with our nightly sweets and chocolate! Wonderful pickled sotong from the supermarket, and the best roast chicken I've ever eaten before in my life! I only got the address, cause I wasn't expecting it to be great when I brought it from a morning market from Rue Mouffetard. Anyway, if you're ever there, get one of those roast chicken and thank me later :) It's only 2Euro and one of the best things I ate in Paris!

Ref:
Monoprix
Nicolas
Paul

Le Bistrot Singapore

I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite restaurant in Singapore - Le Bistrot. It's a little French restaurant found near Kallang Indoor Stadium. Nearest MRT is Stadium at the Circle Line. I've only been there twice so far, first time being on my anniversary in 2011, and 2nd time on my hubby's birthday on 6-Jan-2012. Both time, the food was just excellent!

For a list of what they served, refer to the reference link below for the menu. Beside what is on the menu, there are also daily special featured on the walls of the restaurant. Yes, the price is a bit on the high side, but trust me, you get what you pay for. The food is lovely and plentiful, and the service is just excellent! I like the fact that my cutleries are changed every course, and my ice water always remain nice and cool through out my meals there.

I'm not a person who takes a photo of every meal I have, so I actually only have two photos of some of the food we had there. On top is the duck confit, it comes with two duck leg, so I highly recommend that if you go with friends, just order one and share. That way, you can try their other dishes as well. I'm not a fan of their duck confit, but I just love the beef there! So far, I've tried two of their beef, and they are just to die for! Gonna try their steak next the next time I go dine there! Always order a Foie Gras Terrine if its available on the daily special, its well worth it and cheaper than flying to Paris to cure your craving. The desserts are lovely too! So try to get the whole 3 course deal if you can afford it. Personally, I prefer just having the entree and the desserts :) This place is more like food tasting for me cause it comes with so many variety of great food to try!

Plus, the ambiance is just charming! Here are some photos of it. 

If you want to impress a date, or celebrate an anniversary, or just want to make a non-vegetarian feel happy, I highly recommend this place!


Ref:
Le Bistrot Singapore
Menu
Hungry Go Where Food Review on Le Bistrot

Craft Stuff

 Awesome aren't they? Haha. These are not toys. These are not RPG related pieces either. They are actually art and craft stuff I got from my expedition down town to Singapore Chinatown! And I am pretty broke right now from buying all these nonsense for my art and craft. Especially so when I haven't even produce a single craft out of them yet! But anyway, if you ever wonder what I spend my money on, I think this post more or less says it all.

I kinda like fantasy or religion related pieces, hence the keys, and armors, and St. Mary above even though I am in no way religious. I also like angels and demons and Gothic themed staff. All these probably burned into my conscious from when I was young :)

 But fear now! I like meaningful pieces, and I guess anything french, or Japanese, or nursery rhyme theme, and candy and gingerbread people and Faraway Trees and all things that reminds me of my childhood I guess :) Yeah, I love all these wonderful things!

If you're interesting to know where you can purchase any of the above, they can be found at level 1, 101, People's Park Centre, Upper Cross Street Singapore. Sometimes there's a buy 1 free 1 promotion on! So don't wait!  There are a new arts and craft shops there, so knock yourself out!