November 2020

November blues. The 2nd anniversary of my father's death. November is not my favourite month cause I am often moody in November. This year is no different, even though I try  my best to keep myself busy. It was still Covid-19 all around, so there was still no travel in sight. 

It would have been the 2nd month I spend with my Thermomix. My hubby invited me to a meet up where he said there will be demo of the machine. So I went. And met with a bunch of food lover. Mainly they belong to a baking group. From this group I got to try some Panetonne from one lady. It was nice and sweet and look so pretty. I got to try it one more time later, and another one for Christmas. 

This is what her Panettone look like. At first I though it was just a very cute looking muffin. It kinda look like a smurf house. When I was told it was a Panettone, the mystery was broken. Anyway, Panettone is basically bread with fruit bits in it. I plan to make some the coming week since there are what the Italian traditionally have for Christmas, and if you bypass all the traditional steps, it isn't that hard to make using modern day short cut. But then again, I haven't done it yet and may think other wise after. 

My husband was also adventurous with the Thermie and he made a few jar of pâté  which was totally smooth and delicious. I am not sure whether it was because these were homemade and fresh, but the taste of it totally took me back to France. I love it and hope he will make more in future. The ingredients  are relatively cheap since they are made of chicken liver. But I guess the process of it is really time consuming. 

With the pâté , I also made my banh mi, and from my mother-in-law I got some rescued bread which is totally delicious even though we don't know which shop they come from. The bread went well toasted with the liver, or even with some nice dessert cheese and green apple. 

Above is some note of all my Thermie cooking experiment. I initially wanted to record down all the recipe that I've tried and adjust them along the way. But as I am writing this blog in December, I've forsaken that path, and now am just totally YOLO with any recipe I wanted to try. I can even do last minute recipe these days, or compromise with the ingredient. And yes, apart from cooking and eating, I've also started my vegetable garden. To date I have harvested nothing after my first few batches of spinach. My surviving succulent has however look like it is doing well with one baby coming out. And my air plant  has two pups coming along too! My chillies are growing nicely, but not fast enough. My ladies are also growing nicely. But December is just not a good time to start planting anything as the sun is just not strong enough. I hope my cherry tomatoes and my spinach make it!

One unexpected event in November was having a fermentation introduction workshop for a colleague of mine and his family. His son was interested in fermentation, and since my colleague follows my husband's Instagram account, he asked for some starter to start his Kombucha. We invited him over for some tasting instead. Above are the equipment you would need to start fermenting at home. I learned that from my husband. To date I still stay away from his fermented drinks and food. I prefer my food fresh! 

We even set out the cups and tasting glasses for our guest. It was fun, and I also learn along with them. However I find it all so troublesome. But it was nice seeing my husband sharing his knowledge with people who are interested. 

My colleague gave me a homemade cake when he was visiting. It tasted so homely and old style that I really love it. It tasted like something I would have eaten when I was young and in Penang, and it was Chinese New Year. Very nostalgic cake. It had character this cake, none of those fluffy empty cakes on sale today. This was old school!

2020 was also the year I spend the most money on online shopping. I've always wanted to try Hook Coffee, mainly because the packaging was so pretty, and it was from a Singapore company. It is always good to support local. They have a Christmas Advante on sale, and with the baby goose kettle, it cost me around $75sgd. I bought a set for myself as one of the Christmas gift for myself. Sadly 3 days later during Black Friday sale, it was selling at $60sgd! Bummer. 

Anyway, part of the profit also went to a Special Art School, so I guess I was ok with it. The design of each package was different and individually designed. They looked so professional and really brightens up my day whenever I am drinking them. But sadly, the coffee were too weak for me. So I guess I will go back to my Japanese coffee after this. At $2sgd per pack, they were the most expensive drip coffee I have ever purchased. I would like to support local, but sometimes, it just doesn't make any economical sense... 

Near the last day of November, I attended a cooking class I have booked in advance. I really enjoyed my drip coffee course few years back, and wanted to repeat that experience. So I browse through the OnePA website and found a middle eastern food class for only $5sgd! Granted that it was only a demo class, but still $5sgd was hard to say no too. Especially when you know you get to do food tasting later. The class was held at a Halal Kitchen in a CC in Tampines, so I was expecting a lot of Malay to attend. Surprisingly it was mainly Chinese. 

The main course was Chicken Mulukhiyah and dill rice. The aromatic of the spice was heavenly in the room. I would very much like to be able to cook this in my house! The aroma was so strong that after the class, I went to Simpang Bedok and bought myself a Lamb Bukhari Rice that cost me $30sgd because I have craving for spice rice and middle eastern food. In fact, the following week I was glad I was going to a Turkish restaurant to get another taste of these lovely food. 

Dessert was this super sweet and unhealthy Milk Cake with Cardamon Cream. It was super easy to make, but oh so sinful. 3 cans of evaporated milk and condense milk went into it. But it was so rich and also aromatic. It tasted so exotic that I wanted to try making it at home. So I went looking for Cardamon powder, and with my dyslexia, bought a pack of Coriander powder instead. Major fail! Now I need to go try cooking coriander chicken. 

OK, that's all for November. 2020 is about to come to an end soon. Hope I'll be able to blog the December post by next week. And hope 2021 would be a better year (although work wise I doubt so). I am currently on a super long one week leave as I slowly end the year in leisure. This would probably be the 2nd best week of 2020, first being one 2 weeks cruise in January! Hahaha. I am so glad I took that cruise in January. Imagine without it, I would not have travelled at all! But because I took the cruise, at least I clock in a few countries in 2 weeks! So please always live life as you want to, and without regret!