Auntie tips (11)

Tip 1:
To create a natural air freshener : cut an orange in half, scoop out the pulp to form a cup and pour in a tablespoon of salt. Leave one on the sink or within the toilet area. When the smell is gone, you can just replace the orange cups with new ones.

Tip 2:
To sharpen scissors, simply stack three pieces of aluminium foil on top of one another and cut them a few times.

Tip 3:
Secret to deliciously fried and crisp fish : just immerse the fish in milk before you dip it in flour.

Tip 4:
To get rid of fruit flies, fill half a small cup with cider vinegar and two drops of dishwashing liquid. Mix well. The flies will be drawn to the solution and drown in the liquid.

Tip 5:
Keep those plastic egg trays you get from the supermarkets and use them as jelly moulds, or, kids can use them as paint palettes. Simply dump after use and save the hassle of washing.

Tip 6:
To keep flowers fresh in the vase for weeks, just add a few drops of bleach into the water.

Tip 7:
Used a permanent marker on a whiteboard by accident? Simply squeeze toothpaste onto a cloth and wipe the stain away.

From : Women's Weekly - April 2007; Simply Her - Dec 2006, Jan 2007

Peanut cookies (1st attempt)

Today was my first attempt at baking. That is, dessert kind of baking. I guess the spirit of Chinese New Year is getting to me. I was suddenly thinking of what kind of new year goodies I can make (just for fun coz I'm not a baker at all). Then I recalled a peanut cookies recipe from the lazy chef. Went to take a look and it didn't look too difficult, except that I didn't have a proper oven, but an oven-toaster. Nonetheless, I felt the urge to give it a try since I had some time and Papa likes them. So, I made a slight detour on the way home to get the ingredients, and was ready to start.

Due to the limited tabletop space in my small kitchen, I had quite a hard time sifting the flour, and looking for a place to put the prepared ingredients. Everything was finally done at about a little after 8 p.m., with spots of white flour here and there.

With much anticipation, I put my first batch of cookies into the oven. Got to divide them into batches coz the oven-toaster is a little too small for mass baking. Soon, the kitchen started to smell real good... all peanut-ty. And the result of my virgin try at baking cookies...



Wahahahaha... and yes, they were already in the bin before I remembered to take a photo. Anyway, I'll just take it as a trial to test out the temperature and timing for the next two batches.

The results from the second batch :

Actually they don't look too bad in the photo... but maybe due to the flash, coz the actual ones look much blacker than these. Heh.

As for the taste, it was just like those normal peanut cookies, except mine had additional burnt taste. But the husband is very supportive, he had eaten a few since I took them out of the oven. Or maybe becoz there was nothing else to eat as snacks at home.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have time to try again this weekend, and hopefully, they will turn out ok.

Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:

- 250g ground peanut powder
- 200g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 110g icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 140g corn oil

Egg wash:1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:
1. Mix ground peanut powder, plain flour, baking powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.

2. Pour in oil slowly and mix till a piable dough is formed. You might need a little more than the stated amount if the dough is too dry.

3. Shape into small bite-size pieces. I used a bottle cap and cling film to get a consistant shape.

4. Place about 2cm apart on lined baking sheet. Apply egg wash.

5. Bake at 170C for 18-22 minutes or till golden brown(depending on oven).

Eat'z 19

Had dinner with the husband at this particular restaurant, Eat'z 19, located opposite Shaw Towers, at a corner, right beside the few stalls of the famous steamboat/hotpots. The ambience was cosy, though I felt that the lighting was a little too dim. But the waitress was friendly, and even though we were the only customers in the shop at about 7:30 pm, it didn't feel awkward.

We ordered a starter and their set dinner, which costs $15.80. It includes a soup, main course, drink (coffee or tea, hot/chilled), and ice-cream for dessert.


Our starter course was Bruschetta, a recommendation from the waitress. It is crispy french toast topped with minced beef and sauce, and tomatoes and cheese.

The minced beef was soft, and the sauce had a slight tangy spiciness to it. There seemed to be like a mediterranean or middle-east style to it, not that I'm an expert in that area, but it's certainly not your typical western food.



It was creamy chicken soup that day, and it was good, with many big chunks of chicken, and a toasted hot and crispy garlic bread. If only it was not so peppery. I'm not a spicy-food person... so after a while, the heat of the pepper got to me and I passed the remaining soup to the husband.




For the main course, I ordered the Chicken Parmesan with Asian Herbs, which the waitress mentioned that we had to wait 25 minutes for it coz of the baking time. I had two bites from it and had to exchange with the husband coz it was again, too spicy to my liking. I didn't think it had chilli or anything in the sauce, but rather, from the herbs that they use.



The husband ordered fish and chips. I once heard it was a kind of "safe bet" dish to order if everything else on the menu looks alien to you.

Anyway, this fish and chips was excellent. We both liked it. It was not the normal kind which was deep-fried til you could feel the oil oozing out as you bit into it. No, not this fish and chips. Although not as crispy, it was special, maybe becoz of the batter used. The fish was still soft and juicy inside. And I loved the tartare sauce. Lemongrass was added to it to give it an extraordinary taste to normal fish and chips.



The dessert was vanilla ice-cream with sauce which at first I thought was caramel. But after tasting it, it tasted more like melted coconut sauce instead. Special!

The husband and I decided that we most likely might visit the place again, to try the other dishes, or maybe from the ala carte menu too. It was a great dining experience, with food of a different flavour and new tastes. The service was wonderful too.

Oh, by the way, the place is Halal certified... which means it can be listed as a place for our next IT peeps gathering! Yeah!

Butter Chicken

Was actually thinking of making a salmon dish to go with the instant pasta. But somehow, there were no salmon in sight at the supermarket, so we ended up with chicken.

The recipe calls for breast meat, but again, there were none left on the shelf. I guess everybody likes the breasts on Sunday? So, I got chicken fillets instead. After cooking, I realised that fillets may be better as they come in smaller sizes and needed a shorter time to cook, and looked like chicken fingers. And the smell while the chicken fillets were baking was wonderful!

Anyway, the butter chicken (fingers) turned out to be quite delicious, though a tad bit too dry. I suspected that I used too little butter coz I didn't really measure according to the recipe for this. I'll definitely be trying this dish again, but with breast meat the next time, to see if it is really crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, as claimed by the reviewers on the website.

Famous Butter Chicken (from : allrecipes)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup crushed buttery round cracker crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- ground black pepper to taste
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. Place eggs and cracker crumbs in two separate shallow bowls. Mix cracker crumbs with garlic salt and pepper. Dip chicken in the eggs, then dredge in the crumb mixture to coat.

3. Arrange coated chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place pieces of butter around the chicken.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Note : There is no need to bake for 40 minutes. My fillets are cooked within 20 minutes, and maybe for breast meat, just a little while longer, maybe 25 to 30 minutes will do.

J A Y

Went to Jay Chou's concert at the Indoor Stadium with Qing and the husband on Friday. Car parks nearby were all full and the area outside the Indoor Stadium was filled with people. At first glance, you might even wonder if the Indoor Stadium could actually hold all these people. I wondered if it was the same for Jacky Cheung's concerts.

Anyway, we reached the Indoor Stadium about 8pm, after we finally found a parking lot at the National Stadium car park. There was a long queue to get in, and luckily we didn't have to wait long as the queue moved fast. After paying $3 for a cup of regular-sized iced-lemon tea, we finally got to our seats and waited for the concert to start.

Comparing to the Aaron Kwok's concert we went to a few months ago, the atmosphere was completely different. Oh, it also happened to be the singer's 29th birthday on Friday. No doubt there was excitement and anticipation for both, but the air for Jay Chou's concert was super-duper hyper. It was like a hyper-active child, with an endless amount of energy, which didn't diminish one bit for the whole of 2.5 hours. I guess it was due to the huge number of teenagers, compared to the fans of Aaron Kwok, who may be a little older.

Highlight of the concert? Hmmm.... or should I say highlights? It could be the time when he emerged on a platform playing on a transparent grand piano and singing, or it could be when he and one of his guest playing a powerful duet on their individual grand pianos, or when Chow Yun Fatt and Jacky Cheung appeared on the background video during one of his songs, with the latter singing a short verse, or when Jay Chou tried to dance but looked stiff and awkward, or it could also be when he played the drums, guzheng and electric guitar, or maybe the 2 encores, which were full of energy and obviously prepared.

It was definitely worth the one whole hour I spent in front of the computer, trying to book the tickets online.

The only tiny regret I had was that we didn't managed to capture Jay Chou's performances on using the different musical instruments, especially when he was playing the piano, which were Qing and my favourite parts of the show.

Auntie tips (10)

Tip 1:
If you want to re-cork a bottle of wine but can't find the original, it's okay to use an old one. Just boil the cork for a few minutes to soften it. Now it's malleable enough to fit into the narrow opening.

Tip 2:
To keep away mosquitoes, cut off the pomelo skin and put it inside a fishnet laundry bag. Hang the bag on the window grill. The pomelo skin, when in contact with sunlight, will give off a pleasant fragrance and will naturally repel mosquitoes.

Tip 3:
To take the sting out of burn spots while cooking, soak or dab the areas with cold milk. It will relieve the pain and aid in healing.

Tip 4:
When water does not flow as smoothly from the shower head, remove it and soak it in vinegar. This will clear the grime and dirt trapped inside.

Tip 5:
Make your silver shine like new. Dip a cork from an old wine bottle in olive oil, then use it to rub the tarnish off the pieces.

Tip 6:
When your shoes get soaking wet from walking in the rain, get a bunch of newspapers and crumple them and stuff them inside your shoes. Leave them to dry naturally. That way, the shoes will retain their shape and won't smell.

Tip 7:
To smoothen out scratches on your wooden furniture, simply use some baby oil and baby lotion to wipe over them.

Tip 8:
If you find there is too much oil in your soup, throw in a piece of raw lettuce and the oil will cling to it. Remove the lettuce after a few seconds.

From : Women's Weekly - March 2007, April 2007

Pasta Manna

Met up the husband for dinner at Old Airport Road Food Centre after tuition just now. It had just undergone major renovation and is much more spacious, airy and cleaner than the old one. As I waited for the husband, I remembered reading about a pasta stall, Pasta Manna, that was being mentioned in ieat-ishoot-ipost.

I ordered the Al Fungi, which is, as derived from the name, mushroom pasta in cream sauce. (sorry for the lousy photography skill.... :p)

I like the way the pasta is cooked... just right, al dente. There was a generous amount of mushrooms and sauce, topped with herbs and black pepper that went very well altogether. Even though it's with cream sauce, it didn't made me feel too full and sick of it halfway through, as with some other cream sauce pastas.

For $4.50, it was well worth if you need a quick fix to satisfy that pasta craving without needing to go to a restaurant, and paying for service charge and GST. You can even have a set meal for $6, which include a soup of the day and garlic bread, together with the pasta.

Since the stall is quite conveniently situated and I'll be in the area twice a week, I'm sure to pop by once in a while to try out the other pastas on the menu.

Where to?

I suddenly feel like I'm standing at a crossroad. Though I know which road leads to where, I still feel kind of lost. Do I take the risk and venture out to a new territory, or do I stay where I feel comfortable?

Year 2008

This is quite a significant year to a number of us... we will turn 30. But does age really matters that much? Honestly, not to me. I don't mind people knowing my age. Why bother to hide, especially when you know that, sometimes, even if you don't tell, people will be guessing behind your back.

Well then, I'll be looking foward to what the year will bring for me as I move towards my third decade of existence. It feels like the start of something new... ... :)