Easy-to-make chocolate truffles

Decided to try my hand at the easy chocolate truffles again. Since tuition had been changed from Thursday to Friday, might as well go home after work and do something "productive". Heh.

Anyway, forgot what was the brand of chocolate-coated biscuits I bought last time. But this time, I bought Tim Tam chocolate-coated biscuits. It turned out that the amount of crushed biscuits this time was much more than the previous one, which meant that the "balls" didn't taste as cheesy as it did the last time.

So, my "guinea pigs" for this round felt that these "balls" tasted good! Yeah! Sam was my biggest supporter so far... automatically requested for the rest of the "balls" that I had brought to school. :)

Even my auntie, Huiqi and Kenny who don't like cheese, didn't realised that they contained cheese at all!

Easy Chocolate Biscuit Truffles (from : Nigella)

Ingredients :
- 2 pkts of your favourite chocolate coated biscuits
- 250gm pkt of philidelphia cream cheese
- coconut, chocolate sprinkles, or crushed nuts to roll them in

Directions :
1. Process the biscuits into fine crumbs in your food processor. Add in the cream cheese and whizz together till well combined. Chill in the fridge for a short while.

2. Take teaspoons of mix and roll into balls, then roll in coconut, chocolate sprinkles or crushed nuts. Store either in the fridge or in the freezer.

A night of lace & leather

So, finally, the Teachers' Day dinner is over. The lace and leather theme dinner I was talking about? Yes. It was all over. And here is the review of the night.

There were two things that took me by surprise.

One, I thought the female teachers would be all decked out in pretty lacy outfits, dresses. But surprisingly, majority just donned a lace top and completed it with jeans or pants, which made me felt a little too overdressed. Some of them kept to the leather theme instead, but I must say, they did look good!

Two, the male teachers were the ones who made the effort to dress up... the "John Travolta" from Grease, Phantom of the Opera (yes, the Phantom.. complete with the mask), a red Indian, and a Gladiator.

Oh, and not forgetting to annouce. After being to so many functions with lucky draws, I finally won something on Friday!! Yeah! The 75th prize, out of the 82 prizes available. (Ray couldn't stop laughing as he opened the prize for me) As expected, not the uZap, iPod, or Nano as I was hoping for, but looking on the bright side, I did get lucky in the lucky draw and the prize at least, was useful. I saw some getting candle holders and bottles of bird's nest. Hmmm.

By the way, forgot to comment about the food. Well, if I've forgot to mention about food, it means that it was not impressive. Out of the 8 courses served, I only like the chicken. It was roasted chicken, with sesame seeds and fried shallots and some kind of sauce. The rest of the dishes were not worth mentioning at all. And as expected, I left Hyatt feeling only half-full. Ray went for a Burger King meal after that. Haha.

Anyway, the husband came to pick me up, with his colleague. We made our way to Geylang and bought the famous soy bean milk and you tiao home for supper. Yum!

Oreo cheesecake

Was feeling quite "motivated" yesterday after work, so decided to try my hand at the Oreo cheesecake (recipe courtesy of Skylar, my forum mate).

The making part was easy. The tedious part was to crush the biscuits. When I thought I had finally crushed quite evenly, a final "grope" around the crushed bits exposed some more big, chunky bits... which started the whole "crushing" process again.

Also, seems like I use a little too much Oreo bits for the cheese part till the cake looks brown, instead of the usual Oreo cheesecake with only little flecks of Oreo, with the cheese part still looking yellow.

Anyway, here is the final product...

Well, I have to say I was a little disappointed at how it turned out. Seems a little "flat", like not enough cheese. Also, haven't the chance to taste it yet. But brought half of it to school for my "guinea pigs". Wahahaha.

Oreo Cheesecake

Ingredients:

- Oreo cookies (I took out the cream part)
- 1 block of KRAFT Philadelphia cheese (leave it at room temperature for about 1 hour before using it)
- 75g unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons of condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Directions:

1.Crush Oreo biscuits (depending on how thick you want the crust to be)

2. Melt unsalted butter about 75g in a pan, then add Oreo biscuits in, stir till butter is all absorbed.

3. Lay this mixture into a pan tin and put it into the fridge for an hour.

4. Add the block of cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice and some oreo biscuits crumbs & start beating it till a smooth mixture is obtained.

5. Lay this mixture on the top of the crust earlier and leave it in the fridge for about 5 hrs.

6. Add top layers of Oreo biscuits as decor (optional) and put back into the fridge to leave it overnight.

Sleepless in Rivervale

I can't believe I haven't introduce my dear readers to my infamous neighbour. He has to be the most “popular” in our neighbourhood. The first time he made his “debut” was in the middle of the night. We were all sleeping soundly when I thought I heard a shout.

You know how your heart beat will suddenly pick up speed, and you get all nervous and wide awake, when totally unexpected, heard something in the dead silence of the night? That was what happened the first time I heard him. It was in the middle of the night when the shouting started. Moreover, our flats are built in such a way that the playground is in the middle with the blocks surrounding it. So whatever sounds made anywhere were bound to be bounced around and reflected to everyone of us.

I remembered that first time I heard him, he was so damn noisy that another guy from some other unit shouted back at him to shut up in Hokkien. Naturally, this neighbour was undeterred and shouted back. So hence began the shouting match for a few minutes. But somehow, the husband was still snoring away beside me. If only I was as sound a sleeper as he is.

So it began a series of shouting in Hokkien and Chinese during the middle of the nights. When it happened a second time, I woke the husband up. If I was not getting any sleep, he was not either. Anyway, I'm not sure what triggered off all the shoutings but somehow, they always happened during weekday nights when most of us had to work or study the next day. And it's worse when I'm a very light sleeper. However, when weekends come, there was not even a whisper from him.

The husband said most likely the shouting started becoz of quarrels in the house as we could hear a woman shouting sometimes too. There was one time when the man was shouting in Hokkien, "Help! Help! The mother is going to kill the son!" It was then followed by a series of door banging and things hitting against one another. That was one of the worst night.

The husband called the police that night. However, we didn't know if the police came or not. Actually we already know which unit is it, coz I saw the guy kicking and shouting during one weekend morning. But what exactly can the police do? I think they could only issue a warning or something, can't really arrest him, right?

Anyway, that week was one of the worst. During that one week, we heard him for about 3 to 4 nights. Once, he shouted to his neighbours upstairs to stop banging. Another time he challenged another neighbour to go look for him, and he even shouted out his unit number.

He was at it last night again, after a very long spell, about 1 or 2 months of absence. Maybe he wanted to remind us not to forget him. Anyway, some guy shouted back to call the police, then our dear neighbour challenged him to call, saying he was not afraid.

Really, what is going on in his mind? We would never know. Maybe he is a plain nutcase, or he has some serious anger management issues.

At times like these, I find myself wondering whether we are considered lucky or unlucky to get such a neighbour. I've heard other horror stories about neighbours throwing chicken rice or curry out of the window only to land on others' laundry. And also an auntie who buys fish from the market, and proceeded to gut it outside her flat and leave the intestines and other stuff along the corridor.

Bad PR skills

With a group of foreign visitors, with some slightly big-sized ones, crowding around a weighing machine, the very "gracious" host tried to create a light moment by asking, "So how is your weight? Have you all put on weight with all the local food?"

To the cinema : Rush Hour 3

Got to watch Rush Hour 3 for free yesterday (early in the morning at 9 a.m.) coz the boss managed to get free tickets from a friend who is a volunteer at the Aljunied CC Youth Club. It was supposed to be their biennal meeting, and they need 100 people so they can screen the movie. So the ICT team and Amalina were the lucky few who got the free tickets. Heh.

Anyway, about the movie, I personally feel that it was nothing spectacular. The "wow" factor when it first came out as "Rush Hour" was gone. Though it was still funny, thanks to Chris Tucker, the storyline was a little boring and too expected. Not enough action for me, in terms of a Jackie Chan movie. The attempt at humour seemed to overshadow the actual plot. Also, the bad guy died too soon.

The whole movie lasted for about 1 hr 20 mins or so. But I felt that out of the 80 mins, about half the time was spent on humour. Not that it was not funny, but it was a little too much for me. I can't imagine how Rush Hour 4 will be like, if there is going to be any. Might as well categorised it as a comedy the next round.

But if you are really into Rush Hour, please don't let my comments stop you from watching it. These are just my personal thoughts. Maybe you will like the movie. :)

Minestrone Soup

Since it's a public holiday today, decided to do a little cooking. Came across a minestrone soup recipe and gave it a try. Not much cooking needed, but a lot of preparations were required. I used potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes and cauliflower. There is no actual need to follow the exact ingredients of the recipe as this minestrone is all vegetables. So can basically add what you like into it. Like I said, preparation time was long as all the vegetables need to be cut into cubes. Took me about 1 hour or so to complete everything and leave the soup to boil and simmer for another hour.

Anyway, it so happened that Chris and BT came by this afternoon for a mahjong session, so luckily the recipe is for 6, and we had the soup for dinner, together with some toasted focaccia bread, and some of Chris' mum's very delicious fried noodles.

Will try this again, with some more other vegetables. It will make a simple and healthy meal. Can cook a big pot to keep for the next day too.

Minestrone Soup (from : allrecipes)

6 servings

Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons margarine
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1 (19 ounce) can cannellini beans
- 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups cubed potatoes
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup elbow macaroni
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Melt butter or margarine in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots; saute for a few minutes.

2. Add beans, cabbage, tomatoes, tomato paste, potato, stock, garlic, parsley, and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for approximately 1 hour until vegetables are barely tender.

3. Add pasta, and simmer for 30 minutes more. Correct seasoning, and serve hot with grated cheese.

Happy Birthday, Piglet!

The baby of the family turns 19 today. Yes, for those number freaks... her birth-date is 8th August 1988. Fortunately (or not), came into this world exactly 10 years after I did. And this post is in green, becoz that's her favourite colour.

She's both a joy and nuisance to have around the house. Ask Yun. Haha. Cute as a button when little... but the cuteness wore off along the way. And in came a crazy girl... loud & noisy... laughing at all things, and doing all the stupid stuff one could ever think of.

But luckily, there is still some teeny little lick of sense and practicality under all those madness. Of all the family members, she's the one who is a real animal lover. Even signed up for SPCA membership a while back, and swore off eating sharks' fin soup. But she's still not to the extreme to being a vegetarian. She can't be. She won't survive a day without meat.

She protects those that are endangered, love those that are cute, and hate those that are six and eight-legged. Heh.

Germs, virus... all go away!

After the episode of stomach viral infection, the flu bug came close behind. Everything was still fine on Wednesday morning when I went back to work. Then in the afternoon, the nose started to run like crazy. I could feel the "cottony" feeling of a stuffed nose. Damn. Am I that unlucky or what?

And so it goes on for a few days... and I wiped my nose till I had almost lost all feeling of it... also killing a lot of trees in the process.

Anyway, this damn runny nose made me missed the BBQ food for Huiqi's 21st birthday party, and the very nice creamy chocolate cake as well. Sigh. I can't wait to get much better. I guess I'll start to stuff myself once all these is over. Chicken rice, hor fan, chee cheong fan, junk food, pizza, chocolate, coffee, and of course, Mama's delicious dishes.

Also, the husband got all worried and decided that we should have some kind of exercise during the weekends after I got better. So, we started yesterday by going to Punggol Park after Sunday brunch. It was not much of an exercise coz I was not any better. So we just took a walk through the park, be a little romantic, sat at the pond side and read the papers.

Then, went to the chinese sinseh in the afternoon for another session of acupuncture. My tummy was much better after I went for one session a few days back. And now becoz of my runny nose, I was back again for another session. I was really "poked" from my head to toes in a space of 4 days. I got 10 needles on my tummy and legs and toes on Wednesday, and I got 11 needles on my forehead, back of my neck, sides of my nose and arms, yesterday.

So now, back to work... nose is working normally. But was coughing like mad last night. Damn!

When can I ever start to eat proper food??! Somebody save me from porridge and soupy food!!!!