fattening treats

I love sunday brunch!
I look forward preparing sinful sunday brunch
So 1 weekend, i had a pancakes craving and bought pancake mix
Husband dont really love pancakes
but with the canada maple syrup from my parents-in-law, he cant resist
I think a few weeks ago i tried to make pancakes from scratch
and definitely its much easier with pancake mix

Since there was pancake mix leftover
I managed to tried to make steam cake in the same week
Basically is adding egg, yogurt, sugar, baking powder into the pancake mix and steam it
Husband is not a fan of sponge cake
but i guess warm, soft steamcake is still passable for him

I kinda miss baking
but i think its not good to restart baking as our waistline is constantly expanding
haha

Trying to be less lazy..

Its finally July!!
I was so counting down to the end of June
because its the school summer holidays till September
which means im not working since the kids are away!!
woohoo!!
as much as i love having a job and income
the end of june was so hard to bear with the hot sun 
when i need to be outdoor for the hottest time of the day to fetch the kids
and the kids become cranky with their need for holidays too..
At least, it marks the end of my contract!
I cant believe i survive a year of babysitting
even when im complaining like theres no tomorrow..

27 June 2015
At the end of june also means gaypride is here!
I used to love to be at Pinkdot in Singapore every year
although its more fun and grand here,
i still miss Pink dot.
I guess it really matters more to have friends than the event itself
As the husband was sick, we didnt spend much time at the gaypride this year
to me, is not really enjoying myself in the event
but to show support to the cause!
And im glad husband is a supporter too,
at least if my future child is LGBT, i guess husband wont want to kill him/her..
haha

If you noticed the LEESSANG cap

Yes, im so crazy that i bought the cap online

it is my cap because im still so crazy about running man! 

haha

With love from Singapore
I didnt know that my friend left a gift for me
before she left Paris
and its this beautiful zara clutch that i saw with her while shopping!
I have been looking for a clutch and its crazily expensive here
especially for those that i like
I missed those cheap bags shops in Singapore
Thank you so much my dear!

The other great news is my sister is coming to geneva for her meeting again!

Its really nice that my sister works in a swiss company

that there is always the probablity for her to come here

Well, this year will be her solo trip and i dont think she can extend her stay much

I think Im just so looking forward to meet up with her!!

And of course, i can start my sg supplies orders again...haha

However, she will probably be here at the week when we are shifting

Now im really hoping that we can shift before she arrive 

but... sigh is summer holidays...

Appartment

We finally signed the papers at the bank for the mortage loan!

According to the consultant, all should be fine for the final approval..

The supposed timeline was to:

10 August - Get the final approval from bank

11-24 August -  10 days cool-off period

27 August - last inspection of appartment

28 August - final sales contract and collect keys

29 August - shift house (End of rental lease)

Now, we are hoping that we can get the final approval earlier than 10 August

as we will be away to visit grandparents-in-laws for 7-15 august, my sister will be here 24-28/30 August,

owner will shift out around 10ish august, and 29 august is my mother-in-law birthday

that we really want to be able to shift earlier than 29 August!

Although we secretly suspect the notary gave the date of 28 August as he is going for summer holiday..

Anyway, our hopeful timeline:

3 August - Get final bank approval

4-17 August - 10 days cool-off period

20 August - last inspection of appartment

21 August  -  final sales contract and collect keys

22 August - shift house

29 August - End of rental lease

Well, keeping our fingers and toes crossed!

Heatwave

This year, we had a really hot spring that i predicted a hot summer

but i definitely didnt not expect a heat wave

Summer is generally endurable where day temperature average about 28degrees

and night temperature average about 19 degrees

Paris is not so well equiped with air conditioning as Singapore

28 degrees can feel like Singapore minus the humidity

Sadly, this week there is the heatwave

where during the day, it can go up to 36 degrees

and night is around 29 degrees!

Our little fan seems to be blowing hot air at me

and do nothing to cool down the appartment

Especially when the day is so long...

Im never a fan of cold food

Singapore has trained me well to be able to eat steamboat in hot weather

and i love to have hot food for meals

however, the heatwave won and i give in to make cool meals :(

Husband is happy since he likes cold food

and i tried to make cha soba without soba..haha

I pretended is a fusion...

I dont know is it the heatwave or im just lazy during holidays

I dont find the energy to pack for the shift

I dont feel that I rest well at night

I dont want to do anything except lying down with the windows shutter close

Oh, i have the stupid heat rash again

The heatwave is supposed to end in 2 days

I desparately need the weather to be cooler

or I may go out of control and impulsively buy a portable air conditioner

because is summer sales...

Summer sales

Although I told myself no buying because we are shifting

and to save money

Heatwave forced me to hide in coller shopping mall and lured me to shop

Well, i wanted to shop 

The summer / winter sales here are probably the best times to buy things

It seems that any shops will be at least 30% off

but i think i did apply some restraints in my shopping

Summer sales is ending on 4 August, so i really need to cover my eyes till the end

And last, 

I just want to show off this Adidas top that i bought

Yes, is totally not worth the price even after the discounts

but i couldnt control the adidas fan in me...

Some overdue photos

Husband made a lemon tart
Looks good but im not a fan of cream...

Thanks to parents-in-law..

We had a (similar to tapas style) lunch at the 1k resturants

french apple tart

Never a fan of apple pie
found it too sweet or too filling
however, the apple/plums etc tart here
is really thin and simple
after tasting it many times at my in-law home,
I decided to make it at home.

The ingredients:
- 3/4 apples peeled and sliced
- ready made tart pastry
- sugar
- butter

Just place sliced apples in tart
add sugar on top
and a little butter all over
baked for 30mins 
and its done!

housewife

Every outing with class buddy
always end up in supermarket
or talking about cooking
sounds super huang lian po
sadly, class buddy's hubby is chinese
so, I cant really exchange
about non-asian food ideas
anyway, I come to the stage 
I prefer cooking asian food
because its faster and simpler.

Finally made my first japanese curry rice
with pork cutlet
surprised that husband prefer this
than my usual sg curry
I thought japanese curry was sweeter
but I guess he prefer the strong curry taste 

To add on my baking list
I tried to bake bread!
because I forgot to buy bread
haha
I tried the recipe for no knead bread
The first time it was flat and inside doughy

I try to fold less and bake it longer
The second time it looks better
but still doughy inside..
arghhh

I was trying to convince husband
that how nice it is to have a bread machine
before he reminded me 
that im in the country of bread
where every 300m I can find a bakery
and how my sister is craving for the bread here
ehh I guess means no to bread machine..

comfort food cooking

Mee hoon kuay
but the dough was a lil sticky
and end up thick pieces.

Karaage chicken
I never knew diy fried chicken
can taste so good!!!
I think we indulged in this 
at least once a week
all thanks to the secret of tapioca flour
to make them crispy!!

Sambal prawns and squid
husband was just curious
about the taste of the premix from sg
it was great.. 
Reminds me of good old zi char..

Laksa
another premix from sg
that is soooo good
and husband likes the sauce..
im hoping the remaining sauce can stay well
in my fridge for as long as possible
too good to become waste

Baked potato coquette
fried is definitely better
but we choose the healthier option

Why so much cooking this week??
because today is veterens day
a public holiday
so most people take leave on monday
husband included
to enjoy "le pont" - the bridge
Long weekend in sg terms
so we have been crashing on movies
and cooking!!

Probably will put on 2kg
for this weekend.. Haha

tomato rice

One late night I was surfing net
and came across the article
of making tomato rice in rice cooker
it seems so easy and fast
And with extra tomatoes at home
we tried it the next day

First, wash rice and add water
add olive oil, pepper, salt
and a tomato (remove stem)
and cook it as per normal
in rice cooker!

After its cooked

the tomato is soft

And mix everything up!

im not a fan of tomato

so I tried my best to mash it up

Ill say the end result is great!

hint of tomato in rice

but not too strong

and definitely healthier 

than my usual tomato fried rice

I shall try to add ham and cheese

the next time...

whats cooking?

Been long since I blog about food
with work and classes
I hadnt been really creative
in my cooking..
and food shopping..
hmm

Longans red date drink:
thanks to the red dates and longans
that my sis brought over.
I can find both ingredients here
just a little too expensive for me

Failed attempt of tempura
taste good but looks bad on photo
since the paste didnt stayed on
add an instant udon to complete the meal

Katsu don with korean style spinach

Everything went fine

except I didnt had enough eggs

and no sauce

argghh

Black pepper beef (sg sauce)

with crab sauce brocoli

I think I pretty much do well

when it comes to asian home food

French fish stew

we had this dish at a cafe

and I decide to make it at home

but I cant find the name of the dish

and the closest was

britanny fish stew

taste good as my first try

at cooking french from scratch

Cooking at home

The husband insisted that i should post photos of his cooking
so that people will know that he cooks too

His pizza, with homemade sauce

And my fried calamaris

New recipes!

Had no idea for a saturday
and decided to make bibimbap!
especially when i found the cheap korean chilli paste
sadly husband is not a fan of korean food
but i truly enjoyed the bibimbap and kimchi beef soup!

realised the cream was expiring
so i googled and made cream biscuits!
basically taste like the biscuits from popeyes chicken
or a soft scone
really tasty and fattening..haha

Was a little bored of cooking meat
wanted to try make ginger-spring onion sauce
to use the leftover spring onion from sg food party
so i made stir fried ginger-spring onion pork liver
omg, i really loved the taste!
retried the recipe with beef but was less yummy
guess it was because i didnt had enough spring onion left
 

 

Singapore food party

So about a month ago,
husband's friend invited me to prepare Singaporean food party
at their apartment for our friends
after some reserach on authentic singaporean food
and testing out the menus over the weeks
i came up with the menu:

Starter - Curry and sardine puffs
Main - Hainanese chicken rice and oyster sauce bak choy
Dessert - sweet beancurd (Tao hua) and mooncakes

husband complains that i dont make Singaporean food at home
after seeing how intensive the preparation and cooking is
he understood why i dont make singaporean food at home
To shorten the preparation time,
I prepare the chilli and ginger sauce (chicken rice) the day before
and the tao hua, which required 8hours of chilling

In the end, we have 9 paxs for dinner
due to the new kitchen environment,
first time cooking for 9 paxs,
the intensive amont of preparation,
and cooking in a team,
we ended up with 5 hours of preparations and cooking!

I think all the friends were shocked at the amont of time required.
Probably the time can be shorten if i bought 2 large chicken,
instead of 3 smaller chicken,
but i was worried that they do not have big pots.
Thankfully, husband is well trained in preparations and cooking,
that i can just hand tasks to him.
Surprisingly, husband's friend was so good at making curry puff,
much better than me!
I think my mum will be so proud of an ang mo making perfect curry puff,
haha

Thankfully, there were not much leftovers,
washing were done by the friends
but we still end up with aching muscles the next day!
Oh, but my ricecooking cover accidently broke :(

Anyway, with only 6 months cooking experience,
I am really proud to be able to complete the menu,
no one ends up in food posioning,
positive feedback about the food,
and the experience to manage a team of chef! haha
I think another year more, 
I can join Masterchef France!

Oh, we are planning to start the trend of cooking at different homes
i think they are just planning to make pizza the next time...