Saturday, July 31, 2010

Beef Satay



To the best that I can remember while living in Indonesia, I never came across beef satay with peanut sauce. I saw this on Discovery Channel, on a program called "Food Safari" to be precise. They were airing an episode that features Indonesian food and beef satay was one of them. Of course, I was drooling....... Before too long, I had my own beef satays with peanut sauce.



I made mine using my own way, in which the beef was very simply seasoned. The peanut sauce that I used was similar to the one that I use for other Indonesian dishes like gado-gado. The recipe from Food Safari can be seen here.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Back And Living!

A different country has a different set of rules. What am I to ask "don't kill my internet!!" to the management of the building when they said that they were going to do their so-called annual" maintenance of the building by shutting down electricity and everything else that I practically live for. It was not the case in our previous place.

Not entirely two days without those necessities, but I mostly had no internet for those two days. I had no electricity for nearly four hours, got me a little worried that my Häagen-Dazs would melt like crazy and my cheeses would end up in the garbage bin. I should have been in another country enjoying my annual holiday, but somehow I was here. That was miserable. Shame on me indeed!



But I want to plan ahead, I hope to remember to be away next July. I am spoiled by this technology and my life was altered without it. Duh! Life is good again with electricity and internet, working well. I am connected and connecting again and I am so relieved......



We had a heavy downpour this morning and the remainder of the day was cool. It began raining heavily when we were on the way back from the airport after picking up our youngest family member who spent the last one month mostly in beautiful Cambridge. We lost many of our limes to the strong wind and heavy rain, but still have some that survive and are growing well.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Just So Many...



I was not able to grow as many marigold plants as I wish. Despite my efforts to plant the seeds, I only managed to see some. I still am trying, because I like the flowers so much.



Having said that, with just a few plants that I put in different parts of the garden, we are having so many marigold flowers blossoming, brightening the garden.



Monday, July 26, 2010

Looking Familiar...



Another Monday. Last Monday in July. It started off with heavy rain in the early morning and the weather was practically depressing the whole day. The storm that was expected over the weekend, came late apparently. I always appreciate the coolness of the air. It feels cooler than 27°C reported here right now. It's wonderfully right.



If these pictures look familiar, you are so right spot on. I made them together with the cinnamon rolls last week, except they are cheese rolls. And they cheesy, soft and yummy. And I wish at this very moment that I could have some of them. Unfortunately, all of them were gone, together with the guests that we had. What I have are these pictures....

Sunday, July 25, 2010

One Sunday At VivoCity



It was just another ordinary Sunday when we needed to run some errands that we procrastinated the day before. We arrived at Vivocity and parked our car and noticed that there was some extra security personnel around, some VIPs were expected. I tossed the name of this famous singer who is having concert in the country, Jay Chou. DH was a bit thrilled of it, he tried, months ago, to get the ticket to his concerts, but sadly all were sold out. He thought it was a possibility that Jay Chou was coming. Who knows?



We arrived in the building and found the arena for the celebration and discovered that apparently Mr. President was coming to the place as guest of honor for a program to raise funds for Children's Cancer Foundation. We waited a couple of minutes for the President to enter the court and enjoy the thrill of snapping photographs with a bunch people there.



We ended our afternoon there with a cup of nice coffee from Toast Box. Now we are supposed to be wide awake, but my caffeine did not kick in........ I am yawning......

Friday, July 23, 2010

Ready To Blossom...



We still have Zinnias in our garden. This is one of those that was getting ready to blossom.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Chicken Porridge



All the guests had left and I was stranded alone with more projects to work on. I had some cooked rice and chicken breast, together with a couple of you tiao (Chinese Crullers) bought by DH a couple of days ago and had been sitting in the fridge since. It made sense to me that I could make a quick chicken porridge rice.

That's just what I did this afternoon. My lunch.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ummphhh....



Cinnamon rolls... popping out from crowded pan.



Do I need to write more?



Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Setting...



After 7PM last evening, the sun was setting in a pretty pink color..., a different one that I have witnessed before.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sweet Potato Plants



I started growing sweet potatoes by planting three tubers in three different places., about two to three weeks ago. They grow extremely fast and it was so pleasing to see the result in such a shot time. I might complain later on when they begin taking over my garden, but for the time being, I am happy to see a couple of them doing great job filling up empty spaces in my back garden.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Going Bananas



It the time again, the time when I have too many ripe bananas and nobody wants to eat them. Don't get it wrong, this time I didn't buy them. My sister in law gave us some, excessively as her usual.... It's a great thing that I am having five visitors at home, staying for a few nights here. And they eat well. All of them are in fact fantastic eater. I baked cheese and chocolate buns this morning and they were gone! I am hoping the same fate for this banana cake.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

From The London Eye



DH and her little traveling friend went on London eye, the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe ,when they were in London at the end of last month. The ondon Eye, standing tall at 135 m, is shorter than the one in Singapore, 165m. It is situated on the banks of River Thames in Central London and was erected in 1999. Mr. Tony Blair, the Prime Minster then, opened it at the very end of the year.



From up there, the passengers were able to view the city, notably Big Ben and the famous Palace of Westminster. It's a nice and quick way to see the panorama of London. Thanks to DH for the pictures.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

They Say They Are Light....

Wait a minute, these are not my ordinary type of muffins, not for me. Just yesterday, I baked a batch of wholemeal blueberry muffins as well as cheese, using my basic muffins recipe in which the liquid materials were stirred into the dry ones. They were made for my mother in law and her sister, along with my sister in law, they stayed here for a couple of nights in town. All were gone, some were eaten, some were taken for their road trip home.



Later on yesterday, I came across this: Feather-Light Muffins recipe. I thought I should try the recipe, because I like my muffins lighter instead or bread-ish! But I like wholemeal in my muffins and I love blueberries. And I like them buttery too. Yes, I am demanding when it comes to muffins. Maybe on other things too, who knows?

The verdict? These muffins are light and delicious, it's a keep! Go and make some!



So here's my recipe for light wholemeal blueberry muffins:

Ingredients
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

Directions
• Using an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar and egg.
• Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.
• Stir blueberries into the mixture
• Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full.
• Bake at 325° for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
Makes about 8-10 muffins.

Bon appetit!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

More Than Five....



That picture was taken in July 2005, more than five years ago. Yes, it's the real leaning Pisa Tower. We dropped by for a bit, we were on a big tour to many countries in Europe. France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium ... just to name some. It was a great trip with super wide coverage. If I could do it again, I would take more time to enjoy each and every single one of the countries that we visited. We'll see when that will happen .......

Monday, July 12, 2010

My Fifth!



I have gotten the pink ones, as well as the yellow, white, and pink-tinged white and just recently my orange Four O'Clock flowers have started blossoming. That's my fifth colors and I am not done yet. I am aware of more colors out there and I am hoping to come across some broken and multi-colored flowers. I might look around for some in case they are available here. If not, I possibly want to order online.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

It's A Beautiful Sunday...



It's a beautiful day here today, the sky is so blue with white clouds in some parts of the sky. It's gorgeous at 33 °C and I am enjoying it from right inside our house. It's too bad that some people needed to work in the building construction nearby. They do not mind, I would guess. Most, if not all, of these people are foreign workers that work hard to make money to help support the life of their love ones back in their country.

Sunny day, after all, is good for doing construction works.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

A Better Lunch...

We had all the intentions in the world to have lunch at one of the good restaurants at Marina Bay Sands shopping mall. Disappointingly, we had to leave without one. Many shops were not opened yet and that includes places to eat. We could not find a decent one that attracted us to dine. We were actually were hungry, considering it was past 2PM and I only had cereal for breakfast.





We headed to another place at Funan Centre to have a Japanese late lunch. We had salmon sashimi as starter and one type of fish sushi that's delicious, but we do not know what kind of fish it was. Mine, the picture at the top, was grilled mackerel, which has become my new favorite. DH had black cod.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Make Use Of Porcini ..


I never stumbled into dried Porcini in the supermarkets here. Maybe I do not look hard enough, maybe they do not carry such. My dear Miss K got me some dried Porcini from the UK, she is a superb 14 years old! 

My partner in crime is still in UK so I had no choice but cooking this risotto with dried Porcini for myself. I added some asparagus to make the dish healthier. I like it,  it is just the way I imagined it. Yum!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Under The Blue Sky


The children were playing balls in Kalahari desert, under the blue sky. So, so, blue. I have never seen the sky so clear and so blue like that.Thanks Miss L for the picture.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Gougères

The always hungry-college daughter-Miss P, has a new hobby of sending us links to all the wonderful goodies that she believes I could and should make and plenty restaurants in this small country that have hard-to-resist-mouth-watering cuisines. Being a responsible student, she does this on the weekends only, on other nights and days, she, a mother could only hope for, studies.



Last weekend, she sent us a link to Gougères with Thyme and black pepper. The recipe does look familiar, it turned out I have had the same one, under different name, Cheddar Cheese Puffs. The recipe has been printed and ready for testing. It is a recipe that I had been meaning to make, but had quite came around yet. Until today. You can see the recipe here and here.






Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Vuvuzela Hits Home



Vuvuzela is famous now. If you watch any of the current world cup soccer matches, you would know what vuvuzela is. Most of us dislike the sound of vuvuzela's that we hear at the soccer stadium during the games. The sound nearly drives me nut, and I barely watch the whole game, just a few minutes here and there. But I guess I am okay with having a couple of them at home, brought back by a daughter who went to South Africa recently. They are now, right on the table across from the TV, ready to accompany whoever watches the semifinal game at 2:30 AM. I will be sleeping, I hope. Don't anybody blow those vuvu thingies, please!