Winter Solstice Festival & A Bucket

Happy Winter Solstice Festival everyone!

Last night, I made Tong Yuen to welcome the winter festival. It was my first time making them, and the hubby's first time eating them. In fact, I haven't had any for quite a few years. But whilst making them yesterday, it brought back fond memories of when I was a young girl, rolling the dough into a ball shape with my grandmother beside me, making the syrup with it's beautiful aroma of pandan and ginger in the air.
It was a tradition to us, to eat as many tong yuens as our age. For an example, if you are 25 years old, you will have to eat 25 tong yuens.

Here is the recipe for tong yuen:

Ingredients:
Syrup
1/3 cup sugar
1.5 cups water
2-3 pandan leaves/screwpine leaves
A few slices of ginger (optional)
Rice Dumplings
2 cups glutinous rice (sticky rice) flour
1 Tbsp fine sugar
7 oz water
food coloring ( 2-3 different colors )

Method:
1. To prepare syrup, boil water in a pot. Add the screwpine pleaves and let it boil on medium fire for 5 minutes. Add sugar and let it boil for 5 minutes. Lower fire and let it simmer to another 15 miuntes. Sugar can be added to taste if you like. Set aside.
2. In a big bowl, mix glutinous flour with sugar.
3. Add water and knead to form a paste. Continue to knead until it form a soft dough and no longer sticks to your hands.
4. Divide into 3-4 portion and add 2-3 drops of food coloring to the each portion of dough.
5. Divide into small balls and lightly shape into balls using both palms.
6. Set aside a few hours or overnight as this will make the dough a bit harder and easier to handle.
7. Boil another pot of water, drop the dumplings into the boiling water. As soon as it floats to the transfer it to the syrup water.
8. Serve and enjoy!

Well, Christmas is nearly here and I've finally finished my Christmas shopping. Last weekend, we headed up to Sydney to visit and had lunch with his two aunts, brother, parents and his grandfather. (an amazing man of 97 years old) Of course, we exchanged Christmas gifts and had a rather lovely time.

This weekend we wil be off to Sydney again to celebrate with my sister and her husband. My sister will be making turkey and ham with a few other sides. I will be making my 'will-soon-be-famous' pavlova. =) It will be lovely and I'm getting excited.


I've applied to volunteer at Salvation Army and RSPCA. I got an email back from Salvos this morning, but unfortunately, nothing from RSPCA yet. Humbug. It will be fantastic if I could get a volunteering position in RSPCA.

I watched a show the other day (forgotten what it was called) but the leading actor mentioned that everyone should have 'a bucket'. A Bucket is where you write down goals and dreams in a small piece of paper and then throw them into a bucket and randomly select one. The one you select will be your main priority. For an example, if one of my goals in life is to have a vacation in Hawaii, I write that down and if I randomly selected that goal, it would then be my main goal and priority to do, so I will have to work as hard as I can to achieve that Hawaiian holiday.

I should start that immediately. My New Year's resolution!!!

Christmas?!!!

It's 5.20 in the morning and I'm awake and can't sleep. I feel tired but it's like my body refuses to let me lie down in still for more than 3 minutes.
Can't believe Christmas is next weekend. I haven't even finished my Christmas shopping yet. Got to do that this week. *sigh* Hate Christmas shopping. Everywhere is busy and everything is expensive but people think its cheap because the stores have their 'amazing Christmas sale'. What people dont know is that, just before their Christmas sale, they hike up the prices and then just before Christmas, they put it down again n say their prices are the best! Liars!!
Then it's the annoying problem of thinking of what presents to give each other. Its like a never ending loop of presents buying and wrapping. No wonder suicide rates sky-rocket at this time of the year!
Im not a scrooge. I love Christmas, I really do. But the past couple of years I have realized that Christmas has been too overrated. And the worst thing is, you're sitting thefe thinking "shud i buy a present for Laila?" coz you two are not that close but she has hinted of exchanging Christmas presents. So you spent hours figuring out what to get her, when finally you settled on an expensive coffee machine. When it was time to exchange presents, you found out she bought you a pencil. A freaking pencil.

Bah- who has all that energy?

Christmas Dessert Choices

So we're going to my sis's place in Sydney for Christmas and we'll be having a 'pot luck' dinner where everyone was supposed to be bringing something. I volunteered to do some dessert and now I'm wrecking my brains thinking of what to bake. I have a few options:

1) Chocolate Sponge Cake (that looks something like this:)

2) Pavlova (that will look something like this:)

3) Apple Crumble (that will look something like this:)
Sigh...decisions, decisions, decisions!

I can't believe it's less than 3 weeks til Christmas. It's gonna be so busy for both the hubby and myself starting this weekend. We need to sort out the christmas cards, buying christmas gifts, wrapping them up, then meeting up with our friends one last time before they go back to their respective hometowns or travelling for the holiday. Of course, next weekend we would be having an early Christmas celebration with the in-laws at Sydney, so that would be fun.

Okay, its 6.30AM now, time to cook some brekkie for the husband. =)

Shepherd's Pie

Made Shepherd's Pie for dinner last night. It was fabulous.
=)

Here's the ingredients to the fab dish.

Ingredients
· 1 tblsp vegetable oil
· 2 brown onions, finely chopped
· 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
· 1 clove garlic, crushed
· 750g beef mince
· 2 tblsps plain flour
· 1 tblsp chopped rosemary
· 400g can chopped tomatoes
· 1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
· 2 cups beef stock
· 4 medium tomatoes, cut into 5mm slices
· Fresh herbs, to garnish

Potato Topping
· 1kg boiling potatoes, chopped
· 50g butter, chopped
· 1/4 cup milk
· 2 tblsps finely chopped parsley
· Salt and pepper, to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, carrot and garlic. Cook, stirring, until onions are soft. Remove from pan.
2. Add mince, in batches, to pan. Stir until browned. Sprinkle in flour and rosemary, and stir for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, sauce and stock. Bring to boil, then simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
3. Spoon mince mixture into a shallow, ovenproof dish. Arrange tomato slices over top.
4. To make potato topping, boil potatoes until tender. Drain, then place in a bowl. Mash until smooth. Stir in butter, milk and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Spoon potato topping over mince mixture, then spread to cover.
6. Cook, uncovered, in a moderate oven (180C) for about 1 hour.


Was really happy because this is the first time I've eaten Shepherd's Pie, let alone managed to cook it. (I know, how can I have lived this long and have not even tried shepherd's pie?) So the hubby was really happy and I was so happy watching him enjoying it.

This weekend, am going to bake Apple Crumble! =) Woot!!!

Why didn't Noah kill those two mosquitos?

What's worst than having a mosquito bite on your big toe?
3 mosquito bites on your big toe.

I hate mosquitos almost as much as i hate spiders.
That's hatred.

Sleep fairy & the sheep counting

It's nearly 7AM and i still cant sleep. Finally took that 5 minutes to set up blogging via my phone, and now I can blog whetever I am. FUN.

I should try to fall asleep but I keep waking up every few minutes. Have tried everything from counting sheeps, drinking hot decaf tea and playing games on my phone and my laptop. Sleep fairy doesnt show up no matter what, and by the time it's 5PM tomorrow and it's time to head to Sam's for hot pot dinner party, I'd be yawning every 3 seconds and be dying to sleep.
Bugger.

Am gonna try the sheep counting again!

Easy Fried Rice with Grilled hoi Sin Chicken & Apple Pike

Early this morning, the hubby and I went to KMart and we bought my first baking trays set and I was so excited! Yeah, sure it wasn't the most expensive or the best quality brand (Homemaker) but it is cheap and it is usable, so I don't really care.

So for dinner tonight, I made a simple fried rice with grilled chicken with hoi sin sauce and for dessert, I made an Apple Pike. (A cross between a pie and a cake) It was my first pie I've baked by myself (Usually had my mum to guide me) and I must say, I was rather amazed yet disappointed by the result.

The recipe said to bake it for about half an hour in a 220 preheated oven but mine came out slightly burnt and I didn't realize it as I was cooking dinner at the same time.


Fried Rice

Ingredient:
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- 2 cups cooked rice
- Mixed Vegetables
- 1 cup Chicken Stock
- Sale & Pepper to taste
- Chicken (cubed)
- 1 tsp Hoi Sin Sauce

Method:
- Marinate the chicken with hoi sin sauce for approx. 15 minutes.
- Heat up the oil in a large wok.
- Add in the cooked rice and fry for approx. 2 minutes.
- Add in the mixed vegetables and cook for approx. 2 minutes.
- Add in the chicken stock and cook for approx. 4-5 minutes.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Grill the marinated chicken till brown.
- Serve with fried rice whilst hot.



Apple Pike
Ingredients:

- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 granny smith apples (corred and chopped)

Methods:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Mix together the flour, white sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Ensure that the flour has been sifted.
- Pour in the 3 eggs and mix well and ensure there are no lumps.
- Add in the apples and mix well.
- Grease your pie tray with 1 tsp of butter.
- Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the edges start to brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
- When baked, leave on cooling rack for at least 10-15 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream! :)

Xia Xue vs Community Channel

Q: When you put Xia Xue and Community Channel together in a room, who will come out alive?

Xia Xue - you either hate her, or love her but you have to have heard of her as a blogger. She is famous for writing sarcastic, witty and usually very vain topics. She has won several awards, including the "Regions's Best Blog" and the "Most Influential Blog". She even has her own Wikipedia entry.

She has got to be the most 'entertaining' and bitchiest person I have ever met in my life. I remembered once, she wrote an entire paragraph about how she travelled to Malaysia for some good food and ate the oiliest 'kangkung' (Water spinach) She bitched and moaned about it so much that my friend and I nicknamed her the 'oily kangkung queen'. (Also because once, she posted a picture of her and her face was so oily, you could fry an egg with that amount of oil.) And of course, here I am writing an entire paragraph about her writing an entire paragraph about oily kangkung.

As many fans that she has, she definitely has a lot of haters. And do I blame them? No. Admittedly she does have a knack for making a very dull topic interesting but she sure makes me want to bitch slap her across the face. She is very talented at making people hate her, or have a bad impression on her. If you look her up in Wikipedia, you can tell that she has had a few issues where she was accused of being 'rude', 'racist' and even had a lawsuit.

I'm sorry but Xia Xue just reminds me of an Asian version of a dumb blonde who has too much free time and a love of photoshoping herself to look prettier. (Not that photoshoping yourself to look better is bad, but there is a fine line between looking better and being obsessive.)

You may also have heard of Natalie Tran. She is a famous Australian Vlogger who uses the nickname communitychannel. Her videos include observational and self-deprecating humour, as well as stream-of-consciousness commentary on social dilemmas. She plays most roles, combining multiple takes using split-screen compositing. Now, she is a video blogger that most people can relate to.

Nat was nominated for "Best YouTube Channel or Personality" and "Funniest YouTube Channel" by Mashable in their 2009 Open Web Awards. And of course, it is not surprising that her channel was the most subscribed channel of all-time in Australia and the 22nd most subscribed channel of all-time on Youtube. And that lucky girl was placed at number 10 on their list of top ten earners from Youtube advertising and had over 138,871,829 views. And what's even more lucky is that she is sponsored a global odyssey sponsored by Lonely Planet.

I love Nat for her honesty and that she isn't a back-stabbing vain bitch. But oh I hate her so much for getting a sponsored trip around the world. *sigh*


A: Xia Xue will lose within 5 seconds. Community Channel will emerge from the room in a Superwoman's suit and a kiss on her biceps.

shoes, shoes, shoes

I think I've been feeling a little cranky lately. Cranky, nervous and frustrated. I guess it's because this is the longest I've been through without working and having to depend on someone else for money to buy simple things likes beautiful pair of shoes. (Besides being a kid then)

And I hate asking for money to to satisfy my obsession. Sigh.

Check these out:

Zipper High Heels AUD$55.00

Tony Bianco Satin Champagne Heels AUD$120.00

Victoria Secret Black Pump AUD$89.00

High Heel Suede AUD$55.00

Alannah Hill Pink Heels AUD$399.00

Tony Bianco Croc Leather Heels AUD$160.00

I've been stopping myself from buying any pair of shoes lately. In fact, the last time I bought a pair of shoes was because my friend kept asking me to buy it because it is so beautiful and was only AUD$19.90 (after 50% off).



That was over 2 months ago.

I want more! I need more!!!