I still have leftover food from the bbq. Mainly chicken chops, so I make chicken tortilla for dinner today. I'm really thinking about making a sign that says "Ting's Lab" for the kitchen in our new place. It would be fun!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Chicken Tortilla
Just a quick post to holler: My chicken tortilla turned out ok! We've been so busy packing and moving over the weekend, come Monday, both of us are just beat. I don't think either of us really thought about hiring movers. Actually it's quite odd that it didn't cross our minds at all. Straight away we discussed how we could get boxes, a van, do the packing, etc. We DIY-ed everything. our move is about 80% done now.
I still have leftover food from the bbq. Mainly chicken chops, so I make chicken tortilla for dinner today. I'm really thinking about making a sign that says "Ting's Lab" for the kitchen in our new place. It would be fun!
I still have leftover food from the bbq. Mainly chicken chops, so I make chicken tortilla for dinner today. I'm really thinking about making a sign that says "Ting's Lab" for the kitchen in our new place. It would be fun!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thurday Dinner
With so much leftover food from the bbq, it kind forces one i.e. me, to be more creative with the dinner menus. Because the ingredients are much about the same, it's been really fun to be challenged to not repeat that same dish. So far, I think I am succeeding. We've made lime juice; garlic prawn pasta; a full Asian meal of white rice with dishes of stingray, steamed corn, & chicken wings; and chicken curry noodles. I've been wanting to take pictures of our dinners, just so it would be nice to see how it turned out, and not just read about it. But I keep forgetting. I will try to do so for the next meal.
Since I had already made rice not too long ago, I didn't want to make white rice again, so I initially decided to make white porridge. But to be honest, I've never really made porridge before in my life, so I didn't really know what proportion of rice to water, and how much rice even to have for 2 servings. Embarrassing to admit, because I am Asian and it's a staple in our meal. I tried to google the proportions for porridge, and apparently it was 1 cup of rice to 10 cups of water. I put 2 cups of rice since I usually make 1 cup of rice for 1 serving. That means I need to put in 20 cups of water. No problemo. Only, my tiny rice cooker was filled to the brim by the 11th cup. Where do I put the other 9 cups of water?!?! Okay, you know what, heck. Forget it. I'll just make rice. But I don't want to do white rice again. It's boring.
After some thinking, I made corn rice!!! YUP! Steamed the corn, took out the corn bits from the core and popped it into cooked rice. The result. PERFECT!
We had this with
Tamagoyaki (a type of Japanese omelet, which is made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg.),
Octopus sausages - why? because I cut them up and fried them to look like tiny octopus, and I did put in the sesame seeds for the eyes too. Cheesy I know, but fun. Who said cooking had to be boring? It makes eating normal sausages fun too.
Chicken in bbq sauce.
It was a good dinner, and Julien finished all the rice! The greatest satisfaction when you cook for others is when they finish your food! =) Ahh, all in a day's work in the kitchen.
Since I had already made rice not too long ago, I didn't want to make white rice again, so I initially decided to make white porridge. But to be honest, I've never really made porridge before in my life, so I didn't really know what proportion of rice to water, and how much rice even to have for 2 servings. Embarrassing to admit, because I am Asian and it's a staple in our meal. I tried to google the proportions for porridge, and apparently it was 1 cup of rice to 10 cups of water. I put 2 cups of rice since I usually make 1 cup of rice for 1 serving. That means I need to put in 20 cups of water. No problemo. Only, my tiny rice cooker was filled to the brim by the 11th cup. Where do I put the other 9 cups of water?!?! Okay, you know what, heck. Forget it. I'll just make rice. But I don't want to do white rice again. It's boring.
After some thinking, I made corn rice!!! YUP! Steamed the corn, took out the corn bits from the core and popped it into cooked rice. The result. PERFECT!
We had this with
Tamagoyaki (a type of Japanese omelet, which is made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg.),
Octopus sausages - why? because I cut them up and fried them to look like tiny octopus, and I did put in the sesame seeds for the eyes too. Cheesy I know, but fun. Who said cooking had to be boring? It makes eating normal sausages fun too.
Chicken in bbq sauce.It was a good dinner, and Julien finished all the rice! The greatest satisfaction when you cook for others is when they finish your food! =) Ahh, all in a day's work in the kitchen.
Post post BBQ
On the 2nd day of the bbq, having slept at 6am that morning, we were shocked out of our beds by a sudden loud bang bang bang bang bang. I glanced at my watch - 10am. What?!! What's happening? Then as my brain started to slowly warm itself up, I realised it was music!!! LOUD INDIAN MUSIC. Then it all started to come back. The bbq the night before, the party, the after party, and then this. What a terrible way to wake up! Not when you've not slept enough, and you've got a slight hangover from the night before. Our neighbours were either avid clubbers, or just plain deaf. They turned on the music so loud it was pretty much surround sound in OUR chalet room. I can't imagine how loud it must've been in theirs. Don't think they talk to each other much.
We decided to get out of our chalet and do something else altogether. We had a few free entry tickets to a carnival nearby and another water theme park. So we did just that. We went to the theme park first and were impressed by the rides. There was the pirate's ship, a roller coaster, haunted house, water boat slides, go cart, etc. The catch was, these rides were for 10 year olds. But heck! We went on them anyway. It was nice to be 10. Who wants to be a grown up all the time? We don't.
The water theme park was really fun too. There were some really crazy slides, and rides that popped your heart right up your throat. One slide we really had fun on was this thing that was made to look like the ramps that skateboarders go up and down on. This one was a mega ramp. What you do is you sit on this tiny little boat like float and they push you down this ramp. What an adrenaline rush! When you're standing watching the others go on it, you think, piece of cake. But when we actually went on it, it was unexpectedly, scarily fun! Truly an adult's ride! Julien always has this funny laughter when he sits on scary rides. So I know when the ride is actually scary, he starts laughing like a hyena. He's really more scared but he tries to cover it with a laugh, and ta-da! The hyena laugh is birthed. It's one of these laughs that make you either laugh with him or at him. Whichever way, he spreads joy and laughter around. With this ride, he was so working that laugh I couldn't help but laugh through that whole ride too!
After all those adrenaline pumping rides, we came back hungry and started the grill. This time it was just two of us. I asked Julien if he had fun during his party and if he was happy. I was expecting a yes I'm happy, but he told me he was actually disappointed. He was disappointed that most of the guests left really early. And when it was time to open his presents, his colleagues were in a corner playing cards through out. They didn't participate. They didn't really seem to care apart from food, and drinks.
You know how when you watch a documentary and they show footage of poor, dying children, and there's usually this knot in your chest that you feel? Well, I felt it that evening after hearing what he told me. It's not pity, or sympathy, or empathy. I think I was more sad for Julien, in a melancholic sort of way. A little bit upset too. It was true what he said. Those with children left early. That's understandable. Their kids had to sleep. Would we be like this when we're parents one day? The others, well they kind of just left after eating and mingling a little. It's like at our wedding, when some of our guests left even before the wedding ended. They left even before Julien cut his cake. I do see more positive in this party though. Everyone turned up! More than 20 over people in fact to celebrate Julien's birthday. They came for him. Some friends actually had prior engagements which they had to attend, and they could've just told us they weren't coming, but they came anyway, even if it was just for a short while just to wish Julien happy birthday in person - that really meant a lot to us. The group that played cards, in comparison to the rest that participated in his present opening, was negligent. True, majority did not stay past midnight with us, but it was still nice that they came. And it's not like we were alone in the chalet past midnight, just the two of us. There were still people arriving, and they stayed and talked till really late too. It's just not really a Singaporean thing to stay out till 7am or 8am the next day (I don't doubt there are some who do it, but the majority don't). We don't live 3hrs away from each other. Home from anywhere in Singapore is just 30mins away by foot, train, bus or taxi. So staying over after a party is not really in our culture either. Something Julien cannot really get used to. He still thinks French in Singapore at times. We went to bed around 6am, which meant our last guests left about that time too. Pretty good for a party I would say.
In my opinion, I think Julien just really missed home. As we were talking still, the phone rang. What perfect timing. It was Sylvain who called to wish him Happy Birthday. Straight away Julien's face lit up. They chatted for a long time. And when he finally hung up, he was a happy Yeti again! Only he "missed home a lot more but it was good to hear Sylvain's voice". So, Thank You Sylvain!!!
We decided to get out of our chalet and do something else altogether. We had a few free entry tickets to a carnival nearby and another water theme park. So we did just that. We went to the theme park first and were impressed by the rides. There was the pirate's ship, a roller coaster, haunted house, water boat slides, go cart, etc. The catch was, these rides were for 10 year olds. But heck! We went on them anyway. It was nice to be 10. Who wants to be a grown up all the time? We don't.
The water theme park was really fun too. There were some really crazy slides, and rides that popped your heart right up your throat. One slide we really had fun on was this thing that was made to look like the ramps that skateboarders go up and down on. This one was a mega ramp. What you do is you sit on this tiny little boat like float and they push you down this ramp. What an adrenaline rush! When you're standing watching the others go on it, you think, piece of cake. But when we actually went on it, it was unexpectedly, scarily fun! Truly an adult's ride! Julien always has this funny laughter when he sits on scary rides. So I know when the ride is actually scary, he starts laughing like a hyena. He's really more scared but he tries to cover it with a laugh, and ta-da! The hyena laugh is birthed. It's one of these laughs that make you either laugh with him or at him. Whichever way, he spreads joy and laughter around. With this ride, he was so working that laugh I couldn't help but laugh through that whole ride too!
After all those adrenaline pumping rides, we came back hungry and started the grill. This time it was just two of us. I asked Julien if he had fun during his party and if he was happy. I was expecting a yes I'm happy, but he told me he was actually disappointed. He was disappointed that most of the guests left really early. And when it was time to open his presents, his colleagues were in a corner playing cards through out. They didn't participate. They didn't really seem to care apart from food, and drinks.
You know how when you watch a documentary and they show footage of poor, dying children, and there's usually this knot in your chest that you feel? Well, I felt it that evening after hearing what he told me. It's not pity, or sympathy, or empathy. I think I was more sad for Julien, in a melancholic sort of way. A little bit upset too. It was true what he said. Those with children left early. That's understandable. Their kids had to sleep. Would we be like this when we're parents one day? The others, well they kind of just left after eating and mingling a little. It's like at our wedding, when some of our guests left even before the wedding ended. They left even before Julien cut his cake. I do see more positive in this party though. Everyone turned up! More than 20 over people in fact to celebrate Julien's birthday. They came for him. Some friends actually had prior engagements which they had to attend, and they could've just told us they weren't coming, but they came anyway, even if it was just for a short while just to wish Julien happy birthday in person - that really meant a lot to us. The group that played cards, in comparison to the rest that participated in his present opening, was negligent. True, majority did not stay past midnight with us, but it was still nice that they came. And it's not like we were alone in the chalet past midnight, just the two of us. There were still people arriving, and they stayed and talked till really late too. It's just not really a Singaporean thing to stay out till 7am or 8am the next day (I don't doubt there are some who do it, but the majority don't). We don't live 3hrs away from each other. Home from anywhere in Singapore is just 30mins away by foot, train, bus or taxi. So staying over after a party is not really in our culture either. Something Julien cannot really get used to. He still thinks French in Singapore at times. We went to bed around 6am, which meant our last guests left about that time too. Pretty good for a party I would say.
In my opinion, I think Julien just really missed home. As we were talking still, the phone rang. What perfect timing. It was Sylvain who called to wish him Happy Birthday. Straight away Julien's face lit up. They chatted for a long time. And when he finally hung up, he was a happy Yeti again! Only he "missed home a lot more but it was good to hear Sylvain's voice". So, Thank You Sylvain!!!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Post BBQ
Julien's officially 29!!! Yaaaaay! Pop the party poppers! Bring out the champagne!
The party was a huge success! Everyone turned up to celebrate the Yeti's post birthday! I had packed everything for this party, except the camera, which I had specifically left in a corner on the table in plain sight so I would not forget to take it with me. But I still forgot it. Thank goodness Jimme brought his. Pictures are all compliments of Jimme's camera. Don't know why but this year, Julien received a lot of toys. No kidding. There was even a present wrapped in 'Toys R Us' wrapping. Hilarious!
One thing we took away from this party, was the food. No, I did not over order. What happened was, somehow, people told us that they had been to barbecues before where there's always never enough food to go round. So they ate before they came. Now why they did that, I don't know. But hey, I don't care! It was still a great party. And the Yeti had a good time. What happened to the food? Well, I gave my part time maid, Lucy, a big container of chicken curry, a bag of otah (spicy fish paste grilled over a fire), some chicken wings, a few sambal chilli marinated stingrays, corn, and a big box of bread to go with the curry. She left happy. I also gave some chicken curry, and stingray to my parents too. After all that, I was still left with a box of 20 chicken wings, 20 shrimps, 10 chicken chops, 50 sticks of beef satay, some stingray, some corn, the leftovers of chicken curry, and dessert. In addition, I had accidentally ordered 3 containers of lime. Oh, and did I mention, someone bought us a box of doughnuts that were untouched? Thank goodness we did not have any leftover cake. It was so good everyone finished it. "Cake" this year for Julien was a pear flan, big enough to feed 16-20 people.
So first thing I did when we got home; I made lime juice! It's like lemonade but with lime. That was the end of those 3 containers. Monday evening, we had chicken curry noodles for dinner. Basically, pop some instant noodles in hot water and cook them till al dente. Throw out the seasoning that comes with the noodles, heat left over chicken curry and pour over noodles! It was so simple I made dinner in about 10 mins. Fastest record ever. Tuesday evening, we had white rice, with oven toasted stingray, chicken wings, and corn. Chinese style! With our bowls and chopsticks. I made this meal in about 30 mins. Today, it was garlic prawn pasta drizzled with lemon juice and cheese shavings. So far so good!
I'm not sure if you know, but we'll be moving end of September, so the food will be able to last us for more than a week. I'm really excited about our new place! The building on the outside looks a bit older than the current one we're in, but it's a lot more spacious, and definitely better on the inside of the flat compared to our current flat. I'm Psyched! New place, new ideas, new decorating to do. We're probably going to just buy a few furniture, i.e. cupboard, and bed for the guestroom. Finally! An extra room!
The party ended at about 6am with a really wasted and tired, but happy Yeti.
Happy Post Hatch Day Yeti!
The party was a huge success! Everyone turned up to celebrate the Yeti's post birthday! I had packed everything for this party, except the camera, which I had specifically left in a corner on the table in plain sight so I would not forget to take it with me. But I still forgot it. Thank goodness Jimme brought his. Pictures are all compliments of Jimme's camera. Don't know why but this year, Julien received a lot of toys. No kidding. There was even a present wrapped in 'Toys R Us' wrapping. Hilarious!
One thing we took away from this party, was the food. No, I did not over order. What happened was, somehow, people told us that they had been to barbecues before where there's always never enough food to go round. So they ate before they came. Now why they did that, I don't know. But hey, I don't care! It was still a great party. And the Yeti had a good time. What happened to the food? Well, I gave my part time maid, Lucy, a big container of chicken curry, a bag of otah (spicy fish paste grilled over a fire), some chicken wings, a few sambal chilli marinated stingrays, corn, and a big box of bread to go with the curry. She left happy. I also gave some chicken curry, and stingray to my parents too. After all that, I was still left with a box of 20 chicken wings, 20 shrimps, 10 chicken chops, 50 sticks of beef satay, some stingray, some corn, the leftovers of chicken curry, and dessert. In addition, I had accidentally ordered 3 containers of lime. Oh, and did I mention, someone bought us a box of doughnuts that were untouched? Thank goodness we did not have any leftover cake. It was so good everyone finished it. "Cake" this year for Julien was a pear flan, big enough to feed 16-20 people.
So first thing I did when we got home; I made lime juice! It's like lemonade but with lime. That was the end of those 3 containers. Monday evening, we had chicken curry noodles for dinner. Basically, pop some instant noodles in hot water and cook them till al dente. Throw out the seasoning that comes with the noodles, heat left over chicken curry and pour over noodles! It was so simple I made dinner in about 10 mins. Fastest record ever. Tuesday evening, we had white rice, with oven toasted stingray, chicken wings, and corn. Chinese style! With our bowls and chopsticks. I made this meal in about 30 mins. Today, it was garlic prawn pasta drizzled with lemon juice and cheese shavings. So far so good!
I'm not sure if you know, but we'll be moving end of September, so the food will be able to last us for more than a week. I'm really excited about our new place! The building on the outside looks a bit older than the current one we're in, but it's a lot more spacious, and definitely better on the inside of the flat compared to our current flat. I'm Psyched! New place, new ideas, new decorating to do. We're probably going to just buy a few furniture, i.e. cupboard, and bed for the guestroom. Finally! An extra room!
The party ended at about 6am with a really wasted and tired, but happy Yeti.
Happy Post Hatch Day Yeti!
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