Hello again

Come meet Little Missy's latest love - Nici!

It has been two months since I last blogged. I have been working very long hours at work recently, been extremely productive. But I can't recall the last time I scrapped/sewn that could considered fun. I feel kind of sad for making very little crafting,scrapping and blogging. I missed those days when I scrapped and sewn quietly at night while the girls are asleep. The chats I had with my online scrapping and crafting buddies. I'm honestly too tired to do my personal stuff or blog properly when I get home. Most time, I veg-out by reading my e-mail and surfing websites to gather more mental clutter that I will never have time to use at work.

Life is about a journey. With 2 young kids who always need a lot of my time and energy, I find that my me time has virtually vanished. Big Missy will be in P1 the year after next and Little Missy will be in Nursery next year. Time flies! Nevertheless, I am thankful that I am able to bond with the girls, together with hubby daily every night before bedtime, be it reading or making small with them and lastly, put the girls to bed.

Ok, some random pictures to share here.

Big Missy is five and yummy cookies!

We celebrated Big Missy's 5th birthday just recently. It was also the National Day celebration in her school. She loves watching Disney movies and she chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Ariel cake for her birthday this year. We brought along Little Missy to the school for some fun and she will be going to Nursery next year, same school as her Jie-Jie. How time flies!

Goodie bags for her classmates

Recent cookies craze - Chocolate chips and walnut cookies. I added extra raisins and these are real crispy and yummy and they were all gone within the day! I managed to yield about 35 cookies based on this recipe. But my cookies are pretty chunky, you could probably make a lot more if you dough them smaller.

A day at the Museum

We are back to the National Museum of Singapore again. Just love the place! It is a great place for the kids to explore and for camera-toting moms too! Chris, myself and our girls were there for the Children's Season 2009: Little Feet Theatre by Veronica Gonzales (Italy).

"Like most people, Veronica Gonzales has 2 feet… but her feet are special as they amazingly transform into characters of their own, performing to the rhythm of music and stories that are filled with fantasy, love, poetry and humour. Little Feet Theatre has taken audience by storm in Europe, Brazil, Korea and more…and it will certainly intrigue you all!"

It was such a nice and entertaining play, catch it if you can! And many photos of Shervon and Big Missy at the Museum.

and it took me so long to post one of the many layouts done this year

Blackforest Blueberry Chocolate Sponge Cake

Last week was our anniversary and I baked L his favorite black forest blueberry chocolate sponge cake for the first time. I used the simple sponge cake recipe from Yochana's blog. I was advised to use the optima chocolate sponge cake mixed flour for new bakers. But I was lazy to get out of the house just to get that. So, with my limited ingredients at home, I came up with this.


The cake turned out really good! It was yummy and very soft inside. In fact Yochana's recipes hardly fail. And I guess I will try to bake more as I'm not intimidated by the whole baking process now. I'm going to use butter instead of corn oil in my next bake to see if it's of any difference.

Here's the modified ingredients for my own bake:

Ingredients:
4 eggs
110 gm sugar
80 gm cake flour
20 gm cocoa powder
60 gm butter/cornoil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1. Whisk eggs and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Fold in the cake flour lightly, try not to deflate the eggs
3. Pour in cornoil, vanilla essence and stir lightly
4. Pour into a 8" round cake tin and bake at 170C for about 45 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.

lovely things

As usual I'm slow in updating my project. These mini diaries were made from last year. I am so pleased with the end result - covered linen with word definitions, the ivory cream pearly colors here . The kind of simplicity I like. I am carrying two of those in my bag now and given the rest to my lovely bunch of girlfriends, P, E and G. Someone asked if I still scrapbook. Yes, I still do periodically and I do have some layouts to share but my scanner has died on me recently. I will try to take some pictures and post them soon!











And recently a custom made pencil case for S's girlfriend whom is affectionately known as duckie. Hehe cute! Luckily I still have a wee bit of the duckie print fabric left and made her one!

love for non-bake oreo cheesecake

I am so happy to have found this non-baked Oreo Baileys Cheesecake recipe! Thanks C for the heads up. I love cheesecake and this recipe is really easy to follow and is sure a keeper!

Non-baked Oreo Cheesecake
Ingredients [A: base, B: Filling, C: Swirl]

A: 1 small packet of Maltesers candies + 12 Oreo cookies
50g butter, melted

B: 1 block of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
25-30ml Baileys
200ml whipped cream
½ cup caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup boiling water
1 and half tbsp gelatin powder

C: 1 tbsp butter
50g dark chocolate

Steps:
1. A: Use food processor to crush Maltesers candies and Oreo cookies. Mix the crushed Maltesers candies and Oreo cookies crumbs and butter together with whisk. Press and evenly in an 8 inch tin. Place in freezer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin power into boiling water evenly. Leave to ‘bloom’ for 2 minutes. Stir to dissolve.
3. C: Melt butter and chocolate in 30 sec bursts to become chocolate mixture. Stir to combine.
4. B: Use a mixer or whisk to whipped cream till stiff peaks form, chill.
5. B: Use the mixer (no need to wash) or food processor to mix Philadelphia cream cheese and sugar on high speed till smooth, beat in lemon juice and vanilla.
6. Stir the gelatin mixture (over a period of time, some gelatin will settle to the bottom) and add into the Mix prepare in Step 5.
7. Fold in whipped cream to the new Mix prepared in Step 6 to form white batter.
8. Pour ¼ of white batter into chocolate mixture, stir and mix to form chocolate batter.
9. Mix in Baileys with 3/4 of white batter.
10. Pour about half of the ¾ white batter into tin and add half of chocolate batter, swirl to combine.
11. Add the remaining white batter and top with spoonfuls of remaining chocolate batter, swirling to marble patterns.
12. Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight until firm before serving.

be wise

Just finished with the knitted cardigan for little Missy! I was inspired by a yellow cabled cardigan from an online store and I love seeing Little Missy in yellow you see. I knitted the button band and sewed on the buttons before doing the sleeves though it's a little short for her. I love the outcome of this and its color although the piece is quite lumpy and holey. :p
I must say I enjoyed the knitting process, its was relaxing as I took my time to complete this piece without giving myself much pressure to complete it. I learned to knit when I was in high school. It was pretty easy to pick up the knitting sequence again after all these years. But oh I work like a tortoise in this department. I procrastinate too much while working on a knitting project. And you can say I lack patience when it comes to knitting as I very much prefer to work on smaller and quicker projects. I really wish to knit hats and scarves for myself, the hubby and of course our two precious. Who knows I might pick up the needles and start to knit and purl again!

My owl badge has been featured in the March 09 issue of CLEO magazine. So thankful to B, the designer and Ann for contacting me, liking my work and the lovely feature!

refreshing

I first tried this great tasting cold dessert at my sister-in-law's wedding ten years ago at Spice Garden Fort Canning (under the Tung Lok Restaurant Group). Since then, I've tried making my own version and this simple recipe is a keeper in my family. If you decided not to make it yourself, I strongly recommend Ji De Chi (记得吃）. It is one place in Singapore (a few outlets located at Bugis and Liang Seah Street) that sells good desserts!

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 ripe mango

2. 250g sago pearls

3. 100ml Evaporated mil

4. 100ml fresh milk (i.e. Meiji)

5. Mango juice (i.e Marigold Peel Fresh)

6. Pomelo flesh

7. 3-4 tbsp sugar

8. 150ml water

Preparations:

1. Bring 150ml of water and sugar to boil until sugar dissolves. Leave syrup to cool.

2. Slice or cut mango into cubes.

3. Peel pamelo into small pieces.

4. Put sago pearls into a pot of boiling water, keep stirring and cook until transparent. Pour cooked sago pearls into a sieve, rinse running water and drain.

5. Mix syrup, mango cubes/slices, sago pearls, evaporated, fresh milk in a bowl. Finally add pamelo and mixed well. Serve chilled.

Enjoy!

the persimmon

Nice food, nice company, nice place, cosy ambience. Celebrating little Z's 2nd birthday at Persimmon by epicurious. This is a Euro-Singaporean Bistro & Bar just besides the cosy + stylish boutique The Link Hotel Singapore.

reception counter

check out that 'vase'!love the vintage mosaic tiles

I had pan-fried Dory Fish new with

Chinese olive and long bean relish

yummy cake!!
going home and a tired looking big missy

cheeky grin from little missy

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th.

The preparation for Chinese New Year is so exciting just like Christmas! There are so much happiness and joy, of course with all the yummy goodies. There are also lots of CNY traditions to follow. My favorite key traditions I adhere to are buying new clothes, shoes, pajamas for the family (Can't say whether it's an excuse for me to indulge in shopping or not). However, one of the traditions that I find really silly - not to buy shoes within the 15 days of new year? Something to do with fortune and wealth stuff? I bought 5 pairs of shoes till date and just 2 more from yesterday! I'm a shoes addict, that's it. :D

One must have New Year tidbits like Pineapple tarts, Kueh Bagkit and Pineapple tarts or otherwise, or it really wouldn't be the New Year. The favorite things to do over CNY is of course as simple as it is. A season where all gather together as a family with lots of love spread over this season! Hope you all have a great Chinese New Year that symbolize the start of a fresh new year with good health, family harmony and wealth!

she loves shark fin!

on the eve

Day 1

the girls simply adore looney girl

Handsome little Z!

Day 2

Little Missy doing her signature pose

Homemade "Yu Sheng" (by mother-in-law) topped with abalone! YUM!

Aunt J's family