Saturday, April 26, 2008

{Tricia's 1st Birthday}

Tricia's ONE!! She had a little party single-handedly organised by her mommy. Noi came back to Singapore weeks ahead to make preparations for her little girl's FIRST birthday. And my dear friend fell ill days before the party.

Look at Noi in this picture, she doesn't look ill at all, does she? She was resting at home the whole time and only managed to walk (with a slight struggle) into the function room when it's her daughter's cake-cutting time. The power of a mommy's love.

Tricia's so cute and smart... Her mommy has taught her how to clap when the birthday song is being sang, and look at how well she's clapping and enjoying the birthday song, her 1st birthday song... sweet.

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Posted by minimin at 10:33 PM | 0 comments

{Frozen Food Converts}


We've been hearing a lot from frozen food advocates lately. Hear about it on the news, read about it on the papers... With rising food prices these days, the media's been really encouraging about switching to frozen meat. About 1-2 months back, we decided to try out frozen scallops, it turned out really well. But we had no basis of comparison since we've never cooked fresh scallops anyway. We saw frozen prawns in NTUC Xtra last night and decided to give it a shot. Yumz! The prawns were fresh and yummy! Just like fresh prawns... well at least we didn't think there was any difference. We're officially frozen food converts now. And, the pack of 500g costs only S$6.50.. quite a deal huh?

I stirfried them with small kailan in sambal belachan paste... Simple lunch for my handsome hubs after his morning training.

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Posted by minimin at 2:24 PM | 0 comments

{Perky Saturday Morning Song}

Calvin has to go back to camp for a short training this morning. I woke up early to have breakfast with him. And while he's gone, I'm supposed to do housework and prepare lunch. Before I do all that, I came online and heard this perky song on Sheena's blog. I love the feel of this song and I had to put it up here. Tapping my feet to the beat of this song, I just smile to myself and know that this is gonna be a beautiful blessed weekend! And look at this little bear! soooo cute... (^__^)


Get Music Tracks! Create A Playlist!

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Posted by minimin at 8:30 AM | 1 comments
Friday, April 25, 2008

{The Mayonnaise Jar}

Read this email from Summer this morning and I love it. It made me think about the things that are truly important to me.

~~@
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things-- your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions-- and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else-- the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents.. Visit grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first-- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked."

The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
~~@

It's high time I meet some friends for coffee!!

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Posted by minimin at 9:32 AM | 0 comments
Saturday, April 19, 2008

{Ying's Birthday Picnic}

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Posted by minimin at 11:40 PM | 0 comments

{Purple-Top Birthday Cupcakes for Ying}



I had to attend a client's event at Botanic Gardens today and since it's Ying's birthday soon, I asked Teri what she thinks if we were to have a picnic celebration for her today. She's all for the idea and she went ahead to organise a potluck picnic! Thanks boli for organising it despite your busy schedule.. :)

I offered to buy the birthday cake, but as it got closer to the date, I suddenly decided to bake it myself! I surfed the Martha Stewart site for an easy cupcake and a cheesy icing recipe. I wanted a cheese-based icing so that I'd eat my own cupcake too! haha... I really dislike cream or whipped cream to be specific. So I figured if it's cream cheese, maybe I'd be ok with it. So, here's what I found and used...

Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients (Makes 12)
    3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    3/4 cup all-purpose flour
    1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
    1 cup sugar
    3 large eggs
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/2 cup sour cream
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.
  2. Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside
  3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour.
  4. Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
  5. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients (Makes enough for about 50 cupcake bites)
    1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
    1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
    1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
  1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
  2. With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.
  3. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

The above recipe (I skipped the sour cream, cos I didn't manage to buy any :p) made me 28 mini cupcakes, out of which 12 went straight into the bin!... (~_~) I halved the quantity for the icing and I still had left over... Oh, and I added a bit of violet food colouring into the icing. Why purple? Miss birthday girl randomly picked this colour.. thank God there is purple food colouring!

So, what happened to those 12 little cupcakes? I baked them late Friday night after work and I totally forgot that I should be reading the temperature in °F and not °C! DUH!!! *faint* How stoooopid!!! So the first tray came out BLACK! I was laughing at myself!! hahaha...

As I was spreading the purple icing on the cupcakes, I found it a little difficult to smear it on smoothly. Although I think the end result didn't look that bad, I had wanted them to turn out really smooth like Yuxiang's. Well, I clearly wasn't successful. :( How did you do that, Yuxiang? Is there a technique?? Or is it pure skill? :p

All in all, I had great fun baking (even though I was a little stressed at some point..) and Calvin rated my cupcakes 8/10!! happiness!

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Posted by minimin at 11:28 PM | 1 comments
Monday, April 14, 2008

{Left at home...}

I got to the void deck this morning and had a feeling that something's missing or I forgot something... Whenever I get feelings like that, I'm usually right. Looked down at my left hand and that's it... I forgot to put my rings back on!

Lately, my ring finger has developed mild eczema. Not sure if my skin's allergic to the rings (I so hope not!), but I've attributed the condition to stress at work. I remember during an extremely stressful season last year, I had to visit a dermatologist as I had this massive outbreak of eczema on my forehead! Man.. it was scary!

Now I don't wear my rings on wkends, & I don't feel "funny" not having them on. But this morning when I realised I don't have my rings with me, I feel weird. It's like something's missing. It's like when Calvin's not with me..only much milder.
 
Posted by minimin at 9:52 PM | 0 comments
Saturday, April 12, 2008

{Shopping.Spree.Suddenly}

Eversince Calvin went on his PTI course, we have been spending every weekend at home. He's either studying for tests or rushing projects. As for me, there's always work waiting to get some pathetic attention.
...

Today, we decided to head to town to expose ourselves to some form of civilisation.

Calvin has this fetish for knives... specifically Global knives. We bought one months back and it's really quite good and easy to handle. There has been a sale going on in Tangs and Global knives are on a very good discount. My darling hubs has been wanting to add on to his knives "collection", so that's where we went.

Original plan:
...visit his granny in TTSH...
...go Tangs and grab the Global knives...
...dinner at Sushi Tei...
...head home & continue with work...

In the end:
...visited his granny in TTSH
...went Tangs and grabbed the Global knives... AND found cute salad servers, found heavily discounted placemats, found cute goblets, found cheap & practical ice bucket and bought ALL of them (in less than half an hour)!
...went Crumpler outlet in Heeren and bought a bag for my camera...
...went to Sushi Tei at NAC, loooong queue...
...went to Sushi Tei at Paragon, looooooooooong queue...
...went to Waraku at Starhub Center and had dinner there...
...head home & Calvin continued with his project and me? I surfed a bit and hit the sack soon after... (you can tell how reluctant I am to give even that bit of pathetic attention to my work...haha)

We've been trying to add colors to our black & white home.
I was really excited when I saw lots of bright colors in Tangs...
We didn't need much contemplation, we just bought whatever attracted us! haha
* * *

My birthday pressie in advance...(*__^)
This is my 3rd RED Crumpler bag. And it's also the 3rd Crumpler bag that Calvin bought for me.
Yes. All my Crumplers are from him!
* * *
 
Posted by minimin at 10:06 PM | 2 comments
Saturday, April 05, 2008

{Hammie & Tammie}


Hammie's our piggy bank and Tammie's our hippo bank. They store funds for our travel plans. They brought us to Cebu and Manila last year after our wedding and now they're working hard to store funds to take us to Italy - our 1st wedding anniversary trip. (^__^)

We had a few destinations in mind - Greece, Italy, Japan, NZ or some off-the-beaten-track destinations with Xifen and Alex. For now, we've decided on Italy to round up our "Italian" wedding night last Sep. God, please put everything in place and let our anniversary trip happen as planned. I can't wait to go on a holiday!! 6 more months!!

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Posted by minimin at 4:49 PM | 0 comments