Saturday, December 20, 2008

{TTC Christmas 2008 @ Changi Village}

This year, TTC's Christmas gathering is organised by Calvin and Jinhong. These 2 big boys decided that we should all head away from town and congregate at the east end of the island - Changi. So they booked 2 rooms at Changi Village Hotel for all of us to crash into. And we had a nice dinner at Charlie's Corner.

As usual, when TTCians gather, it's all about food, fotos and FUN FUN FUN. We were cam-whoring the whole time... haha... Most of the fotos are with Ying and I'll probably get to upload them here some time later.

Next year, there'll be a junior TTC member joining in the FUN! Our 小B will be celebrating her first Christmas with the fun-loving TTC uncles and aunties! (^__^)

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

{The boys' birthday...}

We celebrated the boys' birthday together again this year. And they fed each other cake again, just like they did last year. :p

I remember how we used to squeeze our brain juices just to whip up some mammoth task of surprising one another in the most amazing ways during our birthdays. From driving the entire herd all the way up to KL to surprise Lee Choon, to cooking up with some lie about winning a one-night's stay in a JB hotel to surprise Teri, to turning everyone into little kids again in McDonald's children's party to surprise William, to collaborating with my mom to hide in various corners of our flat to surprise me when I reach home... and many many more heartwarming, tear-jerking, love-filled acts of surprises.

Now that we're older, we're contented just spending quality time with one another and reminiscing about the good old days. Birthday celebrations in the last couple years are about the simplicity of enjoying the wonderful company of wonderful friends.

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Posted by minimin at 11:36 PM | 0 comments
Saturday, October 18, 2008

{Audrey & Vernon's Big Day}

One of the key TTC occasions this year is this day, the day Audrey and Vernon become man and wife.

My dear friend, I can't tell you enough how happy I am for you. I pray that our Father God will bless you both exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask and that your days ahead as one will be filled with His love, joy, peace, happiness and bliss.

Therefore what God joined together, let not man separate.
~ Mark 10:9 (NKJ)

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Posted by minimin at 11:59 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 06, 2008

{My eventful birthday}

Took leave today because nobody should work on their birthdays! haha.. Calvin can't be around because of that course that seems to be never-ending!!

I invited some dear friends over and we had a blast trying to whip out yummy lunch for ourselves. Thank God Long came too... he's a chef, you see... haha. So my kitchen turned into a mini restaurant kitchen with a head chef (Long) and many other cooks (Diane, Audrey, Teri, Ben and me). It was great fun!!

So, the day started with me waking up at 7am and getting ready to bake my birthday cake. I decided to bake cheesecakes as I've been thinking about it for quite a while. Used the "baked cheesecake" recipe in the book Esther bought for me last year.
    ~ Baked Cheesecake ~
    Makes 1 dozen (or 28 minis)

    Ingredients:
    125g digestive biscuit crumbs
    5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
    450g ricotta cheese
    450g cream cheese, softened
    2 tsp vanilla essence
    175g icing sugar, sieved
    3 eggs
    150g fresh blueberries

    Method:
    Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.

    Put the digestive biscuit crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the butter. Spoon tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the cases, pressing firmly into the bottom. Chill until set.

    In a large bowl, beat the ricotta cheese until smooth. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar, blending until smooth. Slowly add the eggs, blending well. Spoon the mixture into the cases.

    Bake for 25 minutes. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack. Chill until time to serve. Serve topped with blueberries.

I call them Mini Chocolate Swirl Cheese Cuppies (^__^)

I added some "decor" on my cakes... chocolate swirls.. :p I couldn't find ricotta cheese in both Phoon Huat and NTUC Xtra! So I replaced the ricotta cheese with cream cheese. It didn't turn out too bad. Except that I think the texture shouldn't be like this had I used ricotta cheese. But anyhow, everyone liked my cheese cuppies!! yippee!!

Then met up with the gang at AMK Hub to do grocery shopping. And here's what we whipped out after more than 3 hours in the kitchen...

~ Diane's Baked Potato Salad with her self-made dressing~

~ Cream of Wine & Mussel Soup (this is damn good!) ~

~ Spicy Prawn & Scallop with Aglio Olio Angel Hair (again) ~

    ~ Cream of Wine & Mussel Soup ~
    Serves 4

    Ingredients:
    1.5kg mussels, cleaned
    40g butter
    3 garlic cloves, crushed
    300ml white wine
    750ml fish stock
    150ml double cream
    2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
    Salt and ground black pepper

    Method:
    Discard any open mussels that do not close when tapped sharply. Heat the butter in a large saucepan and fry the garlic for 1 minute. Add the mussels, pour over half the wine, cover the saucepan tightly and cook over high heat for about 4 minutes, to steam the mussels until their shells open.

    Drain the mussels through a colander or fine sieve placed over a clean saucepan. Stand the colander over a bowl and put to one side. Add the remaining wine and stock to the strained liqour and heat gently until simmering.

    Discard any shells that have not opened. Shell about 2/3 of the mussels and add them to the soup. Warm through a few seconds, then remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the cream and parsley, with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the remaining mussels in their shells.

And here's my wonderful company for my wonderful day (^__^)


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Posted by minimin at 9:54 PM | 2 comments
Saturday, April 19, 2008

{Ying's Birthday Picnic}

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Friday, January 04, 2008

{Birthday Celebration!}

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Posted by minimin at 11:29 PM | 0 comments
Saturday, December 15, 2007

{TTC Christmases through the years}

How time flies... TTC has just celebrated our 5th Christmas together tonight. Take a walk with me down memory lane and indulge in reminiscence of good old beautiful times.

~ 2003 ~
Glamour Night @ The Moomba
We were all dolled up that night. We even had best dress awards! And they were given out to Ying {Best Dress Female} and Ben {Best Dress Male}. Despite having some people trying to zip up the pants that used to fit nicely when they were much younger (haha!), it was such a beautiful evening in the company of beautiful souls.
* * *

~ 2004 ~
Summer Christmas @ York Hill
The whole group of us crashed into my granny's rented "studio" flat in York Hill. We had a potluck competition where we were split into groups of 3 to prepare a dish. Hmmm.. I forgot whose dish won eventually. Anyone remembers??
* * *

~ 2005 ~
Chill Out @ One Rochester
It wasn't easy for the organisers that year. Quite a number of people couldn't make it becos of work, trips, etc... Nonetheless, it was a cosy nice evening. And it was the first time Calvin joined in a TTC Christmas celebration. (*_^)
* * *

~ 2006 ~
Surprise Trip to Malaysia
This was the most massive Christmas project. It took 2 beautiful ladies to secretly plan the entire itinerary for 13 people on a 4D3N tour to Malaysia! They're really amazing! Every second of that trip was filled with fun, joy, laughter and love... the TTC kind of love!
* * *

~ 2007 ~
Celebrate in style @ Barracks
We had the best table in Barracks. There were a number of private function rooms there but ours was the best! We were like dining in a greenhouse... glass roof, glass walls, pots of plants surrounding the table... it given gave William an opportunity to hide the present for his secret pal! Well, it was also in the restaurant's best interest that they put us in that greenhouse.. we made sooooo much noise (Teri hor??)... haha!!
* * *

The organising baton has been passed to the 2 "newest" addition to the family... Jinhong and Calvin.. excitedly anticipating next year's TTC Christmas!

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

{TTC Surprise Trip (Part 1)}

It is a TTC tradition that a few of us team up to plan & organise our Christmas party every year. Some time in Sep 2006, we had the task assigned to Ying & Choon (our Malaysian counterparts), and they gladly welcomed the assignment.

So... up their sleeves was a perfect plan for a perfect holiday for the whole group of us. It was a real pity that a few people that couldn't be there.

29 Dec 2006 (Fri)
We met at the train station at Tanjong Pagar at 9.45pm and the train departed at 10.20pm. At that moment, I had mixed feelings. You see, Calvin couldn't join us as he wasn't able to take overseas leave and that would mean that we'll be spending the New Year apart. But at the same time, I so long to go on this trip with my dear TTCians.

So, without any idea where we're headed, I hugged Calvin & boarded the train. The train ride is not as bad as I expected it to be. The toilets were definitely much better than I thought.


30 Dec 2006 (Sat)

We arrived at KL around 8am and we met Choon for breakfast before heading off to "dunno-where".

Our 1st stop was made at a paddy field in Sekincang (I think). It wasn't a fantastic, breath-taking destination, BUT we had soooo much fun!! We discovered a new pose to take photo with and after that, everywhere we went, we had to take a group photo in that pose! Yes, you guessed it! The jumping pose!! Check out our photos..

Then we found out that this is gonna be a 游山玩水 trip! The real 1st stop: Pangkor Island. There were plans for some beach activities, but we were a little behind schedule and all of us were too tired from the travelling. So we just had a simple, laid-back time there.


More updates to follow... my 小白 iBook kinda fell sick lately and I couldn't finish up with the collages.. :(

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Posted by minimin at 1:48 PM | 0 comments