beloved bel

I just tried carving my first Jack O Lantern this Halloween. Not that I celebrate it here, but we saw some nice pumpkins at Waitrose the other day and M said we could carve one just for fun. And perhaps scare the fat cat next door whom the previous tenants nicknamed Garfield that keeps coming over to our backyard. And so, here is Bel's step by step guide on carving a Jack O Lantern: Take a pumpkin or two Cut the top part off That's how it looks like inside not very impressive looking I know Remove the "innards" haha Take out the seeds and clean them Draw on the eyes, nose and of coz that mouth Start carving using a good knife and tada!! It is done! and another one! Put candles in them and say Hello to Peter and Paula the Pumpkins! Meanwhile what to do with the cleaned pumpkin seeds? Fry them on a pan and do you know what.. this is the same thing that we always eat during CNY! Tonight's Halloween and guess what, we had dressed up little kids turning up at our fr...

I had been craving for a big bowl of wonton soup recently and last Sunday after church, I popped by Chinatown to get myself some fresh wonton skins and fresh egg noodles. Surprisingly Gabby and M told me they love wontons (wow really?) and they wanna learn how to make some. And so on Thursday I invited them over for a wonton night. Of course using the skills I learnt from my grandma. ;) Teaching Kine... ... who in turn taught M and both did really well *applause* They did my grandma proud! Initially I was fretting about a bit because Kine asked me what wontons are (uh-oh... "what if she doesn't like it?" was my worry). Besides making the wontons , how can we forget the char siew pork to go along as well? After roasting the piece of pork that was super coated with char siew sauce in the oven, I was very well pleased at how it turned out.. check it out!! Glistening charred edges - perfect! Right at this point after me beaming happily at the piece of pork, both the...

Last Saturday was one of the best Saturday afternoons ever because we held a hen party for our dear Gabby at our place. The guests she invited are all her close friends and may I add a very international crowd! The bride-to-be Gabby is from Ecuador, 1 Czech, 3 English, 1 South African, 1 Australian, 1 Polish, 1 Scottish, 1 Norwegian and of course 1 Singaporean! It started off with a tea party at our place, I was in charge of food and decor with M, and Sarah was the games specialist. In addition, I did what I always do best and enjoy doing- a scrap book for Gabby :) M and I went Waitrose early in the morning and bought roses, pretty cupcakes, balloons, champagne, fruits, etc. We were so in the mood and excited about what's to come! 1pm. back home finally and I was famished. While cooking, we said there might still be time for a quick nap or laze around. And then while eating my porridge, the door bell rang. I was still in my PJs can you believe it, and M had just f...

Autumn is here again! This will be a shorter post compared to the previous 2 because Munich was more of a stopover for us to fly back to London. We took the train from Bad Gastein to Salzburg, and then changed to another train to Munich in Germany, total train journey was 3.5h or so. We extended one night here and when we arrived, it was raining so heavily. Not good. We managed to take a taxi to our hotel, and there, we tried figuring out where to go the next day. With the rain as our companion. I had to send an emergency text to Philipp in London, who is from Munich, asking for tips. Thank God, the next day the rain stopped although it was really cold and gloomy. Weather plays such a big difference coz now that is my impression of Munich! Temperatures were 2-5deg and there was no sunshine. This is M's 10th time to Munich can you believe it, so she was my tour guide. Which was great coz it's been so long since I could travel and just tag along without trying to fi...