beloved bel

Sunday afternoon K & me went for a grocery shopping session.  We were at a loss on what to cook for dinner.  We were walking up and down the meat aisle... Talking about grocery shopping for meat, I digress.  In case you haven't read, there is a meat scandal here in Europe where quite a few meat products have tested positive for horse DNA.  I use the word DNA because TC mentioned that it could be any part of a horse.  Yikes - thanks for pointing it out.  So the packet of minced beef or beef burger patties which you just bought from the supermarkets here?  Yup it could be tainted with horse meat.  Technically speaking there is nothing wrong with eating horse meat, not unless it has bute in it (some medicine which is used to treat horses which is very bad for humans).  Other than that, people do eat horse meat yes.  In fact my dear Askar friend from Uzbekistan loves them.  It is somewhat a delicacy in some parts of France, and...

Yesterday morning we woke up to a super thick fog.  The visibility was really poor on the ground level.  While walking to office, I was thinking to myself the visibility must be around 100m.  It was like a massive cloud has descended on us all.  It was grey all around and I felt like I was dragging my feet to office on such a gloomy day. When I took the lift up to the 29th floor where I work, I was in for a surprise.  It was clear blue skies!  I could see the thick fog below us, and it looked like we were above the clouds.  One of the privileges of working so high up is that we get awesome views.  We get awesome sunsets and now we get to be above the clouds, okay, fog. Spot the Shard in the distance Amazing isn't it! Followed by another amazing sunset view in the evening. I love working on one of the top floors of our building. God's wonderful creation is beyond words.

I had my girl friends over on Saturday to try on the bridesmaids dresses and I thought I could host an afternoon tea session, but giving it a CNY twist.  I used the afternoon tea stand (looks familiar Sabrina?) and stacked some homemade cookies, mandarin oranges and some kueh bahulus  (delivered by my family via K my postman).  These little "Chinese cupcakes" are always there every CNY ever since I was little, and my family made sure this year is no exception.  How sweet of them. Looks pretty good isn't it??  I was quite proud of it, and introducing my European friends what we usually have for CNY.  No English teas allowed hehe.. only Chinese or Green tea for this afternoon.  

Wow whoever knew K could be such a romantic? :) Received a bunch of surprise roses sent to my office on Valentine's Day.. whilst he was holidaying in Singapore.  Sweet!

I've been having this burning question for a few months now.  Is anyone tired of Facebook already?  I think I am slowly losing interest in this social thing that has been very much ingrained my life for the past few years.  Funny enough the only people I know who do not use Facebook ever are K, Stephan and Zed.  What is funny is that they are all guys, and all born in the same year.  Which made me draw my conclusion that perhaps guys born in the year 19xx just don't like using Facebook.  I mean, I have to ask K to log into his FB for goodness' sake before it gets deactivated after an unusually long time of inactivity.  And on the other hand, he insists that I keep stalking my friends, just because I log into FB more times than him.  Don't laugh at me, because that means you and me are in this category. Don't get me wrong.  I still think Facebook has been a crucial thing in helping me get connected to friends and family back home. ...

Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy Chinese New year) everyone!  May it be a happy, healthy and prosperous year for you! Now that K is home, I am spending CNY alone here.  In times like this, you thank God for friends.  K asked his friends to "take care of me" by asking me to join in whatever CNY gatherings there are, so I was kept quite busy over the weekend! Saturday I had a CNY lunch with K's group of friends who made a reservation at a certain Old Mr Lee from Shanghai's restaurant.  And it was not a normal restaurant.  When we walked up the stairs, we emerged into a huge living room, with a massive table in the centre.  It was part of Old Mr Lee's home and it appears he cooks only for one big group at any one time, giving his undivided attention.  He has a head chef who came out with dishes - non stop.  We ate and ate until we could eat no more.  In a span of 3.5h.  We were there till about 4pm and I was almost ready to roll home.  ...

I am still very much in a CNY cookie baking mode.  In fact, I have been baking late into the wee hours of each night for the past 3 nights!  Wherever I brought the cookies, be it at my workplace, or at Lisa's potluck dinner, my container always comes back empty.  Good news for me I know, for them to be received so well :)  I had planned to bring the same cookies for today's potluck and Ken and Yiling's but ran "out of stock" at home.  No choice, I had to start baking when I came back from Lisa's at 11pm.  Someone give me an award already! In the midst of baking the cashew nut cookies, I found another interesting recipe which I want to share with you. Lemon Almond Cookies 100 gm unsalted butter, softened at room temperature 65 gm caster sugar 1 egg 175 gm plain flour / all-purpose flour 35 gm cornflour zest (only yellow part) of 1 lemon 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp salt 20 gm ground almond 2 Tbsp demerara sugar Use an electric mixer...

I think I haven't baked in more than a year.  I am rather shocked myself.  Last night I even had to try switching on the oven in K's kitchen to make sure that it is still working.  And in the process found a rusty pizza pan inside the oven.  You can imagine how often we use it.  ie Never. Being in the Chinese New Year (CNY) mood, what brings to my mind is always cashew nuts cookies.  I guess this tradition was passed down by Cynthia when we were both here in our first year.  She baked a few tins of such cookies using her cousin's recipe, and we both slowly finished everything between us.  Every night we would surf the web and munch on the cookies.  This CNY I am not going back home so I thought I could continue with the cashew nut cookie tradition here. I found a recipe online, but didn't think the result was fantastic.  I still prefer Cynthia's recipe. 300g flour, sifted (I started with 250g but it was too wet so added another 50g...