Miniature Chili

 One of life great finds!

Orange zest @ Starbucks

I have tried the Honey Orange Mocha Frappucino & I liked it! The orange is not to over powering and it goes nicely with mocha. Will try the latte next.

Yippee! I'm a sucker for "Limited Edition" stuffs and hubby always says marketing works for people like me. Like when I want to buy groceries at Cold Storage and he would ask me when I'm shopping along the aisle...  

'Why not buy at Sheng Siong?' 

and I can answer him without missing a beat.

'Because Cold Storage is the fresh food people!' 

(from the TV commercial)

Do you know that there're buns decorated to look like tigers at Bread Talk? I need to try. Dunno what I'm so happy about. hahaha. 

Farting flowers & Sprouting leaves

It was one of those days.

Hubby & I came back and took our home clothes from the utility room. I sniffed at the air

Me: What is that smell? 

Hub: What smell? I farted.

I considered. Appreciated his honestly and went into our bedroom and opened the window. He entered and the smell fills the room.

Me: Are you sure you farted? Did  you fart again? The rooms smells!

Hub: (looks really innocent) No leh, I didn't.

The room was filled with an over powering smell, it smells like dried flowers from Ikea, little sourish and like the sap of grass in the morning dew, but not so fresh. I was thinking maybe a flowering tree? And I was right! The next day, we looked out and saw the tree covered with little light yellow stuffs and we took pictures of the evidence.

It's quite pretty to see little bulb of flowers covering the entire tree at a distance.

Close up of the flower bulb 02/01/10

09/01/10 When the flowers have bloomed and are starting to wither.

So we lived with the flowering tree and smell their "fragrance" for about 10 nights. I have no idea what it is call, I do know that it's a night flowering tree and I admit I'm happy that the season is over. Fresh air again! 

Another tree right outside my window sprouting new leaves.

It's 2010

... for 6 days and counting. How's the year going on for you?

New Year's eve was pretty good. There was fun, food, family and dear friends. Hubby and I started the day by going to City Square Mall in the afternoon. It's a new eco friendly mall near Little India. We walked around and bought 2 pretty plates for Ron and trekked down Little India. I must say it's a place I wanna go and explore someday- there were lots of little shops & stalls that looked interesting and the aroma of spices and curry fills the air. Hmmm... I feel like eating Indian curry now- I think it's the cumin that makes it smells good. Cumin smells good when it's heated with oil, I have fried it with chick peas before and it smells like Indian food!

We went to Sheng Shiong at Tekka Mall area and bought cuttlefish and clams. It was quite funny as we (or rather I) was quite noisy choosing the cuttlefish (hard to choose mah and slippery) and chatting with the auntie about clams. Hubby say never mind, can entertain them. Haha.

We took a  bus down to Bukit Timah and walked to Cluny court for an Awfully Chocolate cake. I'm pretty disappointed as it was not as rich as it  previously was (when my CRM at ex work place bought for an occasion I can't remember). Ron was remarking as we savour in our memories of 2004-2005? When f & r were still around and for some reasons there were 2 huge AC cakes. Hmm.

Dinner was great steamboat - stock from ham bones and lots of food- fish, chicken, sabu beef, fishball, quail eggs, veg, calms, cuttelfish, tofu, tau pok, prawns. woot! We actually finished the existing stock and has to add prawn heads tot the remaining bones for a second round of prawn broth. Stuffed, we watched countdown and grumbled at Ch 5's party. In the end, we counted down to Ch 8's party and stretched our neck our to catch a glimpse of the lights - no sparkle, just lights. We heard greetings around the block and we shouted "Happy New Year" to be greeted with loud barking from an excited pooch. We laugh, drank sparkling juice and took a walk back home. The walk was around 30 mins and we were tired by the time we were home @1:45am. (We took a bus halfway and walked the remaining way as the bus ride has ended.)

Moon on a clear night

I have a secret wish and I hope it will come true.

The next day, we decided to take it easy and lazed at home till evening. We visited hubby's grandmother at the hospital and went to Vivocity for a yummy Thai dinner @ Thai Ascent.

++++++

Some pictures from X'mas...

Lu's present

very pretty cookies baked by Ron & A. I HAD to take pictures of it!

Post Christmas stuffings

I'm stuffed from X'mas day!

X'mas was spent at Ron's place with turkey, ham, pasta, baked fish and cheese & lemon tart! And the great thing was she packed food for my mummy that's enough for all 3 of us!

so we had:

1. Tomato based pasta sauced which I added minced pork into and we had it for lunch yesterday.  ( My mum had it for dinner too.)

2. Turkey gravy that she pureed with celery and carrot (I think - I wasn't really paying attention when we pureed the sauce). I just fried some onions and chicken thigh meat with the sauce, and stewed it with potatoes and carrots. I diluted it with chicken stock. And judging the amount we have in the pot, we'll have it for tomorrow's meal as well. I think the gravy will taste so good with toast wholemeal bread. oh yums!

3. another container of pasta that I will leave for a couple more days. maybe make a salad or something.

++++

I went out with hubby to Orchard road yesterday. There were lots of family taking pictures with half dressed reindeers and with the tree at Ngee Ann city. It's nice to see the lights. But I have a little rant.. I just hate it when there's live singing in departmental stores like Centrepoint and the sound system is too loud. That takes the joy away from shopping. Seriously, how can you think clearly when the singer is blasting into your ear drums when you are trying to make a decision? I'm more of a background music person when shopping.

Which brings me to...

"Dong Dong Dong Chang" music for CNY that's arriving in 6 weeks time, exactly on Valentine's Day. Oh boy, and it's all happening again.

Merry Christmas!

 

Our Christmas Lights

Precious Moments  with tress & puppies on our cupboard

Lots of Love,

The Moochs xx

A taste of Christmas

I can't believe that it has been 4 years since Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte was introduced. It's my must drink Christmas drink and I have till 4 Jan 2010 to lap it all up. Hee~ Haven't really drank much this year.

冬 至

Today is winter solstice 冬至 (dong zhi) . We had  汤 圆 and 白 辗 鸡 and vegetable soup。

yummy! And my ah ma's spicy chili rocks!

Japan Short Notes #15

Day 19 - 03/10/09

Watched 表 嫂 performed at Yokohama Chinese Association and met up with Maki and hubby.

Day 20 - 04/10/09

Had dinner with and family.表 嫂 brother cooked us a sumptious dinner of shark fins and 

stewed pig trotters. He is a chef at a 5* hotel.

Day 21 - 05/10/09

表 嫂 sister drove us up to Hakone. The weather was finally cool and it drizzled the entire day. We were initially worried about driving to Hakone as the roads up the mountain area could be slippery and the visibility low. But is wasn't too bad and we had an enjoyable time there.

We also ate eggs cooked in Owakudani geysers, the shell of white eggs turned black after cooking.

Day 22 - 06/10/09

Left Japan with a little heavy heart (JSN #7 here)but missing Singapore very much. Sounds corny but I do miss home and ultimately Sg is home. =)

Japan Short Notes #14

I can't believe that I'm still stuck on JSN after 2 months, but that's me.. I take so long to blog about anything!

I have folders on my mac with pictures that I painstakingly take because "one day I'm gonna blog about it.." and guess what? The no. of files are increasing each month! Ha!

Ok, I will try to make it short.

Day 15- 30/09/09

Spent the entire rainy day at Nara. Lots of small shops, lots of rain. I wouldn't mind going there to explore the nooks and creeks again. Saw lots of deer and Todaji Temple (but didn't enter). The deers are cute and hungry but their poops are not so cute when it's mixed with rain water and coats on your jeans. Eew! 

Day 16- 31/09/09

We spent the entire day at Universal Studio, Japan. I love theme parks but didn't get to sit on most of the rides as it was too crowded and have to fork out either another SGD 35 (approx for 2 pax) or wit an entire hour. We put the time to better usage and caught performance and taking pictures.

 

Day 17- 01/10/09

We walked around Osaka and along Dotombori.

Hotel stayed in: New Hankyu Hotel

Day 18- 02/10/09

Shopped around various shopping complexes and took the shinkansen to Yokohama in the evening. Reached 表 哥‘s home around 103opm.