greetings from US

hi friends! i am still alive! in san fran now... actually 3rd day in san fran already! enjoying the cool yet hot weather! there is lots of walking in san fran especially with slopes/hill! reminder to self - need to start exercising when i get back to singapore! haha!!

ok... some preview of the pictures... more to come when i am back!

MIA

hey folks! this blog will not be updated for a short while as i am finally off for my 2 weeks hols in USA!!!

due to depart in another 7 hours... still up as i just finished packing my luggage at about 3am! and now watching liverpool vs marseille "live" on stars sports! well, i will most likely sleep on the plane - since i got such long flight!

watch this space for more updates on travelling footie's adventure in sin city (vegas) & san francisco!

steal shamelessly!

that's one of the 10 rules to building a good marketing calendar as taught by the marketing gurus at my ex-workplace! i took that a little further and try to steal a recipe for something i ate at lunch!

tried XO sauce lao shu fun at "the canteen" at shaw centre. for those who doesn't know what lao shu fun 老鼠粉 is, that is actually rice noodles also known bee ta mak. the interesting thing abt the dish was the unconventional mix of ingredients including long beans, minced chicken, century egg and of course XO sauce! it was their signature dish, it was interesting but it was a little too oily!!!

this is the original - notice that the XO sauce is placed as a topping.

so i have been in the cooking mood on sundays, and i decided to try this dish for dinner! not exactly how they cook it, i was determined to make it better - more like to make it more suitable to my tastebuds! so like what ray colon taught us... steal shamelessly! steal the idea but make it better! the end result - i think i did a better job! haha! mission accomplished!

my version with prawns

the final presentation with the century egg!

unconventional first month party

after attending quite a few babies first month parties, today's party is at a slightly unconventional venue. why? it was held at the void deck of sy's block! it was actually quite a good idea as it was more spacious, so we stayed longer than the usual parties as we did not feel that we were taking up space! haha!

it is at occasions like these that we take as an opportunity to meet up with friends. so today was also a gathering for the kfc gang. haha... this time round, majority of the group are part of the dark side (ex-staff)! hehe!

the babies were so cute... i can't tell them apart, so we recognise by the dressing! here are the first appearance of baby rolyn (ruo qin) & baby roshyn (ruo xi) on my blog!

mummy dearest with her princesses

this is jie-jie this is mei-mei

it can't be called a gathering without a group picture

a picture with the twins mummies (yes... both sy & daph) and their first off-springs

happy belated birthday lil'c

my dear partner-in-crime, ex-neighbour, gossip partner, makan kaki and finally holiday mate in 2 weeks' time celebrated her xx birthday on wednesday. i have the honour to be allocated today to celebrate with her today... hehe :)

organising dinner today was really a turbulent task! after we decided what cuisine to eat (btw it was japanese), i gave lil'c 3 options. this following episode happened for real...
- lil'c choose option 1
- i called to reserve, but was only left with counter seats. thinking it wasn't going to be private and comfy, we decided to look for other options
- after one round of surfing the internet, we decided on option 2 - a place that we've tried a few times. i called and was given the shock news that it has been closed for 4 months alr!
- tried the next option (option 3), a jap restaurant in a hotel and was informed by the chinese speaking crew that it was fully booked and i should call 1 month in advance!
- lil'c suggested option 4 and it was also counter seats. so she tentatively booked it.
- meanwhile, we tried option 5 and lil'c was greeted with fully booked again. i decided to call their other outlet as listed on the internet and guess what? option 5a was no longer in operation!!!

could you believe our luck? haha... so amazing... we decided to just stick to option 3 for the counter! in the end we enjoyed the food... yummy yakitori at far east plaza. (finally can upload the pictures)

lil lamb going to eat the tender lamb! haha!

sweet "corny" us

those are not presents!!! those are cake boxes from canele!

that's lil'c birthday strawberry shortcake!

all our desserts!

if yan can cook, so can you!

a couple of months back, my colleagues started to form a lunch group where a few of us gather to eat lunch with homecooked food. what started as a tiny group of 5 has now expanded to 13 pax gathering at the conference room at 1pm sharp. my purchasing manager and OJ's ops manager are the usual cooks, while the others take turns occasionally. the food is usually prepared at home and just warmed up at the pantry. recently, someone bought a rice cooker to the pantry and we started cooking at the pantry. from hainanese chicken rice (yes... i am not kidding), to teochew porridge (with can food). from fish ball soup to green bean soup... we have prepared that all in that tiny pantry of ours!

so what's my contribution? my first attempt was claypot rice, which was well received by many! haha! a few had ask for the recipe and so far 2 of them had tried cooking it. then today, i cooked prawn paste seafood rice and cabbage with mushrooms. anyway, all these got me interested in cooking again. have been lazy to cook for quite some time (ask my sis and she will nod furiously!!!). so yest, i tried something different for dinner for my sis and i - pineapple rice. the verdict? not as nice, maybe not to my liking - a little too sweet. maybe its the pineapple (i used the can ones). well, it is still quite an achievement! here's how it looks!

just after frying - taken when it's still in the wok!

served with pork floss!