all about yum

My Top 10 Wishlist for 2012

2012-01-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

My birthday is not that far away so I thought I´ll drop some hint (or guideline) here! Fortunately, a lot of the item listed here are hub´s favourite too so I am very sure he would be glad to give them to me. Men I tell you, has much much more expensive taste than women and take a guess which is his top priority here? Fortunate for hubby, I am not into blink blink nor am I into branded shoes or handbags otherwise he WILL faint.

First on the list, wish do come true! Because we will be ordering them soon on Amazon. We both agree wholeheartedly this is something we need and its good for us so no excuses anymore!

We have been wanting to upgrade our camera eversince but had never got around getting an SLR because its just so chunky and heavy. With the new range available in the market, it surely is timely now to go get one. Hub likes the Sony ones while I am smitten with the Pen. If you remember my list last year, it use to be G1 from Panasonic but after seeing the Pen, I have changed my mind. They surely look good!

Íf there´s one thing I feel that is missing in my life right now, it is a statue of Goddess of Mercy. I am a buddhist by heart and it would bring me joy to put her on this special high side table in our livingroom. I am searching for the right statue too but I am not rushing because I believe in finding the right one when time comes.

Hubby had been looking at some LED TVs lately. Our 42inch Plasma is old, almost 10 years (I think) so we are thinking of upgrading. Hubby loves Sony so, Sony it is for our wishlist. The upside is, it is not as expensive as we first thought. 1,299 Euro for a 52 inch is not bad at all vs the double amount he paid in the past for a 42 inch.

I never understood hubby´s hesitation whenever I mention we need to get this pot. That was somewhere last Autumn when I spotted a Le Creuset Matte Black selling at a discount in London and I was so keen to bring them back. Then I understood why. He went to get himself a made in Austria Marmalade Copper Pot! And it ain´t cheap! Our kitchen is packed to the brim so much so he had to place the pot on top of our top kitchen cabinet. He´s got his toy so its about time I get mine too!!!

Someone please sponsor me the complete set of Villeroy & Boch´s Urban Nature set! I think its just so important having at least a set that one love for any entertaining occassion coz it brings so much joy to it. While at it, I wish someone would magically make more space in our kitchen for it.

I am all for recycling and using alternative power sourse so this is way to cute to let it pass. Solar powered Handphone or Pad charger in a form of a tree. How cool is that?!

Some woman are into Chanel, some are into Birkin and some into Miu Miu but I am into Cambridge Satchel tote. The cool factor is just irresistable! The other brand I am currently into is Desigual ... loveee them too!

IRobot is so irresistable. They should bring the price down so that its justifiable for housewives like me.

This is probably not new but I am totally smitten with the idea of giving these Scent Sample to friends and family for any occassion. You sample all of them at your own pace and once you find the one you like, you can then exchange the token within with the actual size! How cool is that?!

For the record here, 3 out of 10 from last year´s wishlist got materialised! Thank you thank you, you know who you are! Lurveeee the Fatboy, Massage Mat and WMF Kult 68 piece cutlery set :-)

So what´s your wishlist? Do share!!!

Mama Elsa´s Birthday Tomorrow ...

2012-01-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Her big day is tomorrow so in anticipation of that, we travelled all the way across the border to get her some stuff. Not that Germany does not have these but rather, Enschede is just a mere 20km away and we wanted to pick up a range of porcelain/fine china ware originating from England which a lot of places does not carry anymore. We finally settle for a lovely serving platter from PortMerion and decided to also add in a coffee hamper from Douwe Egbert which was located right at the centre. Holland is fame for its flowers so what better gift to give mother if not flowers. We hope she likes the selection I chose.

We also got hold of a bottle of Piper Heidseck from a local supermarket here for tomorrow night´s dinner in a local restaurant. Its her favourite brand of champagne so we know she will loveeee this. Can´t wait for tomorrow to surprise her with theseeee!!!

What Germans love listening to when Partying ...

2012-01-04T03:47:00.000-08:00

They love this singer by the name of DJ Bobo of Switzerland - whom looks pass his age but churning out songs which young party goer love ...

Or Tim Toupet from Germany but performs mainly in Ballerman area in Mallorca. An island in Spain but inofficially known as the 17th German state because German is spoken widely there. Believe it or not, I love this song too, especially after a few DRINKS .. :-D

And of course the classic Einen Stern from DJ Ötzi of Austria ...

All these songs are cheesy I know but hey, when one has a few to drink, something catchy, funny and easy will do :-D

We were enjoying these songs over our television on New Years Eve at home. This year´s we decided to skip our annual Silvester trip to Sauerland. Its nice to stay home sometimes, especially this year when it did not snow at all and what´s a mountain visit during this time of the year with no snow. We started the day by doing some shopping nearby then drop by McDonald for our last McDonald meal of the year, followed by snack preparation around 7pm.

I made satay! It was not as difficult to make as I initially thought! And the sauce too ... red curry paste mixed with peanut butter, who would have thought!

Store bought grilled chicken ...

Steamed some prawns and lobster claw ... had them with russian sauce.

Some salad which none of us touched :-D Next to it were Fried Mozarella Balls, Mini Pizza and Mini Flammkuchen.

Amazing London Fireworks 2012 New Years Eve !

2012-01-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

We had plans to be here, then we changed our mind! Look what have we missed out! After watching this on our sofa early this morning, we made a pack to book a trip to London for the Olympics this year :-)

Our motto this new year is, be healthy and live happily! Happy New Year peeps!!!

2nd day of Christmas

2011-12-28T01:49:00.000-08:00

Over coffee time on 2nd day of Christmas, we experienced our first cracker session. ´Shape your future before other shape yours` was the message in my cracker. Our second family christmas time was more complete with Dirk and Carola around. MIL and hubby was a bit down that day but it they tried their best to bring in the festivity mood. Dirk and Carola were chirpy so I suspected they have not gotten the news yet. We spent a bit of time opening our presents - thanks Dirk and Carola for the gorgeous Auerhahn Salad Bowl set and HOME grill set in a nice metal case. Thank you Mama and Papa for the sensational 68 pc WMF Kult range cutlery set, and also the cash. Thank you hubby for the wonderful Diana Krall and Ella Fitzgerald CD plus a Beurer Massage Matt. All of them found their way to pamper me on this special occassion ... thank you so much.

It is wonderful to be showered with wonderful gift which we all had prepared in advance but, this year´s Christmas I felt was made even more meaningful with the presence of all. My aunt passed away on Christmas Day and Frank, hubby´s cousin passed away on the second day of Christmas.

Lets enjoy Michael Bublé - Grown Up Christmas List

2011-12-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

As I am typing this, my first aunt (my dad´s elder sister) back in Malaysia is battling with Lung Cancer. Doctor gave her 4 months to live after she got diagnose and that was back in June. Right now, she is not able to speak anymore. My FIL´s only sister Tante Anna called us few days ago. One of her son (she has two) was admitted to hospital and got escalated immediately within the same day to Münster Hospital. He is 35 years old, not married and is diagnosed with Leukemia just last Monday and at the same time, had a blood clog in his brain. The specialist performed the brain surgery on Tuesday morning at 5am. They said, if he wait any longer, he will not make it. His chemotheraphy is suppose to start right after the brain surgery. The surgery went well but the after effect was unforseen. Pressure kept on appearing in his brain and what the specialist can do reactively is to remove the pressure whenever it appears. Nothing more can be done. To make matters worst, the blood cancer (Leukemia) is all over his body including his bones. We are all praying for him dearly. He and my aunt needs miracle ...

Lebkuchen (Gingerbread House)

2011-12-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

I am trying not to bake that much this year after last year´s experience. More so when Chinese New Year falls on 23rd January and there would be a lot of eating going on again. Last year too, we unexpectedly received a lot of cookies as gifts. Hubby reminded me again and again, try not to bake more than 2 assorted trays so as to minimize wastages. Its a busy day in the kitchen yesterday and today. While I got the lebkuchen baked yesterday, it was only today that I finally sat down to icing them. Nothing too fancy and complicated, but a readily available icing pen from Dr. Oetker will do. I made 3 batches, the first being the best but I ate 3 pieces from the 6 houses so I decided to make another batch. Second batch however got a bit burned because instead of taking the dough out from the form to be baked, the cookie dough stayed within. It must have gotten too hot I reckon. The third batch thankfully turned out well and its the one I am holding here. Later, I moved on to making a cookie premix to be given away to a friend who will be stopping over tomorrow morning. She´s making me a bottle of Eier Liquor or Egg Nog as how its known in England. Her Eierliquor rocks! Its soo good and its nothing compared to the bottled, branded ones we get at the store but the thing about her recipe is, you need a 1,300 Euro machine call Thermomix to make it. The most expensive kitchen machine we have in our kitchen in Kitchen Aid and sadly, there is limitation to it too. So being her generous self as usual, she offered to make me a bottle and will drop it off my place tomorrow. As a thank you, I thought cowgirl cookie premix is nice.

Will show you a photo of it when its here :-) Stay tune!

Making Weissglühwein

2011-12-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

I was told that the standard Glühwein sold in most Christmas market comes ready in huge cartons from manufacturers. The Glühwein vendor would adjust the recipe a bit by adding their secret spices from this base or simple using a specific cooking process . I love Glühwein and its one of those drinks I would never fail to drink whenever Christmas is around the corner. I usually have them plain or with Ameretto. But that was before I had my first sip of Glühwein made from white wine. And thats it! I found my new love. The thing about Weissglühwein is, it is not easy available in the Christmas Market as the vendor has to cook them from scratch versus buying the ready made cartoon from supplier to be reheated. But since its not an entirely difficult thing to make at home, I decided to give it a try. Fairly easy. Rule number one is, do not boil the wine. Always keep them in light simmer temperature when making it. After that, it is entirely up to you to adjust and add in the spices you want. After pouring a bottle of white wine into the pot, I added in sugar, raisins, slices of clementine, apples, cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamon and clove. Some calls for the recipe to be diluted with a cup or two of standard hot tea. I think I will give that a try next.

Prost!

Celebrating Nikolaus

2011-12-06T00:39:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus is a myth figure that got more famous and commercialise than the humble bischop St. Nikolaus whom goes around giving to the poor and needy during Christmas. Before moving here, I did not even knew he existed. It is great that some countries still honour him on 6th December every year. Unlike Santa Claus culture where kids get to receive from adults, my MIL told me its okay for any parents to extend their love to their children irregardless of their age. To her, we are still her baby she said :-)

Wanna see what we got from her this year? It came complete with an original sack used traditionally here and I thought, wow ... how authentic can that get :-)

My MIL it seems had also signed up for Dr. Oetker´s Club membership and had filled up the sack with his goodies! It came with 3 assorted size Dr. Oetker´s Backen range tin and in it were ...

Assorted sachets containing baking powder, yeast, powdered gelatine, vanilla sugar, cream stiffener and such ... what a lovely gift just before the baking season starts :-)

Lebkuchen and chocolates were inevitable every year :-) of which BTW, I am going to attempt baking Lebkuchen this week and I can´t wait to share you THIS GORGEOUS lebkuchen form I just bought from Strauss Innovation.

The largest tin were stuffed to the brim, so much so she had to use a gummi band (big rubber band) to hold them together! (that is my MIL .. we had a good laugh about it because she is cute and ungerman that way). There´s lots going on in this tin. A box of cake mix, a few assorted cake pudding and jelly mixture, chocolate icing and a colourful muffin papercup. How well thought out gift isn´t it?

I guess the time is right and I have to get back into baking action again. Happy Nikolaus!

How to Draw Names for Christmas Gift Exchange ...

2011-12-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I would like to share you a pretty brilliant idea on how to draw names offline and online for your next gift exchange activity. Gift exchanging is of course common as festive season is around the corner. It is something my stammtisch group does every year but I personally felt this year´s organiser did a brilliant job getting the preparation work done.

First, allow me to explain that this method works in a reasonable size group not exceeding 10? Beyond that would prove to be hardwork for the chair person to get getting the materials and such done. So here´s what my stammtisch member did.

Since we are an 8 member group, she prepared 8 uniformed packaged box for us. To make it festive, she chose one with Christmas print on it, added a simple greetings message and a ribbon to hold them together.

We then each picked a box. A name has already been allocated inside the box (seen here, its written on a star cut out but her name is blocked) so what we need to do is to ensure its not our own name we picked up.

Fill up the goodies according to the amount/rules that had been agreed by your group/colleagues etc. And thats about it! Easy isn´t it? If finding these ready made boxes is near to impossible where you live, I reckon a bit of creativity will not harm. Templates of box making can be found abundantly online and all you need to do is decorate them as you wish. A lot of work I know, which comes back to what I earlier mentioned - only for small groups.

If there is an upcoming gathering whom you want to exchange gift with but are unable to meet up prior, there´s an online method you can adopt. Draw Names is a popular online generator which we are currently using. Get the email addresses ready, sent them out with rules stipulated and voila! The system will shoot you the assigned name on the date you wish and the rest is history. Very friendly site to use and so far, its proven to be very handy.

So happy drawing names to you all and have fun!!!

Christmas Tree Ornaments aside, our Forest Theme Christmas Decor is UP!

2011-12-02T06:31:00.000-08:00

My husband has been a procrastinator lately. It was only two nights ago when he finally brought our Christmas ornament box down from our attic. I quickly got the tree assembled, the other decorative ornaments arranged and a gentle cleaning session here and there around the house. We will probably wait till Nikolaus which is coming Monday to complete the rest of the task. I always look forward to putting up the christmas balls and setting up the Icicle lights outside our windows so waiting for the right time to do it is worth it.

Forest theme is something I have been eyeing on since I saw them in Depot store last Christmas. I find this theme pretty versatile to do as I not only have lots of store options to buy the bits and pieces from, I also have the choice of re-using our old ornament pieces. If all else fails, there is always the nature outside to give one some inspiration and its free. Twigs and branches, fern cones and leaves, berries, stones and whatever you can find outside. But with the exception you can´t get any substitute for animal figurines.

This year, I decided to go along winter wonderland colour scheme again, just to jive in with our livingroom interior a bit. I bought quite a few new items this year - which I should not BUT its just so hard to resist clicking on the order when the voucher I got from groupon cost only a small fraction of the original price. I am a sucker liddat, which I wonder if its a good or bad thing at times. Believe it or not, my head was already filled with images on how to spike up this look with some burgundy shades next Christmas! Oh yes, that would be nice. But as of now, I am happy with the whitewash gingerbread house, the grey owl, whitewash deer, grey horse and whitewash/silver fern trees to give our place a nice Christmacy feel.

There is one corner filled with colour though and its the kitchen, The area is spiced with RED and its kinda nice to escape to this corner from time to time.

1st Advent and I Wanna Say Thanks ...

2011-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Americans celebrate Thanks Giving to give thanks. The Germans on the other hand started the coming of Christmas four sundays counting down to Christmas Day by lighting a candle each week starting yesterday evening. A lot of houses here have started decorating their homes with Christmas decorations, some putting up their fake trees. I was told our neighbours in Holland frawn upon decorations before Sinterklaas which happen to fall on December 6 - coinceding with Nikolaustag in Germany but over here, its okay and no one really cares. We have started our fair share of preparations. It started two weeks ago when I went hunting for good bottles of bubbles and wine. I got pretty lucky there so I can´t wait to share them when the occassion comes. We spent our first Advent last night quietly in the livingroom. The day before was a rather intensive day - we wanted to do some shopping in Enschede and to take a breather but believe it or not, I did most of my shopping at the comfort of our home end of the day. But above all the hustle of preparation, I think its time for reflection and to share. My father in law gave us a scare again two nights ago. His breathing got inconsistent again and I remembered praying in my heart for him to pull thru as we stand around his bedside. Yesterday morning, I spent some time chatting with him, although I was not sure if he understood me 100%. He does give me a questioning look whenever I call him Papa. It is not very easy for an alzheimer patient to join the dots. Why is this asian looking lady with dark hair calling him papa. Sometimes I would re-introduce myself but most of the time, I am just too afraid to confuse him further. Last night, I brought a musical box down to him. He loved it and that made me felt like I have connected myself to him somehow. It is unfortunate I never get a chance to get to know him when he was healthy, but I guess I have to give thanks that he is with us today and we are able to connect in small small ways as now. I am also thankful he is not in pain like many whom suffers from other illnesses and above all, it is partly due to his hardwork and diligence that we are living a comfortable live right now. No worries over house or car morgage, no worries over bills, healthcare etc ...

I also thought of my parents. They are well and keeping themselves busy by surrounding themselves with their grandchildren duties.

Today, I had a long chat with my sister back home ... she is well but has been having some health issues lately. As her sister, I of course felt sadden that I am not by her side to give her moral support but only thru words and encouragement via a long distance call. It is true life has its ups and down, and same goes to her but I do hope she hears me sometimes. That, one have to love herself first before loving anyone else. True especially when she is a mother of 3. I also told her to stop thinking about what she plan to do and just do it. We have been talking for a while and the topic seems to be running in a circle. She is a tough nut there but I guess, it is easier said than done. It is also during our conversation that I reflected on my own short comings. But above all, I told her to have faith and say thanks for all the wonderful things that is going on in her life ...

French Soft Cheeses & Prosciutto Platter Breakfast ...

2011-11-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

Hub was away for work since two Saturdays ago and finally came home last night after what felt like ages. Unlike the previous times where it felt even longer, I got myself into a routine fairly quickly and got down to settling a few outstanding issues such as getting my resident permit renewed, changing my driving school (to resit for my practical exam again) and also got myself a new hairstyle! I also painted while he was gone. In the evening around 5pm, I religiously poured myself a glass of red wine while being surrounded by scented candles all over the house. With some light music playing at the background, it surely is theuraphatic and a good way to pamper onself when my man is not around.

Hubby woke up to the smell of omelette slowly being cooked with slices of french cheese smacked within this morning. Coffee as usual does what it does best - releasing its wake me up aroma which soon got hubby up to his feet again. Poor him. He had been working non-stop for the past 13 days. So this evening, I did what I felt was best ... pamper him with his favourite dinner meal followed by letting him have the TV controller to channel hop. He likes to unwind like that and I am perfectly fine with it as long as my man gets to recharge.

Rotkappchen, Lambruscos, Bordeux and European Fingerfood Stammtisch Evening

2011-11-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Once a year, the group I belong too (Stammtisch) would hold a yearly meeting to discuss what we plan to do next year. It was held at our place last Friday with a European Finger Food potluck theme. Each of us were assigned a European country so that we get to try a few variety.

To kick off, and upmost important in any German parties/gathering ... lots and lots of drinks. These were just part of it in addition to those in the chiller. Sekt is inevitable. The girls love Rotkappchen in either Mild, Rose or Halb Trocken so we stocked that up a bit just the night before. Lambrusco is a lovely wine to pair with fingerfood too so I picked up a few bottles.

Silvia was assigned Greece fingerfood so this was what she brought over. Grilled tomatoes with goats cheese stuffing. Love it!

Ilka volunteered to bring something from Italy so here´s to her version of Caprese and Grilled Mushroom in Balsamic Sauce. Another winning dish.

Arianne was keen to bring something Austrian. I had the impression that Austrian food is similiar to German so I was kinda surprise fish was instore. The Austrians apparently eats quite a bit of fish due to the amount of rivers flowing thru their country. This is spinach pancake roll with salmon and cream within. Seasoning was kept to minimum so one can taste the yummy smoke salmon within. Nice.

Sandra whom is dating a guy from Holland now could not escape our request of bringing something Hollandish. Bitterballen was her chosen fingerfood but too bad, I had to give this a skip since I can´t take beef.

Andrea was happy to settle for something spanish, and boy, did she vow us with her bacon wrap with dates and hazelnut within. Addictive to the last bite, it is one of those fingerfood thats not just easy to prepare, its delicious too. Love the saltiness, fattiness, sweetness and nuttiness of the whole combination ...

Three other dishes went missing in my camera and they are my Salmon Quiche, Tanja´s Chocolate Mousse and Silke´s Swedish Berry Dessert. I manage to snap Sandra´s Hollandish dessert though ...

After dinner, we were given a handmade package with info of our upcoming Christmas Trip! Ilka and Sandra are both superb organiser so I am really looking forward to this getaway! We were also given a pre-prepared gift box each. The box was already prefilled with one of our name and with that, this is who we´re buying our presents for. Lovely idea eh. Just have to make sure its not our own name inside the box.

Christmas is still many weeks away but preparing early is always good!

First Saffron Harvest and Autumn Foliage in our Garden

2011-11-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Its beautiful out there now.

Minus the daily chore of raking dried leaves, autumn is possible my second favourite season of the year after spring.

What a change considering Autumn was my favourite season before moving here. Then, I did not know that Autumn can get uncomfortable wet.

But this Autumn has been lovely. The temperature has not only been mild, it has been relatively dry and has not been as gloomy as previous years.

After chatting with a friend over the topic of roses, I went downstairs today to tend to my new babies. My flower bulbs and seeds inventory has been insanely huge. So much so, I had to leave some out. I also bought 4 new rose plants in addition to 1 which was a gift. My friend (lets call her DH France) told me the best way to keep the roses warm during winter is to cover them with these dried leaves.

I did exactly that to DH Hamburg´s Maria Theresia rose gift.

Also to Henri Matisse.

Blanket of dried leaves covering my babies ...

And Palais Biron which I recently checked had doubled its price.

My babies will be warmer tonight.

Notice the tiny red strand amongst the autumn leaves? Yup, those are my newly acquired Saffron Krokus.

This petals are already dried up so I got the saffron thread plucked out and placed into a nice glass jar. I wonder how long more shall I wait to be able to cook a nice paella dish with saffron harvested from my garden? I can´t wait!

I also harvested the last batch of Mexican chillies. It wil be for tonight´s dinner!

Project Study Room

2011-11-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

November is the month where a lot of Germans do up their home in preparation of festive season next month. You can see every tom, dick and harry scrubbing their porch or lawn, cleaning windows (it has been a wonderful autumn with little rain btw), changing their summer plants to winter ones, drills going on here and there, machinaries and equipment in action and naturally, the pick up vans from East Europe is here again to pick up whatever you wanna throw out. We were at Ikea couple of days ago with no intention to buy anything. Hah! Since when one comes out empty handed from Ikea? So here I am typing from our new study room set. We got ourselfs 3 sets of racking system and 2 study tables. There´s a lot to be done still but I reckon we have all the time to do it up till December.

Tasting Barolo 2007 ...

2011-11-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Our home is quite well stocked with drinks of all kind, including wine except for a good red wine. Our regular riesling is wonderful, the best I´ve tasted but I do wish for a good red to accompany a stronger meal at times. We didn´t know what to expect when we picked a bottle of Barolo up two nights ago but we knew THIS is it the moment we corked the bottle open. Lovely rose note lingering around with gorgeous red hues ... I´m glad hubby agreed its a great bottle so we´re gonna stock a dozen or more up soon ... :-)

Indian Dhal Curry with Cheats Naan aka Storebought Focaccia!

2011-11-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

I tried reviving back routine to follow my daily meal planning but somehow, only suceeding halfway. The plan was fairly ambitious actually. Dhal was in the menu, partly because we´ve just bought a hugeee sack of potatoes seeing its in season, fresh and dirt cheap. I wanted to make somekind of indian bread after being inspired lately by Reza, the Prince of Spice which is being aired right now in Food Network. The Dhal was marvelous and I did it without any recipe book! I was so amazed with myself and to elavate that feeling further, hubby went to toast up a few more slices of bread for second helping! Wow! This dhal recipe is a keeper ... so to keep it safe, I will just scribble the recipe here quickly incase I need to redo them again.

- I first heat some oil in a medium size pot, add in about a teaspoon of aniseed and cumin seed. They started popping immediate, and burned a bit but I continued with ...
- Adding in 2 large chopped onion, 1/2 chopped carrots (fr large size carrots) and 4-5 chopped medium size potatoes.
- I also added in 1 teaspoon of Garam Masala, Tumeric, Madras and Garlic Powder. Sautee till its fragrant.
- Pour in 2 cups of water, 1 cup of chickpeas, season with 1 chicken cube, salt and pepper and let it cook for 30 minutes. Done.

Dinner @ Hermann´s Höhe

2011-11-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

My lost my cooking mojo since last week so I had either been doing repeats of what I´ve cooked before, or resorting to eating out lately. Some eat out were fairly simple affair in either local imbis (snack point) or cafe but one of the night, we decided to give a restaurant dining a try.

This time round, we chose Hermann´s Höhe. Höhe literarilly meant high, referring to the location where this restaurant is located which is on a hilly part of the area where we live. Food was fairly good, homely German fair but portion was kept to decent and not too scary. Whenever I dine in a German restaurant, I like to order pork because I find their pork dishes tasting the best as compared to other meat or seafood dishes. As you can see here, the pork cutlet is still pinkish in the centre and looked succulent! I was first a bit squimish about it BUT was reminded again of the programmes I saw on TV. Many years ago, we have been told that pork temperature had to reach a minimum of 180C but now, food scientist says its good at 160C!

Hub has a pork fillet dish too, but prepared on a grill. We are in Germany after all so pork it is!!!

Poulet Chasseur et carottes de Vichy For Lazy Weekend

2011-10-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

I loveee French food. Have I mention that? Yes I do. To me, french food is the ultimate cuisine I wish to cook day in day out with ease if I can. I´ve eaten lots of french food and have not even once found anything I dislike - it amazes me. Recently, my stammtisch friends decided to each bring a fingerfood from Europe for our next meet up. In order for the eight of us not to repeat bringing the same item, each of us were assigned to a European country. I volunteered to bring something French, to the surprise of many. Hehe. Who says asian girl does not know anything apart from asian cuisine? :-D

I made a french main course for dinner tonight. It is from my recently acquired cookbook title simple The Food of France - A journey for food lovers. I love this book, infact better than my Le Cordon Bleu cookbook. The photos are simply amazing, the recipes doable and inviting and here´s what I chose with the chicken meat I picked up earlier. Its Poulet Chasseur, a stew dish with butter, white wine, brandy, tarragon, tomato puree, shallots and mushroom ... and we both LOVEEE it! I love it so much I think this dish beats the overated Coq Au Vin hands down, seriously!

I serve them with another classic french side dish of Carottes de Vichy. Its a simple carrot side dish, and again, the french knows how to make them tasty. Here´s the trick. Put a cup of cold water in a pot (must be a pot), throw the sliced carrots in together with salt, pepper, sugar and butter and let it cook until all the liquid evaporates. Garnish them with lots of parsley. Thats it but tasted so fantastic!

Thats it! I will swap my Fusion Wednesday to French Wednesday seeing I love french food so much! :-D

We ended our meal with a simple trifle of Autumn Apple VLA and German Spekulatius. Both married well.

Dutch Apple Cake for Vegetarian Friday

2011-10-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

Its Friday, its Friday! Oh .. why am I getting so excited over Friday :-P Not that it makes a difference in my life right now since I am officially a housewive and am not working. For the past few days since we got back from London, I have been accompanying my MIL in the garden to pluck whatever apples that is left on our apple trees. This year, our harvest has been tremendous. MIL said, she can´t recall when we last had such abundance of apple harvest. We harvested about 80 just before we left, but every other day, we would pick up another 10-20. We tried eating them fresh, as much as 3 a day. We also cooked some of them, turning them into apfelmus but most of them goes down into our cellar. MIL says that the good ones can stay fresh for a while there. Just the other day I was down at the cellar and was surprise to spot 100 over apples layed nicely on our cellar racks, as if waiting for some customer to come pick them up. MIL apparently graded the apples accordingly with A being best eaten fresh, B means we have a week to think about what to do with it still and C being, have to cook them asap. It is a funny situation, but yes, it has to be done :-P

Just awhile ago, I baked a Dutch Apple Cake/Tart/Pie ... I have no idea which is the right way to call them really. The cookbook where I got the recipe from calls it a cake but it clearly is shaped like a tart. Names aside, it tasted fantastic! I can´t wait for hub to sink his teeth into it. As I am typing this, he is still not back from work althought he is officially off at 2pm today. Poor hubby, had to OT since getting back from our Barcelona trip due to his 1 week off and year end work.

Char Kuey Teow for Missing Home Days ...

2011-10-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

I can´t remember which day I made these. I reckon it is right after looking at some CKT photo online and right before our London Trip. Everything went well in London. I am amazed with how smooth the passport renewal process is but I am utterly appaled with the state of the toilets in the Malaysia High Comm building in Belgravia, London. While we were there, a nice S-Class Mercedes were parked right outside the building. It has I M stated and I reckon its probably for the Malaysian ambassador working there? What luxury, which is fine because they wanna give good image to foreigners. The building I heard belongs to the country too. But why the state of toilet is beyond me to understand. Hubby noticed that on the spot and asked me one thousand and one question about it. He is right. What is with the mentality of spending so much but not maintaining it. If the country want to impress, do it all the way and not half-half as how the toilet conditions are because frankly, the toilets are not just for Malaysians to use but also to foreigners whom want to obtain visa for their Malaysian stay too.

Pan Fried Canard with Red Wine Sauce, Serve with Creme Fraiche/Bärlauch Mash Potato for Fusion Wednesday

2011-10-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

I was craving for something rich and decadent last night. Upon noticing 2 pieces of french canard in the fridge which I had stocked up earlier, I knew I wanted them to be paired with a rich red wine sauce like how some french restaurants does it. My sauce as you can see is dilluted still and I suppose, one can simmer a while more to thicken it to a lovely consistency but we both can´t wait to sink our teeth into the already plated duck meat! Ah well ... somethings can´t wait huh ...

Bak Kut Teh for Asian Tuesday

2011-10-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

Some people are just simply good with influencing other people while some are just easily being influenced. I belong to the latter category and this was exactly what happened early this week while chatting to some friends over Facebook. DH Drachten suddenly had the urge to cook BKT (short form for Bak Kut Teh) seeing the weather´s cold and gloomy outside. DH Almere wanted to have some too but did not have any of the spice mix around. DH Ooshuizen started offering hers when she sees her next. I can´t recall if DH Hamburg was in the conversation or not soon after because the conversation clearly got me up on my toes quickly, went to the kitchen, ransacked my asian pantry and started putting the assembles together! DH Drachten is right. BKT is perfect for cold weather like now. I ate them over Tuesday evening for dinner as well as on Wednesday for lunch. Warm and fulfilling and thankfully, I think I have a few packets of the spices around still ...

Tagliatelle All´Ortolana for Pasta Monday

2011-10-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ortolana is a sauce base originating from Campania where farmers uses up whatever summer vegetables that´s left from their garden to concoct up this pasta sauce. The cooking method is apparently very straightforward where the sauteeing sequence starts which whatever which takes the longest to cook. What you see here are ready made. I was curious of how it would taste, grabbed a packet and I am impressed. Hubby liked it too. I have mine serve with extra portion of anchovies in olive oil for that extra kick.

This is why I have been inconsistent in blogging ...

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

My hubby thinks my taste in home interior is so predictable and boringly white. Now that our kitchen is white-out, my hands are itching to transform our study room and next, livingroom. This game I have been getting addicted to lately is a pretty cool game for me to do just that. Since its just a simple click away and its FREE (it does make a difference versus actually paying thru your nose to do a home makeover), I have been getting electic and getting carried away in that game :-D Hub came in the other day while I was playing. He was surprise with how I put the whole look together. But he said one thing that surprised me. I prefer your white out taste. Which made me ponder ... means, he is starting to like white as oppose to the multiple hues he use to do up our home?

La Fonda Inspired Goat´s Cheese Salad and Tomato Gruyere Pizza for Vegetarian Friday

2011-10-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. It was our dinner last night but toothache striked again so I had to give it a miss after taking a few bites. The pizza dough was great. It is a recipe from Ina Garden´s cookbook. Although its a french base recipe book, the dough was pretty close to the italian kind so I guess, its a keeper :-)

Nasi Goreng Kampung for Asian Tuesday

2011-10-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

We are back from Barcelona. We pigged out every single night with 2-3 course dinner either in La Ramblas or Barcelonetta and none of the dinner failed us. Food there is good, but I guess I am a creature of only 1 good meal a day. If I have more than that, my body would start kicking up a fuss and start deteriorating and so, this is the story with me now ... trying to recover from a bad flu which I caught on our 5th or 6th day of our trip. Bummer. The first proper meal I had since arriving back was this - Nasi Goreng Kampung for Asian Tuesday. Not that I´m religiously following my plan but I kinda miss eating asian food after a week of spanish goodies. Monday was basically spent recuperating in bed with lots of light bread, water and tablets. Yesterday, the virus striked again so, it was another simple meal for us. Yes. Us because hubby caught the flu bug too - thanks to me. I am not sure what´s for dinner tonight. Frankly, I´ve lost my appetite and all I can think of is porridge. So, we will see ...

Szechuan Peppercorn Chicken & Chinese Steamed Egg for Vegetarian Friday?

2011-09-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

I got the inspiration to cook something spicy and szechuanese after watching a few Ch´ng He Huang´s programme on UK´s Food Channel lately. She seems to be smitten with the usage of Szechuan Peppercorn in her latest program call Chinese Food Made Easy. Another ingredient which she uses pretty often and fortunately something I have in my pantry (but still left unopen after half year of buying it) is Sweet Vinegar. My version of Szechuan Peppercorn Chicken was a combination flavour of Szechuan Peppercorn, Dried Chillies, Chilli Oil, Sweet Vinegar and Soya Sauce. I did add onions and ginger to the sauteeing too and it did bring out more flavour to the already tasty sauce base. I think this is a keeper for coming winter. The heat that came with it was not too hot, but was gently smokey and spicy. Today too, I wanted to try my hand at steaming egg after a tip given out by DH Drachten. 1 portion egg to 1 1/2 portion water. I gave it a try and it worked well. It was a fairly luxurious dish as I added in lots of dried scallops, shrimps and fish in addition to mushroom. To top it off, I sprinkle some chopped spring onion to it before serving and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Bratwürst & Kartofelpuree for German Thursday

2011-09-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I last had a bratwürst at home, so I decided to grill some for dinner last night. Hubby immediately asked if the presentation idea came from one of Gordon Ramsey´s restaurant we visited where he had a dish similiar to this. That´s my German husband, liking to order something familiar in a foreign land :-D

Baked Egg in Ham Cup and Apple Slaw Dinner

2011-09-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

When it comes to food, presentation is just as important to me as to the taste. I like the philosophy of french and japanese people towards their food in this aspect as I feel that it not only makes a person more respectful and appreciative of how our food got onto our table. The idea of baking a simple egg in a cup mould layered with ham was from Malay Mui. She is another wonderful baker/cook and many other things which I constantly look up too for inspiration. Thanks Elvira for this doable but yet, tasty and elegantly presented egg/ham combo! I prepared an extra portion for MIL and she too was thrilled with what she saw. Seen here, it is serve simple with apple slaw sides, salad and hard bread.

Curry Laksa for Asian Tuesday

2011-09-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Prime Taste Singapore is by far, the most authentic paste company I´ve tasted so far. Their Chilli Crab packet mix is as good as the hawker centre ones, so does their Hainanese Chicken Rice mix. The Curry Laksa mix is something I would usually not go for because I am happy with Koka Singapore Laksa instant noodle packet. But trying them out once will not do harm, does it? It was pretty good, equivalent to Koka´s Singapore Laksa curry taste category and even better because the sambal that comes with it is the icing to the already wonderful curry laksa taste. What is missing here are just fresh cockles and some tofu puffs ...

Colourful Mediterranean Spagettini for Pasta Monday

2011-09-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

Dieticians recommend that one eats well by combining variety of colours from different food group onto the plate. I am all for rich stews and curries from time to time, but eating them often makes me feel heavy. So after heavy carbonara Saturday and Sandwich Sunday, I was looking forward to this pasta dish ... a cue I took from my recent holiday to South France to visit my godmother, my cousin and her family. The bacon bits lend a nice smokey flavour to the yellow/green zucchini, dried/fresh tomatoes and paprikas. I can do this more often :-D

Foccacia Chicken Sandwich for Heavy Sunday

2011-09-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Recently, I discovered that Aldi carries amazing Foccacia bread in their cooling section. I´ve seen other customers picking it up but being the snob me at times, I question how good can that get. Knowing I will be tied up with housework last weekend, I picked up a loave and simple served them with leftover roast chicken breast. The foccacia was suprisingly soft and flavouful, totally unexpected from a discounted store like Aldi. I guess this will be another staple I wouldn´t mind stocking up from time to time.

Scotched Egg Inspired Dinner

2011-09-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

DH Almere said my blog ´tumbuh lalang` so here´s the third post for the day!

My scotched egg inspired dinner somewhere last week. With lots of egg in the fridge, I thought I´ll make dinner with it instead of the conventional omelette dish.

Japanese Bacon Pasta with Nori Sprinkle

2011-09-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

It is true that Italian makes great pasta but my personal opinion is Japanese version taste lighter and more umami ....

Hubby Made Spanish Paella

2011-09-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am back to blog, after like ... weekssss. In a few days time, we will soon be greeted by the official date to cross over to Autumn. I have been spending past weeks with many task at hand, some at home but mainly, I was away in Hamburg doing my driving lessons and taking the exam. And I failed. Bummer. But there is always a saying, what does not break you will make you stronger so I hold that saying as off now.

Before all the summery activity started rolling in, hub volunteered to cook us a nice dinner one night. It is nice when he takes over because, cooking can be tedious after one does it day in day out. The inspiration needless to say can also be taxing too .. so anyway, here´s what he made for us.

His version of Spanish Paella complete with saffron and all. In Valencia, it seems the locals eat them with rabbit meat but that would totally repulse me away so, I am cool with plain chicken meat and chorizo sausage anytime. Chorizo sausage really does make a difference. The oil infusion is what sets it apart and these were just normal supermarket chorizo.

We will be flying off to Barcelona for our long awaited holiday (postponed from May). I can´t wait to bring hub to my favourite restaurant in Barcelona. It is a hidden gem, gorgeous food and very affordable ... and it is happening really soon! I will be taking it easy this week before all the craziness hits again ...

Yakitori Skewers & Star-of-Bethlehem [Chincherinchee] for Asian Tuesday

2011-08-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

I was a bit surprise when hubby picked Yakitori from one of our asian cookbook when I hand them over to him. As I know, he´s not into soya sauce. But alas, it seems that he is okay with japanese soya sauce but not the rest. Ah well. I don´t blame him. Japanese cuisine flavour are lighter as compared to the other asian cuisine so I reckon, it takes a while to get use too. Its good that I enjoy japanese food too and that I am not one of those who cannot do without flavour from my homeland.

Today, I had a fantastic lunch of Scholle, or Plaice as its called in Ireland or Dover Sole when in England. I had them simple grilled with some salt, pepper and a dash of lemon juice. Scholle is a very fine textured fish with mild, buttery sweet flavour. One have to be very careful when flipping them over when pan frying them so I can´t think of other way of cooking this delicate fish so that it stays intact apart from pan fying. To those whom have not tried them before, do give this a try when you come across .. it surely is a fine fish.

I wanna show you what MIL gave me last week! She seems to be in the mood of giving again and had given me a pot of Star-of-Bethlehem (Chincherinchee)

Lucky me! :-D

Quattro Formaggio Linquine for Pasta Monday

2011-08-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hubby gets excited over what I would cook come every Monday. He would without fail ask what pasta I have in mind whenever he gets off work. Today he offered to cook thinking I am not up for it but quickly told him I already had plans. We do have a few varieties of cheeses in our fridge still and I have been waiting to use them up in cooking to mellow down some of the heavier cheese taste. I also pointed out that we should look into Italy for our next holiday destination since he is so into Italian food. What an opportunist wife he got there! :-D

This dish calls for 4 varieties of cheeses and today, I had used equal portion of Parmigiano Reggiono (Italian), Tommette de Domessin (French), Mimolette (French) and Petit De Savoie (Swiss) ...

We both loveee the combo. I think I am going to experiment making pizza out of it next, or some sort of savoury tartlets for inbetween bites. Our accompanying today is of course ... a salad. Just to balance our dinner a bit with the heavy cheese meal.

My La Dolce Vita Platter for Heavy Sunday

2011-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight´s dinner was inspired by DH Almere´s holiday photos during her recent family trip to Tuscany. Self control ... something I am not very good at, and ... no reason to be good at it when it comes to ...

THESE ....

The picture says it all. Freshly baked baguette with juicy, plum tomatoes, anchovies, prosciuttoes and haricot verts from our garden.

La Dolce Vita ...

The good life, full of pleasure and indulgence like how the Italians live their life ....

Ahhh ...

Federweißer & Zweibelkuchen to Welcome Autumn for Impromptu Saturday

2011-08-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Autumn was actually a favourite season of mine before getting my hands dirty in the garden after moving to Germany. Spring comes first but Autumn is still a season which holds dearly in my heart. Autumn is the time where you get to listen to rain drops, and let your mind wonder far far away while gazing out from your window towards the beautiful hues of golden yellow, orange, red and green around. I am a piscean you see, so being dreamy is part of me.

Apart from that, there is one thing I look forward too since moving here. That is, getting to enjoy the super delicious Federweißer. It is the young fermented grape juice before turning into wine and it is usually the drink to accompany a pizza looking savoury call Zweibelkuchen. I tell everyone whom wanna visits Germany during month of September or October to not miss drinking Federweißer if they must SIMPLY because, you can´t get them outside the country. Reason being is, the bottle can´t be sealed tightly due to fermentation process hence not good for exporting. Also, it has a very short expiry period before they turn sour (turn to wine) and most of the time, one have to drink them within 3-8 days upon purchase. The best of course are the fresh ones from the wineyard itself and I still miss the one I drank in some of the wineyard villages in Bavaria last year. They are simply delicious and unbeatable in my humble opinion.

Funnily, the ones we get from supermarket here are mainly processed with italian grapes of assorted colour. This year, I spotted a new brand from Otto Pressler. You can get them from Netto. They were again, super delicious and the two of us in the house usually do not have problems finishing them during our meal.

We like pairing them with Onion Cake, or Zweibelkuchen as how the locals call it. The french in Alsace region has something similiar too and its called Flamkuchen. I have not tried the original one in France but had once baked them. They are just as good, if not better.

So, summer´s already towards the end and soon, we will be welcoming Autumn. Honestly, I thought this year´s summer had been more autummy than usual. What a pity.

Hamburg made me feel good ...

2011-08-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in Hamburg´s Hauptbahnhof yesterday before coming home. It was a tight one night trip to my favourite German city for the all important Driving Theory Exam. I checked in Best Western the night before hoping I would get some rest before the big day - but nervousness caught up with me. I ended up sleeping for less than 4 hours and had to rely on sugar rush for energy (traubenzucker). The good news is, I PASSED the theory! Hooray, hooray!!!

I had hoped for full score since I had revised so much. But 2,800 questions and answer learning proofed to be NOT enough as I was bestowed 4 new questions. It caught me off guard as I nervously tabulated the total points of these 4 questions. If I get all 4 wrong, thats it.

But I scrapped thru 2, which leaved me with 6 failed points for that 2 wrong answers.

So, I passed.

German Theory Driving Exam. Tough, tough, tough!

View from Hospital and Family Dinner at Drebbers

2011-08-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Last week had been a rather stressful week for all of us at home. FIL got admitted to hospital for some complication for a week but had since got himself discharged and is recuperating well at home. It is my second time visiting this hospital in the town where I live. Although it is small town, I was told we were bless to have a very good and fairly sizeble hospital here. Apart from the amount of specialist listed here, I cannot help noticing how well they have landscaped the compound all around the hospital. I also love how they invested in lots and lots of solar panel to help facilitate the operation in a more environment friendlier way. For example, check out the white building. That is an old folks home attached to the hospital with solar panels squeezed compactly on the roof. I don´t mind living in old folks home like these when I grow old.

This photo was taken from FIL´s room window. Every evening, I cannot help gasping at the view staring back at me. This is where I call home now and it surely is pretty and neat isn´t it?

We went out for dinner after visiting FIL one evening. It was spontaneous decision after being told earlier that FIL´s good recovery.

I had a Red Berliner Weisser ... which is basically Beer Mix with Himbeeren (rasberry). I thought I´ll give the red one ago after trying the green version several times.

My dinner of pork loin with red wine sauce, serve with grilled vegetables, mushrooms and baby potatoes. The red sauce is delicious.

Hub has baby porkloin served with gorgonzola sauce.

MIL had sliced pork with fresh mushroom pieces.

MIL treated us to this dinner and had suggested us to have more sessions like these with her!

Well :-D

Malaysian Style Fruit Cake and Iceland Poppies in our Garden!

2011-08-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

I baked a cake westerday, thinking it was Friday and it being hubby´s half work day. Hub usually packs lunch to work except for Friday since he gets off slightly over lunch hour. Warm lunch is anyhow better than sandwich lunch - his reasoning I strong back up but occassionally, I like pampering him with cakes and such. But as it is, it was not. We ate the cake anyhow, way later than the usual coffee time but its okay because we had a birthday invitation to go too and dinner was provided!

This cake is inspired by the many fruit cakes I´ve eaten while growing up. It is a simple vanilla cake base (but here, I´ve used peached puree and yoghurt as base) and toppped with the most colourful fruits ever! Don´t you think the cake just screams out summer every angle you look at? :-D

So, on it were pieces of peaches, green apples, mango, blueberries, rasberries and kiwi. They were indeed not too bad and refreshing for a change :-D

Oh oh ... I wanna show you some progress in our garden too. Here´s the poppy I have seeded and which took forever to come out. Finally after a month of waiting, its all out. I thought the seed packet I got hold was a simple poppy seed but it surely does look like the Iceland Poppy kind! I am super thrilled and enjoying every moment of it :-D

I will be in Hamburg next week for my driving theory. This means that I will be busy revising and searching for accomodation. At the meantime, I will not miss out blogging here still ...:-D

Mussels in Chardonnay White Wine for Fusion Wednesday

2011-08-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

Last night´s dinner was fantastic and again, was something I´ve recently learned to make from my recent trip to France. My cousin cooked me a Provence version of Mussels in White Wine sauce one night (which she painstakingly cleaned thoroughly so that I can downed the soup to the last drop! Thanks Sis Ling!), and had left me hankering for more but as it is, its time to go home to porky-porky land. Fortunately, I spotted some pretty good deal in Holland last weekend. Looked really fresh (in season perhaps?) and decided that these babies must come home with me.

My cousin said, the ideal white wine to go with Mussels are Sauvignon Blanc. We only have some high end Riesling with us (too wasted to use it), 2 bottles of white wine we got from last years travel to Franken (romantic road) and 2 bottles of very, very precious wine produced in Switzerland. Its very precious because Switzerland keeps it for themself and you hardly can find a bottle outside the country. I selected a bottle of Chardonnay, half going to the pot and the other half for good drinking.

The cooking process was fairly quick! And taste was superb too! I will give this another try soon, and perhaps I should go stock up on some Sauvignon Blanc just for this purpose.

MIL´s gift ... :-D

Vietnamse Style Lemongrass Tamarind Chicken for Asian Tuesday

2011-08-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

I´ve been asked to contribute a salad dish coming Saturday for one of my Stammtisch member´s birthday. Its the same old thing. Someone will bring an egg salad, a waldorf salad, a caprese, a bierwurst salad, a fruit salad, and something with corn mix with seasonal vegetable (which they loveee drenching in the classic yoghurt sauce here) without fail. I am in a dilemma as always and in order not repeat the same thing my group member will bring, I always volunteer to bring an asian salad. The thing is, salads are not a norm in Asia! Kimchi did cross my mind but I think I will give Vietnamese Chicken Salad a try this time round.

So ... this was the reason why that small book got out.

So far, I´ve brough Chicken Teriyaki Salad, Caecar Salad,

Vietnamese cuisine in my opinion is another way under-rated food in the world. I like the way how they use fresh herbs to season some of the dishes but kept chillis to the minimum. Yes, I do love chilli but its not one of those taste I can take every time. This is a pretty straightforward dish with lemongrass taste taking centrestage, while the usage of fish sauce provides the saltiness, the lime juice giving it a kick and sugar to lent it some sweetness. Overall, its a balance dish which I find would fit well in any family dining table.

Japanese Chicken Kakiage for Heavy Sunday

2011-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday was hub´s Stammtisch so I skipped cooking that night. Come Sunday, my hands were itching to make something special - something which caught my eyes recently from a friend´s blog and it surely needs no persuasion!

If you love Japanese cuisine like me, I am pretty certain you´ve eaten this fried crunchy chicken bite. The last I had them was in Japan Town, Dusseldorf in an authentic japanese hole-in-one kinda noodle joint where one finds herself surrounded by japanese staff and diner while slurping it all up. Their version is magnificient and every bite lovely.

Now, CL´s version (please click her link here) is just as good! Don´t take my word for it .. do give it a try! She said, its a recipe from a japanese lady. I believe her because every bite is as authentic as it gets.

Highly recommended!

Nasi Goreng Kampung and Bean Soup for Vegetarian Friday

2011-08-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I found that it is fairly easy to make Nasi Goreng Kampung at home. Dried Prawns, Ikan Bilis, Chillis, Shallots, Onions and Garlic - blended to a paste, sauteeing them with oil till fragrant then adding a bowl of rice into the paste while gently coating them thoroughly. I am a big fan of Nasi Goreng Kampung but didn´t realise its so doable at home. Now that the secret is out, this will be one of the staple I can quickly whip up whenever I miss something spicy and kicking.

Hub offered to cook our freshly harvested beans from our garden that evening for dinner. The crunchiness and lightness of the bean is evident in every mouthful. In my opinion, beans from the garden are the best I have eaten so far - be it from someone´s garden or your own. There´s another batch more so, let´s hope they grew well ...

Ziguener Schnitzel for German Thursday

2011-08-09T01:01:00.000-07:00

The fame Schnitzel re-emerged again last Thursday but this time round, I´ve got them paired with Paprika base sauce. The locals call it Ziguener Schnitzel - Ziguener a term loosely use to refer to Gyspies but not in a nice term. The other I would like to try coming Thursday is Jager Schnitzel, a term given with reference to Hunter´s Schnitzel and these, I must add is one of my favourite way to enjoy Schnitzel. So stay tune!

Smoked Salmon & Brocolli Quiche for Fusion Wednesday

2011-08-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

It was during my recent trip that I finally made this yummy Salmon & Brocolli combo. I do urge you to give this a try as it is so yummilicous (if there´s such a word, pardon!). The ingredient is fairly straightforward - 3 eggs, 200 ml creme fraiche and lots of cheese were added onto the arranged smoked salmon and brocolli pieces. Season with a little salt and voila, a meal fit for a king :-D

Driving Licence 101 in Germany

2011-08-05T00:41:00.000-07:00

As unsurprising as it sounds, Malaysian driving licence are not recognised at all in Germany (first being Malaysian driving at the other side of the road, and second for Autobahn factor which makes it more dangerous to drive here). Of the listed country in Asian, only Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore driving license are recognisable and one can easily change to a German one. The thing about obtaining a driving license in Germany is not easy at all. Although the regulations states that Malaysian needs to complete First Aid Course, Eye Examination, and take Theory plus Practical examination ONLY, no driving school would register you for exam unless you enroll in their school and had at least done/sat thru their course and lessons.

I´ve been shopping around since ages. The local schools here does not recognise my 18 years of driving experience, had quoted me full package as any young dude wanting to start a fresh and I find that totally insulting hence I held on till I find the right school. I was in luck finally, coz I not only got one whom does it in English, I was able to do the practical lesson part and the exam intensively under a week which means that it is sort of like refresher course (and I am not paying full price) but downside is, it is in Hamburg - a city north of where I live and is 3 hours drive away. I find it challenging and stimulating learning in a city environment versus a small town where I live. I figured, if I am able to handle the city, I should be able to drive all over Europe later then. Keep my fingers cross that all runs well.

This week I had embarked on pretty intensive theory learning and I now know why my Msian license is not recognised. In Germany, I have to cover topics related to Drugs, Alcohol, Environmentally Friendly Driving, Specifications of Different Vehicles and What is allowed and What Not (car with trailer, caravan, different tone trucks, where are they allowed to park, what speed which involve a lot of figuresss ... ), Bicycle/Trams etc crossing, Wild Animal crossings, Calm Area, Pedestrian Zone etc etc and I am only at chapter 6 with 8 more to go!

It is mind boggling I tell you ... but what to do, it is something that I had to learn well so that I will not get into trouble in the future. BTW, if I pass my driving, I will be under probation for 2 whole years! Bah! But nothing beats the thought of me having to drive in Autobahn where the cars speeds like crazy! I do hope I get a powerful car for the lessons. A lot of driving schools here are luring new customers by providing tantalising choice of German cars such as BMWs, Audis, Mercedes etc. VW is the norm here but some have even started offering Mini Cooper and Smart Cars too! In the past, I thought the schools are just being enterprising to offer such cool cars for students to drive but I have since changed my mind. If you drve in Autobahn, I think it is safer to use powerful, sturdy cars in such situation ... (except for smart, which I think might sway if a fast Audi comes from behind!)

So so ... wish me luck, I need it. I am kinda stressed out but also excited coz this also means that I will get to stay in Hamburg for a week or more soon! Searching for a good apartment in central location now .. any tips?

Char Siew Rice Dinner and Hussel Confiserie For Asian Tuesday

2011-08-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

Yes. I am trying to get back on track with my daily meal planning thingy, but honestly, it is not easy as I am trying to loose the pounds I gained from my holiday in France. You know, France = Food. It is inevitable! So anyway, this was what I´d prepared the following week which was last Tuesday after trying a very yummy version from my godmother when I was in France. Hers was definately a lot better but I reckon, my version is edible and still had the chinese-taste to it.

Last weekend, my brother in law came visiting with his girlfriend. They brought me a small box of chocolate. I´ve seen this specialist chocolate shop before, never tried it and its my first time. What a selection it is as it is mostly filled with alcohol! Wow!

The Germans here do love their praline stuff with alcohol?

My Hubby´s Fascination with Ina Garten

2011-08-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

My hubby likes to leave me little, little trails in the house for me to discover. Recently, I found his sketch on my sticky note which leaved a big smile on my face ...

Its all the things hubby sums up about Ina Garten´s show :-D

HOW TRUE!

My Gift for Hubby´s Birthday This Year ...

2011-08-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

Hubby surprised me with a wonderful trip to Amsterdam for my birthday this year. I thought I´ll do something along that line, seeing that both of us love travelling. The destination was not as far as Amsterdam, but we manage to pack our schedule to the brim.

We went for a two hours of sailing in Baldensee. The weather was perfect, wind was at around 5 knots, I was the assistant sailor but I chickened out during the last 30 minutes when wind got stronger. I was hanging on tightly to the sailboat fearing it might topple over :-( But overall, hub was please.

Hub surprised me by booking a night in Holiday Inn, Essen. We checked in after sailing, refreshed ourselves before heading out to the centre which was just 500 metres away to enjoy another birthday gift of his. It was a Variete Show Performance call Funtastisch in GOP Essen with combination of magic, acrobatic, humour and many more roll into one. I came across it online and saw lots of good review so I thought why not. It was a good choice because I did not expect myself to laugh my heart out, but I did. Hub was at one point seen tearing too. Both the moderator was top-notch (kinda remind me of Mr. Bean and Jim Carrey respectively) so you can imagine how good it is. We laughed from start to the end :-D It was really, really good.

The show went on for a good 2 hours with 30 minutes break. The night was still young so we headed downstairs to Bahia Club for a dance. Bahia Club coincidently was an Asian Decor inspired club and asians being a minority here, I must say I made quite an entrance. Some might have thought I work there :-D

We had Kir Royale.

Followed by a Tropical Punch. The night was still young but we made our exit early coz it had been a long day. We drove back home the following morning after a lovely breakfast provided by the hotel and some shopping in their city centre.

Over a platter of French Cheese and Salami ...

2011-08-01T00:49:00.000-07:00

I learned that, it is better to accept the situation and confront head on rather than live with fear and hide from reality. It is during down moment that people whom truely cares for you stand beside you.

Woman are born with intuation and she is often right.

I have waited so, so long to do something meaningful as a member in this family and finally, I was able too yesterday.

My Godma´s Zhang (Chinese Wrapped Dumpling)

2011-08-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

I´ve been back since last Wednesday from visiting my cousin, her family and her mum whom happen to be my Godma too in France. This trip had been more relaxed as compared to last years. Somehow too, I felt that this trip was more heartfelt. I had some good chat with godma and it made me felt closer to her. It brough back lots of memories when I use to stay with her when I was very young.

My godma is a typical chinese mother. Her way of showing how much she care for you is by cooking you something you like or have been missing. Another way of showing how much you meant is during parting. No words needed to be exchange but instead, the eye is the window to your soul they say.

I wish her well and healthy, with lots of strong years ahead of her to enjoy her retirement days with her love ones.

July 2011´s Garden Post

2011-07-31T02:48:00.000-07:00

It is summer and here are the blooms in our garden and on our balcony currently.

Geraniums ...

Clematis ...

Bell Flower ...

These are gifts from DH Almere´s and they are Cosmea! It is growing extremely well and I love it!

Hortensias ... which we have 5 in total from the front yard to a few spots in our garden but I was too lazy to go snap picture of them all ...

And another white Perennials which I am growing to love ... but no idea what its called ...

The end ...

The Day Before, The Day Itself and The Day After ...

2011-07-18T00:32:00.000-07:00

... is the classic slogging day for any parties being held at home. You prep a couple of hours to make sure all things are bought, decorated and in place as well as making sure the house is clean. The day itself is spent again doing last minute preparation, trying to relax inbetween but it is just so impossible. Then the party began. The moment your last guest bid goodbye, you sigh with relief. Not that you don´t welcome your guest, but you cannot believe you pulled thru. Lastly, the aftermath. Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning ...

I did not have much time to take any photos. But manage to snap two - one just before they came and one during. I wanted to show you how I ended up serving the macarons. On a piece of Slate! The cone did not work out. It was too narrow and would not stick. Bummer.

The great news is, they LOVEEEE the macarons. Coincidently, a local chain call Tschibo were selling them in packets this week at 9.90 Euro each packet for 16 small pieces. It aroused their curiousity but is expensive enough that none bought it. Hence, they were glad to be able to sample what this macaron thingy is all about.

It was a night filled with lots of drinks ... we finished countless bottles of Röse Sekt, some wine, Munsterland Baby Strawberry Aperitif, Cocoa Nuss Liquor and my Muscat Aperitif which I brought back from my trip to France last year. It was soo yummy!

The light dinner was Sushi, Thai Mango Salad which a girl helped me sliced up the mango ala Thai Way(holding mango with one hand while furiously chopping onto the mango with the other hand before vertically slicing them up), and it was quite a spectacle (should have captured the look on their face to show you here :-D). Another girl helped me wrapped gyoza before frying them off in the pan and steam cooking them later. They loved this dish too.

In the end, I skipped the tempura making. The kitchen got a bit warmer after frying the gyoza and I didn´t want my guest to feel uncomfortable with all the frying action. A lot of them were spotted with red cheeks too and at one point, a few was giggling non-stop so I guess it is due to the drinks??? :-D Anyway, we ended up having tempura for lunch yesterday. It was super yummy. Oh, I must share you the recipe one day ..it is sooo easy but yet, sooo crunchy like how tempura´s are meant to be.

Great to get your children to eat more vegetables!

So this was what we had for lunch yesterday :-D

Now that its over, it is time for me to start preparing for my trip to France this Friday. Just like last year, my godmother from Malaysia will be staying over at her daughter´s place for couple of months and hence, me making a trip to her daughters place for a little family time in Europe. When I am back, there will be more to come ... my preparation for driving lesson in Hamburg (super intensive arrangement, which I am very excited about), followed by some trip to visit friend again in Holland, followed by hubby´s sailing trip to Scandinavia, DH friends coming over for grape festival at our place, then another friend staying over our place and followed by Barcelona trip. Oh, I have also been invited by MIL to go take up oil painting classes. Now, who says life of a housewife is boring? It surely isn´t so!

Two Parties Tomorrow in Our Home ...

2011-07-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is hubby´s birthday party. It is also my kitchen party for my Stammtisch group. Under normal circumstances, this will be considered sabotaging hubby´s birthday celebration :-D, but both group are connected. The guest are mostly husband and wife team belonging to separate stammtisch group so its kinda fun separating them this way ...

This was what I did today. Shopped, cleaned the house (almost, and hub´s suppose to do the other half tomorrow) and decorated the kitchen area. Since our kitchen is white now, I decorated them with the most boring colour on earth. Grey, black and thankfully, a dash of green. Putting the balloons up weren´t easy at all! How come stick tape hardly live up to its name anymore? Urg ...

Our dining table from livingroom area was moved to our little kitchen, so its really cramped in there at the moment. But I figured, it is kitchen party. So I guess my guest do expect to dine in the kitchen ??? Here´s my table setting for tomorrow ... again, monocrome ...

In Germany, welcoming one´s guest with a glass of Sekt (local champagne) is a norm. It is sitting prettily in one corner waiting for the bubbles to be popped!

I have something to share with you. See the glassware here? They are borrowed from my MIL downstairs and can you believe it that these are more than 50 years old?! They are indeed and look how great condition they are in still! These are actually from hubby´s grandma. My MIL had asked me several times, which of her inherited porcelain collection I would like to have when she is no longer around. She has a lot, a lot, A LOT of sets ... between 8 - 10 sets all dating back to grandma´s time and some cost a fortune. I do love some of them with gold trimmings and such, and some of her oil painting collection but till date, I just can´t tell her which one I like coz, is it NOT a taboo to start thinking of her leaving???

Anyway, back to preparation stuff ... I also made a GREEN CONE to display some of the macarons I have made. It was one of those idea I saw online and thought, oh wow ... that would be so cool! I tried sticking some pieces on them today and it worked well. I am very please with the result so, woohooo .. it surely will be fun tomorrow!

Tomorrow, my German girlfriends here are ALL gonna eat with chopstick. Haha. I hope they can cope with Gyoza, Vegetable Tempura, Sushi and Thai Mango Salad!

Oh hehe, these are our new Villeroy & Boch Urban Nature´s new buy. They are perfect for Amuse Bouche and small eats so, we got them. We lovee it. We also extended 2 XL serving platter from the same collection. It is hubby´s birthday but I felt lucky :-D

Lemon Curd Macarons

2011-07-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Made these today. I was rather proud of myself because the macaron shells seem shinier and more even. Thanks to a wonderful tip from DH Almere, she had advised me to soften out the irregularities with a slightly wet finger tip. It worked :-D Amazing. Again, if you wanna give it a try ... click this link here.

Rasberry Macarons and Matcha Macarons

2011-07-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

A dear friend recently asked why I have not been blogging. The truth is, I have been busy practising my Macarons for hub´s birthday this Saturday. This Macarons thingy I tell you, ain´t easy at all. One must give her best, always concentrating fully and be in best of mood ... at least for me. So by end of one session, I´m kinda drained out. I look for the day where it comes to me as natural as cooking rice ... I hope. Anyway, I did take some photos of meals I had recently along with my baking. I thought I´ll just drop it here in one post before I gather up my momentum again with my daily thingy. Have a bless day everyone and love to hear from you all again!

Today I´m gonna attempt making Lemon Macarons with DH France´s recipe. I love her recipe and it works really well with me with great success. But few things I really do wanna improve on. They are

Getting the right consistency so that the dough is fluid enough to flow without leaving a funny tip forming on top.
Colour, colour, colour. I have been noticing a pattern. I think I have been too careful with colour and am afraid to make it deeper. These two are from my second colouring kit purchase (love it!). They are gel base, easy to use and colour depth is definately evident but why oh why, I would stop the moment I spot a change. Haha. Plus, I think I need to relearn colour mix with all the base that I have.
Experimenting with interesting filling. This is a tough one for me. Getting them thick enough for spreading, the recipe has to be right and it has to be yummy of course!

Alright, thats for now :-)

French Roses, my latest craze ...

2011-07-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I could not resist myself from doing more online purchases. This online thingy, they are evil, aren´t they? You don´t see your physical money exchanging hands and all you need to do is click, click, click without actually thinking thru if you really need the stuff or not and then you realise much later, oh nooo ... what have I done?!

I have been shopping online a lot lately. Some stuff from H&M, mainly household stuff, from Amazon and are mainly decorative stuff for upcoming party and trip and from a website which specialises in French Roses! But look at them ... how not to click???

I got a Palais Biron yesterday .. super luvvvv the petal forms and the rich colour! Swoonnnn ...

Also got a Henri Matisse. Another gorgeous hue with clusters of it forming closely to each other as the site described it. Its so pretty, sooo pretty ... awww .. I can´t wait to see my new babies ...

I now have a big problem. Space. It is not helping too that I am smitten by another two more roses from the same website. Argg .. will my desire ever stop?

This one´s call Brown Velvet and I find the hue so unique compared to the many out there.

And this was another one I nearly clicked on yesterday. It is call Buff Beauty. What I lurveee about it is, it comes with two assorted colour within a plant! How cool is that?

Alright ... I guess I shall settle the space issue instead of day dreaming of having more, more and moreee ...

Chicken & Lemon Angel Hair for Pasta Monday

2011-07-05T23:35:00.001-07:00

A tried and tested recipe for blurry Monday. If you like a tangy twist to your pasta, this is for you. Somehow, I find it refreshing to combine lemon taste to a heavy carb base dish and oh, so befitting a sluggish Manic Monday!

Morrocon Tagine and Couscous for Heavy Stuff Sunday

2011-07-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

Shall we backtrack a bit to what I ate last Sunday yeah. I was over the moon yesterday after the macaroon session, I forgotten all the unloaded post before yesterday. So yeah .. the excitement has finally settled in after a good night´s sleep but, that is not the end of it off course. I am going to get a bit more adventurous with colour today and hopefully it works its magic again. Pray for me!

This is my plate of Hokkien Noodles cooked with Malaysian Caramel Sauce and Light Soya Sauce during lunch, so you can imagine how much I love them ...

Come dinner time, I made something Middle Eastern! I still remember how my ex-school friend from Morrocco would take hours and hours just to dish out Tagine dish. It had to be cooked soo long till the meat gets tender and all the flavour gets absorbed into the meat. Mine was all under 1 1/2 hour but all gobbled down in less than 30 minutes :-D Seasoning was surprisingly simple as compared to my first time making them. I had used spices from Morroco then, a gift from my Morroccon friend but this time, it was pure saffron, cumin seed (lotssss of it) and paprika powder and thats it! Sprinkle lots of the spice over the chicken during frying period, then add water to simmer together with all the hard vegetables such as zucchini, carrots, potatoes, red pepper etc. Tomatoes are added towards the end. Oh btw, don´t forget the tomato puree too. It is important. The just let it slow cook for an hour and tadaaa ....

Serve them with couscous. I use the soup stock from the Tagine for it. Tastier.

I finally made Macaroons from scratch!

2011-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

It is a significant milestone so I just had to jot them down here in less than an hour after I suceeded making it. My first attempt was back in KL. It was a major failure. Second attempt was with some help with packaging. It turned out lovely but somehow, it is not good enough. Third time was few days ago where I tried Lorraine Pascale´s recipe. It went a tad too flat and cracked on top. Finally, the most reliable of all the lot, beating them all hands down ... a recipe from DH France via DH Almere´s blog!

I am so happy, so happy, so happy ... that I cannot help singing about it :-D You should see me just now. Jumping around like a little girl :-D

Crepe Day for Impromptu Saturday

2011-07-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

I picked up a packet of crepe from Albert Heijn when I was in Enschede on Friday. I was not in the mood to cook much since Saturdays are usually spent doing things around the house, going out to get stuff or having an event to attend too. Crepes are good to carry us thru the day with whatever filling we fancy.

I found another favourite cheese in addition to Gruyere, Comte, Appenzell, Jung Maasdamer, Mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, Tete de Moine and lately too ... Gorgonzola!

Russian Egg Salad for Vegetarian Friday

2011-07-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

I was out shopping for good 8 hours and more last Friday. Gone were the days where I could actually shop from 10am till 10pm without complaining much about aches here and there. So there I was last Friday, 2 hours were spent commuting to and fro from my place to Enscede, which is a 45 minutes train ride away. Minus the lunch and coffee break, that leaves me with about 3 hours or so with pure looking around and buying things but oh man, my feet was still reeling with aches the day after!

But the great thing about shopping on Friday or any weekday is, it is a lot less crowded. So much so, I came home with unexpected purchases for the kitchen and lots of dresses to welcome summer :-)

Here´s what I ate during coffee break time, just mere 3 hours after my McDonald lunch!

I told myself to control. I am on diet this week but the moment I saw Fish Fillet on McDonalds signage located outside, I was sold. It has been awhile since I last had Fish Fillet. Another thing is, I think Fish Fillet taste a lot better than the ones in my town. Good justification, no? :-D The Hot Wings was crispily fried and taste sooo good. I don´t want to know how many calories were those ...

But, I did cut back come dinnertime (pat myself on the back). It as a simple Russian egg salad with seasonal cherries and Apricots.

Boleh la eh. Once a while ...

Hochzeitssuppe & Kasseler Shulter for German Thursday

2011-07-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

Thursday came and went with a blink of an eye. I am around still, but just got a tad lazy with blogging past few days because I have been busy doing some shopping, cleaning and planning a little for upcoming party and trip soon to France.

So, what´s for dinner on Thursday? Something classically serve during wedding dinner call Hochzeitssuppe - and it is unfortunate it is no longer very common due to many young couple wanting something fresher on their important day. But here it is since I love it. A few unique ingredient goes into a classic Hochzeitssuppe and they are Eierstich and Klößchen. Eiertisch is an egg pudding made of eggs and milk and are cut into little cubes for serving. Klößchen on the other hand are little dumplings made from cream cheese, egg and breadcrumbs, boiled first before being cooked in the soup. Mine are both from can, and big mistake. I should have made them myself because it taste a lot, lot better.

Main course was Kasseler Shulter serve with Sauerkraut and Potatoes. I was curious over some new prepacked stuff in the local supermarket so I grabbed two to taste. The pork shoulder is nicely cooked and tasted normal (means no chemical etc) but the Sauerkraut tasted funny.

Toad in the Hole for Fusion Wednesday

2011-06-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

Remember our recent beer purchase where they threw in complimentary sausage giftaway with it? Well, we have a three packets left and it is time we do something with it coz it is expiring soon. Tonight´s dinner is a classic British dish combining sausages and a yorkshire-pudding-ish kinda batter. The batter from Nigella Lawson is amazingly simple to do and taste really good with the sausages! But I cannot help feeling heavy after this dinner ....

Tomorrow, gotta work harder at shedding more grams off ...

Vietnamese Pork Soup Noodles & Mini Charlotte for Asian Tuesday

2011-06-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

I was looking forward to something soupy again to fill up my tummy while trying to loose some pounds yesterday. But it proved to be too big a pot. So what I did was, turned them into our dinner last night. Vietnamese Pork Soup Noodle is one of my favourite order whenever I have lunch in Vietnamese Kitchen, 1 Utama. Though mine came nothing close to their version, it was satisfying slurping the soup with spoonful of meehoon. The vietnamese meehoon I picked up many months ago prove to be very good. Fine and chewy, it is how Meehoon is suppose to be.

After dinner, we enjoyed a small portion of Mini Charlotte. It was made earlier with a few simple ingredients and cheat. Biscuit fingers or ladies finger, you can´t cheat of course, but the pudding part is achievable. All I need to do is mix some milk and yoghurt into the powder mix and thats it. Stir and no cooking is needed at all. Let it chill to set in the fridge, bring the rasberries out and get them arranged as you wish on top and that´s it!

Our dinner last night :-)

Today´s Materialistic Post

2011-06-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is my list of top 10 things I desire or want to have, just incase someone ask me what I would like for my birthday, Christmas or anything at all. If budget is not an issue, a state-of-the-art German Hufhaus overlooking Lake Garda thank you ... or, either a Mini Cooper/Daihatsu Copen/New VW Beetle please :-D

But today´s post is not about me. It is about hub´s upcoming birthday next month and coincidently, we share some similiar wish list item from here. Tomorrow, MIL had invited me to go test out something from this list for his upcoming birthday gift . I have to make some critical specification decision and I am getting jittery! What if it is not good enough or he does not like it enough. It does not help too that I recently caught him admiring some other goods online. No honey, I don´t think you are getting your sailboat yet! Hehe. His present from me has all been arranged and all I need to do is packaged them nicely. It will be an interesting gift. Strangely, I can handle it if he does not like my gift to him BUT being a middle person arranging a gift for him on behalf of someone is really something else!

Wish me luck! I hope I get it right!

Lasagne for Pasta Monday

2011-06-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Monday so we had pasta. This was what we had. I was aware of my plans to shed off weight so I reminded myself to keep my portion intake small. Hubby gladly helped me out.

After dinner, I turned the untouched fresh apricot in our fruit basket into a batch of confiture. I like to call them confiture, simply because of the cooking method ala french. The skin was intact, it needs only sugar and lemon juice and let it simmer until you get the right consistency. It is funny how apricot that tasted not much when fresh churns out the most wonderful aroma the moment they get heat. To add some sizzle, I added a dash of Apricot Liquor we picked up from Salzburg last Autumn.

Oh! I´ve got a new inspiration on what to eat for lunch after chatting with a few DH friends online! DH France likes to make a batch of chinese soup to fill her out whenever her hub is not in town. I think it is great idea! Chinese Soup is not only delicious and easy to make, it i healthy and light too! I can boil a big pot and drink them thru the day until dinner comes. How is that?! So yesterday, I got started with a simple ABC soup. It is boiled with ingredients I have around ... pork ribs, potatoes, onions, carrots and tomatoes. They tasted great after boiling for good 1 hour :-)

Salmon & Seafood Marinara Fettucine for Heavy Stuff Sunday

2011-06-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

I had leftover Gazpacho Soup from Sunday and decided to experiment by turning it into my plate of pasta sauce. Surprisingly good. Hub had other idea for dinner so, I decided to go all out on seafood :-)

Gazpacho and Chorizo Paella for Impromptu Saturday

2011-06-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since I last had anything Spanish, so I decided to cook something Spanish last night.

Our vorspeise or appetiser is none other than the fame Gazpacho. It was served cold, to counter the rising temperature we are experiencing since yesterday. Salty with slight sweetish taste from the tomatoes and capsicum, I say, it is a perfect appetiser to open up your appetite too. Oohh .. and the sunflower decor is to remind us of sunny Spain where fields and fields of sunflower are found abundantly.

I was checking out how the local Spaniards cook their Paella earlier on youtube, and how inspiring! It is not so difficult actually but you got to have all the right ingredient in place. It helps too if you have a Paella pan but I thought a normal pan will also do the dish justice. My version of Paella yesterday is with lots of chorizo. I had them cooked alongside chicken meat too and it was lovely to see the chorizo releasing its reddish colour onto the oil in the pan and thus, flavouring the chicken slices in the process. Our kitchen smell great last night. Juanes was singing his song in the background so yeah .. no Barcelona trip, nevermind, we bring Barcelona over to us then :-D

I found out that you need more than Saffron and Arborio Rice to give it the authentic taste. The many recipes and videos I saw asked for chicken stock, hence I had in it a whole bottle of pure chicken stock. The seasoning also calls for tomato puree and sweet paprika powder in addition to the essential saffron tread. Cooking the rice is the tricky part. When the recipe calls for 3 part water to the rice, and boiling it high heat for 7 minutes first, then medium heat for another 5 minutes - it is depending really on the portion you are making. So experiment yourself and taste the rice to see if its done.

All and all, we both loveeee the dish. We can´t wait to make them again!

For dessert, we opted for something out of David Rocco´s Dolce Vita´s progamme. Pour a cup of hot espresso into a glass full of Vanilla Ice Cream. It is dessert to the local Firenzas it seems. But, we did not stop there. We had them topped with a dash of Baileys :-D

Yummmm ..... :-)

Kimchi Fried Rice, Lettuce in Sesame Paste & Miso Seaweed Soup for Vegetarian Friday

2011-06-26T04:02:00.000-07:00

The picture says it all. It is bland looking, but nutritious and good for the body meal. Recently, I dragged my feet towards the weighing scale and found myself starring at an unbelievable number. I am utterly upset by it of course, so since yesterday, I have been counting every calorie of what I put in my mouth. I like the 1,200 calorie a day idea, it always works for me and no meal gets sacrificed at all. Just this morning, I shed off 800 grams from yesterday´s discipline move. But rest assured, the planned meal stays still ... just need to be a bit more creative with the calorie count factor, thats it ...

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Blackforest Cake) and Curry Wurst for German Thursday

2011-06-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Today is a significant day!

Apart from my proudest moment of attempting to bake the fame Blackforest Cake, partially succeeding in it and fulfilling a guest post promise about the cake here, I finally get the chance to meet up again with our Mandarin teacher turned good friend over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. Her son has growned leaps and bound and is adorable as ever. It is good to catch up instead of couping up at home alone. And as a reminder, it is something I should do more often too! Thanks KY for coming over :-D

This recipe is a handwritten recipe from hubby´s old German cookbook. How authentic is that?! Since it is in German and the recipe is written in a totally different format versus all the standard cookbook format I´ve used and read, I am glad I managed in the end. The cake proved to be as delicious as how it is suppose to be. With lots of Kirchwasser alcohol in it, it is actually not a cake to be enjoyed as a family! This is the real deal. So do check out DesperateHousewifeinHolland from time to time for the recipe.

Oh yes, incase I forget to highlight to you again, today is German Thursday. The cake part was not planned because sorta impromptu as it is a public holiday here and we had guest. But dinner was planned.

We had Currywurst. It is a standard snack food which apparently originated from Berlin but had since surface in every corner of Germany. Currywurst is essentially Grilled Sausages, sliced up and served with tomato base gravy and a dash of curry powder. It is a very simple snack but nevertheless fulfilling at any time of the year :-D

Ayam Sambal Siam and Pajeri Terung from Hidangan Kegemaran Dari Dapur Tunku for Asian Tuesday

2011-06-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, it was my hubby´s turn to host the boys monthly Stammtisch meeting at our place. As usual, when we expect a big group of guest into our home, some form of cleaning or stocking up beer has to be done. We came home not just with the 36 bottles of needed beer this time round, our fridge is now bursting with 36 pieces of Bratwurst as it was given complimentary from Becks Beer! Furthermore, the beer itself is already discounted to around 2.50 Euro per 6 bottles, how amazing is that? I know in Malaysia, all you get for that amount is sometimes a bottle only! Hub decided to grill some for his buddies´...

So anyway, that leaves me with a choice last night. To have bratwurst or to cook my scheduled Asian Tuesday meal :-) Actually, I have assembled some of the ingredients since noon and had placed them on the kitchen table while waiting for the clock to tick. Means, the decision was not such a difficult thing to do ísn´it :-D

Dinner was finger-licking-good Ayam Sambal Siam! Surprisingly, the method used in this book is not as authentic as the title of the book sounds and recommends the usage of blender :-) A lot of ingredient goes into the gravy making but it is oohhh .. sooo good and delish! Better than the regular Curry Ayam I´d say, or simply because I love it this way. So, stay tune if you are keen to make these. I will soon share out this recipe in my ImbiNItchy blog.

This brinjal was the main, main reason why I´d tuned into Hidangan Kegemaran Dari Dapur Tunku´ Pajeri Terung for inspiration. Brinjal or Aubergine as known here is, I would say a fairly unflexible vege to cook. The texture is something you have to get use to. Other than cooking them in pasta, stuffing fish paste into them to make Yong Tau Foo, cooking them in Fish Head Curry and Braising them with minced meat the chinese way, how else do you cook Brinjal? Suggestions please ..

This is another lovely dish from the book which I would share out too. Both recipe calls for heavy usage of Kerisik which I toasted myself. It is best eaten with rice but I decided to go carbo free last night figuring, I would weight a bit less this morning BUT bummer ...

Must be the kerisik!

Leonardo Da Vincci, Clematis, Red Pepper and Tapas Chilli ...

2011-06-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

The two assorted flowers are at its prime peak, but the latter two needs a bit more TLC ...

Kitchen´s Mixed Herb Pot and Pasta Puttanesca for Pasta Monday

2011-06-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

I cannot help being inspired by my MIL whom loves arranging her garden´s assorted herbs into a pot and then placing them on the dining table. I find the idea so cool, not to mention practical so, off I went this morning to go do a bit of snip, snip, snip at the garden when the sun came out :-) In it were two kinds of Parsley, some Bayleaves, Sage, Rosemary, Thymes, Majoram, Oregano and not forgetting Dill. Can´t see here, its hidden behind ...

Today´s pasta sauce of choice is Puttanesca which I believe came from the southern region of Italy. Hub thought he heard wrongly when I told him the name. He too had came across the meaning of the word Putta while learning spanish from a spaniard many years ago. He reminisced back his teacher´s experience with the word Putta in Germany when she (the spanish teacher) was asked by her MIL (a german) to go pick up butter (it is pronounced as putta in german) and needless to say, she was appalled why would her MIL ask her to go pick up a prostitute! Yes, putta means prostitute in both Italian and Spanish language :-)

So there you have it ... the pasta got its name this way because apparently long, long time ago, the prostitutes from South Italy area would cook up this dish just to go lure the men to them. Since Italians are big of good food, it is not difficult to understand why. Haha. The smell is suppose to be sooo good that men find it hard to resist apparently, haha ... but I am not going to explain to you how good this is. Just imagine the combo of anchovy fillet, capers, tomatoes, black olives and parsley all bind together ... :-)

Or cook yourself to find out! :-D

English Scones, Homemade Strawberry Jam and Pork Spareribs for Heavy Sunday

2011-06-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Living at the border of a country really do have a lot of perks. Apart from the short hop over to go experience the different language, culture and atmosphere, me and hub love driving across for some shopping particularly on Sunday. Sunday shopping to me is something that I grew up with so naturally, I miss it a lot.

After a few Sunday of shopping indulgence with hubby, we thought it would be great for MIL to have her turn of relaxation. Hub decided to bring his mum to a well known garden centre at the border. She lovessss gardening, so we are certain she would love it there. I decided to stay home to accompany dad and ... to bake them a little surprise when they got home :-D

This is a recipe I jotted down from River Cottage programme. It is a 300grams Flour, 75grams Butter, 120ml Cream, 100grams Sugar and 1tbs Baking Powder recipe. Sounds good, but I still think my friend Lillian whom I use to live with for a couple of months in England, has one of the better recipe. The size and height is perfect, texture was superb and on the dot, and tasted fantastic. I think it is about time I write to her to get that recipe out from her again.

This is the strawberry confiture which hub made early last week. There is no pectin or gelee in this recipe but instead, uses only sugar and lemon juice - and the strawberries were left whole to simmer instead of being mashed up. Just like how the french does it and we loveee it this way.

We had them with scones and Albert Heijn´s extra yummyyy Whipped Cream. Heaven!

Come dinner time, another short cut from me .. :-)

Marinated Pork Spareribs from the butcher, Potato Gratin from Bofrost and some side salad ...

I do at times question food that are premade, premarinated etc but, if the food is well made, good and does not contain any preservatives, why not eh? :-D

Our Kitchen Wall Art is Up!

2011-06-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

We toyed with the idea of sticking a bunch of photos onto the wall without any frames. That idea got kicked out because we realise we lack nice photos to make an impression. And we need a lot of it to make a nice collage. We also thought of painting the wall darker grey but prove too difficult because some part of the wall are hidden by the cabinets and we don´t wanna risk any colour touching our new doors! I then saw some lovely kitchen inspiration online with blackboard effect on some walls and that too had to be scrapped off because we both can´t take the dust. Then came the wallpaper idea when we saw a fun coffee jug and mug design in Douwe Egbert store in Enschede. We tried searching for it online but could not find them. I reckon it is a custom made item specially for Douwe Egbert chain? And if we found it anyway, I bet it will cost quite a bit. Moreover, the size of our wall is kinda small to even think of ordering the minimum.

So, this was what we did ...

1) Grabbed 6 pieces of Slate Photo Frame at 1.99 Euro each from Kiks.
2) Grabbed 3 pieces of Blackboard Material Kitchen Towel Hanger at 2.00 Euro each from Ernsting family.
3) Grabbed 4 pieces of B/W Stripe Kitchen Towel at 5.00 Euro a set from HEMA.
4) Insert some B/W photos from our collection.
5) Arrange them on the floor to get the measurements right, then request the man in the house to nail them up according to what he see on the floor.
6) Hang the kitchen towel accordingly on the Hanger. The dark stripe for him, and lighter stripe for me. The middle one is for the kitchen.
7) And voila! Done with a unique Art Decor for our kitchen with a total spent of not more than 22.94 Euro ... :-D

Cerdo Con Mole Agridulce & Tomatillo Salsa for Impromptu Saturday

2011-06-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

I must tell you about this sauce from Dona Tomás Cookbook titled Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking. It is fantastic and tasted nothing like any of those sauces I´ve tasted in the mainstream mexican restaurant I´ve dined in. I think Mexican food is so underated and unexplored that this wonderful cookbook which I have been flipping thru lately is such an eye opener for a foodie like me. The balance of flavour from spicy, bitter, sweet and then sour is so delicate and refreshing, and what I really like about Mexican cooking is the call for fresh produce and a good balance of carb, protein and the essential green - the fibre part. Herbs are often used too and I just love the amazing mix of colour that screams out from my plate which incidently is the colour of mexican flag too. Mexico, one of those countries I would love to visit one day ... when it is safe.

The local supermarket which I frequent had starting swapping cherry tomatoes from Spain to Holland lately, and although it is now deem safe for consumption, sadly, a lot of people are still shying from it. I got adventurous yesterday. I figured, if its meant to be, it is meant to be and especially so when I recently learned that an aunt is at late stage of lung cancer although she is a non-smoker. Just like her 3rd daughter whom suffered the same fate many years ago and pass away so fast, it leaved us feeling surreal and unjust that such a thing could happen to such a beautiful, normal soul. As I am typing this, most of her close family member are beside her now.

So, back to Dona Tomas´s cookbook. I love this book. I love the way how the history of each dish is explained in lay-man´s term. The cooking procedure however is nothing close to how we cook nowadays. A lot of it involve very tedious and long cooking process just to get the right flavour on the table. For example the sauce you see here. It took me more than an hour to make. The chilli pepper had to be toasted on a pan for specific time, then later soaking it in cold water for another 30 minutes to rehydrate them. Then blending them into a paste and setting it aside. The other ingredients of onion, garlic, pineapple have to be fried separately until its flavour is bursting with goodness. Then setting aside again before purying and then mixing with the earlier chilli paste. Then returning back to pot to be cooked again with chicken stock, orange juice, lime juice, all spice, cinnamon powder, clove and salt/pepper seasoning. Then cook for 1 hour under low heat. How tedious is that?!

But it is worth it. My only complain is, I SHOULD have made a bigger batch for keeping. The sauce is super delicious. Hubby wiped his plate clean with toast bread simply because he loved it. Thank you Dona Tomäs! I am on the roll and there´s sooo many recipes in there which I wanna try so stay tune!

We enjoyed our dinner with a dash of Malibu and Pineapple Juice which makes it Pina Colada! And oh .. I must share you this too ... this is a limited edition clear Malibu Bottle which came with 4 coloured pen for you to design on! It think it is so cool and personal and the best part is, it is the same price as the standard bottle! For more information, click here.

Here´s what we had for lunch yesterday. A soup of brocolli, cauliflower and this veggie call Romanesco Brocolli which is a cross of the former two! I love the green colour that comes with it ... :-)

KL Hokkien Mee for Vegetarian Friday

2011-06-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last nights dinner was suppose to be vegetarian but a good pantry clean up in the afternoon where I stumble upon a packet of Udon Noodle had been heating up the wok for good ole KL Hokkien Mee for dinner. It could have been a vegetarian version but what is Hokkien Mee without the prawns, squid and pork slices? I would not have missed pork lard too if not because I simply don´t have them ... so yes, it was a sudden crave for a lovely Friday evening. But I must confess. This is not good enough, simple because I had used the wrong brand of soya sauce and dark soya sauce. I think I will give this a try again with my Msian sauces coming Tuesday. So stay tune! If you wanna give this a try at home .. do click here for the recipe. Have fun!

Mamas Allerlai for German Thursday

2011-06-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday´s dinner was a straighforward all in a pot German dish which I believe is very common in household here. There´s the tummy filling potatoes and carrots. In it were some greens too and in this case, I´ve used Brocolli and Cauliflower. Onions is a must too, to bring in the extra flavour and to top it all, some pork slices which the Germans love so much. The sauce again was packet mix. My MIL loves cooking with cream which she explained is the base of most German cooking. I could have done that, with just a dash of cream after seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper but paprika powder is also one of the often used flavouring agent so, there they went for that added smokiness and colour.

Mediocre(ly) Wrapped Strawberry Swiss Roll for Fusion Wednesday

2011-06-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

We attended a friend´s birthday yesterday. It is a custom here to treat friends and family during your special day, and since it gets complicated and expensive to do them in a restaurant, most of the locals here just throw them in the comfort of their home. Whenever we get an invite, I would usually skip cooking dinner on that day too as food and drinks in a party is part and parcel of it and is expected.

Due to the evening program, I figured it is best we layered our stomach with something when hub returns home. He whom usually binge on his toast & co when he returns home, was happy to spot a freshly made cake in the fridge. It is my first attempt making a roll and I can say, it is no easy feat.

I think I got a bit carried away with the layer of strawberry confiture at the bottom, cream and then fresh strawberries. Too much???

The cake sponge got stuck a little on the silicon mat but I am very happy that it did not break. Btw, this is Gordon Ramsay´s recipe and we both like the taste a lot. For an amateur, I think his recipe is really good and tasty, with the sponge texture being soft and foldable. It surely warrant another attempt to make the roll more compact and beautiful, no? :-D

Strawberries Three Ways and A German´s Attempt in the Kitchen For Asian Tuesday

2011-06-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the wonderful Strawberry Daiquiri Cocktail suggestion! You know who you are ... it was brilliant and soo good I had 4 glasses straight in a row! Hubby was fairly amused seeing his tipsy wife so chatty in the mid of the day when he return home but nevertheless, he joined in the fun. There are a handful of strawberries left still. Hub cooked a batch of confiture yesterday and oooohhh .. I must share you the recipe soon. Anyway, I decided to turned them into little canapes for afternoon snacking today since they can´t keep well and its always nice to have them fresh. One is with mushroom pairing and the other is with ham and mint leave. They both tasted great although, I still prefer them straight up. With one more kilo to go, I think I will do some baking tomorrow. So, we basically covered quite a bit with the 2.5kg aren´t we? Confiture, cocktail, canapes and lastly, bake with.

Hubby volunteered to cook dinner tonight! Bravo hubby! He made us his intepretation of Sweet & Sour Pork with white rice. Apa macam, pass ka?

Gorgonzola Gnocchi for Pasta Monday

2011-06-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

It was another off day for hubby yesterday. Hub asked if we have any plans. I said no. Perhaps we can laze around the sofa after breakfast, attack the snack compartment inbetween, then laze around the sofa more, eat lunch, and then sofa again, have coffee/cake around 3pm, then sofa again, and then dinner around 7pm and then sleep ... I think that scared the shit out of him hahaha ... so we decided to take a drive downsouth towards a lake for some activity after our breakfast :-)

It was a good day spent yesterday. We tried searching for a sail boat to rent but unfortunately found none. We ended up drinking mediocre taste coffee in a Bavarian restaurant with pretty good currywurst for late lunch. And oh, we shared a plate too so, that´s quite a change to what we originally wanted to do at home. On the way home, we stopped by a Strawberry Field. No prize for guessing what we did there :-D

Dinner was simple store bought Gnocchi pieces with equally simple packet stuff Gorgonzola sauce. I´ve eaten pasta with gorgonzola sauce cooked the traditional way but I must say, the smell is too overpowering for me. On the other hand, I find the packet stuff so mild, delicious tasting and elegant too. Haha.

Oh nooo .. here comes the packet stuff queen :-D

Chinese Style Fried Rice for Heavy Sunday

2011-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Pfingstsonntag or Whit Sunday as known in England. It is also known as Pentecost. It is a prominent feast in the Christian Church Year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the follower of Christ after Jesus was resurrected. We had a little cake session downstairs with my inlaws during tea-time before I adjourne upstairs again. I was not feeling too well and my appetite was not so great. But come dinner time, my craving for chinese fried rice surfaced after noticing some left over white rice in the fridge. Hub decided to cook something else with the spinach I earlier harvested from our garden.

MIL gave us another goodie bag. We are spotting a pattern here. She seems to be taking any opportunity to lavish us with gifts even without any occassion. We love it of course but we could not help feeling bad that she had to go all the way out to go get some of the items here.

I am very intrigue with one of the gifts inside. It is an Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Hojiblanca olive, I presume?? Whatever that means, it sounds really yummy and exotic so I can´t wait to try them!

Current Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables from our Garden

2011-06-12T04:17:00.000-07:00

It is June now so the flower bulb period is over and the summer flowers are still not out entirely. Fortunately, some are already starting to sprout out to bid hello to the world. These are some that are adorning our space right now ...

Lupines which I am loving very much right now ... thanks for Gabi´s Lupine photos which she shared not long ago ... a few of the girls are now hooked on Lupines :-D

MIL had also started replotting her window boxes infront of the house. The red ones are geranium and the blue are Sage flowers.

We love our hostas not just because it is sturdy, wintergreen and lovely to look at, the little bud protruding out from the huge bush is a looker too!

I don´t know what these are called although we have a few bushes of them around. MIL said, they will only be around for 2 years.

Margarite which hub picked up few weeks ago.

One of mum´s 5 rose plants. I have no idea what its called but I would like to name it Cali Bree :-D

Another white variety which MIL planted alongside Geranium and Sage Flower.

One of my favourite rose ... and named after the fame Leonardo Da Vincci :-D

Moving to vegetables and fruits ... we decided to place all our tomato plants in one corner after receiving DH Oosthuizen´s baby plants! We currently have six, which is a lot. I can´t wait to taste DH Oosthuizen´s tomatoes!

Our carrot plant. I think the gap between them is too close but we´re gonna leave them this way. One of the red radish we replanted did not grow as expected so I am taking precaution here.

Long beans.

Our smallest apple tree is bearing fruit too ...

And these are the white and red radish plant. What you see here were taken 2 weeks ago. The plant had grown a lot taller currently and according to MIL, it is not their trademark to grow so tall. True enough, hub digged one out to find the bottom empty. Grrrr ...

Luckily, our Spinach aka Bayam is doing us proud :-D

Oh! I think I missed out a few photo. Our spring onion, Dill plants, Red Chillies and DH Almere´s Cosmos! Okok ... akan datang yeah ...

Italian Style Mozzarella Pizza & Mosel´s Riesling for Impromptu Saturday

2011-06-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing we have been doing frequently as of late, it is driving across the border to the nearest Albert Heijn to shop. Groceries in Germany is a lot cheaper but there are somethings worth picking up especially their diary products. We love their Rasberry Flavoured Yoghurt drink which came in cartons and can keep for a while. We also love their Vla, especially their seasonal ones and we grabbed all three yesterday. We will usually stock up on our Bonne Maman there too, together with a few packets of keropok, English Tea Biscuits, Coffee Pads (its a lot cheaper in Netherland), Campina´s Canned Whip Cream, Chicken/Kip Pao, Breakfast Bun, Chocomel (which I find sooo convenient) and many others. Strangely, hub did not pick up any cheese coz I think he is getting more and more into Gruyere now.

After some shopping earlier in Enschede plus the grocery part, we were beat. Dinner was frozen Italian Style Mozzarella Pizza with a white wine pairing. They were both good.

Creme Brulee & Provencal Cake for Vegetarian Friday

2011-06-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

I will usually make a simple soup for hub to warm his tummy after he returns from work every Friday. But due to my regular Stammtisch meeting later this evening, I made us a savoury cake and a small portion of dessert to carry us thru today. I was also itching to test out Dr. Oetker´s Creme Brulee recipe which was not only easy, the packet of 4 portion cost only 1.19 Euro!

My cousin in France shared me this recipe somewhere last year and had been one of my firm favourite since. To have an idea how to make these, do click here for the recipe.

This morning, my MIL surprised me with a bunch of flowers again. This time round, she picked a variety of sunflower and Rittersporn mixture :-D I do hope they can hold long in the vase because there is nothing like being surrounded by them in your home. They simple are amazing :-)

Leberkase und Knodel For German Thursday

2011-06-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

My inspiration for tonight´s German meal came from my other blog´s travel entry to Bavaria which we did last Autumn. The Knodel was powder form, mixed with water, shaped into ball before letting it cook in hot water for good 20 minutes. I like the way it taste as compared to the ones where you reheat in bags. I picked up two slices of Leberkase from a meat specialist today after doing a bit of shopping in town. But after tasting it, I think the supermarket kind taste more authentic to what you eat in Bavaria. These here, reminds me so much of chinese luncheon meat.

I have to tell you about this special egg! Every Wednesday, we get our egg supply from my MIL´s cleaner - Frau Pepping. She has 2 chickens. The old one and a young one. The young one was born last year (I think) and this is her first batch of egg, therefor it is very, very nutritional and fresh tasting! See how yellow those yolks are. But being young and inexperience, her eggs are all 20-30% smaller than her mothers. We had a good laugh over it yesterday after receiving the eggs.

Oma Style Chicken Soup with Potato Slices for Fusion Wednesday

2011-06-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

I usually wake up between 7.00 to 7.30am. As of late, I have been having hard time getting up even by 8.30am. Yesterday, hub came in to steal a nap when he had 5 minutes to spare before leaving for work. It never happened before so I thought he was not feeling well. But no, he was just plain sleepy. I suspect it is our lavendar plant. The flowers are out as you can see, and it is releasing out the most wonderful fragrant which blows straight into our bedroom when our windows are open. Which leaves me this question ... how do people living in Provence (especially near the fields) handle this relaxing smell in their day to day life???

We had a simple dinner last night. The chicken stock base is from a bottle, but it is so good you can´t tell its from a bottle. It has an Oma branding on it, promising great taste like how it is suppose to be cooked by your Oma (by the way, that means grandmother) and it is apparently free of any preservatives, colouring and all the bad stuff for ones body. I really like it so I guess I will go stock up a few glasses more. We had them with slices of onion, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms.

Thai Mango Salad and Green Curry for Asian Tuesday

2011-06-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last night, we had thai food for dinner. Appetiser was Thai Mango Salad where the mango got sliced the `thai way` - a technique you will come across in Thailand where the locals hold the mango in one hand and chopping them furiously on the mango surface with the other hand. The moment it gets bruise looking, it is then time to slice them off vertically into a container. The action itself is surprisingly therapeutic. Talk about living dangerously, eh. I then pound the mango slices with some dried shrimps, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chopped peanuts. Just before serving, I generously sprinkle them again with more chopped peanuts to give it more crunch. Last but not least, serve them with coriander to give it extra flavour. I thought it was not bad but it could have been a bit more sour.

Green Curry Paste was store bought all the way from Bangkok airport about 1 1/2 years ago :-D Still edible and within expiry date. They tasted great even with only coconut milk, some pieces of mushroom, green peas and a pinch of sugar like many thai dishes. Now that this packet is gone, I have excuse to go stock up what is available here :-D

Two Music Videos I am Listening To ...

2011-06-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

They say music lifts you up ...

Shrimp Pesto Angel Hair for Pasta Monday

2011-06-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is our last batch of salad from our first seeding. Thankfully, MIL reseeded two new varieties before EHEC hit the country so its great that we don´t have to wait that long for it. At the current moment, the authorities are still struggling to locate the deadly strain so that only means, eat more cooked vegetables or something from our garden at the moment.

I made a small batched of pesto sauce last night with a handful of basil leaves, garlic, parmesan, olive oil and pinenuts. I also grilled some pieces of shrimps before sprinkling them with Italian Spicy Herbs to be served at the side. Hub´s is of course, without seafood but instead with chicken meat.

Dressing Up our Kitchen Wall

2011-06-06T07:13:00.000-07:00

There is a piece of wall in our kitchen waiting to be dressed up before a very important event next month. It is painted light grey, the texture of the wall finishing is not smooth and it measures about 110cm x 180cm. I would like to have some frame arrangements like the above and perhaps, have the photos all displayed in grey tone. But I kinda like words of wisdom too - something like what you see below but something perkier and funnier, and doing it in a combo language of English and German. Both of them appeals greatly to us with one being visual stimulating and the other, with words. How to decide?!

Netherland Wild Tomatoes Breakfast for Sunday

2011-06-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

You´ve probably read in the news about EHEC cases happening in Germany right now. We have been advise initially to be extra careful when eating raw salad, tomatoes and cucumber. So being kiasi that I am, I have been shying away from them and had been relying on the small plant in our terrace. Until I saw these cuteys on the shelve last Friday. I like most of them a lot (the red, orange, yellow one) but the green ones (buried underneath) was totally unexpected. It was very firm and I guess, one really have to get use to it.

We had a lovely pancake session this morning with our couple friend before they bid a quick farewell. That was quick isn´t it? :-D

Strawberry Fraisier, Sekt and Drebber´s Spargelauflauf for Impromptu Saturday

2011-06-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went away quickly this week with activities packed back to back. We were in a friend´s housewarming in town on Wednesday where I finallly got to catch up with my Stammtisch friends after two months of not seeing them in our monthly gathering. A lot happened since and it was nice catching up with them while gazing up to the sky after dinner with a glass of Sekt in hand. Thursday was Father´s Day here so we were downstairs and to our delight, hub´s brother came all the way too for a visit. My FIL although is unable to express himself, his expression says it all when all of us surrounded him at his bedside. Friday was spent doing last minute shopping and house cleaning. It went by so quickly that I can´t remember what I ate that day :-D

Then came Saturday. We hosted a couple friend from Nürnberg. Not knowing if they would arrive by lunch time or not, hub suggested baking a cake for, cake keeps well even if not finished. And of course, he loveeessss cake. Here´s what I baked!

I remembered the first time I made these. It was for Mother´s Day last year and DH Oosthuizen and her hubby was with me. The question I remembered clearly was DH Oosthuizen´s hub asking me `How the heck am I going to slice that!`. That time, I arranged whole strawberries on top. Due to his question, I deliberately slice them thinly this time round and got them arranged this way. What do you think?

I bought quite a bit of Strawberries on Friday. You know, Sekt and Strawberries when blended together is superbbbbb! Me and hub had them for breakfast in between getting things fixed around the house. Haha!

Look what MIL made for me on Friday. Lovely isn´t it :-D

They arrive around 4pm and we proceeded to pig out straightaway. I like to think that birds of the same feather flock together because, in addition to the cake, we had 2 hugeee tube of ice cream with us too. I also discovered a wonderful drink recipe where I use to order each time I am in Coffee Bean outlet. Anyone here whom is a Sunrise fan?

While the men went off to their monthly Stammtisch meeting, the women decided to go for dinner in a nearby restaurant. Drebbers is one of the more well known restaurant where I live. I had their Spargeláuflauf (White Asparagus, Ham in Hollandaise Sauce Baked with Cheese) seeing it is still seasonal. Enjoy it while it last! And my meal did not dissappoint at all ...

Maggi Letup for Asian Tuesday

2011-06-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

A quick update before rushing off to do a round of `spring cleaning`to prepare for friend´s to arrive. This was my Asian Tuesday Meal. It took no more than 20 minutes altogether and that is for reheating the chicken pieces from last weekend´s BBQ. The Maggi Letup, a popular instant noodle variety from Malaysia on the other hand took only 10% cooking time of the former! Both combined together, yum yummm ... priceless :-D

I shall be loading more garden photos now that summer is here. Just to share with you, I do have to skip Fusion Wednesday and German Thursday this week for, we have been eating out on both occassion and bummer, I had accidently left my camera at home. So ...