Seckel Pear Tarts

Upon looking at this, I was so tempted to make something similar straight away. However, there was just this one tiny little problem. I couldnt find special pears in the supermart. All I could see were the normal plain old green Bartletts and the brown Korean/China pears.

Well. I was not that out of luck. It so happens that pears are seasonal (so are most fruits actually, you would say, and yes I know), and they are in season during the later part of the year. So when I actually saw a variety of USA pears in the supermart a month ago, boy was I delighted.

I was debating on which type to get, the Bosc? Green Anjou? Red Anjou? There was just no competition when my eyes found these...

Seckel pears

Black sesame macarons

I made black sesame macarons some time ago. Tastewise, they were great. Visually, I have something minor to gripe about - they aren't greyish black! They are more of a I don't know brownish black shade. That's what irks me the most, otherwise, everything about these were pretty good.

Vanilla salted caramel and chocolate mousse

I think I am more suited to making cake based desserts, I can't seem to succeed with the mousse (gelatine) types of desserts. The taste of these mousse, although good, were not moussey-like. They were more of a richer texture than the softer melt in the mouth texture I was seeking. I used the recipe from here, and managed to get six tiny shot glasses and three half-filled big glasses.

Lindt 70% dark chocolate; salted caramel; triple mousse verrines.

Kim's Family Restaurant at Lorong Kilat

Lorong Kilat's been busy these days, what with the new shops that are sprouting along that small lane. Within the last few years, a Korean grocery shop (yay!), restaurants, ice cream parlours have opened there. Luckily for me, that area is within 15-20 minutes walking distance for me, and I find myself walking there more often for icecream, or even dinner with friends.

Banchans.

Grapefruit tarts and pumpkin apple muffins

Well, I've been lazy editing photos so I've a huge ton of photos left to do up. So far, I'm only touching on my food pictures cos I feel happy thinking about them. There's still pictures of friends and family to be posted. Perhaps on FB? Less editing to do thank god. (:

Here's some Grapefruit creme brulee tarts that were made when I was experimenting with dough and also, some pumpkin apple muffins that were made near Halloween, where pumpkins were in abundence. (:

Strawberry Shortcake

It was Daddy's birthday on Monday, I made a cake for him this year for his 51st! I compiled together different recipes to make the cake - the sponge cake from a website, the chantilly cream from a baking book, and the method of assembling it from yet another website.

This is my first ever whole layer cake, and I can't say it's that scrumptious (but hey on the bright side, at least I got some pretty decent pictures out of it! haha.). The sponge was alright on the top layers, but a tad dry and dense at the bottom layer. It could be that I overfolded the batter just a bit before baking. Bah. And it was a little tasteless on its own, it would have been nice if there was some vanilla or lemon zest added to the batter to enhance the flavour. But I learnt new stuff. So hopefully, my next layer cake would be an improvement!

Happy 51st Daddy and thanks for everything.

Cute ad

I found this commercial that I saw some time back, I forgot on whose blog. But I keep thinking about it cos I thought it was cute. So I decided on a whim to try searching for it and I found it!

Do look at it. It's sweet. (:

What goes around comes around

Sometimes, life is interesting. The smallest things can make you stop and reflect and thank yourself that you did something in a certain way.

The other day, it was raining heavily , I had just finished my driving lesson at BBDC and was across the road at the bus stop waiting for the bus, with my umbrella still open to keep the rain at bay (it was practically pouring torrents and torrents cos I got wet dashing across the road to the bus stop as there were many puddles on the ground - lucky me that there was no cars that splashed water on me as I would absolutely go mad).

This girl alighted from a bus and was looking to cross the road. She approached me and asked tentatively if I could shield her across. I hestitated for one second, debating with myself that the bus would not come in the minute I would take to fetch her across and back. (Issue aside, does anyone beside me find it really weird that it's a driving centre, where traffic is BUSY constantly, and there are no traffic lights for pedestrians to cross the road safely? People jaywalk all the time outside the driving centre and I have thought about it several times before - what is the accident rate for jaywalkers at the location like? Hmmm.)

I digress. I did brought the girl over (jaywalking yet another time, may I add). Although I got even wetter, I felt that it was okay, cos I did a (minor) good deed for the day.

Then, today, I walked out to the Korean mart near my place to get something, and it started raining heavily within a few seconds. I was without an umbrella, and walking anywhere was out of the question as there was no shelter from where I was to whereever I was about to go. Luckily for me, within five minutes of standing to one corner hoping desperately for the rain to stop, a kind lady wielding an umbrella (oh my angel!) approached me and ask if I need to get across. She sent me to the bus stop opposite the road and went about her way.

This really brings to mind the old saying; what goes around comes around. It's a small matter, yet it really made me think of how true this saying is.

Blueberry coconut and chocolate hazelnut financiers

Around the same time I made the icecreams (yes, plural, I still have images of vanilla bean icecream to upload, that's for another post), I had lots and lots of leftover egg whites. I didn't feel like making macarons, but I was meeting some friends that week, so I decided to make some financiers to share. I used the same recipe for the raspberry financiers I made previously, tweaked it around a little, and came up with two new flavours - chocolate hazelnut and blueberry coconut.

Peach and raspberry pies

It's my first interview later on in the afternoon. Hopefully things aren't as bad as expected cos I know somehow the first few interviews are always tough. Well, practice makes perfect and I will manage to master the tips of how-to-pass-through-an-interview-successfully in time to come. (:

Here's ending off with some white peach and raspberry pies I made a few weeks back. I had enough pastry and filling to make one big pie and one miniature one. It's my first attempt at doing a lattice design atop a pie, and I must say it should have been easy, just that my pastry making skills are not up to par as the weather in Singapore is simply blistering heat 24/7 and I usually get like overworked dough before I even know it. :( I need to conquer tart dough! That means I'll be making more tarts/pies in the near future!

Mini pie slice with a mini scoop of Haagan Daaz's Apricot and Cream icecream. Yums.

Pear banana walnuts muffins

Let me tell you more about these lovely muffins. I think that the pear is an often overlooked fruit for baking muffins. The common choices are banana, chocolate(fine, it's not a fruit but it is a popular choice!), apple, blueberries or raspberries. Yet, the humble pear is a really good fruit to use in baked goods cos they have a subtle light fragrance that heightens the finished product. If you get what I mean. The pears also soften considerably after baking so it doesn't matter if the pears are still not yet fully ripe. Add some chopped walnuts for the crunch factor, well, I think I've found a pretty healthy muffin recipe! (:

Banana blueberry muffins

I'm currently sprouting a muffins addiction (which is a really really bad habit since it's carbs!) but I try my best, substituting plain ol' flour with oats flour (which basically refers to the throwing of rolled oats into the food processor). First up on the muffins list is these blueberry banana muffins. I think they're pretty yums, but wait till you see the next entry - the pear banana walnuts combo. Which are, in my opinion, even better than these blueberry babies.

Cutie pie niece and nephew who came over for a visit when I was i the midst of baking these muffins.

Adorable-y cute. (:

A depressing weekend

There are many movies nowadays that are adapted from popular novels. And although I can see why the movie companies do it (why, for the money of course!), sometimes I think they should just leave the books alone. Stories read in black ink on white paper, just seems so much more arresting than the feelings actors can evoke. Words just seems to capture the moment, the emotions, the characters ever more clearly than how some actors and directors think.

Having just watched the movie The Time Traveler's Wife (without having first read the book), I think it was a nice movie yes. But often, when the movie plot is derived from a book, and one that I've actually read, the movie just loses its overall appeal. Sure, I head to the cinemas just like anyone else to catch such films when they are released. But, deep down, I secretly think that always, no matter how good the movie was, the book automatically wins, hands down. I feel that now that I've watched the film, when I read the book, I'll probably change my opinion of the movie and think that the show wasn't that good afterall.

And speaking of movies/books, I've just finished reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, another big screen adaptation. I must say, the whole book made me think a lot. About siblings, about life, about health, about the law, about choices and most of all, about fate. I cried while flipping through the last few pages of the novel. The ending was just so...I can't think of how to describe, but it was just so sad...

Then on the same day I finished the book, I was watching telly (how rare! I'm always watching vids on my computer. snigger) at night. In the drama, someone's grandma dies in a fire and the granddaughter was held back by others cos she wanted to dash in to save her granny. Seriously, enough is enough.

What an emotionally depressing weekend.

Graduation Trip

I was just a first year student at QUT, with my eyes wide open. Three years later, here I am, finally a university graduate. I've learnt alot. About life, about people, and most importantly, about myself. Now, it's time to bid my alma mater adieu, and put on my graduation cap. It's been a really great journey. I just wish I had a longer time at uni.

Here's a condensed pile of photos, the full album (okay not full since I wasn't about to upload EVERY single photo from my camera) is available for viewing on Facebook.







Most of all, I'm thankful to my family.

Thanks to my dad, who forked out my hefty university fees, so that even when I didn't get into NTU's SCI, I can study Mass Communications. I love him for being him.

Thanks to my sister, who was just there whenever I needed a listening ear and everything else. I'm glad that we didn't grow apart despite the distance seperating us. Whenever I was back for the hols, it was just as though I was never away at all, the laughter, the gossip, the times together.

Thanks to Jos, who made my life in Brissy more exciting and for being an awesome gossip buddy. You were my best pal in Brissy and I really treasure the times we have there together. Love you!

Random fun facts, And triple choc tarts.

Random happenings. They can be amusing or miraculous. Depends on how you're looking at it. ;)

On Thursday, there was a brief short span of heavy rain in my area, and it actually rained ice. Yes. You didn't see wrongly. I wrote i-c-e. Super miniscule and few, but yes, water in its solid state - ice. Hohoho. My dad was so amazed by the fact. Siew, on the other hand, think it symbolises the end of the world. snigger.

Met up with Siew for dinner tonight and we happened to chance upon two rare sights.

No1.: After dinner, while walking along the streets to digest our steaks, something plopped from the sky to the very spot right in front of me. There I was, with my foot in the air, about to step down again, when the dubious white thing splat down (with an audible "plop" that Siew said she heard). Guess what? I just narrowly missed being "bombed" by a bird, or from another perspective, avoided stepping onto the white fresh bird poop.

No2.: Then along the same stretch of road, just further down (fine, it was in town, seriously, if you want to witness entertaining things like me, just head down to town to get your dose of entertainment. snorts), we were waiting at the traffic lights cross junction to cross the road, when a car zoomed out from the perpendicular road to where we stood, and I meaned ZOOMED. As it was traveling at a high speed and turning at the same time, it totally went like zig zag onto the main road (lucky there werent any more cars zooming past like what the car did, so, no accident.) and I swear everyone's eyes in the vicinity were locked onto that car and its hellidon'tknowhowthepersonpassedthedrivingtest driver. Total F1wannabe antics, and it wasn't even for a filming for a show or anything. Gosh.

So yeah, just wanted to share with you some random titbits, cos I havn't been updating with any interesting news lately. (: And of cos, I'll end off with food porn again. ;) This time, of the triple chocolate tart I made couple weeks back, before I went to Aussie.



I try to use good chocolate whenever I bake. It's Lindt all the way for me. I love the 70% dark chocolate. I miss getting bars of it whenever it goes on sale at either Coles or Woolsworth. The price (cheapest - AU$2!) is so much cheaper than in SG (S$5.50) for one bar. For my convocation trip, I set off with the heart to buy Lindt bars in bulk back. Imagine my disappointment when it wasn't on sale at both supermarts. THEN. While shopping at Target with my friend, she pointed out the confectionery stand to me and said, "Hey, Lindt chocolates are on sale!" Guess who left the store with TEN bars happily tucked away in her bag... ;)

Back from traveling. And some macarons pictures.

I'm back! From all my trips. Loads to share, loads to share. Just not in the right frame of mind to piece my thoughts into coherent sentences. It's 11.50pm and I'm daaaaaaaamn tired cos I went for a jog just now with the Sista. Instead of attempting to sort through my memories, I opt for pictures instead. Nothing beats pictures, right? (:

My Aunt Susan wanted to learn how to make macarons, so one day last month, she came over and we made two batches of coffee, chocolate and lemon macarons. The lemons were a flop - they didn't rise! How sad, thus no pictures of the disastrous flat lemon ones, but here are the coffee and chocolate ones.