Three blueberry recipes

I've a couple of blueberry recipes for you guys today! It was blueberry season a while back as you might recall me saying earlier on where I posted about the blueberry orange scones here.

I made quite a few blueberry items using fresh blueberries and I've compiled all of them into one blueberry post.

Homemade blueberry goodies: preserves, crème brûlée tart and gelato

Bacon, corn and peppers salad with maple bacon dressing

I made this salad for a potluck Christmas picnic gathering two weeks back with my girlfriends. Salads are healthy. Salads are good. Salads are yummy. I shall try repeating that to myself to get myself to eat more salads.

Picnic salad

Blueberry orange scones

I got my new iPhone 4S recently! And may I just say that I love it! One primary reason being that I get to play with all the photography apps - especially Instagram and 美图秀秀. Oh, and it keeps me entertained too as I can check my mail, Facebook, tweet and play games. Let's just hope my iPhone 4S and I will have a happy ending, unlike my previous iPhone 3...

Anyway, it's Christmas (soon anyway). Have been receiving lots of love from the colleagues at work and my friends whom I doing gift exchanging with. I guess it's the season of giving! I must confess, I'm a very last minute shopper, I was still doing last minute shopping yesterday...battling with the crowds is no fun, so I should probably not procrastinate next year!

I baked some blueberry orange scones a few weeks back when blueberries were in season. I bought blueberries non-stop during then. Whenever I pass by a grocery store, regardless of the fact that there should be at least four punnets at home already, I'll still buy one (or two) more...I'm such a hoarder.

Blueberry orange scones served alongside homemade blueberry preserves and blueberry banana smoothie

ilLido

November is a busy month for me as I have several friends and family (including my Dad, my Mom and my Sis!) whose birthdays fall during that month. For my Sister's 28th birthday this year, she chose ilLido for one of our family's regular dining sessions.

ilLido

Chicken tikka masala and garlic butter naan

As a continuation to my determination to cook more, I decided to make chicken tikka masala and garlic butter naan. An ambitious feat as I rarely eat Indian food, and when I do, it's always when I'm dining out, I've never actually attempted to cook any sort of Indian food before.

Ingredients for making masala

Oso Ristorante

The girlfriends scheduled a belatd birthday dinner for me some time back. We planned to eat Italian (I'm forever trying out new Italian places with that bunch of girlfriends...ha!) and one of them booked a table of four for Oso Ristorante.

Pardon for the really bad photos below...the lighting in the restaurant was dim, and I still haven't figure out how to properly shoot food photos in a night setting indoors. You would notice that the colour lighting for all the photos below look really different. Sigh.

Various breads (and breadsticks) for starters

Mushroom risotto with toasted panko

I was thinking of cutting back on baking, not because my love for sweets has diminished, but I think my waistline will thank me for this (in the long run!).

The kitchen's still my favourite place to be, so what can I do about it? I guess I should turn to cooking instead than. As my Sis aptly pointed out, "You still gotta eat your three meals, don't you?"

 Mushroom risotto topped with toasted panko

Togi

For my birthday dinner, I checked out a new Korean restaurant with my Sis, her boyfriend and my cousin. Thank gosh for the Internet, which led me to this gem of a restaurant that was tucked away in the Chinatown area.

Togi

Candied kumquats lemon tart

Remember when I spoke of the orange jewels previously? I made some candied kumquats as I knew I could keep them longer in the fridge before actually deciding what I should do with them.

Candied kumquats lemon tart

Chocolatey cocoa nib brownies

I was craving for brownies mid-week last week. I almost never bake during a weekday since I love to snap photos of my bakes, and I always tend to use my weekends to do so to capture my bakes in natural lighting.

I blame it on pms. Chocolate cravings are a constant part of it, and I just had to have brownies. Okay, indulge my whim I shall.

Chocolatey cocoa nib brownies

Jimmy Monkey

I met a favourite girlfriend for brunch (my birthday brunch - thanks for the treat, girlfriend!) to discuss about our planned vacation next year three weekends ago.

There were a few new coffee cafes I wanted to check out, so I chose the one that was closest to home (since I'll be lugging travel books and my laptop) in west Singapore - at the One North (Buona Vista) area.

Jimmy Monkey