Pineapple & coconut cake AND Chicken with peaches

This was a day where I feel like baking was the only thing on my agenda!
I was browsing through the newly purchased bakery book and thought that I would like to bake something different this time. First thing, no chocolate ! Secondly, how about cake with fruits in them ? So I ended up with a Pineapple & coconut cake. Well, at least CK likes the taste of it.

OMG !!! The Chicken with Peaches did not get uploaded properly ! CK and myself co-cook this dish as a pot-luck dish for mooncake gathering at eldest brother's house ! As usual, my two nephews would ask me what I have cooked ? Wasn't I delighted when he said peaches is his favourite fruits ! Battle half won, at least if the chicken dish failed miserably, I have the canned peaches as my "back-up" !

**INGREDIENTS**
200G CHICKEN FILLETS
1 WHOLE CANNED PEACHES
1 BEATEN EGGS
1/2 CORNFLOUR

*MARINATE*
1/4 TEASPOON SALT
1/2 TEASPOON CORNFLOUR
1 TABLESPOON EGG WHITE

**SAUCE**
50ML SYRUP FROM CANNED PEACHES
1/2 TABLESPOON CORNFLOUR
2 TABLESPOON SUGAR
2 TABLESPOON KETCHUP
1.5 TABLESPOON WHITE VINEGAR

METHOD
1. Cut chicken fillet into chunks. Mix in marinade and leave it for 10 minutes or longer.
2. Drain peaches from the can. Reserve thesyrup to make sauce.
3. Coat chicken in beaten egg and then in cornflour. Deep-fry until light golden. Set aside.
4. Heat the oil again, deep-fry the chicken pieces again until golden brown. Remove and drain excess oil.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Add sauce and cook until it thickens. Stir in chicken and peaches and mix well. Serve.

M.A.C time

One thing just lead to another ...
Firstly, I wanted just to buy a foundation from M.A.C and I ended up with five other items !

I have been using ZA foundation which was pretty good. I have this opportunity to use M.A.C during the office shoot and I thought the foundation coverage for the face was pretty convincing.

M.A.C doesn't come cheap and guess I have to use the foundation sparingly !

M.A.C service in Raffles City is pretty good. The pretty young sales lady is helpful and knowledgeable and you could consult her on some beauty tips. This Prep and Prime lotion is supposed to "soothe" your skin before you apply the foundation. Sounds pretty tempting !

This paint pot is supposed to "retain" your eye shadow colours and could last for 8 hours ! I hope this works for my eye lids ! I always have this problem of eye shadow being "wash-out" after a short while. On second thoughts, I might want to try M.A.C eye shadow in future.

Brush for blending and blending of the eye shadows !

For washing the brush ! Just squeeze some lotion on a piece of kitchen towel and just "brush" the brush on it...

Cannot resist the lovely coloured lipstick !

BOKEH

Making best use of the 50mm portrait lens to produce some bokeh effects. Switch to f1.8 to f2.8 for best effects.



A "normal" bokeh with christmas lights behind the figurine.


Using a self-made love-shaped filter to transform the christmas lights into love shape. (Cheng Cheng, thanks for the lovely figurine from US !)


Another self-made paper filter with a bear-shaped this time


There you are ... the love shaped paper filter. I bought some black papers (papers must not be too soft or thin; $0.40 each piece), get some dimensions of the camera lens, draw the shape on the paper and use a pen-knife to cut the shape out. Use a rubber band to secure the filters to the camera lens.


The bear-shaped filter


This is how I took the photos with a busy-body dog accompanying me throughout my shooting ! It wasn't as easy as I thought to take these bokeh photos. The greatest hindrance is that the camera refused to focus on the main subject ! Still trying to find out why this happens. Overall, it was a fun session! CK came back in time to see the "mess" I have created in the living room with christmas lights scattered on the chair and the black papers trimmings on the floor ! Bahwahwah !

Chocolates truffles

Made these chocolate truffles for CK's colleagues.
CK was my tester and he found it very rich and soft ...
However, I got very good review from his colleagues ! Very surprise .. I guess these tiny sweet bites are good for increasing energy level in the office.


I've run out my last bit of cocoa powder ! So have to use other ingredients as coating. (almond nuts, coconut glaze, colourful sugar balls and icing sugar)

New tries

Bought this sandwich maker with CK at Courts. Just to add a bit of variations to our breakfast during weekend!


Courts was having an offer. We bought this for around $58. This Kenwood sandwich maker comes with a set of grill pan and waffles pan too.


Our first breakfast ... sardines with wholemeal bread !


Here you are ... piping hot ! Tasting real good !



Have tried this in BC' house and it tasted so fantastic ! She said that she bought the ready-made pastry from Poon Huat. You would have to prepare the ingredients you like to be sandwiched inside the pastry. I stir-fried some self-marinated shredded pork and mixed vegetables. Simply placed the ingredients in the middle of pastry sheet and send straight into the oven to bake !

The first BIG step

It's amazing for someone who did not write dairy to start a Blog at this age ! But I guess we need to keep up with the times :)

This blog started because of Reg .. she has a Blog and has suggested that I should have one as well. Yes, I think I could do just that! Thanks to Reg for all the help on my first BIG step! I am happy that Cheng has a Blog (with pretty pictures of Xuan) too to update us about their family life in the US.

As I'm writing this, I noted that it's already Sunday ... Kool and I'm still trying to re-collect the events on Saturday to write on this very page!

It was a pleasant day for me and family. As usual, our puppy Jojo will wait for me outside the bedroom door (Yes "Daddy" had already woke up way before "Mummy"), when I opened the door, he will "automatically rolled-over" for me to "Sayang" him ! I gladly did that for him !

Recently we have subscribed to cable vision, so my daily routine has been switching on to "Animal Planet".. and CK's favourite is "History". There are sometimes friendly competitions on who gets to watch what. After watching cable programme for an hour or so, we fetched my little nephew Nicholas before bringing Jojo for his monthly grooming. This is the first time that we're bringing Jojo to a new Groomer. Mona seems like a dog lover which is great and the shop looks pretty clean and the grooming session is open to pet owners. To us, the most important characteristic in a good groomer is that he/she needs to have a heart of gold for animals. Any rough handling and that's it! No second chance !


Nicholas is an animal lover from young. We are glad of his companion as he loves to play with Jojo. However monitoring is necessary for kids with dogs as they tend to be quite rough with them. We have taught Nicholas how to feed meals, treats, make him fetch things, roll-over, sit etc. We even captured some moments on video of Nicholas feeding Jojo.



The day ended at our beloved uncle's house at CCK. As usual, our uncle cooked up a storm ! I've managed to finished quite a huge portion of the fiery stirred-fried long beans which everyone commented that the long beans are too "old". Hmmm... that reminded me that my diet programme is again ruined.. ouch !!! But what a lovely day!!!!