Tuesday 31 August 2010

Of Pancakes, Iced Muffins and Jucy Lucys!!

This is going to be a looong home-made food filled post. Yea, this is like a platform for me to show that I not only LOVE good food, I can MAKE good food. Haha!!! *Syok sendiri much* Seriously though, I do love cooking and baking. Trying new recipes and succeeding at them can be such a fulfilling experience.

So recently, Ben and I have been embarking on some cooking projects. You'll probably remember his garlic bread obsession earlier on. Well, we've graduated ourselves from that and became more adventurous. Let me just fill you in on our Kitchen Projects. Had to borrow some pictures from Ben's blog because I didn't do much snapping of my own while elbow deep in the kitchen work.

1. Project Pancakes
I converted Jesicca into a Paddington's House of Pancakes fan. So Ben asked me if I knew how to make pancakes. Since then, we've made pancakes quite a few times. The batter is easy to make and its quick. To add to the fun, Ben tried to flip them using without using the skillet. So now, the both of us can flip pancakes movie style minus the pancake-stuck-on-the-ceiling scene. Hehe!!

Pancakes!!!


2. Project Muffins and Icing
My girls will remember the good old muffin baking days in SzeHaw's kitchen a few years back (SzeHaw, Chrysie, Liane!!!I miss those baking expeditions!!!!). Well, the same chocolate chip muffin recipe was a success in Ben's Sum-Sum's kitchen. The muffins turned out very nicely. See:-

Yummy Chocolate Chip Muffins fresh from the oven!!!

The most fun part was the icing decorating. I whipped up some butter icing and they mixed in some colouring. We had a grand time literally playing with our food. From now on, I will always try to make icing when we have home baking. It was just so FUN!!! The only bummer was we didn't make enough icing to ice all the cupcakes, but there's always next time. No wonder people say that baking is somewhat therapeutic. Let me show you our end result:-

That's my work on the right!!
SUGAR overload!!!Yum!!

Ben's 'baby' face on the muffin

We made a total of 42 muffins which were consumed within two days at his home. Haha!! Indication of project success! Click here to read the tutorial Ben typed in his blog to see our full process.

3. Project Jucy Lucy
This was my first attempt at making Jucy Lucy Burgers. I've always wanted to try it out ever since seeing it in one of the Man vs. Food episode. I suggested it when Ben asked me if I could think of more use for his new flat frying pan. So we found ourselves in the kitchen together again. Anyway, to those who are clueless, a Jucy Lucy is a burger which the patty has melted cheese inside it. The concept is sandwiching some cheese between two patties, sealing it and frying it. So we made our own patties from minced pork and made the patties from a scratch. Demo pictures:-

Raw patty

A nicely cooked Jucy Lucy patty with melted cheese oozing out

The Jucy Lucys turned out pretty good, though a little too thick for some. We were quite pleased with our first attempt. Going to perfect it in future. Hehe!! Meanwhile, let me show of our Jucy Lucys!!!
Awesome yes?? Click here to see Ben's take on our Jucy Lucy project.



Any ideas for our future kitchen projects??


Saturday 28 August 2010

Digi 360

A quick update on one of the events I attended recently. I have drafts to clear as usual since I have been updating oh-so-consistently (not).Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Anyway, I randomly ended up in the Digi 360 party the other week. It was actually an invite only for 50 Digi users and guests. I spotted the tweet about the event on Twitter while casually scrolling and just decided to e-mail them just for fun; without even looking at when and what time the party was. The next evening, I saw the e-mail from Digi saying I am on the guest list and the party was THAT NIGHT. Wow. Ben and I had a quick discussion (he also got the invite because I sent his details too) and then decided to rush to get ready and go. We also dragged along Vemal too.

We got to SoHo with some minor detours (even using GPS, we ended up going through a mountain and back) and had some trouble locating the exact place. In the end, a helpful guard gave us correct directions and we finally arrived at the Canon Celebrities Hall of Music entrance. We were given our invites, goodie bags and a box of popcorn upon entry.

Our invites which also doubled as lucky draw tickets

Popcorn
At first we got ourselves nice seats, but ended up being shoo-ed to a not-as-nice booth because apparently it was 'reserved for VIP' (I thought WE were the VIPs). We just amicably moved and took in the surroundings.
Vemal and Ben

The bar area

The stage

The games area

The games area was quite fun. There were lots of prizes up for grabs. We could also play the Tic-Tac-Toe as many times as we want. I quite liked them using the stage as a huge game board.

Ben and I waiting our turn and the Wheel

After participating in the games, we ended up with quite a bunch of freebies consisting of 3 water bottles, 2 lanyards, 3 umbrellas, and 2 RM50 vouchers. Pictures of some of our prizes:-

This is our host for the night; Sugar

We also celebrated the birthdays of the guests who were born in August and were given some cake. Also, one of the Regional Managers gave a welcome speech before the stage band performances started. The lucky draws were held in intervals between the performances but unfortunately, I didn't walk away with any cool prizes.

Birthday Cake

Mr Patrick, Digi Regional Manager

The highlight performance for the night was a band called The Union who played the great hits from the 1980's. I really enjoyed the music which they played that night. I love listening to 'oldies' because they are so much nicer on the ears than today's weird tracks they label as music. I think my parents would have loved to listen to them too. The atmosphere was really great with the music they made. And I really admire the fact that ALL the band members can sing!! Yes, even the musicians.
The Union

Vemal's beer

We left after they announced the end of the event and headed to Nirvana for our 'dinner' since we were so hungry. I had banana leaf and it tasted so good.

Chicken Curry

Banana Leaf

We made it back in time for curfew and I saw the unusually bright full moon that night.
Great night out; even though it was so last minute and unplanned.
I love you guys. Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Asha's 21 & Grown Up(s)

It was Asha's 21st birthday (and incidentally, my ACCA results day. Don'taskemeaboutitbecauseit'sjustsobadIdon'twannathinkaboutitbutonlyfocusonthecomingexam) and Louisa had planned a birthday dinner for her. At first I thought I couldn't make it because I had accepted Time Out KL's Grown Ups movie premier tickets, but turns out the screening was in Sunway Pyramid so Ben and I decided to drop by and spend some time with the birthday girl before our movie. It was at Fullhouse and thankfully there was space for us despite the fasting month dinner crowd. Since Ben and I were the earliest, we 'booked' space.


Louisa arrived after us, followed by Asha, Aunty Melanie and Afnan. We ordered drinks and had some appetisers while waiting for the rest to arrive (Jon, Tristan, Yassir and Joanna came later on). The food in Fullhouse, as up to expectations; was excellent. We were chattering away and I was enjoying the company as much as I did the food.

Soft Shelled Crab with Wasabi Dip
The vegetables were so fresh and crisp!!I couldn't stop munching on them.
Fortunately, there weren't many veggie lovers there to fight with me for them. Hehe!!

Chilli Chicken Wings

Ben missed the appetisers because he had to go collect our Grown Ups tickets from the Time Out booth. I got teased mercilessly about it. =.=
Our tickets courtesy of Time Out KL

Just then, the rest arrived one by one and we ordered our main courses. Louisa ordered this funny drink for Afnan that looked like swamp water with swamp dregs. See:-
But amazingly, it tasted really good!!!

I love the drink stirrers in Fullhouse. They're so cute!!!

The food arrived and I had to speed snap them before the owners speared their forks into them. Haha!! I amuse them with my food snapping.

Afnan's Grilled Chicken

Louisa's Lamb Chops

Ben and I shared this since we weren't very hungry

(no human pictures because I don't think the people in them will appreciate me posting them up here. Haha!!)
We had to leave early because our movie was about to start. So we said our goodbyes and wished the birthday girl before we went away. I missed the later part of Asha's celeb which I was told was a nice surprise for her and made her all teary. Sorry I couldn't be there Asha, but I'm glad you enjoyed your 21st and I hope you'll have more happy days like that. :)

We entered the cinema just before our movie started.

I've always like Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider comedy movies (my all time favourite being 50 First Dates, which I watched over and over) and Grown Ups was pretty hilarious. Although it wasn't laugh-till-your-sides-hurt funny, it had some very funny scenes with the main characters showing priceless expressions in them. I enjoyed Grown Ups and would recommend it if you're looking for a summer comedy.

Supplied me with some laughter to soothe me a bit from my horrendous results. I've had my fun. So now I gotta throw in some pretty hard work into the mix. Wish me luck people!!!

Monday 23 August 2010

Buka Puasa at FRAMES Cafe

The fasting month is commencing and there are lots of 'Buka Puasa' promotions available in all the eateries. Pui San persuaded me to try the Buka Puasa dinner menu in FRAMES Cafe; and I agreed since I have been eye-ing FRAMES ever since it opened at the Sunway Pyramid Main Entrance (next to Starbucks Coffee and opposite Bubba Gump).

The ambiance there is really nice and relaxing. The place is furnished in deep and warm hues, with framed pictures covering the walls (hence the name FRAMES). The lighting there is just nicely dimmed, enhancing the decor, and the soothing music gives a very nice touch to the cosy feeling one gets when seated in the cafe. Very nice environment to enjoy your food. I guess with such a nice environment, everything tastes better. The food there is nice to begin with, so the food scored very well with us.

Our Appetisers:

Prawn Caesar Salad
The salad was so fresh and crunchy. I wished it was the main course!!

Spicy Seafood SoupThis one was a little too watery for my taste but otherwise tasted good.

Main Course:

Grilled Fish with Mash and Vegetables
This one was just passable.
I guess FRAMES specialises in Western food and not local recipes.

Dessert:

Blueberry Cheesecake

Raspberry Sorbet with Raspberry Syrup
The desserts are TO DIE FOR!!!!!
Pui San and I were practically swooning while savouring them!!

What a pleasurable experience. I felt as if all my senses were being pampered. The price was quite worth it too since the portions were generous. I am looking forward to when they reintroduce their set lunches after the fasting month. Till then, enjoy the dinner sets while they're still available!!

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