Just some random pics of us so far….

Been a bit busy lately and still jet-lagged – but here are some pics to keep you entertained!!!

Choices, choices! It’s Mid-Autumn Festival soon and the shops and streets are filled with bright coloured lanterns… There’s this buzz – which I love – like CNY here or Christmas in UK… On top of this, there’s an array of mooncakes filling the shelves….

From where I come from, and from when I grew up – mooncakes were a rareity… They were highly priced for a simple box of 4 and the flavours were just the plain standard pure lotus seed paste… Sometimes, there were single yolk and if you were lucky there were double yolk! We would cut them into small slices, share them out amongst the family and savour each bite – trying to make them last for ages! I love mooncakes – maybe cos to us it was a delicacy and a once a year treat!

Well, today I passed a mooncake fayre… crazy really… The amount of people, the amount of stalls and shops selling the stuff! The flavours and sizes were vast too!

Shame really – last year, I had to avoid mooncakes as they contain peanut oil and I was preggers. This year, I’m breastfeeding, so still avoiding it! But I’m already thinking about when I am able to have them, what would I choose?

I must admit I love the original mooncake – the plain and simple pure lotus seed paste…. I’ve not really tried that many new funky tasting modern mooncakes… So I wonder whether these will superscede the original? So as a result, I have come to a conclusion that one day, I will buy lots of many mini mooncakes so that I can test the different flavours and styles… Yip, that’s what I will do!

Can’t wait to try Huppy’s favourite – Champagne Truffle & Chocolate Ganache Snowskin Mooncakes from Szechuan Court, Swissôtel The Stamford.

Have you recently been sick and tired of the breads in the local bakery? Me, I’m so bored of the same range and flavours… I crave for the bread/loaf that are fresh from the oven without preservatives… Slicing it whilst it’s hot and spreading some creamy butter over it… Just so yum-licious!

So yesterday, off I went to the local library and loaned “The Bread Book – the definitive guide to making bread by hand or machine.”

I’ve always wanted a bread-maker cos I lurve the smell and taste of fresh bread… but still haven’t seemed to have bought one yet! Nevertheless, no machine doesn’t mean it’s gonna stop me!

Bought the ingredients and started the baking process… Oh man – the kneading process was an absolute killer on the heels of my hands… By the end of it – my hands were sort of shaking! It was meant to take 10 mins from the recipe – but it took me 20 mins to get to the desired smooth and elastic dough… And it still wasn’t that smooth and elastic!!!

Result @ 11pm: Fresh in-deed! Smelt fab! Tasted it when it came out of the oven and it was soft and nice… But ofcos there’s always room for improvement – like other flavours, styles! So sliced the loaf in readiness for the following morning’s breakky – which was this morning!!

To continue with my home-baking, decided to bake some cookies today – house smelt lush and cookies tasted fab – but ofcos Im gonna say that – right?!?!