To cook, with heart 5 :)

all those colours on a plate/in a bowl.

♥

Wedding-Related: Invitations

hooookays.

so we've got all our invites now.

time to sort 'em out... 

have 'em sent out...

geez!

how did we end up with 4 different versions of invitation cards?!! this, not even including the SAVE-THE-DATE e-cards and e-invitations.

-__________________-

anyways, here are the cards and ribbons from Carlton.

not that we are using them since we've got wonderful Ele who designed our "Meant to Be" invites :)

LOOKIE HERE!!!

am so thankful for the girl who had to work on our card designs from so, so, far away (England).

and having to do it all while in her final year of Uni.

so happy with her designs.

♥ THANK YOU DEAR ELE ♥

we feel quite bad though, that not everyone gets one of these physical cards.

our intention from the start was to give out e-cards only.

only very recently did we decide to print a small batch of cards for mummy and daddy's friends. 

this, for the celebrations in SG.

no need to worry about the one in KL.

the restaurant gave out those red, cheena cards so his folks can use 'em.

me? i'm gonna stick to the ones by Ele :)

heehee.

okay, am off to continue sending out e-invites.

g'nite world.

sleepless.

in mama's.

hubs ain't coming home this weekend after all.

i didn't want to sleep alone tonight.

so the minute i landed earlier this evening i rang mama and asked them to come pick me up from home after i got some house chores done.

mad rush to make it to the Polling Centre...

stripped the bedsheets off and dumped them in the machine...

managed a second load of laundry after...

gave the house a quick mop...

好累 !!!

ah well.

what to do.

having your own place means you gotta manage it yourself!

oh this is damn random.

off to write up some wedding invites.

bye.

To cook, with heart 4 :)

We had a little potluck lunch in the office the other day.

The "theme"... was Teo Chew Porridge.

We are needed something comfy.

Haha.

So i contributed a Shredded Pork with Preserved Veg dish.

榨菜肉丝

Yummy!!

BH said it looked like something from Crystal Jade.

E said it was better than.

Wahahahahah!

It was a short (lunch) break from the office, but a lovely one :)))

MUCH NEEDED!

And to see my contributions polished off? 

Happy neh!

To cook, with heart 3 :)

After a horrible, HORRIBLE week at work, i was in need of comfort food.

Plus, it rained the entire weekend :(

So, i made us some good 'ol homely comfort food - Chicken porridge one evening, Chicken soup the other.

I try as much as possible to have my dishes come with a few colours. I like 'em colourful :)

Hence, carrots added to our porridge, along with spring onions as garnish. Besides, we need our veggies!

With clear soups, especially chicken soup, i like to add wolfberries. Adds a dash of red to the bowl of yummy goodness! Oh, and spring onions to top it off before serving of cos.

Can't think why there are people who don't like spring onions :p

I like!!

Wedding-Related: Cookies!!

i went cookie-tasting @ Junesza's the other day.

lovely chocolate and vanilla cookies she makes!
*please excuse poor quality of pictures. not enough light. mobile cam.

these flower-cookie-on-a-stick are a yummy vanilla flavour with a hint of lemon zest.

i absolutely love these!

these adorable chocolate ones?

so yums!!!

the kids loved them :)

Junesza is such a thoughtful person.

she made sure there were enough samples of these cookies for me to bring home so all at home could taste 'em too.

this, after only having told her once that the parents are very fussy about how sweet the cakes and cookies would be.

i like Junesza.

and,

I LOVE HER COOKIES AND (CUP)CAKES!!

Just b'cos

Found this on my mobile. 

Taken at Empire Hotel Subang the last time i stayed there on the work trip to Malaysia.

No reason for this post :p

I just like all those lines and shapes... and the whole feel of this shot.

Oh the random-ness of it all.

To cook, with heart 2 :)

I made us a pot of Spare Ribs with Bittergourd the other day. 

That, and stir-fried greens Doumiao with (plenty of) garlic :)

 

 

Spare Ribs with Bittergourd

Ingredients required:

6 pcs spare ribs

2 small bittergourd, cut to... oh say the size/ length of 2 fingers? (i chose to use the small ones that day cos i like 'em bitter, but the big ones are fine. and next time i'm going to double the quantity of bittergourd cos we both love 'em!)

1 1/2 tbsp tau cheong [fermented beans]

1 tbsp sugar

2 - 3 slices ginger

4 - 6 pieces of garlic, smashed

1/2 cup water

Minimal oil to grease the base of pot
Spring onions to garnish

Steps:
Marinate spare ribs with 1 tbsp tau cheong and 1 tbsp sugar. Leave aside for about an hour.

Heat pot (with oil of cos), add garlic, then ginger.

You'll know to add the marinated ribs when the garlic starts to brown and the awesome smell of fried garlic finds it's way to your nose :p

Add bittergourd and 1/2 tbsp tau cheong.
Add 1/2 cup water and leave to simmer till meat and bittergourd are tender.

Garnish with spring onions just before serving.

Stir-fried Doumiao with garlic

Ingredients required:

1 box of Doumiao (we eat loads of greens so the 2 of us can clean off a whole box of these at one time)

5 pieces garlic, diced

Oil

Soy sauce to season

Steps:

Coat base of pan with oil.

Heat.

Add garlic.

Again, you'll know when to add the greens.

Season as you like.

Serve hot!

Eaten with rice? It was gOOoood! If i may say so myself. Hee!!

Wedding-Related: Mass Booklets

Things have been pretty crazy at work.

I've had to stay up late at nights to put our Mass Booklet together.

Really does not help when he's away at work and i have to do this alone.

Sigh.

BUT!!! I'm thrilled to announce:

Our Mass Booklets are ready and printed!

DONE!

*beams.

After all that reading and re-reading through the "guide" that Fr. Gerard passed to us for reference...

After all that emailing between us and our Choir on the best pieces of music to be used...

After all that Youtube-ing to check out all the potential music and poring over the very, many lyrics...

After all that dingdong-ing of emails back and forth to get everyone's "ok" on our Readings and Psalms etc...

After all that typing (thanks to Dawn i saved a fair bit of time on this! thank you Dawn!) and formatting, then checking and re-formatting about a hundred times (i kid you not! editing ANYTHING is hard work. i applaud you who work as editors)...

Our Mass Booklets.

Very simple 'lil things.

Yet... oh! the time and effort required to put it together!!

Must-haves after a big night out :)

Big Brekkie!!

Before and after Sunday Morning Mass :p

Maccas' brekkie [with large OJ! not the same w/o this] before (no pic cos was too busy trying to wolf down everything).

Lei Cha after.

At Boon Lay's 'ol market.

Good stuff!

To cook, with heart :)

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

:)))

Not sure if that applies to all men but it seems to work just fine with mine.

Haha!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So he came back over the weekend.

And i was more than happy to slave in the kitchen all Sat arvo preparing dinner for him.

Ok, so i exaggerate :p

No slaving required.

It was all very easy. 

Think it helps that i enjoy cooking and he enjoys what i serve up.

Ha!

Anyways, his having been away for so long, i figured he'll want soup!

And i thought we could do with something we haven't had for awhile - prawns!

Then i made us a quick and simple egg dish to go with everything else.

Sweet Corn & Pork Ribs Soup

Ingredients required:

4 pcs pork ribs

1 cob sweet corn, cut to 4 pcs

1 carrots, cut to 4 - 6 pcs

2 - 3 slices ginger

1 tbsp wolfberries

4 - 6 red dates
Spring onions to garnish

Steps:
Bring a pot of water with pork ribs to boil.
Drain and set pork ribs aside.
Bring a fresh pot of water to boil with ginger slices, then add pork ribs, corn and red dates.
Leave to simmer for 1 hour.
Add carrots and wolfberries.
Continue to simmer over small fire for 45 min.

Meat should be very tender by then :) Carrots too.

Garnish with spring onions just before serving.

Tom Yum Prawns

Ingredients required:

6 king prawns

1 tbsp tom yum paste

1 tbsp sugar

3 cloves garlic, diced

Spring onions to garnish

Steps:

Marinate prawns with tom yum paste, diced garlic and sugar. I left it to sit in the fridge for about an hour.

Grill.

Or you could just stir-fry if you preferred :)

Garnish and serve.

Cucumber+Egg Omelette

Ingredients required:

1/3 large cucumber, julienned

3 large eggs, beaten

Steps:

Stir julienned cucumbers into beaten egg mix and fry :p

I say omelette but really, it's just your usual 煎蛋. With cucumbers.

I skipped the salt/soy sauce (or whatever else you like to season with) cos i wanted the 原味 (original taste) of the cucumbers and eggs.

Serve with rice :)

Yums!

Can i just say i absolutely lurrrrrrrrrrve cooking for loved ones!

we've been talking about taking on 'babysitting duties' and bringing the kids out for a day at SAM.

the Art Garden @ SAM ends this month-end.

we've been waiting patiently for the right time - it's hard to get that right cos of our travel schedules.

but now, just when we finally think we've got a date, i hear we've got to get the OK from their dad.

he who is never around btw. 

wtf.

am so mad!

what does he know about bringing them out for fun.

he doesn't care.

the selfish bastard.

wtfwtfwtf!!

be still my heart :p

oh, to be able to hear his voice after 2 weeks apart......

HAPPINESS!

the simplest of messages...

that MAKE MY DAY!!!

"Babe, we finished the job..."

YES!!!

*does a little tap dance
woohOOOooo!