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Sunday, September 30, 2007

Coconut Rice

I had to video cam through msn to get my grandma's recipe for this.

However, i do not have all the ingredients necessary. I don't have pandan leaves - so whatever! HaHa..

Her recipe is a little different from others that i've found on the net - as in the quantities.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup of jasmine rice
270ml coconut milk - i used Ayam's
50 ml water
Salt

Directions

Wash the rice till water runs nearly clear.
Add the water and the coconut milk. Mine covered the rice completely. Add salt.

I added some chopped onions as well.

Not too sure how it will taste like as it is cooking now.. Will let you know later!

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Hunter Valley!

Hey!

I just came back from my 4 days 3 nights trip to Hunter Valley! It was wonderful. Had loads of pictures.

Will post it later! Keep Lookin!

Smiles!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Porridge in Rice Cooker


This is the Porridge that i created in the rice cooker today for lunch/dinner.


This is the final product.

Ingredients

1 cup of rice
4 cups of water/stock
3 cups of water/stock
Sesame Oil

Directions

This is very simple, just a little tiring
Wash the rice with water till nearly clear, then add 4 cups of water/stock.
On the rice cooker and let it boil.

To make the rice congee style, just stir and stir and stir - keep stiring - i believe this breaks down the rice thus making it thick and creamy.

When the water boils down and you feel that it is getting too thick, add more water. In total, throughout the whole cooking process, i left the lid off after it started boiling and just kept stirring and added 3 extra cups of water.

When the porridge cools down, it will get even thicker - so adding a little more water while its hot will help ensure that you get the correct consistency you like.

Also, to make it smoother, i added sesame oil while cooking it. Fish also added pre-fried shallots to the porridge while cooking as he wanted the onion flavour as well.

Then just cook and stir and cook and stir till you're happy. =)

Chicken Rice





Ingredients

Garlic - Fresh ones are always the best, i used canned ones
Rice - 2 cups
Chicken Broth - i should think 2 cups as well - but the water level should be half an inch above the rice
Oil - i only had olive oil
Sesame Oil

Directions

First, heat the oil in the rice cooker, then add the garlic and fry till fragant.
Secondly, add in the rice and stir it around to make sure that it is coated well with the oil and just fry it for some time
Then, add the chicken broth.
And, youre done! Turn it to on and wait.

I added sesame oil to it after it finished cooking.

Friday, September 21, 2007

My Birthday!

By the way ppl,

ITS MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!

i shall sing happy birthday to myself - Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to mee, happy birthday to me!

Yay!!

20 year old le lah - so old..bleh

Thank you everyone for being an integral part of my life. =)

Friends

I have never been an ultra social person or evn one that make friends easily. I guess this is like my biggest stumbling block in life. I have a great life, but at the same time, it is a greatly secluded one. I have my own circle of friends and i do think and regret that i did not try hard enough during my secondary school days and JC days. I have good friends and memories that i will always remember, but memories are just memories.

I remember the time in secondary school - that was like the best time ever. I liked my school - seriously - I had a great bunch of friends who i had fun with and will always remember - esp from 2/5 and Shi wei, yu ting, shan shan, hui fen etc..

I just hope that i might try harder and forge more relationships with good friends. Maybe i'm just troublesome, just irritating. HaHa..

I'm never as pretty as the next girl, never as smart, never as witty, never as sociable. But what to do? Tis me. - How sad, but oh how true.

I'm lucky for Fish, if not, can you imagine how lonely i would be here? =)

But i am thankful, for the friends i have had past, present and future.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Lunch!

On a lighter note..

I am supposed to be making lunch today. I'm making Chicken rice! Using my rice cooker. Fish is in charge of buying the roasted chicken and peeling it.

I'm cooking the rice and little bits of stuffs. I'll leave the chilli making to him too! =)

Post the pictures and the recipe i will be using later! =)

Love

Tis was a crying morning.

I lie in bed and suddenly i feel like crying. I cried a little before sleeping cause i don't know how is my grandma now. And i cried this morning for an entirely different reason.

There's this stupid advertisment on tv that keeps going "Sorry guys, but sometimes love hurts" How irritating.

Fish had school this morning. When i was lying on the bed i had a flashback. To my previous relationship and i felt sad that it died out and of all the choices that i've made. Though i'll never regret it at that point in time and maybe even forever if it did not end. But it taught me a lot.

I want to cherish every decision i make and every route i take. I learn more give and take. With Fish, things have to be trashed out. He's my little boy..he just needs time to whine and then he'll come through..he'll understand. We've solved many problems this way. and he has been constantly improving. It never fails to amaze me how he can adapt and change so fast after i talk to him about it. It never fails to remind me of how a relationship should be like.

He gave me everything i wanted from him and i don't want to take that away from myself. I love him and i hope that it will never change.

A guy's love for you or ability to love you is not measured by his ability to give you all the riches in the world. Love is both materialistic and emotional.
Even the poorest guy can satiate your need for materialistic wants by admitting and knowing that he might not and cannot provide you. By making up to you in ways that justify the need for that materialistic want. It is the frankness and honesty that you want in a relationship - at least for a true one.

He maynot be perfect, but i'm not either. Why look for a Mr Perfect if you're not one to complement him? Look for his imperfectness - for its that imperfectness that makes him perfect. It is that flaw in him that triggers your love for him.

I love my life now. I am always with Fish, we can have dinners with friends, go out buy groceries together, go through life insecurities together and i think its nice, its great. I have him, i have my friends - though not a lot. We are afraid that once we return to Singapore all these might change. Change as it might, my heart stays firmly rooted. Because i've learnt and i want to make this promise my very last.

He's coming home soon - and then i can get all the hugs i need and want. =)

Sunday, September 09, 2007

It's weird.

It's weird. Maybe it's not like that - but if more people get the same feeling then it can't just be me..can it?

The thing about coming here is you get to see so many other asians who are here too and you see how people change. There are a lot of asians who have lived here very long and instead of getting discrimination from the locals - the australians, the discrimination actually comes from people of your own skin. They think they are superior just because they have been staying here for a long time and speak with an australian accent. It's weird. It made me more aware of my own roots and how i don't want to become like them. It's sad i think when people abandon their roots and become someone totally unlike them. It's weird.

Once, at Paddy's market at Chinatown where lots of tourists visit and buy stuffs there - it's like a huge pasar marlam (dunno how to spell). We went walking around and Fish was interested in samurai swords. There are a few stalls selling these swords and it was all asian owners. All of them had the same reaction when Fish enquired the price, with a woman being the most obvious. We waited a while as she was serving a caucasion couple. She looked really friendly and that's why we decided to ask her since we had bad experiences with the other stalls already. Once that couple left, she totally ignored us and looked away. When Fish called her, you should have seen her face, it was like a total 360 degree change. She was unwilling and very 'ugly'. We could have just been any other tourist, but the way she treated fellow asians was weird and i couldn't understand why.

Instead of the australians feeling superior towards us, it was instead our own asians who stayed there forever that these vibes were coming from.

It's weird.

Cinemas

There are 2 cinemas that i've been to here. One is Hoyts and the other is Greater Union.

Movie tickets are more expensive in Australia as compared to Singapore, even though they have concession rates for students.

Hoyts is found in Eastgardens. It is $9 for students. The cinemas are free seating, you get to sit wherever you like. Although, the place is much dirtier and not as comfortable - but its acceptable. Adult priced tickets are $12.30 i think. We watched No reservations and Transformers here.

Greater Union is found in Bondi Junction. It is much prettier, much classier and has like GV, the Gold class - costs $36. The student tickets are $12.30. It is not free seating. You can buy tickets from booths which you can choose your seats, they have nice couple seats distributed across the whole cinema so unlike GV where it's only at the back. Me and Fish watched Bourne Ultimatium that day and we sat in a couple seat. It was wide and comfy and much cleaner. The atmosphere was much better too. So is the service.

At both places, they only have salty popcorn. No sweet - sorry to the sweet-toothed. It's really very salty. At Greater Union, there is donuts, fries, wedges etc..more selections.

Although shops close at 5pm, movies don't. The timings are very much like Singapore's with midnight show etc..

Shopping

We went shopping today with Louise at Eastgardens. Had to do grocery shopping. I am going to use the rice cooker more often now since so much can be cooked in it. I bought ingredients to make coconut rice, my mushroom soup - f you remember from the other blog.

I didn't buy flour, so i hope more cream would do the work.

I bought jelly as well..talking about it, i should go make it now, then i can eat it tml. Ha..i think i shall..

We are also intending to cook chicken rice with chicken stock and onions, garlic and chilli.

We bought organic baby cabbage as well..so we could put it in our noodles. Oh, you can cook maggi mee in the rice cooker too.

And, we bought 4 organic eggs to cook scrambled eggs which you can do in the rice cooker as well.

The weathers still really quite cold now..its started to rain these days. Although, i do prefer this weather as to the summer.

We are considering going to Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley for the Spring break coming up soon. I want to go to the Hunter Valley Cheese Factory. I went there the last time and loved the cheeses they have to offer!

Has anyone been there before too? This is their website http://www.huntervalleycheese.com.au/ I'm gettin excited just thinking about the cheeses!

Rice Cooker Pasta



This is what me and fish and foggy had for dinner last last night. I realised that you can actually cook a lot more stuffs in the rice cooker than you think, This is Macaroni with Spag sauce with etc etc..

Ingredients

2 cups dried macaroni - 1 cup = 250ml
2 cups water
1 cup sauce - anyone of your favourite pasta sauce
salt
pepper
olive oil
herbs
Cheese! - Any type- if you got the grated ones, good. If not, normal cheese cut up is great too - in fact i like it that way, musch more cheesy
Some extras if you wish - pepperoni

We grilled sausages and little snacks to go along too.

Directions

In the rice cooker, mine is a 5 cup capacity rice cooker.
Add everything in except the cheese. Push the button to cook and wait. When the light changes to warm, open and it should be perfect, not too wet, not too dry. You do want to be a little careful as it may start to brown at the bottom of the pot.

Mix it up, leave it to warm if you're not eating immediately or enjoy!

This is really really simple and all you have to wash are the plates and forks you use and the pot. No draining etc.

Although, my macaroni did come out a little softer than i would like, it doesn't really kill.

This makes for a quick and tasty meal.

You could use any other pasta, if its too long, just break it.

2 cups of pasta may seem awfully little - but trust me, 2 cups were just nice for me and Fish.

Let me know if anyone ever tries this! Hope you'll enjoy it!