Reunion Dinner on the 25th Jan 2009

Ahh! Finally, I am able to sit down to update my blog after all the baking and cooking. I was in charged of the reunion dinner this year. I completed the cookies baking on the 24th Jan. Thanks God my nieces were here to help me out. A day before the reunion I baked 3 types of cakes in the morning and after that I’ve been slicing, dicing, mincing, wincing the whole afternoon getting ready for the big feast the next day. Got up really early to start my cooking the next day and after that packed everything to take it to my mom's house. Here are some pictures I took during the reunions dinner. I am really happy that everyone in the family enjoyed the food.

Some of the dishes

This year organic 'Yee Sang'

Broccoli with mushroom and abalone

Fried wanton

'Eight Treasure' stew chicken

Stephanie busy setting up the dining table.

Rendang

I just noticed somedishes missing from the table. The steamed fish and prawns (it's still at the steamer :)



Tossing the Yee Sang together.

Look at all the happy faces :)

Relaxing after the dinner. Me and Marianne.

Relaxing after the full stomach :)
Another round of prep work today. Everyone will be coming to my sister Elizabeth house for steamboat dinner this evening. I better get going. Have to take a shower and drive to Jaya Jusco for some shopping. See you!!

Bloggers Meeting

I met up with Cath and a few other Malaysian bloggers at KLCC on Wednesday around 6.00pm. I was so anxious and eager as this will be my first time meeting all of them except for SueSue. After years of knowing Cath it will be my first time meeting her, Robert and their cute daughters. After seeing their photos for years it's time to meet them in person. They were as cute and adorable as ever! Here are some pictures I took during the meeting.

Front : L to R Laracroaf74, Kak Sya, SueSue, Me
Back L to R Zareda, Ummi, Cath, Tulipurple, Kak Anie

The ever pretty Miss Annabel

The cute and adorable Miss Emma

Annabel with my niece Stephanie

Popular Cath so engrossed talking to her fan :)

Me and Miss Annabel (she look pretty sleepy and tired here. Cath said they were up since 4.00am that morning)
Me and my favorite blogger Ummi
We got a long so well even though some of us met only for the very first time. It was too bad that I didn't get to talk much with a few of them as they arrived late because of the heavy rain and traffic jam and Cath need to leave early because the girls were tired and sleepy. They were up since 4.00am that morning. We had a great time and hopefully I will get to see some of them again before I leave. Thank you ladies for the great time.

What have I done so far in KL?

I arrived home safely on Monday morning. The journey back was exhausting, as usual. The flight from Detroit to Japan was pretty bad and I nearly miss my connecting flight back to Singapore but it got a bit better from Japan to Singapore. So yes, life is nearly back to normal. I am almost fully recovered from the jet-lag, having taking cat naps every few hours. From the moment I arrived I was so well taken off by my family. My tummy has been filled with so many yummy foods. My nieces and nephews grown so much and all of them were much taller than me.

I started baking today and my nieces came to help me. I baked a few types of cookies today and a few more to go before Chinese New Year. I had a chance to meet up with fellow blogger Sue Sue and her children yesterday. Spoken to Ummi and also Jun and planning to meet up with them soon.

My nephew was absolutely right when he warned me about the internet service here. My Streamyx connection is super duper S L O W and it’s literally driving me up the wall

Anyway, here are some pictures I took the past few days.

My first breakfast in Malaysia

ABC



Kueh Kueh



I am so looking forward to my baking in this spanking new kitchen :)

Cooking will be done here.

Kids came over the first day I arrived

All set for my baking today.

Kids helping me out with the baking.




I will try to update this blog as much as I can. See you!!

My Bags Are Packed!!!

All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go....... this song has been playing in my head for the past few days. I am busy packing and unpacking my suitcases. Putting in things and taking it out again. I have so much space left in my suitcase but guess what....they were overweight!! That damn stupid airline only allows 2 suitcases with 50 pounds each. Each empty suitcase itself already weigh over 15 pounds! I have to leave some stuff behind and let my two sisters who will be visiting in May to take it back with them. Anyway, I am looking forward to go home to see my family and friends and on the other hand I am not looking forward to being apart from Carlos for so long. You know we never been apart for more than 3 days since we got married. It will be pretty difficult for him too since he will be all by himself here but thanks to Skype we get to call each other everyday or every other day.

Hopefully, the internet service back home will be good so I can update my blog regularly and go blog hopping too.

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See what came into the mail for me a few days ago. Lesley sent me some cookies and 'Chang' I've been craving for chang since I saw her posting at her blog. Thank you Lesley for being so thoughtful and I can't wait to learn how to wrap 'Chang' from your mother. And thanks for the cookies too.

Christmas Morning!

We woke up real early to get ready for Church. Came home around 10.30am and the first thing we did were to open all our presents. We take turn for each of us to open up all our presents first and I get to open last because mine was huge.

Diana looking for her presents.

She was happy with what she got :) We also got her a huge suitcase for her to take with her to Germany.

Next is Carlos turn
The most anxious moment for me. Wondering what he got for me! You know what I was saying here "why so much garbage in here"
Still have no clue what is in there except a whole bunch of paper! Keep digging!!
See what I got!! Can you guess yet?

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A NEW CANON REBEL XSI CAMERA!!! This is my dream camera. I was hoping to get another digital camera from him but not this but I am so glad he got it for me as every food bloggers dream of having a DSLR camera like this. Now he said he must send me for some photography lesson in order to use this camera. Thank you Sweetie.

Ok, time to make some waffles for breakfast!

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas is just a day away and I am finally done with my Christmas shopping. I waited until the last minutes because of the awful weather. We have been having rain, snow and frigging cold for the past weeks. This is the kind of weather that I hate and I prefer to stay at home. Since Diana is home, both of us went out shopping the whole day. Finally we are done! Everything is wrapped up and waiting to be open on Christmas morning.

Can you guess who is getting the BIGGEST box in that pile of presents? MEEEE.. I am really curious what Carlos got for me. The box is really heavy and I can't shake it!! The suspense is killing me now but I guess I have to wait until Christmas morning.

Here I would like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Baking Lesson II

I went for another baking lesson today. Since its around Christmas we learned to make Yule Log and also Chocolate. To make the yule log we learned to make the sponge cake, Italian butter cream, Hazelnut mousse and also sugar syrup.

As for the chocolate we learned how to tampered the chocolate and also to make the dark chocolate hazelnuts filling. I am not sure if I will make my own chocolate as it's a messy job.

Sponge Cake Batter

Brushing on the sugar syrup on the sponge cake.
Applying the Hazelnut mousse.
Rolling up the sponge cake.
Cut into individual log.
Decorate the sponge with Italian butter cream.
The finished Yule Log.
Filling up the Hazelnut filling in the chocolate moulds.
The decadent chocolates.
This was what I took home. They were so good!
The next month lesson will be Puff Pastry. Too bad I won't be around to take the lesson until in March 09.