Recipes attempted:

From "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"
Chapter 1 Soup:
Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup - the healthiest dish in the whole book imo)
Soupe A L'Oignon (Onion Soup - yummy with slices of gardenia bread)
Aigo Bouido (Garlic Soup)

Chapter 2 Sauces:
Sauce Tomate (Tomato Sauce - eventually served with pasta)
Sauce Hollandaise (Egg yolk and butter sauce flavoured with lemon juice - trying it on poached eggs tmr!)

Chapter 3 Eggs:
Oeufs Brouilles (Scrambled Eggs - please don't ask me how to pronounce the french version)
Oeufs sur Canapes - Oeufs a la Fondue de Fromage (Poached Eggs on Canapes with Cheese Fondue Sauce)

Chapter 4 Entrees and Luncheon Dishes:
Souffle au Fromage (Cheese Souffle)

Chapter 6 Poultry:
Supremes de Volaille a l' Ecossaise (Chicken Breast with Diced Aromatic Vegetables and Cream - no more hard, dry chicken breast! just need to find a way to make healthier but just as yummy gravy)

Chapter 7 Meat:
Boeuf a la Bourguignonne (Beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onions and mushrooms) - 01/03/12

Chapter 8 Vegetables:
Oignons Glaces a Brun (Brown-braised Onions) - 01/03/12
Champignons sautes au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms) - 01/03/12
Tomates a la Provencale (Tomatoes stuffed with Breadcrumbs, Herbs and Garlic) - 10/05/12

(The French really know how to make their food sound complicated) But so far, everything I've attempted has been delish!! though sinfully buttery and creamy :( i am turning into a fat blob. need to start cutting down on the butter. How did julia child eat everything and not have any form of coronary heart disease? )

From "Pie" by Angela Boggiano
1. Chicken, leek and tarragon pie

From "The Best of Casual Italian Cooking: Trattoria" by Mary Beth Clark
1. Quick tomato sauce (Salsa rapida di pomodoro)
2. Penne with Arugula in Tomato-Cream Sauce (Penne alla rucola e salsa di pomodoro e panna) - except i replaced the arugula with baby spinach

Other random recipes attempted:
1. Linguine with Creamy Mushroom and Bacon sauce (Ms Wong's Creation - from my sec 4 F&N elective! YYD do you remember?? we added extra cheese. heh. my sis liked it!)
2. Linguine with Bolognaise sauce (from my BROTHER'S home econs book. amazingly, his book is not falling to pieces)
3. Sponge Cake (Jeena's Kitchen)
4. Tomato fried egg! (from youtube!! really cute china mama with cute chinese accented english gave this tutorial on a really simple but yummy dish.. thinking of trying her wontons next...)
5. Lemon meringue cupcakes!!! (YAY!!!! from Junior masterchef australia! <3 that show)
6. Baked Macaroni & Cheese (allrecipes.com)
7. Char siew fried rice
8. Prawn linguine in white wine sauce (had fun de-veining prawns!)
9. Tomato Bruchetta (Rachel Ray's recipe with a twist)
10. Deviled Eggs
11. My version of Eggs Benedict (yummmm. sometimes, all i need is a couple of fresh eggs in the fridge, a saucepan with simmering water and  vinegar, small pot of home-made hollandaise sauce and some toasted bread)
12. Creamy Potato Salad (for post-playhouse dance gathering! a combination of all my favourite ingredients from various potato salad recipes)
13. Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken) - 05/05/12 (from this website - http://www.ecurry.com/blog/indian/curries/gravies/murgh-makhani-butter-chicken/ note to self to cut down on the chilli powder. And I shall learn to make a modified version of naan soon to go with the to-die-for gravy)

Up next:
Fried seafood tofu
One of the sponge cake recipe's in MTAOFC... which looks seriously complicated :S (i might give up halfway)
Vanilla cupcake and more!!
Wontons!
Fresh tomato puree with garlic and herbs
Soupe au pistou
French omelette gratin
Scalloped potatoes!!
Lobster Thermidor (will have to save up enough money for 2 whole boston lobsters first >.< but yes i will achieve this someday)

Update 05/05/12
First shopping trip to Mustafa Centre yesterday for spices. It is freaking amazing that place. I still love french food and I will still continue to attempt recipes from julie child, but an occasional diversion to indian cuisine wouldn't hurt once in a while right?
And my parents finally got an electric weighing scale!!! really excited. Hope to do some baking soon! now that I know my measurements will be accurate ^^
Going to be so sad when my break ends T.T

This was a response to this article here: http://alittlenudge.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/diary-of-a-reformed-elitist/

You wrote somewhat about your experiences in China which I can well identify with. I taught English in a forsaken town in Inner Mongolia that people in big cities like Beijing have never heard of. Fast forward many years and I now live in Sweden, where I’ve been since 2010. Two very different countries for sure. But as much as it is romantic irony to talk about how those with fewer material possessions possess greater joy and richer life experiences, there is much to be said on the other side as well. I talk about the well-educated, first world income Swedes (or for that matter, Scandinavians). You would know that the Nordic countries rank high in all areas of positive indicators like good governance, quality of life, welfare and the like. But what makes them truly first world to me is this: unlike us in Singapore, I know of so many doctors, university professors, white collar elites here so to speak who think nothing of hopping on a bicycle in the dark winter at -10C as part of their daily getting to work routine. And where so called blue-collar construction workers live dignified lives, look you in the eye and say proudly, “I am a builder”, command decent salaries that allow them to provide a decent living for their families, and whose children go to the very same school with the children of doctors and such professionals. Yes, taxes here are high at 30%. But the richness of society here is simply this: the choices people make here are not constrained or dictated by their incomes or social statues. In general, most Swedes can afford a car but I know many who would gladly leave their cars at home and cycle to work, or take the bus because it is more eco-friendly. In the Nordic countries, I feel that human life is valued and dignified and the worth of a person is hardly tied to how much he earns, what job he holds or his family background. The social lines are blurred and everyone, especially the most destitute are well-looked after by the state. My Swedish friends cannot comprehend when I tell them about the sort of elite school branding system in Singapore that you write about. A society is truly progressive and advanced not because of its GDP but when its citizens almost across the board have equal opportunities to choose the sort of life, lifestyles and jobs they really want, where doctors and builders acknowledge equally that society is much in need of both professions, and where people opt to cycle to work, buy second-hand clothes and furniture, or spend summer camping by the lakeside and roasting summer trout, because they really want to. I love Singapore but I’m sad to say that the very experience you write about sends a shiver down my soul. Now that I live in Sweden, that memory is almost forgotten and foreign to me, but yet at the same time makes me feel sad because I know that it is true. Thank you for your sharing.

Really makes me want to go to Norway or Sweden.. or Findland... i'm more determined than ever, that since i'm not going anywhere for electives, I shall dedicate 2 weeks of my post graduation holiday to traveling in either one of these countries... even if i have to retake my exams i will STILL have my 2 weeks of mountain trekking. somehow.

read a couple of my fist entries in this journal from the archives and they were all so. weird. i sounded like some angsty energizer bunny, very full of myself and a total nutcase when it comes to romcoms/romatic movies. it's quite embarrassing. funny thing is, I don't think i was like that in person. wasn't i the quiet, introverted kind?

think I did things a lot faster then... and didn't watch so much tv, unlike now. haha.

I cringe at some of my entries >.< but life was so much simpler then.. miss those days in ny

jc was a blur... some good times, but a couple of traumatizing ones too :S

and now uni... 2 more years to go... (i sound tired, very unlike the energizer bunny i was 6 years ago. i'm pretty sure i had less '...' in my entries) trying to look at med in a different light. Did you know the word hysteria is derived from hystera, which is greek for the uterus (womb)? In less modern times, people taught that the womb was an animal and roamed around the body randomly. Most of the ailments of women were attributed to that (i suppose, even going crazy). so funny right? i was giggling in the bus while reading it. even funnier is how they treated it. Sherwin B. Nuland is quite a funny guy :) <3 his books

"You need to know who you are and what you are. That's the only way you can lead decent lives."



It's been some time since i watched a good film... and with such great company! and with oscar nominated and winning films flooding the box office (not that they aren't good movies, i'm pretty sure they are really wonderful movies in their own right), films like Never Let Me Go become under-appreciated by the masses, which is such a great pity... I can't really recall a film that has illustrated the brevity and fragility of life so acutely and so beautifully... i mean not just beautiful in the sense of the story, but the cinematograpy, the framing, the camerawork... i miss art. really really miss art when i'm reciting short cases and presentations... when i'm reciting the causes of drowsiness and approach to fever/PUO...


funny observation that xy made after the movie - quite a number of guys watching the movie alone, while girls were generally in groups! haha :)


wondering if i should make julie child's scrambled eggs tmr... hmmmmm.....

i didn't feel anything when i turned 16 or 18, turning 21... surprisingly, felt different, even though it was just another day to many (like my dear bro who completely forgot it was my birthday and now owes me a treat). When I was younger (oh goodness i can't believe i'm old enough to use 'when i was younger' even thought that was just a few years ago) i was pretty rebellious and i always quarrelled with my mom about growing up and wanting freedom, independence and doing things which i guess in her eyes were frivolous and meaningless. my eye doc says parents can never see their child as adults, and perhaps my parents still regard me as a child, but my heated discussions with my mother always ended up with 'we'll talk about this again when you turn 21. when you turn 21, i will no longer be responsible for your actions and anything you do'. (but obviously, i know deep down that my mother will always feel responsible for me even when i'm 50). Regardless, turning 21 has felt significant (even more significant than my baptism at 18). As of this age, I am no longer a child... it didn't hit home until i receive a birthday message from reggie, joking that i can be legally charged by the law. It was said in jest but it is true. in the eyes of the law and society, i am an adult. And although we try not to let society define who we are (and although yes we are children in the eyes of our Lord), and although it is important not to lose the innocence and idealism of youth, we do not leave in a cocoon where the world revolves around us. We witness the lives of others as others witness our lives.. and our lives are defined by others as much as it is defined by ourselves and as much as how we define the lives of others. that's how i see it anyway, even if you do not agree. i feel i have unwittingly stumbled into adulthood even though i have been expecting this for years. it's funny.. that you can anticipate something, yet feel so awkward when it finally comes (i think i feel this way in everything i do..) part of me wants to get this right and not screw up like i have screwed up so many times, but what is there to get right?

haha i have issues.

but anyway, if you would like to know how I spent my birthday, it was a very simple affair. I spent it in the school library, mugging away for CAs the next day like a responsible adult. But thanks to technology (like handphone and facebook), i could feel loved and remembered :) haha it's somewhat narcissistic feeling i guess, and it is quite sad that everything is all electronic nowadays, but love is love. friendship is friendship. a birthday wish is a birthday wish.

and i was unexpectedly made happy that day ... :)

ice cream cake made it ever more sweet when i got back. forced bro and sis to sing the birthday song for me and we had lovely cake. Time flies.

sweet memories.

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky
you'll get by.

If you smile through your pain and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun shining through
For you.

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying.
You'll find that life is still worthwhile-
If you just smile.

=)

Cheer up ok?