Dainty Bites

Found this in a free Japanese magazine. Here's a list of places to go for high tea. RAFFLES HOTEL - tel. 6412-1816 * High tea at Tiffin Room, 2 sittings: 1530/1630hrs (A: $39++, C: $25++) * Afternoon tea at Bar & Billard Room, Mon-Sat 1530-1700hrs, Sun 1600-1730hrs (A: $33++) THE FULLERTON HOTEL - tel. 6877-8129 *Afternoon tea at The Courtyard, 1430-1800hrs (A: $36++) ST REGIS - tel. 6506-6866 * English afternoon tea at Les Saveurs, Sun 1500-1700hrs ($45++/50++ with 1 glass wine) FOUR SEASONS HOTEL - tel. 6831-7671 * Afternoon tea at Bar and Alfresco, Mon-Sun 1400-1700hrs ($37++/$55++ with champaigne) SHANGRI-LA HOTEL - tel. 6213-4486 * Afternoon tea at Rose Veranda, Mon-Sat 1200-1800hrs, Sat-Sun 1200-1500hrs & 1530-1800hrs (Weekdays A: $34++, C: $20++; Weekends A:$36++, C:$22++) GRAND HYATT SINGAPORE - tel. 6732-1234 * Mezzatea at Mezza9, Sun 1200-1700 hrs (A:$35++, C:$22++) ORCHARD HOTEL -tel. 6734-7766 * Afternoon tea at La Terrasee, 1400-1700hrs (Weekdays A:$28

Made these for lunch yesterday. I didn't realise that it was so simple to prepare and taste good. My princess love the crunchy salmon skin and the breadcrumbs that she even asked for it again during dinner! Just wash and pat the fillets dry. Sprink salt and pepper on the fish and rub them evenly throughout. Drizzle olive oil on the fillets. Put into preheated oven and grill of 10mins on 240 degC. Remove from oven and check for doneness. Toss breadcrumbs with butter and salt. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the fillets for extra crunch. Return to oven for another 3-5 mins. Simple? Cost? S$9.00 for those 2 fillets and which made 3 servings. This translate to S$3 per serving, defintely cheap!

After the last buttermilk bake-off, I have firmly made up my mind that when I bake with buttermilk, I will finished up the whole carton at one go instead of keeping the remaining amount (for the bin, most likely). So with that in mind, I picked up a carton of buttermilk and spent 2 hours on my feet baking yesterday. I made blueberry muffins, bacon and cheese cornbread and plain cheese cornbread. At the end of the mega baking session, buttermilk taught me another lesson - economies of scale. Baking a batch of cornbread or double required the same efforts in preparation. So why not make more? I think I like this idea of economies of scale in terms of food prep. Or maybe I have been reading too much freezer cooking recently. This is my blueberry muffins. My first time using fresh blueberries. Quite costly (S$7.95 for 125gm) but definitely worth every cent of it. The inside is soft and the pockets of tart tasting blueberries are balanced with the sweet crumbs of the muffins. Bacon and chee

What can I do when I have a little tot with lots of energy after waking up from her afternoon nap? Physical exercise, of cos! And the only piece of equipment available - her four wheeler. When we went downstairs, we met up with some other kids who are riding around. Then before I knew it, a fierce competition broke out between the older boy and my girl. They went round and round at neck breaking speed, but as my girl was on 4 wheels instead of 2, she was much slower and irritated her to no end. But it all ended in a friendly competition and a promise to race again.

2 weeks ago I made a banana cake but since I have posted banana bread previously, I shan't say too much here. Just a few pictures to share. The cross section. My princess wanting to take a slice. This was her before we started baking. She wanted chocolate banana bread, but I told her no. So I made it up to her by giving her Nutella spread on bread. But who knows she ended up like this!

I first ventured into using buttermilk for cooking when I came across Martha Stewart's Best Buttermilk Pancakes . Ever since then, I won't hesistate to fork out S$3.60 for a 600ml carton of the sourish goodness whenever I crave for pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes are really light and fluffy (think: McDonald's Hot Cakes). Martha Stewart's recipe for the pancakes is wonderful, but I found that my trusty Joy of Cooking's version is even better. However, the problem with buttermilk is that its shelf life is quite short. Or rather, the longest shelf life that I have observed was only about 15 days. So I had better have a concrete plan how to use the buttermilk before I buy it. As I mentioned earlier, I usually buy it for pancakes, but the problem is that the recipe calls for 1.5 cups of butter milk, or 355ml, and that leaves me with roughly 1 cup, or 245ml, left. Most of the time, I would just dump the remaining cup cos (i) by the time I make the pancakes, it would already

My brother and his friend brought our little princess for a swim last weekend. They were really wonderful babysitter! Me and Hubby were happily sitting under the shade reading and looking on. Haha ... She can't wait to get started ... Taking a first dip ... Happily sitting on her float with two "live" bouys... Coming down .... ... and down ... ... and down again ... ... and the grand finale ...

On last Saturday evening, I had a call from a long time friend, T. I have know T since I was 10 yrs old and wearing school pinafore! He has always been a wonderful friend who would listen to any nonsense I care to sprout (in my younger days of cos!). (^.^) He called to tell me that while he was cleaning up his Favourties, he saw a link to my blog and was surprised that my blog is updated (of cos lah!). And it was here that he saw my little princess since she was born. Sadly, we haven't met up even before she was born. I think blogging is a wonderful way for friends to stay updated with each other. In the current time of competitive careers and demanding family needs, who has the extra energy to meet up? Actually I don't know how many friends of mine are reading this blog, but I do hope that they enjoy reading my life journey.