Dainty Bites

I had never believed for a moment that I am a novice gardener.  There must be a more junior category than that, but I just can't find it. A month after I brought those little plants into my planter , they have already thrown a few roadblocks my way. Or rather, they were trying to show me how inadequate a gardener I am. Hello there, Miss Rosemary! First up, was Rosemary. She sported a good head of healthy green shoots and smelled absolutely wonderful.  Then two weeks later, she looked gaunt and tired. Her leaves shriveled to almost needle-like. I'm sure my needles in my sewing kit was broader than that. Miss Rosemary in her former glory. Then I found out that I was not watering her correctly. Apparently her soil was so dry that it had caked up and needed a bit of coaxing by flooding it with more water to make it absorb. Much like a ultra dried sponge that is unable to absorb water initially. After a round of proper watering, Rosemary came back to life again.

Not too long ago I had mentioned here that dining out is always a challenge for me . And it still is. I don't know if there is a cure for this ... this ... challenge. It is bad. Really bad. To the point that Hubby now fears bringing my Mum and me out to eat. He once drove us to Old Airport Road (a.k.a the foodie paradise) hawker centre and we came out declaring that there was nothing to eat there. He was totally exasperated. Hubby: "Almost all the stalls are open today! What you mean that there is nothing to eat?" Me: "There is nothing to eat here. Nothing takes my fancy." My Mum: "Yeah, nothing much." Hubby: "Okay, then do you want to buy something back to cook instead?" Shaking his head and rolling his eyes. At this point he was willing to do anything to get out of this gridlock. But before you read further, I just want to say that the Old Airport Road hawker do serve a wide variety of foods and many of them are great nosh. Ev

I'm not too sure what's gotten into me these days, but I found myself doing something strange the past few weekday mornings. I have been tuning my car radio to 98.7 FM. In case you are not clued in, this (I think) is the hippy-est radio station on our small island of Singapore. Initially it felt weird. I felt disconnected. I don't know who are current bunch of DJs. I have never heard of the songs they are airing. This station was life support system plugged through my ears. It sustained me through my secondary school years. But somehow along the way, I ditched it together with my school uniform and moved on to the more matured Class 95, where I have been since. It made me wonder if this is how it would feel if I get back together with an ex-boyfriend. So anyway, I heard this on the radio this morning and thought that it had some element of truth to it. It goes something like "The secret to keeping your health is eat what you don't like, drink what you won't

It was not my intention to make laksa at all, but somehow life has other plans. While standing over the sink filling up my kettle for my morning tea, I heard the door opened. Hubby was out to market and just got back. I was thinking, "What should I make for breakfast? Maybe French Toast? Maybe ..." *c lang * "Sh*t!" * shuffle, shuffle * Then I turned around and saw him walking into the kitchen with a plastic bag partially filled with black soy sauce. He broke the glass bottle and had the sticky dark soy sauce coating all the other stuff that were in the same bag. The dried shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimps were stained black. If I wasn't so angry with him for creating such a mess on the floor, I would have laughed at the sight of these black UFOs (Unidentified Floating Objects). Anyway, the long story short, I had to think of a way to use up the no-longer-dried dried shrimps. And the very first idea that hit me was to make laksa. A q

Warning: This is another butter-laden post. If you have hit your pre-set quota for butter consumption for this year after the Sun-dried Tomato Butter , proceed at your own risk. This was the little treat which I made for our little princess to bring for her teachers. Though I had thought that these Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies were on the plain and boring side, our little princess feedback that her teachers were happily munching on them during their snack time. It ain't no Famous Amos, but it was good enough for her wonderful teachers. These chocolate chip cookies taste best when they had firmed up after being out of the oven and still slightly warm. And don't forget your cup of milk. The recipe is from Joy of Cooking and can be found on Culinate .

This smudge of speckled orangey clump is the only reason to eat bread. I have to believe that because I had scarfed down two thick slices for the past few mornings. Salty, creamy, tangy and rich, I can't imagine a more delicious spread. This sun-dried tomato butter only needed 3 ingredients - sun-dried tomatoes, butter and lemon juice. Of course, you can throw in salt and black pepper, provided the butter is unsalted. For more detailed explanation on how to make this sinful indulgence, click over to my older post on this Sun-dried Tomato Butter where it all started. Instead of pulling my food processor out from it comfortable resting place in the kitchen cabinet, I decided that I will mix this compound butter by hand. But please soften the butter first. It makes all the difference. So chop, chop, chop (the sun-dried tomatoes) and mash, mash, mash (the butter with the sun-dried tomatoes thrown in) ... and then dollop it on a cling wrap and roll it up. After roll