Free threads anyone?



Image from threadrosace.com



There's a giveaway from this site . Its Rosace embroidery threads made from 100% pure Egyptian cotton. Priced at 0.30 Euro per skeins and you could order direct from them. I certainly DMC provide such direct order as well. It cuts off the need for middle man which most of the time make more profit than the manufacture.    

Crème à la mandarine et croquant aux amandes

Literally meant: Mandarin cream with crispy almond. Dish names in French almost always sounds better in French then English doesn't it? Have you tried naming Fois Gras in English? It'll be called duck or goose Liver Fat in direct translation!! Who wants to eat that??!? BTW, ever wondered how its made? Here's the link and frankly I find it barbaric. So does finning shark's fin. We are defined who we are by how we treat others, and that includes treating the animals that feeds us.

So personal ethics aside, got this recipes from my weekly supermarket newsletter, Coop. Tried it over the weekend and its super delicious!

Ingredients for 4 persons

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooling time: about 1 hour

Cream

6 or 8 Mandarin oranges OR clementine oranges, only for their juice; around 300ml

2 tbsp of lemon juice

80g of clear marzipan/almond paste, shredded

1 piece of vanilla pod, scrape of its grains

1 tbsp of corn starch
2 eggs
50g sugar

100ml of cream (double cream preferred)

Crispy Almonds
20g of almonds, chop into "matchsticks"

50g sugar

1/2 tsp of water

For the cream
Mix together all ingredients, including the sugar and simmer it on top of low heat while constantly stirring.

When the cream seems to have thicken in consistency, remove from heat source and continue to stir for about 2 minutes. You then strain the cream mixture, cover it and leave it aside until coll enough to pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Crispy almond
Toast your almond sticks on medium heat and pour them onto baking paper. Then boil sugar and water together while stirring continuously on medium heat. Lower the heat when sugar has melted and let it simmer while "shaking" the saucepan occasionally until you get a caramel texture. Pour it over the almonds and let it cool for 15 minutes.Crack them and to decorate your cream. 



The main point here is to strain of the lumps.



Lovely lemony coloured!



Whip it!





An aunt gave a big bags of sliced almonds. Got to use it finally...

 

Its not so sweet but still a great quick desert.



BEFORE serving, whip your cream and gentilly fold them into your mandarin orange cream mixture. Then ENJOY!

La Redoute - La Rubbish!!

A little history about La Redoute. Its a French based home shopping website, which started out as a catalogue shop. Now as most of us know catalogue shops never really went into main stream, but still they manage to stick around for years. That is until Amazon made it BIG in the 1995, BEFORE eBay on 1996. Click here for a little of online shopping history.

So this La Redoute started to mail us a catalog sample sometime back in 2006. There's always lots of interesting stuff in their catalogue but I never really wanted to buy from them as I've heard horror stories of bad home shopping experiences.

So one day, against my better judgement and also what hubs told me, I went ahead to buy from them for the very 1st time. It all went well. So did the 2nd order. BUT just fairly recently (November 2010 order - it was on sale), problems started to come up. The main problems with catalogue shopping are ; returns, exchanges, no customer service, package mysteriously got lost and of course my personal favourite, refunds.

With my Nov 2010 sale order, it came on time and all clothing items are intact. But I had to return a really bad quality turtle neck T-shirt and exchange a to big a size blouse. So went ahead to return the items and exchange the blouse. The blouse exchange came back 2 weeks later, which is expected. BUT they charge me extra! I was fuming MAD!

Who ever charge customer the original price for an exchange for something that was on SALE in the first place???? And by the way, there wasn't any notice saying that items on sale can not be exchanged or returned. I wrote them an e-mail before I even made the return and exchange transaction just to be on the safe side. And customer service assured me that the price for the exchanged item will remain on sale.

WTH!!! So wrote them another e-mail to say that its unfair to charge me the original price when you've promised me that it will remain on the sale price. That was 2 weeks ago. Up till now I've not paid the extra charges (which was due on the 31/01/2011 at the amount of CHF17.40). Its NOT because of the menial amount that I refuse to pay BUT for the principal of doing honest business.

Seriously just STAY AWAY from La Redoute!!!!  What a way to began the new year.

New 2011

I'm the king for the day! After finding the hidden "treasure" in the cake celebrating the 3 kings.

Happy New 2011! It has been along while since I blog any thing at all these few months. Having to juggle time between my 3 boys, my crafting, my reading, my trial & error cooking/baking and seeing friends for coffee/tea mornings is not really that easy.



Owen borrows the "crown" to little Kevin.

2010 seems to just fly by with 2 kids now. Kevin is now 6 months old and he's already trying to stand by holding onto something! He gives me the loveliest proud smile whenever he does! Big brother Owen plays it cool now with his brother. There are a few times I caught him hitting/pulling little brother. I do hope this phase will pass soon when Kevin gets a little bit older. 

Since Owen will be starting school end of August, I'm looking forward to that (for the 5 days week 3 hrs crafting time OR play time with Kevin). And I think he's looking forward to being 4 as well in June. As you know how kids can be; always counting down when they'll be older next! I'm certainly NOT looking forward to being older but still that's life.

So things to look forward for us would be:

1. Going home for a holiday
2. Owen starting school in August
3. Will sign Owen up for his 1st swimming lessons
4. Attending hubs' cousins' wedding in Germany
5. more things to look forward to but aren't just what is in store yet! :) Hope its a good surprise... 

May 2011 will bring more luck, better health and more prosperity for everyone!

Macadamia and mango cheese cake

Cheese cake and snowy out doors; nice combi!

This is my 1st time making cheese cake. I've always want to make but decide against it since there's just 2 of us at home. One of my close friend, Regina came to our place last week for a visit. She's a dear Filipino friend who just finish her internship at Euro Disney. And she brought with her, Eric, the boy friend, and Yanina, the younger sister.



The crack... :(

So made the cake a day earlier since it needs it "resting time" in the fridge to taste better. I 1st made the crust but some how it seems that I did not push it enough into the pan that it came out at the sides. the cheese filling was easy enough to make. 

The "cover up"



Now here comes the delicate part; the baking. Apparently I baked it for too long -15 more minutes instead of just 30. So it decided to "punish" me by cracking in the middle while I left it to cool off in the oven!! LOL! And I did put a bowl of water underneath in case you're wondering. Apparently to prevent cracks. But it didn't prevent this crack on mine.... Its HUGE if you wanna know. So what did I do? 

The next day, I "cover it up" by topping it off with jelly pureed mango and some chopped macadamia nuts! LOL! It made up with me the taste if not in looks in the end.

So lessons learnt: do try to stick to regulated times and to REALLY tighten up on the crust in the pan. Will be making a more improved cheese cake next time. And this time I'd wanna make a smaller one, just so...

My little sous chef



Our blueberry cake with blueberry frosting....

It was a pretty depressing Sunday - it RAINED ALL DAY!!... :( So to cheer almost everyone up (the almost is my side ways expanding waist line), I decided to bake a cake with Owen. YUP! He's my little sous chef at the pastries department. The hot kitchen could get a little bit more complicated for the time being. Perhaps when he's a little older and ONLY if he's interested.



Looks yummy no?



More milk mama?

The last time he helped, he was soo... PROUD of it that he kept on mentioning to his dad that he made the cake with mama! LOL! This time round, he tells me that we should make another cake soon....



Pour SLOWLY!

Hmm..... not a very good idea for our ever expanding waist line but then again, I think its a good idea for him to get involved in the cooking process. That way he'll learn that things has to be done step by step and all the way to the finish. I feel that its important for kids to learn what goes into their food. Proud to say he knows now that eggs is not just eaten as hard boil but in cakes as well as making noodles. :)



Our chef having a slice of his own cake... :)

So this Friday we're going to bake a chocolate orange cake with orange cream cheese frosting! :D

Another pair of hair clips

Hubs decided to go visit a close friend, whose actually an ex-colleague of his. They live about 45 mins drive away from our place and have a really pretty little girl named Emily.

Now Emily was born a year ago, exactly a day after we went over to their place for summer barbecue! And she wasn't due till a week or two later. I guess she knows that we're having a good time eating, laughing and enjoying ourselves that she wants to come meet us! LOL!

Anyways, I made another two pairs of clips just for her. I just hope that she likes it...

Shelagh Duffett's Blueberry Orange Cake

Me and my pink glaze...

Got this recipe from HERE. She takes really NICE food photos, something I'd want to do as well as. But then again, she probably invested in a pretty hi-tech type of camera. Which for the moment I could not afford to get, seeing that there are tons of other stuff I'll be spending on:, like stitchable stash and other equipemet!! :D LOL!

Tried it out and I really do like it. Its jus so moist. I opted for a pink coloured glaze instead of orange, as I don't have frozen orange concerntrate (used orange juice, its zest instead and some food colouring). I will make this cake again but may be instead of blueberry, I'll be using frozen mix berry just to see.

Cute little flowers 1st & 2nd attempt

I saw some pretty little felt flower clips awhile back, thanks to looking up for ideas for NeedleN'Crafts anniversary gift exchange. Each participant has to construct a felt flower for their partner.

So while browsing, I thought to myself that "hey! I could make that!". So now is the time to make it. The idea comes THIS online tutorial (THANK YOU FOR PUTTING IT UP!!). It really is amazing the amount of tutorial this crafter and the rest has put up! Imagine the time, money and patience (some of us do have tots that drive us crazy while we're blogging, you know) for each tutorial spend.... So I've always think that its nice to link it back to the owner of the tutorial, to show appreciation you know....

Just too bad that we don't have little girls of our own, so these will go to a very cute little girl whom I'll be meeting later in the afternoon. Who knows, I'll be trying out a hair band next for myself? *wink*wink

Pâtes au poulets et au fromage frais

Literally means: Chicken with pasta and fresh cheese sauce. Took this out from my weekly COOP newsletter (its a chain of supermarkets like Tesco). I really like this recipe and its really quick and easy peasy to prepare. So here goes...

Main meal for 4 person.

Ingredients

Enough olive oil for cooking

3 spring of thyme

400 g chicken breasts sliced into bite size

1/2 tsp salt

a pinch of pepper

1/2 tsp olive oil

450 g zucchini cut in half and sliced into 3mm thick slices

150 g frozen peas

100 ml chicken stock

1 tbsp mild mustard

125 g fresh herb cheese AKA cream cheese, such as Cantadou or Boursin, cubed

1/4 tsp nutmeg powder

300 g pasta

Enough salted water for pasta cooking.

Method

You first heat up some olive oil in the pan, then add thyme and chicken breasts. Cook till meat are slightly golden. Remove thyme, season and set a side the chicken for later use.

Pour in the rest of the olive oil into the pan, lower the heat and stir fry the zucchini for about 2 minutes. Then peas, for another minute, followed be the chicken stock and simmer for about 2 minutes. Stir in your cream/fresh cheese, mustard and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Stir in pre-prepared chicken, cook briefly and remove from heat.

You then prepare your pasta according to manufacturer's instructions or till al dente/just cook. Drain and then mix the sauce with your pasta and voila!

Note: I made mine slightly different: didn't have zucchini so in comes canned mushrooms and some left over bacon... :p

The weekend was spent...

Ready to cut...

testing out a sandwich mould (well, a couple of them) received last week on Monday. Don't you just love getting gifts or parcels on a Monday morning? I know I do, beat off the Monday blues.

into a whale, dog, elephant and a car!

I seriously thing only the Japs could come up with these "inventions". Remember the square shaped watermelon thingy and there was the heart shaped cucumber? I think it has to do with their bento (packed lunch) and visual "eating".

Minnie and Micky

Anyways its pretty easy to use. Just slap on the filling of your choice (just not salad leaves or anything that is difficult to cut without a knife) and press the mould down. Voila, you'll get a little car, a whale, an elephant and a terrier dog sans bread crusts! :D Owen was pretty happy to eat it all up, just not the greens. :(

Mental note: white bread would look better!

Next is the Minnie and Micky Mouse bread stamp. I know, sounds funny right? Who would wanna stamp on bread?? Apparently some people do. So you take the stamp and stamp it on the bread (white breads are preferred), then you can either toast it in the toaster (which by the way brings out the optimum result) OR you could just slap on your favourite filling, with of course the stamped side out. You then cut the bread crust using the accompanied crust cutter, making sure that Minnie's or Micky's face is centered. I did not cut the crusts out as I find that its wasteful to throw away food. OMG! Why do I sound like my mum now? Or do all mothers feel the same ways?

Mushroom & bacon "sandwich"

Any how, besides trying out the new toy, I made pork curry for brunch on Sunday. LOVE GRAVY! I could eat it just with plain bread.... Heavenly! And then tried out supermarket finger food: pan fried mushroom with bacon. LOVE BACON!!!

Hers and his

And after all that, went out for a walk along the lake with the boys. The weather wasn't really nice, all grey and cloudy. But still at least it didn't rain, and it wasn't really windy. It just look depressing that all. So to perk things up, a nice thick hot chocolate is in order. Minus the marshmallow and whipping cream.

NKOTB

or rather on 2008... YES, I'm still a fan! Bite me!

NKOTB with Ne-Yo: Single

NKOTB

I was just listening to my New Kids on The Block on my Ipod. Brings back sooooo.... MANY memories. A really close friend I think (might be mistaken) had this song as her wedding march! Crazy girl! LOL! Both of us went gaga over NKOTB. We had all their songs and posters etc!

Here's the video of The Right Stuff: one the many fav of mine...

Winnie and friends

Winnie and friends wall clock that seems to be FOREVER!

I've been on this for weeks now... Its a pretty simply and straight forward piece but some how I seem to be stitching it like forever!

I think part of the reason is that by the time I'd like to sit down and do it, I'm just so tired that ended up making mistakes. So that means I'm frogging more than stitching! ARRGGHHHH.... I'd love to start another piece but then again, its just not me to start something and abandon it half was like what I did to my 9 gold fish piece. Its now officially an Unfinished Object laying around and I do feel guilty just looking at it. So what I do? I kept it "hidden" in my "Work In Progress" box. Well, its at the very bottom... :p So far that is the only one there.

My little model...

It has been 3 days that Owen has not taken his afternoon nap. Somehow he doesn't need that much of sleep ever since he was a baby (and he's still a baby to me!). Which makes me wonder where does all his energy comes from? I would LOVE to have this type of stamina but alas, as we grow older its the opposite.

Next model in the making? ^_^

Speaking of sleep, Kevin seems to be sleeping more than his older brother. Which is GOOD for me. As I was determine NOT to repeat our mistake with Owen, by letting him sleep later. So Kevin now sleeps at around 7:30pm or 8pm and wakes at around 2:30am or 3am for milk and sleeps back till around 9am. There are a few times when he slept right through the night till 5am! Pretty amazing for a breastfed 3 month old, I think. I wonder he'll continue with this trend of his?

Date Night

No, we're NOT having date nights and I don't forsee dates nights for the next 3 years and counting. LOL!

But it is a movie entitled Date Night starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg (OMG! He IS THE MAN HERE!!) etc. I absolutely enjoyed it. Not just because there's Mark Wahlberg (well, he may and may not be part of the reason). But because of the title itself.

Now tell me how many average middle class new parents with babies ages ranging from 0 months to 6 ave date nights? When I mean middle class (with a single income earner) parents, I mean those WITHOUT domestic helper or in-laws at the standby mode to baby sit. I wish we could afford having a baby sitter on regular basis. BTW, they are super expensive now, so families with girls; please train them to baby sit to earn extra pocket money!!

Anyways back to the movie. Its a a story about the average working couple with 2 boys that makes the effort to go out on their weekly date nights out. Even though they have demanding jobs that drains energy off them by the end of the day, they still go out. But then again some how they realised that the way that they are doing it and the way their relationship is going, seems more like a job to do rather than a pleasure. So one date night, hubby decides to make a change. It is hilarious how this date night is so different that the rest of their dates! I'd bet the next date would be even better!

I still wish we'd get a chance for date nights though. Even movie nights are far fetched these days.... Sigh...

A week that was

Has been a week and one day since mum left for home. I could still manage the house, the kids and the husband.... sans bloodshed for the moment! HAHAHAHAHA.....

There are however, times when I truly and honestly wanted to strangle that husband of mine for: letting the older one act as if his mischiefs are nonpunishable, for letting the little one cry non-stop while I cook (I can and will forget to add or add too much salt/sugar whatever if this happens) and for act thing as if he's SOOOO.... TIRED from his job as an IT support. Which by the way typically is a sit down job with only either one index finger for clicking, perhaps the full 10 fingers for replying e-mails, the ear & mouth for listening/answering phone calls, the eyes for looking at the screen and the brain to process information.

Being a full time homemaker for the moment is NOT recognisable as a job as being say a lawyer, nurse, doctors, cooks, food & drinks server or even the garbage man. What is making me even angrier is that the person who brings in the bacon/dough/money thinks that he/she can get away with throwing temper tantrums by saying "well, I'm bringing in the income there for what I says goes!" GRRR.....

Well HELLO THERE, we slave around at home without any pay and most of the time we don't even get the right complaint about our job! And there ladies and gentlemen is modern day slavery....

I'd have to admit it, it has been tough running the house on daily basis like running the Star Ship Enterprise. Albeit the budget cuts for my personal hobbies, I truly hope I could still see some light at the end of the tunnel for me time! That's is why I stand on firm believe that babies and kids should be in bed by 9pm no matter what husband and the in-laws have to say. Just because its school holiday doesn't mean that MY job is done or on a holiday well as does it? My job is only done when they are sleeping.

OH WELL! All this typing makes me hungry. Now how about a nice cup (make that 2 cups) of hot chocolate. Mind you not one of those ready to mix chocolate powder with hot milk. Its the ones where you-melt-your-dark-chocolates-by-cooking-them-in-milk types. YUM!

The week that was

The Lavaux vineyards with its mountain the lake.

When the in-laws came to visit us last week and left only on Wednesday. They rented a mountain chalet for a week up at Glion. Its a pretty place but with limited compound. And even with that small amount of space, the care taker managed to grow tomatoes, zucchini, cherry trees and some herbs like basil and rosemary. The zucchinis was excellent! We made omelets with it and the zucchini flowers. Zucchini flowers are sold mostly at farmers market AND its pretty expensive.

Owen eyeing the cake with his hungry eyes...

Eating with his cousins

Owen had a blast with his cousins. He slept at midnight almost every night! And during that week, he hardly take his nap. And guess what? At night he'll be talking/have nightmares and during the day time he was so tired that he's so agitate that it irritates me. GRRRR.... Its like he's uncontrollable! And his misbehaves so badly that I had no choice but to punish him all the time! And I don't like punishing him. It gives me mental drain.

Hubs with Esma & Fabrice

Mum with Uncle Tony

Any ways when they arrived on last Monday, the weather was not o-operating at all. Its all doom and gloom till Wednesday. But then again it was OK as grand aunt couldn't walk that much due to her illness. So they went visiting around Montreux and Vevey. We even went around Lavaux vineyards terrace, stoped a few times to take some photos at Lutry and later on went for wine tasting at one of the local cellar. Bought half a dozen bottles as gifts for friends and family in France and for my dad.

What's a bbq party without kids?

The little star in the arms of 1st aunt

The family didn't really go visiting around Switzerland as planned but at least we get to be together for catch ups and a barbecue! So it was all good.

What a trip!

The proud big brother. More pictures here!

As many of you know, our family just had an addition. Little Kevin was born on 5th July 2010. It all happened in the early hours of the morning. I thought I'm just having episodes of tummy ache until there's some bleeding and labour pains started.

It wasn't painful but still... Good thing my bag was packed a few weeks ahead. Hubs jump out of bed and did a "rush job" on his morning routine.. hehehehe... Managed call the hospital mid-wife and to kiss Owen goodbye before heading out the door. Poor kid was still sleeping then, I didn't have the heart to leave him without telling him where we're off to. But then again, this time is different!

At the hospital, the only place with air-conditioning was in the labour room! We were pretty lucky to be assigned to a room with an extra lie-in sofa/bed for hubs! Having drifting on and off epidural, we managed to take an hour nap BEFORE the actual dilatation began. I had the "mild" pain relieve level as I could still feel the pain (on the level of 10, it was a 5 for me). They had to break the water bag in between labour. After nearly 8 hours, Kevin finally came to the world at 4:30pm with the help of the vacuum extractor. YUP! His head look a little awkward for a few days. In fact it looked alien like! LOL!

We stayed over at the hospital for about 6 days. Owen came to see us on the same evening Kevin was born. He was wearing this "Ok, here's the baby. So what can he do? Why are you guys so excited about? " look when he was here. I could tell he miss having me around at home whenever he came to visit us. But then again without mummy at home, he was the little terror according to grandma! He locks grandma out at the balcony, creates havoc for grandma to clean up afterwards, refuses to go to bed at the time mummy has established etc etc.... AIYAH!!! Mum says that only I could control Owen as he was bullying her! LOL!!!

As we were having a pretty hot summer (average about 32°c), the 5 night hospital stay was like sleeping in the sauna! We do not have even a small table fan... :( Gosh! It was so hot that all the babies were crying from 10pm till the wee hours. I had make a fan out of a piece of brochure, thank goodness it was made out of thick paper. I so wanted to get out ASAP but Kevin's jaundice level was rising but not enough to be put under the UV light (phototherapy). So in the end I'd rather stay on to make sure that he has clean bill of health BEFORE both of us checks out.

It was so nice to be back at home and sleeping in my own bed with some form of heat reducing instrument A.K.A. the fan. Owen is adjusting and is still adapting towards having to share mummy with his baby brother. Kevin was feeding every 2 hours for the 2- 3 weeks we're home but now he could hold up till 4 hours max at night. Which is a BLISS for me! I remember when Owen was hungry every 2 hours till the 2 month! ARRGGGHHHH..... I can't wait when he could at least hold up till 5 hours! But then again, I'd bet it won't happen with breast fed babies.

New addition to kitchen appliances

Our not so new but new to us Chinese Red Docle Gusto Machine! ;D

We have inherited a coffee machine from the Bernardo who works for Nestle on Sunday. They actually offered the machine to us before Christmas last year but there wasn't any place at that time to put it.

Now its sitting near our dinning table above my sewing drawers. Its a Dolce Gusto machine and not the Nespresso. Good thing as well, as we could make other drinks besides coffee. But then again, I don't think I'll be using it THAT often unless we have people over. Reason being the capsules are rather expensive to purchase on daily basis. A box of 16 capsules of decaffe Caffè Lungo would costs me CHF6.40. The same price for cappuccino light (8 cofffe & 8 milk capsules each). So for the moment, I'll stick to my Italiano stove top cafetiere and my battery operated milk frother for every day use....

Perhaps when mum comes over this Saturday, I'll give her a treat. She's such a coffee drinker! hahahahahaa....

Being 3.....

I'm now 3!

Owen had his 3rd birthday party on Saturday. His actual birth date is on 11th June, and he shares the same birth date as June of NNC! ;) Now more the reason NOT to forget June's special day eh? *wink*wink

We just had a small gathering with some close friends as our families aren't technically able to be here. We have limited entertaining space at home and we don't really entertain that often. So whenever we have friends over he'll get so excited that he'll forgo his afternoon nap!

Spidey cake!

There's Carmen & her boy, Jules; the Bernardos: Cheche, Tony & Regina, the Kuntz: Nina, Andreas and their little princess, Emily and a long time uni friend, Azni. The weather was cloudy but still really warm and thank goodness it didn't rain! We had a little barbecue, with our electric grill of course, on our balcony. As usual hubs man the grill.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SWEET BOY!

Look! Even Grandpa Tony is helping.... ;)

BTW, what's with men and grill? Perhaps its the ONLY time to show off their "cooking" abilities? I've notice how men tend to LOVE grilling meat over fire (even on electric grill!!). I think its genetics or due to our ancestral heritage OR they could be reminiscing about their camping days?

Any ways, we got him a Spiderman cake. I seriously do not have the patience to decorate cakes, although I'd like to learn the basics next time. So this time round, I ordered it from a Filipino friend who makes really gorgeous birthday cakes at home. LOVE the marshmallow icing and cake as it wasn't too heavy nor too sweet. But we did ended up with blueish/pinkish teeth/mouth! LOL!

It really felt like it was yesterday when he was born. How time flies! And now with him being fully toilet trained (day time and no need reminding. YAY!) before his 3rd birthday, I really hope that he keeps up his good work and then we could be able to rid off his night time diapers as well. He'll be going to school/kindergarten next year at 4, which is hard to believe for myself. I guess we'll better take advantage of having short breaks/holidays out of school holidays BEFORE September 2011.