The one about the food taster

 

Nephew #3 is very enthusiastic about food. He wants to try everything. *winks*

Apparently, his fave meal of the week is Saturday night's dinner cooked by the one and only Aunt Y (aka me). *high fives all around*

He would constantly come in the kitchen to check the progress of my cooking. And his face lights up when it's time to taste the food. :)

Like when I called his name and said that he could have ONE chocolate chip cookie. :)

Nephew #1 used to be my official food taster because he would watch the oven as the cookies baked and get really excited  Now that he's stayed with us for the last 3 years, he has stopped being enthusiastic about the stuff I make while I make them but will just eat everything up when I'm not around. Teenagers are expensive to have around the house. *LOL*

Had a play with lots of patterns on this colourful layout. :)

Happy Thursday friends!

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Finale - the last of my eye drawings for #the100dayproject

 

And so this is it...the end of #the100dayproject2021...and I completed it with 100 mixed media eye drawings! Yay! Go me! *high fives all around*

Meet 97/100.

And 98/100.

Say hello to 99/100.

And the finale - mixed media eye 100/100. :)

Gotta say that yesterday was a weird day because I did not have to do an eye drawing. I had gotten so used to devoting 60 minutes a day on each drawing. I need to find another series of projects to work on. Any ideas? *winks*

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The one about the CNY cookies and the furry ox

 

So there might be an avalanche of layouts coming up as I print photos off my phone to clear up some storage space. I usually have about 5000 photos but now the number has crept up to 7000+ (*yikes...dramatic music plays in the background*)....and of course, they are mostly food photos. *LOL*

Anyway, this CNY I actually took NO family photos even though I had my brother's family over for 3 consecutive days. Okay,  I totally spaced out on the first day because I was tired from the cooking of the reunion dinner the night before. And that was the only day the Gangster Gang (nephews + niece) came in their CNY new clothes (aka looked presentable).

That would be fine except for the fact that I needed to repurpose my CNY decorations like I do every year on my layouts. I mean, check out this year's furry ox. Such a cutie needed to be in the family scrapbook album, right? *winks*

A quick check on my phone led to the discovery of pics of the CNY cookies I baked and gifted to friends and neighbours. Perfect for possibly the only CNY layout for 2021 (even though I have 3 furry oxen..hmmm).

Yep, people make layouts just to use an embellishment right? *hahaha*

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The one about E making dinner

 

So the other day, my sister E made us dinner! Such rarity deserved a page in the family scrapbook album! *winks*

We have social media to thank for the sushi wrap thing we had. E saw it and wanted to make it as a snack for herself...and I convinced her that she should just make more and that would be dinner (which would mean one less meal for me to cook..hehehe).

Of course my sister obliged me with photos...check out the one where she is focused on getting the ingredients for the sushi wrap just perfect...*LOL*

In case you were wondering about sushi wrap...sushi rice, spam, eggs, purple carrots and tomatoes wrapped in seaweed. :)

Verdict: You will love it if you love spam. (at least for this version) But I must say it was a really quick dinner to put together. If you see the clock on the wall in the photo, we had dinner at 5 plus. *LOL*

Happy weekend friends! :)

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Yet another week in eye drawings

 

I can't believe that I have done 96 eye drawings since January 31 this year. Some have been pretty shady (pun intended) but most have actually turned out quite decent. *self-praise* Hahaha!

Meet 90/100.

Since I was getting too comfortable with my choice of mixed media materials, I decided to add some new friends to the mix...like my highly neglected Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons. :)

This was 91/100.

And now I might have a slight obsession with the ArtGraf watehrsouble pencil in gray. I have had it for years and never used it. Now that I've actually used it, I can't seem to get enough of it. I should stop buying art supplies and just shop my stash...it's clear that I own some good stuff. *winks*

Say hi to 92/100.

Played with darks for 93/100.

A muted colour palette for 94/100.

Tried a textured Kraft paper for 95/100 and hated it because it was so hard to blend.

Went for bold and colourful for 96/100.

There you have it, yet another week in eye drawings. Just 4 more and I would successfully complete #the100dayproject2021! Pretty excited to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! :)

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Workspace Wednesday - eating out

 

So the bestie and I have been eating out at a "fancy" place once a month to take advantage of great dining deals that are on offer locally. Weekday lunch deals offer the best value-for-money and capacity restrictions make for a more pleasant atmosphere. *No need to hear the conversation at the next table because it's empty!*

We went to this Italian restaurant that offered a 1-for-1 deal for a 3 course set lunch for S$35 ++ which worked out to be about S$20 (US$15) per person.

We ordered different things so that we could share of course.

This was the oven-baked mushrooms with sautéed spinach and parmesan cheese.

This was the burrata cheese with San Daniele ham and tomato.

Spaghetti with fresh seafood in a delicate sauce.

Veal cutlet Milanese.

Vanilla and hazelnut gelato. Of course, it would have been awesome if we got a plated dessert but for the price we paid, the gelato was pretty good

Plus I got a complimentary birthday cake slice too. (Even though my birthday was the month before...but at least they didn't do the highly embarrassing "Let's get everyone to sing her a birthday song" thing. *LOL*)

What about you? How have you been supporting your local businesses in these challenging times?

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What I learnt from cooking for my family for an entire year (Part 1)

 

Well my friends, it has been an entire year since I started cooking for my family. *dramatic music plays in the background*.  Prior to that, I mostly baked some sweet treat on the weekends or special occasions. But for the past year, I've cooked most of the meals at home. 

And I would like to share some of the lessons I learnt ...most of them I learnt the hard way of course *winks*

1. Food prep is essential if you want to spend less time in the kitchen for each meal and don't want to use too much processed food.

I make my own pasta sauce (which doubles up as pizza sauce) and my own chicken stock. I always have baked bread in the freezer and some other dough (tart, pie, cookie) for last-minute "emergencies". 

2. Food can get "stolen" when they are chilling before getting packed.

Yep. It happens a lot in my household. Like the other day. When I was letting the sourdough pancakes cool to room temperature before packing them in boxes to put in the fridge. ONE got "stolen" and I had to watch the rest like a hawk because food prep only works if the food is still around. *LOL*

3. Second-degree burns hurt. A lot.

Like kept me up at night kind of pain. Seriously. I did put my hand under running tap water for a while but not quite long enough (because I didn't want to overcook my steak!). There was pain but the burn marks appeared like an hour later. Fortunately for me, there wasn't any scarring on my hand. 

4. Always choose a container that is bigger than what you think you need.

A bigger container is always better than one that is too small. Check out my overzealous sourdough starter  which tripled in size in a few hours and required some serious cleanup. I also blame the organic rye flour. My sourdough starter LOVES organic rye flour. It is non-responsive to organic AP flour. Organic wholemeal is its second fave. Yep, even my sourdough starter is spoilt. *LOL*

5. Any help is better than no help at all.

Saturday's dinner service is the most "brutal" for me because I have to feed 10 people who eat a lot. But I also get a cleaning crew(3 nephews + 1 niece) after. Who need strict supervision. But any help is better than none. Because the cooking part is the easy part. And nope, we do not have a dishwasher.

There you have it, what I learnt from cooking for my family for an entire year (part 1). Apparently I took a lot of photos of my cooking adventures so stay tuned for a part 2. *winks*

What about you? Any lessons from your year of stay-at-home cooking?

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My birthday celebration 2021

 

So this was my birthday celebration with the extended family. 

Yep. No fancy food. Just a store-bought birthday cake courtesy of my sister. It was a really good cake though. :)

Photos were taken with my sister's new fancy Samsung foldable phone...apparently in the "look 10 years younger" mode. I know, I look 18 again! *winks*

At least I made it to ONE family photo this year...*triumphant music plays in the background* Most of the time I didn't' make the cut because I was cross-eyed, wasn't looking at the camera or just had my eyes closed. Life is too short to have ugly photos of yourself in scrapbook albums. *LOL*

Happy week ahead friends! :)

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