Using my watercolour painting as patterned paper

 

Yesterday I shared how I framed my watercolour artwork. Today, I'm using a watercolour painting as patterned paper for my layout.

The practice piece when I was painting it... 

And here as patterned paper...

You know I've recently been enamoured with the muted wet on wet technique...kind of lots like faded vintage paper. *winks*

Anyway, let's chat about the layout. We went out to a sushi restaurant for dinner last week. We are at 80% vaccination rate and currently only vaccinated people are allowed to dine in restaurants and air-conditioned eateries though unvaccinated individuals can still do takeaways. Yes, we have an app/digital token that is scanned for entry/exit to places...so that the government will text you when you've been in close proximity with a positive COVID-19 person and to self-isolate. 

Playing along with The Studio Challenges..recipe challenge. :)

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The one about the mung bean cakes

 

Earlier this month, I made some mung bean cakes for the first time. 

The mung beans (green beans) were washed and soaked for 6 hours/overnight before being steamed till soft. After that, sugar, butter and dried cranberries are added and the soft beans are mashed and rolled into balls. The pastry is a yeasted one made with all-purpose flour and vegetable oil. The dough is wrapped around each ball of filling then flattened and baked in the oven for around 20 minutes. 

The pastry was light and crispy and went with the sweet bun bean filling.

I had never actually eaten a mung bean cake before ...and wanted to share it on IG so I tried one..and took photos. And since my dad was in the vicinity...he got to try one too. (I mean he was watching me eat...kind of had to offer him one...*LOL*)

There I was thinking that it would great with my morning espresso the next day. After all, I baked 10. We ate 2. There were still 8 left right?

Wrong. I underestimated the popularity of the mung bean cakes. Because mum and nephew #1 ate the rest the next morning. Yep. Each of them ate 4 mung bean cakes. *dramatic music plays in the background*

Mum was like, "I thought they were muffins and I brought them to school. And I had 2 for breakfast and 2 for snacks."

Nephew #1 was like, "I ate two for breakfast at home and brought the other two to school for snacking."

Guess they must be really yummy. *winks*

And that my friends, is the story about the mung bean cakes. Not terribly exciting under normal circumstances but in COVID 19 days, is an "exciting" event in my stay-at-home life. *LOL*

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

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The one about my sister's delivery gig

 

So my sister started her part-time food delivery journey with Food Panda (local food delivery platform) over the weekend. Her way of experiencing the food delivery process, burn some calories on the bike during her free time and getting really familiar with our neighbourhood.

My sister says that it's pretty cool to be cycling around the neighbourhood, get a notification on her phone for a delivery and make $5 en route home. *winks*

Can you tell that I had so much fun with this layout? *LOL*

I threw in some of my travel stash too. Got the approval from my sister ...she said some of the places she had to cycle to were quite far away...up a hill...so her legs got quite a workout! 

So happy to get to use up my burger and popsicle chipboards too. :)

Yep, my sister is as much an extrovert as I am an introvert. This is her way of de-stressing when gyms are still closed. I will just be baking and making art. Hahaha!

What about you? Would you try a food delivery gig?

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

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The one about the fracture

Back in November, nephew #1 had a cycling mishap while he was out with his friends at a nearby island (Pulau Ubin). 

He had scrapes on his right arm and fractured his left thumb. Clearly nothing really major but the A&E doctor put his entire left forearm in a cast because he couldn't decipher an x-ray properly. *shakes head* (We were told that he fractured his hand and forearm in 3 different places...and when the cast came off, the doctor was like, "Oops, it's just the thumb!" ...I kid you not!)

I mean, the kid doesn't even look like he's in pain, right? (Of course, he could have been loopy while on pain meds...or because I was holding his hand. *LOL*)

Despite needing help to shower and eat for 2 weeks (till the cast came off), the kid was just living his best life playing computer games all day. :)

Just a layout with lots of random bits...

Playing along with The Studio Challenges SCRAP challenge..

S- Stickers 

C- Chipboard

R - Ribbon

A - Ampersand

P - Patterned papers

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The one about my birthday lunch 2021

 

So I was out for a quick lunch with the family at a nearby mall on my birthday last month.

I am thankful that I got an "off" day from cooking lunch. *winks*

And I got fun photos to scrapbook...

Like my folks posing with their food.

And my sister with her "can I get a toothpaste ad? smile. 

I had so much fun mixing patterns on this layout. :)

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

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Fun Sunday decorating and eating sugar cookies

 

Nephew #3 and the niece had a fun time decorating and eating sugar cookies last month. They said it was "more fun than playing the game on Playstation".  *winks* (They only have ONE game to play and it is a really lame one....hahaha)

Check out the intense concentration....*LOL*

The niece took a long time picking out the exact sprinkles she wanted for her own cookies. But when she was asked to make more for the rest of the family, she just threw them on! *hehehe*

And yes, I'm still trying to use up my Christmas wrapping paper!

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

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What are we having for dinner ? Leftover lunch pizza! *winks*

 

Like most mums, my mum fears that there will not be enough food when her grandchildren come over for a visit on Sundays so she cooks a lot. Which often results in leftover food from lunch. That I have to somehow incorporate into dinner which I am in charge of. *challenge accepted*

So the other day, we had leftover lunch pizza! A bit of fusion with cheese, tomato slices and soy sauce pork belly. It was pretty tasty! *LOL*

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.  The poinsettias and the banners were fussy-cut from some recent wrapping papers and the rest all old stuff from my stash.

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Sourdough journey update

 

It's been a while since I last shared my sourdough experiments and it's time for a sourdough journey update.

I've been baking a lot less bread than when I first started because of storage issues. Seriously. There's only a teeny weeny amount of bread you can freeze in your freezer because you have to store other food too.

Also, the other Yam family members actually don't really enjoy sourdough bread. Mainly because they are lazy and impatient. Sourdough bread needs to be toasted so that the edges are crispy and the bread is soft and the butter spread just melts on it. Even though the frozen bread pieces are sliced, it still takes about 25 minutes to toast them in the oven for optimal enjoyment. Of course, to speed up the time, the other Yams will crank up the oven temperature and then complain that the bread is too hard/dry. *dramatic horror music plays in the background*

So now I just make them sourdough pancakes/waffles (which is way more popular) and make sure I have some scones and muffins on hand too. Yep, I'm making sourdough everything. *winks*

And for the past month, my focus has been to perfect the sourdough breads that I personally enjoy like this Tangzhong sourdough bread. Tangzhong is a technique which involves cooking a portion of the flour and liquid first and then adding it back to the bread mixture which in turn produces a soft and fluffy bread with a longer shelf life.

And sourdough focaccia...which is my backup for lazy days of soup and salad. This one the Yams will actually eat without complaining because I would serve the focaccia warm and toasted. 

I'm pretty happy with the oven spring I've been able to achieve without any specialized equipment. My bread dough is shaped and placed on baking paper in a round Ikea soup bowl (instead of a banneton basket) for bulk fermentation. Instead of a cast iron pan, I bake my bread in a Corningware casserole dish. Plus my oven's maximum tempertature is 240c/460f which is lower than the recommended baking temperature of 260c/500f. 

Can you tell that I had fun incorporating a girl, a kite and a pear on my layout? *LOL*

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

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