Home Improvement

Well, not really...

But halfway through scavenging through whatever's left of my on-the-verge-of-turning-mouldy packet of grapes, I suddenly remembered something that my housemate always does while doing the same thing.

Most of us have this problem when we're washing our grapes. There's that white layer of stuff (presumably nothing healthy at all) covering the grapes. So even if we don't die from it, it still makes the grapes taste weird. But I think no one is really THAT health-conscious nor hardworking to go clean it one by one.

I've tried that (washing it one by one), peeling off the skin, aerate water (with a gadget) with the grapes in it, and using some liquid wash (similar to our detergent...just that it's for vegetables). All of them work to a certain extent, but of course there are downsides to each of it.

Now, I remembered seeing Samantha (my housemate) using some white powder to clean her grapes. (At first I thought it was some icing to go with the grapes. ) Anyway, the powder turned out to be flour instead, something most of us have in our kitchen.

So I finally decided to try her method instead. (I got fed up with cleaning the grapes one by one, that's why.)

Before "flour treatment"

After "flour treatment"

Conclusion:

Hey, it DID work~! Quite effectively too~!

Might be using this method after this, just some flour and water does wonders on the grapes...hehe.

Fruits & Vegetables

Today's the 4th day of Chinese New Year, and coincidentally the day where everyone in my house decided to go get some shopping done. Not for clothes, not for sundries, but for fresh fruits and vegetables where it's dirt cheap in Fenham. Sudden thought of eating healthy after the weekend binge

So off we went, taking Stagecoach No. 40 from John Dobson Street to Stanhope Street. Was kinda disappointed to see the wholesale store. Thought it'd look more impressive than that. But then again, the saying of not judging the book by its cover soon struck me.

IT WAS CRAZY!!!

There were loads of stuff to get from the shop and they're all in bulk and damn cheap. Like a box of bananas, for example, costs only 1.50 pounds and there's like 123 bananas inside. Normally it costs about 1 pound for 2 to 3 bananas in Grainger Market or Tesco/Morrisons. So the 4 of us started choosing what we want and accumulating them in one corner of the store. We're totally absorbed in "shopping" that we forgot something VERY important.

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Samantha: Eh...so how much money do you have with you?

Muse, Jesmine & I: *Silence*

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After some quick calculations, each of us only had about 12 pounds average. Luckily the stuff we took still cost less than that, but we still have to save money for the taxi fare back home. (Which costed us 6.70 pounds) So we stopped buying and paid for everything.

It's not until we got everything in the house that we realised how much we bought.

Note: Pictures below might be disturbing to some individuals.

Part of the "loot" back from the store...only PART of it...

All those for....

My portion...

Guess all these would last me quite some time...

Take a guess...

So, what's the red thing on that piece of bread?

1. Tomato sauce
   
2. Sausage
   
3. Capsicum

And the answer is..............

*drum roll cue*

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3. Capsicum!!!

Its been baked in the oven together with oil and surprisingly, it's kinda sweet. Loved it!

Can be eaten just by itself or together with some french loaf or bread. Kinda addictive though...

Bon Appétit

(Credits: Bread and capsicum courtesy of Emily )

Huat Kueh for CNY!

Found this recipe online for huat kueh which I've been craving for, so I decided to try it out since the materials were readily available at home. Improvised on it a little, experimented a little and, VOILA~! Huat Kueh~!

The texture's quite good, but it tastes like something is missing...

Gonna call up my "Sifu" to see which secret ingredient 'X' was left out. HAHA~!

Another few sizes of the same batch of huat kueh...

(Didn't have enough mould of the same size, that's why.)

The two smaller ones a bit squashed, coz the steamer's lid constricted the "bursting" of the kueh. What to do...*sigh*...limited resources what...

Cookie-licious: Part 3

Finally decided to try making the cornflakes cookies today. Since I was lazy to cream the sugar and butter manually, I borrowed Victor's mixer to do it. Unfortunately, it took just as long to cream it properly, though it's not as energy consuming as doing it with a beater.

So I got it done according to the recipe with an "extra" giving comments and criticism in the background. (Muse made dessert at the same time too~! ) But this time, I put the dough into small paper cups instead. The visual effect of course was much better this time mostly because of the paper cups too!!!

First round of cookies:

Colour looked nice. Tastes good too! But...the texture is more like cupcakes. Baked not long enough. So into the oven again for another few minutes.

Second round of cookies:

Colour slightly brown. But the taste and texture is just nice.

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A comparison:

Here's the cookies from the 2 different batches. The two slightly larger and lighter coloured ones on the top right corner are from the first batch while the rest are from the second batch.

OK la...not very impressive looking but definitely edible~!

Hot Cross Buns

Saw this on offer in Marks & Spencer. Reminds me of a song, long, long ago...

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
One a penny, Two a penny,
Hot cross buns.

If you have no daughter,
Give it to your son,
One a penny, Two a penny,
Hot cross buns.

It Really Is SNOW!!!

YES~!~!~!

I FINALLY got to see snow, not only in Newcastle, but also a first in my life!!! Call me "sua gu" or whatever, I don't care. But it's SNOW. Not just the snow that you see on the ground...but it's actually snowing, falling from the sky!

OK, it's not like a blizzard or anything, though the periodic snow showers did get heavier throughout the night. So by morning, you could actually see a layer of snow on the ground, making everything white. So, so white...

Hope that it snows again...It's really a wonderful feeling to watch snow showers. Even better to feel it falling on you! Another month to go before winter ends. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SNOW~~~~~~~~~!!!

My first shot at making a snowman...but it looks more like ET.

Cookie-licious: Part 2

Today, it's the story of the peanut cookie~!

Once upon a time, there lived a few packets of weighed peanuts in the Tsang Kingdom in the Land of Chinatown somewhere in Newcastle of England. The peanuts led a very simple life in that tiny shelf on their own.

One day, one packet of the peanuts were picked up by a random traveller and brought to the Camden Palace, far, far away from their home. Initially, the peanuts had a hard time because they were subjected to heat torture by the Wok and physical abuse by the Blender.

However, the peanuts (or rather, ground peanuts) made 7 very nice friends. Their names were Sugar, Butter, Flour, Baking & Soda Powder (they're brothers), Egg Yolk and Cornflour. They spent a lot of time together and soon bonded very well.

This is a picture they took at that time.

A long time passed. Each of them got married, set up their own family and went their own separate ways.

However, peaceful times don't last long. A drought soon hit them and the sun was at 180 degrees Celcius during that time. In the end, they all turned into brown and crunchy cookies.

Another random traveller, passed by at this time a saw the already baked bunch of brown and crunchy cookies. So, the traveller scooped them up and had them for snacks for the next few days. He enjoyed the delicious cookies and lived happily ever after~!

The End

Cookie-licious...

When my aid package brought along the pineapple jam, the great craving for pineapple tarts struck me so hard that I had to try making them straightaway. Normally I would have to make them myself cos it's so much easier to buy them back home. But now...*sigh*...making them myself is the only way I have to satisfy my cravings...

Anyway, back to the main topic. So I set to work: measuring, pouring, mixing, kneading...and finally the dough was ready!!! Got the pineapple jam and made the type of tart with the jam uncovered on top. After the first round of baking...

Hmm...not as pretty as I'd like it to be, but still...

So now for the second version, where the jam is wrapped inside the dough. The raw version:

The cooked version:

Hmm...all of a sudden, the tarts from the first round seem so much better.

Maybe I'd need to add more water next time...

Got mixed review for them though. Some liked it, some not. Some thought the texture was just nice, some thought it was too hard.

Emily liked it though...hehe

Thanks, Emily!!!

Anyway, I'm gonna improve on the recipe and try again. The limiting factor now is just the pineapple jam. And I'd much like to use SCS butter instead, somehow I think that it smells and tastes better. Guess I'll just have to make do with other brands of butter then...