Kitchen-krazy #1: Over the Weekend

It's been years since I really cook an entire dinner meals for friends. So I decided to cook simple dishes for the five of us.

The preparation especially chopping onions and garlics kinda time consuming.

And for the first time in my whole life, I clean the fish which includes scraping the scales, cutting the fins and removing the entrails in its cavity. Well, it wasn't really a comfortable experience but I'm glad I was able to do that considering I've only seen my ex-housemate in university did it once. Same goes to the prawn-cleaning session whereby I took off all the shells and the veins.

Earlier of the day, I started preparing jelly as desserts. I tried agar-agar santan but because I don't have a proper mould and I was too impatient with the jelly, it didn't turn out well but still edible. Luckily the jelly in cups (rose flavoured jelly with longans) turns out to be just nice.

The menu for that evening was:

Main dish
Chicken rice (thanks to Sarah!)
Japanese tofu and egg
Lady's fingers masak sambal belacan (with lots of dried shrimps)
Baked beans and eggs (the easiest to cook but turns out to be a DISASTER and not presentable)
Ketchup prawns (which is rather EMBARASSING because I wrongly estimated the portion)
Stir-fried fish with soy sauce (and lots of fried onions)

Drinks and dessert
Sprite mixed with lychees and longans
Jelly in cups (rose flavoured)

Never in my life felt that Saturday can be such a long meaningful day. Think I should start experimenting and cook more And get better pictures too.

My Experience In Purchasing Flowers Online

Well, first of all, this is not a sponsored post or advertisement but more of a personal experience on buying flowers online.

Few months ago, together with some friends, we decided to send flowers to our good friend on her birthday. Since it is my job to do the online purchase, I decided to go for Blooming Florist, the only online florist I know back then. However, I ended up very disappointed because my friends and I have to pay a hefty price for a bad service. My friend not only received her flowers on her BELATED birthday but only received it in the evening after I made a call to the customer service during lunch hour.

Then when I asked them why I can't trace my order online, they gave a silly reason saying that their tracking system couldn't trace order to Penang. I was upset because instead of apologizing for their inefficiency in the delivery, they gave a lot of excuses.

Recently I did another online purchase but definitely not Blooming Florist again because of their lack of professionalism and services. I don't want to even mention their bouquet arrangement.

This time I decided to consult from a friend, Tracy, first before I make another bad purchase online and she recommended Pure Seed Florist. Honestly, you'll be impressed by the pictures in the websites. I'm amazed too but again I'm a bit cautious this time after the previous bad experience. However, the florist, Winnie is very helpful, and they are very professional in flowers arrangement and providing great service especially in accommodating special request.

I am so impressed by them I want to share this in my blog. Whatever you see in the pictures are what you are going to get. They made the flowers arrangement look so expensive and elegant. Even the soft toys are of good quality. And the flowers are the freshest in town too.

Setting Up A Stall @ The Curve Flea Market?

The idea started from the cupcakes my colleagues and I had this morning. It was my boss' first time baking cupcakes. Although the cupcakes not exactly presentable but credit must be given to her because they are very delicious. However, it is very butter-rich and one is enough for me.

Then my colleague who's a regular to The Curve started to mention about the personalized cupcakes that were sold for the whooping price of RM3 per cupcake at the flea market. And our conversation ended up with the rental of spaces at the flea market for business during weekend.

Well, I'm not sure what kind of products are salable but second hand books are definitely not available there. I'll check with my friends and see if they are interested.

I've Got Tagged Again!

Okay, this is another meme and this time it's from Izad. I've decided not to pass it to anyone since I've mentioned in my previous blogging tips post that meme's a turn-off.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
It was 1997. I was in my second year in a local university and living happily with my fellow housemates. However, I was struggling financially and had to work as a promoter in a supermarket in Kajang after lectures. Sometimes I would stand whole day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and listen to the same songs countless times everyday. I wasn't really happy with the course I took in university but I did enjoy doing presentations and mingle with other course mates.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
I did a lot of freelance writing and editing jobs back then. Always a lone ranger at work and was missing the 'normal' working life surrounded by colleagues and free drinks at the pantry. However, I love the flexibility I had back then. I can work through the midnight till morning daylight and sleep the whole afternoon.

Five snacks you enjoy
1. Any mint chocolate bars and candies
2. Oreo cookies
3. Kit Kat
4. Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies
5. GSC's popcorn.

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to
1. Starship's Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now
2. Wilson Phillips' You're In Love
3. MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This
4. Color Me Badd's Close To Heaven
5. Man Bai's Kau Ilhamku

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
1. Bring my family on a Buddhist pilgrimage tour to India
2. Start up my own educational publishing business
3. Spend more time on contributing to charity work
4. Sponsoring a research project to determine if reading deficit is the main cause students (particularly from the rural area) struggling to learn Maths and Science in English.
5. Get myself a private music teacher to teach me how to play the piano.

Five bad habits
1. Obsessive
2. Procrastinate
3. Couch potato
4. Easily touched and cry
5. Hates house chores

Five things you like doing
1. Joining contests
2. Staring at the sea
3. Watching reality shows
4. Lazing around
5. LIstening

Five things you would never wear again
1. Skirts
2. Dress
3. Skirts
4. Dress
5. Skirts

Five favourite toys
1. My Astro channels
2. My Toshiba laptop
3. My humble Ixus II camera
4. My squash racket
5. My blog