...as a Free Lunch

Don't you just love it when two posts in a row can just have continuation titles?

Anyway, we had a work conference, so I didn't have to come in to the office. Well, I did have to come in to the office to pick up materials anyway, and made my way to the hotel with a couple other colleagues. It was a really good set-up, and the staff were all very polite, friendly and helpful.

The highlights of the day had to be, of course, the food.

Mid-morning coffee break, with egg mayonnaise croissants with caviar, apple danishes, wanton with chilli dip (but I gave that one a miss) and lovely, moist, mini-cranberry muffins, with fresh raspberries on the side. And of course, coffee!

Then...a couple hours later, we broke for lunch. I got to make sure everyone had gotten to the restaurant, waited for the two other colleagues I mentioned earlier, then finally got to eat.
Well worth the wait!

I didn't partake in any of the beef, although it all looked really good. I skipped the potatoes and pizza and pasta too. Come to think of it, I kinda filled up on seafood. Started off with lobster bisque, moved on to raw oysters, fresh scallops, tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, smoked salmon, and some sushi. A cheese plate all to myself. And then...I considered the wagyu beef, but decided to move straight on to dessert instead. A decision I'm quite comfortable with! Several pieces of delicious, melt-in-your-mouth pralines and truffle chocolates, a piece of rum chocolate (which had a rather high concentration of rum!), a scoop of honeycomb ice-cream, and the most divine lemongrass crème brûlée. I struggled to stay awake after that, I can tell you!

After suffering through another hour and a half of sitting down and trying to survive the boredom, we had a mid-afternoon coffee break. This time, we had mini spinach quiches, tako yaki balls with wasabi mayo, and otah-otah finger sandwiches. I didn't bother with the sandwiches and tako yaki. Went straight for the spinach quiches. Because spinach. And quiche. I'm glad I had just enough room for the lemon meringue tarts! Actually, if I hadn't had room, I would jolly well have made some, they were so bloody amazing. I totally want to make lemon meringue tarts now!

So yes. Stuffed to the gills. Couldn't be arsed with dinner, especially not when I had to stagger to class after we left the hotel.

Oh, and by far, the best moment of the day (other than the face-stuffing), was when I realised I'd been drinking water that was possibly from another time and dimension.

perhaps straight from the springs of Gallifrey

No Such Thing...

Had class today, and since most places around the area are closed on Sundays, a few of us decided to walk to a pizza/pasta place about ten minutes away from us.

Decided to get a ravioli, seeing as how 1) I love ravioli and 2) it's one of the few things I rarely make for myself at home. It was quite delicious, and I like to think that the amount of spinach in it made it healthy! I was almost done - I had about one and a half pieces left - when I realised there was something odd in my mouth. I took it out, and discovered that it was a small piece of plastic.

I debated internally for a minute about whether or not I should say anything. Decided that, yeah, it's a frikkin piece of plastic in my food, I'm jolly well going to say something! So I called a waiter over, and told him about my unwelcome surprise. I really wasn't expecting anything much, so I received a much more welcome surprise when the waiter came back and apologised, and then told me that my ravioli would be comped. So hey! I only had to pay for my coffee! (Which, by the way, was lovely.)

So I dunno. Will I buy food from them again? Quite likely, yeah. I do like their pizzas. Will I consume their ravioli again? Not in the foreseeable future, no.

In other food related news, the baking bug is beginning to bite again. I've come across so many recipes that I really want to try out. And now that I'm working, I have more guinea pigs! And hey, what better way to win brownie points with the colleagues than with homemade brownies?

Happy Easter!

What a lovely Easter Sunday. Spent with family, as it's meant to be. Went to Easter mass with the clan, and all of us came back to my place for lunch. And what a lunch it was! Ayam buah keluak, Babi buah keluak, salted egg crab, pineapple salt fish curry, roasted pumpkin...I'm so stuffed now!

Thanks to the Mother Goddess, who slaved for hours to prepare and cook everything. 

Worth abstaining 40 days for.

Lots of chaos with the kids, as always. They are such blessings, and fill our home with laughter and fun.

Happy and blessed Easter to one and all; may you be filled with joy and peace.

And lots and lots of cadbury creme eggs.

Methinks I'll have one more now.

Reunion Dinner

I can't believe I forgot to mention this! Poptart!Boss from our previous project was in town a couple weeks ago, and he wanted to meet up with a few of us (who are all now working on this current project). We all managed to find a commonly available timeslot, except for Coworker!S, who'd already had prior dinner plans. As such, Coworker!S and I met up with Poptart and Mrs. Poptart for a drink, before the Poptarts and I went for dinner with the other guys.

We went to Anjappar in Little India, where we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. I definitely ate too much. What can I say, even though I know naan isn't the healthiest of dishes, I love love love it.

It was good hanging out with the guys from the team, and oh so wonderful to catch up with the Poptarts.

Best part of the evening though? I didn't have to open my wallet once. Got a lift from fave!Coworker after work, then Poptart paid for the cab to the restaurant. The guys took care of the dinner bill, and then another coworker sent me home. Great evening, didn't spend a penny!

Why yes, I can be such a skinflint.

I'm Going on a Bear Hunt

I've always loved the book  We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, as well as the song. When I was teaching Speech & Drama, I used to do that song activity with my kids, and they all LOVED it. Always had such fun with it. Fun and educational. Gotta love it!

So when I discovered that it was one of the productions in Kidsfest 2012, I decided that I simply had to go! Decided to book tickets for the 11th, and contacted cousin!G to see if he could get me the staff discount. To my very pleasant surprise, he got me complimentary tickets!

I figured that at 4 and a half, Neal is at the perfect age to be introduced to the story, since he didn't know it. Plus, he loves drama and has S&D as one of his kindergarten classes.

He loved it.

It was a fun and interactive performance, and most of the kids (and big kids!) really got into it. Neal is a really interesting audience member. Unlike most of the kids, who were loudly participating in the interaction, Neal just sat there with a really serious expression on his face. I was concerned that he wasn't enjoying himself, but the few whispered conversations we had convinced me otherwise. He was just being enthralled! But after the performance, he could reenact scenes, sing the songs and explain the story, so he was clearly just absorbing everything. He'd also picked up on set details that I'd completely missed!

We treated ourselves to cupcakes afterwards, then enjoyed a walk along Clarke Quay, followed by a lovely train ride all the way to Punggol, where we met the rest of the clan. All twelve of us (the clan minus Bro) went for seafood at Punggol Marina. Well, eleven and a half. Godson didn't eat the seafood, seeing as how he's only one year old. I did give him a taste of prawn though, and boy, did he love it!

There was SO MUCH FOOD. But oh so delicious. And all the food was so amazingly fresh! The only things I didn't eat were the crab (because I didn't feel like dealing with the mess) and the fish (because fish).

Hung out at Sis-V's place after that, and enjoyed cake and wine. And fun with the kiddies. Neal and Godson are sooo adorable together. When  Neal started throwing a cranky fit, he was crying for Godson, who then toddled over to him and cuddled him. Cuteness overload!

What a great day! Note to self: get book and CD out of bookshelf and let Neal read/listen to them.

We're going on a bear hunt; we're going to catch a big one!

Work on Saturday

Not a fan of coming in to the office on Saturdays, but a girl's gots to do what a girl's gots to do!

Met up with Tink and TehTarik last night. Was good to see TehTarik again, and her boy's simply gorgeous! Went for Japanese food at Restaurant Hoshigaoka. The food was pretty good! Would have liked a wider selection of sushi, and was disappointed that they were out of hamachi, but overall, it was a great dining experience. The food was good, the  wagyu shabu-shabu was delicious, as was the green tea, the service was excellent (which is becoming so rare these days!), and the prices reasonable. Of course, the company definitely made it a great evening!

And just like that, I complete one item from my Day Zero Project list - treating my girls to dinner, and start on another item - eating at a restaurant I've never been to.

Walked around a bit, then decided to bus it home. I'd forgotten how LONG the bus journey is from there! But I had my music and my book, so I was good to go.

Stayed up late chatting, and didn't get to sleep until about 4am. Needless to say, I woke up late for work this morning. Now I have a headache and am dehydrated and tired.

That's how you know you're getting old...you get hungover without any alcohol.

Haiku Of The Day

'C' is for Cookie;
Choc chip cookies! Made by my
favourite colleague.

Tous Pour Un, Un Pour Tous

Went to Jurong Point today after work to pick up a few things. As always, I ended up buying things that weren't on my list! It wasn't my fault though. I didn't know that The Cocoa Trees just opened an outlet in Jurong Point! It's not my fault it was on my route to the supermarket!

I decided to just pop in and have a look. After all, Christmas is coming, and I want to get stocking fillers for the kids (as well as the grown-up kids!) I'd walked almost an entire round of the shop, didn't pick up a single thing to purchase.

That's when I saw it.

The shelf of 3 Musketeers bars! Screw the diet, hang the cough, I said! I'm getting me some nommies!In my defense, the last time I had a 3 Musketeers bar was back in March of Oh-Nine! They had Milky Ways too, and believe me, I was tempted to get both! But as it is, it only comes in packs of 6, so I decided not to get a dozen candy bars. See? That's discipline, right there!

More chocolatey than these three

They were having a promotion, like I mentioned - 50% off any second item (equal or lower-priced, of course). I did consider getting the Milky ways, but that would have been a bit much, even for me. Seeing as how I still have two boxes of Jaffa Cakes left.

I did get me a bag of Quality Streets though. What, I'm not THAT disciplined!


Now in a brave show of discipline (using up whatever last vestiges of willpower I possess), I'm not going to watch this week's QI. Nope, I'm powering down, showering up, and turning in.

Discipline!

Food & Sleep. Too Much of Both.

I'm glad this past weekend was a long one. Well, technically, I didn't get a long weekend, seeing as how I was in the office all day Saturday. Still, I had Monday off, which worked out really well.

On Sunday, we went to see a play by We Colour People, which is a non-profit theatre society. They've staged an annual production since 2008, and I started attending them in 2009. I adored the past two productions, and was looking forward to this year's. It was called SABOsTAGE, an improv comedy which was pretty much Whose Line, only with a local flavour. Although I do feel that improv has a long way to go in Singapore, on the parts of both actors and audience, I quite enjoyed this production.

After that, we adjourned to Newton Circus for Singaporeans' favourite hobby (well, after shopping and complaining, of course). Foodage! And oh my gosh, there was so much foodage. As is the case whenever BIL!S is around! His motto: "Don't think; just eat". And eat we did.

Barbecued chicken wings, oyster omelette aka or luak, barbecued stingray with lots of sambal, fried squid, mantou, which were lovely when dipped in the lala (clam) gravy, all washed down with sugarcane juice. Oh, and I think there were vegetables too, of which I didn't touch.

We were all stuffed! And we couldn't even think of dessert. Until the table was cleared. My family, being the OCD sufferers that we are, had to get the table cleared before we could relax. After that, all of a sudden, all of us had room for dessert! BIL!Mike and I shared a bottle of really, really cold beer, and there were bowls of ice kachang all round.

Good food, great conversation, excellent company. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday!

Finally got home about 1, where I vegged out on the couch while putering. Staggered upstairs to bed about half 3 in the am. Thank goodness Babygirl let me sleep in yesterday!

Wouldn't have made much of a different if I hadn't slept in.... instead of going to IKEA as previously planned, I ended up napping all afternoon, catching up on some much needed Zs.

Not sure how I managed to get to sleep last night, after having slept so much in the day, but I did sleep well. And woke up bright and early this morning for work. Got to the office at 7!

Of course...now I'm started to get tired again...

View From The Top

After being so determined that I'll never go on the Singapore Flyer...I went on the Singapore Flyer on Sunday. Only reason was that it was with the family! And BIL!Mike had a pass for 5 people, and Sis!S had cheap tickets for the rest of us. All 13 of us went, excluding my niece Nix, as she had a class to attend.

So there we were, making our way to, in the words of nephew Neal, the Giant Ferris Wheel. How would I describe my first (and mostly likely only) flyer experience?

In a word: Boring.

I mean, seriously, we're all stuck in a capsule, right? And it's going round ever so slowly, and we can't do anything while we're up there, and it's BORING. It was only enjoyable because of the family.

I think the ones who had the most fun were my two older nephews. When they weren't fascinated by the view, they were busy monkeying around.

Neal & Shay

After we were finally back on terra firma, we did what any self-respecting Singaporean would have done. We went fooding at the Food Trail, of course! It really did bring back so many memories, more so for my parents and grandmum, of course. The food was a little pricier than it would have been elsewhere, but oh so nommy!

There was so much food on our table! My favourite dishes were the rojak, or luak, and ice ball, washed down with a refreshing bird's nest drink. Oh, and the ting ting candy too!

Hmm, now I'm having a candy craving.

Death by Cake

Went over to the Ks place for dinner yesterday. SisS's in-laws were in town, and they're flying off tonight, so they wanted to celebrate BIL-S's birthday. BIL-S turned 30 just two days before me, so they wanted to celebrate that. Also, Neal turns 4 next Saturday, and SisS's in-laws wanted to have a little celebration since they'll miss his birthday.

Dinner was...amazing.

Well, there were the "appetisers". They were actually meant for teatime, but we only got there past 7pm. Blueberry muffins, and chocolate cupcakes with Thomas the Tank characters on them. Of course, Neal can name all the characters!

Then...dinner. Wow.

From Mum's kitchen, we had Chicken Curry (with chillies from Mum's garden!), and Tongue Smore (how Eurasian!), and Aunty R cooked up Birthday Noodles (for longevity!), Pineapple Pickle (mmm, spicy!), and of course, which Eurasian get-together would be complete without Shepherd's Pie?

Om nom nommity nom! Of course, I had a bit of everything, and boy was I stuffed after that!

Of course...not too stuffed for cake. And it's a good thing I saved room for cake...there were, not one, not two, but THREE cakes! Yessirree, they got me a cake too!

Mine, BIL's, Neal's

Birthday present from the Ks is a classic. I burst out laughing the second I saw it.

How well they know me!

Why yes, yes I do think I can spell. Yes, I'm incurably competitive and overly confident. But no, not even I can spell all the words in this book! It's brilliant, and I have so much geek love for my sis and BIL!

Then going home, BIL-S gave me a giant bar of Toblerone. At least, he said it's for me. Turns out he told Mum, Babygirl and Bro the same thing. So 4 of us had to share. Which is just as well, really. I still have LOADS of chocolates from London!

Sunday is rest day. Gotta recover from all the food and alcohol I've consumed over the past couple days!

Leavin' it to leaven

Baked bun susi today, like I said I would. Really easy, really fun, and omg, really yummy!

And I've been doing cakes and cookies and muffins and pastries, and I'd completely forgotten how much I love working with bread dough. Note to self: bake more breads!

More pictures later on, but these are of the rising dough. It's like magic!

Before rising

10 min later. Wow, that's fluffy!

20 minutes later OMG HALP IT'S ATTACKING.

First it was sugee cake. Now it's bun susi. I'm becoming Eurasian, one dish at a time.



ETA:
There will be no pictures of the finished product after all. The product was finished too quickly for photos to be taken. And yours truly was in such a rush that photos were not taken before the hungry hordes attacked. Oops!

Food for Thought

I had the afternoon off yesterday, and I went for lunch with Mum & Baby Girl, Sister Vee and her clan, and Nan. We went to this delightful little place on Queen Street called Mary's Kafe. Bad spelling aside, it's brilliant! It's cosy, everyone's warm and friendly, and the food? The food is Eurasian cuisine. It's good Eurasian cuisine.

The babi pongteh was brilliant, as was the curry and the meatballs. Mary's fruit cake is to die for, and her carrot cake is fantastic. Her sugee cake isn't quite as lovely though. If I may say so myself though, my sugee cake is a lot nicer.

But the best thing of all? The bun susi. Baby Girl loved it SO much, as did the rest of us. I have now been inspired! I have decided to make bun susi for Godson(to-be)'s baptism. That leaves me just under two weeks to experiment, to make it perfect!

For dinner, we went to Popeyes® at Cathay. I hadn't eaten there in so long! Great chicken, fantastic mashed potatoes, brilliant fries....but the one thing that cannot be missed: the biscuits. When they're fresh and hot, they're just heavenly. I was so engrossed in conversation with Nix and Shay that I totally forgot to grab a half dozen to bring home. I only realised it when they closed! But no matter. I'll grab some for Baby Girl next time I'm in town. Or...better yet, I'll just bake some! Fresh out of the oven, with butter and jam... or fresh out of the oven with homemade gravy... Oh wow, inspiration's hit me yet again.

Went to Marché® for Sunday lunch after mass with Mum, Dad, Baby Girl, Sister S and her clan, and Nan. We managed to get a table for all nine of us (yes, Baby Godson counts as a full person; he was given a Marché® card too) right in a cosy little corner which was just perfect for us. The food, as always, was lovely - savoury crepes, rösti with cervelat, fried calamari, pork knuckles, all washed down with ginger beer. And then...dessert. Oh. My. God. Dessert. The bread and butter pudding (with vanilla cream) is a family favourite, so that went down well, of course. But the trump card had to be (drum roll please)...

The apple pie. What's that? The simple and humble apple pie was my favourite dish of the day? Oh, my dear readers, there was nothing simple nor humble about this apple pie. It was almost 4" high. The crust was tasty, yet not overpowering. The apples...oh wow. The pie was just chockful of perfectly sliced apples, cooked to just the right degree, with a lovely amount of cinnamon, and a generous dollop of cream on the top.

Once again, I've been inspired. The simple, yet satisfying apple pie. Comfort food at its best.

So, as ever, my to-bake list has grown yet again. :)

Rapturous Weekend

Went to see The Lion King with Mum yesterday, at the Sands Theatre. We left rather late, so it was a rush to get there. Thank goodness we made it on time, although I felt really bad about Mum having to hurry so much.

It was a brilliant production. Although the acting and singing were good, they didn't really blow me away. The set design was amazing, the costumes were breathtaking, and the orchestra was fantastic though, so I enjoyed myself tremendously. The most important thing is that Mum loved it, so mission accomplished!

I'll have to admit though, the theatre has a long way to go to achieve the kind of standards I'm used to, after going to the Esplanade so often. Although the foyer is quite opulent, and the theatre itself is huge and equipped with great technology, I think that the Front of House was nowhere near as professional and friendly. I did encounter one FOH personnel who was helpful and friendly, but the rest of them seemed... well, it just seemed as though they weren't trained enough. Hopefully they'll improve in time, but I was less than impressed.

We went to the food court after that. Now that place is pretty impressive, with loads of stalls. We might as well have gone to a restaurant though, for the prices of the food at the food court!

I did drop by the chocolate shop though, and picked up a couple bars for Mum and a bag of Revels for me. They're so nommy! But I've been quite disciplined lately, which means that I actually still have some more left! I just can't figure out which one I like best.

I enjoyed a wonderfully lazy Sunday today. I did bake brownies though! Half a tray for my home, quarter tray for Sister2, and the last quarter for Shoes, whom I'm seeing tomorrow.
They turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself!

It was quite amusing though. I measured out the brown and white sugar into a bowl. Then I sifted the flour and cocoa into another bowl. Then I opened the fridge to grab the butter...and realised that I didn't have enough. So I had to run to the shops to grab a block of butter, and decided to drop by my sister's place to pick up more chocolate chips. Because really, there's no such thing as too much chocolate.

Making brownies really is so fun with my Baker's Edge® All-Edge Brownie Pan. I have a ton of recipes to try out in that pan, I can barely wait.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of my weekend now, whatever's left of it. What a shame the Rapture didn't really happen yesterday. It just means I'll have to go in to work tomorrow after all.

Although I did have an apocalyptic dream last night, so perhaps it was an omen of things to come.

End-Quarter

We've come to the end of March! Already! Doesn't time just whoosh by when you're having a blast?

I have been most remiss in my blogging. So many times, I've wanted to blog, but never quite got around to it. So many things have happened, that I don't even know where to start. I think I'll have to break it down over the next few days.

I keep saying that, don't I? I do miss blogging though. I'm actually beginning to miss a lot of things. Blogging, writing, dragonboat paddling, running, clubbing.

All that shall soon be remedied. Not enough hours in the day, but I shall work my magic, and make time.

All in all, life has been quite frustrating indeed. I find myself tripping over potholes that seemingly appear out of nowhere. I make plans, life steps in to change them. Certain events over the past few weeks though, have served to remind me of how so very lucky I am. I look around, and realise that...despite all of the pitfalls, life is pretty damn amazing.

Oh, and I'm stating this for all to see: Doof was right.
Eating a chocolate muffin and dairy milk chocolate, and then following that up with orange juice? Not a good idea. I've also discovered that having a banana and a mocha for breakfast the morning after...also not a good idea.

But no, I probably haven't learnt my lesson.



ETA:
I probably shouldn't have eaten so many strawberries at lunch. But they were quite nommy indeed. I might have to consume nothing but water for the rest of the day.

Except that I'm going to get me a coffee from Sbux later. And it's Shoes' turn to buy.

Eye Candy for Christmas

Looking at hot guys? Rawr.

Looking (and reading) books? Double rawr.


For your viewing pleasure ladies (and perhaps some gentlemen. Doof, I still have my suspicions), I present to you the Rawr Supreme.


HOT GUYS READING BOOKS.


You're welcome.

I'll be in my bunk.

Drink Up Me 'Earties, Yo Ho!

I'm convinced that I was a pirate in a past life. (I'm a bit of a pirate in this life too, but that's another story altogether.) I love the smell of the sea, I love being on the ocean, I love the salt spray in my face. I sailed the seven seas as a child, and I've never quite lost my sea legs. And most of all?

I heart rum.

Now, Shoes made a comment asking what it is about me and mint this Christmas. She has a valid point; three out of four of the recipes I posted in recent days featured mint. Simply because there's something about mint that reminds me of Christmas. It's probably all those candy canes I used to consume as a kid. Besides, mint is such a refreshing flavour that's perfect for Singapore.

But...not all of the world celebrates Christmas in tropical climes. And sometimes, even in Singapore, the rainy nights do get a tad chilly. So it warms me and the cockles of my pirate's heart, to savour a mug of a drink that does not contain a drop of mint.

Hot Buttered Rum.

Ingredients

For the batter:
225g butter
225g sugar
200g brown sugar
2 cups vanilla ice cream



For the drink itself:
dark rum
boiling water
ground nutmeg and/or cinnamon
whipped cream
cinnamon stick


Directions
1. Combine sugars and butter in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until butter is melted.

2. Put ice cream in a bowl. Add the butter and sugar mixture, and beat until smooth. Store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

3. Fill a mug 1/4 full with the mixture.

4. Add rum and boiling water. Stir well. Put whipped cream on top. Sprinkle with nutmeg and/or cinnamon.
Serve with cinnamon stick stirrer.

5. Tastes like Christmas!



Now, I do realise that both beverage recipes I posted are alcoholic. That doesn't mean the kidlets can't enjoy Christmas beverages too! For kids not of Eurasian descent, simply substitute the rum, using molasses thinned with pineapple juice and flavored with almond extract.


Or just send them to bed early so you can carouse all night.

Love at First Sip

I was complaining to Shoes today about how much I was jonesing for bread and naan and prata and chocolate of all kind, and she commented that my posting about food for the past few days doesn't help at all.

She's right, of course. Which is why I'm not going to talk about food at all today.

Instead, I'm going to talk about one of my favourite beverages, that is just perfect for Christmas.

Anyone who knows me knows that I simply adore Baileys. Baileys on the rocks has to be one of the simplest and loveliest nightcaps ever. I love Baileys over ice cream, Baileys flavoured ice cream, Baileys in cupcakes, Baileys frosting. Oh, the ways I love Baileys could fill a book!

There are dozens of lovely Baileys recipes over at their website, so do take a look.

But here's a drink that is simply to DIE for.

Behold, the beauty that is the Mint Baileys Chocolate Martini.*

aka Orgasm in a Glass

Stumbled across it one day, decided to try it, fell head over heels. I did make a couple substitutions though. I didn't use Smirnoff, I only had Absolut. I didn't have Godiva Milk Chocolate Liquer (but oh my GAWD, how decadent does that sound?!), so I used Vermeer Dutch.  It's a fair amount of work, but the end result? Pure paradise.

Totally worth the effort, I give it an A+ will make again.


*by way of Garnish Bar

More Christmas Recipes

I've talked about homemade chocolate cookies and peppermint bark, and now it's time for another yummilicious homemade Christmas goodie.

What's the perfect accompaniment to Christmas pudding and mince pies?

Why, brandy butter, of course! It's easily found at any good supermarket, and definitely at Marks & Sparks. But why would you want to buy a tiny, exorbitantly priced jar, when you can make it yourself? So easy to make, so sinfully delicious. Last year, I ended up putting it on almost everything, not just pudding and pie. And truth be told, I wasn't averse to popping an entire teaspoonful into my mouth.

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter (softened)
225g icing sugar
5 tbsp brandy

Method
1. Beat softened butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar; beat until fully incorporated.
3. Add brandy and stir well.
4. Spoon into serving dish.
5. Serve, and watch everyone die of noms.

Mmmmmmint!

Stayed up late last night, for the niece and nephews popped over at about half ten, and didn't leave until much later. Had a blast with them, of course, but it just meant that I was well knackered this morning.

Work on a Saturday? Groan.

Work on a rainy Saturday? Groan groan.

What made it all better? Listening to Christmas songs all morning. It really put me in a great mood and made the morning just zoom by.

Picked up baking ingredients after that, so I can start on some of my baking. There are still a few things that I can't find, so I can't do everything just yet.

Christmas is in the air!

And I know I've already shared one of my favourite recipes with you, but I'm in a really generous mood, and it IS Christmas, so have yourself a merry little Christmas...and enjoy some homemade peppermint bark.

So easy, so delicious.

Ingredients
340g white or dark chocolate chips
5 regular sized candy canes
1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract




Directions

1. Break up candy canes into little pieces.
2. Melt the chocolate.
3. Add the peppermint extract and stir.
4. Pour the melted chocolate out onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and spread.
5. Sprinkle the candy cane pieces on to the chocolate; gently press them in.
6. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes or until hardened. 
7. Break into pieces and serve.