So Rewarding to Pray

God is good. We pray. He answers our prayers and we rejoice.

Chemerry Baking Class 2

Today I learned how to make Portuguese Egg Tart.

Here are the tarts ready to be baked.

And this is what they look like when done.

They look a bit "cacat" and not as pretty as the ones sold in the shops but they taste just as delicious.

Next, we prepared the filling for our chicken pies.

We cooked the white sauce using fresh chicken stock and cream and used it to bind the onions, carrots, celery, peas, mushrooms, and chicken.

Here are the pot pies fresh out of the oven.

They look fantastic!

And these are my handiwork.

I came back with a headache because there were more learners today and we were cooking over the stove and using higher oven temperatures but it was worth it.

Chemerry Baking Class 1

A few days ago I happened to find out from Facebook that there are cooking classes being held at a place called Chemerry. I called up for their class schedule and yesterday, in a spur of the moment decision, I signed up for the class today to learn to bake three types of tarts: Blueberry Cheese, Egg and Fruit.

Here are my pastry shells ready to go into the oven.

And this is what they look like "baked but not crispy."

They can be stored like this, unrefrigerated, for a week or two - so ideal for advance preparation before a party.

Here are my Blueberry Cheese Tarts.

And these are my Egg Tarts.

I'll only be collecting my Fruit Tarts when I go for my second lesson tomorrow. I had to rush off for dinner and so I did not wait around to decorate them.

Don't they look pretty?

Western Spices Goes The Second Mile

While everyone else had cake for dessert, Chef Nick Lau served me Poached Red Wine Pear with Ice-Cream & Sauce. Yay!

A special dessert for the birthday girl

 One of my guests made a boo-boo that night. He forgot that he had ordered Salmon and ate Chicken instead. Poor Hubby, who ordered Chicken, was left with no main course. When we asked them to prepare another plate of Chicken for him, the waitress told us that we had to take away the extra Salmon. :(

At the end of the meal, Chef Nick came over to tell us that we don't have to pay for the extra Salmon because it won't taste good takeaway. How nice of him! What great PR!

I definitely recommend Western Spices if you are looking for a nice place to have a dinner party. There's also a singer to provide nice life music...and you can watch live games, if you want to.

Birthday Celebrations 2012 - Part 3...At Western Spices

When I planned this party I didn't know that the whole of Malaysia would be glued to their television sets on the night of 5 August 2012 watching Dato' Lee Chong Wei face his nemesis Lin Dan at the finals of the Olympic Badminton Men's Singles. Such great timing :(

At first I was quite upset that he was stealing the limelight but I figured that since you can't beat them you might as well join them. So I posted the following birthday wish on Path

and Facebook.

Sometimes it is amazing how things fall into place. I didn't know and never expected Western Spices to be showing the badminton finals live but they did. You can imagine Hubby's delight when he walked in and saw the tv screen.

Half the night was spent following the game and we were so caught up with the excitement that we even came up with an impromptu cheer: Dato'...Lee Chong Wei, Don't Let...China Win!

Actually Dato' Lee was doing very well in the third set until the singer started to sing a Chinese song, her one and only Chinese song for the night. Call it coincidence or what, but after that, China gained the upper hand. I was so sad for our champion when he lost after putting up such a good fight. 

Anyway, dinner was served. The set dinner came with Ebiko Scallop for appetizer, Onion Soup, and a choice of Main Course, ranging from steak to chicken. Dessert was cake of the day which turned out to be Tiramisu Cake although some of us were served Sesame Cake instead.

Stinco di Agnello, or oven-braised lamb shank, was my choice for the main course.

Of course no birthday party is complete without a birthday cake so I ordered my favourite White Chocolate Macadamia Cake from Secret Recipe. It was such a disappointment - not the cake, which was delicious, but the decoration, which was terrible.

They only piped "Blessed Birthday" on the cake as per my instructions and that's it! And the handwriting was horrible. I expressed my dissatisfaction, "Macam mana mahu tangkap gambar. Kek ini begitu botak! Bubuhlah sedikit bunga."

So they stuck on some cheapo and garish multi-coloured plastic flowers – the type that look like floating candles but much smaller. I said "No" and demanded that they pipe some flowers on the cake instead.

Then, believe it or not, they asked ME to pipe the flowers myself because they couldn't do it! Never, ever buy your cakes from Secret Recipe, Straits Quay.

I had no choice but to ask Baby Sis to bring some fake flowers to stick on the cake. This is not the first time that she had to rescue my birthday cake from disaster. Maybe I should take up cake decorating and do it myself next time.

The cake after the last-minute rescue operation

Cake-cutting is always a fun affair

The theme for this year's birthday is Beautifully Blue inspired by the grandson I'm going to have end of this year. Everyone obliged and came dressed in some shade of blue.

A group photo before we called it a night

That's enough of the blues, the theme for next year's birthday party shall be...

Shocking Pink!

Birthday Celebrations 2012 - Part 2

My second birthday party was at Delicious, Straits Quay, on Saturday, 4 August 2012.

It was a very private party and we didn't even take any photos because 'Bee and I weren't looking our best on that day :(

Frustrated

Living one's life around people who don't plan is very annoying and frustrating. It's much worse waiting for someone who is waiting for someone who is waiting for someone who is waiting for someone to make a decision before anything goes. It makes one feel that one is at the bottom of the food chain.

Most of the time is spent waiting in anticipation for a decision and when nothing happens you get disappointed. But when you decide to get a life and do something else instead of wasting time (and life) playing the waiting game, suddenly things get moving and you have to scramble like crazy to make adjustments.

I have nothing against spontaneity and enjoying the moment. In fact I enjoy the spirit of adventure that spontaneity brings but it should be within some form of structure.

We live in community which means there are other people involved in every decision you make or don't make. Such behaviour is just plain selfish.