Meet the Family

Uh oh it's retail therapy part II. As you can see, now that the wedding is long over, and I'm done with my applications, I am in desperate need of a new obsession. Funusual was having a 30% off everything sale and we managed to pick up a few Alessi kitchen accessories. They are usually ridiculously expensive, but so irresistably cute. Looks like we're officially alessi whores.

From left to right. Ms Priss, the pepper grinder, Mr White Pants, the cork screw, and funky Koziol, the sugar dispenser, masquerading as an Alessi.


I also got a cute apron! Me posing as myself ...


I need to resist the urge to go back and get the can opener! OK I need to go hibernate now, we're out of heating oil so our apartment has no heat or hot water bleh. Time to wrap myself in blankets.

Retail Therapy

Headed down to bloomies last week to indulge in some retail therapy and managed to score some bargains. I got a cute juicy velour hoody (I love juicy), a BCBG sparkly top for $30 (I wore this for CNY) and a pair of theory velvet pants at more than 50% off (don't they make my behind look so nicey nice). Juicy, Theory and BCBG are some of my favorites because they fit me so well! Shopping in the US is a huge pain since I'm, to put it bluntly, short. And every friggin store is guilty of of vanity sizing. I swear a size 0 here is really a size M in asia. HOW UNFAIR. Ok rant over. I guess this stops me from buying everything in sight.

The hoodie. Well not technically a hoodie since it has no hood. Confession: I've worn this 3 times already haha

新年快乐

Happy chinese new year! The year of the dog, moxie's favorite :)



For our 'tuan yuan fan' we met up with two couples at Chau Chow City in Chinatown. You see 6 is a lucky number ;) As we ate, we lamented about the cny foods we missed most. Kueh bankit, pineapple tarts, bak kua, fried prawn rolls ..argk! Yeah we're deprived, gone 10 years without partaking in the festivities. Also talked to my family, they seem to be having much fun (without me). Hubs and I resolve to celebrate CNY in singapore next year.

Weird, I never really missed the whole lunar new year thing till this year. I don't know why, maybe as you get older you get more nostalgic ... it's nice to celebrate in a big way like the americans do thanksgiving. Even though both festivals really stand for the same things, spending time with family, thanksgiving just doesn't have the same feel since it's not something I've grown up with.

Fish Maw soup. I don't remember why but eating fish maw is supposedly auspicious?


Yummy duck


Pigs trotters with fatt choy. We clogged our arteries but we'll be rich!


Sea cucumber ...


The obvious ... 年年有鱼. This was actually really tasty!

In the Kitchen

We cleaned out our pantry the other day. It was filled with food that hub's parents had brought us during their trip almost a year and a half ago. We probably have enough to survive a nuclear explosion. Fortunately, or unfortunately, most of the stuff was expired so the decision to toss them out was easy. The rest of the items, I wasn't sure what to do with. There were all kinds of chinese herbs, apparently for making soup? But I don't make soup???? Though I found in the mess, 3 boxes of prima chilli crab premix! So yay! We'll be having a feast sometime soon :)

We have like a billion packets of bak kut teh so if anyone is craving some ... let me know :D



My next task was to make pineapple tarts. Being a tad over zealous, I bought a fresh pineapple not the canned ones. Canned pineapples are for sissys. Real cooks use fresh ingredeints. Of course I can barely cook or bake or cut for that matter. After watching me battle the pineapple for a while, hubs graciously offered to cut it for me :)

The pineapple:


My nemesis:


They look better than they taste. :( The pastry was too salty and the pineapple filling wasn't sweet enough. I also ran out of filling after 12 tarts. Hence the empty middle row. I was hoping to be a domestic goddess and send these to family and friends for Chinese New Year. *Sigh* will have to experiment again!

I also played dress up with Moxie. She's outgrown most of her clothes already. That cow :p

Weekend List

I'm resolving to be less of a procrastinator, so this weekend I am going to accomplish all these things that have been sitting on my list for a while. Oh and of course fun stuff too, things I've always wanted to do but never got down to doing

Print out wedding photos (my mom's been bugging me forever)

Finish writing out our wedding thank you cards *blush* mom is so gonna kill me but I think she hasn't read my blog in a while so she doesn't know ;)

Get stamped envelope to mail to embassy so I can get my new passport and travel

Clean the apartment so we can invite people over (haha). Reward: Go to ikea to get home organizers

Do laundry. I have a huge pile of clothes to be washed (hubs wants to stop me from buying new clothes (yeah right) till I do laundry :p)

Go to newton open house on Sunday. There is this condo we should take a look at. It's right down the street from where we live. 3 bdrms and includes garage and patio! Only problem is the outside looks kinda crap. It's in our price range so we should take look anyway. Yeah there's usually some major flaw with anything in our price range :p

Bake pineapple tarts! CNY is coming up and I've always wanted to do this. Anyone have a good recipe?

Take moxie for interview with doggy daycare. Then we can take off on short trips and not have to worry :)

Work on resume

Return jacket at BR and exchange sweater at bloomies

Wow long list ... wish me luck!

Tea for two ...

and two for tea. I've only heard about the brand Bodum recently from matreshka. She bought a coffee press set as a wedding gift and showed me the website. I really liked their design! Modern chic.

Anyhoo, I ended up at Starbucks one morning trying to find a gift for the yankee swap we had at work. And guess what! I noticed a bodum assam teapot for $20! I liked it so much that I even got K one for x'mas. And finally last weekend, we caved and got a set for ourselves! It makes drinking tea so much more fun :D ... oh and the really cool part is you can microwave the whole pot! How's that for convenience ...

Our afternoon tea :)

Japanese Perfectionists!!

Hubs found this on youtube.com and actually tried it. It's amazing! Expect no less ...

Happy New Year All

twas a quiet new year's. We were somewhat relieved.

We've spent the last few new years with A and gang. Each time there's been major drama. Last year, one of the A's went home sick, another broke up with her bf, and someone else got into a fight. The year before, the boys had a flat tire and never made it to the club before midnight hehe. We're beginning to believe it was that combination of people that triggered the bad luck of which hubs and I were a part! haha

This year we've almost broken the curse. We went for dinner at Sibling Rivalry in the South End with different friends since the A gang is broken up :( What was memorable about the food, besides being tasty, was the generous portions and the pomergranate champagne cocktail (I forget the exact name). I love POM! Everything went smoothly ...

It was really dark in the restaurant so the photos didn't turn out. Here's my duck! It's huge ...


Though I have to mention that SZ forgot their keys and were locked out of their apt when we were with them. It's never happened before. Our fault? Hrmmm ....