What a pleasant SUPRISE from A Brewing Mind :D

Today I went home with a surprise in the mailbox!



A cute mail from Lillian! I instantly know it's her because of the MT tapes, the hello stamp and cute roundy writing!
Lillian!! How can you send it before me!? Wait for mine k!!



I love all the tapes that she uses! OPEN ME. awww.. I don't really wanna ruin the tape~~~ But okay.. I will open~

and omg there's so many things in there!



A handmade Xmas card by Lillian, a cutout angel for our Christmas tree, and some goodies :P



Lillian made some MT tapes magnets~



and gave me some MT stickers :D How sweet!!



I like the Christmas card because I can detach the heart shape thingy that Lillian made and hang it onto our Christmas Tree!



and I did! Pretty~~

What am I going to do with those MT stickies? It's so cute and I wanna show Lillian that I appreciate the gift so much, I decided to make something with it using whatever Lillian gave me :)

There you go!!!



A Mini Bunting!



Joe helped me to put my mini buntings up at my room door frame :)
Didn't know the door frame is actually magnetic! COOL!



I will smile every time now when I go into my room looking at the mini buntings :D
Love the pastel colours of blue and pink!



Thanks for giving me a BIG CUTE SMILE in the mail today Lil! I love my blogger friend hehe

Visit her blog for more inspirations! http://a-brewing-mind.blogspot.com/

Dinner @ Squire Loft, Subiaco

Joe and I went to Squire Loft yesterday for dinner and it was great! Well, apart from some hiccups in between. Let you know later.

We got in and was greeted by the waitress with a lovely smile, then guided us to a table where is quite secluded and quite. Hey I love it! I was really happy with the seating because I like it AWAY from the crowds haha. Thanks for putting us there Squire Loft! I don't think they will read this but I am thanking them anyway haha

'

This is how it looks like from my table.
Anyway, the reason why we went there it is because I bought the voucher from some discounted website months ago and it is expiring end of the month! From the voucher that I bought, we will get a entree, 2 mains, 1 dessert, 2 glasses of wine and 2 cups of coffee or tea. Great deal I'd say. haha

So, we ordered our meal and were served 2 pieces of warm crusty bread to start with.



I love the bread! Good crust on the outside, warm and soft inside! Delicious! Good Bread!



We each have a glass of wine. Joe had the red, I had the white. I'm not a wine drinker.. So I didn't finish it, but nice to have a few sips :P

Joe and I were in a good mood during dinner! We chat and chat and laugh and chat! Before we realised, we have been chatting for 40 minutes! Hey! Where's my food?
Something is wrong here.. I was jokingly telling Joe, is that why they put us here where nobody can see us so that we can get our food last? That's not fair! I paid for my food too! Way earlier than anybody else!
Then we saw the table behind us got their food! Before us! Wait a minute... we came here first and ordered before they sat there! Something is wrong here..
After waiting for another 5 minutes.. Joe decided to ask one of the waitress at the bar (politely of course) if our meals are ready as we haven't have our entree yet. Waitress went to check our order in the kitchen, we waited for another 5 minutes and finally our entree came.



We have the Black Tiger Prawn Kebab
char-grilled with Squires Loft baste and served with garlic sauce on the side

Before talking about the dish... Let me rant for a bit here hehe. We got the dish, no sorry or anything. I was like hey.. we waited for 50 minutes for our entree man.. at least say sorry...?! But anyway, since we were in a good mood, we ate the prawns first :P

The PRAWNS were delicious!! I like it! Fresh prawns, grilled to perfection and the Squire Loft baste is yum! Love prawns! haha Yep! polished the whole lot.

As we were in a love is in the air mood, we decided not to complain or anything as probably they have made a mistake or something. Then a waitress came to us apologising to us. She told us they were really sorry about the wait, 50 minutes wait. It was unacceptable and they want to make it up to us by giving us a bottle of red! Awww that was nice~ But then I don't drink wine, so it's gonna be Joe drinking a whole bottle of red! So we asked in a cheeky way if we can have dessert instead of wine haha and guess what, they gave us a bottle of wine and 1 extra dessert :D



Well, I think it's fair right? We didn't complain about the 50minutes wait, in fact we are the lovely-est people! Smiling the whole time! Ok no vomiting on my site allowed. And! My tummy is happy to fit another dish always! Anyway, that's what we call a good customer service! Make the customer happy. :D

Our dishes came out really quick after that.



Our main, CAAB Angus Eye Fillet $55
Lovely lovely piece of meat. Asked for medium rare, and it was PERFECT.
Joe and I enjoyed the Eye Fillet alot. Not so much on the mushroom sauce though. But we still finish the whole lot :P



As for dessert, I had the Ice cream and hot mars bars sauce.



and Joe had the Sticky date pudding with ice cream and cream.



The Sticky date pudding it to die for. Warm soft pudding with the cold cold ice cream~ so delicious!!
As for mine, nothing special :P Regretted why I didn't order the sticky date pudding instead.

Overall experience was good. Food was good. A long wait because of some confusion but all good.
I will go back there again to try on other food and have the sticky date pudding again :D

Squire Loft
Shop 12F, 531 Hay Street
Subiaco, WA 6008
Ph 6380 1978

Getting ready for Christmas!

Now who's in the mood for Christmas already?!!

Well, I AM! :D
This year, I managed to convince Joe to have a White Christmas theme this year! We bought some new white decorations and some red too actually to give the Christmas tree a colour :P
I was having too much fun looking for white decorations and it blew my budget! So I have to think of a way to make it nice. I haven't really make much DIY stuff yet but I just can't wait to put the tree up! So we'll wait and see... :P



I've made some white pompoms to go with it too!



and the 2 lil fat birds... my favourite of all decorations. They just look so lovey together! Got them from David Jones for less than 10 bucks! STEAL!



Oh, and I have made some cookies too!



Some clouds, some birds, trees, stars, and a lot more :)
Iced them with some pastel colour icing. It's my first attempt doing icing. Find it really difficult to iced the smaller cookies. But after a while, I got a hang of it. Will try making them again next time to perfect my icing-the-cookie technique!
Tips anyone? :)

Lenses for my iPhone 4s Yay!

iPhone 4 users! Photography Lovers! Anyone that has an iPhone and love taking photos with your iPhone!!! You are going to love this!



Okay, not the dinosaur. It's that 3 lil round black thing in the photo!

Take a deep breath and get ready! It is the lenses for iPhone! Wide lens, Macro, Fish Eye and Telephoto from Photojojo!



Photojojo is my favourite website! They always stock the coolest photography stuff from camera bags to lo-fi lenses. Anything cool! I have bought quite a bit of stuff from this site before and I'm loving it. Quality is always good, quick delivery and reliable. Other than that, I love reading their
newsletter too! They have got some cool & creative photography techniques! I like to incorporate their ideas sometimes with some stuff that I've done.

Anyway, back to the iPhone lenses! Gosh they were great!
I unwrapped everything, took the lil dinosaur that they gave with me to the backyard and test out the lenses. Photos were not photoshopped or anything.

This is how the photo looks like taken straight from iPhone. Okay I added RAWR. -_-"



Now, I attached Fish Eye Lens to my iPhone.



The result!



COOL!

Now Telephoto Lens.



Compared to the original photo, it is quite near!


Telephoto


Original

Now test the last one! Wide and Macro!



Wide lens



and Macro Lens



You have to go really close to test this lens. Like.. about 1cm close. or else it's blur all the way :P

Next example of using the Macro lens.

The mini tiny weeny grass on the ground. See how close and clear i can get.



Super close and clear okay! Awesome stuff!

I am in love with my iPhone lenses really. For just 49usd for 4 lenses! INSANEEEE!

The only bad thing about it is.. the ring that they provide for you to stick around the iPhone lens ( works as lens adaptor but it's the mini magnetic lens adapter) is blocking the flash! Errr... But I wanna use flash sometimes!!



I guess I will need to use other light sources!
So yea, that's the only bad thing about it. Otherwise, it's great!!! Love the lens! If you are interested, here's the link! :D

Now WHO NEEDS A FREAKING A THOUSAND DOLLAR LENS!??! HAHAHAHA

Happy Shooting!! :D

Taro Cake

As usual in the middle of the night, flipping cookbooks. Gosh I have to change this silly habit! Makes me so hungry every time. I was craving for Asian Dessert. Looking through most of the Asian cookbooks that I have and I saw this Steamed 5 spice Taro cake from Poh's Kitchen Cookbook!

Gosh.. it's been years since I had that! My mom used to make it at home quite often because we love it so much! Taro Cake is so so good for tea time, breakfast, supper, anytime really! Just love it!

Yes, bookmarked it and getting the ingredients! Made it yesterday!



Poh's recipe for this 5 spice taro cake is pretty easy to follow. Her recipe never fails me. I've tried quite a few of her recipe and it always taste good. I did the Best Banana Cake in the world cake before and taste divine~

So let's get started!



Setting up my bench :P and start cooking!



Stir fry ~ Stir fry~ Bubbling up! Steamed~

Sprinkle sprinkle~



There you go!



My Steamed 5 Spice Taro Cake! Colourful and taste sooooo gooooood!
I twitched the recipe a bit by adding a lil bit more 5 spice and added black pepper too because I like a bit of heat through it.



Served with Garlic Chilli Sauce and I'm..... MISSING MY MOM'S TARO CAKE!!

Anyway, mine is as good as mom's. SERIOUSLY! Just don't have the mother flavour hahaha
But I'm really happy that I can make this myself! I thought it will be difficult but actually it's quite easy! You can make this in less than 2 hours. (Because of 40minutes steaming)

So go try it! It's seriously delicious :D~

Rice Cooker Salted Chicken

Have you ever cooked a chicken from a rice cooker before?
Well, it is definitely first time for me! It works!! and guess what??! It's super juicy tender and delicious!! OMG!



I was digging the packet stuff out from the pantry to check what we've got in the pantry. You know.. when you got too many things in the pantry.. you just don't know what's in it anymore? Yea, that's what happen to our pantry. Never ending sauces, tins and bottles, and packets of marinates!

So then, I found this Salted Chicken Powder. hmm.. I like chicken! I like salted chicken! Why not? I'll try this! I think my aunt gave this to me when she came over from Malaysia to visit her son. I'm not too sure myself. But I have Whatsapp my sis, send her a photo of it and she confirmed to me that they have this in Malaysia. haha I love Whatsapp.

This packet of salted chicken powder thing really amazed me because it says in the instructions that you can cook the chicken in the rice cooker. I'm like what?! Did I read it wrongly?

This rice cooker?? Good O fashion rice cooker!



Well, apparently yes!
And Challenge accepted!



Chicken in the rice cooker it is!
The way of making it is really easy. Marinate the chicken inside out with the powder for 2-3 hours. Put 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the rice cooker then layer some spring onions at the base of the rice cooker. (This is to prevent the chicken from burning and gives extra flavour) Then put the chicken on top. Close the lid, press the cook button and let it cook! After the cook button jumps off, turn the chicken and press the cook button again. That's it!

You will hear sizzle sizzle going on from the rice cooker while cooking.



and I got a nice, juicy and tender chicken! Seriously no joke. The breast meat were tender too! We loved it!



Oh.. and I just stir fry some chinese cabbage too. Not very nice this one hahaha

I think I better off stick to the packet stuff :P

Loving Cupcakes

It's all about cupcakes nowadays don't you think? It's cute, it's fun and it's convenient to eat! As Christmas is coming, I am researching some cute Christmas cupcakes for the Christmas party! Experimenting them is going to be time consuming.. but I think it will be really fun! Like meditation for me haha.

Below are some of my favourites that I found from googling. Click on the picture if you want to go to the original site :)

Minnie Mouse! So cute!!



Butterflies~



I will try to make these.. try.. 0_0"



Most beautiful cupcake I've ever seen.


Definitely want these!!!! I love it! Anybody? Make for me!?



Reminds me of Care Bears~



Copying ideas.. haha



Vintage Cupcakes



Animal Farm!





Are you going to make some cupcake now? :D