November 2011

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He casually mentioned that we never tried roasting a whole chicken before, and after he said that I was spurred to take up the challenge!

I found a recipe in Epicurious which uses mainly lemon, honey and tarragon but because we do not have any tarragon, I simply follow the recipe without it!

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Here is the final product! He was amazed! That night he gave the best compliment to my new domesticated self! According to him, “Do you know what is the best compliment to a chef? Not only did her patrons ate it all up and claimed to love it, it is the fact that there are chill sauce and other condiments at the side, the patrons choose not to use it!” Haha! I agree! But I thought it can be a little juicier if I stopped the oven at the last 10 mins! Sorry, I’m a perfectionist!

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For the potato, it is nothing fancy. I simply sliced two russet potatoes, soaked it in salt water, greased the bakeware with butter, laid the potatoes, put some butter and pepper in between potatoes, laid more potatoes and covered it up with cheese and popped it into the oven! Haha. No recipe required.

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Yums! It feels like a home cooked Christmas meal already! If you want to know the recipe we followed from Epicurious, you can click for more!

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His family never celebrated Christmas when he was young. They don’t believe in Christmas. When I was young, we do celebrate Christmas at my aunt’s place and it is a great occasion for family gathering, parents and lots of food! But it’s all merriment and celebration instead of understanding the real meaning of Christmas. After believing in God, I now know why we celebrate Christmas. It’s not Santa, presents nor turkeys, it’s Jesus!

This year, it is also different for us. We finally have a Christmas tree that we can call our own. We never had one in our parent’s home when we were younger so we were really excited to finally get our own Christmas tree and a Swedish one too! We bought a live one from Ikea! It comes with a natural pine tree smell and it is lovely! Except that the carbon footprint is making us think twice and thrice if we should get a live one next year!

Here are the boring bits why getting a live Christmas tree is bad! One, they flew / shipped them in all the way from Sweden. Two, it is in a minus one degree container, so imagine the amount of energy required to power it. Three, I heard from the staff these trees are not farmed. They are simply chopped from the woods. OMG! Four, you need to keep watering them and feed them with ice. Five, you need to replace them yearly and the cycle continues. GOSH. I’m feeling guilty. Boo. Maybe we should get a fake one next year but the fake ones does not look so luscious!

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The color theme we used is red and gold!

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Other than the typical decorative balls, we also used snow flakes and acorns!

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You need to top off the tree with a shiny gold star!

We bought all these at a decoration shop near Paya Lebar Mrt, because my office is using decorations from this store, we thought we should go back and get some nice ones from them too!

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We brought Barley to the east wing of Garden by the Bay after a family lunch on Sunday! She loves it there! There isn’t much of a crowd and there are many small open space for her to let loose! Whenever there is no one around we will let her run wild! Hahah. It is quite dog friendly in my opinion because of the lack of crowd! Haha. But I don’t particularly love it because of the lack of shade! Haha. It was blazing hot!

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Look at her legs move! It’s funny!

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Barley gone wild!

Barley turned three today but I was not able to celebrate with her! Boo! My in-law made her a cup from her dried food and corn! I heard Barley loves it and violently ate it all up! Haha. Happy Birthday Barley!

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wine mess Before

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After

This was how we kept our wine previously! It was dangerous and in a mess! We have plenty of wine and got even more after our wedding banquet! Thankfully we finally got a wine chiller! We got it at Parisilk Electronics & Computers (East Coast branch)! It is affordable and the guy who served us was really friendly! It costs over $400 and the model name is Valenti 160 which can hold approximately 40 bottles of wine. Parisilk is something like Ever Joint where they sell electrical appliances at a rate usually lower than major electrical stores.

Parisilk Electronics & Computers

86 East Coast Road
#01-21/35 Katong Village S428788
Tel: 63449937
Fax: 63459910

We were at Venice and chanced upon a neighborhood bicycle shop! We got these accessories at less than SGD 40! Isn’t it amazing? All made in Italy, the bike seat, the rubber brown handle, a metal basket and a bell. Yes I lugged all these back because it is going to cost a bomb in Singapore and they are probably all made in China if you get one in Singapore!

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These were what we lugged home!

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Before we revamped the bike, it looks like this! Thank you Lennel for the bike again!

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After my baby revamped it for me, it looks pretty! We ride around our neighborhood very often and this little bike comes in handy!

If you want to know where the bike shop is, we stayed in Venice Mestre (Venice Mainland) at Triton Hotel which is just across the train station. The bike shop is just around the corner, ask the concierge where the nearest supermarket is and on the way to the supermarket, you will see the bicycle shop!

I received Colin & Lyanna’s Wedding invite and thought it was really cute! Love the birdcage design!

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colin & lyanna wedding invite

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There are many mini cars in Italy and it is not just cars, they have mini buses, vans and trucks too! I can understand why they miniaturize every form of vehicles! Their roads are mostly narrow and single lane, and their parking areas are limited and at the roadsides! Unlike in Singapore where most of our roads are at least two lanes and multistory parking spaces are in abundance. Italians have to navigate the narrow roads between old buildings on cobblestone and share the roads with with pedestrians and cyclists. I just find it amusing whenever I see large man in a mini car! Haha.

Another random post about Italy! I have so many random posts at the back of my head, it’s going to take months to clear! Haha.

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My personal favorite! We found this bakery in Milan!

This Italian pastry named “cornetto” in the Center and South of Italy and “brioche” in the North is a cousin of French Croissant! Unlike the French version which is crispy and buttery, Cornetto / Brioche is softer and comes with fillings! They dolled them up with fruits, nuts, cream, sugar and jam and filled them with puree, cream and chocolate! We have them at every breakfast in the hotels we stayed, you see them in cafes and bakeries and it’s everywhere! Yums!

Sino Trading & Frame Works

450 Clementi Ave 3 #01-281 Singapore 120450
Tel: 67771188

Remember I put up a post about a painting we bought at Piazza Navona in Rome? We finally got it stretched! Instead of going to JB which we thought is a hassle to save $20 – $30, I brought it to Sino Trading & Frame Works at Clementi! It costs $73 (after asking for a discount from $75) to stretch the canvas which was 24 inches by 34 inches! Not a bad deal I say. Skillful old masters do the framing and stretching at the store instead of sending them to a factory. They are also helpful and attentive to our requests. The material they used looks strong and of good quality! Total cost of this painting $243!

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Awaiting to hang on the wall

And about our painting, I love the red poppies in the foreground,the little house on the hill and the great blue sky! It is a view of Tuscany in Summer / Spring and it is beautiful! Different from most of the paintings found at Piazza Navona, it is less of a country style. Instead, it looks modern with the use of vibrant and striking colors! Most importantly this painting makes me happy while looking at it! I once went to an art exhibition and an art collector gave a talk on how collectors should buy a painting because they love looking at it, instead of its “collectible value” which makes them think “ah, what an ugly painting but I can surely make some money out of it in a few years” and I totally agree with him.

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