Hello!

I hope you had a safe flight and you’re settled in..

 

I loved the gift!

For my dearest friend..

 

 

 

 

..no gift can thank you enough.

These are some of my favourite books which i know you’ll enjoy.

Amazon is shipping them off to your doorstep soon!

 

PS. i hope this doesnt make u start a cookbook shopping spree, collecting cookbooks is a dangerous addiction.. D may kill me!

 

PPS to smms, u can email me at nfarhan29@yahoo.com.sg

Mini morsels of something

Figured out a way to use up leftover puff pastry. Leftover from the hen’s party at Farah’s which was great, more subdued this time with the main activity being manicures and pedicures. I drove after a really long time and it was really challenging due to the distance I had to remain in a sitting position with a full stomach. I popped by my grandma’s who was in the opposite block after the party and she fed me a full dinner of chilli crabs! On top of the English tea party(that was the Hen’s party theme) menu items that was already in my tummy, my stomach, lungs and uterus were competing for limited space in my torso. Needless to say besides fidgeting like crazy in the car seat and trying hard just to breathe thru the 45 min drive alone, there were valuable lessons learnt. (which i suspect too may be forgotten at the next party)

 

Tell you bout these mini morsels soon.

My best friend’s married!

I started writing this 2 weeks ago, a little belated but rather late than never!

My best friend’s married! It was a busy week for Mel and finally after many many weddings as the best friend and bridesmaid, she’s legally married to someone who can’t be luckier, Haikal! It was such a lovely wedding with fantastic food, family, friends I haven’t met in a long time. Congratulations Mel and Haikal! The set up was gorgeous, the food honestly the best I’ve ever eaten in any wedding and the bride and groom looked fantastic. I’m sorry we were not able to be there the whole time, I would really have loved to. But somehow timing and circumstance is such that my grandma broke her hip and is now scheduled for a hip replacement soon. As with old folks and especially with her dementia, we are trying hard to cope with her delirium and spells of confusion.

 Photo courtesy of butterflyrubrics

I had a little incident with the making of the mint tea. Pouring hot tea into a glass jar is a very bad idea. There was a shower of tea down my kitchen counters and into the cabinets with a dramatic shattering of glass. It was lucky Yati brought the drinks including iced tea so that was poured into the mint filled jugs instead. I was really happy that all the planning paid off and the girls each played their part with the lovely goodie bags prepared, the door gifts, the individual gifts for Mel, the “games” and just being so participative and enthuisastic about the dancing. I now have video evidence that some of us just can’t move with the rhythm, I’m definitely in that list! Of course some moved like they’ve been born with it!

 Photo courtesy of butterflyrubrics

 Kebabs grilled by the ever helpful H. We struggled with the disposable BBQ pit, it lit promisingly at the begining but unfortunately wasn’t strong enough and died out pretty quickly. We had to use additional charcoal and lots of fanning before it worked well enough. Though the kebabs looked a little charred, it still tasted pretty good! I marinated it with ginger, garlic, chilli powder, salt, pepper and a little yogurt. It was skewered with bell peppers and pieces of white Bombay onion which grill up and turn really sweet.

I spent several days preparing for the party, including the trial run for some of the recipes. I made baba ghanoush, recipe from one of my favourite blogs on Middle Eastern food and more.  

Tahina from Mustafa

I tried a new recipe for pita bread the weekend before the party. I was attracted to this recipe as it involved little kneading and an overnight rise in the fridge which cut down my prep time on the day itself. For lunch I had topped the dough with minced beef inspired by this, baked it and topped it with a cucumber and yogurt salad when they were slightly cool.

 

Dessert was semolina cake, vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of fresh passionfuit pulp.

Semolina Cake or Basbousa

 

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup superfine sugar

2 small eggs

2 cups fine yellow semolina

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Dried apricots, cut into quarters

Syrup (recipe follows)

Cream the butter and the sugar and then beat in the eggs. Stir in a 1/2 cup water. Sift together the semolina, baking powder, and soda, and stir into the butter mixture to form a smooth batter. Preheat the oven to 170C. Lightly grease an 8-by-12-inch cake pan and pour in the batter. Spread it evenly with the back of a spoon and then score across the top of the cake parallel lines going from the bottom left corner to the top right and vice versa, to form diamond shapes. Place an apricot piece in the center of each diamond. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, when the cake should be firm and lightly browned. Prepare the syrup as described below and pour it, spoonfuls at a time, over the hot cake. Stop when the cake will not absorb any more and set the cake aside to cool before serving.

 

                Syrup

1.5 cups sugar

½ cup water

Juice of 1 lemon

Over a medium heat dissolve the sugar in  water, add the lemon juice and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and gently boil the syrup for 10 minutes.

 

A sneak..

Music

Gifts

Food

Sweets..

 

All girls, a belly dancer and a wedding coming up..

 

Any guesses?

Hmm.. another quick update?

Somehow I always have the urge inspiration to blog when I’m on call. Something about sitting around in your scrubs, wondering what dismal meal you dinner would be from the hospital canteen, getting annoyed by the power trip that knocked out your air conditioner in your call room with no windows thus forcing you out of the room and bed when your oxygen runs out, something about receiving a call from your registrar at 8.30am saying that one of the house officers on call has been admitted with dengue and he would like me to cover. It was like a bad dream, I woke up one morning and 2 years of my life went in reverse and I became a house officer? On call? In the renal ward? That started this intense headache which is starting to ebb now with the help of painkillers and this blog. The. thought. of. a. life. existing. outside. this. hospital.

 

Ok well, things looked up when a house officer was found and I’ve gotten over the close shave of this being possibly the worst call of my life. Phew. Sometimes I feel like I’m living on the edge. Oh well, who am I kidding??

 

I cleared out my old pantry yesterday and I found a lot of expiring food. I have to start my gas stove working and my new oven cranking soon. I have tinned milk, foul muddamas or “kacang pool” the Malay-nized name of this dish. I’m not sure where all the time went. I think lots were spent making the house a home. We were everywhere all the time, buying the house phone, getting the tv and internet working, buying like random things, toilet paper, ?floor cleaner (that will take me a while to figure out). I’ll have to start learning to play house.

Meanwhile, here are some great sites I would like to share

A friend’s new business, beautiful wedding photography

A wonderful blog with Arabic food and more, you already know of another  favourite blog of mine on Middle Eastern food

And if you’re interested on amusing narratives on one baking disaster after another, check this out.

Catch up soon..

All good things come to an end..

This is a little overdue, but Quizas and I have come decided that our blog grubliving would come to an end, please visit her lovely new blog at love-quizas for more of her beautiful creations. I will continue to post here, if I ever do anything creative which seems to be very few and far between. Meanwhile thank you for reading our blogs!

Mel’s engagement

Mel of Mel’s Inc just got engaged! Congratulations Mel, you looked ravishing and everything went so well. You have been such a fantastic friend and you’ve done more for me than I can ever do for you. When I was having exams you would come with hazelnut gelato, cos I have this thing where I confine myself into the home during exams and once had a desperate craving for ice cream! When I was sick you would never fail to come by and pay me a visit with more goodies. And once when I was going thru a really hard time, I think you remember when, you took sick leave to help me thru the tough time. Remember when I brought you to see my GP friend and we were trying to get the MC.. Hmm, I shouldn’t reveal too much.. Haha!

Anyway I am so happy for you and so glad that H and I can love your fiance as much as you. I can’t wait to see you both on your wedding day.. Marriage is the best thing that can happen to anyone, and everyday I know that being with the one I love is the key to my peace and happiness. Marriage isn’t overrated, the love doesn’t change, it just gets stronger and deeper and its loads of fun..Some people plan their lives including their marriage to the tee, but honestly its not hard being married. The road isn’t bumpy, instead of thinking to hard about adjusting and sacrifice and giving up yourself and your time, marriage taught me to think a lot less and to feel more. Being in love and married to the person you love is the easiest and most natural thing to do. But I think you do know Mel after all these years what I think of marriage. I know Haikal will be good to you, in fact I see a lot of similarities in the devotion he has for you as H has for me. I know you will be happy. Thanks for being such a fantastic friend, You are really a blessing to all who know you.

Happy engagement Mel and Haikal!

Phew after all that.. lets talk about something less serious.  This lovely hamper was by Goldchocs.

Mel’s handmade card!

Engagement gift from her to him decorated by Mariah & Sham http://haznsham.multiply.com/photos/album/40/Mariah_Sham”

Let’s eat!

 

Just a sneak preview Mel, till I show you all the shots we took. You looked gorgeous but I shan’t invade ur privacy by posting the photos here! H really enjoyed taking photos for the event, though we were erm, a bit late and left a lil bit early.. Your family are such warm and wonderful hosts, really you are family to us.

Wishing both of u all the happiness..

xxxxxxxxx00000 H& Farhan xxxxxx000000xxxx

Saturday morning fry up and Friday night supper

 

We have not had a fry up for a really long time. Partly because I have been working most weekends because of the time I spent away in Bali. I bought some delicious fresh bbq beef sausages from Giant supermarket at Parkway Parade for $1.99 per 100g. They’re tender and very flavourful. We had this with homemade hash browns and a leek and mushroom stir fry. I always feel obliged to have some vegetables in my fry up. In an effort to make the sausages/bacon/eggs/potatoes healthier. This was done with 1 clove of garlic, smashed, 1 leek finely sliced and 4 button mushrooms sliced. Heat olive oil in pan, fry leeks till soft, add mushrooms and fry, sprinkle garlic over and fry. Sprinkle with salt, stir well and serve. We ate this With lots of mustard of course! I can eat dijon mustart out of the jar..

 

 

 We had a chocolate supper at Laurent, and didn’t dare take any photos! There’s a sign that says “no pictures please” and being the obedient law abiding Singaporean that I am, I reminded H of the sign a few times worriedly. Especially after reading this, I was so scared of pissing anyone off.. So the following photos are taken off the net, since we didn’t dare take any photos of the food. I tried something new, the chocolate souffle with a chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. The ice cream is definitely homemade. The chocolate sauce is LETHAL, it can probably launch a rocket. Our friend Husaini was lapping it up and got high on it. Its only for you if you really love DARK chocolate. The souffle was lovely.

 

 

My favourite chocolate tart, Husaini insisted that  it could be made by making a tart base and spreading nutella on top. I don’t think so.. Another thing, I love this place because it is so beautiful! And the plates, teapots, glasses, mugs, cutlery are all gorgeous.

 

 

I’ve not tried any of the teas because I need my coffee. But I may someday, just to experience the tea pot. We didn’t have this yesterday, but I’ve had it once, its hazelnutty and yummy. And no, I don’t think I can recreate this by spreading something with nutella.

 

 

At last, a food photo we took! We had prata, near SGH (S’pore General Hospital), I’m not sure of the name of the place. It was just ok. I’m not sure how we always end up eating a few courses at different places thru the course of the night. This was at 1 am. I’m so afraid of weight gain as I’ve been eating many suppers lately. But maybe I should bulk up before I enter the hospital again in May (boohoohoo..)

 

 

I’m not sure how many pictires of his drinks H has been taking, but it seems like an awful lot. He actually tried to look for his “teh tarik” in Bali! But they’ve not heard of it.

 

Enjoy your weekend everyone, or whats left of it!