Thinking

I'm loving my black hair, and thinking it's not black enough.

I'm loving my pink cardi, and thinking i can do with more bright colors.

I'm loving my clip-on Camelia, and thinking i deserve more flowers.

不得不爱

还是有上天安排。

Vongole - The Prima Taste!

I'm not a fan of pasta, coz it's carbo-high and for someone who is dying to lose weight, i was horrified to find myself falling in love with Vongole @Etna.


So much so that i tried to duplicate it at home but sad to say, i still can't get the taste right.


And while doing my weekly groceries shopping at Carrefour, i was delighted to find the 'Vongole Sauce' by Prima Taste and with the 'How To Cook' printed at the back of the pack. Dying to try it, i bought the rest of the ingredients. Here are what i prepared this evening:

Garlic - really, this is personal taste. I love garlic, so naturally, i put in a lot more than required. Also, finely cut bird's eye chilli, commonly known as 'cili padi'. Btw, do you know i was called 'cili padi' throughout my school days. Yah, that's why i always tell you people, 'don't mess with me or my kid!'. LOL :)

White sliced button mushroom - i love mushroom so i added them in although this recipe didn't call for any mushroom :)

The Star of the dish - Clams!! I love the distinctive taste of clams but the recipe called for only 8 miserable clams! So i bought 2 packs instead, with a total about 30?? LOL.. But actually, the more clams you have, the juicier and more aromatic the dish will be!


What else do i have?

Spaghetti - This is the usual brand i got for Shane, Barilla wholewheat spaghetti in number 5, just the right size! You don't have to use spaghetti if you don't like, in fact, any other pasta or noodle will do. Even Maggie noodle :)


Now, time to cook!

First, blanched the spaghetti in boiling water until it's soft. This brand takes about 5 - 8 mins, depending on the heat. Add a spoonful of salt when the water is boiled, then add the spaghetti. Salt brings out the natural flavor of the pasta, so it taste better! And don't worry about it being too salty for your liking. You won't even taste much of the salt, except from the sauce!

When it's soft and nice, pour away the hot water and rinsed it a few times with cold cold water. This will remove excess starch and maintain the consistency of the spaghetti at that level where you stopped boiling. I also find the spaghetti slighltly more 'springy' (not sure what the word is) after giving it the cold water treatment. Leave it aside and now, we can prepare the sauce.

Fry the garlic and chilli together, my garlic is a little burnt coz i like it like that.



Next, put in the mushroom.

Now add in the clams, and after stirring quickly for half a minute, put in the Prima Taste Vongole Sauce. The sauce is brown in color, not thick or creamy and it's about a cup and rather flavourful. Also, add in the rice wine (as per the instructions).

Simmer it for a minute, then add in the spaghetti. Stir it well for another half minute and you're ready to serve!!


Well, for my dinner tonite, i added in:


Olives



Wild rockets


And tadah... my Vongole!!

Verdict: Although it still doesn't taste the same as Etna's, but it's closer to it than my own version, so i'm gonna give it a few more tries, add/minus an ingredient here and there and see what i come up with next.

Gadgetty Me

In less than 3 weeks, i've bought one 42-inch LED HDTV, one 32-inch HDTV, two blu-ray players, one DSLR camera, one P&S compact camera, one photo printer, AC Ryan Playon HD mini player and one 1.5TB Seagate harddrive to go along with the AC Ryan player!


I so love all these gadgets and i want more. May i also say, i love gadgets more than i love men!!


At least, my gadgets are always waiting for me at home.


Men? They have the tendency to stray.

A Little Reward

Instead of a new LV bag, i reward myself with this black beauty instead:

I was deciding between Sony A550 and Canon EOS 500D but in the end, i chose Canon, simply because Canon was lighter! LOL.. okay i know that's not a very convincing reason but it's absolutely one of the reason :)

I have always being a huge supporter of Sony cameras becaus of it's brilliant picture quality but this A550 is just slightly too big for my hand and should i start collecting lenses, i might one day find it too cumbersome to use! Moreover, i have read about the many good reviews of this Canon model, so i'm gonna give it a try.


Let's also see what other Sony digital cameras i have used the past years:

I can't remember the exact model of my first Sony digital camera but it looked rather similar to this model. I gave it away to Dad after 2 months when T3 was launched.

Sony T3 was the first camera to have internal lens and it looked very chic at that time.

My next camera was the sleek and refined T20 and the T3 was then given to my brother. It took beautiful pictures but sadly before i got bored with it, it got lost in a restaurant in London.


Upon my return to Singapore, i bought T100 as T20 was no longer in production.

Not only the T100 took gorgeous pictures but also pretty amazing good videos. Again before i got bored with it, i accidentally dropped it in Ocean Park in Hongkong last year during my family trip and thus ending its life span :(


My last buy was the Sony H20.

I bought because it's not expensive, yet feels like a mini SLR in my hands plus it has semi-manual focus. But now that i have the Canon EOS 500D, i think this will again go to the hands of one of my brothers soon! I'm such a generous sister. :)


Although i have upgraded to an SLR, but i don't think i will ever stop buying a compact digital camera for my day to day use. I already have in mind the sleek and lovely TX7.

Every girl needs a compact digicam in their handbags and this certainly goes very well in mine.

Meow.w.w.

That was what i went as for our Musical Nite 2009 last Friday - a cutie little cat :)

Btw, i love the latest Sally Hansen's nail polish: Insta-Dri. I haven't had time to visit the nail spa lately and had to color my nails at the very last minute. It dried so quickly and the color i had on was Sonic Bloom Coral Rush, a lovely pinkish red. In fact there were so many shades of pink that i took a really long time deciding which to buy. Go try it, you can find it at any Watson store and the price is about S$12.90 (i think).

Restaurant City

Despite being busy, i still find time for restaurant city.. :)


I *heart* my restaurant!!

Almost Perfect II

One of Shane's birthday wish is to always have dinner every year with the two persons that matter most to him on the one important day of his life. He told me so last year. It didn't materialised then but this year, it did. Yes we had dinner with X-man that nite, on Shane's birthday nite.


X-sis (X-man's sis) called to speak to Shane while we were at the restaurant. When she knew we were having dinner with X-man, she was extremely delighted and i could hear it in her gleeful voice. She said, "This is like a happy family again". Yes, to the many strangers that we walked past that nite, to the lovely attentive staffs at The Tavern that nite, indeed, we looked like one. We chatted, laughed, teased Shane, made silly jokes, shared food. It was the perfect setting for a happy family portrait, except we were not what they thought us to be. We were anything but perfect. We were just almost perfect.


This time, Shane did not ask any embarassing question in the restaurant, instead while in the car, he asked us why we were able to talk to each other like friends now?


I did not answer. Nor did X-man. And Shane, being older and slightly wiser than before, did not ask again.

* * *


Love of My Life
by Carly Simon

I love lilacs and avocados
Ukuleles and fireworks
And Mia Farrow and walking in the snow
But you've got to know

That you're the love of my life
You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life

From the moment I first saw you
The second that you were born
I knew that you were the love of my life
Quite simply the love of my life

I love Lucy and pumpernickel bread
The Statue Of Liberty and chocolate ice-cream
And falling into bed
But get it through your head

That you're the love of my life
You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life

From the moment I first saw you
The second that you were born
I knew that you were the love of my life
Quite simply the love of my life

You are the love
The great love of my
Of my life

Why Oh Why??

Finally, my schedule for the rollout next year is confirmed. I'll be gone for almost a month in January. I don't dread the work but i hated to be away from Shane, i am begining to seriously wonder how am i to last that long without him? It's already killing me now thinking of that.


Yes, if you don't know already, my life revolves around my son. There's no one i love more than him.


I know i am definitely gonna max out my mind thinking about him constantly. Fortunately there is 3G phone and webcam altho i doubt i'll be happy with that but i know i ought to be thankful at least. Shane will be just starting his Primary 3, attending the morning session for the first time and i don't know how my babybird will cope with this transition without mommy being there?


Oh, why can't money just drop from the sky??

Farmville

So i skip the whole month of August and finally i'm back on my blog only to post an entry on Farmville? Am i so frivolous?? Yes i am, and i want to show off a bit on what a wonderful farmer i am on Farmville :)


This game is actually a good way to relieve my mind off the servers, off the deployment schedule, off the-many-things that are fast taking over my sanity.


So, this is me, on Farmville...am i cute? Please say Yes. Humour me, will you? Oh, com'on...

I recently dyed my hair a lighter brown, hence the choice of this hair colour, it's call 'Light Brown Flippy Hair' on Farmville and since my actual hair can't be so thick and flowy, i am glad to at least 'own' it on FV :)


This is my farm, a 20x20 plot.

I 'trapped' my girl in the middle of the hay bales so that i can 'harvest', 'plow' and 'plant' faster. She walks too slow na.

Farmville is on Facebook, go play.