fell back into laziness with this blog
was sick and bedridden two weeks ago, but all better now, i think...
after being in bed for two whole days, on the third day i got up and spent the day relaxing with crepe-making and reading.
finally, finished the book thief - made my heart hurt.

then spent the weekend catching up with people

started on friday night with an awesome heart to heart with jan while squeezed in between people at lowenbrau

we trundled through vivid in the damp cold and got heckled by many a drunk group

highlight of the night must have been when a stranger came up to me and told me i was good-looking while i was riding one of the light exhibits. that was before we realised he was a drunk hobo. 

so many lols. 

oh! and the other highlight was joining hands with a ton of strangers to try and get one of the exhibits to light up. it didn't work, but the moment was one of the most amazing things i'd ever experienced in terms of social processes /nerd.

donna. 

last weekend, we had a little bit of a cookout at my place
it was supposed to be a usa tourgroup reunion thingymabobbob, which pickle kind of crashed
so pickle and janice arrived at my place late in the afternoon and first order of business was to decide what we were going to cook
ended up with:

• vegetable frittata (because pickle loved the frittatas at wynnie's high tea so much) - recipe we changed to include red capsicum, mushroom, zucchini, bacon)
• seafood chowder (because donna, and cherry, and pickle love seafood chowder) - recipe
• some mash potato concoction as a filler - basically, really good mash potato with bacon and pineapple in it

we went grocery shopping and janice bumped into an aunty. it was random.
then it was back to my place for the prep, before cherry arrived midway with our hongkong style iced milk tea.
such an awesome cooking atmosphere, with mulan playing in the background and the sun shining in through the window. <3
pickle was so cute with her cooking analness, checking her iphone timer every 5 minutes hahha
then anoushka arrived with her "homemade" tiramisu in coles packaging, and that's when the party really started!

i ended up moving stumac from the study to the kitchen table, and we watched all the US videos, janice took with her guerilla style while we ate mash potato from the saucepan and the frittatas from the baking pan. and also, ciders in our hands.
so many lols.
so many moments where me and anoushka just couldn't watch anymore, and had to hide our faces with our hands. good times, good times.
cherry left around 10:30, and then the rest stayed until 2am just youtubing random crap (even though we were all really tired and wanted to sleep, lol)

feel so inspired to continue this cookout tradition through the year.

donna.

happy chinese new year!
nothing much exciting this week aside from meeting with the good ol' supervisor, getting called joyce and emily, oh! getting my first tute (fear, excitement, denial, etc etc etci)
also met up with jin people for dinner on thursday and found out that joecheung is going back to hk 4EVAH! *sad face
i've been spending the past two days with family, sewing, cooking chinese new year food and cleaning the house in preparation for the new year.
good times.

check out the intensity of my makeup drawer (and the dust, pre-clean)...
i don't understand how i could still want more stuff -.-

also spent the morning baking a simple'n'delicious chocolate cake (recipe here)

i'm convinced the first decent cake i've ever baked, so i'm super proud of myself, even though it's probably still a bit behind in the taste department.

go dragons!

donna.

once warmer weather hits, i just get so obsessed with iced coffee.
it's a bit ridiculous.
the way the patterns swirl after i add milk to cold-brewed coffee?
ARGH! brings joy to my little heart.

i use about 8 tablespoons of ground coffee to two cups of cold water 

leave that in the frenchpress overnight in the fridge

add ice and milk in the morning and i am ready to fly for the day~

+++

apparently, it's been two weeks since my last proper entry. wow, have i been lazy with this blog or what?

• on 2nd Nov, i had my not-last stats exam and it was so bad lol. added to the fact that i had the most epic dream of skydiving three times before discussing the benefits of berry mints with a work colleague. was completely tired out. then we went to the whitehouse for drinks to celebrate ~end-of-year and had great fun (if my memory serves me correctly).  
• on 4th Nov, my daily savings account reached an all-time low and i was so sad. keep questioning myself on whether this is spending time or saving time. early 20's is a weird time.

• then spent the rest of my week doing my take-home exam, BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS DUE ON THE 7TH. Got pranked so good, man. So good. 
• Found out on the 5th that they changed the date on my assignment sheet. Despite my gut feelings that something was wrong/thinking I had successfully mind-squiggled myself, I thought to myself, there's no way Hui would lie to me. And everyone else seemed to working on the take-home like it was due on the 7th. Little did I know, that the other side lived so differently...
• So cute that Hui couldn't handle the guilt and pulled me to have dinner at her house. Still remember how good the food was...
• Then, come the 8th, I went to sleep at 10am. Woke up at 9am. Submitted the take-home before lunch. IT WAS AMAZING. (and weird). 

• On the 9th, we went K for two hours and it wasn't enough at all. 
• also went sushi tei for joe's birthday dinner. me and jenny went scouraging around the city for apples pies prior and had pretty much given up on finding them when we finally came across them in the pitt st mall food court. and they were pretty good and came in a super cute box so i'll definitely be going back again.

•  On the 10th, went out with cherry ♥ for her ~birthday present. had dinner at minh thai in record time before mary poppins. i think the most apt description would be: disney on crack. it was AMAZING. the set production quality was mindblowing; the colours and the characters were just SO over-the-top sometimes that i thought i was on LSD at times. lol. Really would recommend it to everyone. was good, even from the dress circle. 

• On the 11th, I had my first meeting with my supervisor in ~ages. Finally submitted an abstract for the postgrad conference that going to be held at SydU at the end of the month. No idea what I'm doing with that. And then, randomly, when I got home that night. There was a HUGE spider waiting for me in my study. Had an hour-long battle with it cos it hid its corpse so well that I couldn't find it even after I got it to OD on bug spray. 

 post about yesterday's high-tea party coming soon.

donna.

Miscellaneous food recipes from Random Saturday

Earl Grey Tea Panna Cotta

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 300ml double cream
• 300ml milk
• 3 Earl Grey teabags
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp gelatine dissolved in 1 tbs boiling water

1.     Place the cream and milk in a saucepan. Add teabags. Slowly bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes.

2.     Discard teabags from cream mixture. Add sugar and return to a low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until sugar dissolves.

3.     Place 2 tbs of boiling water in a small heatproof bowl. Sprinkle over gelatine. Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat. Sit the bowl of gelatine in the water and stir until dissolved. Cool slightly, then stir into the cream mixture.

4.     Lightly oil 6 x 1/2 cup (125ml) dariole moulds or ramekins. Place on a tray and pour in cream mixture. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

5.     To serve, break the seal by inserting a small knife between the panna cotta and the mould. Turn onto a serving plate and shake to release. Serve dish with fresh berries.

Birthday Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Cooking Time: 20 minutes/Makes: 24

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups (450g) self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 cup milk
• Assorted sweets, to decorate

Frosting

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups (640g) icing sugar, sifted

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 180°C. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

2.     Add 1/2 the sifted flour and 1/2 milk and stir until combined, then add remaining flour and milk and stir until combined.

3.     Line two 12-hole (1/3-cup capacity) muffin tins with paper cake cases. Spoon 2 tbs mixture into each paper case, then bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean. Cool cakes in tin.

4.     For frosting, using an electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Gradually add icing sugar, beating until incorporated. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

5.     With a spoon or palette knife, spread frosting over tops of cooled cakes, then decorate as desired with assorted sweets. Un-iced cakes can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container.

 

 

lol.

Scones

Makes: 20

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 80g butter, chilled, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• strawberry jam and double thick cream, to serve

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Lightly grease a 7.5cm-deep, 22cm round cake pan. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Using fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

2.     Make a well in the centre of flour mixture. Add milk. Stir with a flat-bladed knife until mixture just comes together (don't over-mix). Turn dough on to a lightly floured surface. Knead gently to bring dough together.

3.     Gently press dough into a 2cm-thick round. Dip a 4.5cm round cutter into flour. Cut out scones. Gently press leftover dough pieces together and repeat to make a total of 20 scones. Place scones, touching, in prepared pan. Sprinkle with a little extra flour. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm. Serve with jam and cream.

donna.