Compulsive shopper much?

What started off as an innocent "I'll just pop in here and see what's what" ended up costing me a good $35. And a whole new project.

I was at the Reject shop. I was shopping for pretty paper to make a pinwheel for a birthday card for a special someone (Nicole, this one has got your name written all over it!) and I was somewhat distracted by all the cheap things in there.

First of all, let's talk American candy. They have them. It took everything from me to remember that:

a) I was on a diet; and
b) I'm going to the States soon, so why would I eat American candy in Australia when I can eat American candy in the States. Seriously.

So, I walked through the rest of the shop. Which was a HUGE mistake.

CHOCOLATE SILICONE MOULDS.

I bought FOUR of them. AND I don't even know how to make homemade candy. I suppose there is no time like the present, but seriously, I need to stop it with these projects!

Ialsomighthaveboughtsomemorecontainersforthehouse,anotebook,aprettyboxandaribbon.

Hmmm... off to do some research on candy making then! Toodles!

x

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Food of the Gods - or at least I think so. :)

There are actually a few other things that I want to talk about, but I promised my colleague my secret chicken rice recipe, so I'm going to do that first. On another note, a big shout out to Craig! Yay!

I'm finding it particularly difficult to write this recipe though because I can't include any measurements. I watched my mother cook this heaps of times so when I cook, I just do what looks and feels right. The funny thing about this is that my Mom always said to me that she didn't know how to make the chicken (which was always delicious anyway). So I didn't learn to make the chicken from her - that I learnt from Food Safari.

Luke always seems astounded by the amount of chicken rice I consume. I eat it by the platefuls. And when he gives me that "Another plate??" look, my defence each and every time is "I'm Hainanese! It's in my BLOOD". :) Plus, it was my father's favourite meal and he could eat this every day. I would hope that if I was ever lucky enough to have children, it would be something that I could pass on to them.

Anyway, enough rambling - here we go...

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken stock

There are a few ways to make the chicken stock and you can use as many or as few ingredients as you want, depending on what you have in the kitchen. Usually when Luke and I have roast chicken at home, I debone the chicken and keep the roasted chicken frame to make stock. I would just store this in the freezer and use it when I have collected two or three of them. However, sometimes I just buy some chicken frames from the supermarket. This is good because you have the added bonus of using the chicken fat on the frames.

What you will need:

a) roast chicken bones or raw chicken frames from the supermarket, or even a mixture of both
b) water
c) onions (optional)
d) spring onions (optional)
e) ginger (optional)

How to:

• Cut the excess fat off the chicken and keep aside - you will need this for the rice
• Fill a stock pot with water and pop the chicken frames (and all the other optional things if you are going to use them) in and bring to the boil. Keep boiling for approximately two hours.
• Season well with salt (I don't usually bother with pepper)
• Leave overnight for the flavours to develop (I sometimes don't bother with this step because I'm too impatient and want to eat chicken rice NOW!)

Chicken stock.... DONE.

This is liquid gold - it doesn't look like much (a bit oily and scummy) BUT, it is the BEST stock I've made so far! 

Chicken rice rice

**I think that you will need a rice cooker to make the rice, but if you don't have one, the microwave is fine too.

Ingredients:

White rice - washed and sitting in a fine colander to drip dry (obviously you don't need it perfectly dry, but this method will ensure that it is dry enough)
1 or 2 onions chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped (less or more depending what you like)
Chicken fat
Chicken stock

In a frying pan (or wok - whichever one you prefer to use - I like the frying pan in this instance), cook the chicken fat until the fat is rendered.
Once that happens, add the onions and garlic and cook til fragrant.

Add the rice and fry for approximately 5-10 minutes. Season with salt.

Put the mixture into the rice cooker and follow the instructions for cooking the rice. The only difference would be to replace the water with the chicken stock (does that make sense?)
Let the rice cooker do the rest.

Chicken rice chicken

You would think that this was the most difficult part of the ensemble, but it isn't.

All you need is:

a) a whole chicken
b) the prepared chicken stock

Bring the chicken stock to a boil.
Once the stock is boiling, put the whole chicken in and turn off the heat (but still leave the stock pot on the same hot plate) and leave to poach for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, bring the stock to boil again and turn it off again and leave it for another half hour.

After an hour in the stock, the chicken should be perfectly poached! :)

And there you have it, chicken rice! This is usually served with a few condiments - the most popular one being the homemade chili sauce (which I don't make - sorry to disappoint! ONly because I haven't been able to get cheap chilis since learning how to make this recipe. My mother also cooks minced ginger and soy sauce to eat with poached chicken. For those who are not used to eating chicken rice, the poached chicken may seem bland but this dish is meant to celebrate the delicate clean flavours of the chicken, and if you ask me, the rice is really the star of the dish.

Now tuck in and enjoy!!!

 A few notes to wrap up:

a) please forgive any typos - I have one eye on the football, as USUAL and
b) as I explained before, I always made this recipe by FEEL, so if you are confused and want to ask any questions, just comment below or send me an email!

Alrighty then - I'm done for the night - back to this match which looks like it's shaping up to be a ripper! Happy weekend!!!

x

Great expectations...

Behold ...

My Sunday night bath. I had everything from the candles, to the bubbles, to the rubber ducky, my bath pillow and EVEN water with slices of orange in it...

I tried to set up the computer to play the Real Housewives of New York while I was in the bath (ok, don't judge me!) and it didn't work. So after stuffing around for a while, I got in and the water was COLD. But I still sat in there - I ran the bath, I am going to sit in there for a bit dammit.

Nope, after 15 minutes I had to get out. It was freezing. But no worries, I'll just have a hot shower.

THERE WAS NO HOT WATER LEFT!!!!!

So needless to say, my Sunday night bath was an epic FAIL. I'll try again on Saturday. But can I just say? HUMPH.

x

Zzzzzz.....

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I was totally going to blog from my Blackberry last night in bed. Just some final thoughts on the day, etc (not that I can remember what they were now!). I tucked myself into bed and had my doona over my head to keep warm and started typing. After about ten words, I conceded that my hands were too cold and that I should warm up before continuing. So I put my phone down, and snuggled into the pillows to watch some Big Bang Theory.

I totally fell asleep.

And that wasn't the worst part. Apparently sometime during the night, I had rolled over my phone and it called Luke. And left a voicemail. Or should I say snoremail. Yup, I snored into the phone and it was recorded on voicemail for my fiance to hear. Not once, but TWICE.

So it was kinda funny when he told me, but embarassing at the same time! Me and sleep, I tell ya!

xoxo

I'm back baby dolls... :)

Ok - sorry I have been MIA from this blog. It has been a busy few weeks! First of all, I finished up at RBF, and that was a crazy last week of work, just trying to get everything done, so I was up at the crack of dawn (and I don't mean 9am, but rather 4am!) trying to get it done, but at the end of the day, I can only do what I can do! And let's not forget that Penny arrived - she is AMAZING! For those of you who don't know, Penny is my new Blackberry Playbook and she is everything I hoped she would be! All those BB haters out there - shame on you! I LOVE my Playbook. Sure it's got it's limitations, but it's a tablet, what do you expect. Her first photoshoot and review should be coming up soon - when I get around to it... seems like the theme of this month! :)

Then I had a week off before I started my new job, where I did nothing at all. Seriously. Nothing. I have never been so lazy in my whole entire life! The week flew by and very soon, I had to start my new job! It's pretty cool, it's nice to be in an office again, although I have to share, but eh, can't complain! At least I'm no longer in a cubicle! Although I have to say that I didn't mind so much being in a cubicle in my old workplace, because the building was nice. This one is NOT. So an office is a bonus really. I have one window where I am overlooking the warehouse. FANCY. :)

But I get to park at work and drive home during lunch, so that is a bit of a bonus. The people seem nice, but I do miss my old colleagues! Especially chatting with Miss Anna Banana about her latest purchases (have you guys checked out her blog?), catching up with Miss Honor about her weekend shenanigans (the weirdest still being when she flew to Melbourne randomly for a weekend to deliver a passport!) and of course the emails from Miss Jules who would keep me in stitches! But I suppose these bonds take time to develop...

And I also started my training to run 10K. Yup, you read it right. I started counting calories and started training for 10K, 100 push ups and also 200 sit ups. But alas, after week one and feeling extremely proud of myself, I was struck down with the flu. You betcha. I feel like history has repeated itself! Last year when I first started my job, I got a terrible flu the second week I was there. I had to take a day off. This time, new job, week 2... BANG. The flu. AGAIN. Ridunk.

So training will have to wait a week. But I will get back on it and I hope that at the end of 13 weeks, I will be able to run 10K.

Latest obsessions? I am officially a reality TV junkie AND Real Housewives tragic. I now watch all the Real Housewives series, you name it. Orange County, New York (one of my faves), DC, Beverly Hills (love), New Jersey (LOVE LOVE), Atlanta (meh - but I like the way they talk) and also Miami (which is a bit meh as well, but hell, I will watch it anyway!).

Oh, and turns out Audrina has got a show too. Luke stumbled upon it when he was watching some of his shows online, so I jumped on to check it out. First of all, I did watched the clip with Audrina's mom having a go at Lauren Conrad after Audrina got kicked out of Dancing with the Stars. What a crazy bitch.

If you haven't seen it, here's the video:

After reading the reviews, I thought that it would be a bit boring. It has been called the poor person's "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", but I got into it a bit. But then again, who are we kidding - I just admitted that I'm a reality tv junkie! Lynn Patridge does shit my up the wall though - she is sooo mean to Casey, and a mother should NOT be allowed to speak to her daughter like that!

So after I watched all of Audrina, I looked around to see what else was new, and thought that I should check out Mob Wives. And OMFG - this is AWESOME. I love all of them - they are so cool, and SO WEIRD. I mean, who talks like that? And do these girls (well, in all fairness two of them) really think that they are mafia princesses? BUT, I still like them. I don't think I could even pick a favourite, but I would probably say that I like Carla the least. She's more mellow and a bit boring compared to the other three. But I like them all!

Check it:

Anyway, enough about TV ranting - I need to write another post on the footy!

xoxo