Archive | Food & Drinks RSS feed for this section

300 Jacks

21 Apr

Towards the end of last week, I started doing jumping jacks. With all this baking and cooking at home, and having stopped the 16/8 diet, I have to do something to counter the intake. Hence, the jumping jack exercise.

Dalgona coffee

We didn’t have a mixer and ten thousand whisks later to yield a sinful glass of Dalgona coffee

Butter cookie

Hubby baked butter cookies. So sweet and buttery, how to resist?

I think it’s an ideal form of exercise without having to go out of the way to exercise. Honestly to even exercise, I feel lethargic just thinking about it! So I find other means to exercise like going up and down the stairs more often, walking more around the house and keeping busy with chores.

Fish & Chips

Team effort for a golden beer batter dinner! So good.

Dhal curry

I even made dhal curry from scratch!

img_9332

Fresh from the oven, hubby’s new hobby, baking.

Besides I find setting up to properly exercise not conducive when there are days I actually have some design work to do in between the daily cooking and cleaning. So doing jumping jacks has worked out well.

Each time I’d do a set of 50 and they don’t actually take up a lot of time. Spread out the routine and I find myself doing 300 jumping jacks each day!

I do feel good and less guilty. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tag Team Baking

20 Apr

We found the right combination to bake during the MCO last week. Hubby did the dough and I did the filling. The tag team baking worked out well for our first combined attempt – apple tarts because I have the molds. For someone who doesn’t bake, I sure have a lot of baking equipment.

The ideas were from googling up recipes and watching YouTube to find the next easiest thing to bake with the best combination. And basically just to pass time instead of baking bread and cakes (from boxes) individually, this effort was a good variation.

First attempt at apple tarts

The first batch of only five tarts was accidental because there was some dough left from making something else. And since we had apples, why not bake apple tarts? It was experimental as something was right and something was off: the filling was good, the crust needed work.

We tried again two days later. As long as I don’t have to deal with letting the dough sit and rise, I was perfectly contented to make the apple filling. And I made more this second time, using three apples. The first time, just one apple! After all, it was an experiment.

It was fun decorating and after a good 45 minutes in the oven, our effort came out beautifully. The taste? Very good if I must say so. We make a good tag team at baking.

Happy star and Smiley tarts

Tags: , , , , , ,

Baking is The New Normal

14 Apr

After the ‘success’ of the accidental bread last week, hubby urged me to bake another loaf. So I did, just to kill time. And discovered what went wrong with the first loaf.

I got the units wrong! Silly me. The measurement was correct but the unit was wrong. The teeny weeny print on the measuring cup was ‘ML’ which I couldn’t see and I simply assumed it was gram. Signs of being a dinosaur… sigh.

Thinking I had it right, I measured 350ML of flour and not 350G as required by the recipe. No wonder the mixture was watery with the flour ratio way off to the milk. Don’t forget, this was my first attempt at baking a bread after so long. To even attempt something like this, common sense to what was required was not present. Luckily we were able to save the dough with the additional flour thrown in.

So having learnt the mistake, I was more careful with measuring for the second attempt. But patience’s not on my side. I find I don’t have the patience especially when it comes to allowing the dough to sit and rise. I couldn’t wait for the yeast to do its thing.

Unlike baking a cake (from a box that is) where I just throw everything together and pop it in the oven without wasting time, bread making needs more precision and patience.

The second attempt. Ugly but edible

The second attempt turned out a little less stellar than the first loaf but still edible. And since then, it’s hubby who has been baking every other day to pass time. It’s as if baking is the new normal as we continue adhering to the MCO as laid out by the government.

He’s baked several loaves already as well as a batch of bagels. We have so much bread to eat now.

Bread, bread and more bread plus bagels!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Days of My MCO Life, Part 2

13 Apr

The bread that I baked last week was an out-of-the-blue decision. I called it the accidental bread. I was set to bake a cake in the beginning, the instant cake-from-the-box easy peasy one of course. Then I decided why not bake bread too? Since we have all the time in the world.

Also I wanted to give the Kenwood Rapid Bake bread maker another chance but the bread maker tripped the electricity in the house again. This reaffirmed that it’s a machine problem and wasn’t a user problem the last time when I used the machine.

So Plan B had to be kicked in because we had an unbaked bread in hand.

Rather than wasting the dough because the trip occurred when the bread maker went into the baking mode, we managed to salvage it. With some modification – adding more flour to the unusual watery mixture (don’t ask me how it became like that), we let the dough sit for a bit.

Then into the conventional oven it went. The final outcome turned out pretty good despite its appearance! A pat on the shoulder for the both of us.

Tastes better than it looks

Do I look forward to baking my next loaf of bread in the oven? I’m not too sure, we shall see.

Besides these self-discoveries and time-consuming activities, I caught up with my reading, finishing several titles and I started watching a Netflix series, something I never did previously. It’s certainly interesting times with the days of my MCO life.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Last Day of Quarantine!

6 Apr

Today’s the last day of M2’s quarantine. Yay! But the MCO is still on. Tomorrow when she’s officially out from her room, I get to finally give her a welcome home hug, something I didn’t get to do two weeks’ ago.

We look forward to actually spending time and being with M2 once she’s out of her room. We can have real conversations without having to resort to using the phones anymore. And we can have meals together instead of her eating her food in Bento boxes in her room.

Obviously room service is no longer necessary but I must say, I’ve enjoyed the deliveries as it was good exercise for me going up and down the stairs several times a day.

We remain house-bound until the MCO is lifted on 14 April and this is if the government decides it’s safe to do so. The MCO could still be extended. The nation awaits the decision on 10 April.

Tags: , , , ,

Quarantine, Day 8 (MCO D13)

30 Mar

It is Quarantine Day 8 (MCO Day 13) and this staying put is starting to get to me. The daily routine is the same, day in, day out.

I wake up, I eat. Then I prepare lunch. Then we eat. Taking a breather I carve. Then I snack. Throw in some house chores in between.

Then I prepare dinner. Then eat again, accompanied by a stiff drink or two or sometimes three. Then as I get ready for bed, I think about what to cook for the next day. This routine is then repeated the next day and the next and the next.

See the pattern? It’s always revolving around eating and food. No wonder the waistline is expanding!

I shouldn’t visit the kitchen so often or rather, shouldn’t sit all day at the island in the kitchen surrounded by food. Seriously, the MCO should be applied to the kitchen area to prevent all this food temptation. During the past two weeks, the living room has been replaced by the kitchen as the most used place in the whole house.

I need to vary the routine… and eat less.

Tags: , , , ,

Sorry No Housekeeping

27 Mar

It is Day 5 of our quarantine period but if I include the MCO period, it’s actually ten days being at home. I think both hubby and I are still doing okay but I suspect M2 may be a bit restless, cooped up in her room. All the way home but not quite home, no different from before because we are using the phone to communicate despite being in the same house.

We’ve been sending her food in a Bento box, leaving it outside her room. Almost like a hotel’s room service but this is where the service stops. No housekeeping provided so she has to take care of this chore until the quarantine period ends.

The various Bento box meals
Besides meals, there’s Snack Boxes too

Sometimes I even forget she’s back because she’s been so quiet in her room. Of course being out of sight, she’s out of the mind! But as she has online classes everyday, we leave her alone.

I guess I’m still not used to having her back, sooner than the original plans. Oh well, I’m not complaining. Better to have her here than afar with the ever changing situation of the pandemic.

However once the quarantine period is over, the situation remains except that M2 can leave her room. The government of Malaysia had announced on Wednesday, a further two weeks extension of the MCO! So we still have to stay at home until 14th April. It is with fervent hope that this drastic measure will flatten the curve to fight the Covid-19 spread.

Every other day, a new Whale is carved
and completed

And until then, my cooking skills have been improving, my carving has yielded more Whales than ever and my waistline has been expanding much to my dismay. How can it not when I am constantly thinking of all these delicious food that I am now able to cook—because I have the time—instead of design work? In truth, the 16/8 diet has long since been thrown out the window at the start of this.

Gotta hang in there is all I can say.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

14-Days Quarantine Now

24 Mar

The situation has changed. As of Monday evening, both of us started a 14-day quarantine because M2 returned from Ireland and we were in contact, hubby directly and myself indirectly. He went to the airport alone to pick her up. The Arrival Hall was eerily quiet devoid of people which was good given the circumstances.

She can’t be missed coming out from the Arrival Hall

M2 will of course do the 14-days quarantine without question having flown back on Qatar Airways and being exposed during the 13.5 hours flight plus a three-hour transit in Doha. We are doing the same too (staying quarantined) as a precaution with almost zero contact with her. She will be confined to her room during this period and the first 72 hours will be critical.

We are thankful that our baby is finally home after the official announcement that classes are ending earlier for the Spring semester. With the onset of Covid-19 spreading so rapidly in Ireland and Europe, you’d never know what would happen next.

The situation is very unpredictable, being so dynamic and constantly evolving. As it is, flights are being suspended to/from Ireland and it would have been impossible for her to come home had we had acted later. Shudder… thank goodness we didn’t.

So for us now, it’s a reset of our situation of staying put. Today being Day 7 of the MCO, it is now reset to 14 days.

Let’s hope we stay sane. One thing’s for sure, my cooking skills will improve by leaps and bounds now that I will be cooking for three!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

MCO, Day 6

23 Mar

It is Day Six of our partial lockdown and I must say, it’s been surreal. Everyday felt like a Saturday until we lost track of the days. But we have not been bored which is good.

This month alone, I completed four, one in progress and more to come!

Everyday I carved and cooked two meals whilst hubby tended to the garden. And every now and then, house chores were thrown in and the days passed by albeit slowly.

For someone who has not cooked for the last 12 years because we had a lived-in maid to do this, I find myself still quite adept in the kitchen. Thank goodness because eating out is not an option. For the record, our maid went back for good this year in mid-January and so we’ve been “help-less” for the past two months. But we’ve managed well.

And so far, the lockdown menu has been impressive and varied because I have more time now to plan than the last two months. And mind you, it’s none of the easy way out of opening a can of whatever and just warming up. I must admit, this cooking task is rather enjoyable. A nice change from carving, keeping me occupied to pass the time quickly.

As for our movement, it’s been controlled. The last five days, we went out only two times each. Briefly on all occasions – once together to the office to copy some work files home, then only hubby to the pharmacy for some supplements and just myself to replenish some groceries.

When I was out to the nearby grocery store, I was early. So I stood in line, far apart, with the rest of the shoppers waiting for the shutters to open. Senior citizens, allowed to go in half an hour earlier before the crowd, certainly took advantage of their allotted shopping time without stress.

The half hour wait outside felt rather long and when it was time to go in, I took merely three minutes to get in and out, picking up only what I needed. I was second in queue, so it was a fast turnaround.

People were more disciplined and I noticed less panic buying. Most just picked up what they needed. I guess by now, most people know what to do compared to the initial days when there was so much confusion and some level of fear.

We have another eight days to go until this Movement Control Order is lifted and this is if the public continues to be disciplined in following orders. However the situation keeps changing and staying put is best and for our own good.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

MCO, Day 3

20 Mar

We have been under Movement Control Order (MCO) as instructed by the government and today is Day 3. I must say it has been good so far. I wake up when I am done sleeping. Then I have my tea at a leisurely pace because I don’t have to get ready for work to face the challenges ahead.

The number one worry-free plus point from this experience: no stress over the car next to our reserved parking lot at the office. The lady driver always, without fail, parks her car very close to our lot (and not in the center of hers) whenever she arrives before us, thus giving me very little room to get out of my car. A two weeks’ break from this daily annoyance is certainly welcomed.

We’ve been enjoying the comforts of home as I spent most of my time carving whilst hubby would be out in the garden tending to his plants. In between, I have been preparing meals and doing some light chores around the house. So domesticated. Hahaha…

My daily routine now: carving Whales

After lunch, I carved. And carved and carved. Then I would get dinner ready. The best part, we have been having pre- and post-dinner drinks more often than before. Whiskey, gin, wine and beer… we’re doing it all.

Then it’s Netflix all the way until bedtime. And this routine will be repeated day in, day out until the end of the month.

The downside from this partial lockdown: no golf until the end of the month as well! We contemplated taking walks in the evenings to address the exercise portion of our lives. Hmm… then again, doing house chores is exercising too.

The upcoming weekend may see a break in pattern or most likely not. Everyday feels like a weekend now. And so far so good, we are still sane.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →