Kitchen Bloopers

I must admit that I had been pretty pleased with my kitchen outings recently.

My first turkey turned out quite pretty- though I need to improve on keeping the inside as moist as Mum’s. But it might be a tough call, because to have that golden brown skin- it means having to broil the bird and this dries up all the juice I had tried painstakingly to keep in over the last 2 hours. Anyhow, I will experiment with my timing next time round. Maybe this will get me watching the clock a little more conscientiously.

But it’s not as if my days of being a screwball in the kitchen is over.

I’m into blending fruits into pulp these days. Thanks to Lynn and her craze with “You are what you eat”- I caught her bug when I visited her in New York. So anyway, I made black bean salad with the juices from 3 big limes the other day. And being a crazy lemon-lime fan, I hated to see the lime pith (the white spongy part) go to waste. So I had a brilliant idea to rip out all the pith, and save them for my fruit juice/pulp that night.

And there I was throwing in all the cucumbers and lime pith into the blender, with a refreshing cucumber concoction in my head. The first sip could not be further away from that! It was ssoooooo bitter, I could not bear to take another sip. But how could the one who cannot bear to throw dry lime pith, let the “pretty” green drink go to waste?

I grumbled and whined with every sip I took. And I drank the small cup through the night. Poor Arthur who did not like cucumber to begin with, and who absolutely would not voluntarily eat bitter gourd, bore the drink like a man. He took it, mouthfuls by mouthfuls, and finished the horrible green stuff before I did!

Lesson #1: Lime pith is bitter. Do not eat it one its own nor blend heaps of it into your drink!

And then I was trying to make Zha Jiang Mian over the weekend. Excited at the prospect of being able to use the blender to blend my onions, and there would be “No-More-Tears”, I chopped them into chunks and threw them into the machine. Sadly, I do not think that the blender was designed for this purpose. Use it to make smoothies yes, juice-pulp blends yes, but not chop onions. So after 30 minutes of unsuccessful attempts at trying to blend my 2 huge onions, I gave up. Instead of nice easy strips to chop, I now had to contend with chunks and chop it twice over. SIGH!

Lesson #2: Do not use your blender to blend onions. Use a food processor!!!
Now someone tell me what the difference between a blender and a food processor is???

10 Things I like about ME...

Ok so I’ve disappeared for a long while… So this is a quick 5 min catch up for those who are interested in what’s going on in my life and in my head… Just to limit myself, I’m gonna do the “10 things I want to tell you”. (i'm not THAT ego-centric laaaaaa...)

1. We now have a small group! Although we’ve attended it only once before the group closed for the year (coz of exams and holiday travel), we’re still thankful that we’ve got a small group now. It’s really small and cozy, and there is a certain dynamic when 3 of them are in MDiv, and 1 of them is doing a PhD in Genesis… Nonetheless, I really missed Bible Study and am more than glad to be digging into the Word again!

2. The small group is doing the book of Proverbs. And the study that night revolved around- the difference between Wisdom and the Law. What is their relationship? What is their difference? Is one better than the other? Should one be desired more than the other? When would one apply wisdom (ie a proverb/principle) and when would one apply the law? I had been circling these questions in my head for the last 2 weeks… Much to say about that- will save that for another time.

3. I think I’m falling in love with Village Church and the “old” brothers and sisters there. The 2 major demographic groups in the church are- people above 60s and Trinity students. And it truly is beautiful when the old can share their wisdom with the young, and the young can share their dreams with the old. We need each other, and to see the lives interacting- such is the beauty of the Body of Christ! I wish PPC can harness this advantage too! Maybe we need to get out of our Asian shells...

4. I’ m done with my GRE and applications, and am just waiting for TEDs to accept me. GRE was ahem.. ok.. My Verbal (English) score is just slightly more than half the score of my Quantitative (Math) score. Man.. it’s time to play vocabulary games and brush up my English- I’ve never felt so bad about my English before ok!!! Where did those weird words come from???

5. Now that I’m done with one admin task, I’m jumping into another. Looking to apply for Green Card. Not to worry, though we do not plan to stay here long term.. Figured that this will give us more options and potentially less hassle in the future. Now this thought must give birth to action.

6. Many colleagues in NY are looking out, 1 key person is leaving end of the year, things do not bode well for those who are around. There are many reasons why I should stay, but the feeling of being “left behind” is not a good one. Haiz. Another round of temptation and restless urges to resist.

7. I had fun during Thanksgiving- it was really nice to share the family with Lynn and Winston. I wish so much to share the Kok family and the family games with so many more of you!!!

8. And now Christmas is coming- absolutely my favorite time of the year. Making lots of new fun memories with Arthur, going to Christmas concerts, the church Christmas dinner, looking forward to spending Christmas with the Kok family.. But playbacks to last year’s Christmas and things I did with family and friends in Singapore made my heart miss my moo moo, family and church a lot… And reviewing pictures don't help..

9. I think I have a 70% love-30% hate relationship with snow. I love to see the flakes flurry gently from the sky, and even heavy snowfalls coming at you in the wind is also romantic in a cold-hearted way. But walking in it is not fun, neither is it pretty when it’s melting and mixing with the dirt and salt on the ground. And worse of all, I had 2 close calls with the car skidding out of control… But it’s still beautiful.

10. Randoms: How does the squirrel keep warm in the cold? It’s so small, is it really warm in its fur?
I'm thinking about cutting my fringe- i've resisted for a long time and i really wanted to keep it long for a while, but now i'm bored... should i cut my fringe?

Ok, i think i cheated and squeezed in more than 10 things up there.. But here’s a nutshell of what's going on in my insignificant existence.. hahhha.. Now update me!!!