Sunday, August 26, 2012

Bukit Tabur / Klang gate

AD's first try to Bukit Tabur / Klang Gate.
Part exercise, part testing our new hiking shoes bought for the upcoming South Africa honeymoon trip!!!



Love the MoHawk Hill =]

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ma first self-made Reuben.... MINE!

email instructions from the wife.

Prep

something is not right

customised - dC style




done

must have gherkins

a different angle before the attack

burp!

Kat Deli would be proud, i might say =]

Elvis

One of the first big AD trips was last May when we went to the US.

A must stop for mum was Memphis - for Elvis.
Memphis meant much much more than Elvis to me - rockabilly, delta blues, Sun Records, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Martin Luther King, civil rights movement etc etc... but Elvis is still Elvis. Must go and must see Graceland.

Not wanting to do just another Memphis tourist visit, we found Tad, who owns a Pink Cadillac and runs American Dream Safari. (read all about his special tours)

So we wrote to Tad, made a booking, hooked up after we finished Graceland... and had an amazing Memphis alternative tour (we talking Elvis' first apartment, Cash's first home, Aretha's birth place, Sun Studios) in a Pink Cadillac.





Anyway, I thought it is fitting to have an entry about that trip and Elvis on this day.

Elvis - not just The King, but one of the original rockabilly greaseheads..... Rockin' In Peace for 35 years.



One of our favs... featured on AD Wedding playlist. (like the very danceable JLX mix version too but the wife is old school on this one)


My absolute favourite 3 minutes of Elvis.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Rare Breakfast at Home

For me it felt like I hadn't had a Sunday home for months. 

All the more reason to bound out of bed early and cook. But just as I readied my body to bound, a hand snuck out from under the covers and caught me. 
"Where do you think you're going?" said sleepy-headed-husband-man.
"Make scones" saids I. "Chuwanna help?30 mins max and we can be back in bed".
"What time is it?" 
I steal a glance at the clock, its 7.55am.
"8 something" I say.
"5 minutes more and I come and help."
I let him sleep for the requisite 5 and then we make our way in to the kitchen.

Now the reason I wanted to bake was to use the hot new Kitchenaid Artisan in sexy cherry red,but alas! recipes requiring Kitchenaid take longer than 30mins from start to finish.

So, to the scones.
I set the husband-man to work hulling and cutting the strawberries, as is normal he would ignore instructions and cube them irregular sizes. 

There are two types of scone recipes, ones that make a truly crumbly biscuit-type-(like BIG's recipe), and ones that are more cakey and held together. I sought to be somewhere in between the two. 

Not so crumbly that it falls apart in your hand, not so cakey that is a cake. It needed a moist, delicate crumb. 

Making it crumbly rather than cakey is a real challenge. Cos you gotta cut the cold butter in, bla bla dont overmix, don't over knead. The trend is that scone connoisseurs and pernickety foodies the world over seek these crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth, jam and cream receptacles. 

But experience has shown me that most Asian people don't like the biscuit style, so I kneaded 14 times, needed to build some gluten. Anyway ta-dah!


Its easier (quicker) to pat your dough into one big round at cut it into wedges than it is to cut it into circles and do a second round with your scraps. Circles are so over.


So while the scones were becoming breakfast in the oven I said " You wanna make some ham and cheese muffins?" 
"Sure" said he, and I sent him into the garden for fresh rosemary and basil.

So we made Whole-wheat Muffins with Ham, Cheese, Cherry Toms, Broccoli.

I whipped cream in the Kitchenaid. MIL ambled downstairs. I set husband-man to the coffee.Scones out, muffins in. I put the accompaniments together. Cream, jam, butter knives.



And then we sat down to breakfast.