My new baby

Everyone, meet my new baby.

She doesn’t throw tantrums, nor does she throw up on me. She doesn’t cry and she doesn’t wake up in the middle of night wanting to be fed.

She is an angel. And I love the fact that she is made in France.

Her name is Longchamp.

My very first Longchamp bag!!!

What's for dinner?

Chef's salad (me the chef. I just use whatever vegetables I have in the fridge) with red wine vinegar dressing, pork cutlets and carrot rice.

Breakfast at Tiffany´s

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – another favourite old movie of mine. Audrey Hepburn played the role of Holly Golightly, the kooky character who earned a living as a call girl in the big city of New York while looking out for a rich man that she could marry. Beneath the glamorous party girl image was a lonely soul who was so afraid of commitment that she did not even want to give her cat (that she picked up somewhere) a name, simply calling it “Cat”.

A friend introduced me to the movie when I was 20 and I was very much captivated by the exquisite beauty of Audrey Hepburn. I love the literature element in the movie and the intriguing character of Holly Golightly. Oh, and the fashion too. All the dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn in the movie were specially designed by Givenchy. In fact, it was this movie that started the trend of women wearing the little black dress as a classic wardrobe staple. In the opening scene, Holly Golightly wore a long black gown by Givenchy and walked along the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the early hours of the morning (after a night of partying apparently). She stopped infront of the Tiffany store and ogled at the jewellery while eating a pastry. That gown reportedly fetched a price of USD1 million in an auction in 2006.

The theme song “Moon River” was specially written for Audrey Hepburn to sing in the movie. Since then, many versions of the song have been sung by various artistes over the years. Until today, the song, along with the movie, continue to be a classic enjoyed by many people. I have chosen this particular youtube clip of the scene in the movie where Audrey Hepburn sat by the window and sang the song while playing her guitar. Love her casual ensemble of an old sweater with skinny jeans. Very very chic.

Egg Tarts

My husband and I love egg tarts. But it is quite hard to find decent egg tarts here in Yokohama so I decided to make my own.

I have made egg tarts before but this is the first time I really put in more effort into making them. In my previous attempts, I used some random pastry recipe which turned out more like puff pastry after baking. And the egg custard did not set very well for some reason so they ended up looking more like portugese egg tarts rather than the classic chinese style ones. I was really craving for the kind of egg tarts that you usually get from chinese dim sum restaurants so when I chanced upon a recipe with pictures of egg tarts that I love to eat, I decided to attempt baking them. After 40 minutes in the kitchen, I ended up with these.

Yay! It was a success!

Well, the pastry is a little too thick (in my opinion but I wasn’t game enough to make them too think for fear that they would break) and they did not brown evenly because of the uneven heat in the oven. But I would still call this a success because firstly, it looks good, and secondly, they tasted heavenly!

My husband and I had them with wine. Normally chinese tea goes better with egg tarts but it was a Saturday night and wine worked better.

Here’s the recipe for those who are interested.

Egg Tarts Recipe

Pastry
100g caster sugar
1 egg
175g unsalted butter
350g plain flour

Custard
6 eggs
4 egg yolks
200ml golden syrup
200ml fresh milk
200ml water
2tsp honey

Method
To make pastry:
Place sugar, egg and butter in the mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved.
Add sifted plain flour and mix until dough holds together.
Divide dough into small portions and press evenly onto the moulds (I used my quiche cases)
Bake at 180deg C for about 8 minutes. Remove and cool.

To make the custard:
Lightly beat (by hand will do) eggs and egg yolks together.
Combine egg mixture with golden syrup, water, milk and honey. Mix well and strain.
Pour into the pastry shells and bake at 170 deg C until custard is set (to avoid burning custard, release some heat by very briefly opening the oven door during baking).

A day in my life

5 July 2010 (Monday)

7.45am
Woke up. Prepared Aiden’s lunchbox for school.

8.45am
Dropped Aiden off at school.

9.00am
Grocery shopping.

10.00am – 11.00am
Back home. General cleaning of the house, laundry, and preparations for the dinner (I was planning an Indian meal with tandoori chicken for the night. The chicken had to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not longer than 8 hours so my timing had to be right). Cleaned up the kitchen.

11.00am – 11.30am
Shower, make-up and got dressed to go shopping (I needed to shop for some presents and to make a trip to Longchamp as they were having a sale).

12.00am – 1.30pm
Shopping (since I had only 1.5hr to shop, I decided to skip lunch as shopping was definitely more important).

2pm
Pick Aiden up from school.

2.15pm
Back home. Aiden had his afterschool snacks and watched the TV. I sat infront of the computer to surf the web (check emails, update my blog, read international news, read up on some of my favourite blogs etc). Chatted with a friend from Singapore over skype.

3.15pm – 5pm
Sat down with Aiden to do some activities. Made a scrapbook together. Printed out some superman characters from the computer to do some colouring. Did some cutting and pasting together.

5pm – 6.30pm
Prepare for dinner. Running between the living room (helping Aiden with his activities) and kitchen (cooking). Dealt with some occasional tantrums from Aiden.

7pm
Husband is home. Sat down for dinner.

7.30pm – 8pm
Cleaning up (washed dishes and mopped the floor).

8pm – 9pm
Surf the web while my husband spent time with Aiden.

9pm – 10pm
Prepare for my husband’s lunch box and fruit bowls for the next day. Washed dishes AGAIN.

10pm
The 2 boys went to bed. I could finally relax.

10pm – 12am
Surf the web AGAIN (yes, i do spend alot of time online) with the TV in the background.

12am
I started seeing stars. Crash!

Accessories Galore

This is what I enjoy doing when my son is at school. That is, when I'm not doing housework, baking, yoga, ikebana or shopping.

Sorting out my accessories!

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These are only the ones I use on a regular basis. I have a whole lot of more that I don't wear anymore stashed somewhere in the house. If I am still living in Australia I will pass them on to Salvos, but here in Japan, I have no idea what to do with them.

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Anyway, sorting out my accessories is a very enjoyable activity. Sometimes, I engage in a little bit of self-indulgence by playing dressup too!

My wake-up call

This is how I woke up this morning.

Scene: My bedroom

Me : zzzzzzz..........

Aiden : "I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!"

I startled and jumped out of bed.

Me : "WHAT??!!"

Aiden : "I cannot believe it! Daddy's work clothes are on the floor!!"

The fresh laundry were on the floor as I haven't had the time to fold and put them away.

Aiden : "Daddy needs to wear this to work! His boss will be angry! Because the shirt is dirty! Daddy will be put on TIME-OUT!"

I dropped my head and went back to bed.

Me: "It's not a big deal Aiden. There is more in life to worry about."

Aiden: "NOOOOO!!"

Then he went on and on about how we had to pick the shirt up and wash it again. How his Daddy will be in trouble. And how angry his boss will be. Until......

I finally dragged myself out of bed to pick the shirt up. And convinced him that his Daddy will NOT be put on time-out.

By then, I was fully awake.

This is my beautiful life.