A little love

Homemade marshmallows
Candied nuts
Chocolate almond-pecan buttercrunch toffee

Mmm...

Spring!

Hi guys,
Spring is here. Yay!

Let me see..hm..I don't think much has changed since I last updated the blog. I'm flying back on July 4! and I'm writing my masters..well, going to write my masters. I have to decide what to write on this week and start on it. I'm trying to hand it in by June 20. So which means, I have one month to write it and 20 days to edit it. It's probably going to be pretty short.
Yikes! Keep me in your prayers because as you know, I'm a terrible writer. :(
But may God give me the skill of C.S Lewis and Tolkien. haha.

I made candied nuts! mmm..
Cheche made them too..and she kept boasting how she's such a natural in cooking. But...something happened lah..hehehe. and it turns out she's not such a natural after all..
AHHAHAH! Anyway, the nuts are really really really amazing. If you have the time, you should make them too. Very simple.
Pictures to follow..

And I made crepes with vanilla poached pears and lemon creme.
Crepes = milk, salt, flour. Well, that's all I used..it turned out pretty good. Just remember to let it sit for a couple of hours.


And Clafoutis! yah! It sounds kinda weird but it's like a baked pancake. It's a good way to use your fruits especially berries. It's traditionally made with cherries but I guess it's made with all kinds of fruit now. I made blackberry-strawberry claufoutis.

And of course, David Lebovitch's Chocolate Almond Buttercrunch Toffee!

Which is always yummy. Although it seems to be a variation of Roca, which I found in simply recipes. The difference is that the nuts are mixed in with the toffee and..there's only one layer of nuts.
It's really hard to make candy without a termometer ...:S but it CAN be done..so..keep trying. hahah. You can do the old way of testing your candy in a glass of cold water. Put a glass of water in the freezer until cold, and then as you are making your candy, dip a fork into the mixture and drop a drop into the glass of cold water. The first stage is..called..well, the syrup will just liquify in the water lah. Then the soft ball stage. The syrup will form a soft ball in the cold water - so the syrup will keep its shape but it'll be soft. Then the hard ball stage. The syrup will form a hard ball. :)

This is what simply recipes says:

When mixture comes to a rolling boil, set your timer for a minimum of 10 minutes and keep stirring (no more than 15 minutes). The mixture will thicken and turn darker in color. The almonds will roast. Keep stirring and cooking until you hear it crackle. If you don't cook it long enough it will not harden, so keep stirring and listen for the crackling sound.


Usually I make my toffee a little softer because Karina likes it that way. But this time I thought I'll go for hard. With brown sugar it's harder to tell when the mixture is ready because it's already dark mar! Anyway, so I was doing the water test while the mixture was happily boiling away and then I heard it. "Pop". I was like ooo..maybe that's the crackling sound. hehe. I don't know if that's a crackle but if your mixture "pops", it's ready. ;)

Have fun!
Byeee
Sook Ning

More food!

So I had to have poutine! Cheap and good from Patati Patata.

Hanging out with homie Emma.
My customary visit to Premiere Moisson
With the perfect Creme Brulee. Mmm..consistently excellent.
And of course, L'Avenue. Some say overrated..but..I dont' know. I'm not convinced that its reputation is undeserved. On a weekday morning - the food is perfectly complemented by the ambience
As always - Crepes + caramelized bananas and creme anglais.
* they didn't have creme anglais, so we had whipped cream instead. still good!
Egg Benedicts - Le Mademoiselle Poirron (egg benedict with 4 yr old chedder and caramelized/browned onions)
Is this not the face of a very satisfied customer? :D

au pied de cochon

We went out for dinner and this was the result. Delicious I tell ya.
First pic: beets and goatcheese salad.
Second: Tongue
Third picture: Gravlax? - smoked salmon on puff pastry and scalloped potatoes, topped with onions
Fourth picture: Lemon meringue pie
Fifth: Poached Pear with Vanilla ice cream
Sixth: Creme Brulee

I'm alive!

hey guys,yeah yeah.
i know no updates. terrible right?well, lotsa things have been happening. a big change in my life. you wanna know what? you gotta email me to find out. hehe.
anyway, i took a trip down to montreal to play! a well deserved break in my humble opinion. heh.jac also made her debut in a play entitled "the laboratory". She was really good. :) check out subwaypaths.blogspot.com

I met up with the lovely Emma and Vanessa. It was very lovely indeed. :)