Mt Dandenong Annual Trip

The 4 great mountain beauties...ahhahahahahahhahahahah!!!!!!

On my last day off, JJ, Raylene (my work colleague sitting behind me) & Helena (Raylene's friend sitting behind JJ) made a daytrip up to Mt Dandenong for scones and some local shopping.

Our first brunch stop was at Pie in the Sky where we ate...what else..PIE!!

This was the steak and cheese pie which is meant to be a prize winner. I have to say that it really was good...nice crisp flaky pastry and meaty filling. There was a looonng list of their award winning pies on the wall . We did notice though that there haven't been any prizes for a while.Hmm..interesting.. :)

Anyway, onwards and upwards (literally) to more food at Miss Marples!

Ham and cheese fingers. We weren't meant to order this but then the girls saw the table next door having this and quickly changed our order.

Quiche and chips. You have to look very very carefully behind the chips for the quiche. It was tasty but just a bit too creamy for my liking.

AND MY ICE-CREAM!!! Quite impressive looking huh. It too was very very good. We were sharing it and I was quietly but persistantly eating my way through my side...kinda like eating ice kacang. Heheee...I think I could have ended up eating more than my share that way cause when I was done, I would just turn the cup ever so little. Once again though..there was just a little too much cream. Ah well, life :)

It was a nice day. The weather perfect and company good. Praise be to God :)

Sugar Shacking

I went sugar shacking last Saturday. It's a pretty popular place - touristy, but the locals love it too. Basically, it's like blast from the past. You eat traditional QC food and listen to QC music. :)

On the way.

Look! they have horses too. haha. it's a carriage ride to the restaurant ..which is a 2 minute walk away. :p I guess it's part of the experience. :)
I don't know whether you can see this very well. But they had meat balls, mash potato, egg (like steam egg?), meat pie with fruit chutney, ham, sausages, bread AND MAPLE SYRUP!
Ok. but imagine a full bottle!!
Sugar pie and pancakes for dessert. But too sweet lah.

This was what was playing.
Then after, we went for taffy. :))
There was a bakery there. look at that oven. :)
bread for the resto.
raisin buns!! yummy. :)
cinnamon buns covered with ..yup..maple syrup.
Maple trees - they collect the liquid from the pails every morning.
Gen and I :)



Here is something more important though -
http://www.268generation.com/2.0/splash3.htm
Turn to God and listen to some stuff about Him.
Man, God is so amazing!!!!

Pao Shmao

So...yeah..pao...
Now, you know I really like Paos right. :)
Kaya pao, cha siew pao, plain pao..(but not tai pao!)
But I have to say..pao from a packet..maybe not the best lah. :)


So I followed the instructions..but I didn't add sugar. So maybe this makes a big difference.

It was very easy to make but I really didn't like the taste. I don't know. Maybe I'll try again.

I had planned to eat pao for lunch but..I couldn't go ahead with it. I ate one though. :)
So instead..
Indo MEE with cucumber and hard boiled egg. mm.

Anyway, I was quite disappointed with the pao experience.
So then I thought - hey, English Muffins!

I don't need an oven for that. :)

I found two recipes - one from Reinhart, and the other from Delia.
I settled for Reinhart although I think I'll try Delia's recipe one of these days.
Look at these lovelies. :)
Yay! English muffins ready!
Looking good!

some cooking

hi hi!
wah. guess what i got???

YEAHH!! pao flour! hehe.

anyway, i found some chocolate for sale, so i made something.

i had toasted some almonds for almond buttertoffee crunch, and had candied some orange peel for some ..candy project. anyway, so i chopped the almonds and peel, sprinkled some fleur de sel, tempered the chocolate - and voila!

i was tempted to add some granola..but decided to keep things simple.
after all, i can always have this WITH granola! :)

Pau Shmau

Today was the first day of my long weekend. Well, technically the first afternoon of my long weekend since I worked in the morning. Monday's Labour day and I have Tuesday off!! YEAY!!!! I felt like something special of sorts should be in order so....

I made pau!! My filling comprised of chicken, pork, leek, mushrooms and fungus. I thought it was ok..JJ said ''interesting"..ahhahahahha

JJ had made pau using this flour brand so I thought I'll give it a shot. It has raising agents in it and doesn't require yeast...how exciting! You just have to add milk and sugar knead, rest and use. Easy huh. SN said she tried using pau mix before and it wasn't crash hot but well..you know what they say about not blaming your tools :p


However, there's something to say for wrapping talent which I obviously don't have.... This was pau 1..

..and then pau 2, 3 and 4. I didn't take photos of the rest cause it was downhill from thereon...

The finished product was really quite good. There was a lot more than expected so I'm going to freeze the bulk of them and eat them over the week at lunch...

And finally...the meal treat of the week..LO MAI FAN!! Also very good. Mostly because I put more filling than rice..haahha...the best way to eat it :)