Month: September 2011

Charlie & friends to start the week.

Been a while since I last posted about Charlie, my furry son.

So…I’m going to break that drought.

Here are some pictures taken of him over the past few months to start your week with. Just because Charlie is awesome. True story.

I’ve included pictures of other pups as well, cause they’re just too cute not to be shared.

# – Took this picture of Charlie after Ellie sent this link to me, hehe. He was very cooperative and still when I took the picture, good boy!

# – Charlie at the back of my car. He always looks the happiest while on the way to his sitter’s and after we pick him up from the sitter’s to go home. He loves all of us unconditionally. No, I’m not jealous of my sitter, I’m just happy that there are more people who sayang him :)

# – Charlie at the vet. He never gets used to the cold metal examination table but he’s such a darling to handle, calm and still (according to our vet, Cik Hawa).

# – Got this picture at a pet store. Seeing these babies being locked up in dirty cages break my heart. By the way, do check out this news about the city of Toronto banning the sales of puppies sourced from puppy mills. What a superb decision by the government! I wonder when will Malaysia achieve such awareness?

# – Napping with my son <3

# – I think the BF was giving Chacha a simulated rollercoaster ride :P

# – Made him posed for a picture during one of his walkies. He is very likely staring at a cat here.

# – Having a tender moment with daddy <3

# – The BF hangs out with one of my mom’s three shih tzus, Pitt-Pitt. His name is so peculiar but you’d understand when you notice the other male shih tzu in the family is called Brad-Brad. Pitt-Pitt is almost blind in both eyes due to suspected neglect from his previous owners but my mom is totally spoilling him now.

# – Charlie’s classic sulking pose. Body flat on the floor, back towards us and his little face away from us. Happens when he’s not getting what he wants…hugs, attention and sofa access. So spoilt!

# – When he does get sofa access though, Charlie is #likeaboss.

Have a great week, peeps!

Make your own crunchy caramel popcorn!!!

It started with Fiqa bringing back some Garrett’s popcorn from Singapore for us to try. OMG the popcorn was gorgeous!!

But since we were sharing the popcorn and I’m like really chinese when it comes to stuff like this, I didn’t eat more.

I pretended that I was considerate and that I cared about my friends and like I was totally into this thing called “sharing”.

No, it’s all a BIG FAT LIE!

So, because I didn’t get to satiate my popcorn craving, I decided to make some myself, at home!

# – Homemade caramel popcorn.

For the popcorn:

  • 1/4 cup of dry corn kernels (easily found at spice section in supermarkets)
  • 60 ml of cooking oil

    • For the caramel:

  • 125 grams of salted butter
  • 3/4 cup of demerara sugar (you can use ordinary sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika, optional
  • 1 teaspoon of black pepper, optional
  • 1 teaspoon of chilli powder, optional

    •  

    # – First, pour oil into a medium sized saucepan and heat it until it’s very hot. To test if the oil is hot enough, throw in one corn kernel and when it pops, the oil is ready.

    # – When the oil is ready, pour in all the dry corn kernels and immediate close with a lid.

    # – Hold the lid down. Soon you will hear a lot of popping sounds. Truly SATISFYING music! With your fingers firmly over the lid, hold the saucepan handle with your other hand and shake the pot gently but away from the flame (imagine you’re holding the reins while riding a horse). You do not want to burn the popcorn as the smell is absolutely rancid!

    # – When the popping sounds have stopped, that means the popcorn are now done! Like magic!

    # – Now, pour the plain popcorn into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool down.

    # – In the meantime, throw in all the ingredients for the caramel into a saucepan and heat them up on medium heat. I flavoured my caramel with paprika, pepper and chilli powder to give it a bit of kick amidst the sweetness. Be creative and experiment with your favourite spices!

    # – Constantly stir the mixture.

    # – Stir until the mixture has completely melted, turned a darker shade of brown and quite bubbly (about 10 minutes). Some people like to push their caramel to the darkest end (for a richer, slightly bitter taste) but it’s quite easy to burn them (nasty bitter taste) so becareful!

    # – Immediately pour the caramel into the popcorn and mix them up with 2 large metal spoons until popcorn are evenly coated. You’re handling extremely hot mixture here so be careful! Constantly stir them to loosen the popcorn so they won’t stick together until the caramel has cooled down & hardened.

    # – If you find the popcorn abit greasy, just pour them onto a kitchen towel to absorb the oil a bit.

    # – Homemade caramel popcorn, DONE!

    It’s crazy easy, crazy cheap, crazy delicious, crazy crunchy and best of all, it’s homemade.

    You can flavour the caramel however you want, you can even experiment with savoury flavours. This is not really conducive to my slow carb diet but sometimes a girl gotta have her popcorn!

     
     
     
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    The crazy simple delicious 3 bean salad recipe.

    We’ve been eating a lot of beans thanks to the slow carb diet. Basically, we can still eat carbs, mainly to keep us from getting hungry but those carbs must be of “slow carb” type, which really means it has low glycemic index (low GI).

    Low GI foods release glucose into your bloodstream more slowly and steadily, preventing that dreaded sugar high —> sugar crash phenemenon that one experiences after eating refined junk food.

    So ingredients like beans and mushrooms are generally low GI and are permitted in our diet.

    This 3-bean salad is easy to whip up and so, so, so delicious. It changed my perception of beans entirely! Yes, I was beginning to get really sick of beans until I made this dish :)

    # – Crazy simple 3 bean salad.

    For the salad:

  • 3 cans of different beans (I used kidney beans, fava beans & chickpeas)
  • 1 green pepper/capsicum, seeded and chopped
  • 2 small red onion, sliced thinly

    • For the dressing:

  • 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup of granulated sugar (I used oligofructose, a natural sweetener for health reason)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

    • # – First, put all ingredients of the dressing in a bowl and whisk till completely combined. Allow it to stand.

    # – Now, throw in the chopped green pepper into a mixing bowl.

    # – Followed by the sliced red onions.

    # – Open the cans of beans and pour it into a strainer. Then rinse them through till the water runs clear.

    # – Pour the beans into the mixing bowl.

    # – Give the dressing a final whisk and pour it all over the salad.

    # – With a spatula, mix it up well making sure the beans are well coated with dressing.

    # – Chill the bean salad for at least an hour before eating.

    # – Serve as a side dish. DELICIOUS!

    # – The salad tasted even more amazing the day after. The beans were chilled through & completely soaked up the dressing.

    Quick with no cooking involved. Absolutely delicious and surprisingly healthy. I’ve made this 3 times so far using different beans.

    Try it out!