Pressies!

Thank you everyone for my awesome presents! I love them all :)) 

Monopoly

We had so much fun playing Monopoly (brought by other D :)) that we ended up extending lunch all the way till dinner. Obviously, Monopoly does not work with more than 6 people so Simian and D were killing us by buying everything but the game never ended :) We all trooped off for chicken rice at Pow Sing afterwards.

Christmas Lunch

We had a delicious Christmas lunch as usual. Everyone brought so much food that we were in a food coma. Everything was fantastic from PlanetofSound's pasta salad to J's Fava Bean and Sweet Potato salads (where J sliced, not popped, each pod to slowly ease the fava beans out) and D's tofu and red cabbage with bourbon. I obviously didn't try the ham or beef that D and PlanetofSound made respectively but everyone said they were great. Simian also went to collect fries from The Factory and those were great too. M - you missed a great spread.

I made a cranberry eggnog tart. I misread the instructions and put in WAY too much butter so I had to throw out the dough and start again! Fortunately I made the tart yesterday and so had time to remedy the defects.

Anniversary Dinner

Simian and I had an early anniversary dinner at Restaurant Ember. The food was fantastic. They made us lovely vegetarian entrees and they even surprised us with dessert.

Package

Thank you for the lovely Christmas package Suntaneye and her Husby. My first reaction was oh no, they shouldn't have, followed,I am shamed to admit, by the thought of whether there was Trader Joe's goodness inside. Suntaneye did not disappoint. This does not mean however, that you should repeat this again! Thank you guys! I will wait for Simian to come home before ripping into this :)))

Christmas

Simian and I went over to our neighbours for drinks and snacks last night and today we had a quiet (and lovely) Christmas at home. Simone dressed up for the occasion :) I had some lovely presents - handmade knitted gloves from Mom and wireless headphones from Simian. I need mittens all the time and I am always complaining about my in-ear headphones so both were perfect! Simian cracked open his Westvlteren 12 (my Christmas present to him) to try it out.

Tulasi

Imp and PlanetofSound told us that they found a great vegetarian place and they took us to Tulasi today. It was great - HUGE selection and the food was good. I am still in a food coma.

I've been Christmas baking the last few days. This year I'm making spiced nuts and cookies but I have given away almost all my nuts without taking a photo. Will take a photo the next time :) I'm happy with the sweet pecan nuts but the salty nuts are not quite right.

Bidadari

Simian, Dad and I went to Bidadari Cemetery two weekends ago to try and do a spot of birdwatching. We saw far more people then birds unfortunately. We did spot this laced woodpecker and a common flame back (which flew off before we could get a photo).

Pottery and Pies

 

Imp, Simian and I went to Mom's pottery class the other day - the quality of the work was really impressive. Here is Mom working on one of her pots.

Imp and Planetofsound also brought over Baja Fresh the other day for dinner. I made a bittersweet chocolate Pecan Pie and it turned out pretty yummy - Gourmet rules the day again!

Turn

We finally got down to see Susie's exhibition, Turn, on the last day. It was lovely and had some beautiful images. 

Mom's Birthday

It was Mom's birthday on Saturday. I made a tiramisu cake and Simian decorated it. We bought dinner home from La Pizzaiola and from Cajun Kings.

Maryland

The last few days in Maryland consisted of us going to Glyndon Garden, going to Suntaneye and her husby's to have dinner (and pumpkin ice cream sandwiches from JJJ Hoffman's!) and having Simian put up my new feeders! There were quite a few customers :) We also went to the Ham Fest!

Bluebirds

Back in Maryland, the bluebirds seemed to be using our deck as a base to check things out. We saw three bluebirds, including some of the juveniles Suntaneye identified back in August. I suspect that some of these birds may be the juveniles all grown up :)

Nantucket Grill

When M and WW said that the Nantucket Grill had cakes that were the size of a child's coffin, they weren't kidding. The food there was good but the cakes were the real star. We went on free cake night, which meant we only had a half slice - a good six layers instead of twelve. I still couldn't finish my cake, which was pretty amazing for me.

Presents!

Back to MD and to all kinds of presents! Simian got me little cat tongue chocolates from San Francisco, D got me a little pottery cat and M and Little E got me flowers and a LYTRO! It's the last time I tell you anything M! I'm trying to find a way to store/upload the photos.

I refused to eat the cat chocolates and they now sit in the fridge.

M's cooking

Besides taking me out to eat several times, M also decided to stuff me by cooking several times. She made pancakes, masala burgers and herbal soup among other things. Lots of stuff was from the fantastic Trader Joe's  which M jazzed up - including these Chocolate Croissants that were so good I went back to Maryland and bought some myself. When M leaves NC,Trader Joe's will weep.

Pumpkins

Little E has a love for pumpkins - so her parents bought her a huge pumpkin which she was delighted with.

El Cuscatleco

I don't know why it is but the more hole in the wall El Salvadoran places are, somehow the better the food. El Cuscatleco was clean but really small. The food was however yummy!

Nana Taco

We went to Nana Taco after a walk through the gardens. The food was great!

Ducks

Little E loves feeding the ducks at Duke Gardens. It was a lovely morning watching the family feeding the ducks.

North Carolina State Fair

The North Carolina State Fair needed a category all alone of its food. Little E (she really isn't a baby anymore) LOVED the turkey leg and corn. M also got to try fried everything - including Fried Oreo (we both didn't like it) and Red Velvet Funnel Cake. M and WW also shared Pig Lickers - chocolate dipped bacon. Little E really tried to eat that but was only allowed a quick lick! I thought the Maryland State Fair was big - but it had nothing on the NC one!

Food in North Carolina

I visited M in North Carolina and didn't bring my laptop. I got back a week ago and just have been busy running around with errands, so this is the first time I've had to upload photos.

Here are photos of just SOME of the food M fed me - from Guglhuph Cafe and Elmo's Diner.

Food & Dessert

A friend whom we met through a former neighbour, heads back to France next week. We had him and his girlfriend over for dinner and N pulled out all the stops, cooking up a storm! I made an apple Sharlotka for dessert.

Waffles and Fries!

We are pigs - after dinner at Laksania two weeks ago, Simian, Imp, PlanetofSound and I went to have fries AND waffle with ice cream at the Factory. It was ALL good. The furniture there is assembled by the owners - this table was one that had mortis and tenon joints so Simian was impressed.

I also went with a neighbour to Victoria Wholesale Centre last week - the old place closed down and the new building just doesn't have the same charm. Also, half the tenants decided not to move so the place is much smaller. One of the tenants we spoke to said they had to sign thirty year leases so the older tenants decided to call it a day. My favourite shop was still there - the lady in the shop remembered me. Business is apparently worse as they don't have any walk in traffic.

Beer, Rowing and Coffee

A good friend, J, whom I used to work with, came into town two weeks ago. We saw them for dinner and caught up over local food.

We also saw PlanetofSound and Imp last weekend when we trooped off to the Longboard Shop and a Book Sale at the Singapore Expo. We were all quite restrained and only bought a few things.

Simian and I went to Lam Teo Coffee Powder last week and Simian loved the beans we got there.  I've driven and walked by it and told Simian we needed to go see if the beans were good. We will definitely be heading back.

We also went to 99 Bottles today - I was googling something Imp told me about and found this shop. We did get a few beers but the selection was a little smaller than I was expecting.

The haze is back with a vengence. I decided I needed to try some exercise indoors for the days when running outside may prove to be unfeasible so Simian took me rowing at a gym. I normally hate gyms with a vengence because I am lazy. I just want to open the door and exercise - having to actually get there seems unnecessarily complicated. Also, I don't like threadmills but the rowing machine was pretty good. Simian said I did well for someone who had never used one before. I was doing well till the last 8 minutes then I just held in there for dear life!

Wedding Dress

Imp and I then headed to the Wedding Dress exhibition at the Museum. I turned the corner and gasped first when I saw this corset - Imp followed suit a second later. I can only comfort myself by thinking that women then were a lot smaller. Also, they had to have had broken ribs from those corsets!