It's Reunion Dinner time or "Tuan nian jie" was last Sunday evening and this year we had it at my younger brother's home. These were some of the dishes for the steamboat. The kids loved the cheese tofu while the adults prefered the mushrooms and fishballs. My mother's family from Malaysia came down and we all had a good time catching up.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A Slice of Pannettone
I got into baking mode late in 2008 due to my little thumb injury. However once I got going, I did get a bit adventurous and decided it was worth trying to bake bread again.
As you can see from the picture above, I baked the Italian festive bread: a pannettone. I baked it old fashioned style ie without the commercial high fluted pannettone moulds that give it its characteristic shape and incredible lightness. Since I lacked that mould, I simply used whatever came to hand in my kitchen which is pretty much how your average Italian housewife would have done it before the advent of that famous mould and the commercially baked ones.
The result: a flatter, slightly more dense bread but still a great texture and taste with the little orange peel bits and zest. I also ran out of lemons so no lemon zest but being it still worked very well with orange substitute. It does take a while as most breads do with 2 risings but is otherwise reasonably easy to make and very rewarding to eat. The rapidity with which the two pannetones disappeared was clear testament to its tastiness.
As you can see from the picture above, I baked the Italian festive bread: a pannettone. I baked it old fashioned style ie without the commercial high fluted pannettone moulds that give it its characteristic shape and incredible lightness. Since I lacked that mould, I simply used whatever came to hand in my kitchen which is pretty much how your average Italian housewife would have done it before the advent of that famous mould and the commercially baked ones.
The result: a flatter, slightly more dense bread but still a great texture and taste with the little orange peel bits and zest. I also ran out of lemons so no lemon zest but being it still worked very well with orange substitute. It does take a while as most breads do with 2 risings but is otherwise reasonably easy to make and very rewarding to eat. The rapidity with which the two pannetones disappeared was clear testament to its tastiness.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
A New Year Begins
I managed to get up and out of the house for 7.30am new year's day mass and then went to the gym for a Body Pump class. It felt good. It was also the first day this week I wasn't feeling quite as flu-ish since I came down with a cold at the start of the week.
My resolution has been to pay more attention to my faith life particularly by nurturing my prayer life both through personal prayer time and community prayer ie the mass mainly or some bible sharing sessions but let's see what else comes along. There's always the Rempang project which i've volunteered to go on with my two friends.
And my other resolution was to start going to the gym again to attend Body Pump and Pilates and yoga classes. It's been a good four to five years since I went to a Body Pump class so it took a while for my muscle memory to kick in and I remembered all the old moves, the clean and press etc. It felt very good to have completed the class and I've had lots more energy the rest of today. Now to keep it up for the rest of the year!
My resolution has been to pay more attention to my faith life particularly by nurturing my prayer life both through personal prayer time and community prayer ie the mass mainly or some bible sharing sessions but let's see what else comes along. There's always the Rempang project which i've volunteered to go on with my two friends.
And my other resolution was to start going to the gym again to attend Body Pump and Pilates and yoga classes. It's been a good four to five years since I went to a Body Pump class so it took a while for my muscle memory to kick in and I remembered all the old moves, the clean and press etc. It felt very good to have completed the class and I've had lots more energy the rest of today. Now to keep it up for the rest of the year!
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