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My boss remembered he owed me a birthday lunch so I picked The Exchange across the road, and we roped in 2 other colleagues whom we hadn’t caught up with in a while.
I ordered a spring chicken main, not quite what I was expecting because I had assumed it to turn out differently based on the description but it came fried, salty and the veggies were a little sparse.
After lunch, I went to check out a gift fair at MBS and since my boss said I didn’t have to go back to work after that, I jalaned towards Suntect to collect something from Groupon. Along the way, I finally got to try out the Helix Bridge and when I reached Millennia, I bumped into Yvonne on her smoke break!
Made my way to Membina after Groupon and met another Yvonne! Aunty Yvonne was there to visit Aunty Sarda again and this time I took a picture of them together for old time’s sake.
I took her number down too in case I make it to London end-Sep, there’s talk of a marketing team gathering. But whether I make it depends on Aunty Sarda’s condition, at the moment she is doing well and is so much better with the steroid meds, she can joke and make fun, and addresses us when she speaks to us, her voice is not so weak. Very happy.
The kids woke up super early today, like at 7am so I suggested to go for an 8.30am mass at St Teresa’s and do brunch afterwards at Parco Caffe.
Sasha has been in a super friendly mood of late. As we walked from the carpark to the restaurant, we bumped into the estate’s cleaning supervisor and she greeted him “Hello Uncle! Where are you going? You like my dress?” and he stopped to have a conversation with her.
She was excited to be back at her birthday restaurant, we were the only ones there at 9.45am. She kept greeting Balan, I think he’s a manager now, with “Hello Uncle!” every time he walked past.
Wendy ordered a burger, Nick a pizza but I chose something breakfast. Opted for the Benny, comprising 2 poached eggs on foccacia, hollandaise sauce, parma ham, Jerusalem artichoke chips and cold gazpacho.
Only after I left did I realise I didn’t see any gazpacho on my plate, I guess they missed it out. No matter, I was full enough from the eggs and toast. I can’t say I’d ever tried Jerusalem artichoke before, they are actually a type of tuber, so it was like eating tapioca chips but nicer.
I ordered a side of hashbrowns and waffles for the girls, but they preferred Daddy’s pizza.
The hashbrown came decorated with flowers...something Balan had asked the chef to do because he knew I would be taking pictures! How thoughtful, as always, service here is excellent!
As soon as we got home, I baked another batch of sugar cookies, using the leftover dough from Thursday. Napped while they cooled and when we woke up, I started decorating a few to bring to AMK. But I did less than 10 before Nick rushed us out.
Continued once I got home, painstakingly spreading the icing as neatly as I could…quite happy with this batch! They taste a whole lot better than the plasticky things Breadtalk were selling last Christmas, shall make some Xmas tree ones in December.
I found this recipe online at Key Ingredient and modified it a little with the addition of the vanilla essence and Cointreau. I will call this version "Tiramitasu!"
Ingredients
- 500 ml (2 cups) strong espresso, cooled to room temperature
- 50-60ml of Cointreau or any alcohol of your choice
- 4 large eggs or 5 small/medium eggs, separated
- 4-5 tbsp sugar (one tablespoon per egg)
- 500g (16 oz) mascarpone cheese, room temperature
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract/essence
- 1 x 200-250 g (7-9 oz) pkg Savoiardi or Pavesini (lady fingers)
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (or to taste).
Method
1. In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. If not beaten well, then the filling will have an egg-y taste. Then add mascarpone cheese and vanilla essence and mix until there are no more lumps.
2. In another medium bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixture till stiff peaks form but not dry.
3. Gently fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture with a spatula or wooden spoon.
4. Mix the espresso and Cointreau and dip the cookies for 2 seconds or less. Lay them into a 9×14 rectangular glass pan, you can leave 3-4 mm (¼ inch) or a finger’s width between each cookie for the filling, or you can place them close/next to each other so there is no filling between the lady fingers. Pour half the mascarpone mixture onto the cookies and spread evenly across the top. Sprinkle a layer of cocoa powder.
5. Repeat step 4 with the next layer but alternate the cookies perpendicular (or just follow the same pattern as in the first layer) to the ones in the first layer.
6. Refrigerate overnight for best results. If you really must, then refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours before serving but it might still be runny. Sprinkle with cocoa.
Makes 12 large pieces or 16 smaller pieces.
Brought the girls to Novena this morning for a quick prayer for Aunty Sarda and Amah, and then we made our way to Membina so I could catch some of Aunty Sarda’s visitors.
One of her very good friends who lives in London - Aunty Yvonne – comes to Singapore every August and yesterday I called her in the off chance that Aunty Sarda’s address book was updated and she was in town. She was upset to hear the news on Aunty Sarda’s condition and said she would visit today, and she did.
Oh, I think I haven’t mentioned yet that after the last hospitalization, it was discovered the tumour has already started growing back and by mutual agreement with the doctors, there will be no further treatment on Aunty Sarda. She herself doesn’t want to go through the radiation, and the doctors also feel it won’t help much and might make things worse. So now it’s a waiting game.
Aunty Yvonne still looks so youthful, her kids are 20 and 16 already, I still remember them as 6 and 2, for that’s how old they were when we stayed with them for a few days in London back in ’98.
After lunch, there were Chitty visitors from KL namely Uncle Ramesh and Ravi and their wives. It was nice to see them, last time would have been Jean’s wedding. Gigi was so shy with Uncle Ramesh who was teasing her about being her boyfriend. Before they left, she declared she liked the uncle with the moustache!
There was a pot luck gathering at Kaelash’s place in the evening, the kids re-enacted The 3 Little Pigs and even Sasha participated, she was so excited. Nat was fawning over Reagan, she wants a baby sister!
I volunteered to make tiramisu and made it last night. Borrowed a hand mixer from Aunty Malar and I was worried I had overbeaten the eggs but it all came together in the end.
As a first attempt, I was really pleased with it. Followed a recipe online but I had added cointreau so the chocolate powder and orange flavour went well together. But my espresso wasn’t strong enough so the coffee taste was missing. I shall strive to perfect it! But texture-wise it felt really authentic, the sponge fingers were just nice, not dry and not oversoaked and the cream was smooth.
The whole tray was finished in a few minutes, I think they liked it!
Our plans to spend the morning at West Coast Park was thwarted when we found the carpark full, some church was having it’s family fun day so we decided to go Hort Park instead.
Nat had been so looking forward to the zip line at West Coast but forgot her disappointment as soon as she saw the fish at Hort Park. She and Sasha were happy enough to just hang around the entrance and admire the fish, but I wanted to check out the park…never been beyond its function rooms.
We kept stopping en route to the playground, the kids got distracted by the swings and vegetable gardens. I enjoyed seeing the ladyfinger and brinjal plants and asparagus roots.
We spent awhile at the playground, the sun was so hot but the girls had their hats and didn’t seem bothered.
I saw lots of lovely butterflies, and discovered they have a small butterfly enclosure which is only open on the last Saturday of every month, will try to come again soon. There was one yellow and black butterfly that was so huge, I thought it was a bird at first. The body is the size of my finger!
Also spotted what looked like a green dove or pigeon on buah ceri (muntingia) trees that were very accessible…I hope there are ripe ones to pluck the next I come.
Checked out the ARC mall at Alexandra after the park, I wanted to buy stroopwafels from a waffle shop I read about. At least I know where I can get supplies regularly, though the other day I bought jumbo ones from Watsons.
There was a Hock Lam beef noodle shop on the second floor and that’s where we ended up for lunch. Surprisingly they had kids meals comprising a bowl of noodles, fries and Yakult. It was Nat’s first time trying beef noodle soup and she loved it, couldn’t get enough of the soup.
Sasha had rice but devoured all the broccoli that came with it and my xiao bai chye too, I really won’t be surprised if she grows up vegetarian!
Mildred and Kaelash & company came over in the evening to watch the National Day Parade while I baked sugar cookies for the first time. The kids helped to decorate, this first batch is really messy but they taste good, though a bit too sweet for me. I completely missed watching the parade though!
I made bolognaise for dinner and Ma came over from Geylang bearing kebayas for Nat and Gigi. Our little Nonyas are too cute!
