Some photos from our winery adventures. We had so much fun!

We went up to Swan Valley, got a map from the tourist centre and drove through the wine trails stopping at the local wineyards. We stopped at some pottery shops and the chocolate factory, bought chocolate (obviously) and some fresh local produce. We even found a Little Mo pond for me to sketch!

The wine tasting was wonderful on that summer afternoon…I don’t think I remembered much after that…other then we found this lovely spot to sit…and unwind from all that wine drinking!

Oh I got a bit lucky, I had a surprise present from Big Mo. I could get used to this!

WOW! How fast has time flown by? Today we are celebrating our first wedding anniversary and we are so excited!

After celebrating our share of birthdays and secret special days for the past 8 years, today feels somewhat different and significant. Quite a wondrous feeling actually. Big mo, I’ve LOVED every minute of being married to you!

We are off to the winery this afternoon, will blog with pictures when we get back:)

I am hoping to start the year with a busy and creative schedule. And amongst other things like:

Love
Laugh
Eat healthily
Cook organically
Live green
Be kind to others
Read more books
Grow more plants

What about you?

I think 2010 has been one of the best years of my life!

I married my best friend
I became an aunt to my most adorable nephew
We won the WAMi
We saw Yo La Tengo live
Little Mo and Friends turned 2
I expanded my Little Mo and Friends collection
I met new friends from etsy and my blog
I cooked crab for the first time

So all in all, it was a pretty good year for me, and I can’t wait to see what 2011 will bring! Happy New Year everyone! Here’s wishing you a wonderful new year filled with creativeness, love and joy! xoxoxo

I was trying to clear up some room to store all the presents we got from friends and families during Christmas. So I sat down, opened up boxes of forgotten shoes and tried on every single pair to see which ones I would keep or throw out.

In the end, I couldn’t bear to part with any..since I had already thrown some out a few months ago. I feel like each pair belongs to an outfit and like lovers, cannot be separated!

And this is my husband’s collection. I kid you not. If we threw these out, he would have no shoes at all.

Rich asked, “Can you make crabs? I’d like to eat crabs for Christmas this year”
“What kind?” I asked him.
“Chili crabs would be nice”

And so tonight I made him sweet chili crabs, baked fish in lime and turmeric, served with nasi kuning (yellow rice).

While eating this meal, I remembered some of my favourite crab eating moments.

Like when my dad took us to eat crabs in Melaka. We ordered black pepper crabs and downed Tiger beer in the balmy night. We talked, ate and drank. It was a good night. Then earlier this year, we had crabs served at our wedding and we took a platter home. Later our friends came over our place and we sat around the dining table, cracking claws with the hammer and tucking into the soft flesh. It was such a fun and messy affair even though the smell lingered on for days!

What is it about eating crabs that makes it such a merry and sociable event? Maybe it’s the part where we’re all sharing the hammer and going crazy with it. Or maybe it’s the act of eating with our hands with such gusto.

Well I hope your Christmas dinner was as merry as mine:) Have a good one! xoxo

Fresh from our garden!

I was talking to my mum on the phone tonight and I promised her that I would blog soon, and post some pictures of tonight’s dinner. So here you go mum.

We found some fresh large banana prawns at the local supermarket. At first I thought I would try to make one of my favourite dishes from Malaysia, Fried salted egg yolk prawns. However I didn’t have any salted eggs with me and I figured that it was probably out of my element! So I made something similar.

Crisp fried prawns

I coated the prawns in flour, curry powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Then I fried some chopped spring onions and added the prawns into the oil and pan fried it.

Some people like to cook their prawns in their shells and some like to shell them first. Any way is fine but I think if I was going to make this dish again, I would remove the shells from the prawns so that it would be covered generously in batter.

Soy sauce tofu with chili and garlic

I’ve found that the combination of soy sauce and kecap manis goes well together. Kecap manis is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. It is thick and syrupy and has a lovely treacle like flavour. lt can be used on stir fries and noodles. For the tofu sauce, it was a mixture of soy sauce, kecap manis, chili and garlic. You can also substitute tofu with chicken or pork, and fry up some cashew nuts with the lot!

Woah. It’s hot over here.

I’m spending the rest of my Sunday inside my room…trying to keep cool from the blistering summer heat. Luckily I have a few things to keep me occupied.

Letters from a very dear friend. I love that she included band-aids in her mail (I’m quite accident prone…how did she guess?). I’m also currently reading my copy of Push the Envelope zine by Goodnight Little Spoon.

If you love snail mail and all things related to mail art, this is well worth the read! Even better, you can win your own copy of the zine or one of my recycled writing sets by leaving a comment on Allana’s giveway competition.

I’ve also started on a pencil sketch for a new custom portrait that I will be working on this couple of days. I can’t wait to share the finished piece with you!

There is only TWO desserts that Richard loves. Anything with chocolate in it…or anything with sweet red bean in it.

He loves Dorayaki in particular, a Japanese pancake wrapped around with sweet red bean filling. I asked him this morning, if he had to choose between a Dorayaki or a chocolate what would he choose? He pondered over this for awhile (which I found quite endearing). He said he would choose a Dorayaki filled with…chocolate! Ha! The best of both worlds.

This is the easiest Dorayaki recipe. It’s so easy that even my husband who is hopeless in the kitchen, can make this all by himself.

Easy Dorayaki
Pancake mix
1 can of sweetened red bean paste (you can get this at the oriental shop)

- Make pancakes as how you normally would
- Add a dollop of sweet red bean paste onto the pancake and spread it around
- Top with another pancake
- Serve with green tea