Tag times three

Picture from here

They say good things come in threes, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I have been tagged 3 times this week. 3 times! Funny...because just last week I was wondering why it had been so quiet on the tagging front; careful what you wish for....

Tag # 1 from Toothfairy

1. What books are on your favorite shelf?

Fabulous nobodies, Eat Pray Love, Memoirs of a Geisha, Life of Pi, Don't ask me why, everything by Marian Keyes, Wicked, Curious incident of the dog, Man and Boy, The Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia.

2. What DVDs are on your favorite shelf?

Amelie, The Virgin Suicides, In the mood for love, The Professional, Love me if you dare, Little Miss Sunshine, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, DeLovely

3. What are your two favorite cookbooks?

Blue eye dragon and Balance and Harmony.

4. Select 1-3 recipes you will cook for your special guests.

Braised duck

Salt and pepper calamari

Hot and sour soup with tofu for the vegetarians

5. What will we be drinking that's available?

Stu makes a mean Martini. If that doesn't work for you, we always have plentiful supply of red wine at home...

Tag #2 by Eden Rose

10 random things:

1. Today is a perfect day; sunny, bright and 31 degrees!
2. When the skies turned orange last week, I seriously thought the world was ending.
3. I think I might prefer shopping online to real time shopping.
4. I did not learn to cook or do any form of housework until the age of 20. (Shame on me, I know!)
5. Sometimes, there's nothing better than just sitting out in the sun, doing nothing.
6. I think that niceness is under rated.
7. I've been flower girl once when I was 5 for my cousin's wedding. I was mighty proud of my puffy dress and took my flower girl duties very seriously.
8. I've been bridesmaid once, to a very dear friend of mine 2 years ago.
9. I'd like to be bride someday.
10. I am currently reading Son of a witch, and it's been a drag. I loved Wicked, but the sequel is quite painful to read.

Tag #3 by Erika

10 true things: here's where I scratch my head, thinking: What's the difference between random and true? I decided there is none. Random things are just more random, I guess.

1. I tend to judge books by their covers, which is why Penguin books don't work for me.
2. For those of you wondering why I don't have a credit card, the reason is simple. I had one and I used it recklessly and I had to get rid of it.
3. I use visa debit to shop online.
4. I love things that come in sets; jewellery, skincare, cosmetics, furniture, books, stationery etc.
5. I have an elder brother who is very very clever who lives in Switzerland.
6. Both my brother and I thought we were 1/4 Thai until recently when my mom informed us that we are only 1/8 Thai. (Bummer, we grew up thinking we were exotic.)
7. I am superstitious. I get nervous when my right eyelid twitches because I think something bad will happen to me. Similarly, I get really excited when my left eyelid twitches because I believe something wonderful is coming my way.
8. I am silly, I know.
9. I am in the process of phasing out synthetic fabrics from my wardrobe.
10. I intend to re-launch my etsy store by year end. (Yes! so stay tuned.)

And now, I pass the love to Sher, Becky, Rose, Simply Colette, ms.tandy, Manju, pretty*pink*rat, The Sice Family, Leproust Vintage, a girl named Taylor

You may choose to do any 1 of the 3 tags, or you can do 2 or all 3!

500 days of summer

Even in the absence of a happy ending, it's still the most perfect movie ever. Love, love, love.

Movie stills from here.

Weekend in food

Breakfast SnackDinner It was a cold and blustery weekend in Sydney, so Stu and I stayed home as much as we could and spent our time cooking and eating. We had bacon and eggs on sourdough for breakfast, and as a snack, some crispy chicken and basil with five spice (deep fried goodness!). For dinner, we did a stir fry of calamari with basil, spring onions and chilli (really hot stuff).

How was your weekend? And oh, let me know if you want any of the above recipes.

Post update! Recipes here:

Crispy Chicken and Basil with Five Spice

Ingredients:

3 teaspoon salt and pepper mixture (see instructions below)

1/2 teaspoon five spice powder

a pinch of salt

a pinch of sugar

250g chicken fillet, cut in 2 x 1 am pieces

1 cup cornflour

1/2 cup basil leaves

To make salt and pepper mixture:

In small bowl, add 2 teaspoon salt with 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix well.

Instructions:

Combine salt and pepper mixture with the five spice power in spice grinder or mortar until well blended. Set aside.

Marinate the chicken in a pinch of cornflour, salt and sugar and stand for a few minutes.

Heat oil in deep fryer or work.

Lightly dust the chicken pieces with the remaining cornflour, then let them rest for about a minute before deep frying

Once the chicken peices start to float and turn golden brown, they are ready. Drain them on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Before putting basil leaves in the deep fryer or wok, make sure you have the lid ready, as the basil will cause the oil to splatter. Fry basil for 1 minute until crisp. Drain the basil.

In a big bowl, toss the chicken pieces and basil and sprinkle with some of the salt and pepper mixture.

To serve, place chicken on a plate, top with basil and place remaining salt and pepper and five spice mixture on the side.

Stir fried calamari with basil

Ingredients:

250g calamari, cleaned and cut in 1cm ring

1/4 cup ginger, sliced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 spring onions, chopped into 2cm slices

1 long chili, chopped

1/4 cup sesame oil

2 tablespoon rice win1 cup basil leaves

Instructions:

Quickly blanch calarmai in a pot of boiling water - be careful not to overcook the calamari at this stage. Drain well.

Heat the wok over high heat, add oil and stir fry the ginger until fragrant.

Add garlic and calamari to the wok and stir fry until golden Then add shallots and chili for a further stir.

Add oyster sauce, wine and sugar and stir fry until the sauce is reduced.

Quickly stir through the basil then transfer to a plate and serve.

Recipes from Blue eye dragon.

Etsy crush - Magnolija Dress

Dreamy, romantic and etheral. Magnoliga dress does dresses, jewellery, hair pieces and other accessories that look like they've come straight out of a classic fairy tale. I'm totally in love!

Happy Fives - 24 Sept 09

1. The sky is blue again! No more creepy red dust in the air.
2. I'm watching Wicked the musical tonight.
3. I bought myself this cute little one piece for the hot summer ahead.
4. I got a yummy free lunch of chicken and tomato risotto.
5. I managed to fit myself into a dress that used to be a tad too tight...so I'm wearing it today:

Dandelion picture from wehearit.

Dusty

This is Sydney today. Wicked sandstorms blowing over the desert has brought all this red dust over to us. So it's dusty, dusty everywhere and really not nearly as pretty as the pictures suggest.

Pictures from here and here.

Orchid season

Spring time means orchids are in bloom everywhere. Stu's mom picked these for me from her very own backyard!

I love having fresh flowers at home; they really brighten up my day. At the moment, they are sitting pretty on the kitchen top, making cooking especially delightful. I should make an effort to buy fresh flowers more often.

PS: I am in the process of updating my blogroll, if you'd like to swap links, please let me know!

Pink is for presents

frilly apron

"ballerina" outfit

pink sapphire

As promised, here are a few of my favourite pink things, all presents for my birthday just past. I have been spoilt rotten, yes I know.

Covet

I've always suspected my life will be complete once I get myself the Chanel 2.55, but I guess there's only one way to find out. I've picked the size (medium) and colour (black) but am still undecided between lambskin or caviar.

Thoughts, anyone?

Ponyo

This really is the cutest cartoon I've ever seen. I can't explain why, except it made me smile, laugh and go AAAAAW about ten thousand times.

Pink is a girly word

Thanks for all your birthday wishes, I had a wonderful weekend of celebration and I got lots of pink presents this year! I've yet to photograph them, but I will sometime this week...in the meantime, hope you enjoy these pretty pink pictures.

Pictures from weheartit.

It's my party

And I'll cry if I want to...except, apart from my age, there's really no other reason for that.

Beautiful spring weather has been predicted for the whole weekend, Stu's planned a surprise just for me and he's bringing me somewhere nice for dinner. Plus I'm meeting up with my favourite friends for Sunday lunch where I get to eat cake and make a wish!

I might just wish to be younger.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

New style icon - Frida

Meet my new style icon, Frida, 16 year old student from KUNGäLV.

What do I love: her hair, her style, the military jacket, the vintage dress and the lacy top.
Makes me want: to be 16 again.

mellow yellow fellow

Some cheery yellows to brighten an otherwise blah day. Excuse the lame title, it was the best I could come up with...hope your day is brighter than mine!

Pictures from weheartit.

The Rulebook

I am absolutely loving the rulebook for my unborn daughter, it's fun, it's cute and oh so very neccessary for all nice respectable ladies...I wish there was more! If you're like me and can't get enough, there is also the rules for my unborn son for your reading pleasure...enjoy.

Drumroll please...

YAY it's awards time!I got this awesome award from Simply Colette, who thinks I am an awesome girl... thanks Colette, I think you're awesome too. :)

The rules are to list 10 things about me and pass on to 10 others.

My 10 things:

1. I love making lists (such as this one) but my favourite are the ones I can tick off, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
2. I don't have a credit card, I buy everything with cold hard cash.
3. I used to love thrill rides but now they make me quake with fear.
4. When I was a little girl, I had to hold my mom's hand to go to sleep. These days, I hold Stu's.
5. I used to dream about finding someone exactly like Stu.
6. Spring and autumn are my favourite seasons.
7. I once won a jet ski in a competition.
8. I sold it and I bought a car instead.
9. I like to believe that people are inherently good.
10. I would really love to own an invisible cloak.

While there's so much awesomeness going around, I would like to pass this award to the following awesome blogs:

Cloud Fishing

Blueberry Park

While We're Waiting

Abby's in Trouble Again

Diamond in the rough

THE JOHNSON DIARIES: Life on the Edge

A cheery disposition

firecrackers

Haute World

Beneath The Crystal Stars

I also got this amazing award from the very lovely Priyanka from Dreamland: La Push. thanks Priyanka, it is a real honour!

There are no rules for this award, but I'd like to pass it on to the following 3 bloggers who have inspired me:

Blog Goggles

Lenorenevermore

June Daisies