First baking attempt & some Jacob...

I have never tried baking before over here - one, because we dont have an oven and two, because it's so damn hard finding baking products!! After searching everywhere, I eventually found some overpriced ingredients from a foreign supermarket & organic store, and ready I was to use the cupcake maker for the first time!!

Basic chocolate cupcakes (with butter chunks still in them cos I didnt beat it properly oops)

Frosted :)

Ok I cheated. I used Betty Crocker instant frosting, but I sprinked the organic cookie bits on myself ok.

Some of the small group people enjoying my (rather dry, kinda unsuccesful) cupcakes. We're minus a kid here but Noodle was a good subsitute :p

Nooodely!!! I'm training her to be around babies right now so that she can get used to someone else more important being in the house. She's doing a great job, I think she & Nugget will be just fine :D

Liam and Lizzie... awww. The girl is so fat, its super cute. She has Michelin tyre arms and legs and her mummy nicknamed her Elizobese LOL!!!

Went to watch Eclipse on opening night the other.... night. Literally. Long story, but we ended up changing plans very very last minute and watching a midnight screening which I was kinda cranky about (im pregnant, I cant be getting home at 3am!!)... watever, I still love Jacob even though he sticks his butt out when he's running.

 But what was with that ring btw! I expected something more interesting, and apparently it was nothing like how the book described. BO-RING. Edward has a big head.

Post-movie: Every single person in this photo is famous to some degree except me...

News reporters, pop show hosts, DJs, designers, Tiffany from Girls Generation.... and fat, ugly pregnant me :(

I don't want to take pictures anymore!!! Plus I'm so uncomfortable, I have the worst back pain in the world ALREADY as well as a host of other symptoms that are making me perenially irritated. Even buying all the nice maternity wear in the world isn't making me feel better right now. Boo, boo and boooooo....

Hello...

xxoo

The rest of Chuseok

The rest of Chuseok involved eating and not much else, since nothing was open.

I cooked a sesame spinach stir-fry and these beef ribs with chilli, garlic and this amazing sauce that was pretty damn good, I must admit! Woot! One more to add to my Master Chef recipe book :D *proud*













Hubby made me breakfast in bed the next day. Very nice - yoghurt, nashi pear, dried cranberries, wheat tea and a massive chocolate muffin:

OMG those muffins from Costco are killing me. We had them for lunch as well...


In fact, I've been having them every day cos now he has gastro (again) and he cant eat anything, so rather than let them waste, I'm stuffing myself silly.

Oh, I also bought a recorder and played it in the restaurant while ppl stared. Nice. I can do any song on request as long as it doesnt go over 1 and a half octaves.
Btw my friend Mel Lu is in a beauty pageant! You can vote for her #12 here.

Her final are on Nov 6th, does anyone want to come with me to watch? Let me know!

xxoo

I cook...

I've been trying to cook more non-Korean dishes lately. Korean food is so damn easy to cook! I got that Bulgulgi & Kimchi Chigae down pat!

The challenge is cooking international food, mostly because its so hard to find the ingredients.

Here's some of my recent work:

(Left) Marinated chicken & mushroom salad
(Right) Linguine vongole - recipe given to me by Sebastiano Gregoriano, an Italian 3-star Michelin chef I interviewed for an article - and this dish is divine!!














(Left) Garlic chicken & chinese green bean stirfry
(Right) Kong-Bao chicken Taiwanese style - recipe from Betty. This one is FAB!!













(Left) Steamed egg with dried scallops - recipe from Taiwanese cooking website that Betty suggested. Click here for recipes and videos ... but its all in Chinese :(
(Right) Steamed bitter melon stuffed with pork & water chestnuts with black bean sauce (I made this one up myself *beams*)













(Left) Mapo tofu, original recipe
(Right) Sichuan chilli lamb/beef with lost of cumin - an oldie but a goodie I've had for ages :)













Needless to say, hubby has been impressed... dont know how long I can keep it up for though!

I'm so proud of myself I'm gonna start a facebook album just for my cooking so that it will encourage me to cook more~~ you cant just have 8 pictures in a facebook album, can you!

xxoo

How I spent my V Day Weekend

Friday:

Peter & Michelle from HK were over here in Seoul, so we went to MyeongDong for a late dinner after my Hangeul (Korean Language) Class.

Dinner was nice and quick cos they had skiing the next day but it was still quite late and it was hard to get a cab. We just got on the first one that came eventually, and the driver just took off without starting the meter. Then he tried to negotiate with me for a ridiculous price, and I was like "NO WAY you silly man, I'm not a tourist or an idiot - put the meter on!" And he was like no no you wont get another cab this late which is BULLSHIT. So anyway, he was an asshole so I kept arguing with him and he was laughing at me cos I was mad. Then he started saying "oh, you're so pretty, dont be mad" and holding my hand and trying to touch my face! ERK!!!

Peter & Michelle in the backseat were flabbergasted, and I was going ballistic trying to push him off and yelling "SHIBASEKI!!" We were on the bridge so we couldnt even get out of the car, and the whole time I kept saying "You're a bad man, its too expensive!".... he finally managed to come down to an acceptable price (still overcharging) but the whole experience was so traumatic, my tourist friends couldn't believe it!! He was even still trying to touch me when I got out of the car!

*DIES DIES DIES*

According to my other friends, this sort of thing is rare but it does happen. It's happened to me TWICE already! The other driver took a picture of me passed out with my own camera, and then stole it!! WTF...

I have decided that Taiwan is a hundred times safer as this would never happen, they just drive and maybe take peeks at you in the rear view mirror. Over here they just blatently gawk and stare at you - and ask the same questions: where are you from, are you married, you're pretty...
It's fun practising Korean with them, but if that's the only thing they ever ask I'm never gonna get any better at speaking :(

Saturday:

Happy Vagina Day! Spent the day alone at home, and then at Starbucks with a latte & a macaroon. Then somehow got conned into going out to Hongdae (bar central) with my white chick friends. Was feeling really bloated and didnt want to move - NOR did I wanna get on a cab again - but I braved it and managed to not get raped.... this time.

We went to a hidey hole Sensations but I was so late, they were about to leave when I came. Then Peter showed up and we went to Bar Boom, which is this half club/half bar with dart boards (they're really into darts here!). I thought the club was better cos it played good Hip Hop and there were all these African Americans dancing mean and nasty. The drinks are free for 3 hours after get in, but the line was so friggin long we couldn't even be bothered.

So we did the Cupid Shuffle! It was so fun :) OK, I havent been home for ages so I dont know if its popular in Australia, but in the States its really really big - so when this song comes on everyone starts doing the dance. I've seen people do it really badly before and no joined in, but this time it was heaps cool cos we were doing it with all these really good hiphop dancers. I think I shoulda been black in a previous lifetime.

Anyway, that was the highlight of my Valentines night LOL. After that I got bored and left cos I'm married and stuffy now LOL...

Sunday:

Arrival of husband and my preparations for our belated V Day. I went to Apgujeong's Hyundai Department Store, which is the best place in the world. This is the rich area with the "Rodeo Drive" of Seoul, and the food section is just sublimmmmmmme.

I got him an I Love You plant AWWWWW:

A special cupcake from Good Evening Cupcake, who make cupcakes in all different designs and shapes and styles. LOOOOOOVES! I even decorated it with some Herseys Kisses:

And OMG!! There is a macaroon shop called Sweety Blvd that does them in 20 different colours! I got our 4 wedding (bridesmaids) colours. SO CUTE!!

Oooooh! And I got a pumpkin dessert, some cheese and water crackers, and even cut up some strawberries by myself. Ahhhhhh:

All set, with our champagne & De Beers glasses heehee:

And here's what I got from Froggie:


And stuff to prepare for the wedding too! hehe


Good boy :)

We eat...

This is what I had for dinner myself on my little lonesome... note the 2litre bottle of soju LOL

Since we arrived, I have actually done a lot of cooking. But it always seems to look and taste the same :(

This was yesterday:


Hmmm...

But I did manage to do eggs 3 ways once!


Anyway, needless to say the husbands cooking is a lot more presentable:


(pssst - the salad was mine)

And this one below... the wine was mine :P


BUT WE EAT:



And we EAT






This little gem all you can eat Brazilian Steak House we discovered is great! Jack was so amazed it that he was like a kid in a candy store. It is Very Good Meat (and Mash) but very filling too:


Toodles!

*burp*