| A blog on my journey as a WORK AT HOME MOM and my WORK AT HOME BUSINESS |

19 August, 2011

Weekends is Here and More Baking

It's been a while since I wrote a post here. It's just been another busy school term and I find it hard to believe that we will be entering week six soon!

As usual, I have been baking and doing lots of cooking. Two days ago, we were invited to a friend's house for steamboat and I made Keiko's Green Tea Tiramisu. Everyone loved the Japanese inspired dessert and I was glad that my first attempt had brought much compliments. It was a nice feeling. The slight bitterness of the green tea complemented the sweet mascarpone cheese and the homemade lady fingers (sponge fingers) were nice to bite into!

It's the weekends tomorrow and I'm heading to the Brisbane Markets. I'm going to stock up some spices from this lovely spice store and maybe buy a few plants for the garden. I can't wait to put more 'edibles' in the garden and I'm enjoying those lovely herbs in the patio. It's been my desire to have a herb garden and I'm so happy that it's come together now.

My little boy loves Saturdays cos he is allowed some computer time and he's so 'wired' electronically. Many of his friends have handheld games and couple of them are already talking about the PS3. We haven't bought him any and I am delaying it as long as I can.

Oh yes, I baked Keiko's Soy Bean Chiffon cake and it turned out very well. The kinako was fragrant and there's a 'peanut butter' flavour in every bite of the soft chiffon. It was a lovely cake to have in the morning when need a pick me up!

That's it for a friday night and have a nice weekend if you are reading this on a friday!

06 August, 2011

Back from Melbourne

In the twinkling of an eye, we are back from our vacation in Melbourne and I only wish we can stay a couple of days more! Living in brisbane is quite different from Melbourne where the city is vibrant and the lifestyle is busier. I'm not complaining but it's nice to have a little change every now and then.

It was nice to see some old friends and it was great for the little man as he played and spent time with his little friends too. For us, it's discovering new places to dine, especially Asian food and we didn't find anything that stood out until our final day in Melbourne. A friend recommended Shark Fin Inn and the dim sum was so good. I later found out that it was a popular restaurant! We went to a couple of 'good' ones including Ocha Japanese (which we thought was so-so) and Hutong whose pan fried dumplings didn't deliver. The skin of the dumpling was so thick that I much prefer the ones in Shangpaign kitchen in Brisbane.

Food aside, Clayton missed few days of school during the Melbourne trip and I believe the memories of hanging out with old friends meant more than those few days in school. He would have many years in school so few days of absence won't hurt too much!

Yesterday, he received a birthday party invitation from his good friend in class and he's looking forward to it. He's already discussing with me about his birthday party and telling me that some of his friends have cool invitations such as Pirate Invitations and superhero ones. He wanted a lego party and a big set of lego... we'll see how he behaves haha.

It's back to baking for me after taking a break for a few days. I miss baking and oh, I miss Koko Black in Melbourne. Since learning that their chocolates are so good, I have been sipping a cup of belgium hot chocolate every morning and I even splurged on a big and few packs of koko black chocolates. I finished the box ones in two days and I am truly missing them!

Till then, Melbourne is a lovely place to visit and we had brought the Queensland sunshine to this city of erratic weathers! I hope to be back again and this time, I must check out all the yummy restaurants with the real locals!