Have you read any of the Chicken Soup series? I've read one but can't remember which one but this was years ago. There is one out now, for mothers to inspire and encourage.
(pic from amazon)
I am not about to read it and I have enough tonics in my cupboard for my body as my mother has sent over a case of chinese herbs a few weeks back.
All 40 boxes of individually packaged tree bark / strange berries / roots and stuff.
I have to drink all the tonics after the birth and they don't taste too bad. My mum was sweet enough to also packed some other favorites of mine.
Stewed pork and pickled radishes, go so well with congee. Kaya with toast, yummmm.
We are already running out of closet space after moving into our new flat 2 months ago. There wasn't much to begin with and even after re-organizing the existing space three times, I gave up. It would be easier to buy more closets because the road ahead will only promise more clutter.
I hate buying more storage units as they are bulky and ugly and just a waste of money. So that left us with only one solution which was to build one and the idea got T very excited. The only problem was finding the materials.
The blueprint for a storage unit was very simple, a basic wooden box to sit on the terrace, painted white.
We needed a few nails and hard boards so we went in search for raw materials in the desert. By pure chance and bit of luck, we came across an area called Najma near Old Doha.
There were plenty of tiny shops that stocked planks, hardware equipment, cheap electronics, even second hand furniture. We have landed in the place where the foreign workers in Doha buy their home supplies! Pre-cut curtains at QR 50 a pop, simple wooden shoe cabinets at QR 200, iron wrought single beds for less and more.
We found one lumber seller and he had 2m by 50cm planks at QR 20 a piece. T ordered some pieces cut to size while I poked around and came across these half inch thick planks that were about 2 metres long, with designs of stars or crosses bored into them. I managed to convince Johnny Carpenter to buy some and make a screen out of them.
Here's the finished product ! Thanks T ! You da best.
See how it hides all the junk with its pretty facade. Result !
Now even if we move, these screens could be used in any space.
I saw this on the blog If it's hip its here and you guys must see it. It's totally bizarre and the girl's total non expression is perfect.
I have been busy this whole week which doesn't excuse my lack of blogging. I tried more baking with the 5 minutes a day bread recipe but used a different master recipe this time. Strangely the recipe is always different on different sites.
I used one of them and made a 80% brown loaf and it is better than my first experiment. I am still trying but enjoying a slice with kaya now. yummmm.
Next experiment would be a red pepper fougasse also found on the same website. Doesn't it just look mouthwatering ?
We went to a sports bar in the Ramada Plaza two days ago as the bars are now open after the Eid holidays. Most expats are back from their summer break and swarmed the pub for some late night entertainment. The Laughter Factory, based in Dubai has brought in 3 comedians to tour here and tonight was the second and last night of their performance.
We managed to get about 7 others to join us there and by 8pm, the beers were flowing and pub food happily in our tummies.
2 out of 3 were good, this canadian chap Craig Campbell was very funny and quite sweet actually. Found a clip online to share.
There are plenty of freshly baked breads around, but mostly not very good. Bakemart seems to be the default place to get a decent croissant or baguette. However the loaves of multigrains or brown breads are quite disappointing. The bread texture is so light that after being in the toaster, it disintegrates.
We used to have a breadmaking machine and it was good having fresh homemade bread especially when we could time it so we wake up to some amazing aromas. But I lost the paddle part and never found the replacement so the machine became useless.
Then I found out about the no knead bread concept, first from canadian chef Michael Smith on the cooking show Chef at Home. It looked easy, just mix and leave dough overnight and bake the next day. I never tried it but kept it at the back of my mind to try it someday.
A week ago, I started to look up his recipe again but found something else that might be even easier. Artisan bread in 5 minutes. Jeff Hertzberg and his wife, Zoe Francois stripped down breadmaking to it's basic steps and ingredients to include just salt, water, yeast and flour.
Without kneading and just putting all the said ingredients in a bucket and left in the fridge to rise overnight, one can have fresh dough the next morning. Taking a batch of this risen dough, shaping to desired shape and left to rise in 20 minutes while the oven heats up, you can have crusty bread after baking for only 15 minutes.
Sounds too good to be true so I had to try it.
Last night I put the measured ingredients in a plastic box with a loose lid and it sat on the counter to rise for 2 hours before I left it in the fridge.
Here's what it looked like after mixing everything together with a wooden spoon. The idea was just to incorporate everything together and that only took about a minute.
The dough was very wet and that is the secret apparently.
Jeff and Zoe tells you to leave the mixture for 2 hours on the kitchen counter before placing it in the fridge, but I forgot and left it out for 3 hours before chilling it. Don't think it caused any problems. You can see the air pockets within the dough already.
This morning, I grabbed a grapefruit sized dough out of the box and shaped it into an oval. This I left to rise for about 20 minutes while I turned the oven on. However the dough didn't really rise after 20 minutes so I left it for another 15 before baking it.
When the time as up, I felt that my bun had only marginally risen but decided to bake it anyway. The dough went into the hot oven and in just 15 minutes, I had an incredible crusty loaf. In fact, the bread puffed up while it was baking.
I should have waited for it to cool down, but I could not wait to taste this baby.
The texture inside was lovely, full of flavour and slightly chewy but the crust was the star of the show definitely. I smeared some cold butter on it and my current favourite jam from Dean + Deluca's Apple Pear Cinnamon Jam.
I am officially a believer.
Now I cannot wait to have breakfast tomorrow or I might dip it into some virgin olive oil for a snack later.
This is one recipe to keep and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a foolproof recipe for home made bread. This recipe is good for making pizzas, flatbreads and the book has gluten free recipes too. One of the videos actually showed Jeff making flatbread by frying it in oil in a frying pan, outdoors, at a campsite, so you see, an oven is not even required.
Check out this video if you take my word for how easy this is.
Victoria Beckham showed her Spring/Summer collection 2011 during the NYC Fashion Week. I must admit that I think she's too scary skinny and has too much work done on her, yet I like her style of dress. The pencil thin, precise tailored outfits, small waists and massive glasses is totally up my alley. In Doha, Zai Boutique stocks her dresses and I have seen them. Beautifully crafted and very luxurious.
From her latest collection, these I would wear.
The second piece is so sexy.
I went back to her past collections, the Autumn 2010 and picked a few that I would love to own.
Her 2010 Spring collection was really lovely too.
I can see myself in this black and white ensemble.
Today marks the end of the Ramadan yay! Offices and most shops are shut for this major celebration for the next week but the malls and most importantly, the bars will be open !!
Where I live, the streets are lined with fairy lights and decorations. The locals will be out and about visiting families and friends so I suspect the streets will be crowded.
This entry for the Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy of the Year 2010, is perfect for Hari Raya I think. Besides what a great photo ? Go here to see the rest of the gobsmacking entries.
To L in Singapore who is, for the first time in probably 10 years, celebrating Raya with her family. Have a great time !
As I fuss over the kitchen conjuring up menus for the day / week , I am always running out of clean dishcloths and so I think, it's time for an apron. Besides, it can get a little mundane having to cook everyday and maybe having a cute little outfit for the kitchen might just add a little colour and more.
Here are some aprons I would consider. These romantic aprons are from Aussie shop Mozi
Seltzer Studios has this fun one for USD 32.00. The pocket would be useful.
Or this Grace half apron which is so sweet and vintage inspired, at USD 31.00. Almost wearable outdoors.
This sexy number from Cupcake Provocateur is pretty wild eh? More for a Bewitched theme party than any practical use I think. If I were a Harajuku girl...
Of course I had to see what Anthropologie had and this caught my eye. A lace up apron in blue or purple.
Remember the days of Disney's Bambi or 101 Dalmations ? The Illusionist was released earlier this year in Europe to lukewarm response. It would seem it failed to stand up to the the louder, fast moving cartoons like Shrek. It's like watching an old man trained in clock repairs with his rickety tools, stand in the same ring as a young techie fixing computer viruses online.
The screenplay was written in 1956 by Jacques Tati and the plot is about a struggling illusionist who meets a young lady and a paternal relationship develops. The reason why it took so long for it to be made was apparently because Tati wrote it for one of his daughters, whom he felt guilty of abandoning. In his own way, he was trying to reconnect with her.
I am a sucker for packaging. The first impression is a lasting one for me and often is what I base my purchasing decisions on. So if a book had an ugly cover, I wouldn't buy it, even if it was a bestseller.
So when I do my shopping for groceries, I always default to Waitrose products because they do have a great design, always modern and eye catching. They did change their tinned tomatoes label a while back and I really liked it.
Their other canned products have a really modern streamlined look which I totally buy too.
Harvey Nichols food market is one of the places I love to get lost in. Their elegant style extends to the food aisles and I know the exorbitant prices are for the packaging not the product but who can resist.
This is the espresso gift hamper which includes cups, coffee and cookies. I could reuse the tins so that would make paying 50 quid for this less insane...?
At this design packaging blog The dieline.com, they featured this stunning range of hot sauces.
The packaging was designed by a student Stephanie Hughes. She created recipe books that uses mini bottles as a bookmark, how clever !
The cork stoppers and chunky bottles in a wooden mini crate add a really nice rustic feel to the product.
Where can I get some ?!
What about this adorable honey bottles?
Also a feature on dieline.com, the design company Ah&Oh fashioned cute glass bottles to look like the bumble bee.
This is beyond cute.
Another super design that I could not get over, was this origami packaging for a dessert company Meringue, by student Samira Khoshnood. How absolutely beautiful isn't it?
I say, produce this in opaque plastic so we can reuse it as a cake box. On that note, have a lovely weekend everyone, hope you see something gorgeous in your everyday surroundings too!
I am slowly putting the baby room together and the colour scheme that is emerging is a combination of royal blues and turquoise. I am thinking maybe of throwing an third colour as an accent but can't decide on which.
I won a contest ! Several spas in Doha held a competition for the best answer to what makes a great spa. The winner would receive a year's supply of free facials at Secrets 974 spa. I wrote a little blurb and sent it in last minute. Apparently my email was detailed enough and was voted top answer so they picked me !
What a super surprise and so I booked myself the first facial this Thursday ! I have not tried their facials but did one pedicure there which was good.
I have not really tried out the spas in Doha due to the vast price difference compared to Asian rates. In Malaysia, going to spas were fairly typical as there are so many and prices are very affordable. Manicures cost as little as RM 30-40. Most of the spas in Doha are within 5 star hotels which explain the high prices.
Six Senses spa in Sharq village is touted to be the most luxurious and pricey of spas. I took a peek once and was very impressed. Here is a photo of the welcome lobby.
The gym is open to members and they have taichi classes, yoga and prayer rooms. A full day treatment program sets you back at least QR 1,000.
The W Hotel Bliss spa looks nice too. It has modern and funky interiors like their hexagonal pools.
The other hotels with spas include Angsana at Grand Regency and Juala at Grand Hyatt.
Secrets 974 is not housed within a hotel but along the main road of Salwa Road. A basic pedicure there costs QR 90 and they appear to have a good range of massage treatments but I don't know the range of facial products they use. I guess I will find out later in the week.
image from Secrets website
Glow American Salon is another along Salwa Road, and they are popular with expat ladies for their hair cuts and spa treatments. I did try their facial once and it was very thorough. The lady had deft hands and expertly handled my problem areas. The product line is french label Esthederm which was so good, I bought the moisturiser.
