Cadbury Marvellous Creations

Marvellous Creations, 290g ($8.90)

When Cadbury first launches the Marvellous Creations, i thought the chocolate was so much more expensive than our regular chocolate bars of the same weight. What's its specialty, i had wondered?

Now, i'm totally enchanted by its flavor of "Jelly Popping Candy Beanies". For the first time, popping sweets are introduced into chocolates - the popping sweets which exists in the late 80s, 'explodes' in the mouths and brought much fun and laughters to our simple childhood. Now it's here! Packaged conveniently in the chocolate bars; a tad pricey and tasted really sweet, but worth the nostalgia.

The "Jelly and Crunchie Bits" bores no surprises; sticks easily to the tooth and are even sweeter! I still want my popping sweets!

Pink Roses Cross-Stitch - 66 x 54cm

And so i finished it this morning. My first and probably only, large cross-stitch (66 x 54cm) on cloth. The feel was wonderful as i ran my fingers on the stitches after loosening the piece from its fasteners...

Remembering the morning when i started the piece in November 2012, i was feeling like a great painter who pitches his easel in the garden where the abundance of natural lights threw in.

26.11.2012

It wasn't plain sailing as this was my first large scale cross-stitching. I got the orientation wrong and the color chart misinterpreted - wasted a month's labor and had to redo. After that, i learned.

20.02.2013

25.04.2013

Finally, something to show for after 6 months of labor - after 6 shades of Red, 2 Greens, 2 Pinks. You can't tell the many color tones just by looking yah? That's the beauty of this.

My plan was to start with the darkest color tone so as to prevent the lighter threads from fading or getting soiled.

28.05.2013 - Another 3 Browns and 1 Pink.

06.07.2013 - Another 1 Green, 1 Brown, 1 Pink.

31.08.2013 - 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 3 Browns, 1 Orange, 1 Grey

13.10.2013 - 2 Greens, 2 Pinks, 2 Browns, 1 Yellow, 1 White, 4 Blues

28.12.2013 - Finishing up with lightest tone of 3 Blues, 2 Yellows, 1 Pink, 2 Browns, 1 Grey, 1 Orange, 1 Green 

The last weeks of December had me finishing the group of flowers slowly; this week the blue; the next week the yellow; and the final 2 weeks spent stitching up the pink roses.

I hope this will not be my first and last piece. It was really time consuming and taxing on the eyes - i didn't know if i could still afford the luxury when the next piece comes along. I wish to.

Sweet Sparkling for the Christmas!

Pink by Yellowglen Australia Sparkling Wine, 11% Alc. Vol. ($21.95)

Bottega Petalo Il Vino dell' Amore Moscato, 6.5% Alc. Vol.

For someone inexperience with wine, Nick brought these bottles thinking they made nice red wines for us. But they aren't, both are sparkling whites ;)

Pink has a light pinkish hue with subtle fruity character, aromatic and bubbly. Blind-folded, we would have thought a bubbling Chardonnay was served. Without a doubt, Pink is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes!

The Italian Petalo Il Vino dell' Amore, "Wine of Love" is distinctly perfumed with scent of roses! The first sip of the Moscato is impressively good - i thought it would be a winner with the ladies, but i couldn't take the second glass without feeling i'm drinking a cologne; went back to the Pink.

Cheers!

Christmas Order from Zac Butchery

1. Roasted Turkey, 6-8lbs. Include Traditional Cranberry sauce ($45)

2. Roasted Bone-in-Leg of Lamb, 2-2.5kg. Include lamb sauce ($58)

3. Chicken Ham Honey Baked Ball, 1kg ($14)

4. Beef Shepherd's Pie, 2.2kg ($48)

Every year, Nick would personally pick up his Christmas order from Zac Butchery factory at Woodlands Terrace. It is safer this way. Last Christmas, we waited for their delivery van which never did come..

The food will be served warm and cooked, not requiring re-heating like those ordered from the Cold Storage - we heard Cold Storage took orders from Zac too? You heard?

Anyway, the family always near finished the Turkey, with the Chicken ham being the popular packing choice for next morning breakfast. This year, i thought the roasted lamb is a nice addition - except, you do need some good teeth at some point of the chewing. The Shepherd's Pie was toasty with rich cheese and has moist minced meat beneath the layer of finely mashed potatoes, but we were choosing the roast meats over it.

A Very Merry Christmas to you!
Hope you are surrounded by loved ones too. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Elsie's Kitchen Catering

CHEER! 

Festive Delicacy - Honey Glazed Chicken Ham Platter

Rice - Festive Christmas Fried Rice with Peppers and Chicken Ham

Noodles - Seafood Mee Goreng

Chicken - Lemon Chicken

Vegetables - Baby Kailan with Mushrooms

Fish - Emperor Fish with Tartar sauce

Others - Rocky Shrimp Ball

Snacks - Blueberry Cheese Tart

Dessert - Snowy Cinnamon Rolls

Beverage - Coffee

Attended a corporate Christmas celebration that caters the festive Cheer! menu ($14.87 w/GST, min. 40 pax) from Elsie Kitchen. Nothing to fave about but pretty decent food, except for the oiliness of the fried rice and yellowed vegetables - can't blame the caterer during the peak of the Season.

We heard from the office that they often order from Elsie, and food execution has been good. I thought i enjoyed the simple lunch which ended well with blueberry cheese tarts and thick coffee.

Their out-sourced log cake however, tasted disappointingly crumbly and is a mischief to the Christmas feast.

Festive Side Orders: 1.5kg Christmas Log Cake ($55.64 w/GST)

Stamps Collecting - it's out of your era?

This is a familiar, yet bizarre sight as i watched the stamps (cut out of old envelopes) getting submerged in the pail of clear water. How long was it, that i last did this? It was many, many years back.

Today, i was clearing my desk for the new PC. Saw this pack of dusty stamps that was lying around, waiting to be remove it from its sticky back, so i decided to do it - the last soak.

I am finalizing my collection after this.

You know how to do the stamps soaking? I almost forgot. Really.

As the stamps were removed from the water, i was suddenly reminded that China stamps have the most stubborn glue; Japanese stamps are of the smallest size; and as kids, we were most fantasies by the colorful Christmas themed stamps from far away countries, like the States and Australia.

This post registered my nostalgia.