In Pursuit of Perfection?

Being such an avid fashion (and I have to admit, tabloid) magazine reader, I've always wished I could look like these beautiful glamorous women in the pages of the magazines. And though I know everything has been photoshopped, and it's unrealistic and impossible to look as good as these women, I guess I never really understood till my friend, a psychologist, sent this video to me. Take a look, and get a body image readjustment, and most importantly, feel better about the way you look :)

Baking Up A Storm

During my trip to LA, I got myself some new toys (from Sur La Table) to play with in the kitchen, but I hadn't been able to find time to try them out till now ...

First up: My gorgeous shiny new egg beater!

While this is no KitchenAid, it definitely beats a whisk hands down! I remember helping my mom to bake cakes using this when I was little ... and given the different power voltages in the various places I've lived in, I decided against getting anything that need to be plugged-in till I found a permanent home. Besides, this new toy of mine needs only very little storage space - perfect for a small kitchen like mine!

Next up: My Potato Masher!

After bending my forks out-of-shape to mash my potatoes, I finally decided it was time to get a proper potato masher. And I must say that the Sur La Table staff were really wonderful in their recommendations. I told her I was looking for a potato masher, but a basic model cos I wouldn't use it on such a regular basis (we Chinese are afterall basically rice eaters), and she told me this was her favorite as it had a good grip - as evidenced by the brand "OXO Good Grips" :) Having tried it out mashing sweet potatoes AND whole canned tomatoes, I definitely second her recommendation! Excellent sales staff at Sur La Table, South Coast Plaza, California!

Lastly, my pastry cutter! Now, this isn't fm LA, but I had to post a pic of it, cos it really is quite wonderful for making cookies and tart crusts. This is a Japanese one which I'd mentioned here - it's from a little bakeware shop in Taipei.

What I made with my new toys:

Tiramisu! Using my brand new egg beater, I managed to beat my egg whites to soft peaks in less than half the time I took using my whisk! And managed to make this beautiful tiramisu :)

Was partly inspired to make this tiramisu cos I found a packet of half-chocolate ladyfingers at CitySuper - they really made the tiramisu soooo good!

And I also made a Sweet Potato Tart! I had seen some purple sweet potatoes at the market the other day, and wanted to find out if they tasted the same as other sweet potatoes, so I bought some. Initially, I'd wanted to put them in my teochew porridge, but decided against it, as I figured purple porridge may not look particularly appetising ... hahhaha .... so, I was wondering what to do with these sweet potatoes when I found a recipe in a cooking magazine "Taste". And here it is ... my Sweet Potato Tart!

Notice that the filling is purple? I only wish I had a deeper tart dish so I could heap more sweet potato filling in it :)

Bow-Ties and Meatballs

Hubby had been requesting for this dish - meatballs n pasta - for the longest time, and I normally make it with spaghetti, cos that's how it's commonly served. But this time, Hubby asked for bow-tie pasta ... hmmm ... then I suddenly remembered my friend D giving me a packet of bow-tie pasta (farfalle) before she moved back to the States, so here's my very pretty bow-tie pasta with meatballs!

Almond Jelly

So after we had the almond jelly near the fabric market (see my post here), we took a walk around there - Di Hua Jie - famous for selling all kinds of Chinese herbs and dried goods. And I found a packet of almond powder, which is essentially ground-up almond. A lot of Taiwanese and Chinese use this to make drinks as it's supposedly good for the lungs/dry coughs. When I saw it, I was seized with inspiration! Why not use this to make almond jelly?

And voila! Here's the almond jelly I made with the almond powder ...

The top layer which looks milky is actually where all the almond powder kinda condensed - it gives the jelly a bit of grit/crunch ... but maybe next time, I'll try to sieve that out. Meanwhile, I'm happy with my lil experiment :)

Quirky Conservative?

I was watching 500 Days of Summer yesterday, and was admiring Zooey Deschanel's look in the movie. Her co-star called her look "retro 60s" - not quite the immaculate Mad Men's 60s fashion, but a modern day quirky conservative/60s look I think. Then, coincidentally, I was checking out this blog - liebemarlene vintage - and she reminded me so much of Zooey Deschanel! All this started me thinking that I'd like to dress like this now and then!

While I'm generally pretty conservative, quirky I don't think I am. That said, I do like to have different looks ... sometimes I want to look more edgy, or glamorous, or in this instance, quirky ... so I wonder if I could pull this look off, without looking too old-fashioned/frumpy/schoolmarm-ish ...

This is taken fm liebermarlene vintage's blog...

And here are some shots of Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer ...

You've Got Mail ...

For some reason or other, recently, everytime I flip to HBO, they're showing You've Got Mail, and everytime I'm more than happy to watch it again. So that got me thinking ... here's my list of romantic comedies that never fail to make me feel good :)

1. You've Got Mail (of course!)

2. Something's Gotta Give

3. As Good As It Gets

4. Love Actually

(love love love the Hugh Grant dancing scene!)

5. Four Weddings and a Funeral

6. Bridget Jones' Diary

7. Some Kind of Wonderful

8. When Harry Met Sally

9. 50 First Dates

10. Legally Blonde

11. Miss Congeniality

12. Two Weeks' Notice

13. Run, Fat Boy, Run

14. Roman Holiday

15. Dirty Dancing

(is that counted even if it isn't quite a comedy?)

16. Music & Lyrics

17. Romancing the Stone

What are your fav romantic comedies?

Holang Spring Collection!

Holang's Spring Collection is available now!

This collection includes my finds from Taipei (made in HK/Korea), as well as a special few items I picked up in USA from the Liberty for Target line. While I was drawn to the colourful floral prints, there are also some nautical influences (namely wearable stripes) and classic solids/graphic prints with a contemporary/modern twist. Perfect for Spring 2010!

Please check them out at Holang.

I hope you'll enjoy this collection as much as I've enjoyed putting them together!

Do let me know if you're interested in any of these items!

Happy Browsing!