At the insistence of our I'm-the-center-of-the-universe-the-world-revolves-around-me coworker, we ordered Eddie's for lunch today. Not liking the breaded chicken in thickened sauce, I thought I would try something else, and the Spicy Thai Green Curry Chicken sounded really appealing. I was expecting the kind of Thai Green Curry I know - thin but packed with flavours of lemongrass and coconut, but little did I know Eddie's interpretation of Thai Green Curry Chicken is breaded cubes of chicken in a thick and greasy green sauce that is spicy. There was no coconut nor lemongrass nor anything Thai about it, and it was so thick and greasy that I could hardly stomach it. I ended up eating less than half of the generous serving, and I don't really know what to do with what's left. Good thing the lunch special was served with corn soup and spring rolls, otherwise I wouldn't have managed to enjoy lunch.
By the way, we all got Eddie's because of her, but the one who insisted on Eddie's in the first place did not enjoy her lunch neither - apparently the manchurian chicken she ordered left a really bad aftertaste in her mouth. We think it's just her being picky.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Word of the Day: Limbo
Limbo: "an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place", "a region on the border of hell"
I absolutely hate being in limbo - but that's where we are, knowing about the impending misfortune but not a clue when it will actually happen. Makes it all the more stressful - kind of like that Nicolas Cage movie "Knowing" - you know it's happening, but you can't do anything about it. The helplessness makes it all the harder to deal with the actual blow.
Interestingly, as the stress level built up, the more make-up I am seeing around the office. I for one used to come in with the bare essentials - eye liner and a quick dab of concealer for the dark circles under my eyes, but lately, I've been needing more: powder, 2 to 3 shades of eyeshadows, shiny lip gloss... and I can see my coworkers are being quite ornated too. I wonder why?
I absolutely hate being in limbo - but that's where we are, knowing about the impending misfortune but not a clue when it will actually happen. Makes it all the more stressful - kind of like that Nicolas Cage movie "Knowing" - you know it's happening, but you can't do anything about it. The helplessness makes it all the harder to deal with the actual blow.
Interestingly, as the stress level built up, the more make-up I am seeing around the office. I for one used to come in with the bare essentials - eye liner and a quick dab of concealer for the dark circles under my eyes, but lately, I've been needing more: powder, 2 to 3 shades of eyeshadows, shiny lip gloss... and I can see my coworkers are being quite ornated too. I wonder why?
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Summer Corn Dip
For my boss's and coworker's birthdays yesterday I had also brought in a corn dip - I was going to bring some bruschetta, but since my Italian coworker is already bringing her famous salsa, I would bring something else that would go nice with it. Now I wasn't brave enough to try my hands at guacamole, and I didn't really want to endure another trip to the grocery store, so I improvised with what I had on hand. Turns out the dip I made was a star - everyone in the office was raving about it and everybody I talked to requested the recipe for it:
Mix everything in a bowl, then add enough mayo to coat mixture (3 -4 tbsp?) and freshly ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate overnight.
Serve with Melba toast, crackers or tortilla chips. Enjoy :)
- 1 canned corn kernels, drained (I used Del Monte Summer Crisp - hence the name)
- 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
- 1 small roma tomato, seeds removed, diced
- 1 baby cucumber, finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
- 2 thai chili peppers (small red pointy ones), seeds removed, finely chopped – be careful handling these as they burn (skin, eyes, nose, whatever they come into contact with)!!
- A squeeze of kraft sundried tomato and oregano dressing (1 tbspn?) - I think it would be nice to add some lime juice but I didn’t have any on hand so I used this instead.
Mix everything in a bowl, then add enough mayo to coat mixture (3 -4 tbsp?) and freshly ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate overnight.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Challenge: No Flour Allowed - Chocolate Truffle Cake
Today was my boss and my dear coworker's birthdays (yes, they share the same birthday, and there's another lady in the department down the hall that also had her birthday today), so likely always I made a cake for the occasion. This time around, however, they were proactive in planning the celebration and had taken care of the fruits and snack and cake - but there was one coworker in our group that was allergic to gluten and it didn't seem like he could enjoy the cakes nor the other treats. So I rose to the challenge and made a cake that he, too, can enjoy: a chocolate truffle cake.
The original recipe was found in Good Housekeeping Great Baking (which, by the way, is the best cookbook EVER), this is adapted to what I had in terms of time and ingredients:
Wrap bottom of an 9” spring-form pan with foil and grease. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In big bowl, make ganache by combining 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks, and 16 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 1/2 bag of Hershey's special dark chocolate chips) - microwave at low power for 30 seconds, stir, then repeat until melted and smooth.
In another bowl, beat 9 egg yolks with mixer at high speed until thick and lemon-coloured, about 3 minutes. Gently fold yolks into ganache using rubber spatula until just blended (colour uniform throughout).
In another CLEAN bowl and CLEAN beaters, beat 9 egg whites at high speed until almost stiff (soft peak = when you lift beaters the whites stay standing but doesn’t hold its shape). Gently fold 1/3 of the ganache mixture into the whites then fold the whites into the rest of the ganache. Fold just until cake batter is uniform in colour.
Pour cake batter into pan and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven immediately – the centre will still be jiggly but DO NOT OVERBAKE. Let cake cool in pan for an hour then transfer into fridge – refrigerate overnight.
Run knife around the side of cake to separate from pan, then remove side of spring-form pan. Invert cake onto serving plate then lift pan bottom and peel off foil. Dust with confectioner’s sugar or garnish with whipped cream (which I had forgot to bring today, but it still turned out great - it's just that it doesn't look very pretty...)
The original recipe was found in Good Housekeeping Great Baking (which, by the way, is the best cookbook EVER), this is adapted to what I had in terms of time and ingredients:
Wrap bottom of an 9” spring-form pan with foil and grease. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In big bowl, make ganache by combining 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks, and 16 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 1/2 bag of Hershey's special dark chocolate chips) - microwave at low power for 30 seconds, stir, then repeat until melted and smooth.
In another bowl, beat 9 egg yolks with mixer at high speed until thick and lemon-coloured, about 3 minutes. Gently fold yolks into ganache using rubber spatula until just blended (colour uniform throughout).
In another CLEAN bowl and CLEAN beaters, beat 9 egg whites at high speed until almost stiff (soft peak = when you lift beaters the whites stay standing but doesn’t hold its shape). Gently fold 1/3 of the ganache mixture into the whites then fold the whites into the rest of the ganache. Fold just until cake batter is uniform in colour.
Pour cake batter into pan and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven immediately – the centre will still be jiggly but DO NOT OVERBAKE. Let cake cool in pan for an hour then transfer into fridge – refrigerate overnight.
Run knife around the side of cake to separate from pan, then remove side of spring-form pan. Invert cake onto serving plate then lift pan bottom and peel off foil. Dust with confectioner’s sugar or garnish with whipped cream (which I had forgot to bring today, but it still turned out great - it's just that it doesn't look very pretty...)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Yummies
I had pickled some radish and carrots, thinking they would be nice in cold spring rolls, but I never got around to getting all the ingredients and making them until this weekend.
And guess what I found at the Asian supermarket when I was picking up the mint and basil for the spring rolls? RAMBUTANS!! I love rambutans because they are often sweeter yet more refreshing than the lychee. The only thing is the skin of the seed usually gets stuck and are quite hard to remove. If you haven't tried them, don't be scared of this red hairy fruit - they are delicious!!
And guess what I found at the Asian supermarket when I was picking up the mint and basil for the spring rolls? RAMBUTANS!! I love rambutans because they are often sweeter yet more refreshing than the lychee. The only thing is the skin of the seed usually gets stuck and are quite hard to remove. If you haven't tried them, don't be scared of this red hairy fruit - they are delicious!!
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