Cam Whore

15 December...

some photos from our life in Morges..

Some warnings:
~ It contains a lot of pictures of mountain, lake, inanimate objects, trees and duck
~ Camera hates us. It makes us look fat although we are really 5 kg lighter than we look
~ Most photo have been digitally enhanced (another excuse why jem "thinks" he needs a new camera lens...) "It is all about the camera, not the photographer. Let's drink some wine"

X'mas in Morges

Coffee, tea or cheese?

25 Christmas - SUNNY!

We start the day with great anticipation of opening presents... yes, call us shallow and materialistic and what have you not...

This is what Jem got for me!

~ A table top grill with raclette! So guess what Jem will be having for dinner tonight?!?!

~ Raclette is a kind of chesse and also refers to a dish using this cheese. Raclette originates from Swiss (Valais) and very popular during winter. Heat up sliced raclette cheese till it is soft and then mixed it with boiled potatoes, other vegetables, charcuterie, and perhaps seafood. Raclette party is very popular in this part of the world - shame I don't like cheese :)


This is what I got for Jem!


~ A single served, capsule system, coffee machine - the Nescafe Dolce Gusto Circolo

~ It looks uber cool (kinda like a spaceship invading earth, one kitchen at a time), 1 coffee capsule cost SGD 0.50 and readily available in supermarket, makes great cappucino, chococino, mocha, expresso, long black and latte machiato...

~ This beats nespresso ANYTIME!


~ All the lovely capsules...



~ Demonstration of the machine in Italian...

We are gonna get high on coffee and cheese tonight..

All we want for Christmas is - PRESENTS!

24 December - CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas is one of our favourite holiday every year. For me - mainly due to presents. I am honest.... I get extremely excited when I buy someone a fantastic gift or when I received one.

Yes, I know Christmas is the time to cherish your loved ones, make peace with the past, spending time with family & friends etc etc but like most people I know, Jeremy and I spend time a lot of time with our family (before we move to S'land). We have dinner, talk on the phone, chat on msn, web cam chat etc so Christmas is like any other day.

The 2 things that sets Christmas apart from other "normal" days are the FOOD we eat and the PRESENTS! Jem and I decided that we will be opening our stash of presents tomorrow!


My present to Jem are wrap.. his to me are in plastic bags with scotch tape! The Olive Green present came all the way from Singapore!


We decided on a somewhat more traditional dinner tonight... as ALL the shops will be closed tomorrow, today was a major grocery day for us :)



Oooh la la....



Rocket Leaves salad with Mango and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing



"just-right" heated Escargot with sinful herb butter



Heavenly pieces of Ham top with Lingonberry and Brown Sauce and Pâté en Croûte


We had a nice quiet Christmas eve dinner.. each lost in thoughts wondering... What are in those nicely wrapped up boxes?!?!

The mighty has fallen...... ill

Jem is ill........ he has fever and the flu... he has been going to bed at 9.30pm yesterday night and tonight...


Photo taken @ 9.35pm

Despite being ill... he is very determined to go IKEA tomorrow to get his WINE! "It will kill all the virus"... er yah.... sure.

Wanton mee....

21 December

Because we were sooo desperate for wanton noodles, I decided to try.. After all, how bad can it be?

I made the wantons on Sunday and have them refrigerated and deep fried them today..


BEFORE


AFTER

Result: YUMMY!

My mother-in-law send me the recipe for charsiew (she can sense my desperation) and I was ask to buy "kum sum yok" or pork with fats and to avoid pork fillet. Now I have NOOOOOOOOO idea how to say that in french. So I just pointed my finger at some random cut of pork..


Roasting in the oven...


All sliced up!

Result: Not bad at all.. but nothing beats the char siew back home

Noodles - I bought some chinese egg noodles from Ly Thanh and after boiling in hot water, dump in cold water and boil again.. the texture was good. Added oyster sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce, dark sauce and mix it all up.... and ta dah.........!



THE NOODLES WERE AWFUL!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha... I would happily take pointers from anyone since I have 2 more coils of noodles!

Happy Toes

21 December - Wet and cold

The best advice I have ever received from a friend is this:

"It is all about the layering (of clothes) and make sure it (shoes) has Goretex"

Goretex? What the hell is that? It sounds like a crossover between a Porn Movie and Friday the 13th. Amy can almost qualify as the smartest friend I have sans a PhD and that is exactly what I did before coming over to Switzerland.

So I ask Jem and since he is the guru all of things material (or so he claims)... he went all smarty pants at me..

"Of course I know what is Goretex... I have vast knowledge, you know. Goretex is expanded polytetrafluoroethylenethylenetylenethylenethylene * blah * blah * blah *"

After googling (I am self proclaimed Queen of Google), Goretex is the most amazing material every created! It is breathable, waterproof and windproof! You cannot imagine how important all those elements are in the winter.

So off I went in search of good walking shoes with Goretex and VOILA! TIMBERLAND has them... So time to ring up another friend who can get me AMAZING AMAZING discount and bought 2 pairs (1 for me and 1 for Mr Smarty Pants)!

We have trekked through snow piles, slippery & dirty icy slush along the road in chilly wind and we are so happy that our toes stay nice, warm and cosy :)




Happy Toes = Happy People

All we do is eat

19 & 20 December - snowing.. majorly...

Tami (in her pitchy voice): "Oh my god! You are sooo auntie already!"

Yes, I admit I am getting very auntie-ish. My life consist of work (which takes up 1/2 a day), cook, eat, clean and sleep. So as I was web-caming with my sis on Friday evening, I had to start cooking whilst talking and that was when she made the remark... so I am dedicating this post to what Jem and I have been eating the last 2 days...

Saturday...

we bought this frozen escargot from Coop and it was not bad. Not as succulent as the ones you find at a restaurant but I suspect we didn't heat this up enough.


Jem grilled the steak and I made the mushroom sauce.. being the meat eater we are, our plates were licked clean!


Sunday....

We had Mee Siam and Gyoza for lunch followed by Ham, mushroom raviolis and salad for dinner.


Thanks to Prima Taste, this Mee Siam is truly one of my favourite! As I can't find taupok here, I had to do without it. I also decided to spend CHF 1.95 (or freaking SGD 2.50 on 150g of taugeh)


This salad is made up of Rucola leaves, ham cubes and pear with Balsamic Vinegar dressing from Movenpick (who also made yummy ice creams!)


We had Mushroom Raviolis bought from Aligro for CHF 10 (or SGD 13.60) for 1kg! For 7 servings, this is well worth it...


I bought this Ham from Coop as it was on Action and will form part of our Christmas eve menu.. pair this with Lingonberry Jam from Ikea and you get a match made in heaven!


Monday...

I am attempting wanton mee for dinner tomorrow but have no clue how to make charsiew! But will certainly try!


Gosh I miss the charsiew made by Jem's mom.. miss the charsiew from HV market... miss the charsiew at Clementi Market.. just miss any charsiew