My brothers and I used to love watching that show when we were kids. But the airtime of the series seemed to be quite erratic... because I don't remember being able to watch it every week consistently.
Something I was watching on TV the other day made me suddenly start thinking about The Muppet Show... I started rambling on to hubby about all my favourite characters from the show...
Thee characters that stood out in my memory were:
Miss Piggy and her insane obsession and stalking of Kermit the Frog
Gonzo the Great and his death defying stunts that always fell apart
And the character that always cracked us up the most was...
Animal, the neurotic drummer.
Here's my favourite clip of 'Animal' - the one where he does 'Fever' with Rita Moreno.
I remember my bros and I doubling over with laughter each time Animal bashes the drums whenever Rita sings "...FEVER!!!"
(Sam/Paul, are you smiling yet?)
And for those of you who don't know who this 'Animal' is... this next clip should be a good little introduction to his character
Been keeping my breadmaker pretty busy with new experiments every week or so.
One of my most recent baking attempts is to make my own mini buns or rolls. I already knew that plain buns would not go down well with the hubby, so I made sure to plan the inclusion of various fillings in the process.
These are mini sausage buns fresh out of the oven...
Hubby was very intrigued when he saw my first batch...
"Your breadmaker so clever ah? Just throw the ingredients inside and it can shape and bake the bread so nice nice like this?"
If only it was that clever. No... in this case I used the breadmaker for the kneading and rising stage. Then after that I took the dough out to shape into mini buns and put the filling inside.
Apart from sausages, I also made some with cheese, kaya, and red bean paste (tau sar).
After that I put them aside for a second rising...
Then it goes into the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until they turn golden brown and the whole kitchen smells warm and yummy.
I've had some special requests to make pork floss buns or pineapple buns in one of my next batches (the latter might be a bit of a challenge, but I'll see what I can do!)
Hubby's birthday is coming up soon in May. I've been planning something special leading up to the big day. After some contemplation, I came up with what I believe to be a romantic and definitely creative idea...
I can't tell you what the big finale on the actual day is because hubby reads this blog as well. But I decided to prepare some clues for hubby every day to build up the anticipation up until his birthday.
At first I thought of putting the clues in little envelopes which he can open each day, but then I had a sudden epiphany...
FORTUNE COOKIES!!!
After doing a bit of research, I found out that they were not that difficult to make... just requires a bit of thought and preparation.
This is the recipe I used:
Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water
Beat egg whites, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, sugar. Stir the water into the flour mixture, then combine with the egg white mixture until you have a smooth paste like batter.
Preheat the oven to 180°Celcius. Drop teaspoons of the batter onto a cookie sheet and spread out into a circle about 8-10cm in diametre. Make sure the batter is spaced about 3-4cm apart.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes until the edges start to brown. Remove the cookie from the sheet with a spatula, flip over and place small strip of paper in the middle of the cookie. The cookie will be still hot and pliable at this stage. Quickly fold in half then gently pull edges downward over a rim of a glass.
I then placed the folded cookies in muffin tins to let them cool down while maintaining their shape.
It took one or two tries at first before I got the hang of it. I burnt a couple of fingers but after that it was pretty straightforward process.
Here's the finished product with the clues all folded up neatly inside each cookie...
Sorry I didn't capture any photos of the process as I had to work very quickly with the hot cookies, and I couldn't ask hubby to help take the photos obviously... maybe the next time I make them, k?
Cookies all nicely gift-wrapped to present to hubby...
He was very excited to receive the cookies and is now hugging the jar possessively while waiting for me to finish this entry so we can unwrap the first clue...
Last night we had pizza night at our place... a couple of the gals prepared the ingredients and toppings, and everyone gathered round our kitchen island to make their own pizza.
We mainly used pita flatbread for the individual pizza portions. But I also prepared a batch of homemade pizza dough using my breadmaker. We split the dough into two... one for a large savoury pizza, and the other we decided to attempt a dessert pizza!
All the gals just put our heads together to just whack whatever sweet ingredients we could think of that was available in my larder...
If you want to attempt it at home: we used Nutella as a chocolate base, topped with marshmallows, crushed nuts, banana, chocolate easter eggs, meringue pieces and chocolate wafer sticks... (gosh! I know it sounds sinful!)
Voila! Looks good hey? I think can lawan Little Caesar's gourmet dessert pizza man!
Hot hot hot day today! 33°C. But this might one of the last few sunny weekends before the colder weather sets in :(
I wore my denim miniskirt out today as I hadn't worn it at all this whole summer... and this might be the last chance I get to. I even wore my jasmine flower accessory for an extra summer touch.
After we got home, I decided to be a bit cheeky to try and play the seducteress on hubs. I was wearing a mini skirt after all. Unfortunately, hubs said all he felt like doing then was taking a nap.
*ish* Celaka... ape ni? Kena rejected pula!
After pinching hubs for some attention a few times, I gave up and went to wash up.
I walked pass him a few minutes later in my ratty t-shirt, no make up, glasses and hair in pony-tail.
"Oi! You missed your chance with the hot babe, hon. Now too bad, you're just left with me"
*cuddle moment*
"That's ok, I like this one better anyway. And I feel more at home now!"
First day of the long weekend today! Sooooo nice man.
We went out to catch a movie with some of the youths today at Carousel (it took a loooong time, but finally they managed to make a reasonably all rounded decision to watch 'Paul Blart - Mall Cop'... I guess 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' is a bit too chick flicky for some guys to stomach).
I had a nostalgic moment today. We had picked up Jason along the way, and while we were turning into Leach Highway, he randomly pointed out a dead bird lying on the sidewalk.
It was a crow lying with it's legs in the air. Definitely dead.
And suddenly in that moment, I had a flashback...
I was about eleven or twelve. My bros and I were happily traipsing down the street one afternoon when we caught side of a bird hopping frantically by the road side.
"I think the bird must be injured or something, let's go nearer to see"
We approached the bird. It kept hopping away but didn't fly. After many attempts we finally managed to catch it. I had to climb down into the longkang to catch it and handed it up to my brother.
"Look a parrot!", Sam made the bird perch on his finger.
Unfortunately the bird used this as an escape opening and hopped off Sam's finger.
And even more unfortunately, my dog Snowball lost no time and immediately pounced on it, shaking the poor bird in its teeth.
You can probably imagine the screams, shouts and scrambling that ensued.
We quickly retrieved the bird after Snowball playfully tossed it aside, and rushed home to try and administer first aid.
The poor bird was badly injured with blood oozing out from wounds all over it's fragile brown body. We tried everything we could to try and save it... putting iodine (from mum's first aid kit) on it's wounds, applying bandages on it's wounds...
Eventually (as you probably guessed) the little brown bird died.
Although we were quite disappointed, we gave it the most decent burial we could. The nameless bird was placed in a shoebox and buried in the open field in front of our house.
Conclusion: As much as the three of us loved animals, none of us became vets (not implying anything, just stating a fact)
Hope it continues to thrive well on hubby's potent worm tea and grow big and strong so I can have lots and lots and lotssssss of chillies!!!
So mum, you can breath a sigh of relief that our little green charges are still alive... and thriving!
I hope our little chilli plant grows up big and strong. Hubby's next task will be to transplant it to the garden bed. (Hmmm... is it safe to transplant a plant while it's fruiting though???)
Breakfast is always a big weekend thing for me. This weekend hubby suddenly felt like going somewhere 'nice' for breakfast. So this morning we headed out to have breakfast before church.
We went to the same place where I had my last brunch date.
I had eggs royal this time (poached eggs on toast with holondaise sauce and smoked salmon on turkish bread) while hubby went all out with the big breakfast.
Weekends are so precious. There is always so much to do... house cleaning, gardening, grocery shopping and other such errands. But no matter how much we have to do, hubby and I always try to carve out some time over the weekend to pause and simply 'catch up' over breakfast or brunch.
Here we don't discuss work...
Or talk about problems...
Or things to do around the house...
But we start sharing plans... ideas... things that inspired us...
Here we recapture the 'us' in our relationship all over again.
Trivial Pursuit: a very pretty looking game that makes you feel dumb
I did manage to answer one question: what is the name of scientist which the space telescoped launched in 1990 was named after. At least that's one small consolation.
More art... this time it's Sculptures by the Sea @ Cottlesloe Beach. This was an art display using the surf, sun and sand as the art gallery itself. Hubby and I headed down there the previous Sunday for fish and chips, followed by a leisurely stroll in the company of some friends to have a look.
Cottlesloe Beach Fish and chips Sands of time? Imagine: no 'I', just you and me Experimenting with the reflection and background Drawing a line in the sand
Miss Piggy and her insane obsession and stalking of Kermit the Frog
Animal, the neurotic drummer.
