Busy as a bee.....

We are having great weather these days.....warm sunny days with nice sea breezes...and the days are long too with the sun rising before 6am and setting after 8pm. With nice days like these....it just seems a waste to be couped up at home. We have been out enjoying the sunshine quite abit. We have our meals outdoor, have coffee outdoor and even our laptops have moved outdoor with us all thanks to WIFI.

And we can finally open the windows, doors and sliders to let the sea breezes in. It's an amazing feeling....just sitting on the couch or lying in bed and feeling the sea breezes' gentle carasses and smelling the freshness of the ocean. Occasionally, I'd just doze off on the rocking chair to the lullaby of the wind chimes.....ahhhhhhh, life is good.

The Sippican Harbor has been bustling with activities. We see countless sailboats, yachts & kayaks.....everyone is out trying to get a piece of the beautiful sunshine.

The floating docks are back in the water and we've been down there numerous times over the past weeks.

We've been having many friends over for some partying too.

Many shops and eateries have re-opened for spring/summer. Long queues have been seen at the creameries and the fish-and-chips places. Little vegetable/fruit stands have also sprung up.

After so many months of "hibernation".....we are starting to hit the malls (both physical malls as well as online shops!!) again to stock up on summer clothings and accessories :P Love this straw bag that I got from TJMaxx for 12 bucks....it just screams summer to me!

I finally gotten down to altering RG's jeans.....kekeke.....they too have been hibernating in the closet for the last 2 years. I'm a bad wife..... :P

Our air tickets back home to Singapore have been booked (mad expensive!!!). We'll be spending 2 months in SG and another 2 weeks in Ireland on our way back. We are so excited and looking forward to the trips.

Right now.....I have to start packing all our stuffs for storage before we leave here.

Grilled vodka prawns

We had a cook out on Memorial Day and I made sweet spicy pork chops with grilled vodka prawns. I didn't make sides 'cos we are both sort of on a diet :P

Recipe (for 2):
16 large shrimps shelled & deveined(I used frozen ones)
1 clove garlic (smashed and finely minced)
1/2 tbsp lemon juice (I only had bottled type, you can use fresh squeezed lemon/lime juice)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp citrus vodka
1/2 tbsp "sweet & sour" mixer (or you can just use lemon/lime/orange juice or magarita mixer)
1/2 tbsp parsley flakes (fresh ones are even better)
1/4 tsp paprika
Dash of salt/pepper (to taste)
5-6 bamboo skewers (soak in water for a couple of hours)

Method:
Marinate prawns for an hour
Thread them on skewers
Grill until they turn nice pinkish red and curled up (I put a sheet of aluminium foil over the flame and lightly sprayed with oil before placing the skewered prawns on the foil)

The prawns don't take long to cook. If your flame is very big....you can put the skewers on the side not too near the flames. The bamboo skewers might burn a little....be careful!

Me resting my feet while waiting for the food to cook.

RG had set the table.......

Here's a photo of us all decked in our red, blue and white t-shirts from good'O Navy!

Ice-cream for dessert.......oops, there goes the diet plan! :P

Cellphone pouch.....a special order

Recently I got to know N through a friend on Facebook. N knows that I sew and had wanted me to custom make a pouch to fit her cellphone. She gave me her cellphone dimensions and picked out her fabric.

And this was what I had come up with based on what she had said she wanted. As it was the first time I was making a cellphone pouch....it took me numerous attempts before getting it right. Also, it didn't help that the brocade fabric was super difficult to handle as it frays like crazy and puckers easily too. Anyhow, I finally managed to make something decent looking and mailed it to N who lives on the west coast. I'm just glad N likes it.

The photos are courtesy of N as I had forgotten to do so in the rush to get the pouch out to N. Don't you just love her bling-bling phone?!

Spring 2011

It has been raining a lot lately.....the plants are all happy. Each time the rain stops....I'd venture out into our yard to take some photos of the rain drenched leaves and flowers.

No matter where you are and which season you are in right now.....I hope my photos will bring you the beauty and freshness of spring!

Old and new friends.....

Last weekend, RG invited his colleagues over for lunch.

My friend P (who was my ex-colleague) also dropped by for a short visit. She flew in to Boston from North Carolina where she was attending her sister's graduation. I made clam chowder and pulled pork burgers for P and her friend.

We were giggling like little gals.....I was really happy to see P and we had a fun time eating, chatting and taking silly photos.

We also checked out the boardwalk near my place......

P introduced me to her friend PY who's currently working near Boston. Always nice to have more friends! PY is such great fun to be with.

Chicken satay

Ingredients (Serving size - 80pax):

60 pieces of chicken thighs
2 cups of soy sauce
2 cups of ketchup
2/3 cups peanut oil
1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
Garlic powder (15 pinches)
Black pepper (10 pinches)
Ground cumin (10 pinches)

Method:

I had bought the bone-in chicken thighs 'cos they were on sale at $0.99/lb. You might want to buy the boneless ones if you don't want to have to de-bone them on your own.

Remove the skin and bones with a sharp knife. I tossed out the skin but kept the bones to make some chicken stock later.

Cut the chicken thighs into smaller bite-size pieces and marinate the meat with the above ingredients before leaving it to chill in the fridge overnight.

The traditional way of making satay is to skewer the marinated meat pieces using bamboo sticks and then grill the meat sticks over some burning charcoal. However, to save time and to make my job easier.....I decided to cook the chicken pieces in the oven without the skewers.

I made some holes on the disposable aluminium trays so as to allow the meat juices to drain away as I had wanted to achieve a drier meat texture like that of BBQ-ing over a flame.

After spreading the chicken pieces out evenly on the tray, I placed the smaller "holey" trays over a big tray to catch the drips. I baked the chicken pieces for about 35-40minutes in 350F.

The drip tray managed to catch all the meat juices....and the chicken pieces got cooked nicely.

I made a peanut sauce to go with the chicken satay but I had forgotten to take a photo of it as I was rushing to pack everything for RG's party.

I also prepared some sticky rice and cucumber pieces to go with the satay.

According to RG, the chicken satay was the first dish amongst all others to run out.....I take that as a good sign.

New pillow covers

Today, I decided to make some new covers for my landlord's existing pillows. Since it's a seaside house, I naturally went for the marine-theme when picking out the fabric. I got these beautiful fabric panels for a great price from a seller on etsy.

There are different prints on each panel. I added a zipper so that I/my landlord can remove the covers & toss them into the washer for cleaning whenever necessary.

The colors on the panels go quite nicely with my landlord's furniture. I hope he likes them when he returns this summer.