New camera, wedding bands and Toad in the Hole recipe.

I tell you, it seems like the universe is conspiring against me when it comes to blogging. First, my long time camera just stopped performing.

# – Abused and used.

I mean it still take pictures and all but every picture has a faint line across it and the screen is basically purple now, thanks to hubby sitting on it on a drunken stupor. We’ve used it for almost 3 years? I’m not too sure it seems a looooooooong time and we’ve certainly gotten our money worth.

# – Purple.

But all is well, we’ve bought the Canon G12. I wanted a camera with flip camera for easy camho so I was thinking of getting the G1X, but after trying it…it’s macro capability is basically laughable. 20cm is not macro, I mean if I had shorter arms I probably wouldn’t be able to camho with it WTF? Stupid.

So we decided to go one generation back with the G12…smaller, can take closeups so close it’s crazy and best of all, a lot cheaper. Very happy with the purchase and hopefully, I will start blogging more actively again.

# – One of the 1st test shots with the G12 – flip camera for perfect camho yay!

Besides not having a camera that works properly, I was also bogged down by a lot of wedding planning. It’s quite crazy how consuming researching about wedding is. I mean, I sat down thinking I’d give it an hour browsing through vendors and stuff but when I looked at my watched, 5 hours gone. Just like that.

One thing I’ve come to conclusion is that wedding not only takes up your money….it takes up A LOT of time too.

# – Speaking of wedding AND money, have chosen my wedding band. Here it is with my engagement ring. Platinum with more bling teehehehe cause they are forever mah (p/s: See how close I can get with my camera!)

# – G’s band is actually exactly like mine, only without the rocks.

Anyway, we’re collecting the rings in a month, so, so, so excited!!!

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I know I’ve neglected blogging, but I’ve also neglected cooking too for the same reasons – no camera and no time :P

So with the new camera, cooking mood instantly comes back! So decided to share a Toad in the Hole recipe.

Why is it called Toad in the Hole? No idea. How do English people come up with names like Spotted Dicks, Pork Scratchings and Bubble & Squeaks?

The chinese always call their foods majestic names, no matter how disgusting they are but the english name theirs after genitalia, unattractive habits and slimy animals. Weirdos.

Anyway, toad in the hole is basically sausages baked in yorkshire pudding. OMFG right?

# – Toad in the Hole.

The ingredients:

  • 115 grams of flour
  • 290 ml of milk
  • 3 eggs
  • A pinch of salt
  • 6-10 good quality sausages
  • Cooking Oil
  • #1 – First, mix flour, milk, eggs and salt in a bowl.

    #2 – Whisk hard until combined. This is your yorkshire pudding batter. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.

    #3 – Heat up oil in a roasting tin (just about cover the bottom) in a preheated oven at 210 degrees celcius. Don’t put too much oil (my picture shows too much oil, I had to pour it out in the end :P) or you’ll get soggy puddings.

    #4 – When oil is smoking, dump the sausages in. I recommend that you thaw the sausages out first, frozen’s fine but it is SCARY! Close oven door quick! Will be quite smokey at this point too…

    #5 – Turn the sausages all the time to brown evenly. After about 10 minutes, pour the yorkshire pudding batter straight into the roasting tin. Then quickly close the oven door and never open again for 20 minutes. As it is a complex manuever, I didn’t take picture but this is the sight after 20 mins. Puffed up magnificently!

    #6 – Toad in the hole, DONE!

    #7 – Serve with a dollop of wholegrain mustard and onion gravy (recipe in next post, very easy to make).

    Till the next post, hopefully not too far away. Have a good week!

    Woohoo wedding planning progress!

    I have made a lot of progress on wedding planning since my last post. So grateful that Mom’s staying with me over the week to help me sort out wedding stuff.

    1. For one, I have found the dress! I finally understood what people mean when they say, “You know it when you see it”. At first I was quite worried because the first half dozen of places my mom and I went to had stuff that I didn’t really like.

    Most of the dresses could be summed up as “okay but not quite”. Finally we went to this shop and the girl was showing me a bunch of ball gowns and I was on the verge of giving up explaining to her what I have in mind when suddenly she said she might have something downstairs.

    Mom and I followed her and then she pulled out something from a large bag. I looked at it and my heart skipped a beat. I was like, please please please let it look good on me and let me look good in it!!!!

    Then I put it on, and I felt a sensation in my chest, a good sort of sensation…not the type where you want to see a doctor but the type you want to start doing the chicken dance and sing I’m so happy…I’m so happy…I’m so happy and jolly and gay.

    I was like…OMG I hope she’s not going to quote me a crazy price. And then she told me the price and I was like…:D :D :D :D :D :D

    Nobody has seen the dress except me, mom and people from the shop and I will keep it that way until the wedding day. I don’t even need it altered I think but I reckon when I lose more weight I might nip it in a bit more. As for the evening dress, I’m quite chilled about it…because I want something fun, flirty and a little slutty (lol) for the later part of the reception aka PARTY TIME.

    2. We have also found a wedding cinematographer we really like, thanks to a tip from a blog reader. Thank you Yu Jen! We’re meeting them this weekend to discuss the details and hopefully, by then we will have confirmed them.

    3. My makeup and hair will be done respectively by Cassandra and Cindy from dominicabyc.com. Cassandra is a BOH Cameronian award winning makeup artiste and I loveeeeee her style. Very chic, clean and natural. Her brides are so gorgeous!

    4. Gareth’s wonderful colleague, Chee Ling is helping us design our invites too. We’re loving what she’s done so far and she’s got an awesome idea with the invites which I’m so incredibly excited to share but I have to refrain because don’t want people to steal it *cue maniacal possessive laugh.

    5. As for the wedding theme, it’s clearer than ever. I know exactly what to do, how the decor’s going to be, what is the feel and etc. I feel a lot calmer now and ready for some proper ground work.

    6. I’ve got my wedding shoes while in Bangkok. I might change it I might not, we’ll see. Not that worried about shoes to be honest.

    7. Still haven’t found an emcee, partially because we haven’t really been looking yet. I wish more emcees upload their gigs onto Youtube.

    8. Photography will be by Anna-Rina of course. She also took our ROM pictures, which I was so happy with. Anna-Rina is great at capturing “moments”, she can speak like a gazillion languages which means she can communicate basically with all my guests (especially the non-English speaking elderly) and best of all, she’s just a bundle of positive energy!

    9. We are doing cheesy studio photography. LOL. Yeap, not kidding. I asked specifically for indoor shoot only though, cause can’t be arsed to pose around in the heat in wedding costumes. Oh well, my grandmothers will be happy to hang pictures of us in gaudy gowns and white suit with our eyes closed on their walls. Trolololol.

    10. Going to start dieting and exercise more, I promise.

    9 horrors. At least it’s an auspicious number.

    Very early on, I made a point to not really be too anal about every single detail of our wedding because well, I want to stay sane.

    Unfortunately, this deliberate ignorance to details has turned into a deliberate ignorance to planning.

    As the date draws near, each time (which is everytime) someone asks me how’s the planning going and I realise that I have nothing to contribute to the conversation, it hit me that I am running freakin’ behind.

    Horror #1 –

    I have not even found a wedding dress. Less than 3 months to go and still no dress. My mom is worried sick but I reckon if I haven’t gone around looking I wouldn’t miss all the nice dresses I have never seen :)

    Horror #2 –

    I have not found a videographer that I like which is either within my budget or available. The nice ones cost an arm & leg while the slightly cheaper but still expensive type look like they edit all the videos with Microsoft Powerpoint – I don’t even know how that is possible. It’s REALLY SCARY!

    Horror #3 –

    We have not printed the wedding invitations. I think we’re just going to send out FB invites first and deal with the cards later.

    Horror #4 –

    Flowers? What flowers? Don’t think this is happening. I just can’t bring myself to spend on things that wilt and die in less than a day. Unless they stay potted, no flowers at the wedding :P

    Horror #5 –

    Haven’t lost a single miligram. Which is the reason why #1 is delayed. I’m starting to think I should just get married at my current body weight because lets not kid ourselves, I’m NEVER GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT T_T

    Horror #6 –

    Wedding theme? *Cue nervous laugh.

    Horror 7 –

    Bridal car. We are torn between a timeless classic Jag or a vulgar Hummer. LOL

    Horror 8 –

    Emcee. This one is FREAKING ME OUT. Obviously I’m looking for someone who is articulate & eloquent and charismatic and who doesn’t like the sound of his or her own voice too much. I also prefer someone a little witty and a little dirty (personality not personal hygiene). Where to find?

    Horror 9 –

    Being clueless. Yeap, that’s my horror number nine. I know there are loads more stuff that I must do but I can’t even list them out because I’m clueless. I wish my cluessless can be as cute as Alicia Silverstone in her heydays but mine is covered in zits and greasy hair. The other day I was chatting with LL, a married friend and she reminded me about bedsheets and marital lamps for the marital bedroom and I was like what???? I’m sure more things will occur to me at the last minute and I’m hoping for calmness and adaptability when they hit me like a tonne of bricks.

    I also hope my mom won’t disown me at the end of this. I love you mom.








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