Following the success of my Arab Cookies or Kuih Makmur ... this afternoon I decided to attempt making some sugee (almond) cookies They look quite cute with the little cherry pieces on top, but I think the kuih makmur tasted nicer. Recipe is roughly as follows: 70 grams butter (softened) 150 grams ghee Approx 1 or 1½ cups plain flour 1 cup ground almonds 1 teaspoon bicarb soda 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1 teaspoon almond essence Glazed cherries for decoration Beat butter, ghee, sugar, vanilla essence and almond essence in bowl. Add flour, ground almond, bicarb soda and knead until it forms a soft slightly crumbly dough. Roll dough into marble size balls, place onto a baking tray and flatten slightly on top. Decorate with slivers of glazed cherries and bake at 170°Celcius for about 15 minutes.

On Tuesday night, hubs and I were chilling out in front of the TV watching the new gameshow Talkin' 'bout your generation . According to the definition from the show's host, the three generations are classified as follows: Born 1945-1964: Baby Boomers Born 1965-1979: Gen X Born 1980-1994: Gen Y Hubby wanted to play the quiz against each other, him Gen X and me Gen Y. I refused to, because truth be told I didn't agree that I should be classified under Gen Y. I'm glad I sided with Gen X coz' in the show, the Gen X team nailed the other two teams hands down... I did some Googling afterwards to check on the definition of the generations classifications and I found that there was no precise definition because there is certain to be some overlap between the generations. From piecing together a few of the disparate sources I came across the rough definition which seems to give a broader picture, something like: Baby Boomers : Post WWII to around mid 60s Gen X : Mid/lat...

So during the couple of days off I took just to chill out, I spent one afternoon making arab cookies or kuih makmur. I had come across the recipe online before and thought it was relatively simple to give it a try. I had to agak-agak the recipe, but it is quite easy really... only three types of ingredients: Approx 2+ cups plain flour Approx 1/3 cup icing sugar Approx 5-6 tablespoons ghee Extra icing sugar for dusting Mix flour sugar and ghee in a large bowl until it forms a soft dough. I found the best way is to start with a couple of tablespoons of ghee, and then add bit by bit as you go along until you get the right consistency with the dough. The dough should be a pale yellow and a just little bit oily, and be able to come together and not stick to the sides of the bowl too much. I couldn't take a photo of the dough while I was mixing it, but I found this pic online which I think is a good indicaton of what it should look like. Photo from babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com Roll teasp...

The year following the Igor's birthday surprise , I planned a dinner in the sky for hubby's next birthday... A three course dinner in a cable car! This is on the cable car ride from harbourfront to Sentosa Each round they will serve you a new course, and you carry on in the ride... I think thyey arrange it so you get to sit in the cable for about four rounds - one for each course, and extra one just to relax and digest a bit. This was the appetizer I think... It wasn't the best meal from a culinary view, but overall it was quite nice... something different, I guess... I recently read that Singapore is going to do a major overhaul of their Harbour Front cable car , which includes a new special Swarovski-encrusted VIP cabin!

I received a few comments (both online and face to face) from various people who seemed quite intrigued by the fortune cookie and star gazing surprise I had planned for hubby's birthday this year. So I thought I share another idea of a past birthday surprise present I had planned for hubby a few years ago... I think this was in 2003 while we were working in Singapore. I had scouted around for various ideas and activities for hubby's (boyfriend at that time) birthday, but I couldn't really make up my mind yet which one to go for. So I decided to let hubby choose... I made a list of a few mysterious possibilities and asked hubby which option he wanted. I can't find the list I made, but I think I probably listed it something like this: 1. Sky high experience 2. Bone-chilling horrifying and scary fun 3. Let's go classy I'm sure I phrased them way better than the above... but you get the idea. Hubby chose the second option... and not long after that, he received th...

Now for the unveiling of the birthday surprise I had planned for hubby... Hubby said he had already kind of figured it out... but he was still very pleased about the whole thing in general and said it was quite fun to look forward to opening a fortune cookie each day to read an inspirational quote. So yesterday in the very late afternoon/early evening, we drove up to Bickley (somewhere past Lesmurdie) to the Perth Observatory. An old telescope on display at the Perth Observatory vistor centre As it was very dark by the time we arrived, I didn't take many pictures. So almost all the following photos were sourced through Google Images. Here's an image of the observatory domes housing the telescopes used to view the night sky. Earlier when we were driving up the hill toward the observatory. Our surroundings were almost pitch black with hardly any street lights and very few houses around. We had to drive quite far inside up into the hills and it was a bit scary because it was...

Remember the fortune cookies I made for hubby's birthday surprise? Hubby has been duly opening a fortune cookie each day to uncover clues leading up to the surprise... I think the clues seem pretty obvious, but I couldn't reveal anything until the big day... Which is today! Happy birthday, honey. (*muaks*) UPDATE : Unveiling of the big surprise posted here