Trick or treat?

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble” ~ from Macbeth.

Happy Halloween everyone! At work we managed to celebrate Halloween with a morning tea. And no, there were no costumes or candy, unfortunately. The most fancy we got to was placing pumpkins, cotton 'cobwebs' and fake spiders around the good old Aussie meat pie and sausage rolls. >.<It would have been interesting to see a few witches and monsters wandering about, working in front of computers. Food for thought, perhaps? Dressing up for Halloween does remind me of my childhood – where fairies, gypsies and angels wannabes gather together one night for a sleepover in a cotton-cobwebbed room; we even had tomato sauce splattered on our snacks to replicate a 'gory' night.

How 'bout dyeing cake?

Okay, I don't literally mean dyeing cake but batik is a fabric dyeing technique This treat from Malaysia [specifically Sarawak] is known as the 'batik cake' [or the hedgehog slice in Oz]. Having said that, I never knew about it being 'Malaysian' until recently. Baked and brought to a gathering by my friends, I finally had a taste of this rich sweet goodness.

So why did I consider this a junkie treat besides the fact that sweets should always be taken in moderation? This batik cake requires only 4 ingredients and boy, they are seriously naughty ingredients; condensed milk, milo, butter and marie biscuits. The no-bake recipe can be provided upon request, however there are many similar recipes available on the web.

My parents would never introduce me to this and I did confirm it again. Mama goes "Condensed milk!''. After all, I was one of those kids out there with restricted access to sweets of all kinds in my childhood days.

I did enjoy little bits of it, but ''OMG, It's sweeeeeeeet.'' and I'm also not a big fan of butter! It does not mean it wasn't awesome though. =)

I *heart* pink #4

Apologies for the lack of updates. It has been a very busy few weeks lately hence this week's 'I <3 pink' post equates to:

P.i.n.k. = A girl's day off

Finally, I had a relaxing day - going out, painting nails, catching up on sleep and eating cookies. Every woman deserves time out from her busy life.

Have you been thinking P.I.N.K. this month? We definitely have!

This burger is Mine!

Texan Madness (Hand crafted meat patty, smokey bbq sauce, greens, crispy bacon, tomato salsa, grilled jalapenos pepper and cheddar cheese)

It was almost deceiving to say ''It's big.'' because it was HUGE. We girls had to squish it together before we attempt mouthfuls of everything. If I were given cutleries, I would deconstruct my burger no doubt. One of my girlfriends failed to finish her burger, the Rocky Mountain High [I really did not bother taking every single burger because they really looked similar]. A burger is a burger to me, they always look the same. Having said that, the sauces are different and there were slight changes of ingredients. Totally worth the money and totally gave me the impression of American burgers.

I loved my burger. The Aussie burger, however, apparently did not hit the mark. I can't wait for the next visit to try their smoothies or to be daring enough to go for a burger AND smoothie!

With pride, I finished my Texan Madness. With guilt, however, I cannot afford to miss gym.

Burger Foundry

389 Magill Road, St Morris

Adelaide 5068, SA

http://www.burgerfoundry.com.au/

Junkie Friday #7

First of all, I would like to apologise for the late post! Had too much fun eating junk =)

Entree

 Cucumber and carrot sticks with hommus dips

[we had an extra chunky basil pesto as a backup] note: this is an attempt to be healthy.

Main course

 Honey soy chicken wings

 [extra BBQ Spareribs Chicken wings as backup]

Desserts

Trilogy cheese [Roasted Onion and Chives, Vintage and Smoked] and Maggie Beer's plum paste served with crackers, dessert cookies with melting middle [to make it simple, chocolate fondants] and crunchie bar chocolates.

Drinks

A bottle of cab sav and a bottle of light red.

Did you think we were going to finish all the food? There were only 2 ladies eating despite having more people in the sitting. We even had a movie on, however, we ended up talking sooo much I am definite we lost track of the plot despite saying females can multitask.

Tick tick tick. It was totally a junkie night even though we had vegie sticks.

I *heart* pink #3

I am all about equations for "I *heart* pink", so today's equation is

Pink= Happiness

From top (clockwise): Chocolate mini cupcake, party spread (sushi, party pies, vegie sticks, juice and my favourite chips), orange and poppy seed cake as well as more cupcakes! 

As I always say, it is the company that makes things fantastic. With that, it is the little gestures of fantastic people in my life which makes me happy, if not extremely happy, and feeling absolutely appreciated. Not all the food are gourmet quality but I've put together a collage of some food pictures  which put that huge grin on my face ALL WEEK.

I used to be an anti-pink girl, however, a colleague of mine sees me as a ''pinkmo'' girl now. I don't mind it at all because pink is the colour of happiness and it brings warmth. =D

Think about all the people who are affected by breast cancer. Support them with extra love and warmth.

Obviously I have been thinking P.I.N.K., have you?

I *heart* pink #2

This week’s entry is a bit different. It’s my week to dedicate to pink so I don’t intend to give a full blown review; but it's also the end of the week! Apart from featuring macarons as part of this week's Junkie Friday, I hope the yummilicious treats justify my version of *I <3 Pink*

Yummy cotton candy with pop rocks; raspberry with dark chocolate; and blueberry with orange filling

I bought these from Cimbalino at Enex 100 Food Court. The different shades of pink represent the different women in the world regardless of race, background, culture and belief. At this point, you might ask why I added a blue macaroon into the picture. Well, in very rare cases, men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer.

I am thinking P.I.N.K. this October. Are you?

"For you."

Dropping by to say we are still thinking of P.I.N.K as we are supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It has to be pink everywhere =) Do your part, in any way, to support the people in need and show them you care.  

We *heart* pink.

One popular recipe

circling the blogosphere and the Internet, I have decided to join the crowd! Apparently 20665 people have saved this recipe and 426 people reviewed this recipe giving it an average of 4.5/5 stars review. Taken from allrecipes website, this recipe was extremely interesting for me to replicate due to the implied digits..

So yes, why not? I have almost everything on the recipe excluding certain spices. I need to clear off my red lentils and also need a change of styles from my usual curry.

This is my version of the Red Lentil Curry (serves 4?)

1/2 large onion, diced

1/2 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 can of diced tomatoes                  

1 cup of red lentil

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 tablespoons curry paste

1. Wash the lentils until water runs clear. Then, cook lentils till tender.

2. Fry off the onions in oil. Combine curry paste, curry powder, chili powder and mix well. Put the mixture with the onions and stir well.

3. Stir in diced tomatoes and let it simmer further.

4. When lentils are ready, drain them before mixing curry base into lentils.  

Did I successfully replicate the recipe? I'd like to think I did, despite certain changes/modifications

Did I like the recipe? I like it because it was easy to replicate and it was definitely a hearty dish to go along with rice. Certainly a great work lunch too! However, I often like my curry spicy and this certainly lacks the heat I love [personal preference, after all].

More pros than cons. Good enough for me =)

Deadlines vs. procrastination

Things have been really hectic lately, especially with work and assignments amongst other personal commitments. No matter how busy it gets, I always find the excuse to fit in a little bit of chocolate =P

This was actually my friend’s suggestion after work a couple of weeks ago; it was a good break away from the busy schedule to sit back, catch up and take a breather.

The so-called "Cookies and Cream" cake.

The 'Chocolate Affair' (melted milk chocolate and fruits with marshmallows!)

Yum! I was a bit disappointed with the so-called cookies and cream cake, though. It tasted more like chocolate cake with Oreo bits on top as decoration. However, the Chocolate Affair was amazing. I haven’t had bananas for the longest time; I polished most of it off by myself! Did I do any work after that? Nope! I tried but I ended up having a huge sugar crash. *blushes*

Theobroma Chocolate Lounge
Shop 47 Waterford Plaza
Corner Kent Street and Manning Road
Karawara WA 6152

Junkie Friday #5

I had a go at another of their safer new flavours, the Crispy Bacon as I previously reviewed the Pizza flavour. The other weird combinations I did not bother trying were Sunday Roast and Meat Pie & Sauce. They sound really weird and manly [thanks to the footy]. To be honest, it might be my last review on chips for some time being. Having said that, I saw Vegemite Smith Chips in Coles today! [according to Jin, it totally screams my name!]

Back to the Crispy Bacon, I was extremely excited when I saw Coles having these limited flavours on the shelves. However, it certainly lacked flavour despite all the flavour enhancers. It being in crinkle cut doesn't really help too. Anyway, crispy bacon isn't a new flavour to start with and I'm definitely not sure why it was labelled as a 'limited edition'. They have been in the markets off and on, and have been constantly repackaged.

To accompany a pack of chips is definitely a good can of beer. I have never tried Murphy's Irish Stout as Guinness somewhat takes all the limelight among my peers. I do love the creamy texture of this stout and found myself totally amused by the little nitrogen widget in the can [yes, I am aware that these cool widgets originated from Guiness]. Being an avid youtuber, I also managed to search for some Murphy adverts from those days.

I thought THAT was pretty cool, and THIS pretty awesome too.

If I have not said this before, Junkie Friday is getting trickier and almost impossible with my new personal commitment. There will minor tweaks but the blog will remain commited to posting Junkie Friday [if not mine].

I *heart* pink.

I *heart* pink #1

Now, we are talking pink!

It is just days into October and I have been reading lots on other people's efforts to raise awareness through food. Pink icing, pink fairybread, pink jelly...the list goes on. I thought it would be interesting to justify my version of 'pink' because there really isn't much from the picture, is there?

Pink is often associated to girls, but I was never the girl who loved wearing pink on every single clothing she owned. However, I was one of those many girls who loves their sweets. I might not have grew up with loads in my life but I do adore them. The simple equation, therefore, justify my choice of pink:

Pink = Girls = Sweets!

So on my platter is a cupcake, an apple pie and a chocolate macadamian brownie. These were all home-made from some amazing mums who contributed to their children's kindy. Despite cupcake possibly looking like the highlight of pink and all, I know I am capable of making better cupcakes. However, the chocolate macadamia brownie was to die for!!! Chunks of chocolate and macadamia bits for only 50 cents. I wished I bought the whole tray. The apple pie was a good buy too, although it was missing the spices in it. As mentioned, they were made by kindy mums and I bought it from a kindy fair. There is a possibility of least spices to appeal to the young ones. It is the effort behind it all that counts [besides raising as much money as possible for the kindy!].

Obviously,I have been thinking P.I.N.K, have you?