Grilled Chicken. Fun. Laughter = This week

WOW. It has been a crazy week! An enjoyable one since the weekends have started - does that even make sense? It doesn't. Don't even bother. 

This week I COOKED. AGAIN.
(No, it's not pasta but I am going to attempt to make ravioli from scratch...one day!)

I made Sweet Sticky and Spicy chicken inspired by the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-sticky-and-spicy-chicken/

I was disciplined and stuck to the recipe...SOMETIMES.

oooh....a close up shot of the ingredients. *yawn*

In the above picture, I did not use the Tabasco hot sauce. It smelled funky and god knows how long it has been in my fridge. Instead, I used Nando's Extra Extra Hot Peri Peri Sauce. If you want this to be spicy, I would recommend you add another tablespoon of hot sauce. The chicken turned out more sweet than spicy but it was flavourful and juicy.

Looks like puke - YUM! 

According to the recipe, you mix the chicken with all the ingredients then grill it right after. However, I decided to do it as a 24 hour marinade. Also, I added a pinch of flour to the marinade. I recommend you coat the chicken with flour FIRST then add the ingredients. This, according to some of the reviews in All Recipes, is to make the chicken more sticky and crisp. I must say the marinade smelled a bit funky but trust me-it's just the overwhelming smells of soya sauce, hot sauce and honey...but it's worth it!

The next day was hilarious. At least I laughed.

You would think, a box of marinated chicken should be in the fridge so the juices will penetrate into the chicken but brilliant me...O SO BRILLIANT me, left it in the freezer. I was panicking  because I had to make dinner quick since my sister and dad were reaching home soon. I was running between the microwave oven to defrost the block of marinated chicken and making the stir fried French beans!

oooh Beans. Bet you have never seen them before. So I took a photo.  I HAVE A LIFE. 

First, I "blanch"-ed the beans. Wow. Fancy. "Blanch". Basically I boiled the beans in a pot of salted water for 3-5 minutes although I should have left it in a bit longer (this is up to your discretion). When you think the beans is ready, switch off the stove and immediately submerge the French beans into ice cold water. Did you read that? ICE COLD water. This is so that the beans will stop cooking. Basically at the end of this blanching process, you want crunchy cooked green beans. It should be eat-able. Oh wait. They have a word for that, "edible ".*Insert epic face palm *

Cool Beans - get it? hahaha. Fine. I don't have a life. 

Stir Fried Beans!

 At this point, you can eat the beans by itself or add flavour to it. I added about 1 tbsp of olive oil to a heated pot (I just used the same one I boiled the beans in). Then, add crushed garlic about 4-5 cloves. Please make sure the oil isn't too hot so when you add the garlic, it turns too brown and becomes bitter. No one likes a bitter garlic. Yuck. Then add about 1 tbsp dark soya sauce or whatever amount you prefer. ( More sauce does not equal (!=)  to tasty - there are LIMITS!). Don't leave it too long for the beans to cook because you still want to maintain that crunchy texture you painfully obtained from the fancy "blanch"-ing process. I would say leave the beans in about 2 minutes tops.

After I made this dish and prayed for the chicken to defrost, it was time to get the chicken on the skillet!
(Part of me felt I was on MasterChef, you know that show? With the amazing Gordon Ramsey? Sigh. I can never do that. I will go into a nervous breakdown first. Then, lose. Depression. Death. Wow - let's get back to that chicken!)

They see me grillin' They hatin' ... 

 This was my first time using a skillet. To be honest, when I flipped the chicken, I got super excited when I saw the lines on the chicken breast like those burger patties at Burger King. I was fighting the tears of happiness. Haha. Just kidding. Ahem.

I kept flipping the chicken breasts because I was afraid they would stick to the skillet and some did. Oh and make sure the pan is not too hot. You don't want the chicken to look cooked when the inside is still pink because that means the meat is uncooked. Duh. So just keep flipping and flipping for about 7-9 minutes? To check, I took a piece and cut a bit in the middle - if it's white, it's alright :) (<--So many racist jokes. I shall refrain)

Unlike the recipe, I did not pour the sauce over the chicken and cover the skillet but I did brush the sauce over the chicken. This is so that 1. It moist the chicken 2. I don't waste the sauce.


Here are some pictures:

Seriously - Instagram just makes food look good. I mean wow.
Am I glorifying myself? Maybe.

My precious...

Please wipe that drool on your laptop. Please. I do not want to be the cause for some spoiled laptop.
I won't be able to forgive myself! Too dramatic? Perhaps.

I should have cleaned up the plate and plate it more nicely but it's the best I can do! And that was store brought garlic bread. I can do it home made but how much can I do from scratch! Perhaps one day I shall write a long ranting post about garlic bread. 

This has been quite an interesting week so far. Meet ups with some random friends did good for my mental health. It didn't improve of course. I mean, I am still nuts but I am sure you guys knew that from my posts. I make it sound like I have a mini fan club and maybe I do in my own little world :) I am going to be making Thosai and Coconut Chutney tomorrow. Wish me luck. Seriously. Gawwd.

Good Night.

No Bake Oreo Cheesecake

(This was inspired by the recipe at http://www.bakersroyale.com/cheesecake/oreo-cookies-and-cream-no-bake-cheesecake/)

It's SUNDAY!

Evidently-you would know because this post is dated so.

As I said in my previous post, I would write about the Oreo Cheesecakes I made if they turned out good - they were not so bad, so ta-da!

I didn't stick to the recipe strictly and made some minor changes. Instead of using graham crackers, I used Oreo cookies but in the same amount. I also baked the crust first because I wanted a firm crust (this came out a bit too tough :P hahaha). So here are some pictures:

Gahh..I had to remove the cream

That's brown sugar with smashed Oreo bits and a waterfall of buttery goodness

I could just eat this with the cream cheese and be satisfied  - it was so goood! 

                                 

*pat pat pat*

Folding in the crushed oreos - do not blend unless you want grey cream. Like really grey.                                  

Scooped in the cream cheese mixture

I had some cream cheese left so this one is crust-less

Uh..some angling to Instagram it (I have no shame)

This was the outcome but the cream cheese part is more sturdy now because I left it in the freezer. 

That's All Folks!

Aglio Olio

Heyyyyy...... there.... you.... handsome...pretty person!

It has been a while - I won't deny that...but I have no idea who reads these posts anyways. I mean - who cares? (Pleasestaypleasestaypleasestay)

Anyhoo! My mum is overseas and dinner is always a question. "What are we going to have for dinner? Do we have ingredients? Did Mum leave us any food behind? No? She didn't? Alright, let's call Pizza Hut" - You know, that sort of thing. I would like to clarify though that I do cook well when a blue moon appears but two days ago - it didn't. Let me show you:

Don't you just love Instagram? It makes crappy food look good. 

It was a funny story. Really. Sort of.

My sister had bought WHOLEMEAL spaghetti. Those brown ones? She asked me to cook dinner with that and so I did. I basically sauteed (<--fancy;) ) garlic, mushrooms and red bell pepper. Then, I added the cooked pasta into this mix. It was .. how do I say it.. .gross. The pasta itself was a tad hard although it was boiling for more than the stated time and wholemeal pasta cannot absorb flavour. I have no idea who invented this pasta and maybe I am just lashing on this pasta because it turned out really bad for me but I am just going to go ahead and blame it on the inventor of wholemeal pasta. It tastes gross, dude. Stahp. 

ALRIGHT, FINE. The seasoning was off too! I didn't add enough salt but honestly nothing could have helped made that pasta better. My sister had an "ingenious" idea to add mayonnaise. Apparently, adding mayonnaise to pasta is a quick fix. It definitely did not help in this case unless you are a big fan of puke then, please by all means - go ahead. 

Although it was just pasta, I felt like I have been having a series of unfortunate events (Lemony Snicket would understand) in the kitchen. I decided it was time for basics. Aglio Olio is supposed to be a simple recipe but you can screw it up easily.. like I did. 

THUS, I made Oreo Cheesecakes and attempted Aglio Olio (with normal WHITE Linguine pasta) again! I will write about the Oreo Cheesecake tomorrow.. if they turn out good (I added a bit too much salt for that because  my brain thinks salt is more essential in a dessert than a cooked dish). This time round I asked for my dear dear friend Seok Han for the recipe. I remembered eating at her place during Chinese New Year so I got the recipe from her. I don't know whether she minds me sharing the recipe so I probably won't but you can contact me personally or something. ( + I am just lazy to type it out :P ) 

I guess you can see what ingredients I used here from the pictures below. I did not have red chili so I used green but it's supposed to be red. 

Oooh....Pizza Hut's Parmesan sprinkled on top... (I take great pride in being cheap)

Today seems to be a "salty" day (I am definitely imagining crickets here) . The dish turned out to have a bit too much salt but it had an awesome flavour. I might have thought this was great because my previous pasta was like crap, but who the hell cares?

On a personal note, it has been 4 weeks since I have started internship and it is pretty okay so far. I like the other interns, the colleagues and my bosses...So far, it's been good and I am glad about that. 

So...I am going to go and catch up on 2 Broke Girls - I love Kat Dennings. She is so gorgeous! 

Toodles!

 (Get it? Because I made noodles? So it's like.... toodles? No? Alright. Good Night)

Wheeeeeee

Exams are over. So what?

Why hello world,

My exams are OVERRRRR. Awesome,right? You would think I would feel liberated and want to paint the town red but I don't. For some reason, this summer seems different. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I am starting a 3 month internship from next Monday. Maybe I have not ended my school term on a good note. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows.

Well today I went to catch Iron Man 3! It was a free ticket too but too bad I did not manage to catch the last scene! I googled when I got home and there was one!! Which means I have to go again, I must. After the movie, I immediately went back home and decided to cook dinner and bake...like a nice traditional wife should....BUT IT SUCKED. hahahaha. Seriously. Let me show you what I made:

Oh my God...wow... It's a f*cking sandwich.

Looks amazing? Let me tell you, my mum was forcing herself to swallow half the sandwich. I guess it's the raw out-of-can tuna aversion which everyone in my family loathed and I can't blame them. Honestly, I hated it too. It was pretty fishy (<---unintended pun !!! *pats self on back,* good job Shanaaz, good job) Anyways, what I learnt from this is... Instagram is an amazing photoshop tool. This looks attractive but sure as hell doesn't taste as good as it looks.

 Apart from that, I also learnt that adding beans to your tuna does not make any difference..any freaking difference. Fo' sho'(<--gangsta'..alright I will stop). Neither does lemon. Really. Would I make this again? I might because I need to finish up the beans and another can of tuna. Pffft.

After I made this atrocious dinner, I baked. Due to my financial circumstances and baking depression (that I get whenever some cupcake/cake/pie/cookie does not turn out right), I cheat-baked. I bought instant. I pretended to be fucking Betty Crocker and baked. You might say to me -"Hey Shanaaz, that's okay. The cakes will turn out nice and you will feel good" and add a semicolon and a closing parentheses at the end to make me feel better.

Well, I didn't feel better.

The cupcakes I made sucked. I don't know why either. I try and try but seems like I am getting worse and worse at this baking thing. People say practice make perfect. Evidently, it is not applicable to me because I am abnormal. Damn it. (WHY GOD WHY).

However, I have not tried frosting from a can in a looong time. It's not too bad. I might get one of these bad boys whenever I am depressed and dip chocolate chip cookies into it. *Bookmarked* My mind.. bookmarked that thought...so that I.. yeah.. okay. You get the point.

Well, a stupid bug has flown into my room now. That's why I always close my windows in my room- No one ever understands why. Gawd. So annoyingg. Alright, bimbo Shanaaz seems to be crawling out as well. I would say I am going to head to bed-but I am not. I am just going to lie down and google/youtube weird facts that I want to know...or a good tuna sandwich recipe.

Till then...Good Night.

I'm ALIVE..sort of--> Failed Confetti Cupcakes

HIHIHI.

I don't know who I am even talking to but hello.

It has been a crazy. hectic semester like all the other semesters. I make it sound like I am relieved that school is over but bitter truth is.. it is NOT. I have got 2 more research papers due and exams start on 15th April !!

So the moment the last presentation was over, I did what I felt I had to do.

I baked.

Just like the checkerboard cookies--they were a failure. I don't even know why I do this but I still do. I guess it is because I like rainbows...and unicorns. What? Yeah. Okay.

Sue me-I cheated today and even then it was baadddd :(

You would think since I used an instant cake mix, this would turn out to be a success. Well guess what, the cake mix cover lies... LIES. Grrrr. Anyways, I made these a bit different, I added nonpareils/ hundreds and thousands (Big whoop). In the first batch, the cupcakes looked like they had an early stage of rainbow chicken pox. As shown below: (<--been writing reports)

uh.. because this would be an artistic angle. 

Before....

After...wheeeee

This batch was not very colourful. Heartbroken, I was. Whoa-Yoda came out of no where. I digres (again). I had to add more of the nonpareils and you have to make sure you STIR. Don't ever EVER mix it alot- then you will get a brown cupcake. Why? Well, it's kind of like if you take all the paint colours and mix it in one paint can? Yeah, that colour you get? That would be the colour of your cupcake. Just don't mix.

Looks like it still wasn't enough, even after adding more of the nonpareils..!!

 You see the problem here is not the cake! It's that DAMN frosting!!! I wanted to make a vanilla butter cream frosting:

Looks amazing, right? Looks professional? Well, it tastes like diabetes in a bowl . It was way way way way too sweet!!!  Actually, the whole purpose of this baking session was to try the new piping tool my mum got from NTUC and it was pretty useful. See:

Look at that peak--LOOK AT IT.. IT'S FREAKING PEAK. 

After this, I went to sit down and reflect about life. It's crazy how a bad baking session can pull me down... very badly. Evidently. Like what's wrong with me? Okay...that's a whole new different post. Eventually, my sister came back home and she told there was cream cheese so I just blended it together. However, the frosting became a glaze-it became too THIN.  There was no point using the piping tool.

After which, I was forced to clean up :( grr hate that part.

Well I just realised I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before and I am still awake! gooddjobshandfadlkaf;jlz

Haha. Kidding. (Am I?)

Alright,

Good Night!

What Am I Doing

Nothing.

Wow. My past blog posts has been either about food or me blabbering how I am doing nothing. This is such an interesting blog, right?

Today was my sister's birthday and I did not do anything. I feel terrible. I know I should have done something instead of lying down and lazing all day. I have just ran out of ideas.. Yup. I have finally ran out of ideas for my sister's birthday. Every year, I usually come up with something creative for her birthday and this year I didn't. I might hit Spotlight tomorrow and do something.

The year is coming to an end soon and I was looking through my past photos this year. I must say-I had a lot of fun this year. I have gotten closer to some friends and distanced myself from some as well. Who knew, a year from today-I will be where I am today? Different. But then again, that seems to be the constant factor in everyone's lives, right?

I remember that this time, a year ago, I thought I was doing the right thing by admitting my feelings but this year--I grew much stronger. It was at a price-I had to be a mean bitch but I felt that it was the right thing to do. Now, I am such a god damn diva and that's a good thing. It shows that I am a bit more confident in myself.

Thai food and Rickshaw Peddler Empathy

I ended up spending the day with my mum and sister today. It was an interesting day and I will tell you why (if you are interested to know about my life-but it's not really that exciting, why are you reading this? Are you really that bored? Well-I appreciate it--I digress, please read on)

My dad has been raving about this AMAZING Thai food at Arab Street called Koh Nangkam. They are a Southern Thai Muslim Food Restaurant. My dad kept  comparing the food standard to the Thai food we had when we were in Thailand. I guess our expectations were a tad high when we arrived. It was alright but I do not think I would go back there. I would rather go to Thai Express or pay $200 to travel to Thailand to have good Thai food. (Thai Express would be cheaper...but I guess you knew that..'ahem')

Some sort of flower drink...Hibiscus I believe

We ordered some drinks. My sister had the lemongrass drink and I ordered the Roselle..or Hibiscus drink. I must say water never tasted so good. Haha. I was just not a big fan of the ordered drinks but my mum really loved the flower drink. I guess I am just not the type of girl who likes to see flowers in her drink--perhaps in a bouquet but not in my drink or food. My sister's lemongrass was alright--it's basically like someone crushed the lemongrass and added water to it but then again, it did live up to its name.. lemongrass drink.

Phad Thai ;)

This dish arrived piping hot! We mixed it like you should with every phad thai dish. Took a bite and realised--they kind of forgot..that basic spice..what is it again..salt. I don't think they boiled the noodles with salt but we requested for lime and that made up for it.

Hatyai Chicken..ooh damn it looks good 

Oh. My. God. This was what saved the meal..a bit. A bite of these wonderful crispy, juicy chicken wings dipped with the sweet and spicy chili sauce will make you dance. Yes. Dance. These were gooood and you know it is good when a person adds more 'o's to the word 'good'.

Green Curry (Chicken)

Add Caption about this?? Well this is kangkong !
 This picture has been CAPTIONED.. booyah! God I need a life.

Okay..I didn't take photos of all the rest of the food we ordered because..well I was hungry and I could not be bothered to keep Instagramming the photos.. yes I  was that hungry. Anyways, I realised that the green curry, kangkong and thai fried rice we ordered, there is this strong turmeric taste that I felt was a tad too much. I like my kangkong with belachan which my mom absolutely hates but for the first time she loved this kangkong dish which did not use any belachan (duh why else would she like this dish...). We had also ordered the tom yum soup--which was a bit too salty. I think the Thai Express Tom Yum soup is still the best I have tasted in Singapore. I know that's a huge insult but it's true!

Mummy's Cooking :) 

I realised after reading what I just wrote I sound like some foodie..bitch. Well, I am not! I guess this place was just not fit to my palette but it might fit to yours....whoever I keep referring to in this blog. The price was not too bad. We ordered small which cost us $5-$7. Oh! In the end, I had the glutinoous rice with mango which was recommended to try. Well...don't. 

After having such a huge meal, we decided to head down to East Coast Park to do some cycling. My mum had packed some food for us to eat there which is pretty awesome! The picture may not be appetising but trust me it was good. 

We headed to get a cycle and along the way we saw a new type of bikes called 'Family Bike'. There are like 3-6 people on this bike peddling and looking all so happy and fun. So we decided to take one for the three of us. It cost us $30 for an hour and twenty minutes. My mum really wanted to cycle and since she did not know how to cycle with just two wheels.

We started to laugh our ass off. 

While everyone was on their cycles and roller blades, here we are laughing and peddling to save our lives. It was not easy. I do not know how the other families made it look so simple but we were struggling. My mom gave up and she sat like a queen between my sister and I. I am quite a lazy person so my sister ended up doing most of the peddling. Eventually, we all took turns, including my mother. I must say-I was the laziest of them all. I really salute all of the rickshaw peddlers--it is hard to carry two people. I cannot imagine the amount of effort all the rickshaw peddlers have to put in to bring so many people around in a day just by...well peddling! It's crazy!!!

At the end of the day, we had a lot of fun. However, my foot got caught between the peddles when my sister was moving us and well..long story short---my foot hurts like hell and there will definitely be a bruise on it tomorrow. 

East Coast Park View

Overall, I had an amazing day out with my lovely mom and sister. 

I am tired for now. Hope you guys had an awesome weekend :) ( again, who am I referring to..and why do I keep doing it .. )

Good Night.