Singapore Adventure: Last September Weekend

Today was a really fun day for the Cookies.  A plenty of "firsts" for us... :)

1.  In search of plastic sleeves for my cards, we ventured into the shopping jungle that is Bugis. We've been to the Bugis MRT station several times already. But we have never really visited the popular shopping destination across.  Unfortunately, we didn't find what we came for.  But I got a few tips from my friend Pipay on where I could find the sleeves.  According to her, it should be there in Bugis but in a different area of the shopping complex.  We might give it another shot next weekend.

2.  After Bugis, we headed to Raffles Shopping Centre. There were a lot of people milling around in that area due to the F1 Grand Prix going on this weekend.  But we know where were going so it was easy navigating through the crowd.  Of course, what's Wifey Cookie's favorite shop at Raffles Shopping Centre....?  Paper Market! :) I finally got my VIP Card.  Wanna see...?

While there, I picked up a few new supplies. Some yellow ribbon...  New additions to my stash, the first 2 yellows. :)

A new stamp set from Studio Calico (my first of this brand) and ink pad.  And some Prima flowers.  I've always been fascinated how to incorporate flowers into layouts.  So maybe I'll give that a shot in the challenges coming up this week.

3. We had a late lunch of Mushroom Stroganoff at The Soup Spoon. After lunch, we went for a little stroll and found that the Once Upon a Milkshake booth is already open.  We gave there Chocolate Truffle Milkshake a shot.  It was nice, but not worth the price.  A medium cup costs 5.70SGD. And there really isn't anything special about it.  Probably just the name. :)

4.  After all the shopping, we finally headed off to my godson Dylan's first birthday party.  It was a fun party.   The kids were dressed as super heroes and they were all so adorable.  The magician was quite entertaining as well.  Kids and adults alike had a great time. :)

It was quite a long day, but a really fun one, especially it being spent with my Hubby Cookie, a bit of shopping, and a fun party! :)  A great way of capping off September 2011.

So to all my friends who asked for it.... Wake up! Wake up! September is coming to an end.

Kitchen Adventure: Steamed Pomfret Recipe

I have always been fond of eating fish and other seafood. But my Hubby Cookie isn't such a fan of them.  So, I put it upon myself to learn new recipes that will make him eat fish.

A few days ago, I was really surprised that he actually went up to me and asked me to prepare him some fish for dinner.  It's a first! So I have to really go all out and prepare something really special.  Here is what I came up with...

Wifey Cookie's Steamed Pomfret Recipe

Ingredients
     
     Fresh black pomfret, cleaned
     Ginger slices
     Scallion stalks
     Sesame Oil
     Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil
     Salt and Pepper


Procedure


1. Make diagonal slashes on both sides of the fish.
2. Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the fish and set on a shallow dish.
3. Put ginger slices in the slashes of the fish.
4. Pour the soy sauce, vegetable oil, and sesame oil evenly over the fish.
5. Set the dish into a steamer, and steam the fish for about 15-20 minutes until it is cooked through.
6. When cooked, remove the dish from the steamer and garnish with the scallions.
7.  Best served hot with steamed rice.

Singapore Adventure: A Dining Voucher at Spizza

Remember this entry I posted a while back - Singapore Adventure: Boo, Spizza! ?

Well, it finally got attention from the management of the establishment.  A week ago, a marketing executive from Senso Ristorante sent me an email enquiring about the incident and offering apology for the stress it has caused me.  Better late than never, right?

I admire them for making the effort to respond to my sentiment even if it had happened a while back. I actually didn't expect any more attention.

So, I gave the details of my complaint and why I posted the incident on my blog.  I reiterated that it wasn't my intention to smear the good reputation of their restaurant, but as a consumer I am entitled to quality food as well as value for my money and patronage.  And being in IT for so long, I am always game to play the part of a complaining user when the situation presents itself!

They've offered an apology, and assured that they will investigate.  Good enough for me.  But then, they really want to express how sorry they were and sent me a $20 Dining Voucher at Spizza in the mail.  Thank you.

But we don't really dine at the restaurant, we'd usually just call in for a delivery.  Do you want to know why?  Because I have also heard bad reviews about the service at the restaurant when dining in.  We might think about seeing it for ourselves, but I still need convincing if $20 is enough to go through all that trouble.  We'll see...

Singapore Adventure: Father's Day Celebration

For Father's Day, the Cookies went to dinner with our food buddies at  Straits Café  at Rendezvous Hotel.  Supposedly, they are running a 1-for-1 Dinner Buffet for Citibank credit card holders.  But for this specific day, the promotion is suspended in lieu of the holiday.

No biggie, we still enjoyed the food, and of course the company. :)

Hubby Cookie specifically had a blast exploring the dessert station.  And had his peanut paste stuffed glutinous rice balls fix to cap the night. :)

Too bad we were not able to take a group photo.  But here is one of us.  I intentionally cropped the photo to hide our bulging bellies! Hahaha...  We had too much food, I think I had a crab and prawn overload. :))

Singapore Adventure: Suckers for Buffet

I received an email notification today from the Deal Guru website.  They are running a promotion for a 30% discount at TODAI Restaurant at Marina Bay Sands.  HOW CAN I RESIST?!?!

I purchased 4 voucher immediately.  And so, the Cookies and our Moms are going to stuff our faces with seafood and sushi when they get here.  *excited*

Singapore Adventure: Cookies (heart) Japanese Food

The Cookies just love to eat.  And being here in Singapore, where there's just an abundance of hawker stalls, buffet restaurants, and fine food places, our love for food is even more enabled. :D

When we were still in Manila, we'd just usually have fastfood - Pizza, Burgers, Pasta.  It's only here in Singapore that we started to explore other food choices like Japanese, Thai, and of course Singapore's local delights.

For the most times, we find ourselves really enjoying Japanese food.  We've been to a lot of Japanese food places around Singapore.  That's basically to quell our cravings for ramen, sushi, teppanyaki, teriyaki, and steamboat.

So far, the best Japanese food place we've been to is at Kuishin Bo.  And the best part of that is it is a buffet place.  They have 3 branches across Singapore and we have been to all 3 of them, but our favorite would be the one at Jurong Point. :)

I especially like their paper steamboat. The broth is very nice, and the selection of tasty condiments they have in it offers a great assortment of texture.  From the crunchy vegetables, to the soft tofu, the silky glass noodles, to the chewy shiitake mushrooms.  I just love it! :)

I have posted some photos and a full review of our last visit to Kuishin Bo at Jurong Point on the Follow The Cookie Crumbs blog.  Have a go at it and tell the Cookies what you think! :)

Another recent visit to a Japanese food place was to Tanoshi Teppanyaki at the Food Republic of 313@Somerset.  The best part of the dining experience here is the friendly Teppanyaki chef who cooks your food right before your eyes in such an entertaining manner.

Photos of our recent visit there plus a full review is also up on the Follow the Cookie Crumbs blog.

Singapore Adventure: A Taste of Octopus

The Cookies had a long weekend.  We were able to catch 2 movies at the theatres and dined at 2 buffets.  Nice!

The Movies

We went to see the new JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg flick Super 8.  It was a bit too juvenile for me.  But my movie date enjoyed it very much!  I find the story bland, and the storytelling dragging.  On a positive note, I have no complaints on the graphics and visual effects.  As most JJ Abrams should know, his "signature" should be found at the clip during the closing credits.  Post a comment if you know what it is. ;)

We were also able to catch Kung Fu Panda 2.  Jack Black is just soooo funny!  We also went to see his last movie Gulliver's Travel and it was tons of fun.  In Kung Fu Panda 2, the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five take on a new nemesis.  This time a peacock!  The story is engaging.  The humor is clean.  The graphics is awesome!  I specially like the scenes when the characters are soaked in water.  Did I say that the graphics is awesome??? :D

There are a few more interesting movies to catch this month of June. The third Transformer movie is coming up. As well as the Green Lantern movie which also hits the Singapore theatres this month.

We have seen posters of Captain America, Cars 2, and Smurf displayed at the theatre and also the movie trailer for Happy Feet 2.  Need to start saving up for movie ticket allowance!

The Buffets

A few weeks back, I have purchased a 1-for-1 buffet lunch voucher at the Window On The Park Cafe Restaurant from the Deal.com.sg website.  Last Friday, we were finally able to use it. 

To say the least, the spread was not very impressive.  Though it has a "make your own rojak and laksa" station concept, it was not enough to say you have gotten your dollars' worth.  In spite of this, I had a few breakthroughs during this visit.  It was my first time to try Octopus Nigiri Sushi.

I have never tried Octopus Nigiri Sushi before.  At the sushi station, we'd watch out for California Maki and Tamago Nigiri Sushi.  The one's with raw fish we would always avoid.  I just raw fish is an acquired taste, and we have not acquired it yet! Hahaha...

So there, somehow I was able to convince myself to try out the octopus that day.  I took a piece, dipped it in wasabi soy sauce and tuck it into my mouth.  The octopus meat is quite chewy.  It's not something you could  chew a few times and down with a glass of water.  You'll definitely choke.  Or at least I believe I would.  So I chewed it, gnawed it, until I can finally swallow.  It had the taste of the see.  I don't really know what to expect of the taste as it was my first time to try it.  But as far as I know, fresh seafood is supposed to smell of the sea.  But to taste of it?? I don't really know.

Another first for me to try during this lunch buffet was Laksa.  I have seen it being served at many Hawker stalls, and other local delights buffet restaurants but I have not really tried it.  I know there's coconut milk, and it's supposed to be very spicy.  So again, I convinced myself to give it a try.  To my surprise, it actually works for me.  I did enjoy the broth.  Now, I am curious to try Laksa the next time we see it on the menu.

(Here's a full review of our lunch buffet meal at Window On The Park published on the Follow the Cookie Crumbs website.)

Another buffet visit we did is at Kuishin Bo Japanese Buffet Restaurant, the one at Jurong Point.  Kuishin Bo is one of our favorite buffet places.  The price is quite reasonable and they have a great spread of Japanese dishes from sushi, to salads, to steamboats, to grilled stuff, teriyaki, hot dishes, and dessert, too.  We  always have a good time at this food place. 

That was how our Cookie weekend went.  We're married 9 months now, and it still always feels like Day One. :)

Singapore Adventure: Cravings Solved!

One of my favorite things in the world is Manggang Hilaw and Bagoong (Philippine Green Mangoes and Shrimp Paste).

Haven't been home in Manila for almost 6 months now, the craving is slowing creeping up to me.  I have no problems sourcing bagoong (shirmp paste) here as most shops at Lucky Plaza will have it for sale of the shelf.  The bottled ones are good enough, but of course nothing beats my grandma's home-cooked recipe.

Philippine green mangoes won't be as easy to find. But I am sure yesterday was my lucky day.  I found green mangoes at Lucky Plaza.  It costs like gold at SGD 2.50 for a medium-sized one, but I won't complain.  That costs way cheaper that an airfare to Manila. :P

Philippine Green Mangoes and Shrimp Paste

So, cravings solved!  I should be good for the next few weeks, I wish.  And hopefully, I'd chance upon a good green mangoes batch again during our next Lucky Plaza visit. :D



Singapore Adventure: Boo, Spizza!

Lord and I are big pizza eaters and we'd pay good money for good pizza.  This past year, Lord came to know about a good pizza place from work.  And since then, for any pizza cravings, we'd call them for delivery.  That's Spizza.

We really liked their pizza flavour Olivia.  That's just a simple Pepperoni pizza, but it's quite tasty with lots of heat from fresh red chili.  I am also very fond their version of the Smoked Salmon salad which they call Adriano on their menu.

Yesterday, Lord and I went out on a movie date to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean installment - Pirates of the Caribbean: In Stranger Tides.  We had a big lunch and the usual popcorn snack during the movie so we were quite stuffed til about dinner time.  We decided to just have a snack instead of a full dinner, so we called in a pizza order with the usual Adriano salad.

I was happily excited to devour my salad but right at the onset, I already noticed there were a couple of elements amiss in my salad.  Can't find the capers, and the salmon fillets were kind of in a disarray, and not in the usual need spread on top of the salad.   But those we're no biggies, I munched away.  But just as I was about to take the last spoonful of greens and a smoked salmon fillet, there it was sitting on the veg...

A BUG!!! A good-sized green beetle of some sort.  I don't really know what kind of bug it was but still it's a bug that's not supposed to be sitting in my food!!!

I felt sick seeing the thing there.  It wasn't alive at the time I found it, and I wouldn't like to imagine it taking a stroll in my salad a few minutes while I am into eating it.  And I wonder if it brought a few friend along who might already be swimming in the gastric fluids in my belly.  Yuck!

Mind you, I have a tough belly, and I won't mind partaking of a few small ants or insects with my food in cases that they are just too minute to be cleared out, but this one is just too big a bug to be unnoticed during food preparation.  It's just such a clumsy work for whoever prepared the food, and a smear on the food place's reputation as it brings doubts to customers whereelse they could have screwed up during food preparation.  And that' just unacceptable.

We didn't really bother calling in a complaint last night as we were already tired to deal with it.  But I did post up the photo on my Facebook profile page, and on the Spizza fan page.  I hope it gets some attention.  It's sad to see a good pizza place go down by their own carelessness.

Kitchen Adventure: Going Nuts... Pinoy style!

I have always been fond of peanuts.  I remember when I was still in school, my Mama will buy a packet of groundnuts and boil them for snacks especially during exam weeks.   She would say it's supposed to boost brain power. Fact or myth, I don't really bother anymore, but I did graduate each level with honors. I'd rather think it's the genes and not the peanuts. :))

Here in Singapore, I do chance upon raw groundnuts at the local grocery every now and then.  And there are also roasted peanuts sold in packets on the the grocery racks.  But still how can a Pinoy not miss Adobong Mani? 

Sometimes the cravings come too strong that you feel homesick at the same time.  I can't let this happen!  So I did something about it.  I learned how to cook Adobong Mani! :D

It took quite a while (and a few inedible bags of peanuts) before I learned the proper technique.  Now, I am proud to say, I produce great results and here's proof!

The key is plenty of hot oil and a good arm.

You should use enough oil to cover/submerge the nuts during cooking.  You have to keep on stirring the nuts and garlic mixture in the hot oil.  If you don't stir, you'll get burnt nuts and garlic.  For me, it takes around 15 - 20 minutes of non-stop stirring when cooking 100 grams of peanuts.

This batch of Adobong Mani will be tonight's Cookie movie date snack. <3

Kitchen Adventure: Peeling and Deveining Shrimp, MasterChef Style

For Catholics, the Lenten season comes with the customary seafood diet.  And for the Cookies, this is the only time I can coerce Hubby Cookie to have seafood instead of the usual meat dishes prepared in our kitchen.

Well, Hubby Cookie's aversion to seafood is not due to an allergy (which he claims to be so).  He's just too lazy peeling them and dealing with the nasty bones.  So whenever we go out for Chili Crabs, I crack the shells and get the flesh out for him.  I am not complaining, but as someone who loves seafood like me, it's just so frustrating to be shelling more than eating them.

So I made a win-win deal with Hubby Cookie.  I am making Garlic Butter Shrimps but with peeled shrimps.  And he gives his nod. :)

Since I am already going out of my way peeling the raw shrimps, I might as well go all the way and devein them as well - MasterChef style! :)  Here's the page from my MasterChef cookbook on how to do it.



At first, I though about leaving the tail for aesthetic effect, but I scrapped that, I might get scolded for leaving a bit of shell on the shrimp.  So, here's my peeled and deveined shrimps.

Peeled and Deveined Shrimps

And here's my Garlic Butter Shrimp!  Dinner was served and Hubby Cookie loved it! He actually went for seconds.  Heeee.. :D

Garlic Butter Shrimps ala Wifey Cookie

There's really no formal recipe for how I do it.  It's just a "cook-by-taste"  technique.  So it's basically coarsely chopped garlic and onion, butter, red chili flakes, and the star of the dish, the shrimps.  A pinch of sugar and salt, and a twist of pepper for some seasoning.

Kitchen Adventure: Kimchi Fried Rice

One fine morning, after sending Hubby Cookie off to work, I opened the fridge and found leftover rice and kimchi.  So, what do I do with it?  (Drumroll) It's time for a Cookie Kitchen Experiment!

I clicked over to Google and typed "kimchi friend rice recipe."  I found a fairly easy recipe to follow, I just tweaked it as I didn't want any meat in it.  Well, basically, I just want to get rid of the rice and kimchi sitting in the fridge taking up space.  And this is what I came up with -

Instead of red onions, I used challots, as I still have a few sitting in the vegetable tray. 

So, what's the verdict?  Kimchi fried rice... success on the first attempt! :) And being a success, it is now imprinted on a special recipe card in my recipe box. :)

Singapore Adventure: Steak Dinner

It has been a while since I have indulged in a nice steak dinner.   Well, we're not getting any younger, and so we need to start watching our diet, right?  But every once in a while, that dreaded craving just haunts you until you are too weak to resist.  Then the opportunity comes knocking, and all guard just come crashing down.

So, yesterday, after finding that our New York New York vouchers are about to expire by mid-December, I got Hubby Cookie to agree to have dinner there. A steak dinner at that!  And it was all worth it! Hehehe...

It was the most delicious ribeye steak to ever hit my tastebuds!  Or that could just be the meat deprivation screaming.  But really, it was delightful. :)

This hunk of delicious meat rings at 24.60 SGD at New York New York.  And it sure is worth every cent. Well, just don't mind the unenthusiastic servers, you should live another day.

The voucher we were holding is for a 1-for-1 Main Course.  So multiply this happy meal by two, and you have two happy Cookies with fat bellies.  Hehehe...

It was a nice dinner.  Too nice that even with the sucky movie that Skyline is, the Cookies did not suffer from indigestion. :P

Singapore Adventure: Pre-Christmas Get Together

The Cookies love going on dates.  Well, the myriad of photos in our Facebook albums of us on a date should suffice as proof. 

But every once in a while, it feels really nice to out with friends.  Especially those who are so dear to us.  :)

The past Sunday, we went out of our humble hole in Lakeside to meet up with Fred and Hazel, the Laus, and Capt Jet to share a (pre-Christmas) seafood dinner at the No Signboard Seafood restaurant in Vivo City.

Side topic >> Surprisingly, we have figured out that we can take a bus directly to Vivo City from the bus stop just across our block. Neat!  The bus ride takes around 40 minutes, which is just about the same time if we take the MRT which requires a transfer from the EWL (Green) to the NEL (Purple).

Okay, so on with the group date. :)

The original plan was to have it at the Holiday Inn in Orchard so we could checkout the buffet lineup they have over there, but the restaurant was already fully booked. Too bad.  So, the next best thing is to do Chili Crabs! Hehehe... It was then decided to have dinner at the No Signboard Seafood Restaurant.

We ordered the usual - Chili Crabs with Sri Lankan crabs, Crispy Baby Squid, Cereal Prawn (which I only found out from Hazel you can request to have the prawn shelled), Sharksfin Soup with Crab Meat, Hokkien Mee, and Yang Chow Fried Rice.  Fred kidded about the bulk order to be our last meal. Hahaha.. Well, can you blame me, these are my all-time favorite foods at that restaurant, and you asked me to place the order. What do you expect? :P

Baby Cedric joined us for dinner.  And he was truly adorable! 

He ate on his own, and inspite of the little mess he made, it was just delightful seeing him scoop the rice from the bowl and taking a mouthful of it.  And the way he had his noodles with a big slurp is just soooo cute!

And the face he made when he had a spoonful of Sharksfin Soup will definetly bring a smile to your lips. Hehehe...



After dinner, we headed for a little stroll on the roof deck to see the giant Christmas Tree. Of course, it's photo time! :)



And to cap the night off, a nice Christmas Fondue dessert at Haagen-Dazs. 

It was a good way to start the week. :)

So that concludes the Pre-Christmas Dinner with Capt Jet.  Now I am off to plan the Christmas Dinner. Hmmm... Ideas, ideas...

Cookies @ Lakeside: A Blissful Two Months

It's been two months since the Cookie Wedding and 58 months since our Cookie Adventure started.  Indeed, time flies by so quickly when you're having fun! :)

To celebrate this very special day, Wifey Cookie cooked up a chinese-inspired dinner for Hubby Cookie.  Well, after watching too much Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, and the rest of the superstars on AFC and Food Network, the chef in me is screaming to be set free.  Hehehe... Feeling MasterChef much! :P

For the entree, which I just got off the frozen section shelf of NTUC, is Pan-Fried Veggie Meat Dumplings. 

I actually considered the idea of making home-made siomai, but it would be too much work already.  And my steamer is still in one of the unopened boxes sitting in the stock room.  So, I just took the practical way out and picked something off the shelf.  Nevertheless, enough effort was given for the pan-frying part! 

For the rice course, a Cookie regular, Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage.

A recipe I have already perfected! *bow*  I have tried out variations of this special Wifey Cookie Chinese-Style fried rice.  Sometimes with luncheon meat.  One time with salted fish.  And it always comes out nicely.  The secret is the sesame seed oil.  You'll never get it right with your regular vegetable oil.  That toasted flavour is what  makes it taste (almost) authentic. *useful tip*

And for the main event ... *drum roll*...  A first in the Wifey Cookie kitchen ... *trumpets* Broccoli and
Shiitake Mushroom in Oyster Sauce.

I remember attempting to cook this a while back, but if my memory serves me right, that was a bust. Hehehe...  And so this time, I must get it right.  I got the recipe off one recipes website and tweaked it a bit and came up with this.

Well, based on the customer feedback, I pulled it off. That's why I so love feeding my Cookie, he would eat anything! Hahaha...  But seriously, I was pleasantly surprised it did turn out quite palatable. :) *pat pat on Wifey Cookie's back*

So that's my little Chinese flair for our 2nd monthsary as Hubby and Wifey.

Hubby Cookie's birthday is coming up in a few days, and I already planned out a nice "Resto-Style" birthday dinner for him. *excited*

Note:  The photos were shot with my iPhone and surprisingly turned out quite nice, too. ;) 

Malaysia Adventure: Day One - Catching Up

Another great thing of being in KL is getting to see a friend after quite a while. A little catch up and some great new memories to take back home when the visit is over. Memories just enough to last until the next rendezvous.

Mun played host to the Cookies while at KL. She gave us some tips on which nice places to visit and how to get around KL by maximizing the convenience of their train system. Also, the day of our flight, she sent us the news that flight scheduled to land at the LCCT might be delayed due to the small fire that broke out in the airport that same morning. For all these great help, the Cookies are so very thankful.

Oh, and did I mention she took us out to a wonderful dinner of Malaysian dishes at Madam Kwan's in the new Pavillion Mall? ^_^

We had King Prawns, Chicken Curry, Vegetables with Beancurd, Fried Rice, Char Kuay Teow, and delicious classic ice lemon tea. It was indeed a feast! And we did finish the whole flair! But the best part of the meeting was definitely the conversation.

(It was actually Mun's idea that I take a photo of the food as she's been an avid reader of the Cookie Adventures blog. ^_^)

Here is a quick snap of us girls. My Cookie took the photo. The background is the entrance of the restaurant where we had our dinner.

After dinner, we explored a bit of the mall. The boutiques were not so different from what the Singapore Malls have. But in Malaysia, they have Parksons. It is the more popular of the departmental stores there.

Being a weekend, the mall was a bit crowded. And with the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, the mall was all dressed up for the occasion. Trees with cherry blooms lined the stairs leading to the mall atrium. It was eye candy indeed!

As we set out for the mall exit, we chanced upon the Golden Ox display. There were plenty of people taking photos. But we just need to have this photo and so we squeezed ourselves in. No regrets, it was a great photo, taken by Mun. It's our only photo together in Malaysia taken by a third party. ^_^

TO BE CONTINUED...

Singapore Adventure: Simple Christmas Feast

It's my first Christmas away from my family. Last year, though I was already based here in SG, I came home for Christmas to spend the festive season with my family and friends. This year, I spent a wet Christmas in SG. But the best part of it is I get to spend the entire day with my Cookie. ^_^

We started Christmas Day late. Skipped breakfast but I made up for it by serving a nice seafood dish for lunch. My (almost perfected) Buttered Garlic Shrimps.

My Cookie is not as big a fan of seafood as I am. But since it's Christmas and he loves me too much, so he pretends he is a fan every now and again. Well, with a little blackmailing strategy which involves him not getting any dessert, he did down a few pieces of shrimp that I shelled for him. :P

And being a good boy that he is, finishing the lovely shrimp dish I've prepared for him, he deserved the Lechen Flan reward I had for him. :))

When lunch was done, we spent some time in front of the tube. After we've gone tired of all other shows available on cable, we decided to give in to the urge of seeing a "free copy" of Twilight. We've been meaning to catch it in the theatres but never really got to it. And most likely by the time we don find the time, it would most likely not be showing anymore.

Read the book, seen the movie. Well, I am a fan of the book, but not so much of the movie. The movie was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. The way the story was told in book was very fluid, spontaneous, and the way the words were put together and told through the dialogues in the book sounds deliciously as you read them. But the movie, it gave me a feeling of skipping a few chapters or randomly flipping through the pages of the book. The acting was not as convincing making the dialogues sound flat, almost losing its flavour. Sorry if I am being too critical, I just really am not a buff of screen adaptations of books. Well, I did enjoy A Walk to Remember and Stardust, but still something is lost when the book is translated to the silver screen.

So, after almost 3 hours of Twilight, half the time spent blurting out side comments, it's time to prepare Christmas Dinner. This time, nothing fancy, just some Grilled Pork Loin Chops and a sidedish of Buttered Baby Carrots and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.




The Cookies had a great Christmas. ^_^