Take a Break

In the midst of your hectic life, don’t forget to take a break.

Take some time off to get to know yourself.

I’m off! Do Widzenia!

~ Juan

Old Fashioned Choc Cake

Looks good enough to eat? Unfortunately not.

Served during Dad's birthday dinner, it soon became apparent that 2nd helpings are not going to happen.

Not only the icing has been 'frozen' by the refrigeration, the cake was sandy and unusually crumbly to enjoy.

I'll just have to find another recipe and learn that not all 'famous chef' recipes work all the time. Is it me? Or the haze? What a bummer.

Warm love,
Starningblue

Letters to Juliet

Just watched this film and it got me digging into my photos archive. It was set in Verona, where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play was based on… was there few years back and the beautiful settings in the movie look all so familiar.

The wall of Juliet House with many love messages…

Famous balcony and bronze Juliet. Legend says that in Verona, there were these two real families Montecchi and Capello in feud at that time. 

Lunch in Verona…

Dessert: The “Gelateria Savoia” was established in 1939 by husband & wife Vittorio Bonvicini and Luigia Savoia. Their first ice creams were unique in both quality and shape. Over the years, these original Veronese ice creams became so popular that they went on to become known and enjoyed all over the world. The above are the few famous ones…. The one in the centre (The Pinguino meaning Penguin) is said to be the first ice cream on a stick.

   One Penguin for me!

Find them at Via Roma 1/b (Piazza Bra) 37121 Verona Italia.

‘Juan

Barley, Gingko & Beancurd Skin Dessert

In chinese it is known as 白果意米腐竹糖水 and it is quite a mouthful to say the name of this dessert; this is what Mum used to cook for the family when I still had the luxury of staying with my parents.

Being a bride-to-be is not easy, being a vain bride-to-be takes even more effort. My plan is to take care of my skin inside out. I've been investing in regular facial sessions to pamper my skin, drinking bird's nest once in a while and another a cheaper way to nourish the skin is to cook this chinese sweet soup.

There are many versions to this. Some like hard boiled eggs in it, some like to taste chunky beancurd skin in the soup; I like mine creamy like soy milk with chewy barley and nutritious gingko.

The painful part of making this is preparing the gingko. Because mum used to cook this and not me, I now know for the first time what it means to 'remove the heart' of the gingko. After cracking the gingko shell (trying not to hammer my fingers), and soaking the gingkos in warm water to easy the removal of skin on the prized fruit, the next step is to use a toothpick pushing one tip to the another to push out the bud of the gingkos. It sounds easy but I had to grovel the toothpick inside the gingko in search of the bud and it took a long while to go through all the gingkos.

The results was very good. The beancurd skin melted into the soup and the barley was not mushy. Besides the gingko, it was pretty quick to prepare as well. So girls, you should really make some of this to pamper yourself!

Ingredients:

20-25 Gingko nuts

1 packet of dried beancurd skin

50g holland barley (there are 2 kinds of barley and this is the one you need)

1.5l water

Rock sugar to taste

How to:

Rinse barley and gingko nuts and soak barley for 30mins. Rinse dried beancurd and soak till white in a separate bowl.

Put water in pot, add soaked beancurd skin and barley. Boil  in covered put for about 20mins on low fire, or until beancurd skin melts.

Add gingko and rock sugar to taste. Boil for another 15mins more and turn off fire. Serve warm or refrigerate and enjoy it cold.


Warm love,
Starningblue