Hey guys!
It's been a hot minute since the last post. Forgive me - December was a mad rush for me, and I took some time to settle into the new routines of 2020.
Here are some updates ~ In a new year, of course we have new resolutions and goals. So far it's been going pretty good for me.
Cooking
I tried a lot of new recipes! Cooking and baking are very satisfying hobbies because you can eat your creations.
Creamy Chicken Pasta Recipe here.
This one was fun because it was the first time I coated chicken pieces in flour before pan frying them. I also plucked some basil leaves for garnish. It is my first time making sauce from scratch!
Pecan Pie (Recipe here)
We wanted to bake something different, so why not a pie? After making this pie we realised how much sugar goes into a pie, and also that pecans are really expensive (compared to other nuts like almonds). My pecans were $4/100g, yikes.
The dough for the pie crust was quite tricky, and I feel like this Ikea pie mould is a little shallow too. However, we had fun making this pecan pie! We halved the sugar used, but it still turned out sweet enough for us. It's nowhere near store bought pecan pie, but we will continue to improve on the crust :) Looking forward to a new pie challenge!
3. I also tried cooking rice on the stove instead of using the rice cooker. The rice turned out a little more mushy than I expected but all is fine cuz I made soup to go with it. Gonna try ochazuke sometime (rice with tea).
4. Also tried to be like my mum and cook a full meal. I wrapped enoki mushrooms in pork slices and pan-fried them, prepared a 2 egg spinach dish, and made some miso soup. Somebody teach me how to keep things piping hot when you are trying to cook the other dish! Mothers are amazing.
Read a couple of books this 2020, but these are my favourites so far.
This is a moving collection of essays from the New York Times. There are stories of family love, friendship, and of course, romantic love.There are tragic situations of bad timings...like how a pregnant, engaged woman has a stand-in 'boyfriend' as her fiance lives in another state. Or the story about how the writer's mom gave up on her husband who got Alzheimer's, leaving the children to deal with him. Then a story about how a couple went through with their adoption of a Chinese baby even though they discovered that she may be paralyzed for life. I'm not doing a good job describing these stories, but I highly recommend this book!
This other book is more well known, but I only happened to chance upon it in the library recently. The Travelling Cat Chronicles is told from the perspective of a cat, who travels around the country with his owner. Like many translated Japanese novels, the story is sweet, lovely, and calm in a unique way. I teared at the end. Recommended to all who love animals, and all who enjoy Japanese novels.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Exercise
Exercise wise, I'm trying to be more active.
Runs: 3
Swims: 2
Bike Rides: 23
Decluttering
On the note of decluttering, I'm proud to say I have encouraged some of my friends to start decluttering! I'm really proud of them - one of my friend found lots of currency and angbaos, while another found old cassette tapes. I hope to keep my own clutter down and maybe slowly tackle the shared areas in my house like the storeroom. I'm sure there's plenty of junk there.
In the same vein of not being wasteful, I'm glad that one of the dresses I currently own fits the colour scheme of my friend's bridesmaid dress code, and that she allowed me to wear it instead of getting a new piece! :)
My clothing count has actually went up because I 'thrifted' from a pile of unwanted clothes my sister wanted to donate. Lol they are really comfortable though.
I'm also thankful for mindful friends who gave me Christmas and birthday presents that were useful and lovely. I have so much chocolate now though. Haha!
I'm looking forward to February, are you?
LOVE,
Skye
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