Monthly Archives: March 2008

Shopping here is fab, y’know…

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When it comes to clothing, I don’t really have to worry about sizes – I have become a true blue M and not some “halfway” size freak. Honestly, plus size clothing here is really for plus size people and well, L is an L and not an M, and so forth.

Okay, maybe I ought to elaborate a little bit more about this. If you come from an Asian country like Malaysia, Thailand, etc, and am blessed with a little bit more flesh than the average stereotypical 24-inched waisted Asian woman, there aren’t many options for you to choose from in terms of clothing.

With our rich diets of nasi lemak, roti canai and what-not, it’s crazy how much slimming advertisements dominate the scene and not many people realize that for starters, our diet and lifestyle is hazardous and secondly, our clothes don’t fit not because we are too big but because they are not made to our real proportions.

Try looking around for a top that really gives you a nice curve around the breasts and ends at the waist and not at the hips. Or how about pants which allow for bigger hips and a nice tapered leg that ends at the ankles instead of on the floor? What about breasts that need support in the form of 36Ds or 36Cs? Do I need to go on about the dresses?

Over here, somehow the cutting is just nice, the sizes don’t lie and well, I think the fashion industry here is more grounded in reality. Plus I don’t see a lot of slimming advertisements or billboards around.

Are Asians obsessed about “thin” for appearance’s sake or for health reasons??? Also do designers really do think that Asian women have no breasts and no arse?

Or is it just me?

baby@thescarfer.net

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Do you see a little addition to the thescarfer.net family?

Hint: It’s near the top of the sidebar.

If you still can’t see it, well, hop on over here. It’s still very new and in the middle of plugin tweaks but it ought to look just about homey…

I honestly can’t wait to add more there…

:)

Lasagna a la Bolognaise

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Lasagna a la bolognaise

It’s lasagna day in my house! It’s my first time making lasagna…
C’est le jour de lasagne chez moi! C’est la premier fois que je fait de lasagne…

…while it is still not too bad for a first try, I hate the way the lasagna falls apart when it’s served. Nil reckons it has everything to do with me not using the béchamel sauce; well, I had decided to try a little something different with all the cheese in the fridge.

Then there is the bolognaise sauce – I think there’s too much liquid but Nil thinks it’s just nice. O’well…he cleaned his plate; that surely must be a sign of something, no?

Lasagna a la Bolognaise

Ingredients
Approximately 12 lasagna pieces
800 gms ground beef
Can of tomato sauce
6 medium size tomatoes – diced
1/2 of neuchatelois sausage – diced
2 tablespoons of tomato pesto sauce
Freshly grated cheeses – parmesan, appenzella, superchoix, tête de moine
Mozzarella or pizza cheese mix
1 beef stock cube
Onions – finely diced
Garlic – minced
Rosemary
Oregano
Black pepper
Salt
Olive oil

Method

  1. Saute onions and garlic with some olive oil in a pot until soft. Add in the diced sausage and fry until slightly crispy.
  2. Throw in a couple of pinches of rosemary and oregano before adding the ground beef. Stir until almost cook.
  3. Add in the tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes and stir. Prepare some beef stock by mixing the stock cube in some water.
  4. Pour the stock in, add more oregano and rosemary, some black pepper and salt to taste. Cover and simmer until the sauce thickens. Once it does, turn off the fire.
  5. Meanwhile, prepare lasagna sheets by cooking them in boiling water (add salt as well). Once cook, drain and wash with cold water to prevent the sheets from sticking. Place aside.
  6. Preheat the oven at 180 C for 15 minutes.
  7. In a small rectangular pan, arrange a layer of pasta sheets at the bottom. Place the meat sauce on top and cover with another layer of pasta.
  8. Generously sprinkle a layer of the grated cheeses before covering with another layer of pasta. Top this layer with meat and cover with the final layer of pasta.
  9. Generously sprinkle a layer of mozzarella or pizza mix cheese before adding some grated parmesan on the top.
  10. Bake for 30 minutes and serve hot/warm.

NOTE: There will be a good amount of sauce leftover, which can be packed and used with other types of pasta.

Yes, I think I’ll try to start off my blog posts with a couple of French sentences from now on. It’ll help…I hope.

Tom Yum goodness!

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Seafood Tom Yum

Seafood + tomatoes + mushrooms + pork slices + dried lemongrass + tom yum paste + pasta = An excellent brunch, good for cool days!

The recipe is just that simple, really. I couldn’t have really gone traditional start-from-scratch for many reasons so Nil and I often make do with shortcuts. *shrugs*

Sorry if I haven’t been blogging much lately; things have gone crazy over here with the impending move next week (there is the clean-up which is starting tomorrow…), three knitting projects (two WIPs and one to be cast on) plus my other “house managing” items. Cooking is one of them. Oh, did I mention that lasagna is on the list?

Watch out tomorrow coz lasagna bolognese, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving – should I buy it?

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Yup, you heard me. We’ll be moving over to the new place come next week and while it can seem pretty exciting, it’s quite…well, unnerving really.

It’s a bare place that I’m going to – as with any move – so there is the whole refurnishing and what-not. On the top of our list of items to purchase are sofa beds, bed, cupboard, shelving, storage and display units that double as stands or shelves. And we haven’t even thought of electronic/electrical goodies.

Someone suggested that a plasma TV would be great; the idea was very tempting but apart from a TV wall mount (those are really cool to see sometimes!) or a regular display unit, I don’t really know if we do need a TV after all. We have a 20″ LCD screen for the computer. Would that count?

I am eyeing this really nifty digital temperature-weather-hydrometer but at nearly 100 Swiss francs, well, I think I can do with a 1.90 franc old-fashioned thermometer.

There is this Kitchenaid stand mixer that I would like to have but it’s just a dream because at 900 francs, well, Nil choked and said that he would die first before I can get it. Plus it’s lime green – not his favourite colour. Bah.

We already have a kettle, rice cooker, bread machine, vacuum cleaner, iron, some crepe machine thing, espresso machine, blender/juicer…

Really…what electrical goodies should a new homemaker get?