champouf posted 2013. on Monday, December 31, 2012
" Happy New Year! "
Another faithful year has gone by just like that and I find myself pondering on a lot of issues. One issue is about my results: I felt like I did not work hard enough for my first semester and my GPA was just sucky. But thank the Lord I did not fail any subjects because I really felt like I was going to fail one particular subject. University is definitely different from Junior College and I really have to buckle down and work hard for my second semester. That is my first resolution of the new year. Of course, what is New Year like without making resolutions?
#01: Work Hard For University
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I've been passionate about Cheerleading ever since I met my darling bf, but I found myself stuck at the same level over and over again without much improvement. Sometimes when you are stuck at the same place constantly, you will just lose some of the passion deep inside. And I found myself struggling with that issue. Thank goodness, I have my darling bf by my side. He is always encouraging me in Cheer and even in stuff besides Cheer. And finally, one day I found an extremely good opportunity for me to improve myself. But this means I have to forgo other stuff such as my good friends: it took me a really long time to decide and it was difficult making a decision but I had made up my mind. I think most people will hate my decision but I am going to stick with it through the end. I have to work hard to achieve that dream, and it won't be easy, but with hard work I know I can achieve it. I will share more about this after my trip in Taiwan :)
#02: Improve in Cheerleading
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Reading back on my past resolutions, I realised that I managed to fulfil a few of those slightly. Well, I am not perfect so actually realizing that I did make a few good changes made me really happy :) One of them is, quoting from what I wrote, "Reach God-like in Cooking and Baking". Oh gosh, how stupid was I! Hahaha :) Well, I am glad to say that this year, I did take up the initiative to bake more, with my mother supervising as usual. It was a great improvement for me because back then, I would probably screwed up the whole thing and my mother had to save the day again with her super awesome special baking powers. So yes, I can safely say that my 2012 resolution on the aspect of baking has been fulfilled, by a bit ... :P Which brings me to my next 2013 resolution. Sad to say I can't say the same for cooking because I did not really explore in that area :( But 2013 will be different for sure!
#03: Continue Passion in Baking AND Start Learning How To Cook
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Another example would be being a good daughter: I don't mean to brag or boast about anything but I think I really did improve on that. I stopped throwing fussy tantrums at my parents. I had stopped demanding a lot from them like a spoiled brat, and I felt I was definitely more matured than I was back then. I hardly got into any arguments with my parents this year and I felt like I had gotten closer to my parents. But of course, this does not mean I stop at that, I definitely want to become an even better daughter to my parents because of all their hard work and sacrifices they made for me.
#04: Be an Even Better Daughter For My Parents
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For those who do not know, I am still going strong with my darling bf :) It has been a rough 2+years for us, but we are still together! We have faced many tribulations and problems in the year 2012, and I still find myself being quite the 'jealous' girlfriend whenever I see le bf being so friendly with girls, even though their relationship is strictly on business. I also realized that it took a long time for me to start acting more matured with my bf and stop being such a spoiled princess in his eyes. I have to say that it was only last month when I started realizing that. But this doesn't mean that all is doom! Le gracious bf has always been giving me a lot of chances to change for the better and I really plan to do so for the year 2013.
#05: Be an Even Better Gf For Le Bf
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With the new year just about to start, I have to say that every new year sparks a new beginning and there is this HUGE part of my life that is going to change with the new year of 2013. No, I am not pregnant, neither am I getting married! :P My parents had just bought a new condo and with that, they are going to sell the house I am living in right now in Tampines. Well, the new house is going to take a few years to build/renovate, and for the time being, my family is shifting back to our house in Pasir Ris: the house which my brothers and I grew up in. Yes it does hold a lot of memories, but this time I am hesitant to leave my Tampines home. It is so near to three fricking malls!!!! And with a stadium just opposite my block, I can go work out whenever I want! I am looking forward to living in the new condo, but that is years away :( I don't mind living in Pasir Ris house actually, because I am definitely closer to my cousins there. But there is like nothing to do in Pasir Ris! REALLY! D: Not to mention, my school is all the way in PIONEER and I have to go from one end of Singapore to the other end every day if I am not residing in my hall. IMAGINE THAT D': Hahahaha. But I'm not going to whine like a little bitch about it, I'm glad that I have something to look forward to this year :) Here is just a little peek in my new room :) My mother only snapped a few pictures of her room and the kitchen which I am not going to put up here :P Hahaha.
And well yea, that is all I have for my resolutions in 2013. It is tough to stick to your resolutions throughout the year, but with hard work, you will definitely reap progress :) Happy 2013 to you all out there!
Labels: food for thought, fullofjoy, happy new year, ilovemyfamily, motivation, resolutions champouf posted Christmas Dinner (Part II) on Sunday, December 30, 2012
" Christmas is all about sharing the love around family members and friends; indulging in this festive season and bonding over good food. Such warmth is what I truly look forward to every Christmas season. "
I have always looked forward to celebrating Christmas with my loved ones: my beloved family members, my dearest cousins and of course my darling bf. Well my Christmas last year was spent in China in a bar - not exactly a conventional Christmas for me though, but I still had fun because I got to play bar games with my bf and his close friends. Anyway, this year, I had to consistently pestered my mother to plan a Christmas party for both my cousin's and our family. My mother was quite hesitant at first because our maid was going back to her hometown for the holidays and it would be quite a hassle to clean up after the party. However, thanks to me being rather persuasive, my mother agreed! :)
My mother planned this party a few days before Christmas because she wanted a few days to rest up before going back to work, and the rest of us had other plans around the time of Christmas. My mother started the tradition of having a turkey when I was a child, and she had been keeping it true ever since. Trust me when I say it is not easy to prepare a turkey: you have to start preparing it a few days before it is cooked. As for the steps on how to prepare it, I am not sure about the details itself, so I shall not go into that :S
Well, I was unable to help my mother out at home because I had trainings, but my mother is a superwoman herself. And she managed everything perfectly :) Amazing right! Another amazing thing was that one of my bf's students, Kunqi returned to Singapore just in time to attend the party. He was actually quite excited to attend the party and so was I! It had been eons since I last saw him :P So, on that day, my bf went to the airport to fetch him and brought him to visit the secondary school he was posted to after his PSLE. While le bf was spending the whole day outside with his kid, I had to stay in to help my mother :)
Say hi to le bf playing games with his kid :)
Turkey still baking in the oven~
My mother single-handedly put up this Christmas tree; just love the decorations and lightings so much :) Pretty ttm.
This is one HUGE Rilakkuma doll which kunqi gave me for my Christmas present! I squealed the moment I saw him lugging through the door. Omgosh :P
The turkey seemed pretty baked, if you know what I mean ^^
My mother got this recipe for bread pudding from her friend and in my opinon, this pudding was the BOMB! It tasted WONDERFUL! Everybody had nothing but praises for this dessert and I had two servings of this after my dinner even though I was quite full :O
Me playing Xbox 360 which I had not touch for one year plus! Oh, and just pardon my HUGE ass.
My elder brother specially prepared this plate of prawns with his own recipe. It was really good, which actually put me to shame because my own brother is a better cook than me, a girl! *SHOCK* -.-''
My elder cuzzy prepared this bowl of spaghetti with my aunty, and I have to tell you that this tasted better than the ones you eat at Pasta Mania etc.
And my mother popped open two bottles of white wine for this special occasion: a good reason for me to start training my alcohol levels :P
See! I told you my grandfather had a stunning smile :)
Oysters le bf ordered because he wanted a free knife from their collection o.o haha!
The man of the family slicing the ham for the family! :) At first he tried to slice thin slices, but the more he sliced, the thicker the slices got. And in the end, he just gave up and just went for thick slices. Hahaha it was quite funny actually :P
Here's the full spread! It really does look amazing, doesn't it? :D
Family portrait 01.
Family portrait 02.
Family portrait 03.
Family portrait 04.
Family portrait 05.
Everybody digging into the good food!
Dinner was meant to start around 7pm, but the turkey and prawns took longer than expected to get ready, so dinner was dragged until 8plus. In addition, my elder brother and I were snapping numerous pictures of the food so we kind of dragged the time to 9pm. Hahaha it was just too hilarious, my dad was like at a breaking point and he was trying to stop us from taking any more pictures of the food. In addition of having a scrumptious meal amongst dynamic company, we also enjoyed two tremendous movies: What To Expect When You Are Expecting and Taken 2. I love watching movies with my family and cousins. Why? Because they will always come up with something absolutely hilarious which just makes you want to laugh your head off. Seriously! It's like watching an impromptu drama.
Even though the celebration seemed pretty simple, I really enjoyed myself entirely. It was great catching up with my cousins whom I hardly see because of our busy schedules, and having dinner together with them was really a true joy. Thank you all for the awesome Christmas celebration, and I sincerely love you all so much. Have a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The year 2013 will be even more awesome than 2012, and I will definitely make 2013 a worthwhile year :)
Labels: familybonding, foodgalore, holidayspirit, ilovemyfamily, joyfuloccasions, lovedones, Merry Christmas, simple happiness champouf posted My Love For Baking. on Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Once again, I present you guys another one of my long overdue post. Enjoy! :)
PS: I baked these like a one week before Christmas and I finally got the time to post it up :P
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say 'Christmas'? Of course, many people will say 'presents', 'snow' etc etc ... But for me, the word 'Christmas' sparks 'COOKIES' for me!!! :) With such a festive holiday season, I found myself really craving to get into baking, and finally after arranging my schedule, I found enough time to crank out the oven. My mother, too, was really getting into the holiday spirit and we decided to bake cookies for the family :)
My mother's baking materials since she started many many years ago! There are so many tips and techniques inside that are considered family-secrets. Hahaha :)
With my love for chocolate chips, you can actually see how much of those I actually spammed into the cookie dough :)
Pre-baked batch: my mum and I had to use our hands to roll the dough into circle-ish shapes before pressing it down onto the pan.
First batch done! :)
After finishing baking all our batches of chocolate chip cookies, my mother and I realized we still had quite a lot of time before dinner started, so while we were pondering on what to do next, we decided to bake peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! My mother was really on a roll here. Haha so we started to bake again :) My mother literally took out all her other baking books and ran through the pages for her favourite recipe of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I was just swept along with her flow :)
My mother preparing the cookies base. This recipe requires no flour, no butter whatsoever! It is a really simple and fast recipe to follow, even a baking-idiot like me can follow through without any difficulties faced.
Chocolate chips time~!
My mother used a fork to press down the dough to make those tic-tac-toe designs on the cookies so that we are able to differentiate the peanut butter cookies from the chocolate chip cookies :)
Literally crispy golden brown :)
All done! Multiple batches of cookies all baked to sheer perfection in just one afternoon. Really, it didn't even take up my whole afternoon! It was just about 3 hours of mixing and baking: all in time for dinner :) I had never felt so efficient and happy in baking/cooking before. All the other time, I would take literally forever to bake one batch of pastry, but this time, there were literally MULTIPLE batches! Simply amazing~ Of course I could not have done all these without my mother's constant help and supervision. I was also really happy that I could spend some quality time with my mother and we bonded quite a lot during such times. Thank you mummy!
Labels: cookies, familybonding, foodie, holidayspirit, loveforbaking, Merry Christmas, myloveforfood, simple happiness
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