Dusting off the cobwebs......

Just to let you know I'm still alive and kicking and that I'm back from my holiday in Madrid (ok so I've been back for almost 3 weeks now :P ). I did think of blogging about it once I get back but as you can see, procrastination got the better of me (what else is new?). Plus the fact that I have been busy downloading and watching all sorts of TV series (special thanks to Mi Mujer for introducing me to the wonderful world of downloading). I can finish a whole season of a series (which on average is 12 episodes) in 1 day!! Ahhhh.....it feels soooooo good!! Now I have an idea how and why some recovering alcoholics fall of the wagon :D

Anyway, since my holiday is old news, I've decided not to blog about it. Oh but I have to say that believe it or not, I had no idea we were going to Madrid! (in fact, I had no idea we were going on a holiday!) You see, one Wednesday night after Mi Amor came home late from work as usual (he had been coming home late every night for the past week) , he suddenly announced, "I don't feel like working tomorrow....I'm stressed out at work....screw the boss, he should be able to handle the work himslef, I've done everything else....let's go somewhere....pack your bags for the weekend!"
Of coz 2 things ran through my mind when he said that.......'the poor guy has finally turned crazy from all the stress' and 'Hell yeah, let's go!'


Glad to say that the rational side of my brain was still working and I tried to talk him out of skiving from work but finally after an hour of Mi Amor not budging, I gave in an packed my bags to keep him quiet thinking that he'll change his mind the next day. Well that didn't happen coz the next morning we found ourselves rushing to the train station to get to the airport. I kept asking Mi Amor, "Where are we going?" and he kept answering, "I don't know, let's just see what flights they have at the airport and try to purchase tickets for the next earliest flight to anywhere" (the whole time I was thinking to myself ' ok, this craziness is going on a little longer than I expected but hopefully when we get to the airport there won't be any available flights and we'll hafta turn back').


Once we got to the airport, I realized that instead of heading to the ticket counter to purchase tickets, we were heading to the counter with the scanner thingy that u hafta pass through on your way to the departure gate. That's when it finally hit me (yes, I have a history of being slow and gullible).......Mi Amor had already bought the tickets....he had actually planned this beforehand!! Turns out that Mi Amor wanted to surprise me with a holiday to Madrid as an early bday pressie ......Awwwwwwwww :D

Hmmmm....to come and think of it, maybe I will blog about the Madrid holiday seeing as this blog is the closest thing I have to a diary....but not in this post though, coz I need to go to sleep soon (it's almost 3am).  In the meantime, enjoy the pics of some of the results of the culinary skills (ha ha) that I'm slowly picking up here!

Choux pastry with nutella filling (this is actually the second batch...the first batch looked more like a Choux pastry but Mi Amor wanted more nutella filling hence the messiness of this batch coz it was practically bursting with nutella!)

Spaghetti carbonara (I found out that the original Italian version of carbonara does not use cream so I decided to try that recipe out coz I thought it would be healthier....plus I couldn't find any heavy cream at the supermarket :P )

Soft chewy milo nutella cookies 

Crispy garlic paprika chips 

Mushroom swiss cheese burger (and yes, I made the burger patty myself! Mi Amor thinks it tastes way better than Burger King's :D )  

My first attempt at cooking chicken rice (even made my own chicken stock)

Honey roasted chicken 

Lemon chicken breasts

Thought of eating the lemon chicken on it's own but decided to pair it with sauteed vegetables and angel hair pasta

Oh by the way, cooking has just been made easier for me. Yay! You see, ever since I got here, most of my cooking was done from scratch. I had to look up the recipe and try my best to find the ingredients and follow the instructions to make the dish (which isn't easy to do considering I don't have a blender and most Malay dishes require blending or pounding some of the ingredients). However last week, Mi Amor finally received his box that contained all sorts of instant paste and Maggi noodles which he bought back home:

Just add water

I think I've used about 4 packets now and I must say I'm freaking enjoying it! (not only coz it makes things easier but it also tastes good). However I think if I keep relying on the packets, I'll get lazy (oh wait, I'm already lazy.......so perhaps lazier, if that's even possible) so I'm trying to limit my usage of the packets. Though if I don't get my Swiss permit approved and hafta go back to Malaysia (I have 1 month left on my tourist visa), I know all those packets will go to waste coz Mi Amor can't be arssed to cook anything even if it is instant (if there's someone lazier than me, it would be him!). Hell, the boy doesn't even know how to cook rice! (and that's with a rice cooker) :P

Alright then, I'm off to bed......