Yoga class @ Bodhi Yoga, Taipei

Our itinerary in Taipei was very packed, I'm glad that I had a chance to attend at least 1 class in the week. Before the trip, I searched for yoga studios in Taipei, most of the studios provide classes in the morning starting 8+ and in the evenings. Bodhi Yoga is the only place that provides the first class as early as 7:15am, perfect for me!

It was a 5 mins slow walk from the MRT station, very conveniently located at the 3rd floor of a corner lot commercial building. A big signboard can be easily seen across the road.

Birthday trip @ Gold Coast Morib, Sepang

Not my birthday, it was my hubby's. Wanted to give him a surprise by driving him to the destination blind-folded. During the journey I lost my way, my blind-folded man beside me told me how to travel back to the correct route! Nevertheless, it was still a birthday surprise for him :)

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Porridge

It's time challenging for a working woman to take care of household chores after her 9-to-5 job, let alone cooking dinner during working days. Cooking itself takes time, and preparing the ingredients too. I'm always searching for ideas on quick-prepared food for me and my husband.

I got the slow cooker porridge idea from some mommies' blogs. They have to take care of their toddlers (especially busy if they are not sleeping) and at the same time prepare porridge for them, have to make sure the porridge doesn't overflow or dries up/overcooked, and most importantly have to make sure they remember to turn off the stove when it's done. So boiling porridge in slow cooker with a timer solves all the problem.

 And I use this idea to get my dinner prepared when I'm out to work. 

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

I like baking chiffon cakes. While the cake is baking, I always look through the oven door every 10 mins, wishing for the cake to rise, rise, rise. When I take the cake out from the oven, overturn it on the table and look at it, I wish: don't fall, don't fall, don't fall.

But this time (this is my 4th or 5th time, lost count), it still falls. It's too heavy for a chiffon cake, and it falls out from the cake tin immediately when I overturned it to cool it.

Thankfully, friends and family who ate it still considered it nice :)

The cake fell off the cake tin, but still intact.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2011

I thought this book sale is only for children books (that's why I missed the one last year), until a colleague told me it's for all kinds of books and her photos of purchase convinced me. More importantly, the prices are too tempting, ranging from RM5-RM25. I decided to go right after work.

The place is conveniently located near office, with highway free from traffic, we reached in 20 mins, and walked another 10 mins to reach the exhibition hall - impatient to wait for the feeder bus. It's a Monday, the hall wasn't as crowded as weekend. Books were nicely arranged in categories, and most of them were tidily-stacked brand new books. Boxes were provided as "shopping bag", I even saw a few pushing trolleys and luggage bags for their purchases. We were just strolling along each section, picking and flipping books that look interesting, nothing particular in mind. I picked a few books and proceed to the cashier, so nice to shop during weekdays, the cashier were quite empty.

Croquette (可乐饼)

I watched a cooking program on TV some time ago and this dish was introduced. It's very popular in Japan and Taiwan, especially among kids, I think because of it's crispiness.

I forgotten about it and only recently, when I'm out of idea what to make for a less time consuming dinner, I thought of it. I adapted the recipe here.

Shanghai mooncake

I made the lotus paste using Christine's recipe. I used white lotus seeds so the paste is fair in color. The texture of the paste is not so right. It's too dry to be considered as paste, probably because I cook it for too long. I like the taste, not too sweet, unlike the commercial ones.

I used SeaDragon's recipe for the Shanghai mooncake. I made plain and egg-yolk version, and everybody (who had eaten) prefers the egg-yolk version. The skin is a little too moist, it would be better if I can make it a little more flaky.

For the egg-yolk version, I used half salted egg-yolk per mooncake. The egg-yolk is pre-cooked in the oven, 180C for 10 mins. I topped it with some black sesame seeds for decoration, also to indicate it's egg-yolked.

After our lantern session, we had some mooncakes with hot tea.

中秋节快乐!