After our BUI (baking under the influence) disaster the other night, me and G decided to give baking another go, this time without the alcohol. It’s a lot easier to bake with a straight head.

We headed to our trusty Bill Granger cookbooks – the recipes are easy to follow and they’ve always turned out great. Speaking of Bill, I can’t believe he’s going to be on Masterchef this week. I would probably faint if I was cooking for him. The Masterchef contestants have their work cut out for them this week. Eek!

Back to the cookbook, at first we had our eye on the Passionfruit Pavlova, but were sorely disappointed to find that we were missing just 1 ingredient – Arrowroot. What in the world is arrowroot? All I know is Milk Arrowroot biscuits, but I don’t think that’s what they mean. Anyway we had to pass on the pavlova this time, but rest assure, we’ll make it next week (with arrowroot).

Instead we made these yummy jam shortbread rolls. It was a lengthy process involving getting your fingers in there, rolling and refrigerating the dough, then slicing and baking it. But it paid off. As soon as they were ready to eat we had 7 between the two of us. Could have gone for more, but it was getting late and too close to bedtime for that much sugar.

Last night we all headed to Bar Europa to have a few drinks for Lisa’s farewell. We had a reserved section, which we were suppose to share with another party. But with Lisa being such a popular and well liked person, her party took over / squeezed out the other party, so we had the whole section to ourselves. Nice! And we got free drink vouchers which was extra nice!

Usually after a big night out most people can’t wait t hit the sack and go to sleep. Instead, me and G decided that it would be a great idea to bake some chocolate pudding. Mind you we’ve never tried to bake pudding before and we’d had a few drinks. Just a word of warning: Baking under the influence (BUI) is not a good idea. Not only was it impossible to read the recipe, try measuring and sifting ingredients, adding the wet ingredients, then pouring the mixture into bowls, then sprinkling the topping over the mixture, then pouring boiling water over the topping and baking it for 20-25 minutes. Who knew making pudding was so complex.

Anyway, as you can see from the picture our “pudding” isn’t quite up to Masterchef standards. But, it did taste pretty awesome. The top was nice and crispy, the middle was moist and the bottom had a heap of hot chocolate sauce. That actually sounds like a good pudding, you just have to get past the horrible look (and the burnt smell in the kitchen).

My friend Lisa is moving to the UK next week, so to celebrate (is celebrate the right word?) we went to Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab Restaurant for a feast. I’ve heard of the place before but hadn’t been there so I was eager to sample their crab, especially after looking at their website where they boast that “Nobody leaves the door unhappy”. That’s a pretty big statement.

Coming from a Singaporean background I had pretty high expectations. My grandma, the head chef of the family, makes the best food in the world, and the best chilli crab. So they had their work cut out for them.

After choosing a heafty 1.9kg crab we were each given a neck-to-waist apron and crab eating utensils. Two thumbs up to the apron, one for keeping us clean and one for saving pieces of meat that would otherwise have hit the floor.

The actual crab itself was really nice, big chunks of juicy crab meat (if you had the patience and persistence) especially in the claw – which was massive. But I think they failed on the sauce, it wasn’t that rich tomato / chilli mixture with bits of egg through it. It didn’t have that lingering aroma. Oh well… At least the salt and pepper squid was really nice, so if you like salt and pepper squid (and who doesn’t) head there.

After dinner we ventured out into the cold rainy night to find some dessert. I wasn’t quite satisfied with the crab so I’m glad my friends are into their desserts. On the way to Passion Flower we got distracted by the gelato display at this Thai restaurant on Campbell street. I think the place is called Chat Thai, but I’m not 100% sure.

I decided to stick to my gut and went with a good old fashion Banana Split. I use to eat these all the time as a kid so it really took me back a few years. Now you can’t really mess up a Banana Split, and they didn’t. It was just what I wanted, with a cherry on top (though I didn’t eat the cherry – don’t like fake cherries).

There are so many great web apps (web applications) nowadays it’s hard to pick which is right for your needs (whatever they might be). The best thing about web apps, well the basis really, is that you can access them from any computer with an internet connection. You could be at your friends place or half way around the world and you can still show off your latest holiday photos via a web app, like Flickr.

With the introduction of web apps it’s even easier to breakdown the walls of the office and work from anywhere. A lot of people use them so they can work remotely or share/access files – all important office needs. But there are some people who use them for other purposes.

There is this great web app called LogMeIn (Log Me In). It allows you to access, view and control your computer, whether that be your home or office computer depending on what you set up, from any computer (via a web browser). The computer that you are accessing must be on and it must have an active internet connection.

Now my cousin mainly uses it for business purposes so if she’s saved a document on her home computer, she can use LogMeIn to access the computer and email the file to herself. Very handy. But I think she uses this more frequently as a Kitty-Cam rather than an office tool.

All you need to do is Log in; launch a web cam application, like Photo Booth, and there you go – Kitty Kam. You can see your home computer screen with the live web cam feed from the office or anywhere. And with the incorporation of Skype you can talk to them, so if they’re not in view you can yell out to them (or sing to them, whatever tickles your fancy)… It’s just like you’re there.

I bet the good people at LogMeIn are jumping with joy to be supporting this vital cause. Good work guys – Kitty Kam accomplished.

Every 5 months or so I catch up with a good old friend of mine, Michelle. Michelle and I go way back, I think we’ve known each other for about 20 years now.

When we catch up I’ll leave the venue choice to Michelle, the only requirement is that it must be listed in the Entertainment book otherwise we ain’t going there. Our catch up meals are usually a 2-for-1 or 25% off meal – love it! But being “thrifty” can backfire on you. The last time we tried to be cheap we rocked up at this cafe in Leichhardt and, as you can see from the picture, it was nothing but a closed shop. How disappointing. Luckily there was another Entertainment book cafe across the road so we just went there instead.

This time we had better luck, we went to The Roxanne in Glebe and ordered a Big Breakfast each. Michelle went with the Veggie Big Breakfast as the healthy alternative which had 2 poached eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomato, spinach, baked beans and a hash brown. I went all out and got the “real” Big Breakfast which had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomato and a hash brown. Seriously it’s not a big breakfast unless there’s bacon on the plate. I thought my Big Breakfast (left) was yummier, more appealing and more appetising compared to Michelle’s Veggie Big Breakfast (right). But I’ll let you be the judge of that.

By the end of the meal we had both successfully cleared our plates and saved 25% off the meal. Thanks Entertainment book!

For some reason my dog Sammi loves squeezing herself underneath my bed. I don’t know how she manages to do it, I’ve stuffed so much crap under my bed, there’s hardly any space and she’s a lot more plum nowadays (No she’s not fat! It’s just her winter coat).

She usually goes under the bed when there’s a thunderstorm or when I’m trying to get her to do some exercise by chasing her around the house. It’s actually quite funny watching her run from one room to the next, sometimes her paws lose grip when she’s trying to turn corners on the tiles and she goes sliding across the floor. She’s quite a smart little girl, if she doesn’t want to play she knows the only place I can’t chase her is when she’s under the bed.

Here she is after about 5 minute of running around the house. She doesn’t look too impressed that I found her.

There have been quite a few birthdays lately, but I’m not complaining, especially if we go to Ripples Cafe to celebrate. I love Ripples at Milsons Point, it’s got the most amazing view of the Harbour Bridge, you’re seriously smack-bang underneath the thing. The view is great, the coffee is good and the food is amazing.

We started off with some nice bubbly. I’m usually not a fan of sparkling wine, but this was actually really yum – Yellowglen Vintage Bella. I’m looking forward to sipping on this in Summer.

I decided to get something different for my meal today, I was going to go with the usual bangers and mash or steak with sides, but I felt like something different. I opted for the Prawn and betel salad with Peking duck wantons. OMG I’m so glad I went with that! It was absolutely amazing! I haven’t had a meal that good in a really long time. You know those meals you just remember, the taste sticks to you and it’s all you can think about. Well I had one of those meals today and I kept thinking about it all day long.

The strange thing is, there was heaps of parsley in it and I don’t like parsley. In fact I detest parsley and coriander so much that I will sit there and pick out every single piece of it before I eat my meal. But today I actually ate all of the parsley in the salad. Very strange. I know I still don’t like parsley because I had some in my dinner tonight and spat it out. But at lunch it was somewhat bearable, and maybe even nice… Whatever still hate the stuff.

Desert was a Chocolate and honeycomb cheesecake with fairy floss, or as I call it, hairy floss (Turkish fairy floss). The cheesecake was amazing especially the honeycomb base, though it does get a bit much after a full slice. In the afternoon my heart was a seriously starting to hurt – chocolate coma!

One things for sure, since my friend Esther use to work at Ripples, I know what I’m saying next she asks “What do you wanna cook?”