So I seem to be a little on/off with macaron making. Sometimes, they are pretty good and sometimes, not so much (these were probably closer to the latter). Don’t get me wrong, they are yummy – chocolatey and filled with a creamy ganache – but they’re not quite macarons, they’re more like sandwich cookies.

You see, they are a tad too crunchy (even after 24 hours) and of course, they don’t have those delicate, elusive feet. I am attributing this to three problems: 1. under beating the egg whites, 2. under mixing during macronage, 3. not aging the egg whites. But it’s okay, I am determined to get them right… so maybe I’ll try again this weekend. But until then, crunchy sandwich cookies will have to do.

This weekend, mum made more delicious home cooked food (popiah & meesiam) and we treated ourselves to waffles at Buttercup (verdict? we like prima deli waffles more). I broke in my new moccasins (so cute & comfy), made some beet carrot and pea soup and some chocolate macarons. All in all, a pretty good weekend.

I am in love with this double exposure series by Pakayla Biehn. They are paintings recreated from original images in collaboration with several photographers. The colours and the soft, ethereal flow of the paintings are so beautiful.

{via the lovely daydream lily}

p/s I haven’t yet uploaded photos from the weekend (eeps, totally forgot!) so Weekend Snippets will be tomorrow!

Happy Friday, lovelies!

This weekend, the boy and I are going climbing, I’ve got 3 leftover egg whites to mess around with in the kitchen and I’m thinking it’s finally time (hell, it’s been more than a year now) to get this sore shoulder checked out.

Leaving you this weekend with the fantastic sounds of Beirut - that horn, that ukulele. Good ol’ Elephant Gun just makes me want to dance around the room – it’s that kind of song, you know?

Have a dreamy weekend.

Totally inspired by this video. She is amazing!

Pineapple tarts are definitely a Chinese New Year tradition. They are golden, buttery, sweet sour and sinful – what’s not to love? Like last year, we set out some extra time in the kitchen to make our own this year.  We made the pineapple jam the night before and stored in the fridge for cooling – I grated the pineapples this year, cooked together with sugar and lemon juice and some nutmeg, cinnamon & cloves for spice. I cooked the jam a little different this year, instead of just leaving everything in the pot to cook, I put the grated pineapple through a colander and kept the juice separate. Then, I let the mixture cook till the liquids have mostly evaporated before adding in more juice (and I repeated this until all the juice was in the pot). I think this method allows for the pineapple to caramelize more evenly… but who knows?

The pastry was made by combining butter, eggs and icing sugar to a flour & cornflour mixture. Then, the pastry was rolled and the tarts were cut out, filled with pineapple jam and brushed with egg wash before going in the oven.

We also made rolled tarts by rolling the pastry out in a sheet, piping a layer of pineapple jam and then rolling the pastry over to make little logs which were cut and put in the oven. 

They were pretty good, if I say so myself. The pastry was surprisingly light and the jam was just the right amount of sweet sour. I am going to experiment with maybe adding more liquids into my pastry recipe to lend a little more moistness to the tart and maybe increasing the salt for a more salty sweet taste. Yum!

This weekend, we baked some pineapple tarts, let the zumster play dressup as we cleaned the room for New Year, went climbing, ate a scrumptious reunion steamboat dinner, got decked out in lucky red to visit the relatives on New Year, had some late night gambling sessions, ate too much good, home cooked food (mom’s mee siam!) and snacked on (too many) CNY goodies.

I think a work out is in order.

Happy happy Friday!

And happy long weekend to those celebrating Chinese New Year!

This weekend, the festivites are in order, the boy and I have some last minute shopping and cleaning to do before ringing in the new year and we are looking forward to good times with friends and family. And of course, an (over)abundance of good food.

Leaving you this weekend with The Great Lake Swimmers, who are fantastic in this video shot by Adrian Vieni in his Wood & Wire series (totally addicted!). Though, I maintain that my favourite song of theirs is still ‘moving pictures silent films’. They have a new album that’ll be out in April, check it out on their website!

Hope you all have a festive weekend!

So beautiful in its simplicity. I can only hope to be as vibrant and full of life as Maia in my later days.

{Video made by Julia Warr; thanks to Holly for sharing!}

p/s Can you believe this is my 1000th post?! AMAZING!

Exciting news: we’re off to Japan in a little more than 3 weeks! The boy and I going to be spending a few days in Tokyo first. Then, we’re meeting up with the brother and H. for some snowboarding at Shiga Kogen, then back to the city. Since we’re on a little bit of a budget, we’re going to try and plan out our days in Tokyo in advance, so if anyone has any recommendations on places to eat or visit, please send them our way!

We’re totally looking forward to snow, cooler temperatures, tons of powder, dips in the onsen and of course, lots and lots of good food (I will not pretend that I’ll actually have the willpower to adhere to my fish-only-on-weekends rule in Japan).

Are you going somewhere exciting too?

{Photos via: 1. Travelanthropist, 2. New York Times, 3. wendyrgould, 4. jackson.chu}