psychedelic christmas in the opium den

On Wednesday, something that potentially resolved my sticky situation materialised (fingers crossed still. .) Although I will still have to be frugal, I never felt so relieved and thankful. I convinced D we needed to do The Big Shop-- i.e. large haul at the supermarket, a.k.a. one of my favourite activities I look forward to. . and he kept going, "Look how much food there is in. . we're not going to go mad!". Of course, like two crazy people who love food shopping, we did go a little mad. Because of the spark of good news, Christmas would be Christmas after all, and I wouldn't keep holing myself up and feeling Apocalyptic. 

Blue LED lights around the ficcus tree and some white-themed baubles; cards from D's mom, my mom and a student; presents under the tree-- I asked D, "Just to be clear, there are three for me?"/ "Who else would they be for". 

I love my kitchen more than my wardrobe. It is also more diverse than my wardrobe, funnily enough. My snack bar is always loaded with all sorts of munchies-- trays full of chocolates, bags full of chips and boxes of biscuits. A large tin of Quality Street and miscellaneous boxes of truffles complete the feel, together with the Live well, love much, laugh often sign on the exposed brick walls as an everyday reminder. Bottles of booze and two new pints of icecream. . hohoho it's Christmas! 

And a sexy man lighting the fireplace ;)

Vegetables and wine heating up on a clean gas stove. . whilst D keeps laughing at me saying, "Ooh, vegetables" because a year ago, he'd go, "I am going to have words with your mother that on your own you do not buy vegetables at all". Always invoking my mother's name, tsk tsk. And even longer ago when we were friends he'd do that too, and I'd smugly tell myself, "hahaha as though you will ever be in a position to meet my mother". Now I eat my words as I eat my . . vegetables.

 

Really loving this shelf now that I've got the colour theme sorted out. . 

And the extravagant feather lashes I picked out for the night.

we all scream for ice cream even in the snow

I know, I know. It's absolutely freezing out there. Who in the right mind would have ice cream? Maybe our friends experiencing summer or tropical climes? But, it was a Buy Two deal of Thornton's Temptations ice cream, and I couldn't resist getting two pints. After all, ice cream always evokes the nostalgia of the ice cream man coming by in his cart in the evenings, and children (or those at heart) running out to choose their favourite flavours to be lovingly encased in a cone, bread sandwich or a paper cup. It also reminds me of a few years back when my cousin and myself were on our uncle's houseboat in Perth, WA, shivering all excitedly on the deck whilst the winds blew mercilessly at us, only to realise the irony that we were eating ice cream in winter. So I decided to experiment with some decadence here. . . ice cream in winter? Yesh yesh yesh! Nuff said. Amen.

warming drinks to spice you up this winter

Original image of cup of latté from here

 

It's winter, and who doesn't appreciate a Warm Me Up drink. As a fan of deep exotic spices whether in the scents I wear, the curries I cook or the potions I concoct for a devilishly delightful drink, spices are purrfect for warming one up, especially in the chilly cold. Who needs the heater for that extra boost of heat ;)

prawn and mussel medley: international edition

D's been busy so I've been gladly taking over chef duties. Life during your 'gap year' is limbo when you are researching/applying for your next course and have no idea about the outcome, you're waiting for your work visa in the meantime and . . everything is a big fat question mark. Which means I try my best to stay in lest I go out and spend money, as distractions abound with gorgeous shoes and clothes everywhere-- you will always want new clothes and re-define 'want' as 'need'. So I end up thanking heavens that I have an aesthetically-pleasing lair, living off my savings. . and basically I've never felt so financially-challenged before my whole life. Sometimes I wake up and think, "Hey, when in my whole life have I ever been so free before?" I worked insanely hard during my undergraduate years (otherwise I'll probably be starving now and selling my shoes) and it feels odd to neither have class nor work. There are moments when I bemusedly think, "Oh, is this how a Trust Fund Kid or Kept Woman feels? Wake up, do no work, no nothing". It feels odd. Which also gives me time to cook. And therefore, the concoction of two recipes based on a prawn and mussel medley-- one Italian, and one Indonesian.


*On a side note, the header photo is entirely irrelevant but just another of D's breakfasts the first day I woke up in Brighton; I realise I have no photos of me cooking over in this gorgeous kitchen but rather only those of me cooking in my not-very-pretty Cambridge dorm kitchen.

devilishly pleasurable foodies: sweetcorn and beef soup recipe

 

D makes the most spectacular meals ever, so much so that I always suspect he is a chef masquerading as a designer/architect. Coming from Singapore and growing up loitering around my grandmother's kitchen as she whipped up her incredible dishes, food is in my blood. The appreciation of and creation of food courses through my veins, so I was absolutely delighted to discover that D really can cook, so much so that I often tell him we should stay in and cook because his food tastes better than alot of what you get outside. Half my camera is loaded with photographs of the meals he has made, and ever so often do we drool over them together before he goes, "Hey I have cooked you so many meals!", ooh and ahh over the details of each one, and then he starts to threaten to start a food blog except he never has time to. In particular, his breakfasts are divine-- and he has never repeated a single breakfast before. For instance, this meal was whipped up when the stoves in my building in Cambridge were spoilt, and he cooked the eggs ingeniously with hot water. They are in a league of their own, and so sacred that I dress up* for them. So as I have always been threatening to put up food-- my other great love in life (well let's face it, love should be multiplied and hence you can love a lot of things)-- on Devilishly Pleasurable, herein do food photographs and recipes kick off. Let's hope they'll be a regular feature with all the other posts screaming out to be written, designed and posted. . .