Muffin pig!

Too funny to resist!

Also, I'm supposed to be working on the final edits for my thesis, so just a random post for today!

Cabbage rolls

I've never had cabbage rolls before.

I've also never made cabbage rolls before.

Challenge accepted. (teehee score! HIMYM reference!)

They weren't super hard to make, but getting the filling to the consistency of that made with beef wasn't easy. Also, my 'soux chef' overboiled the cabbage and I was left with only tiny cabbage leaves to work with. The result? Small not-quite-fully-wrapped cabbage rolls.

Regardless, I found it quite delicious, although I think I'll be hard pressed to make these again. (I'm not a huge fan of eating boiled cabbage!)

Pumpkin carving

Halloween! I love seeing the cute little kids all dressed up in random but hilarious (and cute too!) costumes to scope out the best candy.

I didn't get much this year since Adam said it's the lowest expected turnout in years. I picked up a box of 50 mini chocolate bars, expecting to get around 25 kids. Marc/k from downstairs also brought up a 75 pack of mini candies to hand out, but the turnout was so underwhelming!

I was saddened by how few kids came, I probably had about 15. By the end of it, when kids were coming, I was giving away handfuls of candy - one of chocolate and one of candy.

It was disappointing, but at least I was proud of my pumpkin this year! It was an easy carving to do, but it's super cute!

Super cute!

Impossible pie

Searching for the most difficult, labour intensive, lengthiest pie recipe ever?

Sorry. You won't find it here.

Contrary to the name, impossible pie is a breeze to make. In fact, it's... impossibly easy! Oh yes, I just went there. My puns really are getting worse and worse...

I had to make 2 of these pies on the weekend, it was that good.

This pie is called impossible pie because of how impossibly easy it is to make. It's a crustless pie that you mix all together in one bowl (wet and dry), pour it into a greased pie plate and bake for an hour. It's that easy!

The trick to this pie is that while it's baking, the ingredients separate. Since it is baked for so long, the water (milk) evaporates from the pie and the crust separates itself out and sets on the bottom. The leftover milk solids thicken and gel up the pie, forming that delicious "filling".

Impossible pie is a oh-so-delicious "crustless" coconut pie!

This was made October 29 (see, I'm catching up on my posts...).

Asia Day 13: Macau

October 5

After feeling horrendous from the bus ride at the Peak, I semi-recovered to make it on the boat ride to Macau. The sickness from the evening before was unfortunately timing, because we had already pre-planned the day in Macau and had 3 tickets for a Franco Dragone show.

Ergo... I had to grin and bear it for our day in Macau.

After docking in Macau, my dad thought he'd be super clever and sneak a free shuttle ride to a random hotel near the touristic district. Unluckily, my dad isn't quite as clever as he would like and led us to a hotel shuttle that wasn't very close by at all. Aka. The Grand Lisboa.

Nevertheless, I was glad to just be off things that moved and happily made the walk from the hotel to the tourist district.

The architecture is old and grande and beautiful, heavy on the Portuguese influence. The big colourful flower decorations on the ground behind the fountain are decorations for National Day (October 1). The week long celebration had run through and the decorations were being taken down.

I don't remember what street it was that the fountain was at, but we were on our way to the Ruins of St. Paul. We eventually made it there (amidst the throngs of people) and also headed up behind it to the Fortaleza do Monte. There, I got to sit on a cannon. Seriously.

It looks like fun and games, but this was initially a centre for protecting Jesuit property. Eventually it was seized by the government for Macau defense (aka. the Portugese colony). It's seriously old (1600s) and is in pretty darn good shape. A museum like thing has even been built in the centre of the fort.

The reason we went to Macau though (as alluded to), was for a performance. Franco Dragone used to direct nearly all large Cirque du Soleil shows but left some time before 2000. One of his latest shows was playing at the City of Dreams in Macau, billed as a $2 billion HKD production. It is the largest permanent water based show and was quite spectacular to see. It wasn't as large a production as some Cirque shows I've seen before, but the sheer volume of water that the stage holds and the impressive stage changes that occur underwater and reveal themselves, was magnificent. I truly enjoyed the show and was very glad that we were just a few rows up enough that we didn't get wet.

I have photos, but will not be posting them because I don't want to be getting in any trouble. The internet is a scary place, y'know...