Times flies when you are a blogshop owner.
Your calendar is marked by when the next launch/shoot/new stocks or BO arrival/parcel posting day is.
And before you know it, April is here.
Didn't feel too long when I just changed my desktop calendar to 2011.
Finally managed to roll out a Sales post, before March ended.
The response this time round was startling, quite on par with me launching manufactured bags.
Guess there must be many bags that customers have been waiting for them to go on sale. =D
I've cleared so many of the bits & pieces from last year's stocks that my Howards shelves look pretty barren now.
Perfect for the new goodies!
I don't like February. With the usual CNY festivities and the long factory break, it's over before I realised it.
April is my favourite month. =D
Followed by December. I like rainy weather. There is a certain peaceful allure to it. =)
My blog entries are accumulating.
There are so many stuff I want to blog about - the incoming bags, my mum's birthday celebration last Sat, my weekday dinner-cooking experiments (cooking is very rare on weekdays), my wishlist for TFL 2011 (and almost half a year has whizzed by) and maybe I should just show you the beautiful 6 samples bags & shoes sitting in my living room waiting for my scrutiny.
I like blogging. It feels like the days of writing my diaries.
Whether I have a good or bad day, writing helps put things into perspective.
If my day was fabulous, writing it out reminded me to be grateful.
If my day was lousy, looking at past happy entries remind me that this too shall pass, and that maybe it just wasn't as bad as I thought.
Online anonymity allows me to write more freely, I must say
But it's much easier to flip through a diary than look through the archives of a blog.
I'm a old-school person. I prefer actual books to e-books.
The Husband was saying that I wrote very long posts & seemingly, a lot of thought & effort went into my blog entries.
Feeling honoured, I told him, well, I did have a lot to share with the readers, no matter how little/many there may be.
Then he said no, it's because I'm just talkative. ~_~
Okay, maybe only in writing.
I don't know how to chat that much in real life.
Strangers will think I'm crazy/self-obessed if I go into so much detail about the process of my bag-making during conversations. I don't think even my close friends can 'tahan'. Haha!
See, that's the beauty of writing!
It allows the reader to digest the chunks of words at his/her leisure and creates a certain connection between the reader & writer, that sometimes face-to-face contact can't establish.
That's why we have Harry Potter novels! Watching it in movies is just not quite the same to me.
Since I don't have the leisure of time to write a whole post on my cooking fun, I will do it bit by bit.
Okay, here's something from my self-improvised receipe book!
Okay, here's something from my self-improvised receipe book!
This was introduced to me by a colleague, the same lady who told me about Barilla pasta!
Her Peranakan mother-in-law was the one who told her about this Seah's Emperor Herb Chicken spices.
The taste is like 藥材雞！
For those ladies who don't know/want to learn how to cook a new dish for your boyfriend/husband/children/colleagues/parents/family/potential in-laws or just some epic occasion where normal steamed/braised/stir-fried chicken just won't do it, I STRONGLY recommend getting this!
You can buy it at NTUC or the wet market.
Surprisingly, such good stuff is not sold at Cold Storage. In fact, the brand that Cold Storage carries for Emperor Herb Chicken spices smells like 藥材雞 but tastes like salt! I knew because I tried it once when I couldn't find Seah Spices at Cold Storage.
And look, it's Halah! No added preservatives or colouring!
If you are planning something for Muslim friends, you can buy a Halah chicken , mixed with this brand of spices and your food will be Halah, I think. =)
The packet comes with a big piece of plastic wrapper & aluminium foil in it. How thoughtful!
Instructions are at the back, telling you how to prepare this dish with a breeze.
But remember, there is NO cutting short on the steaming time.
Any shorter time, your chicken will not be as tender, juicy, flavourful nor tear easily, like how steamed herbal chicken should be.
Remember to constantly check every 30mins or so if there is still enough water in the wok/pot, while you are steaming the dish.
Remember to constantly check every 30mins or so if there is still enough water in the wok/pot, while you are steaming the dish.
My personal variations to this dish
1) I used to steam a whole chicken with this, till I realised it's very challenging for the Husband & I to finish the whole dish and we would chickened (haha!) out attempting it & save the leftovers for next day. But I would be the one still having it next day, as the Husband is not well-trained (aka fussy) enough to eat overnight food. So a month ago, I came up with this intelligent sensible idea of using the spices in portions.
Instead of buying a whole hen, I will get 2 chicken thighs (the L-shaped kind) and use about one-third or half (depending on how flavour-ful I prefer) of the spices powder. I even cut the plastic wrapper & alumiumium foil into half, keep the other half for next occasion and put the rest of the spices back into the foil packaging and store it in my fridge.
I LOVE steamed chicken thighs! So tender!
2) I like to tinker around with my herbs (I have 1 whole big drawer full of them) and have added a splattering of American Ginseng roots (花旗參), more wolfberries (枸杞子), 當歸，黨參 etc. Not all together, but it varies everytime I prepare this dish.
I felt the additional herbs make the dish has a more homely taste to it, instead of the 'flavour-enhanced' taste, if you know what I mean. I don't think the additional herbs will cause the dish to be too 'nourishing'. As you can see, it costs only S$2.40 per packet, so I don't think THAT huge a quantity of herbs went into it.
Instead of buying a whole hen, I will get 2 chicken thighs (the L-shaped kind) and use about one-third or half (depending on how flavour-ful I prefer) of the spices powder. I even cut the plastic wrapper & alumiumium foil into half, keep the other half for next occasion and put the rest of the spices back into the foil packaging and store it in my fridge.
I LOVE steamed chicken thighs! So tender!
2) I like to tinker around with my herbs (I have 1 whole big drawer full of them) and have added a splattering of American Ginseng roots (花旗參), more wolfberries (枸杞子), 當歸，黨參 etc. Not all together, but it varies everytime I prepare this dish.
I felt the additional herbs make the dish has a more homely taste to it, instead of the 'flavour-enhanced' taste, if you know what I mean. I don't think the additional herbs will cause the dish to be too 'nourishing'. As you can see, it costs only S$2.40 per packet, so I don't think THAT huge a quantity of herbs went into it.
- Easy to prepare,
- no need to chop the chicken,
- not much washing up,
- no stir frying = no greasy kitchen,
- relatively healthy
- and grand enough for big occasions (if you garnish the dish as suggested on the packaging :P ) like Chinese New Year or a senior family member's birthday.
My in-laws who have tried it find it very delicious too. I love Seah's Emperor Chicken Spices!
Hope you have fun trying it out or introduce it to your mum, if she doesn't know about this yet.
Come to think, I haven't tell my mum about this yet. Will get her one packet tomorrow!
Gaaaad, it's 6:53am! Bedtimeeee!
Gaaaad, it's 6:53am! Bedtimeeee!
Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu
