7 random things

We had this sweet treat on a Sat afternoon when the three of us were winding down from the activities earlier in the day. I had a tub of plain yoghurt that was going to be expired soon, and so I thought why not make a simple dessert out of it.

There was this almost over-ripe mango sitting on the kitchen counter so I married the two and made a simple mango yoghurt parfait. The mango was very soft and juicy so I could easily mashed it up a little without having to use a blender. I layered the yoghurt with the mango puree and topped it with some chopped mango and strawberry pieces. I plucked some mint leaves from my pot of striving mint plant, and used it as 'garnish'. The dessert looked so appetising that my kids actually let out a 'wah...so nice!'. I am glad they find the taste is as good as the food presentation :)

I feel very honored to receive this "One Lovely Blog' award recently. Thanks to Jes of Jes's Deli Corner, Esther of x3Baking, Beanie of Beanie Kitchen Diary , Edith of pReCious MoMentS and Janice of Home Cook Baker for passing the award to me. Here's a cup of my mango yoghurt parfait for each one of you ;)


There are some rules to abide in order to accept this award and they are:

1. Post linking back to the person that gave you the award
2. Share 7 random things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered blogs
4. Drop them a note and tell them about it.


I would like to dedicate this awards to:

A Little Bit of Plum Leaf 李葉
Cathy's Joy
Cook With No Books
Chunky Cooky
Eat and Be Happy
Engineer and an Oven
Fong's Kitchen Journal
j3sskitch3n
Linden Tea
Not The Kitchen Sink
Sotong Cooks - Cooking it my way!
The Sweet Spot
Wen's Delight
'爱'生活 My Life
启动生命的旋律



and here are the 7 random things about myself:

1. I do not have a facebook account. I doubt I will ever sign up since I don't really have that many friends. My kids do not have facebook accounts too. Yes, I know kids are not supposed to sign up, but most of their friends and all their cousins are on FB. My elder kid is facing some pressure from his friends to sign up since he goes to secondary school. I'll see when he will give in ;)

2. Although I blog in English, I speak almost 100% Mandarin at home. I read Chinese books, magazines and even the Chinese papers. I speak English only if the other party is not able to understand Chinese at all. But I do use a mixture of English and Mandarin when necessary...especially when there is a need to scold my children...somehow, I feel that certain English phrases are very good and effective to drum down my message onto them.

3. So far I have never taken any photography course. I really do not know much about photography. I could only use the auto-mode and the macro-function of my camera. My photos are all point-and-shoot.

4. I am still using this point and shoot camera we bought in 2004. It is starting to get very old lately, as the battery cannot be charged. I have to use the camera with an ac adapter :'(
My elder son has joined photography club as his second CCA in school. He has started to learn how to use a DSLR, and he brought home a Cannon 550D yesterday as he needs to cover two events these two days. They have to cover at least 5 events a year...no one can join the club just for fun. One glance at the DSLR has already made me see stars...I can never get it right with the 'f', aperture, etc. I think I will do myself good by sticking to an idiot proof camera.

5. I have yet to attend a baking class, although I did watch a free cooking demo at a departmental store ;) So, do beware when you feel like trying out the recipes I have shared here. I am no professional baker, I am still a novice!

6. I like photo editing! It comes close to baking.  I enjoy desktop publishing kind of work...when the www first came to us, I even thought of learning the html so that I can do web designing! But it is all words with no actions, not very different from my dream of opening up a small shop to sell cute stuff or be a librarian so that I can read books the whole day, or becoming a barista when starbucks opened its first outlet here.

7. The thing that I don't really enjoy about blogging is answering questions. Don't get me wrong. I will answer any queries, and from answering them, I get to know even more about baking. The only thing that I do not enjoy is, after answering whatever questions, I usually do not get a reply. I would say only 2 out of 10 will come back with a response. I looked forward to a response as sometimes I do not know whether the person understands what I have written, or whether I have misled anyone with my answers. Sometimes I do not have an answer to the query, but I will try to provide useful sites so that the person could refer to it, so I was silly enough to think that the person may come back and tell me that the problem has been solved. I used to wait for a response, but I know better now, there is no point expecting a response. So, I am always in dilemma...whether to answer that query, especially when I suspect the person may not even come back to the page or may just ask for the sake of asking. I don't want to sound offensive, but it is not a nice feeling when you are treated like a help desk? Or is it just me feeling that way??

Weekend is here...to all my weekend baker pals, enjoy your weekend, and happy baking!!!