Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm back logged all the way to Valentine's Day. Hubs wanted to bring me out for Korean BBQ but I said no. 1stly, I'm still on my diet & going for buffet is counter productive to it. 2ndly, the price is double that of 食客 (we have 1 outlet near where I stay in Sg). While the credit in my entertainment card is pre-tax, I'll prefer to use it when we go back to Sg where eating out is way cheaper. I told him sternly, "No flowers!". A total waste of money. If you're going to spend $100 on a bouquet, I very much rather receive a sewing machine or food processor. Haha. I think I must be the most unromantic woman around & he must be the luckiest man around to have me as a wife.
I felt that we still have to do something despite my practicality. I decided a home cooked meal speaks more of my sincerity than something you can buy with money. There's a reason why I seldom cook & instead leave the day to day cooking to hubs. I cook for special occasions & these food requires hours of preparation. I love making 粽子 but you start prepping the night before & often isn't done till the next evening. I love making 饺子 with self made skin (they taste so much better than the store bought ones) & we all know the skin is tedious. I love making pineapple tarts from scratch so no pre-packaged pineapple paste rubbish. They're often overly sweet, full of preservatives & artificial colourings. I prefer the paste to be slightly tart. You have to stand in front of the stove & stir non-stop for 2 hours on low heat before the puree turns into a paste. So you get the drill. That's why I never cook during weekdays. I picked out 3 dishes from my new vegan cookbook as our healthier choice Valentine's Day lunch. My preparation started at 7 am in the morning as there're lots of chopping & cutting to do & the bread dough needs to proof. Lunch was finally served at 11.30 am.
Sun dried tomato foccacia with thyme from my pot. The tomatoes turned really dark after baking & Sharon thought they were mushrooms. Lol. They were not burnt, just dark brown.
Smokey moroccan stew. This was the 1st dish I picked out. But I felt the stew needed something to go with & hence I chose the foccacia.
Then, I felt that we needed a dessert to finish off. I didn't want to bake coz I wanted something that comes in small portions (due to my dieting). So I made these chocolate peanut butter balls. Bulk of it came from dates & absolutely no sugar was added. The added pecans gave it a nice crunchy texture.
> A total waste of money. If you're going to spend $100 on a bouquet, I very much rather receive a sewing machine or food processor.
ReplyDeleteI second that. That's why we decided not to waste any money on overpriced diamond engagement ring, and we forgo the wedding ring (cause I will be likely to lose it at some point in time since I have to take-off the ring for hand-hygiene at work).
That makes 2 of us, pragmatic women! That said, my father-in-law totally approves of and appreciates my down-to-earth approach to money. My hubby too, although he still bought me Valentine's chocolate (reasonably priced ones) and thankfully not the over-priced Valentine's bouquet.
Our wedding rings cost us $1200. My ex-colleague who got married around the same time I did got a ring that cost $2400 just for the bride's ring. We're scrub nurses. There's no way we can wear the ring at all or risk losing it like you say by taking it off at the beginning of the day. We can't put it on a chain round our neck coz the managers are quite strict about absolutely no jewelleries (ear studs are fine provided we cover them completely with our OT caps). I don't even wear mine. I just leave it on my altar. Hubs is the only 1 diligently putting his on during the weekends. Lol.
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