Jack and Cheese..

Spicy Chicken Pasta Bake

Jez is working late so he is missing my fabulous dinner...I'm still with Jack Bauer...ahh...

Easy way to get rid of leftovers. Since I still had these chicken strips, wanted to something quick and simple so here we go.

All you need:
Leftover chicken strips
Pasta (fuscillis or penne, anything not linguini or spaghetti)
Canned creamed soup (or soup pouches)
Mozerella cheese

Optional:
veggies, peppers or corn, peas, anything you like
ham (chopped)
frankfurters

Instruction:
Boil the paste while making the soup, make sure the soup stays creamy and not too watery. Add chopped veggies or meat, I've added frankfurters cuz Jez loves them so damn much..not sure why..

Drain the pasta then pour in the cream soup and stir evenly. Pour into a baking dish, not too deep, make sure it's poured evenly. Top with chicken strips, sprinkled the cheese then into the oven till the cheese melts.

My dessert:
loving my rice krispy treats...yum yum

24 addiction...

Spicy Chicken Wrap





Rice Krispy Treats


Since my Inca internship fall out, I have done nothing but staying at home watching seasons of 24 non-stop. There's only one person I blame this to: JEZ! If you asked me a year ago, I wouldn't be caught dead watching Kiefer Sutherland in anything! You can say i'm afraid of him, the only characters I've ever seen him play are either a rapist, a racist, a killer, etc etc. I don't think I've ever seen him in a normal role. So before Jez and I started dating, he would rave about 24 and I just booed him every time he talked about it. Then after we started dating, I caved in..and sat through the first episode of season 1..and then I WAS HOOKED!!!! It was like watching a suspense movie and it's building up and you keep waiting for the final bang but it doesn't, that damn clock just comes on and then it's over!

I sat there flabbergasted with my mouth open pointing at the tv screen..then screamed for the next episode! Jez just laughed at me...I didn't care, I needed more 24!!!

And that brings us to now..I'm on season 5 and the opening sequence is hot! Sadly to say some of the people I felt a connection to, as pathetic as that may sound, are all dead in the first 5 min of the show...but Jack is still alive...oohh Jack Bauer, that is a man's man, a woman's man..he is just..tough, rough, rugged, emotionless, and you just wish you can be the woman that teaches him to love again..(after losing a wife, a lover, a girlfriend..can you blame him for being loveless?)

So to accompany my afternoon of 24, I've made myself some delicious treats: I used the chicken strips I've made yesterday and made a spicy chicken wrap. Follow up I decided to make some rice krispy treats. I never really thought I'd miss these little American treats till I left and yesterday while watching The Simpsons (with a 24 parody, but of course), Bart mentioned rice krispy treats so I got up this morning and ran out to get the ingredient! For those that knows me know that I don't bake..can't bake to save my life...so this is as close to baking as I can get..and I still managed to burn the chocolate in the microwave. Nevertheless, I did it and even added some oreo cookies and drizzled with milk chocolate! So..we'll wait and see how it taste.


Oreo Krispy Treats


Back to Jack...

Dinner tonight: Spicy Chicken cutlet

I felt like chicken tonight..chicken tonight..so that's what I did. Saw a recipe on spicy chicken strips so I decided to put my own spin on it. I made some bread crumbs coated chicken cutlets and served it with two side veggies: bean sprouts with soy dressing and spicy dry bean curd with pork strips. I guess I just really felt like spicy tonight...yum yum..will write ingredients and instructions later, I'm gonna eat!!

Ingredient:
Chicken breast (butterfly cut)
Bean Sprout (boiled)
Dry bean curd (julienned)
Pork tenderloin (julienned)
Spring onion (1, cut in diagonal strips)
Chili pepper (2)
Preserved mustard green (1 packet, probably can't find fresh ones unless you're in Asia)

Batter:
Flour (2 cups)
salt (1/2 tsp)
chili powder (1 table spoon)
water (1/2 cup or more if need to)

Misc:
Vegetable oil (1 bottle)
Bread crumbs (Japanese Panko is best)

Marinate: (For chicken and pork tenderloin, separate bowls)
Soy Sauce (3 table spoon)
Sake (cooking wine)
sugar (1 tsp)
salt (1 tsp)
mirin (1 table spoon) (Japanese sweet wine)

Instruction:
Marinate both the chicken and the stripped tenderloin for appx. 30 min. During this time, julienned the bean curd, the spring onion and set aside with the chili peppers.

Bean sprout:
boiled bean sprout for appx 30 seconds, then wash with cold water. Drained all the water then season with soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and white pepper then set aside.

Dry bean curd with pork and preserved mustard green:
Heat the wok first w/o oil, the 2 table spoon of olive oil or vegetable oil. Toss the pork tenderloin into the wok, stirfry for 30 seconds then set aside.
Toss in the chili peppers, the spring onions, stirfry till you can smell the peppers, then toss in the mustard green. Stirfry that till you smell the mustard green, the smell is quite distinguish so you'll know. Throw in the bean curd, toss for another 30 seconds, throw back in the pork, now 1 table spoon soy sauce, 1 table spoon sake, 1 tsp sugar then toss for 15 seconds and set aside.

Spicy chicken cutlet
Prepare the batter and heat oil on medium heat. Prepare bread crumbs on a separate plate. Dip chicken in batter, then in bread crumbs then slowly put in fryer. Fry for 1 - 2 minutes or until golden. Then drain oil and set aside.

Prepare platter
Steamed rice, a spoonful of both side dishes and cut the chicken, season the chicken with salt/pepper then serve

Hope Jez will like it..but he doesn't really complain even if it's bad...

Home Food!!

And I certainly didn't make any of these....maybe one day..too many pics, here's a sample

My little picture book...

Chinese Prawn Pancakes with Hai-San Sauce (sweet/sour sauce)



Taiwanese Sweet/Sour Spare Ribs



Monte Cristo Sandwich with Bon Maman cranberry jam



Seafood Potato Croquette



Stewed Pork Belly with Marinated Bean Curd



Steamed Rice with Eggplants (Aubergines) and minced beef



Spicy BBQ Drumsticks

Cuisine de la Tiff!

Finally I have uploaded these images from my phone! Ever since I moved to London, I have taken a great interest in cooking. Mostly because everything here is so expensive, sometimes it's just cheaper to cook at home. After a while, I realized I can recreate some of the stuff that I really love from back home just by following some really awesome receipes online. So since I've been back from Taiwan, I have had some down time so I have been cooking up a storm! Jez, as my guinea pig...has gained an astonishing 7kg from my food...I do take that as a compliment.

So I try to take pictures of the dishes I have made. I'm not really good at photography so I wish the images would turn out better but...I did my best with my little Sony Ericsson phone..

I don't really know the exact measurement to anything, only the ingredients...which is probably my downfall for not able to bake to save my life cuz you'd have to measure everything...i think most time in Asian cuisine, it's all eye-balling.

Vietnamese summer rolls



















It was a really hot day, surpringly in London, I had these Vietnamese rice wrapper lying around so I looked up for some recipes and I didn't realize it was that simple! I made two types: Summer chicken rolls and citrus shrimp rolls.

Ingredient (chicken):

Vietnamese rice wrapper x 1 pack

chicken breasts x 2
small cucumber x 1
carrot x 1
coriander
Japanese sesame dipping sauce x 2 table spoon
dash of white pepper
dash of salt

Shrimp roll:
Sainsbury's cooked shrimp x 1 box
lime x 2
coriander
carrot + cucumber (same amount as the chicken)
dash of salt
suger x tsp

Instructions (and i'll do my best..)

It's best to do all the fillings first because you can refrigerate it and use it later if you like. Boil the chicken breasts then cool it down with cold water, slice it to thin strips then set it aside. Boil the shrimps if you like but it comes cooked and you only need to heat it up in hot water for about 10 - 20 seconds. Julienne the cucumber and carrot, in two different bowls, soak the cut veggies in salt water for ten minutes then wash it with tap water. This way will preserve the crunchiness of the vegetables.

Mix the chicken strips with the Japanese sesame dressing, also know as Shabu Shabu dipping sauce. I use it cuz I really like the sesame flavor and I was too lazy to make it from scratch and I just happen to have that in my cupboard. It is normally used in Shabu Shabu, a Japanese hot pot cuisine where you cook the meat in stock then dip in the sauce. Do all the seasoning then set it aside. Do the same with the shrimps but not with Shabu Shabu sauce but with the lime sauce.

Now you prepare the rice wrappers.

The rice wrappers are hard so you'd have to soften it by using warm water. It only take about 10 seconds for the wrap to be soften so don't leave it on it's own, do one wrap at a time. Once the wrapper is soft, take it out and lightly dry it with a towel or paper towel. Then the easiest part: Use whatever fillings you like, with some veggies, some coriander, then wrap it out eggroll style. Then cut it in half and voila!

Wow...my first actually food description...this is a lot of work! I'll post the rest of the pics and I'll go through them another day...hee hee

Out of the hell hole!

INCA is in the past! Before y'all getting in my case for quitting an internship early...i had my reasons but I believe better things will come. I did not sign up to be someone's bloody cleaner! I signed up to learn, to experience, to gain knowledge in an unfamiliar field, and not to clean someone's storage room or interning for the receptionist! Whew..it's been a few days since I've been in cuz I have been ill and even though it wasn't under the best of circumstances, I was glad to be out of there. I've got a Liberty of London interview coming up and I hope this is a better hit!

Alright, back to 24..just me and Jack Bauer and Jez passed out on the bed..I should record him really...

tiredness

which seems to be the word of the week..i'm too exhausted to write anything, guess I have to wait till the weekend...*yawn* but long story short: have learned not much, thinking twice about Inca, etc etc etc

Damn student life..

Seriously, what was I thinking going back to school? 27 year old student?? God I have got to be out of my mind! I have never been an intern and to be honest, it is really quite shit! I am one of the oldest, not counting the exec. producer and the directors, I know I'm definitely the oldest intern in the group. So update on my week: I was asked to do endless research for several producers on several shows. I thought I was on 2 to 3 shows but since my producers for those shows haven't really given me any task, I ended up helping out with the Armand Basi show. What is it that I do? Still looking for freaking tea cups! It's really difficult to be looking for items that I think the producer might want but I can't tell because I don't know her vision, I don't think she knows her vision. So the cups, these were the specifics I was given: tea cups, hand thrown, preferred ceramic, needs to be country looking, individual in each cup and saucer, has a little imperfections, but has to be polished so it looks sophisticated, need to be for luxurious enough for a pre-show brunch, need 300 of them, and within budgets. Excuse me??? Are you kidding me?? So I've been looking at tea cup websites for days, I finally found some, they were in the States, the shipping/handling would be too expensive. So back to the UK but I just can't find any! I think after the next 6 weeks, I'm going to be really annoyed with a lot of day-to-day products. Then I was asked for find sewing machines, overlockers, steamers, and an industrial presser. I never thought I'd say this but I actually asked the school to help. I figured we have all of those machines, might as well use them for something. After being in contact with the incredibly rude and ugly receptionist/librarian/secretary/whatever the hell else he's suppose to be, he was surprisingly helpful. I think it's because now I'm working for Inca. So I did manage to source some items for the Armand Basi show, I felt quite good about myself but about 3 minutes later I realized I was being proud of myself for finding sewing machines! That is pathetic!!

So Friday afternoon comes, I go out with Sophie, the other intern, for a drink at lunch time because believe me..we really needed it. And that's when everything got spilled! Apparently we are both annoyed by the same things! I'm glad it wasn't just me that was hating going to work the very first week. I kept asking myself if I'm dreading it this much, this may not be for me! So after an hour of bitching, (she doesn't like CG either, ha!) we go back to the office since she has a meeting to go to with her producer for the Julien Mcdonald show.

I go back to the office and things seemed a bit crazy. Apparently three days ago, Inca got the Tommy Hilfiger account. Tommy Hilfiger is opening a new denim store on Carnaby Street and they want to have a launch party in October. Since Inca have done the True Star launch with Tommy Hilfiger and Beyonce a little while back, they thought they'd work with Inca again. So most of the office were scrambling to put together a powerpoint presentation by 2pm to send over to Hilfiger for them to see. Apparently we'd still have to do a pitch for them to see the "visions" and "inspirations" for the show. So I had to search for DJs and beat box artists since I was doing the music part of the presenation. Then I had to scan these images that has colors or ideas that pose as inspirations. So I'm scanning this huge book of photographs, the book is amazing by the way, I forgot the name of the book..anyway, apparently I opened up the book a little too much, the binding made a bit of a noise and Charlotte, the company exec. producer came at me like I have just strangled her beloved pet! "That book is really expensive! Don't do it this way, it's really super expensive! I don't care if you do it this way or that way just don't ruin the book!" Jeez...for a company that handles half a million pound projects, she's sure pissy about a book that cost 150 quid. So I scanned everything, "carefully" without destroying the precious book, and reported back to Judith. After checking everything, Charlotte's going on and on about how the presentation needs to be sent . We finished at about 1:50pm and it's sent off. I did go through the presentation, it's pretty cool to see how a pitch is done but it would make more sense if someone was explaining it.

By now Sophie's left for the meeting, CG has left for her physiotherapy cuz you see...she was in a car crash..the story I heard about 20 times this week...so I was the only intern left in our corner of the office. I finally have a chance to really sit down and ask questions. Judith offered to go through budgets with me so she spent a good two hours explaining not just the budgets but any other questions I had and man I had a lot!

I basically had her explain the whole process, from when they receive the assignment to actually carrying out the production. It really is so much work on very small details. For the first time this week, I felt like I learned something. I got an idea of how much work and how much it cost to put on a fashion show. We used the Amanda Wakeley show as an example since that's Judith's account and she has worked with Amanda for some time. From what I know, Amanda Wakeley is fairly commercial, not really a huge thing during London Fashion Week, but apparently she still does quite well. For a show like her, if she goes in the tent, which is set up by the BFC, British Fashion Council, the cost is a tad lower because BFC sets up everything for the designers that go into the tent. That includes all the lightings, equipments set up, back stage, mirrors, chairs, etc. For a show to be shown in the tent, the average cost for AW is about 85,000 pounds! I couldn't believe it! But that's just average! If AW decides to go off tent which this year maybe in the Science Museum, the cost goes up because we would have to build everything we'd need from scratch so you are looking over 100,000 pounds for a 12-minute show! I was blown away by the amount of money being thrown around. These money are spent on lightbulbs, walls, paints, chairs, cushions, even ice! Just the most normal mediocre items, all for a freaking fashion show! So what's so fancy and glamourous about the fashion industry? Not a damn thing, at least not in my eyes!

So after speaking to Judith and Josef (who all of a sudden is very interested in teaching me..), I do feel a bit better. I was really thinking about not finishing the internship because I was starting to feel like I was interning for Katy, the receptionist. It's not like me to not finish something unless I have a very irked feeling about it..so I thought I'm gonna sleep on it a bit.

Then i came home, checked my hotmail and first email I checked was from my school's placement officer. He's asked me if I want to apply for a 2 months internship with the marketing/sales department at Liberty department store...damn a little too late...so now I don't know if I want to apply, I keep thinking I should keep my options open but this just totallly threw me for a loop! So now I don't know...if Inca was more structured, I'd probably been more inclined to stay but the honest truth is I am really disappointed by this whole Inca experience so far...

But what a girl to do...

Too tired..

My first week as a lowly intern is over..and I am exhausted. I wish I can say the reason I was tired is because I've done important things..but uh..no..ah I'm too tired to do this, tomorrow then...*yawn*

Something new at least...

Second day in INCA, well, it started out quiet slow. I didn't really have anything to look forward to, so I logged in and checked my email and see that there was just one from Imogen, one of the producers, asking for more research on tea cups. So unto the research I go, I must've looked at 20 sites on tea cups! But I need to find something that's hand made, ceramic, individual and unique, different colors, and oh yeah, within budgets! It's quite a task, believe it or not! After not much luck there, I was told that I get to go scout out a venue for the Jonathan Saunders show with Katy, the young girl who did the induction with us yesterday. She really is quite nice, very bubbly and obviously love her job. I was pretty excited about the scouting until I found out that talkative girl is coming along...that pretty much put a cloud over my joyous moment. Oh well, have to deal with it.

So we went to the House of Parliaments and I must say, my god what a building! I've lived here for two years and I can't believe I've never really visited the Big Ben and the House of Parliaments. Today was such a nice day, the sun was shining and sky was perfectly blue, the buildings were amazing. I was completely mesmerized and zoned out the voice of CG since she just can't seem to shut up..the streets were classic looking, very traditional and old fashion buildings. This is the London that we see on TV! I felt like I was in a film set, like in Universal Studio. We finally get to the location, it's a underground garage. I just cannot see a fashion show taken place here! We had a guide that showed us around and explained everything. I had a template of questions that I needed to ask when scouting out locations. Questions such as the dimensions, in house caters, fire exits, bathrooms, etc etc etc. The more I asked, the more we looked around, it started to make sense to me. So the garage entrance is when we'd unload everything, there's a empty room next to the entrance in a circular shape that would be perfect as a production office. I can almost see the catwalk and all the chairs around. It was pretty darn cool. It would've been better if I didn't have CG looking over my head asking questions as I asked questions..god she really can be annoying.

After we measured the whole area and the nice young man gave us some floor plans, we were back to the office. The whole trip took almost 3 hours so by the time we got back to the office, after lunch, it was easily mid afternoon and I only have four hours of nothing to look forward to. When I got back to the office, Judith, my Amanda Wakeley show producer, had emailed me with more information about the show. She is so great! A wonderful teacher. She CC me everytime she emails anyone regarding the show so I can understand what's going on. I had to ask her what every sentence meant because I have no idea what a "standard 3 flats catwalk" meant, trying to understand how the catwalk needed to be set up. We had a meeting today with Charlotte and she had seen AW's collection this morning. Her S/S 08 is clean, fresh, modern, and feminine. The show needs to be white, not sharp and bright white like Calvin Klein A/W 07 where the floor blended in with the backdrop, but a soft white but with a reflective effect..I think. So with that direction, I started to look for white paint. Judith instructed me to look for white paints from manufacturers, then I need to contact them and ask for swatches. Judith had to go to the Fashion Fringe meeting (she took CG with her! Yay!) so I went through Style.com and looked at past shows with a white runway just to compare. That's pretty much what I'm going to do tomorrow morning, then mid-day I need to help Katy at the storage the entire day doing hard labor..I guess that's internship for ya.

So my thoughts so far? It's yet to be decided..I feel that I can learn a lot if I only know what exactly it is I'm learning. It was nice to see that a lot of the stuff I learned from Milly's class started to make sense. I'm really glad we did the the final production project for her, I wish I paid more attention though...I'm not sure if INCA is for me, the best of the best is Gainsbury & Whiting, they do some amazing shows for really high profile clients. That's what I'm aspiring to at least..

continue another day...

My simple life..as an intern

So it didn't start out that well..I had to wait in line for the shower on my first day, then when I finally got into the bathroom for the shower, the water is now cold because two people have taken a shower before me..so after an freezing albeit engergizing shower, I had about 10 minutes to dry my big poof of hair and decide what to wear, etc etc etc. Finally, out the door by 9, thank god the unpredictable London transportation was right on time for everything so I got to work with 10 minutes to spare. I met another intern in the meeting room and figured it was just us two, boy was I wrong. In the next three minutes, five more strolled in..SEVEN interns?? I was pretty surprised..and annoyed..cuz now I have to compete with 6 other people for the possibility of an employment after this. One girl wouldn't stop talking about her car crash, that was pretty much her opening line to any conversation and if it isn't, she made sure she squeezed it in. And everyone does that "awww...no way? You're amazing that you're here..wow...well, take it easy!" Figures..then we all got a brief induction about the office then got assigned to production teams for each show. I will be on a production of two people i.e. the producer..and me, on two separate shows: Amanda Wakeley and Jonathan Saunders. I thought I was rid of the Amanda Wakeley name after last semester but unfortunately not...I don't even know who Jonathan Saunders is so I had to do some research on him. Then I might be helping out with something called the Fashion Fringe which is a annual competition to scope out the up and coming designers. It suppose to be some big deal, once again, I didn't know what it was so had to look that up as well. I thought I had a lot of homework to do tonight but it turned out that I had NOTHING to do so I just spent the rest of the day looking online for information about all three shows.

Need to eat dinner..guess we'll see what happens tomorrow!

High as a kite!

as Jez called it..it's been two weeks since my fight with mom and it doesn't look like either one of us is backing down. We haven't called each other and I don't think we've ever continued a fight this long..but this time, it's serious, this time, she's wrong..I just wish she'd see that..anyway, to say the least, I needed something to distract me from my troubles, wanted to feel "cloudy" and last night, cloudy I did feel! I used to be so against it because it's wrong but it is just an herbal remedy,isn't it? Well, that's what I'm calling it. So this is what I remember: Looking over to Jez and he's smiling at me and telling me that he loves me very much, I couldn't stop giggling..then I couldn't stop caressing my own head cuz it was tingling and it just felt so good! Then I was fascinated by my toes..i never realized what cute toes I have..so that went on for a while..then I pretty much stop remembering the rest. Till this morning, Jez informed me that I was quite an entertaining bunny last night. Apparently I danced by myself on the balcony for ages and I was convinced that I wasn't being affected by the joint...he said I was just very very happy...then I woke up this morning incredibly groggy, guess that's the after effect but by God it was worth it! I didn't think about the fight at all!

Anyway, this is the last free week I have before I start busting my ass as a simple intern..i'm thinking making coffees, getting pastries, entering datas all day long for a month and a half...i figured if my expectation is low, then whatever happens is bonus.

P.S. since being back to London, I've gained back the 2kg i lost! Damn the fish and chips and baked beans on toast!

Reading someone else's life..

Upon looking for new recipes online to distract myself from this week long of boredom, I came across this person's blog who's main theme was food but she somehow connected her love for food and life philosophy so harmoniously. I couldn't stop reading it, her writings are so colorful, her pictures were salivating, I just kept reading one after another. Then I realized she's also from Taiwan and ironically also live in the UK. Each post had pictures of a particular dish she made, each other better than the other. God I'm jealous..I'd love to be able to make desserts like that. But what attracted me more about her stories wasn't her food, it was her life stories, it was her struggle to get past racism in the UK, it was how she got teary when she received her British passport, it was how she feels lost at times because home is UK now but how come she doesn't feel at home? It was like reading my own stories on my 12" computer screen...

Cont:
I had this great idea that I'm going to sit out on the balcony, under the sun, stare at this magnificent tree in the backyard and finish typing this entry..and I was going to trek over to China Town, get some supplies and come back home and make a bad ass meal..but all that didn't happen, I passed out on the couch and took a long nap instead. I couldn't possibly feel even more useless! Jez tried to cheer me up by telling me that by next week this time, I'm going to be apprenticing and really busy so I should really treasure the free time that I have but..I am so bored! And the more bored I am, I think about random things that I have no control over, then get depressed, then take it out on Jez which is not fair..okay, it's wednesday, two more full week days then the weekend then Inca, here I come!