New Toys (cont'd)

I've been meaning to put up acknowledgements for the wonderful presents I've received over the last two months, which spanned Jesus' and my birthday. Actually, I reckon it's quite easy buying presents for people with very obvious hobbies. The trick is, ensuring you buy them something they don't already have.

I have earlier posted some of the cookbooks I received. Sure enough, one of them was a duplicate to what I already have, Nigella Feast. SURELY the giver should have known that being the avid Nigella Fan that I am, I would have most if not all of her books. Truth be told, I don't have her Forever Summer, for some reason, and have no inclination to get it at all, despite my obsessiveness about having complete sets, when it comes to books. Still that does not remove her from the pedestal she's on. The other guy whom I do not feel compelled to have complete sets either are Jamie Oliver.


So anyway, I was rather pleased with THESE two books I received.




The problem with Gordon Ramsay's book, CHEF, is that whilst one can dream and ogle at the lovely lovely food porn in that book, it probably is destined to REMAIN as such. Something one can only fantasise about, because it looks darn difficult to do, and tedious as well. Its like reading THE SILMARILLION vs Jackie Collin's "HOLLYWOOD WIVES". (the latter being the Nigella equivalent...not in terms of literary value, (Nigella writes wonderfully), but in terms of ease of recipes). But it was a BEAUTIFUL gift nonetheless, and really, is the sort of thing one can only HOPE to receive, coz I doubt I would buy it on my own volition, because of the prohibitive cost. Thanks to the Lionheart, yhsmom and Leon crowd.

Annie Bell's Gorgeous Desserts was such a sweet surprise, from favourite neighbour girl, Miss D, who dropped it off as a belated Christmas present. She has always been a sweetie. The recipes here look delectable, and I can't wait to try some of them. In fact, there's another book in the same series I saw in Borders, Gorgeous Cakes, by the same author. I tell you, age is really catching up, coz when I was browsing that book, I really wanted to get it, coz there was 20% off, but at the back of my mind, I was thinking, hmmm, do I have this book? Annie Bell, hmm, rings a Bell.



In the tool/accessories department, I got these. My long awaited and dreamed of Blowtorch. Nigella is right. There is something wonderfully satisfying about wielding that flame thrower, it gives such an adrelanin rush. The sound of the highly pressurised lighter gas flowing through the nozzle with that glorious blue flame, sends tingles of pleasure down my spine. Who knew a blowtorch could be so fun. Oh, in case yall are wondering WHAT one does with the blowtorch, no, it is not for disciplining recalcitrant children. It's to caramelise sugar on top of the creme brulee, which are what those ramekins (them little bowls) are for. Ramekins are for things like souffle, brulee, anything else ending with Le....
Many thanks to Kung Tai Tai and gang for this birthday present.

The red silicone baking pan, is pyrex brand, given by Sunshine. Frankly, I have my reservations about silicone ware. For starters, the baking pans seem to come in really irregular sizes, so I was pretty thrilled to see that this particular one was 20cm diameter, or 8", which most cake recipes cater for. Secondly, I always thought they didnt cook as well, ie, didnt conduct heat as well as the normal aluminium pans. This particular one seemed to do a splendid job actually. So, I don't know if there are different grades of silicone, coz if there are, then pyrex must be using the good type, probably the same grade as that for breast implants.

And Crewcut of Crew's Brew, who bought me the Nigella Feast which I already had, replaced Nigella with this lovely arty clock he got from Thailand. Got people give clock for birthday one ah? Haha, fortunately, I not taboo.



So thankyewberrymuch all of you for your lovely birthday and Christmas gifts.