Creamy Ham and Mushroom Pasta

If you want to cook something easy AND successful, try this (me cooking it tonite)

Ingredients (serves 4)
400g penne pasta
1/2 onion, finely chopped
250g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
5 slices ham , sliced
375ml evaporated milk
1 teaspoon cornflour
salt and cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely grated parmesan
salad leaves, to serve

Method
Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water according to packet instructions or until al dente. Drain and cover to keep warm.
Meanwhile, place a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and spray with olive oil spray. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes or until just soft, then add the mushroom and cook for another 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and ham and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the evaporated milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring regularly, to avoid the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Meanwhile mix together the cornflour and 1 tablespoon water until it forms a smooth paste. Stir into the sauce and simmer for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Add the cooked pasta, salt, pepper, parsley and parmesan to the pan and toss until well combined. Serve with a simple salad.

Motorola Razr V9 sucks!

After less than a year, my motorazr V9 broke into ..TWO! It's a clam phone and the hinge is kinda shakey even from the start. I think two factors contribute to its failure :

1) Too big a phone for CLAM design. So when you open and close often, the hinge is overworked, something like a big heavy door.

2) The type of hinge. It's a roller kind.

Before it fell apart, I had another BIG problem with it. If it got SLIGHTLY damp (maybe due to your hands or rainy day), the phone will HANG! Yeah, you can't send msgs or call, only receive calls. I had to send it to the service centre when it happened the first time. After that, I simply threw it on the bed repeatedly till it worked again! Frustrating for me as i go swimming often and even though I did not put the phone to swim in the pool, if my damp towel so much as touched the phone, it will hang!! :(

So DON'T buy this phone EVER!

Taking Care of a Woman

Do u know that rose plants are not hard to grow? They jus need 3 things :
1) Plenty of sunshine
2) Rich loose soil and
3) Plenty of nutrients...

Women are jus like roses. They aren't really hard to understand. Jus give them plenty of love and attention.. don't treat them as sex objects or worse - only be sweet when you want some intimacy and after that, bury yourself in your work for days and forget about her till you need some intimacy again. Soon she will see the 'cycle' and feel so lousy... Frankly i don't see what's so difficult about sending a good nite sms if you're not living together ... it really means a lot to the woman..or a peck on the cheek to say good nite.. For me, if the guy can't even be bothered to do that, i'd just write him off~

Some men might think - so much hard work for what? Jus send an sms a day will do lah.. but let me share a secret.. even gardeners take care of their plants more than that and they bloom so beautifully, right? The flowers don't ask for such tender loving care..but the gardeners do it so willingly cos they know these plants are fragile .. women's feelings likewise are fragile too... they love it when you send them a morning greeting, call in the midst of your busy schedule or send an sms and then round off the day by a good nite sms. Now and then buy them some flowers if they really mean that much to you. Words are cheap.. don't tell us that you miss us so much but yet have nothing to show for it... a flower, a bracelet or costume jewellery..even a book on her hobby ...It really makes them feel so loved..and they'd be so willing to do anything for you... on the other hand, if you neglect your women, all it takes is someone who's willing to nurture them to take them away from you.. not even necessarily someone better looking. Jus someone who's willing to put in the time .. We're not asking for you to call us all day. Jus a few minutes a few times a day... and if work is so important that you can't spare the time, perhaps you should consider marrying your work :P

Exercise Vs Companionship

Plans are plans till they are executed, abandoned, postponed or changed. Just after I've made plans to exercise intensively for this week, I was confronted with dinner appointments, etc. So I had to decide what to do with my exercise plans...well, I can always exercise the next day, I reckon but friendship cannot be postponed to another day...esp invites to birthday parties, dinners, etc. So I had to go without exercise for THREE days in a row but I managed to maintain my diet :) It still paid off cos on Friday, I received at least 3 compliments about my figure and they are all from women, which makes them all the more er..genuine? Not that compliments from men aren't genuine but I think it's harder to get a compliment from the same sex. Anyway I enjoyed myself on all the three nites anyway, though my body was raring to exercise, I managed to appease it with promises of more intensive workouts on the weekend and next week.. 

I think it's a great compliment to get invited by your pupil to their birthday party. Esp when you turn up and realise you are the only teacher invited :) Though it was at McDonald's, I really enjoyed watching the kids play and this time, i can smile through it all cos i'm not in charge, haha... It was so funny when I arrived and the kids shouted in unison "MRS TAN!!" and I squirmed and winced cos everybody in the restaurant stared at me. ("So she's the teacher huh..") It was also so hilarious to see them play with the balloons and get cake cream all over their hair (hair cream?) ..  I wore a denim dress to make sure I looked more 'kiddo' to fit in too.. if i had long hair, i might have tied them up into two pony tails too, haha...

My aunt dropped by this afternoon and I suddenly had this mood for baking. I baked butter cookies while she watched. She's a great cook too, mind you but she had never used a cookie pump before so I felt like a kid who could show off something to her teacher :) Then she asked me, "can you teach me how to make blueberry muffins cos the last time you gave me a few to eat, they tasted so great" THAT WAS IT! The dam was opened! I told her enthusiastically - no problem, I can bake them right after the cookies! So she copied my recipe and I set up the ingredients...her verdict after the baking : FANTASTIC! Hmm  i must say my blueberry muffins are really great, in all modesty, haha... They are soft and moist, not flakey and dry like those sold outside. If you want the recipe, just PM me.. if you want the muffins, well...PM me also and give an offer and we'd negotiate :)

After the baking, we played Rummikin. A really fun game with numbers. Something like what you play with playing cards except that it's with tiles. Anyway since she came all the way from Bedok and it's really rare to get a visit from her, I decided to forgo my swimming tonite ... i'd swim tomorrow at my brother's condo when we join them for dinner.. 

Well she's just left and I realised I'm smiling all the way to my heart. It's been a really nice week, even though I did not fulfill all my exercise plans, i realised I had a great week friendship wise! 

MY EXERCISE & DIET LOG For NOVEMBER

Target : 47.5 kg (30/11/2008)

BMI : 19.8 

Exercise Plan :

3 to 4 cardio sessions about 30 min each(If 3 one week, then 4 the next) comprising of swimming, running, stair climbing, bike n elliptical machines at the gym

2 flexibility sessions - yoga

2 strength-training sessions 

2 pilates sessions

Diet Plan :

Morning : Smoothie - comprising banana, oats, wheatgerm,protein powder, 1 cup water

Mid morning break :  Breakfast bar or wholewheat bread with peanut butter

Lunch : Anything

Tea break : Prunes/fruit

Dinner : salad with egg. 

AGE and LOVE

Hey i found this really cool quote on a website http://lovequote.com/cute_love_quotes/cute-love-quotes-1.php :

Age does not protect us from love, but love to some extent protects us from age

"No matter what lifestyle we lead, there is no escape from age. We will at some point in our life, wake up and realize that we are no longer young, we will have to accept that our health is more fragile, our strength is less strong and our beauty is fading we will have to accept the natural process of aging, and nothing in the world can stop that but being in love keeps us young at heart, makes us age gracefully, keeps us healthier and that is also a fact. I like to say that Love sugar-coats age! Compare an old lonely woman to a woman of the same age surrounded by her children and the ones she loves, you will definitely see a huge difference, in physical as well as emotional well being. So I agree that being surrounded by love will surround us by positive energy and will keep age to some extent away. But does age keep love away? No. Love has no age. You can fall in love and keep on loving those around you and life even if you live more than 200 years! "

I so agree with this quote.. when I love, i feel so young..laughing, joking, smiling and hugging..I feel so happy and light. That's how i know i'm in love... Of coz we have our quarrels and arguments too, but they are few and each time it happens, we feel so awful being apart that we get even closer after that!

Eczema Solutions and LMC meet-up

My son Mark has really bad eczema.. recently the back of his knees have these weeping sores from scratching.. secondary infection i think... I remembered he used to come back from beach holidays with really good skin. I think the seawater or rather saltwater acts as an antiseptic or something.. So i decided to replicate it by buying marine aquarium salt mix and a hygrometer to make up my own 'seawater' at home. I bought it from this shop at Balestier - Sealife.. $16 for a big pack of seasalt and $6 for a hygrometer to measure the salinity. I used about 600g for a pail of water and turned out to be too salty. So next time i'd try 450g. Have applied the salt water 3 times on his skin so far. At first the stinging was so bad he yelped like a puppy but on the third application, he said the stinging was tolerable. The skin really looks so much better already. There is skin peeling off so i think that's good rite.. I also found another contact on the internet selling Dead Sea Bath Salts and will be going down tmr afternoon to get it. Will keep you posted on the results...

Guess where I went last nite.. i joined a meet-up from Lancer Motoring Club Forum at Yishun Dam for the first time. Was quite apprehensive about the meetup as I'm really quite noob at cars.. But the fellas on the forum seem really friendly so I thought just chalk it down as an experience. They are really down-to-earth car ah bengs wearing singlets, shorts and slippers but their cars r souped up n mod like crazy! I enjoyed looking at their souped up cars, listening to their advice and 'poison' while trying NOT to remember my age! They r mostly in their late 20s to 30s. I feel like an auntie amongst them!! But i must say i have the fittest body, hehe... and i mean the real human body,not the car body, haha..

Ok after a really gr8 afternoon (sorry i can't give you the details, too sizzling hot!!*wink) i need to go to the pool soon to swim and work on my cellulite.. can see some on my thighs :( I usually swim on a saturday but today, my 'best friend' came and i have to entertain her (you know who's my best friend, rite..she comes once a month) So i have decided to play scrabble instead with mark..