Stalk my bedroom: Oooohhh a chance to have peek inside

Let's just come out and admit we are all slightly stalkers here us blog readers.

Want to find out the 'story' behind my bedroom? I am featured on Duckprint series of posts on "real" bedrooms called Your Space! 

BTW you will also find out how old I really am. S'rsly.. wouldn't that be reason enough to click on the link? 

http://www.duckprint.com.au/blog/lings-bedroom

I love Aldi: Beef Stroganoff Review

What Aldi says it looks like

I'm sorry for the lousy picture above.. I was hungry and while waiting for the lovely PING from the microwave I quickly took a snap. I had this before but did not start my reviews then. I remember this being really quite nice so I wanted to get it again for a post.

What it actually looks like

Mushroomy...beefy.. and very peppery. Warning if you hate pepper, avoid this one. As usual the pasta is softer than how I would like it. But sauce it up girl... at least it was not dry!

Price: Tick - $4 c'mon not that bad!
Appearance: Tick it's not as bad as the Satay beef.
Taste: I do like pepper a lot so I did not mind it. I also loveee mushrooms and beef! I'm the only one who likes mushrooms in this house so I am stuck with getting my mushroom fix through these meals. LOL 

Will buy again Factor: Yeap! 2nd time that I have bought this.

P.S: This is not a paid post. I had shelled out $4 for my own meal.

The Claw: Hello Darling Lola like it

Oh hello.... Lola like it and Lingy also likes it. A lifetime (or maybe two) ago, I used to drive a red Alfa. It was the most beautiful car ever if you could ignore the bad turn base and everything else. I went on this I have to find the perfect red nail polish. I don't think that I ever did or maybe I had forgotten. But I stopped looking for reds after that car.. until I saw this colour. It's metallic, it's bright and pretty... did I say pretty?

The funny thing was, I saw the Alfa again for the second time. Just randomly on the road. Once again she was going the opposite direction. I called the car a she even though she really was a beast. So much fun in that car and I cannot say that I miss that car, I definitely don't miss the repair and fuel bills.

Oh look we revisit the lemon shoots

Oh hi lemon tree shoots!

The lemon tree is now the same height as me if not taller. I cannot believe how much it has grown!

A very annoyed D had to stand still for me

That's D having to stand still for me. He asked me what I was doing. I said nothing.. hahhah

Claw around something.. I think is called Snap Dragons?

I don't know what these are called.. but anyway they are blooming and pretty. AHAHAH Claw looks horrid in this picture.

Stalk my weekend: faux Fathers' Day, Beauty swap lunch, Brioche buns!

Oh my what a great weekend!

I bought these Bodum glasses as a Fathers' Day present .. along with steak knives recommended by Conor from Melbourne Myer store. Conor will give you a spill on cutlery like nobody else does. Look for him people! Level 5 in Melbourne Myer store! Because I am lousy at keeping secrets and well I really wanted to use these glasses. I declared it Happy Daddy Day and we gave this to Mick. How can you not want to use it immediately? So now I have to run around looking for something else for him.

Bodum Double Wall Glasses Pilatus

We had stopped going out for breakfast a lot now that we have the Nespresso machine. But honestly how good is bacon... bacon bacon bacon.. Bacon from the butcher at Bolton Street! Except... the avocado was forgotten!

Bacon and eggs, avo is missing!

Managed to do a quick run to get rice paper rolls and pies and get the boys to the playground for some exercise (for them, not me). This is East Ivanhoe and there was a group having a party nearby, I could not use the pole for my exercise. HAHHA

Issa Homewares Display

We took them to this new playground as it was close to Issa Homewares in Ivanhoe. I had to pick up a candle for a colleague as her birthday present. D decided that he was a cat and would bat a ball around on the ground. It was pretty cute! 

That's a cat on the floor

I met Ling from Best Beauty Blog, Norlin from Baubles, Bubbles & Bags and MakingupVita from makeup4myage in Box Hill for some dumplings and beauty & stuffs swapping. It was great catching up with the ladies! 

Random Beauty Swap haul

We went to Missha in Box Hill plaza later and got some MORE items. Ya know cos we really NEED more STUFF! I bought the ultra shiny lipstick because you know I don't have enough PINK lipsticks! But it was SO PRETTYYYY. 

Missha Lipstick Pink04

We are having burgers tonight and I wanted to make brioche buns. I first saw them on Twitter's Amycakes107 timeline. And I thought omgawd I want some sliders like now. I am very scared of anything to do with dough - I must say this to ad nauseam on this blog and please let me know to stop! But she assured me that it is really easy and I just had to dump it all into the Kitchenaid and use the dough hook. I am now a changed person. I will bake my own bread. Call me domestic goddess Ling. 

Brioche buns the lazy way

These are the brioche buns after the first resting. I do not think that it made it through successfully with the second rising but oh well, we baked them anyway.

Brioche Buns rising

These are the buns out of the oven! Ta daaaa!!!

Brioche buns baked

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen instead of kneading by hand, let the yeast froth up (i used one sachet which is 7g I think) and throw it all into the mixer starting with the flour first. Start the machine and a ball will form around the dough hook. Transfer to another bowl and cling wrap this to let it rise. Mine did not rise much the second time when the rolls were formed. But it tasted really good anyway.Crunchy top from the egg wash, soft and doughy inside. I think these were great!

Stalk my weekend: Claw, Popcorn, Wanton making

Ok who could resist this picture? Started my weekend off by putting a Claw on D. He kept asking me what I was doing. I said I was taking a picture and he looked annoyed.

It was one of those weekends of lots to do but nothing to do. I planned a meal of wantons this weekend - exactly when I would make it I had no idea. As usual it's all oh i don't feel like cooking now, let's go out. LOL.

Saturday breakfast Bacooonnnn

But first this was my breakfast.. picked up bacon from the Bolton street butcher. I think I will stick to this store from now on. Mushrooms and spinach from the fruit and veg store a few doors down. This is a very old school store, one where the staff take your shopping to your car for you. You also get greeted by name if you are a regular from what I saw, I am not a regular yet. I bought the best avocados from that store, given how much they cost these days, I have laid off buying anymore.

The Wang

D and I set off together and I brought this bag instead. I bought the Alexander Wang Emile bag in eggshell and my gosh.. look at the size of it! D asked why was my bag so big and started laughing and going through it asking what's all this. I said STOP IT! I wanted to say it is big because it is a wang, but didn't think he would get it. So off to Box Hill for noodles in soup and shopping for wanton ingredients. It was quite the scene at the asian grocery store. Someone felt bad for me for yelling nonstop at D who wanted to touch everything and let me go first in the queue to pay.

Scoffing popcorn

Pickles fell asleep on me while sitting up on the couch and to keep D quiet I made popcorn which I had never done before. There was utter silence for 10 minutes while we scoffed all the popcorn between us. Mick had come back hopeful that there was some left. Nope.

Soup making in progress

Has anyone noticed that I do not usually take a picture that shows my stovetop? Yeah this one I did because... the cleaner came on Friday. HAHAHAHAHHA! Those 3 saucepans were just for soup stock making. Do not ask me what I was doing!

Wantons ready to go

Wantons all wrapped and ready to go. What do you put in yours?

I usually do

Pork mince
Prawns
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Spring onions
Marination - soya sauce, chinese wine, pepper, cornflour, sugar
Ideally would include water chestnuts that are fresh but I cannot find them in Australia. Unless I am blind and they are next to the pandan leaves that I can never find in asian grocery store!

This time in my soup stock I used Pork Bones, Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies) and I had some frozen prawn heads and shells that I threw in. Probably should have skipped the prawns but I thought they were on the edge to be tossed out.

The Claw: Yellow yay or nay

It was raining this is my raincoat. Don't laugh.

So as you can recall in my online shopping post, I bought the Hello Darling Rubber Duckie nail polish after so much oh should I? Maybe I should get another one.. omg just get it. Because I was still umming and ahhinggg. I did not try it on immediately. I tested it with 3 coats on the thumb of the claw, put a 3rd one on as it wasn't quite right with the 2 I did earlier. Still undecided!

Mick assures me grass is not dead, let's focus on the nail polish

What do you think? The opinions have ranged from go a pale one, great for Summer/Spring but maybe for your toes to are you insane you have to ask it is brilliant. Hello Darling recommends that I put a top coat (arriving in 2 weeks) on as it is very pigmented and not as glossy. I don't mind the gloss factor... CAT WHERE ARE YOUUUU??

PS Yes I know.. I know, I have a yellow rain jacket... LOL

Miracle relief required! And answered!

For a few weeks, I have been walking around with a red itchy dry patch on my cheek. I don't even remember how it started.. it just appeared. Not realising what it was at first, I thought oh yeah I need moisturiser. Mmmm let me layer on my Mario Badescu as that is thicker. Back and forth I tried Korres and MB, tried SKII .. nope .. maybe it was SKII that caused it? It would be stingy and hot when the heater was on so I started hating winter. I am normally ok with winter. We are not friends but we are civil.

So I thought ok this is not working, I ran out and bought rose hip oil. Surely this would work right? Nope, other than a greasy face as I was using it morning and night due to said dry patch. I think it was helping the other areas but it just sat and did not absorb well for me. Then something click when I was reading a forum thread that it might be eczema. DOH... why did I not realise earlier. At my worst last Wednesday, my work BFF asked what happened to my face. This either meant put a paperbag on Ling or oh dear you better get that looked at. I like to think it was the latter.


The lovely Rita-Marie read my cries - more like constant complaining - on Twitter and said she would send me the La Clinica sensitive skincare range. I thought they would be sample sizes and was really thankful that someone I had been chatting with on Twitter would offer this. The package arrived on Friday just past and it was this full sized pack! I was so excited to try this on. I had been using prescription eczema cream on my face as it was so bad for 2 days. And it reduced it but it was still red and looked sore. Lots of suggestions from the lovelies on Twitter to try Dermaid as well and I will get this next time. eta: I actually have tubes of this stuff lying at home!

Miracle yes indeed

Listen up.. this is a miracle relief oil. I used to be really red and in hindsight I should have realised it was irritated skin on other areas. After 3 uses of the cleaner, serum and balm my skin was so much calmer. It was soft and smooth, I could not stop touching my face. Mick noticed a difference too and told me to order the Mens kit for him. He wants to look after himself too he say ;) I ran into the office on Monday (note I had only used this over the weekend for about 3 days) to see work BFF and she said oh that is MUCH better and completely healed.

Oh hello SOOTHING!

Disclaimer: These products here were received for free but the results are real and the people are real. Dum dum..(like in Law & Order) :) no in all seriousness it did work for me and I am telling anyone that would listen to me for 5 minutes.

The Claw: Hello Darling Fairy Floss

2 coats unknown plant .. Azelea???

Heaps of questions in the comments from my last online shopping post about Fairy Floss. It is also the one colour that I really really wanted to try. So I put on 2 coats (I did not have time for the 3rd) and I took the CLAW out in the sun. It's a pastel milky pale purple colour with micro glitters. So it is really hard to get a decent picture. Sorry!

2 coats clawing my lemon tree! 

Ok it is ridiculous that I can hardly see the colour in the sun. That's me clawing the lemon tree new shoots. How cute!

2 Coats in the sun

I had to crop and zoom this picture in. I guess you can see this 2 coats with the glitter.

3 coats

3 coats under a small stream of sunlight that I could catch! Loving it! Very subtle and I don't stand out at work when I am pointing at figures on other people's screens. HAHAHA

Faux Chinese: No Wokking just Working

Hello Scanpan Wok!

I am a fail Chinese.. I fail at wokking. I had no wok for the longest time, just work. I guess I did not fail at working LOL that's a plus for a Chinese right?

I got sick of debating cheap wok? Expensive wok? Which Wok? I bought this Scanpan wok. Look it's a Scanpan and it's non-stick which is probably another wokking fail?  Don't judge alright? So it arrived really well packed and delivered in 2 days of ordering even though I ordered it during their sale. What happens? Wok sits there for a long time and doesn't get used. LOL

Eggie Hokkien Prawn Noodles

Until... I saw a picture on Facebook. A primary (grade school for you) school friend of mine had posted a picture of some yummy hokkien noodles with prawns and egg. I was like .. are you serious! That looks amazing. So she gave me the ingredients list and directions.

Off to Preston market to get some prawns and pork. Another failure at being Chinese - I did not know what cut of pork to get. We shall all ignore this and get to the cooking bit shall we?

Ingredients

Hokkien noodles - get this in hot water first
Vegetables - your choice .. another fail I couldn't find the right Chinese greens I wanted. I had to google asian greens last night as I didn't know what choy sum is called!
Prawns - marinated in soy sauce, pepper (LOTS) and I put in a pinch of chilli powder
Pork - sliced and marinated in soy sauce, sugar, cornflour, shaoxing wine
2 Eggs beaten
Garlic and spring onions

Brown the sliced pork then add in your garlic and brown that too. Add your prawns in and toss that about. Chuck your noodles in and toss that about. Shove above green vegetables in.

Add one cup of water and I also threw in the marinade for the pork and cook that for about 5mins.

Add your 2 beaten eggs. Stir that about quickly and it should coat your noodles.

Check that your prawns, noodles and eggs are cooked. YAY eat! Because I am true Chinese there are no measurements in my recipe. We do it by sight. Power to the Chinese.

Now I am beating myself up for not buying a bigger wok and not getting a big cover for it. I need it to steam kuehs and chinese essentials like carrot cake!

Online Shopping: Makeup and Shoes

I love Korres a lot... I don't know why. But I just do.

There are not many online places that sells the full range but I found one that sells everything including the perfume. I bought the white tea perfume in Singapore and seriously this beats everything that I had in the past in yummyness.

Caved into a Strawberrynet purchase. Prior to this order, my last order was in 2006/07. I know this because they still had my old home address. HAHAHAH I laughed really hard when I saw that.

Korres Blusher, Dior Lipgloss, Korres Lip butter

This order is just yummy.. y'all know I loveeeee pink don't you? Korres lip butter in quince... it is yummy. I piffed out my Philosophy Kiss me straight away. The kiss me was really gross, it had a minty taste. Great in principle, in real life it was not. It was also hard as a rock in winter when you actually needed to use it. Excuse the smudge mark in the pot. Dior Ultra Gloss Flash (the ultra glittery shiny version) in 662. Yummy yummyyyyyy... And Korres Light Pink blusher. I am a little upset as I think I mixed up the Pink with Light Pink. It is too fair for me. I don't see it and don't know why I keep applying it! I think I am the eternal optimist for doing this.

Little Nike sneakers!

Footlocker US ships to Australia directly. I bought Nike sneakers for myself - failed to check that Nike is smaller than Adidas! And they do not fit me. Straight to eBay purchases are the saddest things ever. Seriously! But the boys now have matching Nike Sneakers. Ordered on Monday and delivered by UPS on Thursday, $40 for shipping? Yeah I would pay that! Easy!

L-R: Fairy Floss, Rubber Duckie, Lola like it

I am loving Hello Darling so much. I had to stop at 3.. you know like I really need more nail polishes. I am trying to get Fairy Floss on. It has a glitter in it that is so cute. I love it!! LOVE!

Stalk my weekend: Dumprings galore

We made a trip to Preston Market this Saturday instead of going to Victoria Market. I was told that the seafood there is good as there are a lot of Greeks in the area. I want to dispute this as Victoria market is definitely superior... hands down.

Anyway, if you have ever been to Preston market, you will know that it is a car park fight.
First of all, let me tell you that I have been stuck waiting while someone in a big Kluger decides that they require 50 tries to get out of their carpark. Shut it down. You cannot drive a big car. Back to this, Mick managed to park on High Street - thank goodness. There is always disappointment when D sees a market but we have to leave as there is no parking. Try that in Doncaster? Yeah meltdown.

Best part of Preston market is this little Gozleme cart. If you see a sign that says dutch pancakes? Run away not to it. It was blah. Seriously line up for this one and get the beef gozleme. I usually stick to spinach and cheese because I always thought the mince looked dry at the farmers markets. OMG... the boys were grabbing this out of our hands.

BEST gozleme

Heidelberg West Ghetto Playground

The sun came out on Saturday - how nice was it? D said he liked the sun and we went to the playground on the way home so he could get a bit of a run around. He was coughing really badly and we had canned their swimming lesson and we thought he needed some outdoors to recover. For those who don't know, they call Heidelberg West a blimp in City of Banyule. It's ghetto, this playground has warning signs that there are flood lights and CCTV. It was like I was in the ghetto of London with their cameras. But this playground is usually packed on warm days, so I was glad that they managed to have a swing on this. I hopped on the flying fox too - i was a tad too heavy and was brushing the ground hahaha.

Shanghai Street Yummies

Have you tried Shanghai Street? No? Get yourself there! There is a tiny one opposite GPO on Elizabeth and Lt Bourke St. I used to go there and would have to wait 15minutes for takeaway. She told me that there is another one on La Trobe and Russell. You mean all this while I had been walking further than needed for dumpring lunches? What! This place is not open on Sundays. The ridiculous low prices for Shanghai Street and high prices for CBD parking meant I paid $25 for noodles and 2 types of dumprings yet paid $4 for 40mins of on street parking.

Wealth Garden Yummies

So much for cooking lunch on Sunday... I had the guilts as we had a fridge full of food but went out for dinner on Saturday. I kept yelling out YUM CHAAA in the car on Sunday. Sweet relief congee, more dumprings and more prawns. Happy cats.

I still have the sniffles but thank goodness D has stopped coughing on Sunday. I am over winter now thanks!