Happy Birthday!

Yo! Let's sing along with these kittens, shall we? Ready.... one, two, three.

"Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to CATHY,

Happy Birthday to you " 

For a change I baked muffins for my birthday this year *^_^*
 

Corn & Bacon Muffins
(Recipe adapted & modify from 'The complete magnolia bakery cookbook')
  
Ingredients    
1 1/4 cups corn meal

1 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2  sticks melted butter 
1 cup frozen butter corn
6 strips bacon (fried until crispy)

Method
1. Mix eggs, milk & butter together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, corn meal, sugar & baking powder together.
3. Add (1) into (2) & mix until combined. 
4. Stir in corn & bacon. 
5. Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for 20mins.

Freezing Xmas in New York

I'm back from New York! New York is so crowded with people, 'human jam' everywhere~ not to mention the fact that we even had to queue to enter certain shops! Wow!

Oh yes, we had a bad experience with the bus company which we booked our tickets to New York. The bus was scheduled to leave at 8.30am from Vienna station to New York on Xmas eve. But guess what? The bus only arrived at 12pm! A total of 25 people (including my hubby's colleagues) were all waiting in the freezing weather (4-5degrees) for about 4hrs! Someone actually called the bus company & their reply was they had forgotten about the scheduled trip at 8.30am & had to find a driver last minute to replace, thus the delay. My hubby was the one who booked all the tickets called up their company yesterday & demanded some form of 'compensation'. After much 'arguing' over the phone, the verdict was that the company will give 13 free one-way trip tickets to New York as compensation. Well, I guess this is not a very satisfactory compensation since we will not go NY again. So, the tickets will be given to other colleagues who are coming to US to work in future & wants to visit NY.

I love F.A.O SCHWARZ! It is really a fun toy shop. We had no complaints even though we had to queue in the cold to enter the shop.

 

'The Big Piano' inside F.A.O SCHWARZ ~ very fun isn't it?

Statue of Liberty 

 NY Chinatown

You really got to try their dumplings if you ever go to Chinatown. They were awesome! The shop is very crowded with only a few seats. We stood outside their shop & eat ;)

Can you believe this? 5 fried meat chives dumplings for only USD$1. Cheap & yummy!

Hot spicy soup~ I wanted to drink something hot in such a cold weather. Not too bad, lots of ingredients even though I found it not spicy enough

Parmesan Yorkshire Pudding

Parmesan Yorkshire Pudding
(Recipe adapted & modify from here, Video here ) 

Ingredients  
2 Eggs

1.5 cups milk 

1 cup flour
3 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese powder 
Butter

Method
1. Whisk flour, eggs & milk in a medium bowl. Add in cheese powder. Let stand for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400F. Placed a 1cm cube of butter into each muffin tins, then place in oven for 1min. Carefully pour batter into cups, filling each 1/3 full.
3. Bake until puffed & golden brown, about 30mins.

Bread Pudding

Bread Pudding
(Recipe adapted & modify from here)
  
Ingredients    
6 pieces of bread

1 cup brown sugar

4 Eggs

2 cups milk 

1 big banana- sliced

Sauce

1 stick butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Method
1. Mix together sugar, eggs & milk in a bowl. Pour over cubed bread & let sit for 10mins.
2. Pour bread mixture into prepared 11x7inch pan. Add sliced bananas on top of the mixture.
3. Sauce: mix together the sugar & butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together until the sugar is melted. Pour over bread pudding.
4. Bake @ 350F for 50mins.

Pumpkin Poppy Seeds Muffins

Pumpkin Poppy Seeds Muffins
(Recipe adapted & modify from here)
  
Ingredients 
3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 can Libby's Pure Pumpkin
1/2 cup corn Oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup poppy seeds 

Method
1. Mix eggs, orange juice & oil & pumpkin puree together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt & baking powder together.
3. Add (1) into (2) & mix until combined. Stir in poppy seeds.
4. Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for 20mins.

Corn Muffins

Corn Muffins
(Recipe adapted from flour package)
  
Ingredients  

1 cup Corn Meal

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup Corn Oil  
1 cup frozen butter corn (optional)

Method
1. Mix egg, milk & oil together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, corn meal, sugar & baking powder together.
3. Add (1) into (2) & mix until combined. Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for 15mins.

Annapolis

We drove 1.5hrs to Annapolis & visited the US Naval Academy

I love this! Isn't it cute? We saw this while browsing at the gift store in the Academy

Our tour around the Academy begins

Church inside the Academy

Students' Hostel

US Naval Academy Museum

After the tour, we had a very full lunch & walked around the harbour & along the streets.

We came across these yummy but yet super sweet & sinful dessert ;)

Colourful apples ;)

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from 1001 cupcakes, cookies & other tempting treats)
  
Ingredients  

2 cup Flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

pinch of salt

2 Eggs

3/4 cup milk

6 Tbsp Oil  
3/4 cup peanut butter

Method
1. Mix egg, milk, peanut butter & oil together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt & baking powder together.
3. Add (1) into (2) & mix until combined. 
4. Spoon batter into muffin pan & top with a slice of banana.
5. Bake in a preheated oven of 400F for 20mins.

Potomac Mills

 Another great place for shopping.

 I love this shop simply because it sells hospital scrubs. Sad to say that we do not have such shops in Singapore & my scrubs were all sewn by my mum.

Look at the variety of scrubs sold here!

Betty Boop xmas scrub! Cool ;)

Cute reindeer scrub. This is still big for me even though it is XS. 

I bought this in the end~love the penguins. :)

Need some alteration when I head back home

Sick

I am having a fever, sore throat & multiple mouth ulcers since last Friday, but that does not stop me from going out over the weekends ;P We went to DC again, took some photos before heading down to Georgetown.

 

Parking in Georgetown is really expensive. Thus, to make it worthwhile, we got to fully utilize the time spent there :P

Canal in Georgetown

I am sure you must be familiar with this 'The Cupcake Diaries'. We passed by this shop in Georgetown! The shop is actually quite small but the queue is mad! The queue were even longer later at night.

 Look at the crowd inside the shop. Got to queue to enter :(

Xmas tree lightnings

Our dinner~ Sweet potato fries

Baby Ribs with salad 

Steak with mashed potato & salad

Corn Bread

Corn Bread
(Recipe adapted from flour package)
  
Ingredients  

1 cup Corn Meal

1 cup Flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 Egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup Corn Oil  

Method
1. Mix egg, milk & oil together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, corn mean, sugar & baking powder together.
3. Add (1) into (2) & mix until combined. Bake in a preheated oven of 425F for 30mins.