Montreal Fall/ Winter Fashion Week 2012

Assalamualaikum

This is a long overdue post..

Last February, (yeap, I said February) Sarah Hanafi and I went to the Montreal Fashion Week. Such a fun experience! After weeks of hard work in school, it was fun to let our hair/hijab down for one night. Teehee. I didn’t even know that Montreal holds a Fashion Week every year! So Sarah and I decided to make this event our “bonding time” every year. Oh boy oh boy! If you have never met Sarah, you should.

From: Belle de Nuit

Boy don’t I love clothes, shoes and bags! When I was younger, I wanted to be a supermodel. I know. I know. Say what?! I would do catwalks in the living room, playing with my mom’s scarves, shoes and make ups. I LOVE IT ALL. As you can see, the plan didn’t work out for me. I stopped growing taller at the age of 15?16? In the runway world, I’m short. Remember the ANTM where they bring in “short” models? They’re my height. But even if I’m taller and skinnier (and prettier?), I don’t think I would be a supermodel. Parading my body for the world to see, doesn’t scream the word modesty! Oh well..Last time I moved from my apartment, I have one whole box of bags and a big gigantic black plastic bag just for my shoes! Don’t blame me, blame the genes! It’s in the blood I’m sure. My father loves bags and shoes too. Really. I think he has more shoes than my mom.

To be honest I’m not too familiar with the whole Canadian fashion scenes. Sarah on the other hand had been religiously watching Fashion Television since she was young! I was clueless. Absolutely clueless. I don’t know which show to go to as I don’t know the designers’ styles. In my opinion, to enjoy the runway show, it is important to understand the designers’ styles and motives, to really enjoy the runway show. Then only you could relate with the designs that were being displayed. Anyways, I let Sarah choose which show to go to. Easy.

We ended up going to Martin Lim’s event. Fun fun fun! Check out their designs at their website : Martin Lim

Their designs were simple and sophisticated. A lot of dresses I tell ya. To be honest, I really think that some of their designs have some Salwar Kamez influences. With the knee length dresses and skinny pants to go with it. I’m just saying. Are they wearable? Definitely. Anyways, my favorite would be their white dress ( no surpise!). I have an obsession with flowy dresses! OBSESSION!

They played with color blocks in most of their pieces to create a sense of boldness. It worked! Pairing black statement lines with delicate fabrics was a great idea. It controls the flowy-ness of the garments.

Their makeup and hair do was very minimal. Red lips and high bun hairdo, in my opinion, compliments their designs.

 (Why is there no pictures of the runway and designs? Refer to number 3 below.Pictures were blurry.)

So what did I learn from that event?

1) Plan your outfit/ gadgets daysss ahead.(especially when you have exam the week before or ehem, the DAY before the event).I was studying Behavioral Neuroscience AND ransacking my closet to fine something nice to wear. Not fun!

2) Do a research on the designers!

3) Learn how to use a DSLR. Jakun trang tang!

So me, being unprepared for the event and pretty much penny-less from the move, I had to find something in my closet. I settled for an all-white outfit. I paired my white chiffon skirt with a white blazer. I don’t want to look like a walking ghost in the middle of Old Port, so I out on some black chunky bracelets that matches my black clutch. Since I don’t know anyone with my shoe size who owns a pair of killer black boots, I settled on my own dark brown ones. When I say killer, I don’t really mean killer heels. If that’s the case, I’d be falling flat on my face every 6 feet or so and my white outfit..won’t be white anymore.

Sarah and I dolled up and RUSHED to Marche Bonsecours. It was crazy. She had a tutorial until 6 (if I’m not mistaken). It was funny to have people looking at you for being overly dressed for a metro ride. They knew for sure that we weren’t on a date because if we were..ehem..we’d be taking cabs instead?The whole event was madness!People were lining up,everyone was checking everyone out. It was ridiculous. People from the press, magazines, and fashion bloggers were all there. It’s like watching Devil wears Prada, LIVE! Great, great experience! I can finally cross a “watching a runway show” off my list. Been there, done that. Do it again? Oh oui,oui!sil vous plait?

What shall I wear next time?

Oh. Just looked at the trends for next fall. Three words baby, Love,Love,Love!

Wasalam!

Till then, Salut,

Love,

Anggerik

Oh-range and Pop-py!

Assalamualaikum

Tacky title.I know=p

How’s Ramadhan so far? The last two days I was half dead. I don’t know what I ate or what I did but it was definitely a challenge. I was so dizzy for iftar once that I felt like throwing up. So I ate only a bit but later had Maggi Kari for moreh. AHAH! Or perhaps it’s the heat. Yearsss living in Malaysia and I still can’t take the heat. I take three showers a day. THREE. Sigh. Sabr Soffy. Sabr.

Since it’s Ramadhan, I haven’t baked anything just yet. I made caramel pudding the other day, which wasn’t as yummy as it’s supposed to be. It’s funny how I’ve made caramel pudding a couple of times already and used different recipes each time. My sister just gave me her recipe so we’ll see! I could NEVER say no to caramel pudding. Could you? I could eat the whole pudding on my own and I’m not even joking. If I were to make this pudding for entertaining a small number of guests, I’d deifintely make them in ramekins. Definitely cute! But, if I’m making it for myself. Boy oh boy. Ramekins? Really?No my friend, I’d go for the big ol’ baking dish and EAT.ALL.ON.MY.OWN.huargh!*wipe drools* Moving on..

So on the last day of Sya’ban which was last Friday, our cousins came for a visit. Yeap. It was the perfect time to whip something up in kitchen. If you haven’t noticed, I LOVE entertaining people. (with food.not singing.not dancing.just food). After discussing with mummy and mama bear (hi kak!), we settled on Orange Poppy Cupcakes. I know right? Poppy Seeds! I still remembered when I was 7 or 8. My friend told me an easy way to remember how to spell Oranges.You spell "Orang" and add "e" at the back.Haha.Good ol' days when our greatest concern was how to spell right.

Orange cake was never a favourite of mine.Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat it still but, to me, there are some cakes that NEEDS frostings. What’s a carrot cake without the cream cheese icing? One time, someone made Zucchini Cake instead of the usual carrot. Carrots are too mainstream? Anyways, imagine eating Zucchini cake on its own. I know right?*flips hijab*.So I decided to make a frosting as well. Why not throw some extra fat in while we’re at it ey? It was the day BEFORE Ramadhan begins anyways. No harm done, I can assure you. Since I had extra orange zest and juice leftover (I purposely saved some zest), I decided to throw that in the frosting to make Orange Cream Cheese frosting instead.. You can stop drooling now.

I got the recipe from here.

   

Orange Poppy Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons orange zest (2 oranges)

1/2 cup fresh orange juice (1 orange)

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons poppy seeds 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with baking cups. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Stir together milk and 1/4 cup orange juice.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and the orange zest with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy,
3. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
4. Beat in poppy seeds.
5. Divide batter among muffin tins (filling each cup 3/4 full). Bake until golden around the edges, 18 to 20 minutes.

Ingredients

Orange zest that smells AMAZING!

Freshly squeezed orange juice

 

Fresh from the oven:)

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick of cream cheese (250ml)

1 1/4 cup of icing sugar

1 tablespoon of fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon of orange zest

1. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy
2. Add icing sugar, 1/2 cup per addition
3. Add in the orange juice and zest

Assembling ideas

1) You could simply spread it on the cupcakes using a butter knife and sprinkle some poppy seeds onto them.

  

2) You could put it in a piping bag and pipe the  frosting nicely on top of the cupcakes and sprinkle some poppy seeds onto them.

3) Take the cupcakes out from their cups, cut in half. Pipe some cream in the middle and the top. Yeap, you’ve guessed it right. Sprinkle some poppy seeds on to those gorgeous, scrumptious, mouth watering cupcakes!

I personally like the last one best! I’ve put enough sugar in the frosting but somehow it was a still a bit soft. I’m pretty sure it’s the weather. It was pretty hot then.=(

This recipe calls for a lot of liquid which makes the cupcakes very dense and filling. Like I’ve said before, orange cake was never a real favorite of mine but the poppy seeds. Oh Lord! It’s a wonder how those little tiny bits can make those cupcakes crunchy. Is that crazy? No its not! Because the cake WAS crunchy. Try it yourself.

Whenever we're posting pictures online, mommy will tell us to use the nicest dishes. This whole set up was her idea as well. Teehee.

Have a blessed Ramadhan!

Wasalam!

Till then, Salut,

Love,

Anggerik 

Lova, lova, The Pavlova

Assalamualaikum.

It had been a good week since I last landed in Malaysia.The weather had been kind and gentle (not tooooo hot,not  tooooo  wet), family members are of course, amazing to be with and good Lord the FOOD had been AH-MaaazHing.I had Mee Bandung, Rendang Daging, Nasi Ayam, Bubur ChaCha, Tomyam, Ayam Pandan, Ikan Bakar and ehem Burger Kambing Bakar.Alhamdulillah for the good company, health and foooood.

My first baking project at home is the scrumptious Pavlova!I told kakak that I'll make her one once I get back and here you go Kak!Pavlova is an Australian dessert (I know a particular Kiwi who would twitch to this).It's funny how she spent the last 6 years in Melbourne and not taste a single bite of Pavlova,ever.So I had the honor to make her, her first Pavlova.Teehee.

Last time I made Pavlova, it turned out yummy BUT since I got some water in the egg mixture, it didn't rise well.So this time, I made sure that not a single drop of water touches my egg whites + sugar mixture. It took me awhile to find everything in the kitchen here at home.It feels weird to bake in someone else's kitchen,even if the someone else, is your mum. I was slightly discouraged at first when I learned that we ran out of parchment paper.Oh well...me being me..gasak je.=)
I got the recipe here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Pavlova.html

Strawberry Glazed Pavlova 

Meringue:
4 large egg whites

1 cupsuperfine (castor) sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch 

1. Preheat oven to 250 degree Fahrenheit
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or greased foil; using 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pan as a guide, trace circle. If using paper, turn over. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar, 2 tbsp at a time, until stiff glossy peaks form. 
4. Fold in the cornstarch and vinegar, then vanilla. 
5. Spoon egg white mixture onto circle on baking sheet; spread to fill evenly. 
6. Bake oven until crisp and golden on the outside, about 60 to75 minutes.Turn off oven; let meringue cool in the oven for 1 hour. Don't open the oven door. AT. ALL. 
7. Slide metal spatula under meringue to loosen from paper; slide onto flat serving plate. 

All you need for the meringue

  

Make sure there is NO WATER or GREASE in the bowl 

Please use a parchment paper.PLEASE!

Topping:

1 cup whipping cream

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whip cream until soft peak form.Fold in sugar.

Strawberry Glaze:

2 tablespoon of Strawberry jam

1 1/2 tablespoon of water

1. In a bowl, mix jam and water together

Fruits:

(Any not-so-sweet fruits will do)

1 mango

6-7 strawberries 

To assemble

1. Spoon the whipped cream onto the meringue . Arrange fruits on top of cream.
2. Using a pastry brush, carefully glaze the fruits with strawberry glaze.
3. Serve immediately

The fun thing about Pavlova is that you could easily make the meringue hours/days ahead!so you could save a lot of time before serving them when you're entertaining.Easy peasy. But really. don't open the oven door at all.The cold air that rushes in the hot oven would break the meringue. Learned this the hard way guys!

Please use a parchment paper.Please.Or else it'll stick to the bottom of the pan.Meringue, fragile as it is, will break even more.Oh So Not Pretty!

In my opinion, the meringue in this recipe is too sweet.I'd definitely reduce the sugar even more next time.I think I'll go to the length to omit the sugar in the whipping cream as well!We're not getting any younger guys!We don't want diabetes at the age of 30 do we?You could omit the Strawberry Glaze of course.The glaze is just for the effect of..well..glazing the fruits I suppose.

On the other hand, you can be as creative as you like with Pavlovas!If vanilla flavoured meringue is not a favourite of yours, omit the vanilla essence,add chocolate powder to it, rose essence or banana essence even, if you're trying to reconnect with your ape roots.Also for the fruits and glaze, you could use any that you like.Really.ANY FRUIT YOU LIKE.Since strawberries,kiwis and other berries are quite expensive in Malaysia, using local fruits would be the best option.That's why I used mangoes.Nice, beautiful,ripe,juicy mangoes.Oh yeah=)

Tomorrow is the first day of Ramdhan.Ramadhan Kareem to all muslims.May we achieve our goals and become better muslims!InsyaAllah!

Wasalam.


Till then,Bonsoir,
Love,
Anggerik

Baked Pasta

Assalamualaikum!!

(I am writing this while waiting to board the plane to Doha)

What can we make using these ingredients?

One of the perks of living alone is that you can cook something in a large portion and have that same food for the whole week! I know at a point you’ll be like..oh mannn, this food again? The only difference now you can’t blame your mum. :p

So I had some guests over last week and that is the same week that I had my final exam PLUS moving out. Before going back to Malaysia, I have to finish EVERYTHING in the frdge. I ahad some butter, some Edam cheese and some macaroni to get rid of. As usual I also have a can of tomato sauce on hand (it’s ALWAYS handy to have tomato sauce around. So I decided to make baked pasta. Yes. Nothing beats a steaming baked pasta with cheese melting on its sides . Oh yeah!(Okay that was a lie)

I got this recipe from my mum.You don`t have to worry about not having the perfect size of baking dish and what not.The beauty of this recipe is that everything is already cooked (although I do think 13 by 9 dish would work perfectly). Why bake it then? To melt the cheese of course!!Refer to top description. Oh yeah!*Johhny Bravo style*.

Baked Macaroni

2 cups of uncooked macaroni

1 cup of Edam/Monterey jack/mozzarella/Cheddar cheese

796 ml of canned Tomato Sauce

500g of ground beef

4 cloves of garlic, diced

1 onion, diced

Salt to taste

Olive oil

A table spoon of dried oregano/ Italian seasoning

1/4  cup butter

1 cup milk

3 tablespoon of flour

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. In a pot, put enough water to cover the macaroni , sprinkle a bit of salt to taste. Turn on the heat and let the macaroni cook.
3. In a pan, cook the ground beef. Let the water dry and the beef brown. (It’s a good idea to stir it once in a while to avoid the meat  from sticking to the pan, remember, don`t put any oil).Once cooked, set aside.
4. In a sauce pan, sautee the onion and garlic.
5. Add tomato sauce, and ground beef.
6. Once the sauce simmers, add salt and spices.
7. Stir in the macaroni and half cup of the cheese.
8. Again, wait for the sauce to simmer.
9. In a separate pan, make Béchamel sauce using the butter, milk and flour.Recipe here: Bechamel Sauce

To assemble

In an oven-safe dish, put in the macaroni.

Pour a generous layer of Bechamel sauce and the remaining cheese on top.

Cover the top with bread crumbs.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese melts and slightly browned.

Since I only had ONE baking dish, I decided to use my spring foam as well.

And look at that! A baked pasta cake! It would be definitely cute for entertaining. You could simply cut it like a cake and top it with some chopped fresh oregano and Parmesan. Yum!

Bon Appetit

Sorry for the photos.Like I said, I had a final.I snapped these photos quickly before gobbling it all up.I.AM.SUCH.A.NERD...

Enjoy!

Wasalam.

Till then,Bonsoir et A Bientot Montreal!

Love,

Anggerik

Breathless Bagel

Assalamualaikum.

Excited, anxious, scared...everything at once.

Breathe.

6 more days Soffy,6 more days.

6 more days to this little chubby donut,

My sister was saying something like.."oh Umar made the list and I didn't?"

Well, kakak, you should've thought of that before having cute babies.I'm just saying...

Wasalam

Till then,Bonjour,

Love,

Anggerik