Target shopping

Ah! The weekend has come!

I managed to do some packing in the office last night (in preparation of our office's move at the end of this month), so I decided not to go to the office today to pack. In any event, BD said something to me me last night to the effect that I can slow down the packing, I think. Yeah! It is a sign that this weekend is a "relax one corner" weekend.

As I was chatting with LSD and BD till quite late last night, I overslept this morning. I woke up to the sound of HEALER being played on my mobile phone. Thinking that it was my alarm, I groggily got up and stopped the music. When I glanced at my mobile screen, I realised that it was a missed call and not my alarm going off. I checked who the caller was. It was my mother!

I called my mother and was informed that she is on her way to Muar, Malaysia for a week-long stay. Enjoy your getaway, mom! And do not forget to buy a carton of Three Elephant sauce.

Da left behind the car keys, so I drove to Marine Parade, intending to do grocery shopping at NTUC. When I arrived at the multi-storey carpark next to NTUC, I saw a long queue of cars waiting to enter the carpark. My heart sank. A thought crossed my mind that I would not be able to find a carpark lot. However, there was no way I could do a U-turn, hence I queued up and hoped for the best. After circling the carpark for 3 levels, I spied an empty lot. Praise the Lord! I parked the car and went to the hawker centre for breakfast.

Every time that I am at the Marine Parade hawker centre, I would patronise the stall that sells fried beehoon with ingredients (commonly known as "breakfast beehoon"). The stall was featured on one of the food programs on Channel U. Of all the breakfast beehoon that I have eaten, this stall's beehoon is one of the nicest. The helper at the stall smiled at me and remarked in Mandarin that I had not patronised the stall for a while. She asked me where I have been. I replied that I have been busy lately. Then I had a second look at her. Goodness me! She has now got a stud on her nose! I wanted to comment on the stud to her but I did not know how to phrase the words in Mandarin.

After my late breakfast, I decided to take a walk to Parkway Parade. There is a shoe shop there named "Dynasty" that only sells leather shoes. I have been trying to buy a pair of brown leather shoes for some time as my existing pair is broken. Voila! I managed to find a brown pair of heeled leather shoes. Is the Great Singapore Sale still ongoing? The shop owner informed me that there was a S$30 discount if I paid by cash.

Talk about another successful "target shopping"! I was tremendously pleased at my purchase.

Realising that time was ticking away, I quickly walked out of Parkway Parade and towards NTUC. On the way to NTUC, I walked past a female busker. She was sitting on a stool under the hot sun, playing the tambourine and singing oldies using a microphone with music playing in the background. Initially, I wondered why she would want to suffer under the hot sun. Then I had a closer look at her. She is blind. I must say, though, that her singing voice is not bad.

Ah, the joys of grocery shopping! I had a most enjoyable time at NTUC today. I already had the menu for tonight's dinner planned:-

(a) ABC soup (ie. clear soup with corn, carrots, potato, mushrooms, assorted vegetables, etc);

(b) fried udon;

(c) baked otah (note: of all the otahs that I have eaten, the nicest otah is the one from a shop in Muar. My family buys the otah in bulk each time we go to Muar.);

(d) baked chicken wings (note: marinate the chicken wings and bake them in the oven, turning the wings over halfway); and

(e) oreo cheesecake.

It has been some time since I last cooked. When it comes to cooking a full meal, planning is very important. It would be preferable if you were to shop for groceries with a shopping list. However, as I was running late today, I did not have time to draw up a shopping list. Instead, as I already had in mind what to cook tonight, I got a shopping trolley and browsed aisle by aisle. Mind you, this is not the most efficient way of grocery shopping. However, I decided that I would not rush through the grocery shopping today because I needed to stock up on certain groceries (eg. milk, sugar, etc) that I did not need for tonight's cooking anyway.

In the end, I think I went overboard in my grocery shopping. But, I left NTUC a very happy girl!

My fried udon:-

Bon appetit!

OREO CHEESECAKE

Ingredients (base)

1 ¼ cup digestive biscuits (crushed)
4 tbsp butter (melted)

Method (base)

1. Crush the digestive biscuits.
2. Melt the butter by placing the butter in a bowl and microwaving for 20 seconds.
3. Add the melted butter to the digestive biscuits and mix well.
4. Press the mixture into a 9 inch square baking pan.
5. Place the pan in the freezer while preparing the filling.

Ingredients (filling)

1 ½ cup whipping cream
8 oz (about 700g) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
24 oreo cookies
dash of cinnamon

Method (filling)

1. Whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Place in refrigerator.
2. Whip the cream cheese until smooth.
3. Add sugar to the cream cheese and blend.
4. Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon.
5. Coarsely chop 24 Oreo cookies and fold into cream cheese mixture.
6. Fold in the whipped cream.
7. Turn the filling into the crust and spread evenly.
8. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
9. Loosen the cheesecake by running a knife around edges to release sides from the pan.