A Series of unfortunate events

This post is a week late and its kind of referring to last weekend, I just didn't have time to write the post, with all sorts of things going on. @.@ Let me give you a quick catch up, I started Chinese classes almost 4 weeks ago,

Its something I have been planning to do for almost 2 years and a half on and off, the closest I ever got to Chinese classes before this was Rosetta Stone, I have to say despite the benefits of having a real teacher, not a computer or my boyfriend, I have to say Rosetta Stones pace is probably more suited to my pace.

So far what I have learnt is very basic, but you have to start from the bottom, to get to the top. Anyway everything was going oh so smoothly until the day after our "Commitment Anniversary" Michael gave me a Mylo and Friends duck and new slippers, He abandoned the paper theme, but i went all out I gave him eddible money, a bookmark, and a love letter and chocolate money, 

Michael cooked me a big meal on the night

Sea food chowder soup for the starter

Mash salmon and fried parsnips for the main course

Banofee pie for the dessert.

It was all yummy! We had a very nice night and felt very romantic we lit candles and drank sparkling rose wine. 

But the next day it might as well not of happened, I went up to my house to find out, my sister's boyfriend just broke up with her, and she was seriously heartbroken, 

Then I found out that my brother had gone and broken his arm, not from some macho sport like rugby or  football, but from doing a backwards running race with his friends @.@ boys are crazy!!!

wahoo I got my malaysian gifts

The morning after the babysitting, me, the French student and the Spannish student, had the most horrible lunch imaginable lol. Well I didn't, they did, First off there was no bread left, so I couldn't make sandwiches as planned..

Then the boys suggested I could make some fried eggs, I mean how hard could that be? the gas wouldn't turn on properly, and I couldn't find any oil...

Then I got the gas going and tried substituting cooking oil with olive oil. Oh dear god all the eggs stuck to pan. The eggs looked so unappetizing I just wanted to die. But the two boys ate them, How? I have no clue. After they finished I rushed to try and wash the pan before my uncle came home. I hadn't even finished boiling the kettle and in he came. Kill me now! Kill me now!

He didn't react badly, however it turned out that there was actually frozen bread in the freezer... oops, could of saved myself a lot of embarrassment, Anyway then my Uncle drove me to the train station. The Air festival was on in my town that day, The radio said that there was an 80,000 people crowd expected and to expect huge traffic jams getting into the town, so I thought the train would be the best option.

The train arrived on to the platform absolutely jam packed with people, I opened the door to the first carriage no room, second carriage no room, and so on so eventually I just had to push my way in with my rucksack on my back. I swear it was busier than any train or bus or subway I went on in China.

Anyway I texted my friend Danny when i got on the train, he was also traveling to my town today to see me and the air festival, I don't think I could of picked a worse day for him to come lol. He had to get a bus and then a train to see me.

Luckily we both made it without suffocating, and we headed to the beach and watched the air festival, then headed to Mcdonalds, where he presented me with my gifts,

A pink leather purse

Postcards of Kuala Lumpur

Doraemon comics

Then after we went back down to the seafront luckily a lot of the crowds had started to head home and then we went to the carnival and went on a load of different rides.

This was great for me because I had been trying to persuade my boyfriend to go on some of the rides all week, the most I could get him to go on was the Ferris wheel.

But anyway It was a great day :) and its decided a trip to Malaysia is definitely on the cards :)

A Chinese Feast

On Saturday I was invited to a Chinese Dinner Party, 4 Chinese friends from my college thought it would be nice to invite some of their non Irish friends to come and have a traditional Chinese Banquet. Oh my god their was so much food, you would think they were planing to feed an army! But you know thats what makes it traditional lol.

Can anyone spot me? look in the far left corner

Anyway alll the food was really delicious and we all had a great night :) and went home with a very full belly lol

Here is a picture of the 4 chefs

Jia Qi, Nancy, Ma Jin & Xiao Ji

Here are some pictures of the guests

 The German Twins JKs (Katherina & Frederika)

 Amaury, Nancy & Niamh (My boyfriend says I look a bit like Niamh what do you think?)

Finally Me & Ma Jin

Strangely even though I use chopsticks all the time when I am staying at my boyfriend's house, I still felt really uneasy and uncomfortable and clumsy using them at the dinner party. I just don't like people watching me eat lol! I even ended up droping them on the floor at one point in the night. I felt like such a newbie lol! That has never happened to me before.

One special thing at the party was using red chopsticks,  which is kind of rare. I really want to get a pair of Pink chopsticks instead of the boring wooden ones I use all the time.

Ooh! I really want to go chopstick shoping now! The last time I went chopstick shoping was way back In April, when my boyfriend moved to Kilkenny, and when he got there he realised he hadn't brought any chopsticks and he had nowhere to buy them. So I went to the Chinese Supermarket to buy them and when I picked up a packet of about 10 sets of chopsticks they all fell on the ground! :O

OOOPS!!

Cooking bonanza!

 My boyfriend is a chef, Well not the professional type as of yet but a chef in training... He works as a common chef in a restaurant, Nancy Murphy s in a nice little quaint countryside village, Enniskerry,

Anyway during the summer my Grandma moved house and she had a heap of recipe books she was planing to throw in the skip, But as my boyfriend is a chef in training I thought it would be a great idea if he took some of the books and learned some of the cooking terminology. It started off great first of all we made a raspberry cheesecake which he sent up to my mom as a birthday present..... We made several other things and then found out that following recipe books is rather expensive.... So we got lazy and the cooking terminology studying ceased. ...

But on Sunday we got inspired again... and made

Cauliflower and Blue cheese soup

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower, divided into small florets

2 small leeks, diced

1 small potato, peeled and chopped

900ml vegetable stock, made with stock cubes

125g Gorgonzola cheese, roughly chopped

Preparation Method

1.		Put the cauliflower, leeks and potato into a pan and add the stock and seasoning. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer gently for about 14 minutes or until tender.
2.		Transfer half the soup to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. Return to the pan. (Alternatively, use a hand-held blender straight in the pan to process the soup lightly, leaving a chunky appearance.)
3.		Heat the soup gently until boiling, then remove from the heat. Add the cheese and stir lightly. Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

Honey and mustard salmon with crushed butter beans and spinach

 Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp clear honey

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

4 skinless salmon fillets, about 115g each

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained and rinsed

1 large garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

pinch of crushed chilli flakes

180g fresh baby leaf spinach, rinsed

12 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

Preparation Method

		Make the marinade: In a shallow dish, mix together the vegetable oil, soy sauce, honey, mustard and 1 tbsp of the lemon juice. Add the salmon and coat with the marinade. Set aside.
2.		Combine the beans and flavourings: Put the butter beans and garlic in a pan with the olive oil, remaining lemon juice, the zest and crushed chilli flakes. Set aside.
3.		Wilt the spinach and heat the beans: Heat a ridged griddle or frying pan until hot. Meanwhile, tip the spinach into a dry pan with only the water that clings to its leaves and stir over a low heat for 2 minutes or until wilted. Drain and set aside. Gently heat the beans.
4.		Griddle the salmon: Cook the salmon in the heated ridged griddle or frying pan for 2-3 minutes on each side or until just firm and pink. Add the tomatoes for the last 1-2 minutes of the cooking time.
5.		Crush the beans: Roughly crush the beans with a vegetable masher or fork. Stir in the spinach and seasoning. Divide the beans and spinach among four serving plates. Arrange a salmon fillet on top of each and scatter the tomatoes around the side. Serve at once.