God, I love you, Saturday Night Live.

Note to self: never try holding a conversation with anyone when I am sick.

Not only will I be extremely grumpy and uncooperative, I will lack the patience to be polite and civil, and will also say inappropriate and sometimes hurtful things if any requests for my attention or assistance are made. I'd like to think it is the germs talking, but it isn't and I don't always mean what I say.

In other words, if and where possible, avoid when sick.

Walking home from dinner the other day, this had me in giggles.



"Honey, I forgot where I parked the Cow."
"The Cow needs a wash/tune-up/servicing."

No one in Singapore would ever pay the premium prices of a custom number plate to call their pride-and-joy hunk of metal after a farm animal.

Gotta love the Aussies.

Ladies and gentlemen,

After all this time, we finally join the real world and are the proud owners of a television.
Our new baby is a Samsung Series 6 LCD 36" Flat Panel HDTV.

Wohoo!

Now back to your regular program.

When I read there would be a scarecrow festival on Mt Tambourine, the SO laughed as I bounded into the living room to ask if we could go have a look.

Pity the weather didn't cooperate, but it was fun driving around to find the scarecrows scattered in front of businesses, shops, schools and homes in Mt Tambourine.

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And my favorite scarecrow...

So cute! I wanna dance this routine too! (^0^)/

A colleague and I were windowshopping in the city while waiting for our partners to finish their week's drudgery, when she mentioned they were thinking of having dinner at Yum Yum Peking Duck. The SO and I have driven past the restaurant several times with interest, but hadn't gotten round to checking it out. My colleague invited us to join them, an offer we didn't refuse.

The restaurant wasn't very busy and my colleague had dropped by 20 mins earlier to make a reservation. We were directed to a table by their street-side window to peruse the menu.



Peking duck is a very rare treat back home and while simple to put together on the dinner plate, the duck has to be cooked perfectly lest the flesh becomes dry and stringy, and the skin must be crispy. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was prepared for the worst.

And once again, Australia has proven me wrong.

As their name suggests, Peking duck is their specialty. Host and owner, Frankie Yiu recommended their Peking 2 courses (AUD$ 55) - duck served the traditional style dressed with hoi sin sauce and shallot on a pancake skin and a choice between the san choy bow or the meat with plum sauce.

Between the 4 of us, we got 10 serves of beautifully prepared Peking duck pancakes. The pancake skins were a tad dehydrated, but that might just be a consequence of the Aussie air this time of year is chilly and dry. The sauce and juicy duck skin more than made up for the pancake skin either way.

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Yum Yum Peking Duck restaurant has no ambience, with simple furnishings and little in the way of decor, save their happy fortune buddha statue and waving gold kitty at the counter. But do not let that put you off.

The menu is also a little pricier for dishes, such as combination chow mein/hor fun (AUD$13) which you could quite easily get in a city Asian restaurant for $10-12. Steamed rice per person is also $3, which to me, was (O_O). Back home, rice would be an additional 50 cents, but... oh well.

Unlike their original restaurant in Darra, we weren't asked to finish our meal in 45 mins and allowed to savour our meal at our own leisure.

If you're looking for good Asian food in the city without the headache of parking, Yum Yum Peking Duck is a great option.


Yum Yum Peking Duck Restaurant
876 Brunswick Street, New Farm, QLD 4005
Tel: +61 7 3254 3280
Fax: +61 7 3254 3606
Open daily 10:30am till late
Street parking

The department at work has a weekly tradition of having Friday morning tea, with everyone volunteering to bring in goodies in turns.

This week was my turn and I had been tearing my hair out, trying to think up something yummy to bring in that hasn't already been brought in. We've already had scones, cupcakes, chocolate cake, coconut slice, apple strudel, coffee cake and even a cheese platter.

Then walking past a bakery, I caught the whiff of baking cinnamon and the dark sweetness of syrupy sugar, and the hunt for the perfect cinnamon roll began.

However I am a picky cinnamon roll person. The dough has to be light and fluffy and the cinnamon flavour absolutely decadent, but the combination must never ever be too sweet. Most people I know prefer the toothachy sweet versions, but if you aren't one of them, I have a treat for you.

I spent 2 days experimenting with dough to cinnamon sugar ratios. The result: the unperfect perfect cinnamon roll.



INGREDIENTS (DOUGH)

• 235 ml warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  
• 6 g salt
  
• 100 g white sugar
  
• 10 g yeast
  
• 2 eggs, room temperature
  
• 75 g butter, melted
  
• 615 g plain flour

INGREDIENTS (CINNAMON SUGAR)

• 110 g brown sugar, packed
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 50 g butter, melted

INGREDIENTS (FROSTING)

• 47 g cream cheese, softened
  
• 25 g butter, softened
  
• 95 g confectioners' sugar
  
• Splash of vanilla extract/essence
  
• Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Pre-warm the oven at 50 degrees C for 5 mins and turn off.
   
   
2. Whisk the milk, sugar and yeast before putting it into the warm oven to sit for 15 mins or until the solution is frothy. Be careful not to let it go too hot, as it'll kill the yeast.
   Once frothy, whisk in the eggs, salt and butter before adding the flour. Do so gradually, mixing in the flour well until the dough begins to form.
   Once 3/4 of the flour has been mixed in, turn out the dough onto a floured surface and start kneading softly, gradually adding the rest of the flour as you go along. The dough will be very soft, tacky (not sticky) and it'll take about 8-10 mins of elbow grease to knead it into a lovely ball of dough.
   Once done, replace the dough in the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and return to the warm oven for it to rise for at least an hour or so.
   
   
3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
   
   
4. After the dough has doubled in size (poke your finger in it - if it springs back, let it rise some more), turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with the melted butter (use a brush if you can to get to the very edges) and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture.
   
   
5. Roll up dough from the longest side and cut into 1.5" / 4cm thick rolls with string or dental floss. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan with about 0.5"/1.3cm space between each roll. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled (about 30-45 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C).
   
   
6. Bake rolls in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. While rolls are baking, beat together the ingredients for the frosting. If they are little hard to work, stick in the microwave for 10 second intervals to soften the ingredients further. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Note: If you're really pressed for time, microwave the milk and butter for 1 min on high to warm and melt them. You can also freeze the rolls and allow them to defrost to room temperature before baking them when you need them.

If done perfectly, you will get this light airy fluffy dough with a heady flavour of cinnamon and an almost honey sweetness from the brown sugar.

Oh, and these were very well received at Friday's morning tea. (^_^)