One of those summer days

Photo credit: Tút

I know summer is ending for some of you and it's already ended for people like me, yet this is like a reminiscence of the last summer. In Singapore where I am, there is actually not much of difference between the seasons. The trees keep greening like this all year long and that's one of things I love about this island. 

I am now back to school and everyday feels like a race with time. I started to wish the typical wish: if only there were more than 24 hours a day. However, me and NP have made a promise!!! We will try to keep this blog updated more frequently. Hmm... but the workload is crazy... no, you have our words! Haha 

Have a marvelous weekend everyone! 

NT 

Simple pan-fried lamb chops

Since I came to the US I seldom eat lamb chops, which has always been my favorite. I don't know why though. But the other day I spotted a beautiful rack of lamb while grocery shopping with M, so we bought it and made the simplest lamb chops ever.. who knows it would turn out so good!

First I slightly scored the lamb chops on both sides (so that they can suck up the marinade) and brushed olive oil all over.

For the marinade, I sprinkled salt, pepper, garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme on all sides of the lamb chop.

Cover and let them sit for about 1 - 2 hours.

Heat up a skillet (cast iron would be very ideal) with a 50/50 mix of canola oil and clarified butter. Because my oven is not working so couldn't pop it in there to roast after searing. Therefore I had to pan-fry them on medium-low heat so that I could achieve the desired doneness (which is medium for us).

There we have the simplest lamb chops ever, with baby gold potatoes sautéed in clarified butter, and some veggies. Buon appetito! ;)

Have a productive week fellas! 

Please stay tuned! :)

NP.

Bali for a loving April

Hello everyone, 

It's me NT coming back here again after... a long while. Me and NP have been crazily busy with school works. I started to realize how hard it is to chase this career of a designer. Don't ever roll your eyes when you hear too much of ranting from a design student, they do tell the truth ha ha. And time is too precious for us to post blog entries here more often. 

However, my boyfriend just came to Singapore and had stayed here with me for a month. He totally bought me a break from this hectic student life. I was over the moon because this is the longest time we have a chance to stay together... so excuse me if this post is way too sentimental and... corny hihi. 

I had planned for this trip for quite long ago. We chose Bali for our biding desire to all of those nice beaches in the world. And Bali didn't disappoint us at all. Our first trip turned out beyond my expectation. 

We arrived at noon and were so hungry that we started the trip with a seek for seafood restaurant. There is a lot of seafood restaurants that arrange tables on the beach in Jimbaran. We luckily managed to reach there before the sunset. The sky was marvelous. The band played some classic songs that we favorite. It was such a good retreat after a 3-hour flight from Singapore. 

We spent only 3 days 2 nights in Bali it was so short I feel so regret we didn't have time to stay longer. We usually went to the beach at noon and spent the morning to go to the mountain. Kitamani is the mountainous region here, around 70 km away from our villa. The sky lake Batuk lies next to a volcano and several other mountains with the tops covered with cloud. This view really took our breath a little. I thought I want to stay right here forever…

Craftsmanship in Bali is very well developed. We saw a lot of shops selling craft stuffs for home decoration. I fell so hard for their good taste in making ornaments from wood, sea shell, stone and so on. I also found myself being inspired again with their elegant oriental style. 

Indonesian are all friendly and helpful. We lost our way back to the villa once late at night which made us really panic. Yet there was a nice Indonesian man led us home safe and sound. My boyfriend got helped a lot in his plan to surprise me with flowers and candles by our villa's staffs. They seemed to be ever more excited than my boyfriend himself while preparing all of those romantic stuffs. Imagine you came home after a fun but tiring day chasing the roads on a motorbike (my butt hurt so bad ><), you found yourself surrounded with flowers and candles. And the boy of your heart was standing there (all awkward haha) with a rose in hand and then… you found his gesture so funny that you laughed out loud. How would you feel? At that moment, I feel like I was the happiest girl in the world. 

Summer is coming really soon everywhere I guess. I hope you all will have a wonderful summer ahead. Don't forget to take some time to travel. A trip like this has refreshed my mind very much and makes me enjoy life to the fullest.

Have a nice weekend! 

Love, 

NT