Wheeeee quality time with sketchup
and by quality I mean make the model the first time in a stupid yet time consuming way and then re-make it again (hopefully) correctly.
05 April 2018
03 April 2018
swipe
I've finally come up with a satisfactory way to constrain purchasing lip products! It's really simple, one per color per finish. Of course the new year resolution of one purchase per year applies on top. Thinking of getting Bite's astrology series for virgo as this year's quota if I like the shade, too bad they seem to sell out fast.
So far I have these in the UK with me:
There's a couple (two Mamond lippies?) that I bought on Taobao that will be added whenever I get my hands on them. I also have a ton of prospective brick & rust and brown & nude products.
...
It's nice to have a giant Easter break, there's time to make posts about cosmetics :D
But in reality I ought to start on my dissertation's literature review if I want to travel during the summer D:
So far I have these in the UK with me:
There's a couple (two Mamond lippies?) that I bought on Taobao that will be added whenever I get my hands on them. I also have a ton of prospective brick & rust and brown & nude products.
...
It's nice to have a giant Easter break, there's time to make posts about cosmetics :D
But in reality I ought to start on my dissertation's literature review if I want to travel during the summer D:
02 April 2018
soak
I'm so happy with this lemon curd, it's absolutely delicious with some clotted cream sandwiched between rich tea cookies:
I'll probably make an icebox cake version of this to bring to a potluck.
The lemon curd is very easy to make...if you have a citrus juicer of some kind. It's no fun squeezing lemons by hand, the yield is quite pitiful especially since I had little lemons. I was also cautious and made it over a double boiler, which took about 15min of constant stirring before thickening enough, compared to the recipe guideline of 5-10min. However, the end result is so worth it. Seriously how did it take over 20 years of my life to taste lemon curd?
I'm glad that I found this (and a couple of others) whole egg recipe. I did add the higher end of the recommended amount of butter to make up for the richness missing from additional yolks. Too bad custards don't seem to work with whole eggs, although I did discover that Bird's custard powder is just glorified corn starch... but I'll probably stick to panna cotta as my go-to summer dessert to take advantage of the good dairy here.
I'll probably make an icebox cake version of this to bring to a potluck.
The lemon curd is very easy to make...if you have a citrus juicer of some kind. It's no fun squeezing lemons by hand, the yield is quite pitiful especially since I had little lemons. I was also cautious and made it over a double boiler, which took about 15min of constant stirring before thickening enough, compared to the recipe guideline of 5-10min. However, the end result is so worth it. Seriously how did it take over 20 years of my life to taste lemon curd?
I'm glad that I found this (and a couple of others) whole egg recipe. I did add the higher end of the recommended amount of butter to make up for the richness missing from additional yolks. Too bad custards don't seem to work with whole eggs, although I did discover that Bird's custard powder is just glorified corn starch... but I'll probably stick to panna cotta as my go-to summer dessert to take advantage of the good dairy here.
01 April 2018
coat
First salad meals of 2018! I have so many salad recipes saved that it warrants its own folder in Instapaper. Although it's still a little chilly to eat room temperature food, but I am looking forward to mild English summers.
I only have a tiny mortar and pestle instead of a food processor, so my skhug was moreso ground garlic and chilli with spices, and then just added some leftover herbs from other recipes in along with other ingredients. Lucky that cauliflowers sold here comes with a lot of the greens, its a self contained salad haha.
...
Brussel sprouts are kinda like pasta: there exists a perfect al dente texture past which is no good.
...
This is my favourite out of the three, very easy to assemble if the beets are bought pre-cooked. It's surprisingly that there's not much of a price difference between buying raw beets loose and pre-cooked packaged beets. Although radicchio is pricy and the amount of herbs make this salad not super cost effective. Oh wells, it is tasty so I'll probably make it again. A good trick from this recipe is to mix salty cheese (feta in this case) into yoghurt to make an easy creamy dressing.
...
Bonus stuffed pepper, which is actually really easy to make now that I'm familiar with the recipe (previous iteration).
I only have a tiny mortar and pestle instead of a food processor, so my skhug was moreso ground garlic and chilli with spices, and then just added some leftover herbs from other recipes in along with other ingredients. Lucky that cauliflowers sold here comes with a lot of the greens, its a self contained salad haha.
...
Brussel sprouts are kinda like pasta: there exists a perfect al dente texture past which is no good.
...
This is my favourite out of the three, very easy to assemble if the beets are bought pre-cooked. It's surprisingly that there's not much of a price difference between buying raw beets loose and pre-cooked packaged beets. Although radicchio is pricy and the amount of herbs make this salad not super cost effective. Oh wells, it is tasty so I'll probably make it again. A good trick from this recipe is to mix salty cheese (feta in this case) into yoghurt to make an easy creamy dressing.
...
Bonus stuffed pepper, which is actually really easy to make now that I'm familiar with the recipe (previous iteration).
30 March 2018
mousse
In anticipation of eating lots of heavy food when I go visit Edinburgh in 2 weeks, I've been trying to eat mostly vegetables. But I also can't resist trying out all the stovetop bread recipes from Joe Pastry.
First up is my perfect pantry dish of sweet potato with lentil and frozen spinach dhal (previous iteration). It's hard to beat this in terms of price per meal.
Made some chapati as a side, which turned out moderately successful. I selectively read the instructions, paying attention to where it said to roll them thinly...while disregarding the part where it said to roll them to ~7cm diameter. Mine were about 15cm in diameter, and needless to say too thin to puff up. They still tasted fine and was good dipped in the dhal, but not super exciting. I think my preference lies with leavened breads that have a chewy crumb. Gonna buy some more flour and make naan next.
...
Previous dinners were the skillet cheesy beef pasta:
I only made this to use up the last bits of a smoked cheddar that I had, since I'm generally tired of american style meat/tomato sauce because it was the first and only pasta sauce I knew how to make for years. But it's pretty tasty, the sauce clings well to the pasta since the pasta is boiled directly in the sauce. The downside to this method is that reheating leftover pasta makes this far too soft, so I'd only make this to feed a crowd. It was also hard to control how much water to add since I wasn't making the same amount as the recipe, so the pasta was a tad overcooked to begin with because I wanted to thicken the sauce more. Next time I'd use the empty tomato can to measure 1 can of water, and add some tomato paste to increase the tomato flavour.
...
Speaking of cheese, another one that I found at Waitrose is the famous (to me) Kirkham lancashire:
(This also means I have yet to visit Paxton & Whitfield, which I will! But it's gonna rain for an entire week, so that's my excuse for continuing to stay in)
It doesn't taste like cheddar at all...it taste tangy like good yoghurt. I think having it on a whole wheat cracker would be better than eating it alone, maybe with some jammy fruit too. Too bad I bought McVities rich tea biscuits instead of digestive, but I've yet to try a biscuit by them that I don't like. Sigh I'll miss the dairy and biscuits from UK :(
First up is my perfect pantry dish of sweet potato with lentil and frozen spinach dhal (previous iteration). It's hard to beat this in terms of price per meal.
Made some chapati as a side, which turned out moderately successful. I selectively read the instructions, paying attention to where it said to roll them thinly...while disregarding the part where it said to roll them to ~7cm diameter. Mine were about 15cm in diameter, and needless to say too thin to puff up. They still tasted fine and was good dipped in the dhal, but not super exciting. I think my preference lies with leavened breads that have a chewy crumb. Gonna buy some more flour and make naan next.
...
Previous dinners were the skillet cheesy beef pasta:
I only made this to use up the last bits of a smoked cheddar that I had, since I'm generally tired of american style meat/tomato sauce because it was the first and only pasta sauce I knew how to make for years. But it's pretty tasty, the sauce clings well to the pasta since the pasta is boiled directly in the sauce. The downside to this method is that reheating leftover pasta makes this far too soft, so I'd only make this to feed a crowd. It was also hard to control how much water to add since I wasn't making the same amount as the recipe, so the pasta was a tad overcooked to begin with because I wanted to thicken the sauce more. Next time I'd use the empty tomato can to measure 1 can of water, and add some tomato paste to increase the tomato flavour.
...
Speaking of cheese, another one that I found at Waitrose is the famous (to me) Kirkham lancashire:
(This also means I have yet to visit Paxton & Whitfield, which I will! But it's gonna rain for an entire week, so that's my excuse for continuing to stay in)
It doesn't taste like cheddar at all...it taste tangy like good yoghurt. I think having it on a whole wheat cracker would be better than eating it alone, maybe with some jammy fruit too. Too bad I bought McVities rich tea biscuits instead of digestive, but I've yet to try a biscuit by them that I don't like. Sigh I'll miss the dairy and biscuits from UK :(
25 March 2018
ReRe Hello
I've been reading a lot of manga lately since switching to MangaDex. Most scanlators are still uploading their previous projects, so it's the perfect time to discover new titles.
This shojo is one of the best. It has the standard list of plot items, but the characters react in more mature ways. Maybe because I'm so much older than the characters in shojo manga now, but my tolerance for super contrived drama, even well executed, is pretty low. Instead this delivers the fluff and heart warming feels in a more straight forward way. It also takes care to flesh out the supporting characters well too.
Ah I admit that I've over-dosing on shojo manga cause I miss my boyfriend. Wah.
...
Of course after I post this I find updates for an old series that I was following, which is very dramatic. It's also very good and I must admit more satisfying to read in a marathon.
Also picked up this series, which is more like my original example. I like the pacing here, 6 chapters and there's already concrete character development. The art prep school setting also vaguely reminds me of H&C, so that's very favourable bias.
...
A change of genre: Immortal Regis & Cavalier of the Abyss
I wonder if I'll ever get to see the ending of this, at least the raws are complete but a 9 month hiatus isn't promising. I was fooled that Immortal Regis was complete and failed to notice the rather obvious link to the sequel in its description ;_; The last chapter had to be the beginning of the final flashback too...
It reminds me of...Id (yet another great series that I'll never know the ending of) and Ares (A-Team scanlated a couple chapters of these two series too), which is great praise. I think the pacing and plot development is similar to Ares, whereas characters are more like Id. Though I must admit that I don't really like any of the characters, and feel that Nex and Serin's ship came out of no where like Tidus and Yuna's. The second generation is not too likeable either. Though it should be intentional that there's no one heroic.
This shojo is one of the best. It has the standard list of plot items, but the characters react in more mature ways. Maybe because I'm so much older than the characters in shojo manga now, but my tolerance for super contrived drama, even well executed, is pretty low. Instead this delivers the fluff and heart warming feels in a more straight forward way. It also takes care to flesh out the supporting characters well too.
Ah I admit that I've over-dosing on shojo manga cause I miss my boyfriend. Wah.
...
Of course after I post this I find updates for an old series that I was following, which is very dramatic. It's also very good and I must admit more satisfying to read in a marathon.
Also picked up this series, which is more like my original example. I like the pacing here, 6 chapters and there's already concrete character development. The art prep school setting also vaguely reminds me of H&C, so that's very favourable bias.
...
A change of genre: Immortal Regis & Cavalier of the Abyss
I wonder if I'll ever get to see the ending of this, at least the raws are complete but a 9 month hiatus isn't promising. I was fooled that Immortal Regis was complete and failed to notice the rather obvious link to the sequel in its description ;_; The last chapter had to be the beginning of the final flashback too...
It reminds me of...Id (yet another great series that I'll never know the ending of) and Ares (A-Team scanlated a couple chapters of these two series too), which is great praise. I think the pacing and plot development is similar to Ares, whereas characters are more like Id. Though I must admit that I don't really like any of the characters, and feel that Nex and Serin's ship came out of no where like Tidus and Yuna's. The second generation is not too likeable either. Though it should be intentional that there's no one heroic.
24 March 2018
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