The joy of making pancakes!

Long time no blog. Yup, life has caught up with me and the last time I blogged was in February... Miss CL was right that I would neglect the blog.. I do have valid excuses study, work and we're building our first home! But I'm back!

The art of saving money requires a bit of imagination and effort with things you want to do in life. This morning it happened to be pancakes. Having a mortgage means forced savings and no longer reaching for the 'shake and mix' packs.

Even though they are about $3-4 each these costs all adds up. It a bit like the stories financial advisers in Marie Clare tell you, if you give up your daily coffee you'll be able to afford a car in ten years time... Eh.. and I couldn't be bothered driving to IGA, which would mean I'd have to change out of my PJs.

My close friends will know that I love to bake and cook but to be honest I haven't made pancakes from scratch since I was young. Miss EC recently asked for my shortbread recipe and I shared with her that I got it from the website 'Joy of Baking'. It's fantastic because similarly to the Australian Women's Weekly recipes they test it out the recipes to makes sure it tastes good.

Whipping out all the ingredients that I had home at already, eggs, butter, flour, sugar.. I thought I really do love I can create meals that others can enjoy by just putting these raw items like these together.

I won't go through the recipe, you can get it by clicking the link here.



It might not look like the recipe makes much, but I halved it and ate half of what I made as I was frying them. Yum!

My tricks for making the pancakes are:

• When you heat up the pan use the standard tempurature for the fry pan


• After you make the first pancake on standard tempurature turn the heat down to low, by then your pan would have completely warmed up; if you leave it on standard heat your pancakes will burn before the batter is cooked. The colour should turn golden brown


• After pouring the batter onto the fry pan and before you decide to turn the pancake make sure most of the air bubbles pop before flipping the pancake over
  

• Like the recipe says don't over mix the batter, otherwise it won't turn out soft and fluffy

• You can change the recipe how you like it for more flavour. For example putting in cinnamon or using brown/raw sugar instead of castor sugar

Only thing missing was maple syrup... should have gone to IGA!

GTG! Lots of love, Little J

Happy Red Tidings!

...For all who celebrate Valentine's Day and/or Chinese New Year!

Although the day hasn't really started, since most people are still asleep at 6am in the morning I know for sure love is all around us. I woke up in my usual insomniac state (it's better to wake than keep sleeping.. so), I open my windows for fresh air and I see my grand parents who live nearby going on their daily walk, together being happy, cheerful, talking to each other on their early morning strides together. As I yelled out to them good morning and Gong Xi Fa Cai, and from their sunny response I noticed how much they love each other.

I know this may seem like a stupid thing to say, since they are my grand parents and of course they should love each other! I've always seen them as my 'Po por' & 'Ah Gong' but since watching the Valentine's Day movie and especially it being Valentine's day I've been more aware at the different types of love around.

Little sis and I watched Valentine's Day on our usual chick flick movie goings a couple of days ago and the Hollywood production is set out similarly to Love Actually. That it's about types of love at the different stages of life except this one is about love surrounding Valentine's day.

Not to ruin anything... but it cute 'love' between little kids who realise they like each other, teenagers on their conflicted definition of what love is, retarded teen love, love when you least expect it (even as far as hating Valentine's day with a vengeance), motherly love plus a bit of heartbreak and the seasoned love like that of my grand parents.

The key message which I think or hope most people already know is that the person you fall in love with should be someone who is your best friend, not just a lover, but someone who accept you for you are warts and all.

Check out the stellar cast including Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher and many more in the Valentine's Day trailer link.

P.s. Taylor Swift is crack up hilarious as the crazy in love teen, reminiscent of her hosting gig on SNL!

Thanks to MA for the $8.50 Hoyts voucher sent via email I used it Friday! Here's a discount voucher for a Hoyts $8 ticket and choc top voucher valid 'til 25th March.

Also my freebie to share a CNY surprise gift voucher from Biotherm!

Happy red tidings,
Little J!

Little Caesars in 2010!

Hello to all, hope you have had an awesome start to the new year. From my catch ups, I'm really sorry to those who had kept checking in for my return from my hiatus. Study, work and life just took over...

Anyway it is a new year and I should be back to my usual antics of blogging anything that comes mind, usually related to my shopping adventures.

So.. what's new in 2010?

The arrival of LITTLE CAESARS in Leedie!

No longer is the want for scrumptious pizza the feeling of a one hour trip to Mundaring Weir, but now less than a ten minute drive from the city. This pizzeria is well known as the best pizza place in Perth and one bite of their inventive savoury and sweet pizza and you will know why. Many of their pizzas are entered into world pizza competitions as evidenced by their incredible list of awards to their name. Every time KK and I go up there, there is always a long wait line and there's no chance of a seat unless you get there at 5.30.

We got to the Leederville pizzeria today at about 6 and it was filling up quickly at that point. Most likely as news spreads of this store's opening, being pack will be it norm. Tonight we had Oysters Kilpatrick pizza which is topped with smoked oysters, bacon, mozzarella and worcestershire sauce. The richness of the pizza is refreshed with squeezings of lemon juice and works well with the combined flavours of this pizza.

It's no surprise that this pizza has an asterisk next to it on the menu, as it one of many that have been entered into competitions.

I absolutely love their desserts and my favourite is the New York Pecan Pie* pizza (I didn't have it tonight, especially with one of my resolutions is to try more new things), we ended up trying the Green Day pizza.

Seemingly new to their original menu, the Green Day pizza is described as a green tea pizza topped with icing sugar, vanilla icecream and green tea syrup. Although it was delicious, for my tastebuds the piping hot base with the coolness of the icecream in my mouth it was not what I imagined it to be. I expected an intense flavour of green tea infiltrated through each bite perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the syrup and icecream but we were barely aware of any green tea flavour.

I think I will always be in love with their New York Pecan Pie, the pecans are finely grounded in a texture simular to almond meal in addition to the butterscotch pudding makes up 90% of the base. It is then topped off with icing sugar, golden syrup and shards of pecan toffee. It is a very sweet dessert and every time I have this I can eat at the most two slices. The remaining we usually take home and I have for it for breakfast over weekend coupled with a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

To check out the menu, click here for the website.

Til next time,

Lots of love Little J

P.s. my blogs will be more random this year and not next every week like before my hiatus.

P.p.s. i can't wait for Japan.. one week to go!

Gotta love Go!

For those who haven’t already noticed yet, but there is the new channel 99 on your digital tellies and it is fabulous! Launched a couple of weeks ago, it is effectively the Australian version of the CW network, where the Nine Network signed a $500 million dollar deal with Warner Bros. (who owns CW) for five years for access to a majority of their shows.



Targeted at the younger audience, I love that they are finally airing shows at prime time like Gossip Girl, TMZ, ET and reality shows like True Beauty and The Bachelor/Bachelorette. Free to air TV, has filled the TV void that otherwise could only be filled by Foxtel!

They ‘soft launched’ the channel with many of the shows which are a few seasons old, like the Bachelor and Bachelorette (airs on Thursday nights) that went to air in the US in 2007. Most people that love the shows would probably follow them over the net instead (as there is no other avail.), but that is set to change especially for brand new shows.

With the full launch set for 9/9/09, here to looking forward to some great shows, in line with the US when they come back from their summer hiatus, other shows on the channel will include:

- Weeds
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Hills
- Moonlight
- Privileged
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- The Vampire Diaries

I’m personally looking forward to The Vampire Diaries (and not it’s not because of Twilight), it’s one of CW’s most anticipated new TV shows that bumped many other pilots including a Gossip Girl spin off and is likely to hook you to the screen each week.

GTG, I’ll be on my own (study) hiatus and will be back after the 22 September with some exciting reviews installed.
Lots of love, Little J.

Dreamy Donuts

Calling all fans of Krispy Creme! For those who love the glazed donut, say good bye to the days of hoards of donuts on board back from the Eastern states, enough to rival Krispy Crème’s refusal to set up franchises in WA.

Last Saturday KK and I tested out, a six pack for brekky with a couple of cappuccinos at Dreamy Donuts in Carousel, we grabbed a cheese cake donut (top left), cookies & cream (top middle), dark chocolate (top right), cinnamon (bottom middle) and a couple of glazed donuts.

I’ve eaten a few freshly baked Krispy Creme glazed donuts, and I can definitely see the similarities that bring Dreamy close to the original. The icing is spread to a thin thickness that gives the right balance when you bite into the soft moist dough.

The cheese cake donut was quite interesting, with the thin icing on top (as the glazed), it wasn’t just a ‘cheese cake’ flavoured donut, but with actual cheese cake filling on the inside!

After sharing four donuts, I felt sick as the kid who raided the candy store and stuffed himself silly. Maybe it was the reason why I didn’t enjoy the cinnamon donut as much. The sugar was not fine enough and the coffee didn’t wash down well as it was burnt with granules at the bottom.

In terms of cinnamon donuts, the best I have ever tasted was Donut King at Garden City when they make fresh while you wait, the donut is crispy and the spongy dough just bounces back after biting into it. Only problem is, they’ve closed down the Donut King at Garden City for a new Dreamy Donuts.

Oh well, I s’pose the next one I’ll try is the Chocolate Custard donut... click here to check out Dreamy’s sweet toothed menu.

Til next week.

Lots of love, Little J.

Croissant & coffee anyone?

Another freebie! This one is valid til Monday, a free croissant and coffee from McCafe courtesy of JS.


I recommed you copy and paste it into Word, print and claim.

Enjoy!
Lots of love, Little J

Loyalty... shopping loyalty

'It's great when you can get something for free' is what the sales assistant at Country Road said to me when picked my seam free bright apricot cami that I received for free in theory. It's actually from the $30 gift voucher I received recently, accompanied with a letter of appreciation for being such a loyal customer and for 'spending' over $750 at their stores in the last 12 months. Of course nothing comes for free most of the time; you’ve got to spend to receive something for free.

In reality, I probably spent half of that and the remaining amount was spent by KK and my mum. Most of you maybe already do this, but banning together to score shopping credits is the best way to earn gift vouchers and other free promotional goodies! (Another freebie for everyone, I’ve attached the link below, courtesy of JS that I missed.)

If you know you'll be shopping at the store anyway, why not sign up? As you know I'm a Myer One member and over the life of my membership I’ve earned over $160 of vouchers. A new promotion I received in the mail for the Myer One credit card is very tempting, with $30 credit in your opening balance and 2000 bonus points is worthwhile; in addition to the 1% return on standard spend in the form of vouchers. This fares pretty well considering most cards give you at the most a 0.5% cash back /reward and this explains their Cannex credit card award. Plus, you triple you points if you use the card at Myer.

Anyway to the freebie, you’ll need to show your Myer One card and to handover the voucher to get your sample size of the any of the Lancome mascaras of your choice. You’ve got up to Thursday 13th to grab your freebie, but if it’s after this date head to the city store. They ran out of samples when I went on Friday, but the sales lady suggested holding on to the voucher and coming back the following week when they get more stock in.

Gotta say I love sample sizes of mascaras, as I never finish a full sized one by the 6 month hygiene expiry date rule. GTG! Click here to grab your voucher.

Lots of love Little J.