time to say goodbye

It had crossed my mind that this blog thingy is starting to get old (for me that is) and many times had i contemplated on shutting down this one. Of cos i would still love to still update those who are close to the heart on the joys and worries and all the other random going ons here Down Under. And furthermore, I also do have very fond memories logged right in the beginnings of this blog of my life before I met the man of my dreams and our courtship together.

This blog was a place that i expressed myself as a teen trying to find herself in God's plan. Its where I shared my joy of my courtship with J together. And it was a place of refuge when I was away from home and dreadfully honesick. Though I was never good with that, it had been a place where I shared wholesome healthy meals and also cupcake and cakes that I had tried out over the years.

Not too long ago, I realised that I had changed and matured alot since 5 years ago. And this space is no longer one that encourages me to write but instead suffocates and made me run away from it. So dear readers, where ever u are and if anyone is still reading this, I have come to made the hard decision of closing this down. It feels kind of sad.....but I realise the need to close this chapter in my life and move on....Goodbye bloggy, i know i havent showed much care and attention to u over the last few years. I wanna enjoy bloggin but always seem to find myself with a writer's block whenever i come to this place. Forgive me but we just have to say farewell for good.......or maybe for just a moment....i dunno. Pardon me but I have gotta admit that we women are fickle minded creatures.

Hugs,
Aussie Wife....

I'm craving for a lemon pie!!!!

I left my camera charger somewhere in SG and now, my camera battery is running dangerously low. Thus,the lack of pics which lead to a lack of posts. I am very much a visually stimulated person and with no pics to show, there's just no inspiration to blog. ANyways, we had visitors over tonight and I made a Lemon & lime chiffon pie with a polenta crust which was absolutely delectable. It is so smooth, so moussey, so meringuey.....and the tangy taste of lemon and lime.....my mouth is starting to water thingking of it. And what's best about it is that it doesn't require any cream added to it. So it is just a light and yummy pie that keeps you coming back for more.

Since being in Aus, I 've realised that I have nurtured a love for citrusy desserts. Esp if it is lemon or lime based. The tanginess of the fruit gives a very refreshing and light mouthfeel. Never leaving one feeling too heavy from having too much. If I can get eggs tml and if I can get my camera working someway or another, I would definitely make this pie tml and blog the recipe here soon. Lord willing.....

Its the long Ester weekend!!!! 4 days of holiday!!! It has been a while since Josh is able to spend some quality time with us. What are we going to do.....there's just so much we want to do!

Maybe I'm just not good enough.....

My kids are respectively 3 years and 3 months old. My life have barely started with them but I've already gone through many days thinking myself as a lousy mother.People often say that it gets easier with each additional kids. I just hope they are talking about it in the long term sense.....

I know, I know....I have been doing that disappearing act again.....Its so much harder to be able to blog with two kids.....one wanting ur full attention to something amazing she is doing at the moment and with the other, just wanting to suckle all day long. Okay okay......its partly due to my procrasting blogging nature too.....Well, there's just times when I just want to kick back after a long hot day and read what other people have to say and not say a thing.

While I was away from blogasphere, I have been cooking (or baking) a storm up in my kitchen. For an engagment party and also for my little angel 3rd bdae. It seems like I spent my whole life waiting to turn 18 and be independent. And it took ages......and ages and ages....And since the day I turn 18, time just fly pass me like it never had. Take the birth of my 2nd bub for example, he is already an adorable 8 weeks old bub with those chubby cheeks that one can hardly resist from pimching it.

Over the last couple of weeks, my fridge and pantry were never short of sweet stuff like brownies, truffles, ganache ,caramel,mousse and essential baking ingredients like butter, milk, flour, sugar, eggs...i'm sure u get the picture. And as u can expect, both J and T enjoyed surprising themselves with a little sweet thing every night after dins dins and looked forward to a spoon or a bowl to lick after each baking session. "Just an occassional treat..." they will say and helped themselves to more the following day and then night again.....Hmmm....so much for a treat.

I'm just glad that now with those two big events over and that my house is practically....almost clean of all those indulgent sweet things. Of everything that I had baked.......there was one, just one that stood out and seduced me with its depth of flavour and fudgy melt in the mouth texture. Its just a simple brownie recipe really......but with the addition of Guinness in it.....The maltiness of it just brought out the deep rich notes of the dark chocolate. Its one recipe that's going into my hadnwritten recipe book to be passed down to generations to come. Yup, its that good. So good that I just have to bake it another time......u know.....just to make sure that its really good. =)

Let's cut the talking and here's the pics......

For the engagement party,

peach spelt cake for the gluten intolerance

Guinness brownies &.....

....Bailey's Truffles for the chocoholics

Lemon creme & Raspberry Mousse Tartlets &.....

......mini ispahan cuppies for the petite fours lover.

For a dear gurlfren's bdae,

chocolate torte served with raspberry compote & whipped cream

For Tashy's 3rd bdae,

Flower dessert pots with 5 different layers that consists of: brownie base, fresh raspberries, milk choc caramel mousse, dark choc ganache & topped off with hazelnut dirt.

included a white cake with lemon cream & raspberries covered in white choc ganache as a last minute decision....which explains the poorly decorated cake..=P

this coming fri, i would heading off to SG to spend some much anticipated tiime with my family. Hoping to be able to do some baking before then and while i'm away.....Guess i can be hopeful for now...by the way, one of my church fren has been supplying organic wholegrain & others such as spelt, buckwheat, millet etc for a really reasonable price. I'm def gg to experiment with these dif flours in my baking n come up with dessertsith a more of a wholesome twist to them. To healthy home baking!

An awesome birth and a surprise!

Right after the birth of Toby Higgs

If you have not heard, our gorgeous little boy (still nameless at the moment) was delivered via waterbirth on the 25/11 at 9.28pm. It was such an empowering birth that I truly believe all women should be entitled to this form of birthing to rid any negative thoughts associated with birth. There were no rush, no intervention of any manner, no bright lights, no schedule to follow. I was simply encouraged to follow my instincts, to listen to my body, allowed to work through each surge in dimmed surroundings to the sound birds chirping (it was the only CD avaliable at the room which i din't think was too new age, it however made me feel like I was birthing in a forest which was awesome!).

One day old

Thouugh early labour lasted longer this time round (36 hours in comparison to 29hours), no real discomfort was felt at all. I got to admit this time that childbirth is really about letting your body go, accepting each surge (contraction) as it comes and not be afraid. Experience does play a great part in not getting to anxious or fear thus the elimination or decrease sensation of discomfort.

The proud big sister

Anyways, we were truly surprised to have been blessed with a little boy since there seem to be like a 99.9% chance that our baby would be a girl. I was so certain that we would have a girl that I even have girl's clothings bought and ready to dress our new baby in it. SO surprise surprise! The Higgs line continue!!!!! For the unknown, Josh is actually the last remaining Higgs male and thus the pressure is/was on to have a male heir (however not as much pressure as in the asian culture i must say). Everyone esp Josh's granddad was exceptionally joyful at this occasion.

And 3 weeks have passed since little Tobs was born and this time round, i think if I do not have to go through being HUGE for 10months with baby, I would be game to have any kid any day.....maybe....=P

Things that I have been up to for the past month....

For my MIL's 50th b'dae, I made her this chocolate mango and coconut cream cake which is just so light and refreshing. Since I know everyone who were going to devour this cake (i.e my in laws) will appreciate it if it is a healthy cake, I braved it out with light coconut cream, using genoise instead of sponge layers etc. It turned out fantastic, the mango and coconut flavours fused so very nicely and it was just perfect for a spring b'dae.

Made this for Sandy's (my cousin in law's) early morning b'dae celebration with the youth group at a park by the Brisbane river. It was just a simple reliable chocolate banana cake recipe that I had used many times. It's a great recipe to use up overripe banana and the addition of bananas contributes to a moist cake even without the use of milk. Even people who are not allergic to dairy products gave it the thumbs up.


This was designed and made especially for my beloved SIL, Becky,in celebration of her belated 21st b'dae (which supposed to be on the 6/12/08). The cupcakes were rose flavoured with a lychee filling and topped with raspberry cream cheese frosting. The addition of almond meal kept this cupcakes moist for a longer period of time too. Being a non cupcake lover, I actually tasted one and thought about keeping this recipe for future use again.

So even though I haven't been blogging much, I have been fairly busy in my kitchen with the b'daes, trying out new recipes and also to satisfy the baking bug in Tashy who regularly pester me to bake something with her. With the weather getting warmer by the day, I sense myself growing distance with my oven. Been working on non baked recipes such as coconut apricot balls which has always been a favorite of Josh. Its such a easy and healthy snack to make with just the addition of diced apricots, dessicated coconut, peanut butter, honey or condensed milk, sesame seeds, rolled oats and you just have to roll them all together. If it doesn't come together, just add more honey/ peanut butter (depending on how sweet/ peanutty you like it to be). If its too sticky, put in more seeds or grain. Roll them into little balls and keep refrigerated. They were so yum that half the tray was gone before I can put them into container for the next few mornings' morning tea!

Strangely enough, a similar pattern/ habit of being uninterested of my blog and the blogging world had reoccurred again with this 2nd preggy. I just do not enjoy writing as much and even though there's so much for me to blog about, the inspiration just doesn't flow. Just want to say that we are still pretty much alive and kicking but just need a moment of silence in the blogging world for probably the next few months till our little bub comes. May the arrival of our 2nd bub bring about that bout of inspiration and sharing-ness to this blog. Till then...........

Love,
Wei

Just 2 more sleeps.......

till we reunite as a little family unit again!!!! For the past 14 days, I dread the lonely times at home in the day and going to a cold and empty bed. Having my little angel help to lighten my days drastically.But still I miss him. Still can't believe its only 2 days more......So near yet so far....

It makes me most fulfilled as a cook and mother....

.......when my little daughter tells me," You are a good cook!" when what was served in front of her was just a plate of leftovers put together.

In the dark of the night.........

Its been 10 days since he left. I miss him so dearly.................

Tashy loved playing with the red dirt and was often covered in red dust by the end of the day.

It's about time that I blog sth about our trip up to St George with Pete, shouldn't I? Been a bit slack since we got back (what's new?)and also been away out camping the following week after we came back.


As part of our gift of appreciation, I made them (clockwise order) a fudgy chocolate log, passionfruit ricotta cheesecake and lemon truffles. I was relived to find out that Jake has got a sweet tooth and enjoyed these immersely. Amongst all these, I think the passionfruit cheesecake is the best. 'Cos Josh who usually dislike rich cheesecakes actually went back for seconds and thirds for this. Must be saying something abt this isn't it? =P



It was such a unique and completely different lifestyle outback. Its simply a pleasure to kick back a notch in life and just enjoy the sun and smell the flowers (if u don't choke on the multitude of red dust in the first place). We were staying at a cattle farm owned by Pete's cousin-in-law and cousin and their small family of 3 kids. They were such accomodating people who were generous with their time down to their house. Anything to make us feel right at home.

Pete teaching Josh how to use a rifle

Josh helping the kids to crack some macadamia nuts

Being on a cattle farm, we had beef (mind u, their own fresh organic, self butchered beef) for most of our meals besides for brekkie. Though I have never been a big fan of meat, especially red meat, I have to say that the beef that we had was absolutely sensational. My favorite meal there had to be the corned meat served with white sauce and roasted veggies on the side. Unlike the commercial preservative laden corned meat, this was preserved by just soaking in brine by their personal butcher.

The best meal ever: Corned meat with white sauce and roasted veggies. Yum! The meat was so tender that it just simply melt in your mouth. How I wish I have rice to go with it then. (yes yes, i'm such an asian....)

Pot Roast served with gravy and roasted veggies which was pretty tasty too.

We had grilled steaks and snags (aussie slang for sausages) one night and Pete and Josh got the largest slabs! It can barely fit into their plates! Josh had his done rare and my, the steak was so tender and juicy! And I gotta admit that that is how steak should be eaten.

Aside from the food, Pete's cousin in law, Jack, took the time to drive us around the property(which was huge!!) and gave the guys the privilege to shot some *roos (aussie slang for kangeroos) by taking them out spotlighting at night. Anyways these are just a few of the many stuff we did out at St George. Being my usual lazy self, I would just let the pics do the talking.

The guys helped Jack to master (round the sheep up to be sold) some sheep during our stay.

There were red dust and flies everywhere! And its not even summer yet. I dare not imagine the swarm of flies that hangs around the farms in the hot weather.

We explored part of the property on foot on the Lord's day.

Stopping to have some refreshign homemade yogurt on our way home.................

I want.......no no no......I NEED it.!

Someone must be up to some mischief up there by fiddling with the temperature gauge. We have just been away for just 4 days and Spring seems to have pushed itself into this last month of winter. Theoretically, this is (or was) supposed to be one of the coldest months of the year.Therefore it does not make sense that the average temp over the past few days are above 30 degrees Celsius.

Anyways, with the arrival of an inevitable heat wave that comes along with the "joys" of summer and having to carry an additional growing "load" (aka preggy bump) this year, my wants of getting my dream blender (refer to wish list) is increasingly becoming more of a need. I just am dying to make my own smoothies rather than paying 5 bucks for a Boost smoothie just to satisfy my constant craving for icy fruity drinks. If I were to put away $5 everytime I crave for a Boost juice, I prob be able to afford my dream blender halfway through summer. But can I go without.........would be quite a big problem....

Heaps to update but..........

I'm just simply tied for time!!!! I have tried out quite a few good recipes (okay, it only just one or two) in my kitchen and have been yearning to post it up. And for one of the recipes, due to the inavailability of freshly grated coconut, I even got when through the whole experience of cracking to grating the coconut flesh by myself. I got to say I was pretty proud of that bowl of freshly grated coconut after spending 3 hours on it. I will have to blog all about it one of these days.

The reason why I'm so tied for time is that I had been at work for the whole of today and will be tomorrow again. And besides that, we would be going off to St George with Pete this coming Thurs till next Mon staying with his uncle and aunt. And staying with others also mean we have to bring along something as a git of appreciation. So I decided that I should put my baking skills to use and make them some yummy goodies to enjoy while we are there. To know what I had planned to make, do keep in touch for next week's blogs. =) (pray that I would be faithful in posting it....=P)

Anyways, rembr that I mentioned about the gathering of Singaporeans at the Stamford plaza for a National day buffet lunch? The food served was mainly SG food such as beef and chicken rendang, mee goreng, curry veg, sambal egg etc . It was really good and had helped to ease some homesickness for SG foods even though I normally won't choose to have such food back home. At the end of that lunch session, I reckoned that I chatted more than I ate. It was nice to know a few more SG pple. But having survived pretty comfortably and contentedly without any SG contact at all in Brissy, I do not feel any inclination to meet up regularly with this group of pple. Not so sure if you might feel this way if u r in my shoes. Belonging to a church and being close to my in laws probably are the reasons for my lack of homesickness, i guess......

Okay okay for now......i really have to get on with my list of things to do today. You guys take care and see ya soonn.....

Boondall Wetlands

Jump to reach the skies!!!!

The sun was shining and the the skies were clear. I needed to bum up driving hours up (In order to sit for my learner's driving test, I gotta have 100 practise driving hours. I'm up to 65 hours, more than half way!!). So Josh hopped advised our faithful search site, Google and found this place. Off we went towards the north of Brisbane away from the bustling city. However, the wetlands did not turn out to be as serene and away from civilization as we imagined it to be. It was situated right next to the highway and it seems that no matter where we walk, the sound of zooming vehicles was unescapable. On the bright side, there were certain parts of the boardwalk where the scernery was just gorgeous and one of its kind. The main thing was that we had fun.......and I got more driving hours. =)

She enjoyed tromping around the overgrown grass to look for wild flowers

A flower known by the name of Pig Face. Supposed to be used as food and medicinal purposes by the Aborginals .

A type of plant that thrive on salt water.

The 2km boardwalk which lead us out to the wetlands.

We attempted to do a jumping shot with Tash which ended up with.............

Josh literally "giving her a hand " to help her along.

Exhausted after the jumping shot....lolz..

That's all for now folks.......oh yeah, Singapore's National day is coming up isn't it.....Hmmm....this have got to be the fourth consecutive year of me being away for it. I was never a big fan of it growing up except for looking forward to the parades which my Dad (being in the military then) was able to get free tickets every year. Now, I miss seeing the red and white flags hanging off HDBs and also the atmosphere on the day itself where most people would have a BBQ and a get together to take advantage of the holiday. However, this year might be a slightly different for us. Josh got to know a Singaporean guy, Mervin, in the reservist who had organized a national day buffet lunch at the Stanford (quite a nice hotel) where he had invited quite a number of Singaporeans to go along too. Will update on how that went too. Till then, ta ta.................

Centenary Rocks Festival'09

The girls with their fav baby animals

Just this past Saturday, there was a festival held at a park, River Rocks park, which is just 5 mins drive away from us. In the brochure that we received in our mailbox, there was supposedly to have free hotair balloon rides for everyone, live music, community and food stalls, African fireshow and fireworks at the end of the night.


Since we had nothing better to do with our time, we drove down to check this annual festival out. Tash and I were pleasantly surprised to find a baby animal petting area which admission was free. We spent practically a whole hour there with my SILs petting 3 weeks old lamb, chooks, ducks and piglets. I managed to catch hold of one of the 2 piglets which was so tough to get hold of as they often try to stuggle and jump out of anyone's reach. The piglet that I held was so worked up that it kept squealing the whole time I had it in my arms. It made Tash so upset that she kept insisting that I "put piggy down now!"

Me trying to calm the distressed piggy....

....which didn't really do much

Haha! Managed to snap a cute shot of the two escapees together

Moving from the petting farm, there were not really much that appeal since the rides cost money and none of the market stalls have any interesting things at all. In the end, we found ourselves just relaxing on the lush green field by the river on a nice clear day listening to live music that ranged from soft rock to celtic folk.

P.S judging from my pics, you prob have gathered that we enjoyed the petting farm most.....=p

What's for tea tonight, honey?

The Aussies like to call dinner as "tea". Why? I dunno.....Maybe an aussie or someone more familiar with the aussie culture can help me explain that. I din't feel like cooking tonight and having had a big salad lunch, I decided to put my sandwich maker into good use and whipped up some toasted sandwiches. I made up 3 varieties. All using different spreads. One with pesto, another with vegemite and the last with just a light spread of butter. Strangely enough, I actually really like the one with vegemite the most.


I can still remember how disgusting the taste of vegemite was when I first tasted it. Over the years, it was always Josh chucking in the bottle of glucky black goog into our shopping trolley ('cos i did not want to hold responsible for finishing that stuff).And to my surprise, each 400g bottle was emptied out faithfully within the span of a couple of months without fail. I have no idea how he did that but it seems like he was and still is consuming a fair bit per week.

It was only recently I decided to give this goog a fair go again just curious to find out again why is this "jam" so popular and to reaffirm to myself that I definitely am not wrong for turning my nose at it. It turned out that I was proven wrong. It's weird taste is starting to appeal to me so much so I actually sometimes feel like a vegemite toast. How strange is that?! Friends who had studied in aussie or being here for a period of time, have u ever felt this way before about vegemite?

A new look for the old......

Just last week, for a girl's 21st bdae, I made some Tim Tam truffles. Its a truffle that is often requested by my SILs. Bored with my own designs, I decided to jazz them up a bit by adding some of my gumpaste flowers and sprinkles.

The box that I made up for truffles. I would have used another colour for the ribbons but that's all I had. Still turned out fine.... =)

Inside the box

Made a few extras to give away and of course for my sweet tooth hubby and daughter. This is the perfect (if u ever ran out of gift ideas) for your special one, or just a thank you prezzie, or an anniversary gift or a "just becos" love gift.

Picnic Brunch at the Roma St Parklands

We had wholemeal spelt pancakes which we had in a variety of ways i.e lemon sugar, maple syrup with fresh strawberries, Nutella with strawberries etc....

Josh had lots of fun cooking these pancakes on the hotplates. Guess its something different from the usual steak or snags (sausages). We were practically starving by the time all the pancakes were cooked since it took a while to drive into the city, setting everything up and then getting the pancakes cooked. But boy, its well worth the wait. I can't wait to have another picnic brunch. Its so much better than eating greasy meat stuff.

As you can see, we like our pancakes done in different ways. Josh loves strawberries with his but Tash would just eat her berries first then her pancake (which is always smothered in butter) on its own. After our brunch, we took a walk around the parklands which showcased some really gorgeous flowers. What I love about the weather in Brissy is that be it winter or summer, there always is something beautiful in bloom.




These are known as Kangeroo claws. Interesting huh?

And thats Tashy being "coy" with the camera.....