Baking for charity and beef stroganoff

My day off, and what did I spent it doing? Lazing around in bed. :D

I did do something for a good cause today though, so it's technically not all wasted! CR requested that I bake some of my Bailey's double chocolate chip muffins/cupcakes for the charity fundraising drive we're doing at work this week - Action for Blind, which helps blind kids.

Doing their thing in the oven.

So now my apartment once again smells like chocolate chip muffins. XD Not a bad smell, but it makes me hungry all the time! Ran out of milk yesterday and I totally forgot about it, so I had to make do without the milk! Batter was stiffer than normal pre-baking, but post-baking tastes pretty much the same. :)

Also did Beef Stragonoff again today because a) it's cheap to do and I'm skint, and b) it didn't end in disaster the first time I made it.

The problem with Beef Stroganoff is that it is too colourless to look appetising!

It was just as tasty as last time I did it, and I did not go overboard with the ground black pepper this time around. But I did use white wine instead of red wine this time in the ingredients, and I personally prefer the red wine version. It just tastes richer somehow, and just right. White wine imparts a sweetish taste that I don't really like when associated with beef.

If you're wondering which recipe I used, it's this one with some alterations (mostly nicked from the reviews and comments). After the alterations I made, this is the final recipe that I've used:

Ingredients

A pack of stewing steak, cut into strips
Salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cube beef bouillon
1/2 cup red wine
10 small closed-cup mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cup sour cream
Half a pack of cream cheese
1 tablespoon dried parsley (because I can't find fresh)

Directions

1. Place the beef in the bottom of a slow cooker, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place onion on top of beef, and then add mushroom soup, and wine. Season with garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and bouillon.

2. Cover, and cook for 4 hours. Stir in the mushrooms, sour cream, cream cheese and parsley, and continue cooking for 1 hour.

3. Do a taste test and see if it needs more seasoning. This is where I usually add more ground black pepper and salt because I like my food spicier.

4. Serve on a bed of cooked noodles or rice. Sprinkle chopped or dried parsley on top.

Brewers Fayre take 2, delicious chocolate pud, and yet another dress.

So, to update everyone on the food stuff we've consumed recently (as always!), here is the pictorial account! ;)

We went to Brewers Fayre the other night to treat ourselves (I don't know what we've done to deserve it other than I wanted the dessert - gorgeous, melty chocolate fudge dessert with ice cream and profiteroles on top). But here's what we actually had!

Combo sharer. Garlic bread, potato wedges, onion rings, scampi, chicken goujons and nachos with three dips (barbecue, salsa and sour cream).

Lamb shank with mash potato and vegetables.

Smothered chicken. Basically chicken breast and bacon smothered with barbecue sauce and melted cheese.

And yep, no dessert. We ended up being too full for dessert, sadly. :( Shouldn't have had the starter. If we're going to have two courses, I much prefer desserts!

But Boy owes me another trip there for the dessert now. :P Even though getting the starter was my decision. Um... yeah. Don't know how that works either.

For those who had read my Facebook status yesterday night about that chocolate pudding, here's a photo!

Mmmmm. The moment I put the spoon through, the melted chocolate just flowed out, seemingly endless. Heaven! It wasn't too sweet or too bitter either, and rich and moist enough to be just right.

Anyway, with the food talk out of the way, I got another dress. *shamefaced* This time a calf-length Almost Famous dress, nude colour, silk and rayon mix (I love how it feels to the touch!).

Boy thinks I should wear this one rather than the cerise one from Ghost to my brother's wedding. Both are equally as annoying to get on and I needed help to get the side zipper past my waist, just like I needed help with the buttons at the back. But once on, I admit that I like this nude-coloured one better, the flowy skirt doesn't emphasis on my bulges as much.

Silver accessories, do you think?

London, again.

Phew, back at home and able to rest my feet. At least no delayed trains this time around!

I don't like travelling without Boy. I miss him. I sound pathetic, but I do. I'm so used to his presence now, even him being at work and me being at home sometimes still feel really weird to me. He's still at work at the moment, so I haven't seen him for 27 hours so far since I left. Not that I'm counting. :P

But one thing I do like about travelling to these random (sometimes useless) conferences is the freebies. The hotel is paid for. The travel is paid for. The food is paid for. Yummers, free food! And the hotel they tend to book us into is not the usual cheap Travelodge or Premier Inn. They do like to book us into minimum 3* hotels, because it's all about image in the corporate world, and we're "professionals". So we get the lush lobbies and hotel restaurants too.

This time around, I was booked into Corus Hotel Hyde Park. I got there at around 8ish after suffering in the London Underground (it was so hot, I don't know how people kept their coats on and not die!), went up to my room, phoned Boy to let him know I've arrived safely, and took some pictures of the room.

The tiniest corridor in the world leading to my room. And another room next to mine.

And this is the tiniest room I've slept in. Even my room in student halls were bigger. I'm convinced it is originally a big room, and they just decided to make a thin separation wall and make it two rooms. I could hear every word that was spoken in the room next door. :S

The toilet and shower with a creepy green light.

The desk/work area. This is the nicest part of the room and very well thought-out. It actually has a magnifying mirror too!

View out of the window. Not much, and not quite Hyde Park.

The room itself leaves much to be desired. But I suppose it's London, space is expensive, so they just make do with small rooms. At least everything is clean and well-looked after. Just not very impressed though - the other hotel I stayed in London had bigger rooms, but the furnishing and bathtub were in poor condition. Can't have everything, eh?

Afterwards, I went downstairs again for some more food (I ate before I got on the train to London, hah).

Usually when I'm travelling and I know other people attending the conference, I tend to eat out with them because you get so much more for your money when you eat out, and we get an allowance of something like £28 per night for dinner (including food and drink). Hotel food are expensive and most of the time not worth the money spent because the portions are tiny. But I didn't care that much about portion sizes yesterday night since I've technically eaten an early dinner, I was just there for the dining experience.

I sat down at the table and was given the menu. Flipped it open and there it was in front of me:

"Tastes of Malaysia"

Roffle. They had stuff like satay and rendang and kway teow goreng! What a revelation. On the other page was "Seasonal British". I ended up going for the British version because I was afraid that ordering Malaysian food in London may not meet my high expectations and I may be left disappointed.

Table for one. :( The wine was pretty good company though... and yes, I've gotten a taste for reds now.

Starter - Confit pork with glazed baby carrots and green beans and honey mustard sauce. Very succulent, but way too salty.

Main - Braised pork belly and roasted monk fish with sauteed kale, apple and mango salsa and apple mash potato. It was okay. Nothing to shout about. I enjoyed the starter more than the main, and for some reason my starter looked bigger than the main course!

Dessert - Trio of fruit crumbles. I enjoyed this the most. It was so yummy. The first is apple and blackberry crumble with vanilla ice cream, the second is rhubard crumble (I think, I've never had rhubarb before, but it looks like pieces of rhubarb!) with caramel ice cream, and the third is banana crumble with banana ice cream. Was very weird having banana crumble, but it wasn't bad!

Overall, not too impressed by the food anyway. Maybe I should've gone for the Malaysian dishes - it did smell really appetising. Hindsight 20/20 and all that.

Camwhoring, as I do in hotels when I'm alone and bored.

I think my colleagues may be right - I look better without makeup on, softer and less fierce, albeit looking a bit tired because my puffy eyes and dark circles are not concealed. But my skin isn't really as clear as it turns out on photos, so it must just mean I'm unskilled at applying makeup because it's supposed to make you look better, not worse! :(

Woke up in the morning, went to attend the conference (which I thought was 10.30am and realised at 9.20am whilst I was having a leisurely breakfast that it was actually a 10am start!), suffered some more in the London heat, did a lot of random interactive things that are supposed to make us better leaders, and we finished early.

Ugh. Which meant I had 2 hours to kill before my scheduled train!

So what did I do, a girl stuck in London and was conveniently situated in Oxford Street? I went shopping!

Not for much, mind. I got myself a pair of 6" heels that I'm sure I'll kill myself wearing one day, got unagi from the Japanese food store because I'm in love with unagi and you can't get Japanese food in Lincoln, and was queueing up at Jane Norman to buy a black satin with diamante clutch when I noticed that I had to go back and collect my bag before the receptionist left for the day. So I abandoned the clutch for today (which was sad, because it was pretty and elegant-looking).

Went to King's Cross and spent another hour reading the book I brought along: Season of the Witch. One of those books that I started reading last year and never managed to finish it. I think I bought it from the airport when I went to Prague!

I know, I'm terrible. I'll go finish it now before Boy comes back and we can start thinking about food. Again. ^^