Ice cream maker

One month into my perceived 'leg-shaking-at-home', I have busied myself with much activities. One of which was getting more acquainted with my kitchen..

I've been looking for an ice-cream maker for awhile and it was finally in stock yesterday! Will be trotting out soon to welcome the ICM into my home. I've been looking up ice cream recipes and can't wait to try them out!

Surfing for ice cream recipes brought me to this site and I recognised his book cover! Was browsing through a copy in the bookstore and tempted to get the book. But I wasn't sure I'd be getting my ICM for sure then (had not managed to track it down) hence it was left on the shelf. So glad I found this website that's chockful of info on ice-cream making, amongst other things. Boy, I do envy this man, he cooks well, and dang he takes nice pictures too!
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

Also getting ideas from..
http://allrecipes.com/
http://homecooking.about.com/
and of course, mom is just a phone call away! ♥ ♥ ♥

Heh, here's what I whipped up last week.

It was high time for some simple chinese cooking, in place of the steaks, lamb chops and pasta. Speaking of which I finally got down to cooking cream of mushroom and not just pouring it outta a can and heating it. Managed a less starchy variant from the very creamy mushroom soups of the campbell kind which wasn't all too bad for starters.

Will update on the ice-cream making and my other antics when I'm back!

Rain on my parade

We were walking along Namba walk again, this daily trot to get to the JR station was becoming very familiar. This time, it was to find the tourist information centre (which had moved). After being misled by several signs, we finally found the place and got our 1-day Osaka Unlimited Pass (2000yen).

The pass included entry to several places. First stop was to the Osaka Bay Area, where we were planning to visit the WTC Cosmo Tower Observatory, board the Santa Maria Cruise and visit the aquarium.

View from WTC Cosmo Tower. Wasn't too fantastic as the clouds were gaining in and there was a gloom about the skyline.

We had a very yummy katsu don and were all set to board the cruise when it started pouring.

Ended up shopping around in the stores till almost late afternoon while waiting for the rain to subside when we decided it probably wouldn't.

So off we went to Osaka Castle, which fortunately had extended opening hours for the cherry blossoms festival.

So we got pictures of Osaka-jo in the night and strolled in the drizzle amidst the lit cherry blossoms. Gloomy but there was a strange sort of niceness about strolling in the rain under an umbrella..

Not too much strolling though, the garden was closed at 8pm and the uncle was trying to tell us it was time to go back heh. Off we went for dinner!

Having been suitably fed, we made our way to the last stop of the day, the floating garden observatory. Unfortunately, the view was far from expected though the place had a nice ambience.

And I got my favorite escalator photos. =P

Back at the foot of the tower.

It was a rainy day, causing us to miss the Santa Maria Cruise and the Tonbori River Cruise. No matter, gives me an excuse to be back doesn't it? ;)

Album here.

Messengers of God

We set off to Nara on the Rapid Express train. The tourist information at the train station in Nara was excellent! We got a map and started on the recommended route.

Deers were regarded as "messengers of god" here. Here's a picture of a deer who still looks dignified and possibly a true messenger from above.

But the strange thing about these messengers is that they are going at leaflets, COLOURED pamphlets and any kind of paper!

All these despite being fed by the many happy tourists with small stacks of biscuits for deers at 150 yen per (small) stack! I was seriously suspicious that the biscuits were made of recycled paper. Hahaha..

I was left alone for awhile and was wondering what to do (would have sat down on the park benches to just enjoy the park, but either the benches had bird poo, or there were deer poo around the benches, so i gave up) and was thinking about fish-eye lens and suddenly decided to harass the deers with my 10mm wide angle. Started out trying to look through the viewfinder but realised it was hard to get close enough while keeping my eye at the viewfinder. I then decided to just shove my cam up the faces of the puzzled and curious deers who decided to sniff my lenses to see if they could find any paper trace HAHA..

Another stop for Nara was the Todaiji. House to the largest statue of the Great Buddha, this structure was the largest wooden building in the world.

Nara is a relaxing place for a leisurely stroll and great for children too!

See the happy faces!

We headed to Yasuka Shrine just two train stops away before returning to Nara for Sushi dinner, a fine way to end the day!

Click here for the full album.