Spring often seems to get missed here. Apart from the April showers. So I loved a walk through the flower market to see these bright and beautiful blooms.
Just a short walk from Sheung Wan MTR the ManMo temple is a lovely place to visit early morning. I love the crochet bombed rail on the way up the steps.
So its all done!!
Had some fun hand quilting lines circles. Also put on a couple of aplique cats my Auntie gave me for Christmas!! Something I have been wanting to try and make for a while are macarons. There was an afternoon to spare and ground almonds in the fridge so there was no excuse! 70g Egg Whites 35g Caster sugar 115g Icing sugar 60g Ground almonds Half pinch salt Gel food colouring.... Pink of course Preheat oven to 150C Beat the egg whites and caster sugar untill stiff enough to hold bowl upside down. Fold in the ground almonds, icing sugar and salt untill smooth but not runny. Care not to over fold. Pipe onto baking paper lined oven trays. Tap the tray on the bench... This is fun and noisy! Bake in the low heat for 20min. I used just a little strawberry jam for filling as I am not a fan of cream. Some of my bottoms are overcooked.
Some of my bottons are undercooked. One is just right! Very glad u stick two of these together to make the whole :) I have made the Moggie a warm play tunnel as the temperatures have dipped into single digits here in Hong Kong.
I used 3 chair mats that have been filling up a cupboard. Quick handsewn seams together and it was done! Though I may regret this craft make, as you can see from his eyes he thinks I have made him the perfect place to pounce and attack from!! My lovely friend Amanda has helped me learn how to cook her fave snack from her home! 4 cups plain flour 1 cup warm water 0.25-1 cup cold water add only if required 0.25-0.5 chopped fresh spring onions Some flavourless oil Put your flour in the bowl Season with salt and pepper Add the warm water and mix in with hands Add the cold water untill you get a firm but slightly sticky dough ball. Rest at room temerature for 20min Now the fun bit. Season the spring onions with salt. Divide the dough into 8 Roll an eighth into a thin rectangle. Spread a very thin layer of oil onto the surface. Followed by a thin layer of spring oinions Roll the dough lengthwise Then coil into snails! They can be put into plastic and stored in the fridge untill tomorrow like this. Roll out to 0.5cm thickness I tried to make it circular but the dough had other ideas. Fry slowly on a low heat in a pan. Approx 1 tbspn of oil in this pan. It should be oily... But just enough so it can soak abit up but not be swimming. Cut with scissors into quarters and snack! Yum! Now the fun bit.
Season the spring onions with salt. Divide the dough into 8 Roll an eighth into a thin rectangle. Spread a very thin layer of oil onto the surface. Followed by a thin layer of spring oinions Roll the dough lengthwise Then coil into snails! They can be put into plastic and stored in the fridge untill tomorrow like this. Baoan Temple http://www.baoan.org.tw/ENGLISH/architecture_01.html I cannot recomend this temple enough. Early in the morning on a saturday it was devoid of tourists (excepting yours truely) and just a few prayers were being said over fruit and incense. Birds were singing and the bright colours looked great in the sunshine. Strolling over to the Confucious temple at approx 9am the priestesses were processing and dancing. This acvording to my Taiwanese friend doesn't happen every day so how lucky I was to be there!
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