Wine, Cheese, and F-16s!

It was another busy weekend of wedding planning, but we managed to fit in some fun with our friends at Siu's Wine and Cheese Party. (We had a blast, but more on that later). To prepare for the party, Adam decided to make a family recipie baked brie in puff pastry. However, having recently tried a similar dish with sweet pecans, Adam decided to spice up the traditional cheese and berry-preserve dish.

After scouring the Singapore supermarket for all the ingredients: brie cheese, raspberry preserve, and a puff pastry, Adam was at a loss to find pecans. (must be an american thing). So, as a last resort, he bought a box of pecan granola cereal, determined to pick out the pecans for his culinary masterpiece.



Back at home the oven was warm, and the pecan-sorting began. I swear, they only included 2 dozen pecans in the whole box, but it was enough. After sifting through cups of granola, Adam had enough pecans to start cooking them in a little butter, and brown sugar.



Enter the F-16s... August 9th is Singapore's National Day Parade, and dress rehearsals have already started for the airshow. And some rehearsals they were. Over the sizzle of carmelizing brown sugar came the ROAR of jet engines shaking our apartment. Out our balcony window that overlooks downtown, 5 F-16s were screaming towards us and flew right over our apartment! Apartently the exit corridor for the airshow goes right over us!




So back to cooking my pecanse, but this time we got the camera ready. Then a Chinook helicopter bearing the Singapore flag flew over the skyline, and I finally got to take some pictures. THEN, an F-15 came screaming around the city weaving between the buildings. We managed to catch a video of that.






Finally, the Helicopters and the F-16s flew together over our apartment in a well-coordinated display. I managed to capture a video of that too... But thats when we smelled the unmistakable aroma of burnt sugar... My fascination with planes had cost me the pecans... Tragedy in the kitchen....



So while I was running back to the kitchen assessing the damage of the pecans and gettting the black goo out of the pan, the F-16s made one final after-burner charge over our apartment so quickly, that I was only able to capture their smoke trail disappearing over our roof....



Alas, the the culinary fiasco caused me not to get that prize picture, and the Baked Brie had to go without Pecans, but Siu and our friends still enjoyed it, and the wine and cheese party was fun for all.

The aftermath...

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

Sweet Home Chicago

It is July 2010, and Kate and Adam are back in Singapore after a whirlwind trip to Chicago and Edwardsville, IL. We were home as Kate was the Maid of Honor in Sarah and Justin's Wedding in downtown Chicago.

Kate spent the first weekend in Chicago for Sarah's shower and bachelorette party (hen night). For the sake of all involved, those pictures won't make the blog. :) Kate made it home on Father's Day, and there was much rejoicing.

Adam went on to Edwardsville to see his family for that first weekend before he went to Philly for meetings. Adam learned that his dad can still best him in a round of golf.

After some much needed family

time and Adam's time in Philly, Kate and Adam made it back

up to Chicago for Sarah and Justin's wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony and reception at Fulton's on the River. Good times were had by all!

On Sunday, Adam's mom threw a very nice shower in Lockport. We're very glad Kate's Mom, Grandma, and Aunt could meet Adam's family.

On Monday, Kate and her family toured chicago while Adam and his Mom and Dad continued their own exploration of Chicago.

Adam's first culinary adventure was at the infamous Billy Goat Tavern known less for its double "cheeseborger" than its history. So the story goes, the owner of the Billy Goat was denied entry to the 1945 Cubs World Series because he wanted to bring in his pet goat. The Cubs lost that series, and many blamed the "curse of the billy goat." The Cubs have yet to win a World Series since. How could Adam pass up a chance to eat at a place that has caused so many Cubs fans so much misery? :)

Adam and Kate's family met up at a great little place on Michigan Avenue called the Purple Pig: Cheese, Swine, and Wine. Needless to say, we had a little of each! That was the last stop before Kate's family went back to Edwardsville. Adam and Kate were off to the airport the next morning...

It was so great to see everyone, and get a little travel adventure in the US for once. Until next time,

Adam and Kate

Bella's World

So our blog wouldn't be complete without a Bella update because who couldn't use some more cuteness in their life? So here's some pictures/videos to make you smile. =)

Bella's 2010

by Bella G.

A few months ago mommy and daddy took me to a doggie fair. Don't you think I need this carrier? It's hot in Singapore. I can't be expected to walk everywhere! Alas, Daddy said no!

BUT Mommy did get me a pretty dress. I don't get to dress up often as Daddy thinks I look silly.

Though Daddy does approve of this hat that I wore to a hat party.

Then I got to meet great Aunt Beth and Uncle Marco. They brought me a GIANT bone! As you can see I wasn't too sure about it at first. But almost 3 months later I'm still working on that bone. I will conquer it!

We also went for a picnic. There were these tiny furry things that smelled pretty tasty, but I just chased them around. I got the feeling mommy would be mad at me if I ate one.

That's pretty much the highlights of my 2010, other than a few trips to the dog park, some walks meeting other dogs and a crazy adventure with Daddy while Mommy was gone...oh yeah, I love to help clean up the house too!

Love,

Bella

p.s. Come visit me!!

North India and Random Pearls

4 Days until we head home to Illinois for Sarah's wedding! (Can you tell we're excited?)

Well, unfortunately, things here haven't slowed down here at all. Kate has been working hard to get the school's yearbook out the door for graduation and to coordinate the ground-breaking of the new campus!

Adam has been getting ready for some important meetings back home, training customers in Singapore, and just got called to India for a quick, two-day whirlwind trip to support important meeting there and interview some new engineering candidates. So that sets the stage for what brought Adam to the city of Chandigarh in North India. Chandigarh is the capital of two Indian states, Punjab and Haryana (translated as God's country). It is also India's first and ONLY planned city. In other words, it has a grid of streets separated by enough distance for wide lanes for growing traffic patterns etc. by contrast, every other city in India is a random collection of alleys, roads, buildings, and urban sprawl overlapping rivers, buildings, and millions of people. (compare the even grid of Chandigarh to the bowl of noodles that are New Delhi's winding roads.)



However, in addition to being well laid out, Chandigarh sits at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains (you can just see them in the distance in the image below). This region of India is much greener than any other I've seen before and is covered by fertile farm land. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so I've snagged the pictures from other blogs and google.



Adam's trip to Chandigarh was only for a day, but he could not use the company car to get back to Delhi. So he took a bus with one of his business partners for the 5 hour journey back to Delhi! Once back in the city, they took a rickshaw (auto) for another 30 or 40 minutes in the 100+ degree Delhi heat. Business as usual in India.


After all that, Adam was really glad to get back to Kate in Singapore. Kate and Bella were happy to have him home too. On Saturday we walked the dog and then explored some malls and ran some errands. As we're approaching the hottest part of the year in Singapore, we are also entering "The Great Singapore Sale" which is a country-wide promotion to boost tourism. Its a great time to buy things when you live here!

So after Kate bought a new pair of shoes, she received a coupon for a free Pearl with her purchase. So we went to check it out. Surprisingly, it looked like we had walked into a seafood shop. There in the department store, they had an Oyster-shucking stall where they would take your coupon, shuck an oyster, and give you the pearl from inside.

They even had a jeweler sitting next to it so you could buy a setting for your new "free" pearl as a necklace, ring or other piece. (Clever sales strategy). But it was such an interesting experience, we had to give it a try.


So that wraps up our last post before we're home for a bit of family and wedding planning. Can't wait to see you soon!

Spring Update: New food and a Mac

Hi there. 2010 is rolling by faster than we could have imagined. It is hard to believe we've been living in Singapore almost a year and a half! Adam's work travel schedule has finally slowed down a bit, so its back to life as usual in Singapore. We've taken the time together the past few weekends to explore a bit more of our tropical island.

After taking Bella to a dog park to socialize (run around) with some other dogs, we journeyed to a local hawker center to grab lunch. Seeing a long line of people queued up at a stand with no English, Adam had to try the dish to see what all the hub-bub was about.

Eng Kee Bak Kut Teh Stand on Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 is an award-winning stall in Singapore's food circles. Famous for their extremely tender and rich Bak Kut Teh (boiled pork dish), this stall was worth the wait. You can see some pictures below of the fall-offf-the-bone meat in the darker-than-dark sauce of garlic and other mysterious ingredients... delicious!





This past weekend was longer than usual with the Vesak Day holiday on Friday. Vesak Day celebrates the day of Buddha's enlightenment. Anyway, we took the extra time to leisurely take care of some chores and continue our exploration of Singapore.

We visited the world's largest construction site where the world's largest casino has recently opened. The site is still much under construction, but the casino and hotel are mostly finished. Most of the work left is the mall, expo center and theaters. All of it together is called an Integrated resort, and it is a gargantuan complex.

Within this city-in-a-city, we had some drinks and even found a sale in the new mall. The sale was so god that we finally got a new computer! As two of our laptops were falling apart, we opted for a Mac. Ironic that we made the PC to Mac switch in the same month that Apple bested Microsoft as the world's largest technology company.

So we're still blogging, we're still eating, and now with a new computer, hopefully we can do both a lot more. Looking forward to getting home in June to see you all!

Sunday Fun Day!

An update...finally. After over a year in Asia we've been too consumed by everyday life and work to do anything worth blogging about, unless you want to know what I had for lunch everyday.

Adam is off in India...again. So I went with some girlfriends to an adventure on Sentosa, the small island to the south of Singapore. The island has actually seen quite a change in the last year with Universal Studios opening at the beggining of 2010. We have yet to check it out but I've heard good reviews. It's only at the point of a soft opening so when all the rides are open we'll take a look.

So anyway our adventure on Sentosa took us to a zipline at the top of the island all the way down to the beach. Here's how I felt about it:



No, there wasn't an earthquake while filming. I was SO nervous! Can you tell by my saying "friends and I aren't really heights" instead of "heights and I aren't friends". Frankly, heights scare the crud out of me- I frequently have falling dreams, well Adam is the one falling, and I'm the one freaking out as he does so. But fears and all, I felt the need to force myself to do it. When in Asia, right?

Here's how it went (hint: turn the volume down- there may have been screaming)

Ok so it was awesome and I'd do it again =) More pictures