Pink baby cheeks

Here's a solution for those who don't enjoy putting on makeup but still wanna have healthy and glowy looking skin: cream blush! Just use your finger and smear some of those magic pink cream around your cheeks and you'll have an instant glow. My favorite is the one by Vidi Vici, a relatively unknown brand but they carry a lot of great products. This cream blush has a nice velvety finish and the color is long lasting. It's always in my cosmetic pouch. Their products are sold exclusively at the Joyce Boutique in Hong Kong.


Yesterday out of curiosity I bought a gel blush called "o-glow" by Smashbox. The interesting thing about this product is that the gel appears transparent when you squeeze it out, but once you get the rubbing action going, it instantly turns pink. Amazing huh? The Smashbox site claims that the ingredient Berry-C Complex "is full of antioxidants like vitamin C, pomegranate seed oil and marine plankton for added healthy-skin benefits". Verdict: It doesn't give enough color and I am not fond of the texture.

LOVE.LY

Over the past few weeks, I've received invitation from friends to attend this opening party of an exhibition called LOVE.LY in Hong Kong. It's hosted by a local cultural and arts label 89268. LOVE.LY is a an 8-month consecutive, creative and collective exhibition that welcomes everyone from any part of the world to participate. Your works would have be to created on a piece of regular A4 paper with any medium. ex. drawing, illustration, paper cutting, writing, photography, installation. Different topics related to love would be used for different phases, every phase will last for a whole month. Works will be exhibited in Lab Yellow. This exhibition is aimed to encourage people to express boldly & release their unexplored feelings. By just using the most commonly used A4 paper to simply & naturally express their intimate feelings.

The first exhibition will be hosted at Lab Yellow from June 15 – July 15, 2007. Opening party for such event will be held at the same place on June 15, 2007, starting at 7pm.

Phase Two Topic: Love & Attitude
Collection Period: July 15 – August 12, 2007
Exhibition Period: August 16 – September 16, 2007

Penne in a Creamy Tomato Sauce - Penne Vodka

I had this sauce at a restuarant and fell in love with it. The waitress said the chef taught her how to make the sauce, and revealed some of the ingredients to me. To my surprise, vodka was included. How interesting! When I got home and flipped through my pasta book, there it was, "pasta tubes in a creamy tomato-VODKA sauce". I followed the recipe and was able to recreate the dish!! I'd like to share this recipe with you and hope you'll like it.

This is a hearty dish but takes some time to prepare.

Penne in a Creamy Tomato-Vodka Sauce

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
9 ounces pancetta, sliced into tiny cubes
2 shallots, minced
1 cup vodka
1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup salsa pomodoro (this is a tomato sauce). See below for ingredients.
5 teaspoons sea salt
1 pound dried penne
1/3 cup freshly grated parmigiano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

Sala di Pomodoro (Tomato sauce):
28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 medium onion, diced
2 garlic gloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces (I've replaced with 2 teaspoons of dried basil)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (I've replaced with 1.5 teaspoons of dried oregano)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

First prepare the tomato sauce...here's how:

• Pour the tomatoes with their juice into a large bowl and break the tomatoes into smaller pieces with your hands. Set aside.
• Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over med-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and pepper. Cook until the onion is tender, 3-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree over a bowl. Makes approx. 2 cups.

Making the creamy tomato-vodka sauce:

• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan over med-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until crispy, about 5 minutes.
• Drain the excess fat from the pan. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat over med-high heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
• Add the vodka. Bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half, about 6-7 minutes.
• Add the cream and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and keep warm while the pasta is cooking.

Cooking the penne:

Bring 5 quarts of water and add 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in a large stockpot over high heat. Add the penne and cook for approx. 10 minutes. Transfer to a colander to drain. Add to the pan with the tomato-vodka sauce and toss to coat evenly. Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with parmigiano and parsley.

Ingredients

Peeled tomatoes with juice in a bowl

Cooking onion in a pan

Simmering tomato sauce

Puree tomato sauce over a bowl

Adding heavy whipping cream into reduced vodka

Tomato sauce added to cream

sniff sniff

I got a box full of yummy stuff last week from Elaine...rose scented soap, rose bath salt, seaweed bath salt that smells like the ocean, etc etc. This babe knows me well hahaha. Now I have more stuff to play with.



This lamb pouch by Anya Hindmarch is where I put lipstick and powder. It's small and cute. This brand is known for its bags with prints. They also make leather bags and clutches. Most of the bags have suede linings...they smell good!!!

Anya Hindmarch shops in Hong Kong:

The Lee Gardens: Shop 208, Causeway Bay. (852) 2808-0128
Harbour City: Shop 113B Ocean Center, Tsim Sha Tsui. (852)2918-1689
Harvey Nichols : 2/F The Landmark, Central. (852)3693-4133

Abbey RIP

Jewel Song by BoA

Love her voice. Enjoy!

Lazy Chrissy is back!!

I should have updated my blog but was being lazy. Here are the things I'd like to write about in the VERY near future:

1. A step-by-step guide of how to make the world's best tomato cream sauce. Which means I am gonna have to head down to Citysuper and grab some ingredients.

2. Making of: Chrissy' first chocolate pavlova. Is it gonna be a disaster? M's been saying that I never used the KitchenAid. Well I did use it to make the warm chocolate cake..but it was 6 months ago hahahhaaha. Oh well who wants to have some pavlova?

3. A tarot journal. Really need to play with my 17 decks more often. I can't believe I have 17 decks!! My favorites are Thoth, Tarot de Marseille, Morgan Greer, and Yoyager.

4. Hair cut!! Please every time I walk down the street I swear 9 of out 10 girls in hk could improve their look with a new hair cut and/or color. What's with all the greasy hair? or hair that's too long and flat it does nothing to your face. I can go on and on....hmm maybe I'll take snapshots of people with bad hair and post them here. Is that too cruel?

5. Taking snapshots of 100 people on the street.

6. My favorite songs by Faye Wong. Why? Becoz M bought me a new ipod couple days ago, so I went through my CD collection and realized I have lots of Faye's CDs and 2 of them are really good.

7. A really stupid game for wh*res when they are really really bored.

What should I write about first?