IF YOU BELIEVE IN PRAYER...

Matt & I were discussing Lent the other night & trying to think of what we were going to give up, but couldnt agree to anything or think of anything really good. So we decided we would read the Bible every morning & pray more.
And actually I think it was a good Lenten promise. I received an email from a very good friend whose father passed away a couple years ago & her sister's stage 4 ovarian cancer is back for a 2nd time. She was asking friends for support & prayer but felt like she couldnt openly speak about the situation because it hurt too much. My heart is breaking for her & all others in the world in her situation.
I think if you believe in prayer, we need it right now. I think of watching tv & hearing of all these plane crashes & kidnappings of young little girls, people killing innocent children. Its sick. It makes me wonder what the world is coming to. And its frightening hearing about all this. In a Singapore newspaper a man complained about an insurance company not providing good enough hospice care for his wife.
So with all that said, if you believe in prayer, please pray for people all over the world who are facing difficult situations & especially pray for my dear friend. And be sure to thank God for what we have & who we have.
God Bless You All

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Since it was so good, I thought I'd share this recipe for Fat Tuesday-Mardi Gras cooking with the world. Actually, it was so good, Matt kept talking about it all night & said I could even feed it to other people. He's such a good sport to eat all my cooking experiments! And, I have to admit it was good too. You may already have one like this, but can always make a few changes to the list & you have a totally different meal.
Natalie's Fat Tuesday Cajun Prawns with Beans and Rice:(for 2 people)
Prawns (or shrimp) ~14 pieces or so
Black Beans(low Na+ low fat) 1 can
Uncle Ben's Whole wheat brown rice
Creole/Cajun seasoning
Rosemary 3-4 sprigs
Thyme 2 sprigs
Lemon 4 lemon rings
Garlic 3 cloves chopped
Onion 1 small red
Olive Oil
Butter
1. In a small baking dish, put 4 or so dabs of butter in the bottom along with 1 tablespoon of Olive oil. Swirl pan, so its gently covered.
2. De-shell prawns, shrimp or whatever meat or fish you decide to use. And put bare prawns into baking dish.
3. In a small mixing bowl, pour drained black beans in and add 1 Tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 small red onion, and sprinkle a few dashes of Cajun seasoning. Let sit.
4. In a sauce pan/skillet add 3-4 Tsp butter with 1 Tsp olive oil and saute onions and garlic on as low heat as you can. Next add rosemary & thyme (add more butter or olive oil if sauce is too thick. Let sit on as low heat as you can. Add creole/Cajun seasoning & stir often until ready to serve. Keep warm.
5. Pour sauce mixture from skillet over the prawns in your baking dish. Heat in the oven 10-15 minutes . After the first 7 minutes, remove from oven, stir mixing juice & prawns. Before putting back in the oven, place 4 lemon rings over the prawns & heat in the oven 7 more minutes. Remove when done. Place in serving bowl & keep warm.
6. While the prawns are cooking in their 2nd cycle, place black beans in a skillet over med. heat & cook for a few minutes. Let them come to a good simmer, while stirring, then remove from heat & place in a serving dish as well.
7.Rice should be cooked along with the beans. Cooking takes 10 minutes & directions on the box should be followed. Place in dish to serve when done.
Dinner is ready & should be served while still warm. It is great served with french bread. Let your dinner "guest" pile on the mixture how they like it; reasons why my recipe calls for serving in seperate bowls. You can use the extra lemon you have in water to drink, its refreshing with the Cajun spices!

CHECK IT OUT...

Follow this link: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN23265425

It applies to me as well, we can all try to be better at controlling our tempers, stress levels, taking our frustrations/problems/insecurities, etc... out on other people. This is going to be my new new years resolution, and for Lent as well.
Anger is nasty! It never does any good in the end anyway.

PICTURES

You can view pictures from my parents visit to Singapore by clicking the Pineapple Rice blog on the right. There are lots of sights to see!

THE GREATEST

Reasons I love my husband would be way too long to list on this page, but I do love him so much. He is truly an amazing man. And I am one lucky girl :) He is everything to me....and I thank God for him every day. He is one in a million!

I love you Matt!

AN ADVENTURE!

Orchids at Singapore Botanical Garden

The Fountain of Wealth at Suntec City

Mom, me and Dad ona DuckTour

Mom & Dad at the entrance of a bridge just outside of the Fullerton Hotel

Not as exciting as it sounds, but traveling & touring around with the parents can be an adventure. They are definitely great to hang out with though, as crazy as they can be some times. I've taken them around & done quite a bit, but still not done. Anyways, included some pics to see the sights :)

PLUM TUCKERED OUT!!

Having the parents here is definitely a blast, but I'll admit (and no offense to them) they are wearing me out! At least we have had several good laughs from time to time.
Saturday we ventured to Chinatown & toured the apartment. Then we had Valentine's Day dinner together at Yantra, an Indian restaurant.
Sunday we rode the train out to Matt's work and got a personal tour of Nordam. Lots of questions....Matt is such a great teacher!
Monday we explored the city, civic district, took a river tour, and walked along the Quays, had a nice lunch and dinner at Lau Pa Sat....gotta love some Satay!
Tuesday Dad played golf at the Marina Bay golf course while Mom and I took in some shopping along Orchard road; bit of a challenge, but she bought 3 pairs of shoes and I got some decorations for the apt & a couple basic tank tops. Nothing too exciting. Went to a Thai place for dinner where they had their first ever dish of Pineapple Rice & loved it!!
Today they are making their way over to the apartment so Dad can check emails for work & then we are off to the Bird Park & Botanical Gardens, followed by a glorious dinner @ Margaritas!! Yummy Mexican food, can't wait!

HUMIDITY

They're here!! Yep. My parents and all of their luggage, golf bag included, made it safely to Singapore. After a great weekend touring Chinatown, a Buddhist temple, and Matt's work, they are ready for some more! Hopefully we'll have some pictures to post soon so all can see. Hope everyone had a great Valentines weekend!
More to come later-

SINGAPORE FRIDAYS

I absolutely love Fridays in Singapore...they are the greatest start to the weekend. Matt & I have a standing lunch date every Friday. I travel all the way out to Tampines(like a 30-35 minute train ride from the apt) to meet him for lunch. Its our little Friday ritual we both look forward to all week. Later tonight, probably another date for dinner & home to do some budgeting/financial planning. We live an extremely wild, crazy life as you can tell. But thats ok, cause its our life & is exactly the way we want it. I'm looking forward to Valentine's tomorrow...made an agreement that we set a S$20 limit on gifts....hmmmm there is no telling what that may bring :) But we do have an incredibly nice dinner planned at a new Indian restaurant called Yantra, and my parents will be joining us, as they arrive early tomorrow morning/late tonight.

So an early Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Cheers!

JET-LAG HAS CAUGHT UP WITH ME

Yuck! Jet-lag has finally caught up with me...and I thought I was doing so well. I guess I'll have to give in to the fatigued, lethargic feeling. It makes me miserable though. I had plans for today!! And I'm exhausted after picking up my bottle of water to drink! Nice huh? Its the glorious part of traveling over here most people dont get to hear about. At least I can lounge around home, poor Matt has to work all day. His will probably come this weekend...lovely. What time should I wake him up this weekend? is the number one question, cause he'll sleep all day if I let him.

Yesterday I threw a bit of a Singapore fit. Got up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe. Not much was agreeing with me during the day. It seemed like everyone I talked to was rude or didnt understand me, the cashier at the market was rude cause I paid in S$1 coins(the bill was like S$17...hehe), the Singapore post machine didnt work, and I raised my voice to 2 women on the phone, who were very unhelpful. Just one of those days I should have stayed in bed. But, after a quick talk with Matt, I was able to pull myself out of my funk...thank goodness, before he got home. Its hard here sometimes, I miss or think of how easy things are at home...but then again, are they really that easy or was I just not getting my way?

PACKIN A LUNCH

Never in my life, have I EVER been accused of putting 2 pieces of cheese on someone's sandwich until this morning. Lovely. Hey, by the way, since you looked so hard, you may have noticed that its actually 1 piece of cheese broken into 2 halves, 1 piece put on each side of the bread. Not that it matters(actually it does to Matt) but I just needed to clarify that. Moral of the story, have all your facts correct before you go accusing people of things. Otherwise you may be do laundry and packing your lunch :)(Inside joke there).
Amazing, newlywed life & our worst argument(if you can even call it that since it was more of a hey do this instead of that & I'm like I already do...oh snap!) is over cheese on a sandwich. Ahhh...the life. Its absolutely great! I love my husband & all his wonderful quirky attributes! We were definitely made for each other, no doubt!
With that said, learn to love the crazy things or even annoying things your spouse does. They are their own person & its better to love than to hate!
Love to all!

MORNINGS...YES I AM A MORNING PERSON

This morning Matt & I got up extra early...5am to go for a walk/run. We have been trying to get back in the habit, and I even went & got new running shoes before we came back. I absolutely love the mornings we get up together & go for walks or runs. They are so refreshing & I love the time I get to spend with my husband. We usually get some good talking done. It is so nice, the city is quiet and its still somewhat cool(80 degrees)...perfect! What a great way to start the morning. I have forgotten how truly good it feels to get the blood pumping early in the day!
Hope you all have great starts to your days!

I LOVE BEING MARRIED!!

In honor of a new year, new husband and new beginings, I thought I would start my own blog, to give Matt & myself a little independence...still keeping & updating Pineapple Rice, so no worries there. Just thought I'd give myself some freedom of expression...or whatever you want to call it. Maybe I need it as journal, to keep a record of what a day in the life of a Sinagpore housewife is like.

Day 1 of blogging:

Got the hubs off to work(lunch packed as always), did laundry, unpacked all suitcases, re-arranged closet situations since we are married now, emailed, talked to the rents, looked at wedding pics, talked to husband, started new blog, about to finish more laundry, hopefully take a shower soon & look good for when my man gets home.

It really is exhausting. Who new being a housewife would take so much work??

And ps- maybe I sound a little chessey or newlywed-ish, but married life is great! I cant think of anything better right now. We are loving being married! It really is awesome. Life & love is great!!

And one more thing, its kind of embarassing because friends who know me well with laugh with me, but I must say, I have become quite the homemaker, laundry-mat, and good cook over the past few weeks. Pat myself on the back for those.

Til next time

Cheers!

Ps- Mom & Dad are coming for a visit next week & we are so excited to finally have some visitors...they are the best company(maybe I'm a little bias).