Author: Simonette

A year and a half ago my husband and I moved to Korea. I wanted to write about my life and experiences in Korea along with my current interests. Initially we came to Korea to use it as a stepping stone to immigrate to another country. But now since we’re here we are thinking of making it our new home even if it is just for the next few year as no one knows what the future holds. If you told me ten years ago I will be living in Korea now I would have called you out for bullshitting me. My brother always quotes Robbie Williams by saying “I sit and talk to God and he just laughs at my plans”. This is absolutely true. We have made so many plans with our lives but in the end its not up to us, no matter how much you try to take it into your own hands. So… here we are in Korea, living it up

Vampire inspired food ideas

January 26, 2017January 24, 20174 Comments

This week has been so much fun preparing so far. Today we can put together all the foods for our Vampire Valentines dinner. It will include some lovely tomato soup,some medium to raw steak with a cherry wine sauce and red velvet brownies. Also don’t forget your Vampire Blood cocktail

I’ve tried to use foods with shades of red because vampires when I think of vampires I always think of red and blacks.

Tomato soup

I’ve used my homemade soup recipe for this meal.

Steak and sauce

Red wine and cherry sauce

1tbs honey
2 tbs sugar
1 cup pitted cherries
1 cup red wine

Heat the honey in a pan on a low heat, add the cherries then add the sugar. Let it simmer until the sugar has disolved. Add the wine and bring to a simmer. This sauce is great to add to steak. You can even cook the steak or pieces of beef in this sauce for a lovely bold wine infused taste.

I’ve chosen steak because vampires would probably be more into meaty dishes than vegetables…. you can cook the steak the way you prefer, but I made mine extra raw for visuals.

Red Velvet and Oreo truffle brownies.

Red velvet brownies. To keep things simple for the brownies I used a red velvet mug recipe as it reduces the baking time especially since Valentines day is on a week day this year and you might not have a lot of time to prepare your meal.

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INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp buttermilk
1½ tbsp vegetable oil
red gel food colouring
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch salt
4 tbsp self-raising flour, see notes

Truffle topping

4 Oreo cookies
1 tablespoon cream cheese
100g melting chocolate

Mix all the wet ingredients together. Then and the sugar cocoa and salt. Whisk mixture together. Fold in the self-raising flour. Grease a square (5×3 1/2 inc) microwave proof container. Microwave at high for 1-1/12 minutes.

Crush the Orea cookies and melt the cream cheese in the microwave (1/2 minute). Mix the cookies and cream cheese together and scoop onto the red velvet cake. You will have to help the mixture along with your finger. Top with melted chocolate and cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes. It could also be served warm.

….and there it is, your vampire inspired Valentines dinner.

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Vampy Valentines Lingerie

January 24, 2017January 22, 20172 Comments

In lieu of the vampire theme for Valentines day, you have to FEEL like a vampire and what better way to achieve this than in what we wear.

My father once told me that the devil won’t be ugly, he’ll hide in the most attractive of people. This reminds me of the spell that Dracula use to have over women. Therefore being vampy does not only include looking like a vamp but also having a certain charm over people.

For my vampire lingerie and accessories I have chosen a few things that would be classy and not just vampy. In other words we’ll leave Halloween for Halloween.

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All these items are from Etsy and you can find other really nice ideas for a Vampy Valentines on there too.

P.S.I’m not affiliated with Etsy, but I really like the site 😀

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Valentines day ideas – Vampires

January 23, 2017January 10, 2017Leave a comment

I learned long ago that it is important for your relationship to celebrate the small things. Even if you don’t go all out its important to find little moments in life to celebrate and appreciate your partner. Valentines day may be over rated but it is definitely one of those days where you can show your partner how much you love them. It doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands of dollars to prove your love but rather spending time and putting effort into your relationship. Personally I’ve never loved Valentines day. In fact during my school years I dreaded it because I never got anything from any of the boys.

When I started dating it was a mission to buy presents because they always had simple gifts in store that my boyfriend never really liked. A few years ago however I made him a nice home cooked dinner that we ate on our porch and it was more romantic than anything else I could buy him. This year I’ve decided to theme-up my valentines dinner so for the following 3 weeks I’ll share some of my valentines ideas with you, with a different theme each week.

This weeks theme will be Vampires, not any specific genre of vampire but just vampires in general. Now bare in mind, vampires don’t eat anything other than drinking blood, but we’re still human and this is only a theme :p

For today we’ll be making a Vampire inspired drink. I have an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version.

INGREDIENTS ( 1 serving)

80 ml coconut water
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1/2 cup (125 gram) cherry pie filling (check below for substitute)
red food dye
1 drop yellow food dye
Pinch of salt (optional but its pretty sweet so the salt helps to reduce the sweetness)
1 cup red semi sweet red wine ( for the alcoholic version)

METHOD

Mix everything together in a food processor and serve. You could even heat it up

Instead of cherry pie filling you can make your own but its very sweet. Take a cup of fresh cherries pitted. In a pan boil 2 tablespoons honey with 4 tablespoons sugar over a low heat. Add the cherries and stir. Cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes until the cherries are nice and soft. Use same measurements as described above.

Notes: for the alcoholic version of this recipe you can mix 2 tablespoons of the mixture to 1 cup of red wine, mix well and serve.

I really hope you like this idea 🙂

Assassin’s Creed-Review

January 20, 2017January 16, 2017Leave a comment

This weekend we went to see Assassins Creed, its the second time I’ve watched this movie. The idea was to take my dad to the movie to watch Rogue One but it was no longer showing at the cinema so we watched Assassins Creed instead.

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Image from IMBD at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/mediaviewer/rm4179232512

Spoiler alert

I have to say that the movie was really cool. The musical score in the movie was amazing. It made it really exiting to watch. In addition the fight sequences were amazing. I also loved the clothes in the movie and think that they put a lot of effort into little details.

When I watched the movie the first time I thought that the ending was really blunt and felt like they should have drawn out the ending a bit more or put a longer fight sequence into the climax of the movie. But after watching it a second time I decided that ‘they are assassins’ the ending was then suitable because he was so silent that no one even saw him coming. In that respect it felt suitable.

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Image from IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/mediaviewer/rm4179232512

Although the fighting style was really amazing the stance the Cal Lynch sometimes assumed left all his most vulnerable parts, his chest and throat, vulnerable to attack so in reality it would not have been something that would keep him alive unless all his enemies were rendered motionless. All in all though I really enjoyed the movie and found it a refreshing idea.

What did you think of it?

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No-Bake cheese cake in an Edible cup

January 19, 2017January 16, 20173 Comments

Today I’ve decided to make a lovely cheesecake. Since I’m still trying to stick to my new years resolutions I tried to make the dessert small and light. I also looked at something that might look cute for valentines day, since I love pink so much.

I started off by making cute little chocolate cups to hold the cheesecake in. You can make these with chocolate and balloons. I recommend using 5 balloons for 2 serving because some of the cups will break when you remove the balloons so rather save than sorry.

INGREDIENTS ( 2 servings)

4-5 balloons
80 gram melting chocolate
4 Tablespoons cream cheese
4 Tablespoons whipped cream plus more for the garnish
2 Tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 drops red food coloring.
8 Strawberries.
2 Tablespoons Nutella

To make the cups

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl. Blow up the balloons to about the size of a tennis ball and dip the ends into the chocolate until about half of the balloons are covered. Place in the refrigerator until hard. Stick a needle in the balloons to blow them off and lightly pull them from the chocolate cups.

Scoop a tablespoon of Nutella in each cup.Strawberries into slices and layer on top of the Nutella

Mix the cream cheese, whipped cream, icing sugar and food colouring in a blender. Scoop equal parts of the mixture into the two cups on top of the sliced strawberries.

Squirt some whipped cream on top of the mixture and add strawberries on top. You could also add other fruits that you like. Chill for 30 minutes and serve.