KookyCulinary

I was not a coffee drinker but that changed when I moved to the Pacific Northwest. I don’t know if it’s due to the cold weather or the fact that there is a coffee shop at every block. Seriously everywhere I turn, there’s either a Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee or Tully’s within walking distance! It’s just too hard to resist the coffee aroma!

Of course, all these coffee drinking is not helping my budget at all. So I have been thinking of getting a coffeemaker and just making them at home. Guess what I found this week? A FREE Coffeemaker from Gevalia! I get this programmable 12-cup Stainless Steel coffeemaker free with the purchase of two half-pound boxes of Gevalia Kaffe. It even comes with a stainless steel coffee scoop. Sounds interesting. I will have to check it out. Anyone tried this before? Is the coffee good?

When we moved to the Pacific Northwest, the first thing we did was shop for winter clothes. We had just moved from sunny Florida, so we did not have many winter clothes especially Lil’ C. I had to buy a whole new wardrobe for her. Now after 2 winters, she is already outgrowing all her winter clothes. She is really going through a growth spurt right now. So I will have to get a whole new winter wardrobe for her next winter. The good news is that this is a great time to stock up on a whole new winter wardrobe for her at Sears. Sears is currently offering 75-80% off the original prices on fall and winter apparel.
 

I am planning to get this Carter’s jacket for Lil’ C. It is on sale for only $3.99. That is really cheap. I could even get a couple of them since we seem to be wearing jackets all the time here. Yes, even in the summer! That reminds me that I will probably need to get some summer clothes for her too.

If you are also planning to get new winter clothes, don’t wait till winter and pay full price. Get it now at a great price. This clearance sales end April 18th. So I had better hurry and finish up my shopping.

It is an understatement to say that I have been busy the last few months. Between my new part-time job and Lil’ C’s school & activities, it has been hard to keep up with everything. Cooking, baking and even blogging had been pushed to the back burner for a while. But now with the year winding down and a new year in sight, I am determined to try to get a little more organized for the next year. So now I am making a list of things to be done to make my life a little easier.

Guess what is the first item on my list? It is to get my groceries delivered!! Going grocery shopping can be fun but it can also be really tiring with a 4 year old in tow. Also I end up with a lot of unnecessary grocery that were not on my shopping list. So to save time & money, I am going to do my shopping online with AmazonFresh. I am sure that most of you have shopped at Amazon for books, right but did you know that they have started selling groceries too? Actually they have just started this service and is currently only in the Seattle area. Last week I signed up with them and tried it out.

I ordered it late at night and by the next day, I had these boxes sitting at my front door. Actually I can either order by midnight and they will arrive at my door before 6 am (works great if you run out of milk for breakfast) or I can order 4 hours ahead during the day and have them delivered 4 hours later.

The yellow box contained all the non-chill items while the frozen & chilled items were kept in a thick insulated bag complete with ice pack.

The groceries….

I was really happy with the quality of the groceries. Even the bananas were at the right ripeness. I even managed to include a hairgel together with the groceries. I am definitely going to order from them again. Looks like I can check off the first item off my list. Yay!  

P/s: this is not a paid post.

My little girl will start preschool next week. Luckily she is still able to fit into most of her clothes and I do not have to buy too many new clothes for her. If I have teenagers, I am sure that I will have to buy a lot more clothes. Then I will definitely have to make sure that I shop at Heavenly Couture. It is a great place to buy discount clothing since all their items are priced at $17.95 or less. Yes, you heard it right! Everything including these 2 sweaters!

Currently for a limited time, Heavenly Couture is offering up to 10% off for Back to School Shopping. So if you are shopping for cheap clothing, don’t forget to check them out today.

As seen on my blog, I cook and bake a lot. I also shop a lot, mostly for baking tools and kitchen gadgets. I used to love going to baking supply shops and browse around for new and interesting gadgets. However now that I have a preschooler, it is very hard to do that anymore. So I tend to shop online nowadays.

Shopping online is very convenient but the downside is that it makes us more vulnerable to identity theft. Identity theft is a very serious crime and it could ruin all of us financially. This is where Lifelock comes in. Lifelock helps to protect our identity with the latest identity theft protection system. How does lifelock work? First of all, they will set up fraud alerts with all the major credit bureaus so that you will know immediately of any suspicious activity. They will also help to remove you from the junk mail list and pre-approved credit offers. If you are an online shopper like me, don’t forget to check out Lifelock before you start shopping.

Everytime I go back to Malaysia, I never plan to buy anything back but somehow goodies always managed to make itself into my luggage!! Hehe…. I guess I just couldn’t resist the temptation! These are some of the goodies that came back with me……

#1: Lots of paste/sauces all for those lazy days when I don’t feel like cooking.

#2: Lemang & ketupat (This is the 1st time I saw lemang. I loved the lemang that we usually buy on the way to Genting. So I bought 1 to try.) The pink package is my favorite biscuit - Heong Peah. This is one cookie that I know I will never be able to duplicate unless I get myself a tandoori oven!! Did you know that it is baked in one of those clay oven over fire just like a tandoori oven?

#3: Lots of molds, hopefully to put into good use soon.

Look at my latest collection!

During my vacation, I visited (actually, I forced my sister to take me there! ) 2 Daiso stores. Went a little crazy in the stores. The Bento supplies were all so cute. The best part is that they are only 1.50 each. Yes, even the lunch boxes! I even managed to find the elusive egg mold. This photo only shows half of what I bought! Hopefully, with all my new toys, I’ll be able to come up with more nice Bento lunches this year.

What do you do when you need to buy a big ticket item like a dishwasher? Do you go check them out at the store or shop online? According to consumer research, up to 75% of big-ticket product buyers will do their product research online, but 90% of them will make their final purchases offline at local retailers. However most of the search engines fail to deliver good search results which mean that customers are not able to get accurate information on the availability of local products.

Krillion is able to solve this problem with its unique Krillion Localization Engine™ that searches the web thoroughly and present you with very specific product information with very specific locality information. All you have to do is take this information to the store and make a purchase immediately. Krillion is very user-friendly and it delivers search results category by category. That means when I am shopping for KitchenAid Dishwashers, it will be very easy for me to find the best local deal for me.

Went over to Vancouver, Canada last weekend and look what I brought back!!!! : )

Loads of cute bento supplies!! I’ve been on a lookout for nice bento supplies for a long time. Actually they do have some really nice ones here in Uwajimaya but they are all very expensive. Too expensive for me, anyway!

While we were in Canada, I was so excited to see a Daiso store which is kinda like the Dollar store. Daiso Canada was more of a 2 Canadian dollar store. Anyway, still cheap, right? So I went on a spree & grabbed a whole basketful of stuff!! hehe…. The toddler was also helping herself & putting stuff into the basket. She also wanted everything since they’re so colorful & cute! What can I say, like mother like daughter…..haha…

Look what else we found? Bak Kua, Singapore style! We only bought a little since we couldn’t bring it back over the border. It was ok, not as good as those back home. Just a little drier than what I like. Oh well, better than none, I guess. : )