Last weekend

More updates…

Erm…don’t know what is wrong with streamyx…no connection for a few days already…aih~

House Warming

Finally, my cousin moved in to her new place…just opposite the previous rented unit =P. We had a small gathering with some friends and family members. Early in the morning they had a lil’ ‘so called’ ritual ceremony (some Taoism practice).

First, lighting up the candles and burning offerings to give respect to the “spirits”. Then kindly asking “them” to leave the place.

Next, sprinkling water, with some rice in it, with pomelo leaves. This is to “cleanse” the place from bad ‘stuff’.

Lastly, mandarin oranges and coins were thrown into the house, signifying the place to be filled with lots of gold and prosperity.

Of course, all big-days end with a fulfilling makan makan session…wuahaha. Mum and my aunty had quite a big cookout there and I made these simple canapés.

Hi-Tea (Café on the Tenth)

Remember the voucher we, teikkie (sai lou chai) & me, get from our logo design competition. At last, we manage to fix a day to enjoy the free food! We just took our own sweet time gliding our way to get our food, chatting and enjoying ourselves very much. We had our main meal:

Then a variety of salads:

Chinese dim sum:

And desserts!!!

Ais kacang

Bread&butter pudding & tartlets

Coffee custard

Drooling already? Hehehe…

I remember…

I remember,

When I was young, grandma loved to share an apple or a pear with me. She would wake me up at 8 in the morning, during holidays and this is her favourite phrase, “yen, wake up lo…8am so late already!”…eh…8am during hols=late??? Next she would nagged at me to take bath, change my pyjamas into something decent and last but not least, take my breakfast! I was young then but not THAT young though.

I remember,

When I was in primary school, during weekends when I have no school to attend, she would make lil’ “appointments” to have morning jog with me a day ahead. We would walk all the way from my house to the stadium, which takes about 30minutes or so. At times we tried to follow some simple steps demonstrated by the ‘qi gong’ master at the stadium. Then, we would walk to the market nearby to get fresh produce and groceries before heading home.

I remember,

Every Wednesday there’ll be night market nearby my house. We used to have a walk after our dinner. And everytime, I remember holding her hands as if I’m still a lil’ girl.

I remember,

She loved telling me stories of the times when she was young, especially during the Japanese occupation. She told me how difficult life was then, having to eat potatoes day and night, as there were not any rice or other more decent food to eat.

I remember,

She makes the nicest vegetarian dish every Chinese New Year, where all the family members will gather and have a feast on the first day of CNY early morning. It’s sad to say, none of my aunties or uncles could make the perfect dish as she did.

I could still remember,

How heart breaking it was to know about her sickness, which doctor informed us that she still have 3 months to live. Yes, it was Lungs Cancer…However she manage to hang on there…within that ½ a year, she went through numerous chemotheraphy, blood checks, taking awful Chinese medications, suffering uncountable side effects from the treatments. We couldn’t understand how difficult for her all that while. All we could do were just to be with her and care for her. It was so painful we have to act as if she’s a healthy being just to make her feel at ease.

And I remember,

The day when she left…I could not be with her…I was still in my campus, preparing for my finals. When I got the news, I just couldn’t help it and rushed home. But she was gone. Everyone was depressed but I believe they were relieved that grandma left us peacefully, with most of my uncles and aunties being there for her. At least we knew she never had to endure all the pain and difficult treatments.

Today marks the day grandma had left us for two whole years. Although grandma is not physically here and deep in our hearts, she’s always there. A loving mother, grandma and great-grandma. I just want her to know…I still miss her dearly. And I hope I’m not too late to tell her these three lil’ words:

Grandma, I love you.

Sichuan, China Earthquake

Looking at the news, tears just simply welled up in my eyes n I’m totally speechless. Have you heard about what is happening in Sichuan, China? To elaborate a few touching stories:

*This girl, her name, Song Xinying, retrieved from the rubble after being buried for 2 days. Her parents hold each other’s hands and shoulders face to face to make an arch to shield her from the falling building. However, her parents did not make it out. Xinying lost a leg and is now in critical condition.

* A 5 year old boy was rescued after being buried under rubbles for 24 hours. His left hand was broken, but he smiled and saluted to his rescuers. His smile made everybody cry.

* Yuan Wentin, 26, first grade teacher. When the earthquake struck, she rushed to carry her stunned students from classroom on the 3rd floor to the ground. She managed to pull out most of her students, but the building collapsed when she was trying to pull out the last few. At the last moment of her life, she was trying to use her body to shield the students from falling concrete.

* Zhang Jiwang (11), carrying his sister Zhang Han (3), walked 12 hours straight to flee the disaster center.

Last but not least:

* This baby, after being buried over 24 hours, miraculously, was rescued unscratched. He is about 3-4 months old, and his mother kneeled down, pinned her head and hands on the ground to shielded him from the falling concrete, and milked him. His mother did not make it out. A rescue worker found his mom’s cell phone in his wrapper. It had a text message left by his mother: “Dear child, if you survive, please remember, Mom loves you forever…”

(Note: * quoted from a presentation slides prepared by anonymous)

Above are just a few from the thousands articles you can find in the internet, news and other medias.

To you who are reading this, please help them in anyway you could whether it’s financially or in terms of materials. Right now just close your eyes and give them a minute of silence and remember them in your prayers.

For more pictures:

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080513_1.htm

Ironic, Alanis Morrisette

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think

Chorus:
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought… it figures

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
“Well isn’t this nice…”
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think

Chorus

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything’s okay and everything’s going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything’s gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face

A traffic jam when you’re already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think
A little too ironic…and, yeah, I really do think…

Chorus

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

That’s life…isn’t it?

YogurBerry, Pineapple Cheesecake, Bread&Butter Pudding, Souffle, Stone Art

Well well well, this is extreme late updates for my blog. Sorry all ya~

Last weekend back to Ipoh again. 3 days in a row (thanx to Wesak Day!)…hehe…and manage to do more testing on food. Er…before that, last week I went Sunway Pyramid with a friend and we passed by this shop, YogurBerry, cute name isn’t it? Guess wat…it’s an ice cream shop. I started drooling just by looking at the flyers. We just simply walked in and started ordering!

We had this:

and this:

The icecream are made of yogurt, origin from korea it seems…sweet and sourish, with so many types fruits, jelly, sprinklings to add on!

Enough of ice cream…

What I made over the weekend? Let’s see…Saturday morning I made pancakes for mummy and myself for breakfast. She loved them especially this time I have golden syrup, chocolate chips and bananas! =P. Later that afternoon she said she misses my pineapple cheesecake. Then we went to Tesco and shopped for cheese! After lunch, I made her these pineapple cheesecake squares! I’m more than happy to be able to made food that mummy likes!

Sunday, came back from church service, mum, aunty Fun and myself went out hunting for ipoh famous “tong shui”, couldn’t think of the English name for it…should I just call it “sweet dessert”? “sweet soup”? “bubur manis”…maybe? Hahaha…then went to search for my props for my err…new hobby?

I bought this:

And these:

Yups…stone painting…show you my ‘masterpieces’ after my food stuff ya~

After the long journey my tummy starts growling…yet another new recipe, an extremely easy recipe…bread and butter pudding!!! But I used stale croissant instead.

Recipe:

Ingredients: (for 2 servings)

1 stale croissant

½ T butter (softened)

½ cup milk

½ cup cream

3 T sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps:

1. Preheat oven at 220°C
2. Lightly grease 2 medium ramekins with softened butter
3. Break croissant into small pieces and place into the ramekins
4. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and lightly whisk
5. Pour milk mixture into the ramekins
6. Bake puddings for about 20 minutes
7. Serve hot!

Yummy yummy~

Monday…my last day at home for this trip! Anyhow I tried to make soufflé. I happily mixed n whisked the ingredients, poured them in buttered and sugared ramekins and pop them into the oven. When I saw them in the oven, after some good 15 mins, I am so happy and said to myself, “these have to be real good!”. The soufflés ‘puffed’ up so nicely in the oven. When I took them out from the oven…the puffy soufflés just gone flat before I could dust icing sugar on them! T_T…after taking some pictures of them…I dig into the soufflé with a teaspoon and the bottom of the soufflé is so uncooked! Erm…Must be the ingredients measurement..too much milk? Too much eggs? Gotta try that out again!!!

Anyhow, my lime-lemon soufflé still looked yummy isn’t it? Kakaka

Erm…my masterpiece…

Sketching: (before)

Tadaa…done: (after)

Erm…simple designs for my first round of testing…more to come in the future!

The weekend was indeed very meaningful eh…able to do so much in these 3days~ Happy!

Pancakes

Breakfast breakfast…Saturday breakfast!

First time making pancakes and luckily it turned up real good if not then my aunty and family will end up having no breakfast for the morning…=P. However, too bad I do not have maple syrup and berries, so I just use honey and apples instead. I actually love the crunchy apples with the soft warm pancakes. Ichiban desu~

Recipe

(A)

1¼ Cup flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

(B)

2 small eggs

1¼ cup milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil / melted butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps

1. Combine (A) and (B) in two separate bowls.
2. Add (B) into (A) and fold to form a smooth batter.
3. Heat up griddle.
4. Scoop a spoonful of batter onto the griddle.
5. Let it cook until small bubbles are visible.
6. Turn the pancake over.
7. Serve with butter, maple syrup and fresh fruits.

Toilets!

I really could not understand how ‘some’ people can survive using dirty toilets! Hello…you used it, it’s your ‘leftovers’ okay, come on clean it! Urrrgghhh~~~

Hey, you’re going to clean yourself and do your laundry in the washroom. But how could you tahan ‘cleaning’ in that dirty washroom? +_+’’’

Pavlovas, Creme Brulee and Crabbie~

Wow…really had a nice weekend at home. On Friday we had a lil’ family gathering at home. It’s sorta like a pot-luck gathering, where my aunts and uncles brought some of their home-made foods along. As for my mum, she cooked a real big wok of crabs. See below:

It’s about 5 kgs of crabs in the wok. This dish is better known as “Drunken Crabs”. Real darn delicious okay~ hahaha

For me, gathering is always a good time to try something new. As always, I’m in charge of the desserts. This makan makan (eat-eat) gathering I made pavlovas and crème brulee. Pavlovas are basically Australian dessert with a meringue shell as base, topped with fresh cream and fruits. Since in this recipe I only need egg whites so I decided to make crème brulee with the leftover yolks!

err…dun start laughing okay, fist time making a lil’ messy, =P

After all the nice food and here comes Sunday~ which means gotta pack my stuff n head back to KL…aih. However on the way home we manage to stop at Kajang to have some of their famous Satay at Hj Samuri. Although I have heard so many saying that this is not the best place but then overall it’s still good! I mean the price is reasonable, the place is clean and the satay taste good! Err, I still dare not try rabbit meat. Just when u imagine that cute lil’ bunny, slaughtered and its meat become satay seems so sad.

HJ SAMURI

Till then~ Adious~

Scones

Yay…

I’m back to Ipoh again. Yesterday was really a difficult day, sitting in my lil’ cubicle, counting time to leave the “happening” office! =.=” However, at about an hour before time to leave the office, TeikHui came over with a big smile on his face. He said “Tadaa, (his hand holding an envelope) we won third prize”. I was still blur actually then I read on…’Logo Design Competition, Weekend Hi-Tea for 2 persons at Café on The Tenth, Crown Princess KL’. Wow~ I never expect that at all but was really very excited!

Fyi, we participated in the Process Department Logo competition about a month ago. At first we were informed that there’ll be prizes only for the best designer and the rest will only get a packet of KitKat chocolates as consolation. Haha..not bad wor, we get both…chocolates and hi-tea!

Home sweet home. I’m back to my lil’ cooking heaven again. This morning I made scones. This time I manage to capture some pictures. Hey hey, sorry lar…I know it’s not ‘artistic’ at all but then I’m trying very hard to improve okay? As usual, served with loads of cream and butter .

Scones:

2 cups all purpose flour

¼ cup butter (softened)

¼ cup sugar

½ cup raisins (optional)

¾ cup milk

1 egg

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 220°C.
2. Sift flour in a bowl.
3. Rub in butter until the mixture forms fine crumbs.
4. Add in sugar and raisins, stir lightly.
5. Lightly whisk milk and egg in another bowl.
6. Add the milk mixture (leaving aside about a tablespoon) to the dry ingredients to form sticky dough.
7. Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface.
8. Cut out 2-in rounds and place on baking sheets.
9. Brush the top of each scone with the remaining milk.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Serve warm with cream, butter and fruit jam.