saving memories

Learning

2012-01-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

Hmm, let's see.

Today I learn that things could change in a split second.

Japanese Chicken Rice Bowl

2012-01-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

Made this a few days ago and it was terrific!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups instant brown rice
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin, (see Ingredient note)
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

Preparation

Prepare instant brown rice according to package directions.
Pour broth into a heavy medium saucepan, along with sugar, soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low.
Stir egg whites and whole egg in a small bowl until just mixed. Add chicken to the simmering broth. Gently pour in the egg mixture, without stirring. Sprinkle scallions on top. When the egg starts to firm up, after about 3 minutes, stir it with chopsticks or a knife. (The chicken will be cooked by now.) Divide the rice among 4 deep soup bowls and top with the chicken mixture.

Tips & Notes

Ingredient Note: Mirin is a low-alcohol rice wine essential to Japanese cooking. Look for it in your supermarket with the Asian or gourmet ingredients. An equal portion of sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar may be substituted for mirin.

Courtesy to Eatingwell!

These days

2012-01-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

I love taking a walk in the snow and burying my bare empty hands into the cold icy snow. It brings me a certain euphoria I cannot describe. Like walking in the snow alone, staring at the trees that are looking so fairytale like...Sometimes I couldn't believe it that I am here, experiencing snowfall and having a school up in the mountain. It feels terrific.

Though I'd have to mention the fact that the weather has been very unpleasant. It creates so many inconvenience. Like the fact that, I almost slipped couple of times due to the icy road and the layers of clothing I have to wear to keep warm. Still, I love how white it is. How beautiful is the scene outside my window. Imagine waking up seeing the outstretched view of cities and trees with pile of snow above them... Just awesome

Food in LA

2012-01-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

It's been close to two weeks and I am still going to rave how amazing Los Angeles is. The food is awesome..Really awesome. Here are some that are still in my mind from time to time..

1) The Boiling Crab

I had my first meal in LA here. There are so many boiling crabs in California and people say anyone of them is really good. I don't know but the one in K-town is surely amazing. Although we missed the crab. We arrived close to closing hour and waited approximately 45 minutes before having our long awaited dinner. It was worth the wait although we probably should have ordered more. I asked for a hotter fries and regretted because it was sooo hot I couldn't take it. Still, the first meal is awesome. Boiling Crab is awesome. (unfortunately, boiling crab made us eat like barbarians...)

2) "In-N-Out Burger"

This fast-food chain is terrific. Like K said, we ordered animal fries, well done fries and 4 by 4 burger. It was huge. 4 by 4 burger turned out to be four burger patties and the fries are hell lot. (I ordered 2 of each) They were too much but I was sooooo satisfied. :p Imagine, these stuff are pretty cheap. Like $2.50 for burger and $2+ for fries? 4 by 4 was more expensive but still, $10 each for these amount??? Kidding me! Yum yum

3) Hae Jang Chon Korean BBQ

Damn this bbq buffet was awesome. The meat and the whole service was really amazing. We waited one and a half hour for this meal but it was really worth it. Imagine them cooking the kimchi fried rice in front of you and for the price I pay $20.00 (Vancouver will be like what? $40?) I think this is toooo good to be true. Although, we should have taken note that kimchi fried rice will be our last dish. They won't clean that pan anymore.
Still, I had a very satisfying, full meal. =)

4) Daikokuya

I have the best ramen ever here. M said it tasted like the ones they have in Japan. I don't know since I have not been to Japan. The egg is really good. It is like 3/4 boiled? And the ramen is so springy, chewy and tasted perfect with their soup. We went here again on christmas but it was closed. :( We tried other ramen restaurant that was opened on xmas but it doesn't taste this way. I think the one in robson is hardly even this tasty and good to me. I should give it another try!

4) Seong Buk Dong

I think it was one of the few restaurants opened on christmas and we decided to have it anyway. It turned out good but pricey but still FREAKING DELICIOUS. That thing we ordered there (I forgot what but the waiter would have told you anyway cos that was what everyone was eating in that tiny restaurant..) yes, that thing was really really yummy. And I have to mention that we can have amazing brown rice with beans. I love love love that kind of combination. Rice and Bean. Although C hates the beans. I ate two bowls of that brown bean rice for the first time. I usually can't eat much rice... It was such an awesome xmas dinner.

-----

Yes, thats it for now. LA has other amazing food. I am so damn sure about it but right now, I guess those are the ones that I really really miss. Not forgetting the 50 pieces Mc Nuggets that I can get for 9.99 + tax. That I miss but I realize it is that price in places like Bellingham (Which is pretty near so no worry). Since Vancouver has the freshest sushi so far and quite a nice chinese food here and there (Especially Richmond), we tried a lot a lot of western, korean food in LA. And those are the ones I want to remember at least for a little while =)

Sunshine state

2011-12-15T00:30:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles is awesome. They have such a mild temperature and the sun just warms up the whole place. It is so cooling and relaxing here. The highways are awesome. I can rave all day about the beaches, the sunshine and the shopping malls. So there isnt white christmas this year for me bur i guess it will be pretty awesome spending xmas here in LA. Though i miss my room and my piano very much. Sometimes i wish i could be in two places at one time.

Anyhow, we were at beverly hills and ck bumped onto an actor called sebastian from the rockies? (i have no idea who) but i guess it is worth mentioning.

Happy in LA!

Martabak

2011-12-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

Oh my oh my oh my. I was craving for Martabak the other day and I don't know where sells these stuff here. I've tried several homemade ones here but they didn't taste like this...

source

So I decided to make one. I bought everything I can find except for chocolate rice. I have to make do with chocolate chips instead. Shucks terribly :(

Anyway, the taste was acceptable. It is more delicious than any I have tried here because it is fresh and I was eating it warm. And besides that, it is healthier than above. I was using like the low fat condensed milk etc... and Didn't really use much butter I think? Ok here you go! martabak recipe I found in my indonesian recipe iphone app!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup chocolate
1/4 cup SALTED peanuts
1/4 cup (or less) sweetened condensed milk

Directions

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl. Adjust water amount to make it slightly runny batter and let sit on the counter for 3 hours. It will thicken up
Finely chop the chocolate
Finely chop the salted peanuts
Spray a non stick skillet or griddle and cook the batter pancake style. Flipping once
While cooking, butter the top
Pour generous amount of condensed milk over top and sprinkle with chocolate and nuts.
Fold in half like a taco
Cut into strips and serve warm.

Wintertime favourite

2011-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Beef Stew!

I love this recipe so much. The beef stew is so good , tender and the time to make this isn't as long as other recipes. (still.. it is freaking TWO HOURS!) Anyway, it's perfect for weather like this. It warms my body instantly and my.. I can go on raving about this non living awesome food... like seriously..er..

Ingredients

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cubes beef bouillon, crumbled
4 cups water
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water

Directions

In a large pot or dutch oven, cook beef in oil over medium heat until brown. Dissolve bouillon in water and pour into pot. Stir in rosemary, parsley and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.
Stir potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion into the pot. Dissolve cornstarch in 2 teaspoons cold water and stir into stew. Cover and simmer 1 hour more.

Do everything as directed! It takes an hour plus at least to get perfect tender beef!

It's so awesome I think I am going to make this again. It is so cold here and I miss Asia :(

On livejournal!

2011-12-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

I am on livejournal now! The purpose is so that I can write freely with ample privacy.. Will be transferring some of my posts there now. And I will keep this blog to write whenever I feel like talking to the world!

FINALS!

2011-12-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

The exam is like so darn near. Basically, today.. hardly ready but who is complaining?!

My mind does wander off to what I will do after exam, what novel should I read and all. That's bad because the exams are not really almost over. There is still a heap load of memorization to do! Oh goodness....

Super Flumina

2011-12-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

by Albert F Moritz

When the winners took us to their country

to be pets, like a cony that a princess saved

from the naked line of beaters, the parti-colored

silken lancers and the king in green and gold,

we remembered this: that one of us had lain

a day and a night beneath his family

bloating and blackening in the sun

as soldiers sifted through corpses for half-corpses

to favor with a final thrust. Another

was watching from our one unfallen tower

as they lifted up the head of our chief soldier

on a pike, clicking their tongues to the crows. Then how

could we let ourselves play, when they asked us

for our famous song, and lift our steps that turn

dark and light and the spring

and the autumn rains? Groaning we kept still.

we were like gravid widows who shut up

the betrayed womb

with a staple of will. But our harps.

Had their curved and firm young shapes come from hell?

And they had lain against us all those years

only waiting? Our harps by themselves

when we hung them up on the willows

if ever an air stirred, sung.

Sushi garden

2011-11-22T00:19:00.001-08:00

It's amazing how i can get sashimi at a reasonably cheap price here whenever i want to! It makes me so happy since sashimi is so scarce and darn expensive in singapore. The wild sashimi in sushi garden is so far my favourite now.

Snowing

2011-11-17T23:04:00.000-08:00

Everyone should see the snow! It is piling like nobody's business. Some cars couldn't move without few pushes. And not to forget it is freakin cold! They say this year this place is going to snow pretty badly.. I believe now. Hopefully the school is closed tomorrow!!!!!

Lost in songs

2011-11-17T10:19:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the songs i heard in the radio that are really good!

whole wheat biscuits

2011-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

This is so easy and GOOOD!

WHOLE WHEAT BISCUITS

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup safflower oil

Approx. 1/2 cup milk (more or less as needed)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly pour in the oil, mixing with a fork or pastry cutter until the mixture is combined. It will be quite crumbly. Add the milk a little at a time, using just enough to bring the mixture together.

Gather the dough into a ball, and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough about 25 times, then smooth the dough into a ball and pat into a 1/2 inch thick round disk. Use a approx 2 1/2 inch glass or biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Gather the scraps, and repeat until all the dough is used. You should have between 8 and 10 biscuits. Place on ungreased baking sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on top.

(I forgot the link for this recipe) :( Anyway, I halved it and the recipe still yield so many cookies! it taste really healthy and good :)

Almost there..

2011-11-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

I am finally (almost) done with my communication video. The idea didn't come till today, where I am forced to think and think and think.. Wait on! I'd definitely upload the video in facebook or something!

A month till finals and I am barely ready :'(

Not easy

2011-10-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Matchalicious

2011-10-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

I baked greentea cheesecake yesterday and it was awesome. I love it and had it for lunch and breakfast (T_T) My mid-term is finally over and my 2.5TB hard drive arrived today! Can't wait to fill it in with many many movies! And ironically, I fought with parentals today. I just wish both of us can be more understanding. it sucks to fight so much even on skype. :s

Floodad

2011-10-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

Today, as M mentioned about the flood that hit Thailand, I am reminded about the flood I've experienced as a little kid years back. Honestly, I remember nothing much about the flood other than staying at my uncle's house was pretty exciting and seeing dad in my uncle's singlet sleeping in the other room... then I realized something... how did I get to my uncle's place? Since dad couldn't drive and there was no other way, as you probably would have guessed - yes, we walked. No, wait, more like my parents walked.

The past few days, I have to admit I haven't been very grateful. I sometimes wonder why my parents are being this way, that way and not as open as my other friends' parents. Then today, I realized, my parents walked to my uncle's place that day during the flood. I was too young and too short then and the flood would probably wash me and my brother away. But, my mom and my dad carried us. Dad carried me, the older sister (which means the heavier one) all the way to my uncle's place. Another memory comes rushing into me again... that, I was singing, dad was laughing. It is important to me now to know that because, despite the ongoing flood, we were smiling.

These flood memories almost brought me to tears. It becomes clear to me that my dad has always been that dad that has carried me during the flood. My mom is the same mom who was always taking care of me. Me? I am the same ungrateful girl, smiling and singing in the flood. The same girl who is sometimes so ignorant and fail to see her parents' love.

Now that I slowly see, I feel so guilty. I wish I could be better but yet I don't know how to express this feeling. So I typed it out here, hoping I will feel slightly better.

Steve Job

2011-10-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Two days ago as announced, we lost a man who is a father and husband to his family and to the world, greatest innovator. We lost Steve Job. I don't know him at all. In fact it was through his awesome iphone creations that I know who he is. I decided to google his name anyways and I stumbled upon this speech which was to me, the most inspiring speech ever.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.

Thank you Steve. I think you've made a difference in this world. (or at least, to me)

It just hit me that all of us are going to die, no matter what I do today, I will die. We are all different yet similar as we head to the same pathway.. death..

Gingerman Project

2011-10-05T11:30:00.002-07:00

We did this for our communication project yesterday. It was so funny.

Banana Cake

2011-10-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

I know it's been so long since I've last updated. Insolence has taken the best of me. I baked this banana cake few weeks ago and it was great. As for the recipe, I sadly don't know which recipe I've used. :(

Anyway, sometimes I look at the world and there is an undeniable strange blankness in my mind. As though I lost the feeling of being in this world. Reading Virginia Woolf, I totally understand her estranged feeling of being on Earth. I don't think I am under depression. I just see no reason why this Earth is a great place to live. It's getting worse. Everyone wants something nobody has.

Recently,

2011-09-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

University has finally started and the feeling of being an undergraduate (First day but second year) student feels tremendously strange. The whole excitement died down almost immediately as assignments, expectations and readings were given out exactly on the first day. C and Ck are apparently my only truest friends so far.

But in all, school is good. It is fun when I think about it again. Fun to go to school with no attendance, fun to be in a lecture room filled with hundreds and hundreds of strangers. Fun to get lost in one of the buildings (when we quipped that the university is just mid sized, no big deal).

Awesome view from hiking the chief last Saturday. I need to hike this again!

Oh and, M is back this afternoon. I can't wait. :)

thank you

2011-09-04T23:49:00.001-07:00

thank you :')

Mrs Field Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-08-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

I finally saw this recipe and I was so so excited to make them!

Here it is!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup C & H dark brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup cold salted butter, cut into cubes
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300° F.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk.

3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer blend the sugars at medium speed.

4. Add the cold butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix at low to medium speed just until blended. Do not over mix.

5. Add the flour mix and chocolate chips and blend at a low speed just until mixed. Do not over mix.

6. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, two inches apart.

7. Bake 20-22 minutes until golden. Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula. You can line sheets with parchment and transfer to a cold surface to do it faster.

Makes 30-36 cookies, depending on the size of your scoops.

I baked thirty one cookies to be exact and reduced the amount of butter (switching half cup salted with my favourite moist butter.)

The aftermath was good. The cookies are chewy, moist yet at the same time not too soft. It melts just right in your mouth and imagine, you don't have to purchases them at mrs field's stores! You can bake them anytime in your own kitchen!!!! (Awesome awesome)

Kue Lapis

2011-08-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

Following the recipe here, A and I did a tray of kue lapis! It is a traditional malaysian/indonesian desert. The recipe given gave us an just okay (not too marvellous results.. thats why I am not too keen to write it here.) I think there should be a better tastier website out there I should venture! :)

We didn't have the pandan paste (couldn't find it at all..) so we were using green colouring!! Not bad for pandan replacement maybe just not too sweet?

Pictures

2011-08-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

From last night stayover with D!

Lemon green tea cupcakes!

2011-08-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

Out of boredom, I baked some cupcakes today. I have been crazy over matcha/ tea related drink etc for years. (Except for indian ginger tea..puke) So today I went through recipes from www.joythebaker.com and found a yummy recipe with ingredients I have! Awesome Awesome.

Ingredients (I halved the recipe and it yielded 9 medium sized cupcakes..)

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
1 Tablespoon matcha powder
1 stick plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Method:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the loaf pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Also butter a mini muffin pan or line a regular muffin tin with cupcakes papers for the small amount of excess batter. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk the eggs into the sugar. You can use a large bowl with a whisk for this. You don’t really need a big mixer for this recipe. Beat until the eggs and sugar are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract, then whisk in the sour cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions.
Divide the batter in half (just eyeball it) into two separate bowls. In one bowl add the zest and lemon juice. In the other bowl, fold in the matcha tea powder.
Pour some of the lemon batter into the pan. Top it with a portion of the green tea batter. Add more lemon and top with more green tea batter. Fill the loaf pan, leaving at least 1-inch of room at the top of the pan for the cake to rise. Swirl gently and minimally with a butter knife to get a good swirl effect. With the remaining batter, make mini muffins or cupcakes.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. The mini muffins will take about 15 minutes and the cupcakes will take about 18-20 minutes.
Once removed from the oven, allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 20 minutes before running a knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the cake onto a cooling rack. (It takes me erm, 30 mins to actually have perfect cupcakes! So no harm checking them out after 20 mins to see if they are really baked..)

I used half cup butter and I still think the recipe asked for too much butter. I had one cupcake (explained why there is a missing cupcake in the first picture..) The taste was good and not too sweet but perhaps too buttery. I think I have to let the cupcakes cool down for a while before having them again!!

The next time I make this, I think I will reduce the amount of butter used and also will try to add in other ingredients like chocolate chips...

Here is the original recipe!

Green tea cake

2011-08-05T10:44:00.001-07:00

I doubled the green tea recipe and baked two green tea cakes yesterday. I love how it tasted yummy like waffler when I left them to cool in fridge but my friends thought it was too cold and hard! well, talk about tastebud!

Anyway, here are pictures of the cakes :)

Meatball

2011-08-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 pound extra lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 dash hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®), or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Place the beef into a mixing bowl, and season with salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes, hot pepper sauce, and Worcestershire sauce; mix well. Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs. Mix until evenly blended, then form into 1 1/2-inch meatballs, and place onto a baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes.

recipe from here

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2011-08-02T16:28:00.001-07:00

I saw a jar of organic peanut butter in my fridge yesterday and decided to bake peanut butter cookies with it. The recipe was rated 5/55 in Allrecipes and the verdict is - It was awesome if you stop at two cookies. Besides, they turned out pretty large and crispy to me. I am still satisfied considering that it doesn't take long to bake them....

Ingredients

- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup quick cooking oats

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/2 cup peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and beat well.
2. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir. Add oatmeal and stir.
3. Drop by teaspoons onto greased baking sheet, and press each mound down with a fork to form 1/4 inch thick cookies. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes, or until cookies are a light brown.
.

That is the original recipe. However I did substitute baking soda for triple baking powder. I also didn't use brown sugar. The oatmeal was a mixture of cereal powder and quick cooking oats. The cookies turned out good. Sweet and milky. I had two for breakfast today. Unfortunately, two is really enough to make me not want those for a day or two. This makes like 25 huge cookies.

The recipe mentioned the filling. Maybe someone should try making the cream and let me know about it! I did not have all the ingredients enough to make the cream...

Recipe is from here

Salade de Fruits Cafe

2011-08-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Visited a french restaurant called "Salade de Fruits Cafe" a few weeks ago and boy it was awesome!! The food was really good and the price is reasonable. Almost went to some french dining restaurant for 60 bucks T_T (I did spend like 40 bucks in the restaurant though. )

Here are some pictures I have managed to take.

Escargot à l'aïl

crabe cake (crab cake)

Poisson du jour (Fish of the day)

The moules et frites was I think the best of all the these food.. Too bad I don't have the picture of it. But I foresee myself frequenting the place more often so maybe I will order that and take a picture of the meal! Overall meal satisfaction is 3.5/5

Since I am quite a stingy person, I don't see why I have to pay 14 bucks (include tax) for two small crab cakes. I know appetizer supposed to be light and not filling... but if that's the case why is it as expensive as a main dish?

Oh, slight note: The menu is in french. Either you did research on what you were going to order before visiting or you get the waiter to explain to you in his french accent. Either way is good but I wish I had done some research on the food instead of letting him explain to me everything and I only get what meal is what..

Anyway, having a slight knowledge of french is good. I was taking french courses so it was a good practice to order my food in french. ... Until they started talking as though I had french all my life..awesome.

Do take a look at the website here

So/ Thus/ Therefore....

2011-07-29T16:00:00.001-07:00

This isn't my first time blogging. I have done it countless time but this time I really want to write the best I can.... hopefully...

Now let me start with some yummy eggtart recipe and delicious greentea cake!

Hong Kong Style Egg Tart

Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
9 eggs, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
1 cup evaporated milk

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and flour.
Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs.
Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The texture should be slightly moist. Add more butter if it is too dry, or more flour, if the dough seems greasy.
Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and press the balls into tart molds so that it covers the bottom, and goes up higher than the sides. Use 2 fingers to shape the edge into an A shape.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Combine the white sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into the sugar mixture.
Stir in the evaporated milk and vanilla.
Strain the filling through a sieve, and fill the tart shells.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

Note for the egg tart: Those eggtarts are purely homemade. I made them all from scratch without any eggtart containers. I substituted evaporated milk with normal soy milk and they turned out as good!

Recipe from here

White Chocolate and Matcha Tea Marbled Cake

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
0.7 cups all purpose flour
0.3 cup white chocolate
0.5 cup butter
0.6 cup fine sugar
1 pinch of salt
1.5 tsp matcha tea
1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Melt the butter.
Place the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water and let simmer until the chocolate is melted.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the eggs with the sugar and beat until it is white in color, then remove.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and add it to the egg/sugar preparation, mixing manually with a whisk.
Then add the salt and butter and mix.
Divide the batter in 2/3 and 1/3. Add the melted chocolate to the 2/3 batter and the matcha tea to the 1/3 batter.
Preheat your oven at 350 F.
Grease a rectangular cake pan and add half of the chocolate batter.
Continue with the matcha tea batter and finish with the other half of the chocolate batter.
Take a fork and pass it through the different layers of batter.
Cook your cake for 50 mns, or until the blade of a knife comes out dry when inserted in the cake. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before unmolding.

Recipe from: here