Merry Christmas Everybody

Holiday Greetings from Choco - who happens to be chewing on our christmas tree decorations

Our favorite time of the year has come!
I wish you all a wonderful holiday filled with laughter, blessings and most of all happiness
Merry Christmas

What's in your bag?

hehe, this was practically just for fun. I visited some people's blogs and found they had posted the insides of their bags for the world to see. So this is mine :P. An aweful lot of lip related products. I dont really understand why I need that many. Hm.. so what's in your bag?

I was just thinking

Sniff Sniff Sniff Smelly Slipper, Choco I love you

Since I have to return Choco in February to her owners, I feel really sad when I think about it. Cuz like, it's like imagining when someone or something that you love and has been a part of your life for some time loves somebody else who is not you. And at the end of the day, they dont end up being with you forever, but they end up being with someone else. May be almost similar to seeing your partner being in love with someone else and decides to be with that certain someone for the rest of their lives. Hmmm >.<>.<

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Before Baking

Sugar cookies before decorations

Anpanman

Rudolph (without antlers) - can you guess which one?

Xmas decorations

It's 12 more days before Christmas, I've already started my cookies baking, so it doesnt go crazy when it's closer to the day. Anyway, my first creation was these sugar cookies! Hm.. to be quite honest, I don't like them so much cuz it's so sweet.. I used royal icing to decorate them.. again, i thought they were incredibly sweet so I dont like them very much, may be I'd use less sugar the next time I bake these cookies. Anyhow, baking and the decoration were the best, me and my sis made a complete mess in the kitchen! Waa..can't wait till christmas ^^, Oh btw, I uploaded my all time favorite christmas songs.. spend time in listening to them - cuz they can make you feel so happy ^^

Cookie Dough:

• 490 g flour
• 300 g sugar
• 227 g butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat butter and sugar till fluffy, add in eggs and beat until incorporated. Add in sifted flour,salt and baking powder. Mix until it forms a soft dough. Divide into two portions, wrap each in glad wrap and refrigerate until the dough is firm. THis will help with the cutting. Then, cut to your desired shapes - place them in parchment paper then bake at 175C for approximately 10 minutes.

Royal Icing

• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cups of icing sugar

Beat egg white and lemon juice together till stiff, then mix in 3 cups of icing sugar (sifted). Then can put colouring of your choice. Pipe onto the cooled cookies. THe icing will get stiff and dry when exposed to air, so be sure to cover it at all times. And make sure the icing on the cookies are dry before storing them in an air tight container. ^^

Kacang Telor

Hiyatt.. yg lagi pada ngidam makan kacang telor yg ada di Jakarta, tapi ngak ada diJakarta.. gua akhirnya coba2 ndiri buat kacang telor.. enaakk deeeeyyyy ^^.. sayangnya guwa gak bisa makan... gatel2... tapi yg lain yg makan.. ><>

campur semua bahan, kecuali minyak sama kacang

masukin kacangnya

panasin minyak

pas udah panas minyaknya, masukin 1 sendok gede adonan kacang ke minyak panas, terus diaduk2 pake centong biar kacangnya lepas2 klo ngak gumpal semua jadi satu

gorengnya ati2 ya jgn sampe gosong ^^

I'd rather..

I'd rather be different and be myself than be a person who people expect me to be. I'd rather be rebellious than blindly follow people who forces me to believe a certain pathway in life is better than my own. I'd rather figure out things myself than be told what to do. I'd rather take risks and not know the future and believe in a dream that will one day come true than live life in the safe zone. I'd rather live the way I want to and be condemned than live the way you want me to and forever bare slow torment.

Spagetti with Vegetable Sauce

This is just a picture of wat i had for dinner. Huehuehuehue :P

Hamburger Bun

Hmpphh... I remembered a few months ago, I watched this Japanese Series called "Engine" featuring Takuya Kimura. Well to cut the story short, the series evolved around the life of 10 kids living in a small yet cozy orphanage. They always look after each other and at some stage they had to separate because the orphanage had no funding. Anyway,the only rule in that place was that everybody had to be there before they can have dinner. And their favorite dinner was "hamburger" which was just beef patty served with bull's eye fried eggs. Hmm.. i guess the idea of this hamburger bun came from that, bun in this case, the hamburger is well encased in the bread :)

• 1/2 x Sweet bread dough recipe (i used the other half for my cranberry bread)
  

Hamburger

150 g of minced meat (can use pork, beef or chicken)
2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
a pinch of pepper
a sprig of spring onion (preference)

• mix everything in a bowl
• make little patties
• pan fry with medium heat until cooked
• This will approximately make 5 patties
• take some bread dough, and wrap it around the hamburgers
• let stand for 5 minutes, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds
  
• bake at 175 C until cooked

Cranberry Bread

With Christmas getting closer - I've decided to create something delicious, fat-free and simple. Basically, it's just the normal sweet bun recipe that I have been posting and before baking, I fold in some sweet dried craisins ^^

Pan Au Yoplait / Yogurt Bread

Waahh.. Enaaakkkkkk!

Another day, another bread making experiment!! I tried substituting milk with yogurt! And the bread was so soft and fragrant! Also, with these new set of bread that I'm trying, I used less butter and less eggs - so basically, it's healthy: especially for my dad who is fat and sodium conscious. Must try, must try, must try, must try, must try, must try. Also, I kneaded the dough by hand, not by machine and somehow, I'm getting better results. Why the hell that is I'm not so sure, but it's Oishii (delicious in Japanese: see how these Jap is rubbing off to me after watching too much Jap series). Okay here goes

Mixture A
100 g high grade flour
1 sachet yeast
150 mL warm water

• mix everything together, let it stand for 15-20 minutes
  

Mixture B
400 g high grade flour
50 g sugar
150 mL yogurt (I used a tub of natural yogurt by Yoplait)
1 egg yolk (keep the egg white to brush the buns before baking)
1 tablespoon of butter/margerine

• mix flour and sugar together
• Add in Mixture A, yogurt and egg yolk into the flour mixture, if dough is too runny can add 1 tablespoon of flour
  
• knead for 10 minutes with your hand until everything is incorporated
  
• add in the butter
• knead for a further 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and shiny
• preheat your oven to 30 C for 5 minutes, then turn off
  
• place dough in an oiled bowl and let it ferment for 1 hour in the preheated oven
• then, punch the gas down from these dough by dropping a fist into the dough. (careful not to knead by this stage)
• shape dough to your preference
• place back in the oven for 5 minutes
• brush the dough with egg white
• preheat the oven to 160C for 10 minutes before baking the bread