When I was younger :P

Jajah.com

hey'all..just quickly.. this postdoc from our lab was talking about calling about a website that allows you to ring locally and internationally for free. It's called www.jajah.com - I havent tried it, but she said it's really good. No Downloads, no headsets, and its free. But it's not free if you dont sign up but you can try it out for 5 minutes before they cut you off. If you sign up, you get 150 minutes/week and watch some scrolling ads.. hehe.. Every country is different tho..

OK, talk to u l8r, i gotta run.. got lab meeting. ciao

Nastar - Pineapple Tarts

Ahh.. its weekends.. sorry for being on hiatus for almost a month, I just don't have the time to update as much as I used to. Basically, when I'm working, I have to wake up at 6 in the morning everyday right, and I have to leave the house by 7 to catch my bus at 7.15am. Then, I finish work at 4.30 and if I go home with GB, I'll have to wait till 9 o'clock because he's doing his masters thesis right now. If I go home by bus straight away, I'll get home by 6 o'clock. So when i get home, I take a shower and have dinner, then prepare lunch for the next day..and get ready to . SLEEP. XD. That explains why I haven't been able to update much in here. Anyway.. I love weekends. I just love weekends, the only time I get to hang out with friends or do whatever. Now that I'm working, I truly feel the need for weekends. Seriously, I just find it so relaxing to do household chores like cleaning and baking especially. Do you guys know that have not got the time to bake! I have not baked for 1 month!! This weekend, I wasnt going out anywher.. so I baked nastar (Pinapple Tarts) at 10 o'clock at night.. it took a long time, i finished baking by 2 o'clock in the morning! But it's all worth the efforts!! You know, this nastar melts in your mouth the moment you put it in your mouth! GYAA!!

Ok, for those who are keen to try.. here is the recipe:

For the pastry:

• 250 g anchor butter at room temperature
  
• 1 tablespoon of margarine
  
• 300 g of plain flour
• 1.5 tablespoon of cornflour
• 1.5 tablespoon of tapioca
• 3 egg yolks
• sift flour, cornflour and tapioca together
  
• whisk butter and margarine until light and creamy with the colour of light yellow at medium speed
  
• add egg yolks one by one until incorporated again at medium speed.
• Then, add the flour mixture by sifting again into the egg and butter mixture
• It's really important that you avoid using your hands as much as possible because this will cause the dough to melt and the cookie will become very hard. So at this stage, use your spatula
• Once the mixture is all incorporated, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes
  

For the pineapple filling: (prepare this first)

• 1 440g can of crushed pineapple in natural juices (Okay, normally ppl suggest using shredded pineapple, but honestly, I just don't give a flying donkey's ass about this. But this crushed pineapple works really well), Oh, drain the juice of course ^^
• 50 g sugar (can add more if you like sweet)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon of clover
• After draining the pinapple juice, put it in a pan with sugar, cinnamon and clover. Then, boil it until the rest of the juice thickens up and becomes a dry thick paste.
• Put this in the fridge until cool
• Take it out and then make small balls out of this for easy assembly of the tart
• leave aside
  

For assembly:

• Take 1 teaspoon full of chilled dough and form it into a ball using the tips of your teaspoon
• Then, cut out a small plastic sheet and place your dough there. Quickly fill the dough with the pineapple filling that you've already formed into small balls.
• Place onto baking sheets
• Repeat until dough is finished
• Brush with eggs (1 egg and whisk until incorporated)
• Bake in preheated oven (170C) until golden brown (not burnt)

Hm.. I think I might end up giving them away..cuz.. I dont have the guts to eat them. hahahaha.. they're quite full of butter. >.> So, I think this is a good gift for someone. Okay, so I'm gonna get ready, I'm going out tonight! Catch you guys later.