twenty-nine

it's august 29, 2010 and it's my 29th birthday! a little bit older but definitely a lot more wiser. is it really? :P. time will tell, hehehe...

oh btw, i've prepared a 4-course meal for my family last nite for iftar and it was for a party of 9! quite impress with myself ;). i made veggie spring rolls (erm, without the sauce :P) for starter, chicken lasagne as the main course, the side dish of bbq chicken wings and crème caramel as the sweet ending. i didn't eat much cos was too tired from the hard work. will do it again, of course, with some minor adjustment to the recipe...

and today, am preparing some food for the new family. gonna make another batch of veggie spring rolls (again, minus the sauce :P) and gonna bake an orange cake with frosting. hopefully all will go well as plan. fingers cross!

and tomorrow, planning a night out with the bunny and some friends. am so craving for some peanut butter banana smoothie. how long have i waited to get hold of this delicious beverage and the best is only available at delicious. so delicious :P. so excited! ;)

magic

magic fingers have made a comeback! second attempt at tiramisu making (after years of absence) was a success, yeay! also, managed to prepare 2 types of chicken dishes, one a slightly spicy chili fried chicken and another was teriyaki chicken for iftar. warming up the cooking skills, hehehe...

well, back to tiramisu. the first attempt was last week, which failed miserably. not because of rusty skill :P, but the wrong use of ingredient. it was actually the right ingredient but wrong choice of brand. as i've previously mentioned in entry titled cook, the cost of preparing tiramisu right here is unbelievably expensive. so, for the first try, i bought the cheapest mascarpone cheese available at cold storage, for a start. tried and tested, and it tasted awful. for the second try, i bought the more expensive one (costs double), and had to use 2 pots of cheese! but the result, it was very much worth it. sometimes, we just had to go for the more expensive ones for the quality. expensive items are better, although not all the time but most, isn't it?

and here is the recipe, if anyone interested. it's actually the simplest to the original and have been modified to my liking ;)

ingredients:

3 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
500 grams mascarpone cheese
24 ladyfingers (boudoir fingers / sponge fingers)
1 cup cold espresso (strong coffee)
cocoa for sprinkling
 

methods:
1. in a medium bowl, beat yolks with sugar and vanilla until smooth and light yellow over double boiler. fold mascarpone into yolk mixture. set aside.
2. dip ladyfingers briefly in coffee and arrange 12 of them in the bottom of an 8x8 inch dish. spread half the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers. repeat with remaining cookies and mascarpone. cover and chill for at least 7 hours in the fridge. sprinkle with cocoa just before serving.

have fun making them! 

blog

i blog whenever i've got loads of ideas. i blog when i'm out of any.

i blog if i have things to say. i blog when i don't feel like talking to anyone.

i blog when i'm frustrated. i blog when i'm happy.

i blog if things got complicated. i blog to toughen myself up.

i just blog. whenever, wherever, whateva. period.

middleman

hate being one cos the messenger is the one who got shot, everytime!

soundtrack

sometimes u will learn new and most likely to be little-known songs from movies or tv series. i've found some and IMHO, they are just splendid and better from those released as singles. one soundtrack song that i love til now would be life in mono by mono from the movie great expectations. another would be one of the songs from spiderman 2, we are by ana johnsson. recent favourite is darling i do taken from shrek forever after.

if anyone could choose any song to be their own story soundtrack, i would consider this song to be mine ;)

the right man by christina aguilera


and the right man will of course and always be... mr bunny, although he's not a fan of this song :P.

pen

the bunny bought me a new lens for the pen yesterday, a 25mm f2.8 zuiko digital lens, equivalent to 50mm on a 35mm camera system. not so well verse on the technical term but i love it to bits. and the bunny too of course ;).

never knew i could do so much more with my beloved pen. with the new lens and higher speed broadband, i managed to discover plenty more on what this very gadget can do. all valuable info through the net via youtube and other forms and source of info are just a click away. accessing to youtube is no hassle. videos can be watched quicker. no buffering. browsing is easier. just in milliseconds. the connection is just fast.

sounds fake and exaggerating rite? but it's true :P. try it to believe it, hehehe...

unifi

officially unified. at my PIL's, that is. been longing to have a much higher speed and stable internet connection for ages. the last time i've experienced such speed was in early 2007. it was 25mb. and u know what, that was the lowest hsbb speed the company were offering. and now the technology has arrived in malaysia with the fastest speed of 20mb. don't really care much as long as i don't have to face another intermittent connection of internet via copper. very much relieved.

at first i planned to install unifi at my own house in melawati. unfortunately, since i have just upgraded the connection to streamyx staff netbook package, i can only migrate the streamyx to unifi package in january. since the PIL's house is also unifi enabled, and after brief discussion with the new family, we've decided to install the package with no delay. great stuff ;)

detox

many of friends are doing the detox. why? eat too much? consume alcohol too much? smoke too much?

why waste so much money on detox products when we can do it naturally. just fast or drink lots of plain water and pure fruit juices while at the same time reduce those processed food and dangerous food intake. or maybe do the fruit fast by replacing the regular food with fruits.  i've done it before just for a try and the toilet was my best friend :P. only try it if you have a VERY strong stomach, hehehe...

whatever it is, the best way to be and keep healthy is to know what you eat. learn the food. understand the ingredients. avoid harmful food. protect yourself.

disclaimer: fruit fast is not suitable for those with candida albicans or blood sugar problem (borrowed from helium.com)

anniversary

it was the parents-in-law 40th anniversary. went to celebrate it at an arabic restaurant in ampang. can't remember the name though :P. nway, 40 years together and the FIL said he felt like he just got married to the MIL yesterday. how romantic ;). they are such a loving couple. blessed with 8 children and 4 S/DIL & 11 grandchildren and counting... so lovely. oh, how much i miss my father and the happy family environment when he was around...

another great event happened today. it was also my younger brother's engagement ceremony. he is now engaged to be married to emmy (emmy kecik that's what we call her as another brother's fiance is called ami, the ami besar, hehehe...). both brothers are scheduled to get married after eid, this year for the elder and next year for the younger one. good luck to you guys. i can be the wedding planner, with a hefty price tag of course, hahaha!!! *evil laugh* :P