think: a smurfette. a blogger. a rum raisin/pralines and cream addict. narcoleptic. a shop-a-holic. a noctournal-semi-diurnal creature. disaffected university student - no longer. mouse potato. couch potato. vain. stubborn. naive. patient. partial nerd. somewhat heliophobic, necrophobic & autophobic. has bad sense of direction. loud. an acquired taste.
been ages since i last posted. so i figured, why not, since i REALLY need to vent.
so far, 5 days to my exam. spent roughly 100hours prepping but hell, am i NOT ready for this ! taken quite a few mock exams with a pass rate of an average of 50%. zzz, how does one work and study and pass all at the same time ! *CRIES* worse. decision. ever.
please. just. let. me. pass. PLEASE T_T
may the force be with me (i really really x1023595124960) need it. cheers.
so recipe of the week is... *drum roll* FRUIT CHEESE PIES ! or tarts if u'd prefer, it's really up to you what size u wanna make.
A 300g flour 1tsp baking powder 100g castor sugar 1 tsp salt 150 butter 2 eggs
Mix all dry ingredients together then rub in butter to form bread crumbs
B 500g cream cheese 400g icing sugar 4 eggs
C 800ml water (400ml peach juice and 400ml water)8 tsp agar-agar powder180g castor sugar
Decoration for Pie 36 pieces of grapes 1/2 can peaches (halves) 50g of strawberry slices (basically any fruits u desire to be on ur pie.. other suggestions include mangoes, kiwis, etc)
Method 1. mix in beaten eggs to ingredients A by hand to form dough. place dough in plastic bag and refrigerate for 2 hours (or freeze 1/2 hour) 2. Take dough out and roll between 2 plastic sheets to form a round base for the pie tin 3. take out plastic on top of pastries and dust pastry with flour. spread flour evenly. cover with plastic and overturn. 4. grease pie tin (if aluminium pie tin, unnecessary to grease) 5. take off plastic sheet on top and place the unfloured side onto pie tin and press down to fit nicely in pie-tin.
Filling 1. cream cheese and icing sugar at medium speed for two minutes. 2. Add egg to the mixture 3. Pour into dough base and bake at 170C for 25 minutes (or until brown). Leave to cool for 20minutes. 4. Take out pie from oven and arrange fruits on pie.i tend to put the outer-ring of fruits first and work inward from there. 5. Pour agar-agar powder mixture over fruits and leave to cool in refrigerator till set.
i had a bit of leftover pie crust so i made a fruit tart in a muffin tin. comments i had from my eaters said the tart looks prettier but it does not have as much taste as the large slice of pie. maybe i just need to put extra cheese filling, hmm. and if you've got any left over agar-agar like me, you can use that to make a fruit jelly! yum!
as you can see from my photos, my crust is too thick :( i'll hv to work on that. nxt round, it will be AWESOME :)
ok, back to work.. more to come when i feel like it ! no ideas as yet on what my new recipe of the day/week/month/year is gonna be.. maybe an easy to do creme brulee ! we'll see
So miss bunny's blog is like, what? dead? what else is new? BORING.
So what's on the plate here? Lekor Ikan ! it's this yummylicious malaysian kinda fat fish cracker and here is my (actually wilson's but whatevs) first foray into lekor ikan !
Apparently, according to the site where we lifted this recipe off, this is famous foods from Terengganu, Malaysia.
Ingredients
1/2 kg fish (the recipe calls for mackerel but we don't have mackerels handy here so we settled for pink ling fillets)
200g sago flour (we substituted with tapioca flour... is that the same thing?)
Salt to taste
50ml water
Some ice-cubes
Method
Clean the fish and remove its intestines. Chop off its head and tail, leaving the body intact. Carefully, scrape off the fish meat; discard the bones. Or if you used fillets like we did, just omit this step and save heaps of time.
Pound, chop or mince the meat finely, adding salt to taste.
Add some ice cubes and continue mincing the fish meat.
Add sago flour and water. Stir the mixture until it becomes a soft dough.
Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape. Make it like a sausage size. Here, they ended up looking like sushi rolls, haha !
Boil a potful of water. Drop the keropok lekor into the boiling water.
Wait for it to float and remove with a slotted spoon. Set aside to cool.
Then deep-fry in hot oil.
And wahlah ! lekor ikan ! yum yum! just get out some sweet-ish chilli sauce, and you're all ready to go !
terrorist bear bear will be back for more posts soon ! fruit cheese tarts up next ! :D
even though, blah blah, i know it's supposed to be for my own good and it will help me improve myself etc. etc, i really really hate it !
life is depressing nowadays.. it really REALLY revolves around work, study, eat, sleep. wtf, that's no life.
i really wonder if studying again is going to be beneficial :x
it's not however, cheap, and it's painful to see my bank account go so sharply downwards. i really better not waste my money ! so.. hv to pass ! even though pass rate, is wtf, 33% *cries*
wish me luck, ppl !
in the mean time, a photo from grampians coz it was a really fun trip
so christmas, my sister's wedding, new year, chinese new year have passed and wtf, it's march already. where did my year go?
2010 being by and large a hugely uneventful year, i've promised myself i wouldn't let this year go to waste either. so i signed up for something huge ! i'm not sure i can do it.. i know i'm not cut out to take everything in stride (oh why oh why, wasn't i born brilliant *sigh*) but i really have to achieve something every year, so this is it!
i can feel the panic rising already, it's hard to quell it :( just.. thinking about it makes me scared.
oh well. do my best and i'll see from there.
also on a side note, grampians tomorrow with jien and then moonraker dolphin swims with wilson for our anniversary sometime next month. this is gonna be, wait for it, awesome !
and in the mean time some photos !
xmas with the family -
sister's wedding dinner and tea ceremony -
NYE -
chinese new year -
may the force be with wanting to be brilliant (failing that, to marry a millionaire/billionaire) cheers
wow, time pasts fast.. especially if you have something to do :)
so this weekend was the mother of all weekends - i'm finally having some free time and it's sunday already, zomg !!! we headed to der raum bar friday as we finally had an excuse to go check it out - it being wilson's like third day of celebration, lol. der raum has been consistently ranked in the top 10 bars in the world with at least one of their cocktails winning best cocktail of the year every year at some point or the other. and its near enough to the city - just about a 15 minute drive out. it's also not one of those extremely loud bars - it's rather small, quaint and cosy - perfect place to go! if only their cocktails weren't so expensive..
check out their website if interested by clicking the picca below ! :)
also a few photos from the night. as usual more piccas in the fb album 'old(er) and slightly wiser + halloween'
one of the best cocktails of the night - pharmacy
me.
me and darling
madison
i know, i know, it's supposed to be wilson's birthday but hey, i dressed up so i get to be photographed! :D but to be nice, i'll upload a few of wilson's piccas too..
and onward to halloween @ lavish!
dressed up as a fallen angel coz well, it was a last minute decision for me to attend and i don't have heap loads of costumes in my wardrobe..
brian the pumpkin killer
ej making kui up
me and some of the girls
more me
and this is it coz i'm too lazy to upload anymore photos.
anyway, just got back from watching resident evil: afterlife and i've got a massive headache. must be all the tv and alcohol i've been going through *sigh* almost finished playing heavy rain yesterday and a movie today.. zomg. also as usual, the minute spring comes, the pollen goes crazy and i wilt with hay fever, meh. gonna nap a while and wake up to enjoy the weekend (what's left of it anyway).
as usual rest of the piccas can be seen from my fb album.
may the force be with pollen infused worlds, cheers~
so it's been a flurry of birthdays lately! happy birthday to jien and my darling !
and my camera too has arrived ! yum yum, sexy sleek white lx5, i love you! you are an awesome buy!
a few of our gorgeous test shots!
photo in low lighting
macro mode
this kinda cool slow shutter speed thing
some photos of the nights coz they were just too awesome. jien's birthday dinner at zen japanese restaurant and my darling's at bacash and attica. der raum still to come ! woo.
Jien's Dinner
the old housemates back together - minus ivan
group picca
birthday cake
Wilson's Bacash Dinner
onward to wilson's birthday dinner at bacash
the cousins
the viola minus maddie
more of the cousins
with the loved one
and a group picca
no photos of the dinner attica coz by time we finished dinner it was so late so we had to hurry home and sleep, teehee.
ALL PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN ON MY FB under the album 'old(er) and slightly wiser'
also congrats to vinny :) we all in the work force now yo !
may the force be with the many celebrations yet to come, cheers~
of all the bands in this world linkin park is my favourite. and they don't do new albums too often so concerts are like once in a few years kinda thing. its been three years since their last concert and man, was i waiting for their new concert. its one of those things i will gladly splurge for. hell, i'll even go alone if i can't drag anyone else along with me. but but.. this is all..
till i found out their touring dates.
melbourne - 13 december.
oh, zomgwtfdamnit. i'm going back to malaysia on the 11th. wtfwtfwtfwtf. WHY is melbourne on the last stop ! why couldn't they come melbourne FIRST? T_T
i'm so disappointed i could die. sigh. LINKIN PARK WTF.
i think this is almost worth changing my flight tickets for. except i can't afford it. and. and, wtf, i think my mum will kill me if she found out i'm cutting back my 13 day trip back to malaysia after two years just coz of linkin park.
heading over to arintji to celebrate my belated birthday with my sister this weekend( i know, my birthday is lasting for like a week and two days, how awesome is that? ahahha). i've been reading rather contradicting reviews about this place.. the age said it was horrible and was revamped to become something awesome(ish) however bloggers and some other food places strongly recommend we NOT go there.
hmm, however as a rule, i always follow the age epicure - 9/10 they are true to their word and places they do recommend are usually on the money. verge, comme, madame sousous and various others.. the epicure is hardly ever wrong !
oh well, just made my booking. its too late to change now!
i do however approve that they have their meals tailor-made - they can either be entree size and meant to be shared or it can be a huge-ass plate meant as a main. with 6 of us going methinks we're gonna have our very own little degustation menu set up. plus the restaurant is situated on fed square so its gonna be rather scenic to munch our food overlooking the yarra river.
oh have i mentioned that this was opened my jacques reymond? although as his second restaurant its probably NOWHERE near his first, i'm hoping he took enough time out after its whole 'revamp'ing thing to make it almost as awesome as his first.
i know, i can't expect it to be as awesome as the first.. a meal in jacques reymond is likely to cost you at least 180 (they only do degustations on the weekend) and this one you can get a meal for as low as 30, ahhaha!
owh well. wish me luck on my choice of restaurant people!
so now that its all over (my birthday that is) a proper proper update about what i did and what i've been up to.
so, the party itself was a blast. so awesome that everyone i invited turned up :) also thankschus to my kulis of the day.. my family, wilson and maddie's mum. lol ! don't know what i'll hv done without them.
madison baked me a cake.. supposedly with nancy's help but by time nancy reached around 3 the cake was already all done ! just needed the candles but the cake looked awesome - and tasted awesome to boot. thanks ;)
both of us dealt with the menu of the day aside from the bbq and deep fried stuff and i believe it was a success, teehee.
bbq boys were really cham all night - my bro and wilson barely ate coz they spent all their time cooking.
some photos from the night. the rest can be seen on my fb acc under choco bears attack!
teehee, i like prezzies ! and the prezzies were ORRSOMEEE :) tiffany and cos necklace, jammies, jackets, chef's blowtorch, lingerie, shoes, candles, etc. etc.
ME LIKE! :)
we headed to lavish after that.. yawns, i'm too old for these kinda things! teehee.
nxt day spent the WHOLE day cleaning up T_T parties aren't easy yo. lotsa cleanup *cries* but then again with my army of kulis behind me it got all done up i guess. my poor bro and maddie.. at least i had the next day off. and the day after.. and the day after that.. lol !
also, had... to lug our trash to the yongs coz there wasn't enough place in our bin ! T_T
spent monday in, having my hair cut! LOL its now super short and according to lotsa ppl i know look like an anime character. wilson says i now look like nico robin. lol, sigh. i really don't know if that is a good thing or not.
he made me do a treasure hunt for my present at 12midnight. twas kinda fun but i realise i'm none too smart-i can't solve riddles! if gollum ever caught me (ala bilbo baggins style) i'll defo die k ! lol he gave me a marcs jacket, aww *heart*
watched predators on tues and then dinner at comme, some french/spanish fusion restaurant.
i just got back from daylesford - went to the choco mill, the spa and lakehouse. actually wanted to go to some lakes and parks around that area but started raining NON stop. meh. oh well, still an awesome awesome day.
plenty of chocolate and a relaxing spa later, i'm back in pt cook and i'm well satisfied :) thanks baby.. twas awesome.
also thankschus to all my friends and family.
woo, chie's coming down nxt week to celebrate my birthday coz she couldn't come down last week or this coz she's working (my birthday lasts THAT long, i know! its awesome)
