CCC

Extracted from another foodie blog which i found which i will soon try my hands on ;)

Hope she doesn't mind i post it here coz i always, always misplace recipes and currently, the printer isn't working. Hence, cant print it out immediately to file.

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Chocolate cheese cake

Making the mixtures was really easy, but layering them was the problem. When I poured in the final chocolate mixture onto the cheese layer, I made mistake by pouring too much in the middle, then end up scrapping it all to the side, which in the end causing the side rim to have too much. Nevertheless, the effect was not bad; I got wave-like layers, which some people thought I did it on purpose.

I also found that I had to take longer baking time than suggested, then later I found out its because I used an 8-inch pan instead of 9. But I will still stick to 8-inch, because the height of the cake is just nice with the layers clearly shown, and of course, it means bigger portion in every slice. You won’t regret it.

Mixture A:
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
1 egg

Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy
Beat in egg until well incorporated
Set mixture aside

Mixture B:
180g butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Beat in egg, one at a time until well incorporated into mixture
Sieve all the dried ingredients together
Fold it into the egg mixture

To assemble:
With an 8-inch cake pan, pour in half of mixture ‘B’, then all of mixture ‘A’, then remaining mixture ‘B’
Bake in preheat oven at 180C for 55-60 minutes (45-50 minutes for 9-inch pan) or until skewer comes out clean
Serve well chilled

It's didi's birthday!

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Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to didi,
Happy Birthday to you.

*muaks muaks muaks* :*

Celebrated didi's birthday last night instead of today because papa and the rest of the extended family will be working late starting today and for the rest of the whole next month. The 'battle' has just begun.


Baked oreo cheesecake for didi instead of getting him one from bakery. Got tired of eating chocolate sponge cake (they usually have either vanilla or chocolate sponge option only if you are ordering kids cake with nice designs). My very first attempt :D

Ignore the deco. I cut off 2" from the top coz it was way over the pan. I was too greedy, i poured the whole batter in till top, leaving no gap thinking cheesecake doesn't rise. When it baked, it 'mushroomed'. Didn't look nice.

Hence, cut cut cut. After cutting, obviously it looks ugly. So, again.. no choice but to cover it with crushed oreo cookies and val rhona chocolate shavings instead of having the balloon design which i intended to do plus wordings too.Sorry baby :(

Oreo cheesecake : top view

Oreo cheesecake : sliced

Should i?

I just came back 10mins ago from dress shopping with Tanny. It was so fun!

It's been quite sometime since i enjoyed my outing this much, you know, just shopping? But i guess it was because i was the 'lead actress' today that's why. Lol.

You see, i went back to my bridal boutique today for an unutilised evening gown which was in my wedding package back in 2001. I wanted to convert that for my bridesmaid gown. After talking to Michelle (Bridal Veil), i got undecided.

My evening gown entittles me to have long train, crystals, beads etc. Basically, i paid for a 1k plus dress and the bridesmaid gown which i was gonna make costs about $300-400? Michelle advised me go to Olive Suite instead to search for such simple dress which was just next door. But if i do wanna go ahead and do a $400 dress with Michelle, she's perfectly fine with it. It's just that.. she felt it would be wasted which is true.

So off i went with Tanny and bf to Olive Suite. Not too bad i would say. I love their dressing room! And the girls (my guess is that, they are the owner definitely) were angels! I got around trying a few dresses and i fell in love with one which costs $370.

I never thought i'll look good in a bustier or tube tops. Blame the arms and pectoral fats. But the dress i fell in love with was beeaaauutiifuul. Ahhh.. I like the way i look in it. Lol *hide*

It's champagne ivory with sash tied below the bust and brooch on it. Lovely. Of course, the pectoral fats are still there but according to the girls, it will not be so obvious if it's not too tight (i couldn't zip mine till top). Oh well..

HOW?

The whole point of me going back to Bridal Veil is to make use of the package and need not spend a cent. But now, the whole situation got a lot more complicated especially that i've fallen for the dress.

If only i got the progress package :(

What should i do? Sigh..

Ugh

My menses came early this morning. 8 days late!

So much for hoping the test kit is faulty :P

Barbeque

Had our very first bbq last night, organised by my sil and her bf.

As usual, the ones who enjoyed most were the kids. Lol. And us, the adults, the enjoyment comes during piggin out session :P

It was fun to organise stuff like this once a while than the usual dinner at home on Sunday. The tricky part would be starting the fire. Hb and i are pretty keen on getting a mobile bbq pit ourselves since ages ago. Would love to grill the steaks, squids and prawns *drool*

Busy preparing

Our dinner : kebab on skewer and Nandos chicken (i bought the sauce from KL sometime ago). Oh, my orange cake too! Hee hee

May (1st sil) with Sz

May with didi who attempted to do a 'peace' sign like his korkor

I lurve family activity :D

Food

Alrighty, i'm in the mood to post my food again. Lol.

Been feeling down, must be my lost hormones. When i'm down, i'm best cheered up by 1) food 2) food 3) food but of course, it will soon be replaced by guilt thereafter :P

Quick lunch : Raviolli with mushroom cream garnished by dried basil leaves and grated parmesan cheese

Dinner: Sirloin steaks with mushroom sauce, fried and stir fry vegetables

Bon Appetit :D

Party!

Well, not exactly an adult party but it was still a party afterall, for a 1 month old baby.

Happy Full Month, baby Reyes *hugz*kiss*

Mama Mindy was looking radiant, post-delivery-happy-to-be-outta-confinement-look, right? Hehe. We had lotsa fun especially the kids. So much toys and good food too!

I somehow managed to sneak behind the boys, yes, very young boys and eavesdropped. Opps, bad bad mommy but i cant help it :P

Do you know what kids talk about these days? Gosh, i never knew man. Kids around 5-7 years old actually discussed about online gaming websites! That's not all, they even talked about their fav singer. Seems like JJLin is on top of the list. And most times, their conversation was mostly FIRE! FIRE! DIE! DIE! DIE! Lol. My Sz was like fire fire die die too. Aihh, definitely the case of monkey see monkey do. Sometimes i do wonder if should i bring him out more often and mix around with the elder boys?


Right in my heart, i kinda knew the answer. No. Call me selfish but i really don't like seeing him growing up so fast. I want him to be with me forever, loving me and needing me all the time.. Well, not all the time lah. But enough to make me feel important will be good *grin*

Some photos to share. Please pardon my bizarre hair. I didn't know i looked so messy and oily till i saw the photos. Was out whole day, you see :P

Baby Reyes and me

Baby Reyes, mama Mindy and me

p.s: It feels soooo fuzzy and nice to be carrying a tiny baby again .. :D

Double sigh

I've tested this morning.

It's negative. I'm not pregnant. Sigh.

Just when i'm rushing against time to have a 2006 baby, i'm not pregnant. When i dilly dally about wanting to get pregnant, i got pregnant almost instantly. Not once but twice.

This is so frustrating!

I don't wanna birth after 2006! Ugh.

Dear God,

If you are reading this, please let me be pregnant asap ok? Thank you so much!

xxxooo

Sigh

I don't know how should i be feeling right now.

Thankful or sad?

Thrilled or heartache?

Thankful, for being able to save my baby from drowning.

Sad, for the loss of my as-good-as-new-less-than-1-year-old-handphone, all my photos, videos, sound recordings while i saved my baby.

Thrilled, for the fact that i'll be getting a new handphone.

Heartache, for having to unnecessary money on a new handphone when i can spend the hundreds on something else better.

What should i feel? Sigh.

But then, if the situation to be reversed, such that in order not to lose my handphone, i carefully took it out from my pocket before i jumped into the pool and for that mere seconds ticking by, i lost my child.

If that were to happen, i think i would have committed suicide by now for being such a self centred, materialistic, selfish mother.

So, i guess i know what i should feel but i cant exactly feel it, you know.. for some obvious reason.

My beautiful Panasonic VS2

p.s: Would you believe me if i were to say i actually had premonition on what was gonna happen like 15mins before the incident happened?

I really did.

I even told myself that if the accident were really to happen, what i'll do before that is to throw my handphone to wherever, be it on the floor, the bench, anywhere.. before i jump into the pool. Having a scratched hp is better than no hp.

Too bad i didn't, even though i could have coz before i jumped, i even managed to think should i or should i not but i didn't for not wanting to waste even a mili-second trying to get my hp out.

Oh well. I made my choice but i just cant stop dwelling about it. Ugh.

Recommendation

I need some good recommendation for affordable seamstress for dress making.

Or alternately, anyone who knows where to look for champagne colour gown, please let me know.

Requirements are : champagne colour with baby turqois lining.

HELP!

Thank you in advance :)

Something like this

This as well

Lurve the material but too bad, too neckline plunging :(

Champagne colour gown but in a shorter version. Love the design

This is my part of contribution to my dear friend's wedding surprise. Hope she'll be thrilled :)

Carmen, can print the caption of the photos as well? And this is where i want the photos to be yeah. Thanks!

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1. Name your page with one word describing Camay..:

When i think of Camay, i think of 'fun'

My very first photo of Camay. Class of 1990, Standard 4 Biru :)

And this would be our very first photo together, at Lake Garden for Geography project with Carol as well

2. Where and when did you met Edouard / Camay for the first time ?

Hmmm, my very very first memory flashes back to the photo i have below. Check this out!



However, i don't quite remember much about it. My only impression of Camay is that she mixes with English speaking girls only and i don't speak English back then, at all! *paiseh*

3. What is your best souvenir with Edouard / Camay ?

Souvenir? *think.. think and still thinking..* Friendship has been mentioned. So what's left for me? :P Let me see, i know! She is always there when i needed her. I remembered once when she was still residing in Singapore, i actually took refuge at her house out of the blue without giving her prior preparation or whatsoever. She actually said OK! Haha. That girl even cooked dinner for me and make sure i was well taken care of and made me feel very much at home :)

Er, this is what we categorised in "friendship" as well isn't it? Oh well, nevermind :P

4. What is the worst / most funny / embarrassing one - describe.

Oh oh.. finally, i remembered very once incident! YES!

Remember we used to go the Camay's place at Faber Ria for parties when we were in Secondary school? Boy, that was fun! There was one particular incident which till today, i still remember pretty well. Think we started talking about ghost, scary stories etc at Camay's living room before we suddenly kept quiet and stare at each other with goose bumps all over. The next thing we knew, we were out of the house as fast as lightning, screaming all the way. Finally, the lift arrived, we got in and that was not all!

We were too terrified till when the lift door opened at don't know which floor, we actually screamed our lungs out without checking. Right in front of us then was a poor guy who got the shock of his life seeing more than 6 girls screaming like escapees from Tanjong Rambutan (in Sg, it's Woodbridge)! ;)

5. Describe your likes abt Ed and/or Camay ?

I like the way Camay takes care of her friends. Make sure we were ok, having fun and all safe and sound u know.

I know that if i were turn up in Paris one day unannounced, she'll definitely go out all out to take care of everything for me, from lodging to food and even entertaining! Right Camay? *wink*wink*


7. Describe your dislikes abt them. Be honest.

For the moment (after cracking my head for the past 15 mins), i still cant think of any. So please, do leave some dots like this -> ...... just in case i manage to think of something before she sees this :P

I would love to take this opportunity to wish my dear friend here all the best for the rest of her life. Now (the marriage) is just the beginning of the new chapter of a never ending book. And for Edouard, i must say, you are the luckiest guy in the whole wide world (besides Ben *bleah*) for having such a wonderful girl to spend the rest of your life with.

Cheers :)

xoxoxo
me

Baked this..

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Nope, it's not carrot cake.

It's called Passion Cake :D

The difference is in the ingredients. This has mashed banana and also grated lemon rind. As far as i know, carrot cakes do not have these 2 ingredients. So, yeah.. passion cake it is :)

As usual, i love the cream cheese frosting. Yums!

Ahem. Not gonna give any to my in laws anymore. Everytime, seriously, everytime i bring some of my food over (be it baked goodies or cooked ones), they are never enthusiastic about it. Worst is, it's always left unfinished on the counter *boo-hoo*. How sad can it get right?

I know that they don't snack or eat desserts but still, i cant stomach the sight of my hard baked/cooked food on their counter after days since i left it there.

From now on, i'm gonna benefit my neighbour instead. Lol.

My 0.5 cents:

The best pleasure which one can derive from cooking/ baking is not the process itself, no matter how passionate we are about cooking/baking.. but it is the sheer joy of seeing our guests or family or friends enjoying the food we prepared for them.

V

Caught this last week with hb.

When hb mentioned about wanting to watch this, i was like.. er, count me out, boy. Not my kinda show.

However, in the end, i tagged along to watch it.. For the sake of spending more time with him. *wrinkle nose* :P

Surprisingly, it was good. Really. I enjoyed it so much. Love the story line. Not those typical heroic story. Most of all, i was captivated by the guy behind the mask. Even though i couldn't see his face, i was mesmerized by his voice, the smooth talking and, and.. i dunno. I just know that i fell for this guy without knowing how he looks like. Ha!

And his build.. *whoa*. Enough said.

When i told hb about it, he was like Hugo Weaving is the Matrix guy! I was shocked. I never expected that. The Matrix guy didn't look like someone who could be V! But then again, it's all about acting isn't it? Silly ol' me.

This show, is a must-watch. Not to be missed, girls ;)

Dinner

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I cooked this last night for dinner. My very first attempt cooking pasta which its sauce is not tomato based. Was really craving for it after seeing tons of similiar pics on Eat magazine last week. So, decided to cook it myself instead of eating out with hb. Save $$$. We're forever broke. Ugh.. :P

Anyway, the pasta is tossed in this special oil based sauce which i made (copied from a Taiwanese variety food show on TV) which really gave the whole thing oommpphh!

First, fry the prawn heads in olive oil. Usually i would throw the heads away after but not this time. I learnt that we could actually squeeze the heads after it has cooled down for the ultimate juice. Mix the ultimate juice with the olive oil used just now. The oil is now ready to be added into spaghetti for tossing :)

Friday's dinner : stir fry lady's finger, egg omelette with prawns, chili squid and beef rendang

I loveeeeeeeeeeeee spicy food. Crave for it every now and then.

Pics time!

Gonna blog and blog till i get sick of it, to make up for the past few days. Lol. Just kidding. I'm not a blogaddict yet but might be one in the future *bleah*

Went to Botanical Garden for picnic the other day, Tuesday to be exact with the kids. School holidays mah, so treats for the boys. Oppss.. no no, Tuesday was Zoo day. Thursday was picnic day. There you go. Boy, we had so much fun!

I discovered something new in Botanical Garden that day. Which was, the lake/pond behind the stage. It was full of fishes (koi) and tortoises and even ducks! Best is we can actually feed them. Yay! So next time we know yeah.. can bring some bread over and feed them like a madman, or rather, kids feed them like madkids :P

I love my boys (small ones that is). Still furious with the big one for misery cum frustration he caused me for the past few days (the blog issue) *piak*piak* :P

Botanical Garden

Cheeky ones

Naughty one

I those dainty little hands!

Aiyoh!

Oh my god.. silly me!

It's totally my fault. Not blogger. But i suspect it's hb who did this! *kabish* He helped me corrected some spelling mistake earlier and i think he switched my tab from Compose to Edit HTML! Ugh.

I'm so gonna kill him! Grrr..

Aihh..

Sian.

As long as blogger stays this way, not able to edit and stuff, i've got no mood to blog even though i have tons of pics to update.

Is it the Blogger or my Internet Explorer's fault? Sigh.

My oh-nee

What is wrong with blogger?!!

Anyone experiencing the same sh*t as me? Not able to choose my font, my size and alignment of my text? And even colour! Ugh. Anyway..




My oh-nee, after adding coconut milk and syrup but before stirring



After stirring, ready to eat :)

Happy Belated Birthday to Shuoze!

Yesterday was a very busy day, buzzing with activities around the clock from morning till midnight. Didn't have time to touch the pc at all. So, belated birthday wish for my boy it is. May my first born be a happy and healthy boy, always *hugs and kisses* (and perhaps, tone down abit too! Too active sometimes. Lol)

Had dim sum at East Ocean for brunch. Yummy! Thank you girls for introducing me to this wonderful restaurant. Really love it lots!

Tomorrow, i will be making oh-nee (teochew yam paste) for the very first time. Got inspired from the desserts we had at dim sum. Absolutely delicious! I heart oh-nee. So does my my in laws and hb. Whole family practically except for the silly billy Sz. *doink doink* :P

Anyway, photo time!












Please ignore the moody-face-guy in the family picture *kabish*. And oh, that's how my cake looks like inside :)

Dang. Blogspot died again. Can't 'beautify' my post!

Stop!

Just done with baking this for my beloved turning-4-years-old-tomorrow son :D

The cake

Top view

Side view

Very-giggly-baby-upon-seeing-my-piece-of-art

I know! It's not a perfect-looking cake at all. So many faults/flaws which you can pin point out. *sobs*.

It was so stressful! Really. Especially that i've already announced to the family (my in-laws basically) that i would be baking the birthday cake instead of buying it. So the expectation is there and i have to make it presentable and edible at the same time. Plus, my parents-in-law are real fussy potsssss when it comes to cakes [food] or rather, the whole of my in law family + my hb are! *sweat*

The last time which was also happened to be my first time baking a sponge cake with fresh cream as deco was 1.5 years ago. Turned out alright but definitely not for guests to see. Lol. That was the only reason why i turned down the request of baking one for Carolyn's birthday last month. My cakes are nowhere near presentable at all! *hide*

But then again, it's only my second attempt! Please have mercy..

About the cake, it's chocolate genoise sponge cake with fresh cream and val rhona chocolate shavings for filling. As for the decoration, (if you cant tell) it's supposed to be a happy face cake :P

What tickles me is my baby's reaction when he saw the cake. Lol. So funny! Felt it was worth my effort afterall. Hee.. You see, he was sleeping throughout the cake deco part, so he has no idea what we were up to in the kitchen. By the time he was awake, the cake was done for good. First thing i did when he woke up was to show him the cake. I knew he would love to see it and i was right :P

His reaction? Giggling non-stop! Lol. He was just so so happy to see the Happy-face-cake. See, giggle, see, giggle.. with a hint of shyness. *faint* So cute!

Er er, please bear with me.. thick skin mom here *bleah*

Anyway, below is my very first sponge cake baked in October 2004 *hide again*

It's strawberry shortcake :)

Birthday celebration

Yesterday was Sz's birthday celebration in school but his real birthday falls on the 12th, a Sunday.

We had such great fun. A total blast! The kids were ecstatic and Sz, the birthday boy was beaming and glowing, just by sitting in front of his cars-with-tracks-cake and telling everyone he sees.. this -> "It's my birthday!". Lol.

The birthday boy

The cars-with-tracks birthday cake

My put-in-lotsa-effort-goodie-bags

Singing birthday song (the none-uniform guy is the kid brother :P)

My birthday wish is... (more toys!)

Let's talk about the goodie bags, which contained 2 chocolate shortbread cookies topped with M&M and colourful rice each.

Made such goodie bags instead of the norm ones which consist of snacks, sweets and chocolates is because..

1- i wanna save money. Lol.

2- i wanna be different

Last but not least, it looks more like a small project to me (i love doing projects or things that involved planning, organising and achieving, esp more if it needs a bit of creativity, lotsa brainstorming for a solution or many solutions). Since i don't have the chance to work or any chance to work at all (from the way i'm going) , this is one of the little things i can do to satisfy my inner needs of handling projects bla bla bla. This goodie bag actually involves choosing the right cookie to bake, decorating it and wrapping. Sounds like a no brainer right? Lol.. but it's not.

You see, (oh no, grandmother story!) the cookies i wanna bake was supposed to be a perfect shape of round which have 2 eyes and a nose of M&Ms but the dough turned out soft again despite me using hand to knead (so i suspect it's the recipe! afterall, i got it from a kiddo book *bleah*).

So i shaped it with my hands instead. Since it's not gonna be a perfect round, i skipped the eyes and nose part. Instead, i decorated them with colour rice and 1 M&M only to make it look more appealing to children. Thankfully, it tastes great! Hehe..

Initially, i wanted to finish the wrapping off with a ribbon tied around but i would need at least 4 metres for it which would cost about $6-7? So ex! Kinda defeat my purpose of saving $$$ right? So, decided to stick to cellotape and that's it. At the very last minute, after looking at the plain goodie bags, an idea just popped and there you have it, as you can see from the photo, a cut out star with Sz's name on it to brighten up the goodie bags :D

Ok ok, i admit.. it's quite a no brainer project afterall.. :P

My loot..

courtesy from my mom in law




Didn't dare to buy more since i'm not the one paying although i would love to get another more top. Lol. Nevertheless, 3 pcs is good enough for me. Almost $100 buckeroo here, y'know :P

I love the striped top to bits! Square neck, nice. Don't see much square neck tops these days. The pants not too bad too. Like the fact that it's low waist but not overly low, can put belt (i like putting belt, more chic in my opinon *bleh*) and the buttons at the bottom. Similiar to pedal pushers?

Fisherman's Wharf

For Celest :D

As i mentioned in the previous entry sometime ago, hb and i went to have our dinner at Fisherman's Wharf after hearing tons and tons of raves from CozyCot and also friends.

In the beginning, hb wanted to have yong tao hoo after our massages but decided to give FW a try instead upon my insistence that it would taste great. So, off we went and hb made one round just to pass the shop at the front to have a look at it. He turned and told me, it doesn't look appealing. That was his exact words. But i told him, looks can be deceiving plus with all the raves, how wrong could it go?

Alas, he gave in but it was quite a disappointment and i was totally embarrassed, so to speak. The fish that hb initially chosed was cod fish $14.50 but i kpo and told him, why not get the $11.50 one instead. It was also cod but the difference is one is near the head and the other fillet is near the tail. Unfortunately, hb agreed..

The fish texture was so rough and dry, gosh! Not even oily or creamy and definitely not cod-y! But the batter was not too bad. Fish was fresh from fryer. Served hot. But the same cant be said for the fries though. It was soggy and cold. Sigh. I really didn't know where to hide my head there and then! Lol.. *my recommendation ma*

I, on the other hand, had Danish meat balls with strawberry jam? and mashed potato. It was yucky. Totally. I thought it would be similiar to Ikea's Swedish meat balls but no. Then i realised they were from different country afterall. But the mashed potato was good though.

After our meal, hb was still feeling unsatisfied.. so we actually went for our second round of dinner at our fav yong tau hoo stall at Jalan Besar. The best you can get in town ;)

So girls, if you are going there, make sure you order the cream dory fillet (the normal fish and chips) which was raved upon or the creamiest fish you can get which i think it might be the $14.50 fillet which hb choosed at the very beginning

*yawn* Tired. Gone for shopping today and hair cut too. Will post my loot tomorrow. Stay tune.. ;)