Easter frolic!

ChickenpoX

Did a little cookie deco for this christian festival celebrating the ressurection of Jesus.

Bed of Roses

More importantly, it looked better in my mind than the 'real' product. Hopefully, my skills of executing my idea can improve over time. But for now, i have to make do with what i came out with... *sigh*

I *Heart* U

And last but not least....

Breaking away from recession!

(you have to see it upside down) if u still dun get it.. well.. u're not alone:) Have a very Happy Easter to all of you!

Yo-yos

Tried baking some cookies over the weekend and it was a pleasant surprise that it turned out well:) BTW, I got the recipe from the "Golden book of pastries" the instructions were easy to follow and the ingredients were.. well.. easy to find in any baker's kitchen~

To me, the cookies looked kinda cute. Made me crave for Mac's burger for a minute there. Anyways, digressing a bit.. i MIGHT be going for a 10km race (not confirmed since i'm only on their waiting list) but i think i should train soon and maybe think of some pasta recipes for my carbo loading..(do they carbo load for 10k runs?)

oh well.. a few spaghetti won't kill the scale right??

Public Display of Affection

It's our third year into the relationship, and yes, our anniversary is just 2 days after V-day. In fact I have friends telling me that it's very smart of me (in a way)

So! After Eric's dinner - prepared with love. We're are going to somewhere posh (or i deem likely) to have our 3rd year anniversary dinner--Le Petit Salut located at Dempsey. I'm so looking forward to it:) I'm goin to get loaded with expensive calories! YaY!

But as much as the title is concerned, i'm not much of the person who parades PDA. I'm too shy to flaunt my feelings on the world-wide-web.. soooo...

a little something i've prepared..

Happy Anniversary~

Chinese New Year Treats

It's Chinese New Year! to meng, CNY is the time where you have free flow of gassy drinks, tons of pineapple tarts and when red is the new black. No more LBD.. more of RO.. (Red Overalls). OH! and other than the red packets (aka ang bao) there's also the CNY treats! I've made a few chocolate cookies for this festive season.

The first is the choc cookie with dark choc spread, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.. so sweet, so cute.. (targeting the kids)

Followed by marshmallow and raspberry jam sandwiched between choc cookies and finally dipped in flowy creamy choc. sinful sinful.. but nothing sould be healthy on CNY.. keke..

Lastly choc mud cake sandwiched again between choc cookies. it's my fav btw, it's very chocolatey but not as heavy.

It's been a long day with all the chocolate melting and shopping with Christine. I need a rest.. but I'm goin to make more CNY treats soon and this time it'll be choc-free:)

p/s. I've just found out that the pair of heels i got from Zara is both of the same side (right foot). OH NO! They clearly reminded me that there'll be no exchange/refund watsoever. I hope they will let me change one shoe :(

Christmas Buttons

BUSY. One simple world and yet fully describes my last month of 2008. There's the canceling of my student pass (so i'm officially not a student now), Baby shower, Eric and other December babies' birthdays and not to mention the number of pre-Christmas 'Christmas parties' which also resulted in many failed diet attempts. It's pleasant with all the warm fuzzy feeling of togetherness.. but well.. it's one hectic month. I was planning ( and let me mention again "PLANNING") to make Christmas cookies, you know the ones that are decorated with colourful royal icing, shape with Christmas themed cookie cutters and whacked with edible glitters.. but well, there's JUST. NO. TIME.

Anyways, in my effort to at least update my blog a little (the choco cake had gotten it's fair share of attention) I've made cookies. *See the Title?* btw, it's just normal cookies shaped into buttons of multiple colours (got the idea from women's weekly) and since it's made in the Christmas month, no harm adding 'Christmas' to the title right.

So, to everyone reading this message! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! WOOHoo~

p/s. to all guests coming to my place on 28th, i'm still working on the menu...it's unbelievably nerve-racking can~

Peanut butter cookies

"An average of two rodent hairs per one hundred grams of peanut butter is allowed."
No. 20. FDA Government guidelines

After a night of mascaras, blobs of foundation and cans of hairspray! It finally marks the end of our graduation dinner.. Not to mention the mahjong game after that which a certain someone Jia en took away meng ni's $2.10! leaving meng ni with peanuts which explains why i'm making peanut butter cookies today:( I want to 上诉! tsk tsk..

Anyways, i'm joking lah huh.. (but serious about the 上诉 part).. heehee.. I just so happen to visit the supermarket today, went to the jam/spread isle and saw SKIPPY! and decided to bake peanut butter cookies, last bake before i leave Singapore.. i'm definitely goin to send out resumes this time and look for a job when i get back! If not, i'll change my name to GISELLE! ( i think only christine will get the joke).

Back to my cookies.. easy to make! done and ready to eat in about 30 minutes? i really liked the texture, but my mother said that the peanut taste is not distinct enough for her.. hmm.. maybe i should add 1 more tbsp next time?

Since Jeannie's back, i'll let her try if i get to meet them tonight.. or maybe keep the cookies until half a month later for them.. HAHA~ in my Perfumes and cosmetics mod, the lecturer says, vitamin E can act as a preservative, maybe i should spray some on my cookies.. that way, the cookies will be well preserved and the person eating gets to have some kind of supplements when they gobble down my cookies!! Yeah~ smart smart~ *spraying*

Ingredients:

250g plain flour
50g corn flour1tsp double action baking powder
150g unsalted butter
100g castor sugar
2tbsp chunky peanut butter for this recipe, you may add more if you like
1tsp vanilla essence
1egg


Method:

1. Cream butter, castor sugar, peanut butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Add in egg and beat well.
2. Fold/use triangular looking hook to add in sifted flour mixture and mix well until a soft dough is formed
3.Drop 1/2tbsp of dough on lightly greased baking trays.
4.Bake in oven at 180 'C for 12 to 15 mins or until golden brown.
5. decorate with melted chocolate if desired.



p/s. Huifang, i forgot to chase you for my cooper Tee!!

Ultimate Chewy Double Chocolate Cookie

(It's a tiring Friday)~ Got my new mixer this morning-Kitchenaid. By word of mouth, it's more powerful and suitable for heavy duty mixing such as bread dough or other tougher dough. Ha~ and the more important part is that i got it at a promotional price.. saved $300 by the way.. keke. So with the help of my new machine, i baked double chocolate cookie!!! I personally swear by Valrhona Chocolate, so went to do some chocolate shopping before going to clementi to meet Chris to buy the organometallic text. Seems like oragnometallic is a never ending story by itself. First the review, then the lecture notes/textbook/syllabus to study for exams and finally 2 literature studies which i haven't even downloaded yet. What is dear Ms Zhao thinking? We are not doing our masters' or whatsoever, so why the overloading?!?! *Sigh* I really have no mood for it.

Anyways, we went to clementi bookshop and couldn't find the book that we wanted. So we have to go all the way back to NUS to get the text. The text is not cheap, and it's really not worth it thinking that we are graduating soon and we really have no interest in organometallic stuff unlike Jiaen. So, we performed some magic *it shall remain as a secret between us.. hee..* and got what we wanted for $5. How did we do it? THINK!

Satisfied with our evil *accomplishments* we went back home and i started preparing for my COOKIES! It's not the traditional kind.. it's suppose to be chewy and soft. My recipe was from a collection of America's Premier Chocolate Maker. I didn't really like the way they list their ingredients. e.g. 1 cup of packed all-purpose flour. hmm... see the problem? my definition of packed may not be the same as theirs... so to me it's not baker friendly. i would prefer them to state the weight? grams? ounce? anything.. but lightly/tightly packed? ermm... as a chem student we read our burette to the 2nd decimal place leh!

*sigh* and the worst part is after recalculating the ingredients that i need.. ( i'm planning to use 1 packed of chocolate plates but recipe requires 1.5 times.. so i have to scale down the ingredients) i realize that i need 2.3 eggs. Darn.. i'm not going to put 2 eggs.. cos that will make my cookie dry and i'm certainly not going to waste 0.7 egg(s).. for the reason that many people are starving now.. (actually i shouldn't even be stating any reason.. wasting food is BAD!) plus 0.7 egg(s) is not worth the time to heat another pan--> scramble--> remove from pan --> clean pan.. so i added all three eggs into my mixture.. turned out that my cookie became too soft.. *sigh* i had a bad feeling about it.. and yes.. it was confirmed by sheena.. BUT! looking on the brighter side, it's really chocolatey.. the way i like it.. haha! i'm a chocolate fan! i think most girls are..

By the way, this series of photos were taken with a lousier camera. The one that i like to use was taken by my dad to a forest to take pictures of trees...tsk tsk.. Good cameras are really a cook/baker wanabe's best friend. It can make mediocre appear delicious and okay food look like delicacy of the year. Not that my cookings rely on good cameras, they really have standard one k~~

Hmmm.. But i guess i shouldn't be complaining. at least there are still pretty pics that i can use right.. keke..Btw, I'm going to have a new "toy" tomorrow.. look forward to my next post!! Now... to study for my organometallic

p/s. Now that i know that there are actually people (other than eric and my anonymous bro) reading my blog.. i really feel motivated to blog more.. heehee..

p/p/s. Dear Chris, we forgot to pay for the grad dinner.. wah lau~ what's wrong with us huh? i thought we mentioned it twice in the morning and we still forgot about it.. Damn..