Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Meet Olly!

Everybody meet Olly the maltichon (maltese + bichon frise)!

Olly is the white one
We brought him home last Saturday. We're suppose to have him for a week, then decide if we want to adopt him but we're already so smitten by him, we have decided to keep him for good.

What do we know about him so far:
  • He's roughly about 4 years old (I'll know for sure when I get all the papers)
  • A sweet little guy with a spunky side to him
  • Loves to cuddle and often ask for a belly rub
  • He's vulgar to other dogs; will go up to them to play and then startled them by screaming in their face LOL (we secretly thinks he's got Tourette syndrome)
  • He's the dog version of Harry Houdini, the great escapologist. He manages to escape the fence that we set up in the laundry room several times. There's also an extra special hook on his crate to secure the door. Thank god he does not escape from the house
  • He loves to eat and eats like a glutton. We are training him not to steal our food but otherwise he's very obedient.
  • He enjoys his walk and loves playing fetch (gotta to remind myself to get him a non-squeaky ball; he enjoys squeaking the ball too much, he forgot to bring the ball back to me sometimes)
  • He only drinks from his water bowl so I'm trying to teach him to share to make things easier when we travel.
I think that's pretty much what we found out about him in these few days of having him around. Looking forward to create more wonderful memories with this ball of joy.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Recently when I went on my glamping trip, I brought some homemade Kek Batik for dessert. The cake looks adorable with it's batik pattern and tasted rich & yummy. It was a hit with the kids!


The recipe is really simple & if a noobie baker like me can nail it, you can too. Except there's no baking involved! You'll see why. The recipe calls for more Milo than chocolate but I tweak it since I prefer a more chocolaty cake. Also if you want a hint of coffee flavour (mocha kek batik), you can add a pack of instant coffee into the batter. I made both the chocolate kek batik and the mocha kek batik and I love them both.

Kek Batik Recipe:

Ingredients:
  1. 1/2 cup Milo
  2. 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels
  3. 1/2 cup boiling water/milk (whichever you prefer)
  4. 3/4 cup butter cut into large chunks
  5. 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
  6. 1/2 cup white granulated sugar (recipe called for half but I opt to put only 1/4 cup or no sugar at all)
  7. 5 eggs; separate the egg whites (I opted for 3 whole eggs & 2 egg whites)
  8. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  9. 1 packet of Marie biscuits (250g)
Method:
  1. Roughly break each biscuits into quarters and set aside
  2. Line the base and sides of a loaf tin with parchment papers (lightly grease the tin so the paper sticks to it)
  3. Beat the egg whites separately until fluffy and lightly beat the egg yolks.
  4. Melt chocolate morsels according to the instructions on the packaging.
  5. Mix melted chocolate and Milo in a saucepan and slowly add boiling water/milk into the mixture while stirring until it is smooth.
  6. Add butter, condensed milk, sugar, egg whites, egg yolks and vanilla into the saucepan
  7. Place over moderate heat and cook, stirring all the time until the bottom starts to thicken. Should take about 5-8minutes. 
  8. Continue to cook on low heat for about 20 minutes or until the batter forms a thick custard. Remember to stir constantly.
  9. Transfer the batter into a big mixing bowl and add in the biscuits. Mix them together until all the biscuits are coated with the batter.
  10. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and press it down to make sure there are no air pockets. 
  11. Knock the tin on the counter a few times to settle the batter then smooth the paper extensions over the top to even out the surface. 
  12. Let cool to the touch then cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Since it's a no bake recipe, you can tweak the ingredients however you want to make it healthier (or less healthy if that's what you want) to suit your eating lifestyle.

Happy Baking & Happy Eating!

Friday, August 12, 2011

The New French

After watching Lisa Eldridge's video on The New French manicure this morning, I decided to paint me some new french. 

I actually used 2 colours but the base one look like my own nail colour in the picture
It was not easy at all to DIY. Took me forever to finish both my hands. Fortunately it only took me one try and though I have not perfected the art yet, I'm quite happy with the result (for a first timer, kira OK la).

Well now I'm too lazy to paint my toe nails so I'll leave the task for tomorrow - hopefully. Now I'm almost ready for the weekend! Hope the rest of you will have a great weekend too :)

p/s: for those of you who are looking to try it out, here's the video

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

We had a fantastic weekend at Lopez Island with amazing friends. The weather was sunny and the clear blue sky was perfect for our little getaway.

Our trip was filled with plenty of rest, mouthwatering food, sunbathing, games and football. I even managed to squeeze in my workout in between with a workout buddy. Quite refreshing to have someone there to push me harder.


Only downfall was our trip heading home. We had to wait 5 hours to catch the ferry. What a waste of one whole beautiful day. But overall it was a very lovely weekend. I am blessed with wonderful friends and family!

Friday, July 29, 2011

In my previous post, I mentioned that I'm taking up a new diet challenge that consist of 6 days of healthy diet & 1 cheat day every single week. Still I refused to sacrifice taste for health. Thus, I've been on a mission hunting for healthy yet mouth watering dishes. A favourite of mine that I found fairly recently is Chicken Fingers and I paired it with Mango Avocado Salsa (turn it into Mango Pear Avocado Salsa) that I found on another blog plus a green salad on the side.


I made a few tweaks to both the recipe to suit my palate and to make up for the ingredients that I don't have on hand. This is a really simple meal to make yet one that is capable to excite your taste bud with its delightful flavours!

Chicken Fingers Recipe:

Ingredients: 
  1. 2 chicken breast
  2. 1 teaspoon curry powder
  3. 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
  4. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  6. 1 whole egg
  7. 1 egg white
  8. 1/4 cup low fat drinking coconut milk
  9. 1/2 lemon juiced
  10. 3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I made my own)
  11. 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
  12. Olive oil to oil the baking sheet
Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Cut chicken breasts into strips
  3. Combine ingredients 2-5 and rub them all over the chicken strips
  4. Combine ingredients 6-9 in a bowl and mix it well (egg mix)
  5. Combine ingredients 10 & 11 and mix them together (bread crumb mix)
  6. Oil the baking sheet
  7. Dip the chicken strips in the egg mix then coat it with the bread crumb mix and lay it on the baking sheet.
  8. Repeat step 7 for the rest of the chicken strips
  9. Bake the chicken strips in the oven for 30-40minutes or until the chicken strips are golden & crispy

Mango Avocado Salsa Recipe:

Ingredients:
  1. 1 large mango peeled and diced
  2. 1 avocado diced
  3. 1 yellow onion diced
  4. 1 big handful cilantro chopped
  5. 1/2 pear chopped
  6. 1/2 lemon juiced
  7. 2 teaspoon honey
  8. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Method:

Gently toss all the ingredients together and voila it's ready to serve with chicken fingers or any other meat or fish of your choice.

Happy Cooking & Happy Eating!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Harlow! Apa khabar? Lama tak jumpa ye? MY BAD!

This is a poor bloggie. Can't believe it's almost 2 years that I have not showed S-A-Y-wEn any love. Guess it's time for some loving maintenance.

Quick update about me:

Bought a house in fall 2010. Then, I went back to Malaysia alone in the winter time for 1.5 months. When I came back, we moved into the new house (well the husband moved in first) just in time to celebrate Christmas in a new place that has a working fire place (finally right?) and brand new washer and dryer (fuh have been so deprived of that for the past 2 years that I was in Seattle).

[Family Room]

[The Pendant Chandelier is my Pride & Joy]

Now that we have a place of our own, we have a small vegetable garden on our deck. Other than our deck, I have to say our backyard is a nightmare! Weeding still in progress LOL.

 [Lemon Thyme]

 [Valencia "Orange" Pepper]

[Early Girl Tomato]

Some of you might remember that 2 years ago back in 2009, I had a fitness goal but I never really kept up with it. Gone are the days because I made it a point this year to view fitness as a lifestyle. I make sure that I workout at least 3 times a week (I usually try to hit 5) and eat healthy 6 days a week with one cheat day (this I have to try like REALLY REALLY hard). I usually abandon my fitness goals in a matter of weeks but this time I've manage to keep it up for nearly 4 months now and still going strong. WHY? Because I see real results.

For the first time in my life, I'm able to do regular push ups not just one but a number of them and I'm moving on to the more challenging variations. Just 2 weeks ago, I was so happy that I am finally able to do my front split AGAIN after losing the flexibility for so many years!!!


Anyway, that should be sufficient for my first post after 2 years of MIA. Till then!

 
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