I Was Wrong About The Cake

 

Did I mention that I was wrong about the cake? 

You see, I tried one of the corners of the cake after the cake had cooled, the same night I baked it and it wasn't tasty as I had hoped it would be.

Nevertheless, I brought some to work the next day and had a small slice with my coffee.

The slice I took was from near centre of the cake and somehow, it didn't taste so bad.

This cake seems pretty healthy, with wholemeal flour used. *giggle* You can see bits of white in the picture above and it gives the cake a bit of a chewy texture, which I don't really mind.

And hey, no butter. ;D

Then on Wednesday, I tried to get creative by baking them in a muffin tray.

Which kinda flopped. Tsk.
My bad.

Never fear, I still had them for tea this evening. They still tasted OK.


I'm so glad the week is finally over, but I still have tons of backlog of work to clear! I'm torn between going in to the office this weekend to get some of it sorted but I KNOW it's not going to happen. 

I spent the entire week working on one particular account and there's more to come. Bugger.


OK, YB has The Thing playing right now, and I can't help but to laugh at certain scenes. The graphics (or is it effects?) is just hilariously silly, and I can't wait for the movie to end.


And crap. It's already the weekend I still don't know what I should bake for my sister's birthday. Crap crap crap.

Just a simple vanilla cake with lemon frosting, perhaps?


HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, PEEPS!
I'm off for a trail run tomorrow morning and I pray there'll be no leeches, cross my fingers!

So Many Food Pics

I really should stop photographing my food with my phone. I've got tons to clear (from my phone), all taken last year ... so here goes!

Wagyu beef at Rakuzen, Desa Sri Hartamas. Nice and tender. Mmmmm.

The Bee, Publika.
Rave reviews so we thought we'd try. But we chose a bad night because service was really baaaaaaaad. So happened that they didn't have enough staff that night.

Can't remember what we ordered. There was definitely an Australian burger, ... uhm ... and ...

Gosh, it was clearly a forgettable meal.

But not forgettable enough for us to forget the super slow service.


The Beef Specialist, Petaling Street area.
Thought we'd try Lai Foong's competitor for beef noodles.

Prices are stated, so you don't need to ask. ;D

The dry version that YB ordered. Bleh.

The soup version I ordered. Sorites.

They weren't as tasty as the ones at Lai Foong's so don't bother!


Tom, Dick & Harry, TTDI.
This was sometime in October last year. We were there to submit our registration forms for the Mou Man Tai 2.0 run in November.

Pancakes with beef bacon and egg. It needed a bit more gravy or the pancakes would be a bit too dry on its own. But the pancakes were nice!

The Big Breakfast at RM26 or RM28, I can't remember. You get a glass of juice and a cup of coffee or tea with your food.

The sausages were tasty!

Prices are a bit steep, but it's probably the usual price for pub food. I'm just a miser, I guess!


O'Briens.

Utilised the Groupon voucher I bought for a Triple Deck Sandwich at half price. The book is merely a prop, because no way I could read while devouring my sandwich!

Usual price for the sandwich is RM15.30.

Tried their Caesar Salad with a colleague the other day. Loved the portion, although it got a bit too salty after a while. Must have been the beef bacon bits or something.

They currently have a set lunch every Wednesday's for a Caesar Salad and hot irish cream coffee for RM17. Haven't tried it yet!

Bukit Tabur, A Short Hike

Most part of Sunday was spent hiking up Bukit Tabur to show Andrew around, since he previously mentioned that he hadn't been there before.

This cat greeted us as we were walking towards the start (at the foot of the hill near the entrance to the damn) and we couldn't help but to grab the opportunity to take a picture of its beautiful light blue eyes.

We missed an opportunity to take it rubbing against a brown dog, though. It was a really lovely sight which warmed our hearts.

Awwww.

There were many cars parked alongside the road, so we knew the hills were going to be crowded, and we didn't look forward to it.

The view is still amazing as ever but it was extremely warm and hazy.

We didn't see the blue skies until we reached the final peak and stopped for a short break.

I think the last time we were here at Bukit Tabur was two years ago when we brought Nur for a hike. That seems like such a long time ago.

How patriotic! Someone left a flag up there.

Once again, we never know where to go for food after our Tabur hike. We ended up at KFC instead!

~*~*~*~
I baked last night and I am gutted that my chocolate cake didn't turn out as I expected. Oh well. It was my first time trying the recipe, anyway.

Thankfully, the carrot muffins (second time trying turned out OK, although it's a bit sweet to my liking.

Off to bed! I'm going to have a hard time waking up in 6 hours for work. =(

Hope your weekend was fab!

~*~*~
P.s. Jaime, thanks for the idea, but I was actually thinking of something along the lines of chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting. But I may just end up ordering a cake from the bakery because I'm feeling a tad bit too lazy, now! =)

Hectic Equals...

Busy busy busy.
Annoyance and irritation.
Almost stressful.
Tired.

sashimi bento for RM35 at the japanese restaurant on the 6th floor of Sogo.

It started off as a crazy Friday last week and it continues on to be an equally crazy week for me. I am so hating my office right now!

But I could just be plain cranky.

We are in the midst of moving 3 floors up and woh, with the ongoing work and reports that must be done, I have no time to assist with the packing.

I still hate the bloody air conditioning, by the way. I was bundled up with arm and leg warmers with a jacket but it's annoying that I have to take them all off before I go to the loo, for fear of bumping into a customer/client outside.

*grumble grumble*

Last Friday evening was spent at the office gym. An hour of aerobics followed by an hour of yoga (which consisted mostly abs exercises!) and oh my goodness, I was exhausted yet happy by the end of it.

I was with 2 colleagues and we giggled a lot. Now that's the difference between attending classes with friends and without. =D

I was hoping to try out the kickboxing classes but it was canceled. Oh well, I'll have to wait til Friday for another 2 hour workout session with the colleagues.

Today, a colleague has booked me for lunch and she wants to go A & W. Hmmm. I can't think of anything there which will not ruin my diet so I might as well skip breakfast for it. Or dinner.

Oh, I'm cracking my head about my sister's birthday cake. I can't think of something different yet easy for me to bake! It's next weekend so I'll only have this coming weekend to test bake at least once.

Any ideas?

If you're wondering what I'm wondering, yes, I didn't know baking could take over my life just like that.

=D

Oh, this post was supposed to be about how much I hate my job right now or the procedures or the lack of manpower but ah, I have to go and get ready for work now.

Have a better week ahead than me.

Ben's at Publika

Two weeks ago, my sister and I found ourselves at Ben's on a Thursday night for a late dinner. She ate here before whereas I've only eaten and Ben's General Food Store down at the supermarket on the lower ground.

Apparently it's quite similar to DELIcious, although the menu may vary.

I loved the index cards provided on every table. Just in case you run out of things to talk to or you'd like to busy yourself by reading something, the box of index cards will provide you with suggested topics for conversation and some recipes to study. =)

They only have three (3) types of soup to choose from and since my sister has tried their wild mushroom soup and the other one, this time she wanted to try their roasted tomato soup.

Which was too tangy for me. =S

 Service was bad that night (no surprises there, since I read a lot of comments about it online. We waited a long time for our mushroom lasagna, and we suspect they had forgotten about it so we reminded them to check on our order.

It was disastrous. It was hard and cold inside and we didn't even finish it. 

We think they were in rush that they didn't bother heating it up properly!

Compare the one we had at Ben's General Food Store the other time. See how different they look.

 

Char-grilled chicken salad was not too bad, though it could do with a bit more greens, if you ask me. ;D

Dinner was my sister's treat and the bill came up to a total of RM56.00 something. 

Kuih Makmur

My family and I have always enjoyed Kuih Makmur (at home, we call it Kuih Mur) and since we were young, my 2nd sister has always been the biggest fan.

I was planning to make some for my youngest sister to bring them back to the family for Chinese New Year but as previously mentioned, I ran out of time when work took up SO much of my time in January.

I carefully browsed the Internet for recipes and it was there I found the two different types of recipes: one would use peanuts and the other, without.

I asked my sister which one would she prefer, but I already knew how I wanted mine to turn out. I was just asking her for the fun of confusing her. ;D

It came to a shock to realise that these babies require ghee (clarified butter)!

Now gee, there went my diet! =P

I referred to two (2) recipes for guidance, Kuali.com and Sunflower Food Galore's. The first attempt was a learning experience because there's just so much work involved. I never knew I needed sooo much time just to get them perfect.

The first attempt was before the Thaipusam weekend so I could bring them back to my family. I brought some to work and it was huge hit with the colleagues, although some said that they were a bit sweet.

My family asked, "Why weren't they round? Aren't they supposed to be round?"

I said I didn't know why my cookies never seem to turn out round. Seriously!

Nevertheless, that one jar I brought back was emptied within 4 days. Not too bad, eh? =)

The second attempt was 2 weeks ago, as I wanted to use up the remaining ghee. This time, I reduced the sugar and increased the milk powder. 

Unfortunately, by the time I had to roll the baked ghee balls in icing sugar, I didn't have enough for the remaining balls.

I had to add fine granulated sugar and a bit more milk powder to coat the remaining ghee balls. You can tell from the texture, can't you?

(I learned this from my colleague who brought her Kuih Makmur to work a few days after I brought mine. She told me she used fine sugar as she didn't have icing sugar at home.)

Now for this second attempt, I used superfine flour (as per Sunflower Food Galore's recipe) and at first bite, I almost swooned in ecstasy.

Seriously.

I took a second ball to reaffirm my satisfaction.

Yums.

Superfine flour makes a huge difference from the all-purpose flour and with the former, you will no doubt find yourself with guaranteed melt-in-your-mouth Kuih Mur.

Go and try them today!!

~*~*~*~*~

p.s. these Cornflake Cookies were a hit at work, too, but I can't remember where I got the recipe. I'll let you know when I find it again!

p.p.s. I really MUST stop baking cookies soon and focus on improving my cooking instead. =)

OMG It's February!

picture taken at Air Itam waterfalls near Jelebu / Taiping.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, EVERYONE!

First and foremost, a thousand apologies for the silence. I swear I wrote something here last week but when I came back from lunch, the post wasn't saved! It was a #%*&@#()@ moment and I didn't feel like re-telling everything all over again so I had to leave it as that.

Secondly, I don't know about you, but hasn't the time just flown by oh so quickly since the Chinese New Year festivities? And we're already halfway through February, acks!

How was your Valentine's Day, or Tuesday, if I may ask?
I went for my facial after work and came back to a simple dinner, since both YB and I are now trying to frantically shed the extra kilos we piled on from our CNY holidays. (Seriously! I now have to lose 4kgs or I'm going to be a fat blob forever. *sobs*)

At the last minute, say, yesterday afternoon itself, I decided that I'd bake carrot cake muffins for YB for Valentine's Day. But it's funny, really. By the time I finished frosting the muffins, it was close to midnight.

Ha ha ha OMG, who cares!
Muffins for breakfast instead, then!

My ankle is still feeling a wee bit fragile so I'm staying off trail running for the time being. It's a real bummer, you know. Road running is no longer giving me the sense of satisfaction and I wonder is it because I'm psyching myself out. You know, like Inception? ;D

YB is planning on taking me camping as often as possible and to tell you the truth, I'm pretty reluctant and he KNOWS it. But I have to play the role of the good wife, smile and oblige him every now and then. *grimace* Wish me luck.

If only we had a backyard and we could camp out there, so I can run back into the house to use the loo when necessary. ;D

It's been a crazy year so far, and February isn't over yet.
Work is piling up and it seems like the boss(es) are throwing more work and responsibilities my way, which is ... blah.

I was hoping to be able to slack a bit, go on long holidays and such, but things don't look too promising right now. Shitty shit shit.

My niece, Aaliyah is so round and cute and adorable and active for her age, so she's madly adored by the entire family. I don't think I'm very good at keeping babies entertained but what Aaliyah enjoys most is when you sing to her. But my voice is pretty flat, so I wasn't sure whether she enjoyed my singing or was secretly begging me to stop torturing her delicate ears.

What's new with me so far?
The only change in my daily routine (since last Thursday) is that I make it a point to spend 10 minutes in the morning doing some stretching exercises. The discipline is killing me - and it's not even a week yet!

I went for an aerobics class at the company's gym last Friday and I enjoyed the workout (although I grimaced occasionally whenever my right ankle hurt). Hopefully I'll stick to it.

*giggles*

I bumped into a few colleagues at the gym and one of them was introducing me to some buffed up guy as a marathon runner. I had to tell him to shush it, because I could be a lousy marathon runners for all you know.

One of the gym users must have overheard the conversation because he approached me after that.

Him: "I heard you ran the 21km for the Penang Bridge Marathon?"
Me: "Yaaa..."
Him: "I was there for the cycling event thingy ..." (I zoned out after that)
Me: "Ohhhh that one. You don't run?"
Him: "Just cycling. I usually join cycling events ... blah blah blah ..."

Okayyyyyy.

I was giggling in my head!
Isn't it flattering to have people chat with you out of the random blue? ;D

I sent YB a message to say, "Ooh some guy is chatting me up in the gym! Just because I'm wearing the PBIM vest."

I could imagine him rolling his eyes in response to that.