Best Scones Ever

I love watching The Living Room (Channel Ten) on Friday evenings because they are funny. I simply adore Miguel with his Spanish charms, and he never fails to make me chuckle.

A few weeks ago, his segment was of him participating in a scone making challenge with a bunch of ladies. It was interesting when he mentioned that his secret ingredient was lemonade!

Who would have known ...

The recipe is so simple, and here's one from Taste's website.

3 cups of self raising flour
A pinch of salt
1 cup of cream
1 cup of lemonade*

*Alternatively, use 1 cup of sparkling water and 1 tsp of icing sugar.

Directions - Preheat oven at 220'C. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour cream and lemonade into it. Mix with a knife until the mixture comes away from the bowl. Pour out onto surface coated with flour and knead for about 5 minutes. Roll into a rectangle of about 1 inch thickness. Cut into 2 inch squares and arrange closely together (with a teensy bit of gap in between) on tray lined with greased baking paper. 

Recipe says bake at 220'C for 10-12 minutes but I preheated the oven at that temperature and baked at 200'C for 25-30 minutes. Best bake at 22 minutes and check, before baking for another 5-8 minutes. Or simply, bake until golden brown.

OK, they don't particularly look good here.

I baked them for 20 minutes at 200'C the first time, and realised that they weren't well cooked inside. So back into the oven they went, for another 10 minutes.

Much better.

These scones are light and you can smell the hint of cream in the air while they're baking in the oven.

A shame we didn't have clotted cream and strawberry jam with a bone china tea cups to fit the picture, so we made do with raspberry jam and cream and mugs of coffee.

Still fab. 

They tasted soooooo much better than my 1st attempt, which were dense.

This weekend's project: a vegan vanilla cake.

 

Birthday 2014

Everyone knows I share the same birthday as David Beckham. What I didn't realise was that The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) also shared the same birthday!

It was a quiet affair, really. I did check my mailbox, hoping someone would send me a birthday card, but nope, no such luck. :(

I decided to make my own birthday cake, a mille crepe, which I am not going to attempt again until someone needs fattening up! The pastry cream was too die for but a bit runny, and my crepes were too thick.

 

We only managed to finish half of it (I ate the most of it), before chucking it out after 3 days. This is what happens when you're not friends with your neighbours - too much food wastage!

Dinner was a vege lasagna I made, just because I was craving some lasagna. :)

On Sunday (4th May), we attended the Lady of The Trail at You Yangs for an easy run. The hubs and I did our own run first before heading to Big Rock for the event.

Our run involved scrambling off the tracks into some wilderness just to see if the view was much better up there.

I am posing like how my MIL poses in photos!!!

The ladies ran while the men minded the children and barbeque. It was an easy run, covering about 14km in 2 hours. The ladies are actually way faster than I am, but the whole group stuck together, leaving no one behind. 

Sort of.

I will never believe them again when they tell me that they are slow runners - I would fall under their beginner category if that's how they defined slow!!

I tripped while attempting to take the lead somewhere midway through the run, and tripped not long after that. A few bloody cuts on my left hand but thankfully nothing serious.

So, I am not going to hijack the lead ever again - once bitten, twice shy! I shall remain where I belong, right at the back of the pack. ;)

May Day!

Holy cow, it's the month of May!

How time flies.

WHERE IS THE PAUSE BUTTON??

I found some chocolate eggs at the passenger's door in the car that Easter weekend.
The hubs put them there to 'surprise' me!

April flew by in a flurry. I'm not sure what happened, really. I must have spent too much time recovering from the Buffalo Stampede Sky Marathon!

With nothing much happening, we volunteered at TrailsPlus' Brimbank Urban Trail Run last weekend. The race director must have been worried to have us as his newbie vollies (I am picking up some Aussie slangs here!) and good gawd, I'm sure he received a couple of complaints about this bimbotic girl who fumbled BIG TIME!

The marathon runners about to head off at 8.30am.

I was expecting to be briefed before we headed off to our station but we found our instructions in the box. Setting up our aid station was a bit stressful as the wind was blowing the paper cups and containers away, but we eventually managed to shield the wind with the water containers.

I am too embarrassed to share my fumbles here, but I do apologise to any of the runners who were probably annoyed with me that day - I didn't know anything! I was so concerned with the table setting that I failed to register the details of the run itself. My bad.

Most of the runners were really nice, and it was amazing that some of them went out to say more than a few words.

You know how most of us will just mutter a "Thanks!" and head off back into our run? Some of them actually said to us, "Thank you so much for being here today!"

Awww ...

Some spent some time chatting with us and munching the food available. I had brought my own supply of chocolate (to share) and it was surprisingly a hit!

I realised, upon hindsight, that the sign should have been placed at the edge of the table,
and not on top. D'oh!

Our aid station was a central, where the half marathoners would make a u-turn and head back the finish. The ultra and marathoners would go past us and head off to another aid station before turning back and come by us again, before heading to the finish line.

A few runners asked us for some Coke, and I had to apologise that we didn't have any. Some of them stared at us in disbelief, suspicious, as if maybe we had some stashed away but not letting them have any.

I found out later that every aid station had Coke except ours!

Whaaaaat ...

Anyway, running aside, the weather is getting rather chilly these days. It doesn't help that the building we're staying is old and most likely not very well insulated. It's colder indoors than outside!

I'm not supposed to complain about the cold (since the crazy heatwave in January showed me just how terribly hot it can get), but it's really miserable! 

I don't like going into the bathroom or washing my hands, or even getting out of bed to get changed, or even hopping into bed (unless the electric blanket warms it up just a little), and especially feeling hungry all the time!

The only time I forget about the cold is when I'm having hot soup noodles for dinner (it's happening quite regularly these days) or am bundled up and running along the trails.

Crap, am I talking about running again?

Well, I have a fancy dress running event coming up in a few weeks and the theme is Superheroes or Supervillains. I have been looking for something easy to assemble and to run in, but it still looks like I've got to do some shopping and sewing!

Couple Runner Profile: Dion and Liberty Milne

Losing weight and keeping fit is no easy feat, for an individual and what more a couple. Having a partner with a similar goal however, helps to make that weight loss and/or fitness journey an achievable one.

Meet Dion and Liberty, a couple who recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. A few years ago, they decided to do something about their weight gain and together, they succeeded in shedding about 70kg! It wasn't easy but they managed to do it.

Now they are trail runners! :)

1. Tell us more about this ‘Fat Together, Fit Together’ I spotted on Dion’s profile some time ago.

Libby: It started as a bit of a joke between us. With me being 33 kilo’s heavier and Dion being 40 kilo’s heavier, we were literally fat together and now having lost that weight, we are both now fit together. But now it’s become a bit of a dream of mine to write a book about it. I’d like to share our journey and experiences and show people what ordinary everyday people like D and I can do with a bit of dedication and hard work.

Dion: As usual Lib is pretty spot on with that so not much for me to say here. :)

2. Looking back, what do you think was the hardest thing about keeping fit?

Libby: In the beginning I’d say it came down to our schedules. As we were both on the same journey, we needed to work in with one another which wasn’t and still isn’t always easy. As D is the runner in the family, I at first resented the amount of time he dedicated to his running. He would be out for hours at a time which made it harder for me to fit my training in amongst work, being a mum and trying to run a household and studying as well. I think it took us quite a few months to get on to the same page in terms of our training.

I think to a certain degree, you have to be a bit a selfish when it comes to taking time out for yourself in order to reach your goals. We were really lucky and still are, that we’re doing it together so we are able to keep one another motivated and accountable.

Dion: I’d say it’s harder to get fit than stay fit especially that first 3 months where you are trying to form new habits presumably after weeks, months, years of neglect.

Lib’s right, it was all about the balance and schedule. There had been times in the past where both of us had tried at different times but it wasn’t until we got into some sort of sync and understanding how important it was to each other. So if it was important to Lib, it was important to me and vice versa.

I’d say the hardest part of keeping fit is keeping a fit mind as we can both attest to this at the moment, both of us carrying foot injuries. It has been more of a mental battle and finding some cross training activities to keep the endorphins flowing. It’s easy to see how people go back to zero fitness after an injury.

Crumbed Calamari Rings

I absolutely miss the calamari in Barcelona!

It sounds like a farce, because it was years ago and I can only vaguely recall the fresh seafood and sangria.

And the long queue for a seat in one of its restaurants.

Oh, calamari!

 

I chanced upon Taste's recipe for crumbed calamari rings. I do avoid deep frying my food at home so instead, it was a lot of work to shallow fry and flip them over every now and then.  

The recipe calls for simple steps involving:

1 shallow bowl of flour, seasoned with salt and black pepper

1 shallow bowl of egg and some water, lightly beaten

1 shallow bowl of breadcrumbs

As I didn't have 750gm of calamari, the flour and breadcrumbs were estimated for my own usage. It would be a waste of ingredients if I had too much leftover flour and breadcrumbs.

For my 1 piece of squid, I used roughly about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of flour, 1 egg, and 3/4 - 1 cup of breadcrumbs. Still had some wastage, that's for sure.

Sprinkled a bit of salt on the rings before serving.

A wedge of lemon is most necessary. :)

The Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a 4-day weekend over here in Australia. Like what we usually do back in Malaysia, long weekends are either spent back home in our hometown with our parents, or locating a new waterfall/hiking place to explore or just running around with our friends and having meals together.

You could also sleep in and laze about at home, if you'd like.

Ever since I swapped the wallpaper on my phone to a picture of my niece, I have been missing her loads and loads. The hubs rolled his eyes when I shared this with him and said he couldn't imagine what I'd be like if it were my own child.

Anyway, I baked some cookies, using a cookie cutter for the first time in my life. 

Ever.

The results, I suppose, were alright.

It was hard work using a toothpick to draw their whiskers, nose and eyes, though. I dusted the first batch with some icing sugar to hide their distorted features but instead, it sweetened the cookies too much. Decide to forget the icing sugar.

Wearing the hair clip I made for her.

What exactly is the relation between bunny cookies and my niece? She was born in the Year of the Rabbit, so that makes her 3 this year.

The only way I could share these cookies with her was showing them to her on Skype, which, if you asked me, was probably rather cruel. I was polite enough not to eat them in front of her!

I can't believe I'm going to miss seeing her grow up and all. *sniff*

My sister tells me that this little girl now chats to her dolls on a daily basis, besides monkeying about and driving my parents up the wall. :)

Last Friday, we went to Plenty Gorge for a short evening run, just to shake the cobwebs off our legs. I think we have pretty much gained a few kilos after the Buffalo Stampede, just lazing about and eating non-stop.

The Salomon Trail Series Race 2 is held at Plenty Gorge.

I felt ridiculously unfit!

On Sunday, we checked out the Brimbank Park and detoured just a bit to scour the unknown sections, which was quite fun.

In the park itself, you have a track to follow and prior to this, I never knew the park existed! There were a few river crossings which will lead you to the other side of the river. If you're adventurous enough to run wild on your own, you'll find yourself on a dirt track just like in the picture above.

Since I made too much goodies over the weekend, they definitely had to be shared. I brought some cookies and coconut candy for the runners and well, thankfully they were well received.

The coconut candy turned out too dry, in my opinion, and most likely because I reduced the amount of sugar. I did my best to salvage them with some chocolate!!

This Friday is Anzac Day, so it's another short week but a long weekend. Where are you off to?

Us? 

Running on Friday, resting and cheering Jon on Saturday, and helping out at the Brimbank Urban Trail Run this Sunday! The medals look like souvenir fridge magnets, you know. How cool is that!

Ooh, I'm thinking about what I should bake this weekend!

Melbourne Runner Profile: Jon Lim

At Two Bays Trail Run 2014.

Everyone knows Jon Lim. He's like one of the social butterflies of the running community and you'll be sure to spot him at most of the trail events in Victoria. His day job involves being a team leader for a German e-commerce company.

His enthusiasm and excitement for everything which involves running is infectious and you can't help but to be in the zone with him!

YT: Hey, Jon. Tell us how long have you been running?

JL: I've been running for around 4 and a half years now and my fifth Melbourne marathon will signify my 5 years of long distance running. Initially starting with a 10km fun run in Sydney with my then girlfriend (now wife...Hi Shaun!), we eventually did a half marathon and our first Melbourne Marathon 8 months later.

YT: Besides running, do you have any other hobbies? I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to have running as your only hobby!

JL: Music has always been a big part of my life and I've previously managed singers, writers and producers. I've also been lucky enough to be involved with some big music tours and festivals and been previously involved with ARIA (Australia Music Industry Awards) as part of the industry voting panel. These days my main hobby is spending time with my wife and daughter...which I enjoy the most!

But I'd also like to say I'm involved with a truly great bunch of people at the Surf Coast Trail Runners where we foster the love of trail running and sharing our experiences with each other. I also do work at AURA (the Australian Ultra Runners Association)...Sorry couldn't help but speak about running. :)

YT: Which do you enjoy more, running on road or on the trails?

JL: Is that a real question?? :) Trails always win hands down, though I'm a terrible climber I still enjoy being out on the trails much more than the roads.

YT: We have seen you progressed so much and embracing the life of an ultra runner last year. Which event was the most memorable one for you?

JL: Probably the Tan Ultra 100k was my most memorable moment in 2013 as it was the first time I completed a 100k race within the cutoff time. And this was with 5 minutes to spare. :) I couldn't believe that my dream came true!

Completing The Tan Ultra 2013.

YT: Signing up for 100KM runs sounds like madness to me, and requires a lot of commitment. How do you juggle your time between work, family and training?

JL: Lucky my wife started on the running journey with me and she understands the time and commitment required in training for endurance events. Now that I have a young daughter, time is even more valuable to us so we always plan most things carefully in advance. Long runs may start at 6am or even earlier! :)

Work sometimes gets in the way, but I try to run at lunchtime on most days.


YT:  What's in store for 2014? What's going to be your biggest event?

JL: Tarawera which I just participated in was my biggest event for the year. Unfortunately due to Cyclone Lusi the course (100 to 70k) and cutoff times were changed during the event which resulted my race ending at 50k. No regrets and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had in an event. Can't wait to go back!

The Buffalo Stampede Ultra was also another big one which resulted in a DNF, but I'm taking that experience and using it to accomplish bigger things! I will be back for it in 2015 on my birthday. :)

In 2 weeks I plan to do my first 24 hour run around Albert Park Lake, then the next two Trails+ Ultra events at Mt Macedon and the You Yangs...always a good hit out with Trails+! Later in the year will hopefully get an entry in the Great Ocean Walk 100 which I'm really excited about!


YT:  What's your favourite carbo-loading meal before an event, if any?

JL: Pasta always, usually spaghetti bolognaise.

His girls cheering him at the Tan Ultra 2013!

YT:  If you could meet one famous person, who would it be and what would you say to him or her? He or she doesn't have to be a runner!

JL: Maybe a bit of bromance going on here :) ... but I'd be keen to meet Marky Mark (aka Mark Whalberg). I've always admired him for everything he has achieved in his life, the different careers he has had and how he has made it on so many levels in the motion picture industry. He has definitely worked hard to achieve all his goals in life.

Thanks for your time, Jon! It's always good to see you at the events. We wish you the very best for your upcoming events and will cheer you on!

To support Jon's 24 hour run around Albert Park Lake on 26-27th April 2014, head on to the Relay for Life page and donate to his cause. A little bit of help goes a long way!

To keep up with Jon, follow his Facebook page at Jon Lim - No Limits To Endurance.

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Earlier profiles:
The Wild Wombat Boys - Tim and Isaac
Gregor Hartnell
Dion and Liberty Milne
Caroline Bertrand
Kirsten Maplestone
Erin Vaughan and dad, Tony
Chris Roberts
Matt Hosking