Saturday, December 25, 2010

Sleepless Night

She staggered into bed.
She staggered out of bed. 
Her vision fades.
Thoughts invade.
The million and one thoughts, all fighting with one aim in mind-to win the war of "her attention" and what a fight! 
Sleep had no chance, it had no might, but oh it fought, and damn did it fight! 
She closed her eyes, she turned to the left.
She opened her eyes and cursed death.
Helplessly she tries, to make out the time,
but darn those myopic eyes, they must as well mime.
The alarm went off, she got on her feet, 
she then arranged her pillows and folded the sheets.
She thought and thought and oh did she think! 
Those million and one thoughts, boy were they were finks!
The wire swayed, 
the girl dismayed. 
What to do now?
How now, brown cow?
She did what she did, what a deed indeed!
She drafted a post, this self-indulgent verbose!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Later

There are just so many things I want to do but I just never seem to get down to doing them. Like how I wanted to draw Christmas cards for everyone but it is 5 days to Christmas and I there is not a stitch of color on those gleaming white cards. Terribly ashamed of myself, I typed a public apology to my friends on facebook. I HAVE although been thinking about drawing one, scanning it and sending everyone e-cards ala secondary school style but these are still very green thoughts and I most likely (99.99999%) would not get down to doing it.

I am the worst sort of procrastinator. I really am. I really think I got through school because of all those dratted deadlines and even with them, I had to go through the "why-did-i-not-do-this-earlier?"-tearing my hair out-crazy cranky phase, including listening to the bf nag about my poor time-management skills to churn out copies of 20-paged,double-spaced, justified, Times New Roman size 12, APA cited, bibliography-ed intellectual-sounding (hopefully) essays. Of course, reading required readings are not one of my strengths either which means that you would see me in the Central Library level 6 almost every day for weeks leading up to dooms-days aka exams days. Although, in order to see me,it does require you frequenting the library as much as I do and that can mean just about one thing eh? Hehe. I have to say though, I would totally take reading readings and taking exams over essay-writing any time! Honest. A note to add? Honours semester really just means doing all of the above at super duper,ecstasy-high speed! (Which is really what I have been doing for the past few months but hey,not trying to justify my tres long absence by the way.

Ok, maybe just a little! Teehee.

Another example of how my bff frienship with procrastination is ruining my life? I wanted to blog about these awesome Blackberry-Apple Galettes from summer months ago and here I am, writing this post in the depths of December!

Blackberry-Apple Galette

Well, yeah, at least I got own to doing it right? (Albeit it being months late!) Unlike the million and one things sit on my "later" shelf that is smothered with more than an inch-thick of dust and would most likely sit there waiting for the next dust storm! So about these awesome things, what is there really to say about them besides the usual string of synonyms for "delicious"?


It truly is and you should make them for yourselves. They are my definitely one of new (or should I say old, since months have technically passed) favourite things!


Looking at them truly makes me want to go out, grab the ingredients and make them immediately but knowing me (from this post),I am still sitting here thinking about doing it. Hope you have better luck at getting your arse off that plushy cushion of yours and start making some of these babies!


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!




P.S If you have time and an ice cream maker, you should try making the burnt sugar ice cream because it sounds just about heavenly!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Forever




I want to promise you forever but I do not believe in forever-s. So for now, love me like i love you and maybe we will get to the place where our forevers go together.

Happy Anniversary my love.

half inspired by this.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Missing

Missing. 
That is where I have been.
Missing.
That is what I have been doing.
Missing.
That is what I will be doing.


Sorry to start off on such a sombre tone but believe me it is anything but. Ok. Maybe it is kind of semi-melancholic. I mean, to be lost in a forest of readings, essays, presentation and deadlines? Sad. To have my friends leave me to fly to Melbourne, Nagoya, Christchurch? Lonely. To find out the bf is almost for definite going on exchange next year? :(((

So yes, my life is dreary and rather gloomy at the moment. Missing my friends and going to miss you? It certainly does not help when my oven decides to be cranky and I have to give up baking which was my provider of solace. Sigh.

Oh well, moving on like how we have to move on in life, to make up for my absence and for those who are missing summer, here is some (blackberry-blueberry) pie!
























Is it not gorgeous?! 
The beautiful buttery crust, the cute little pastry star cut-outs and the thick berry-full filling? 
Tell me, how can I not be in love with it?

Slice of Blackberry-blueberry pie 
Although I swear I am truly and madly a pie fan (like how if you say pie and I say aye!), I hardly make pies. Even if I do, I usually just stick to making the good ole apple pie. But,what? Whyyyy? 

A couple of reasons really but besides the fact that good berries at a good price, or rather good berries are scarce here, making pie dough is scary



Oh sure, there are fool-proof recipes and pie tips are aplenty but tell me, even as you take out your 'followed to the tee' pie dough from the fridge, you are crossing your fingers that it will roll out properly. Your hands shake as you attempt to mimic the professional looking folds in the recipe picture and your crimping skills more often than not fail you. Then, you agonize and pace around (in your head) and hope it will bake beautifully in the oven. Your heart palpitates just a little faster than usual as you cut out a slice hoping it would not crumble in front of your eyes. As you sink your fork into the slice of pie, you wish desperately that the fork would not get stuck in a soggy bottom. You then worry about whether the pie crust tastes as good as it looks as you savour the intermingling of flavours in your mouth. The emotional roller-coaster ride ends either with you heaving a sigh of relief (literally) and filling your mouth full of that darn good piece of pie or with you stuffing your mouth full of your soggy,crumbled, no-good pie to drown your baking sorrows.




Of course, it ain't as dramatic as that or maybe it is but the bottomline is: making pie dough is scary! You have just read a paragraph of baking anxiety so maybe we should all keep calm and have (a look at) some pie!

Blackberry-Blueberry Pie with star cut-outs

Are you abit calmer now? I am. I think staring at stars calms me. Even if they are just pastry cut-outs. Haha. For the better remedy, I suggest eating this baby! I mean pies are comfort food!





So you have had your slice and peace is made between you and me, what is there left to do except to have more pie? Go! Make some pie even though it is scary. (What is life without some challenge?) Go! Make some pie even if you do not have berries. (There is always apple, steak, custard and cream!) Go! Make some pie and you will find that the world seems a bit better, your future looks a bit brighter and you will be a bit happier( like I am now! Hehe).

Some pie notes:
I made this gorgeous pie following her recipe. Fantastic lady! Check out her cute baking videos.
I have to say in all honesty though that I think the crust was flaky and lovely and all that but I still prefer the pie crust in the recipe I used for my apple pie.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Graduation Cookies



First things first. The cookie jar looks like it is wearing graduation robes and a mortarboard no? 

Chuckles aside, as you can guess with my mentioning of mortarboards and graduation robes, many of my friends have officially abandoned me and left me to fend for myself in the institution some may call school but students call hell. Of course, for some the walls encase so much warmth as well love that they ensure everyone knows that their school is their second home by wearing their orientation, faculty T-shirts and over that (because the parts of the school has to be kept cold like the LTs and the libraries so that the warmth and love can be felt more intensely) their pullovers which have the letters "NUS" emblazoned in Harvard font at the front. 

Snickerdoodles

 Chuckles aside yet again, I think in our own ways, our school has been our hell, our sanctuary, our teacher and our friend. By leaving, are we leaving a part of us behind or are we are bringing it away with us because it has already become a part of us? Food for thought eh?

Jam thumprints

Anyway, for the real food (pictures) for thought, these sweet (noun & adjective) jam thumbprints look simply adorable do they not? I was about to give up racking my brains on how to pack these small jewel of a cookie and found some inspiration and a solution from Martha!

Jam thumprints

As for the rest of the packaging, it is less complicated although no less beautiful. I did spend an incredulous amount of time at the shop though deciding which ribbons I should buy because I really just wanted to buy the whole aisle. I eventually (very hesitantly) put back the armful rolls of ribbon which I hoarded and settled for some greys, whites, yellows, purple and blues.




Snickerdoodles

For my favourite pairing, I absolutely loved the combination of the midnight blue satin ribbon with the white-bluestriped! I think the combination fun and classic and it was just right for the snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies! Besides, they do remind a bit of the blue ribbon tags they give out to 1st place cookies in baking fairs in America. Oh, and I know you must be thinking, snickerdoodles again?! But how could I not?! They are so irresistibly delicious!



I of course saved the best for last! Kidding. I love all my cookies equally. Not! Chocolate chip cookies still hold the number one place in my heart but these citrus sables provide some stiff competition! I have made these citrus sables for more than a few times but they never fail to fill my afternoons with citrus goodness! They are really afternoon cookies because they are perfect with that cup of tea. But of course, you would not be breaking any rules if you indulge them for your midnight snacking and morning breakfasting!

Citrus Sables

I know this post is about 3 months apart from my previous one but forgive me for I have a very good reason that can be summed up in one word: SUMMER! /VACATION! It is back to school again tomorrow and I am totally acting like a bad ex, desperately clinging on to the coat tails of Mr holidays. But I know I will have to let go eventually and embrace the Vampire of Doom, Duke Readings Test Presentations-Exams. So, wish me luck in not getting my life sucked out of me too badly.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Mounds of love


My homemade truffles may not be as good as the ones from here but it was good enough to capture his heart, according to the bf. The story of how we fell in love or rather how he fell in love with me was in actual fact an entrapment in his opinion. It was I, the sultry temptress who employed the clever use of truffles that ensnared his senses and claimed his heart for my own. I know (hope) he jests about the entrapment business but truffles are really one of his favourite things. He gets as excited as a little boy whenever I gift him with these chocolate mounds.


What then can be a more perfect gift than truffles for his belated birthday celebration? In fact, I would go as far as to say that he would rather receive a box of 20 truffles than the crazy amount of things I had baked for him on his last birthday!



Remember how I talked about being a bad friend? I was made a bad girlfriend too because of schoolwork! I had a paper due the next day on his birthday and as I was rushing it, I had absolutely no time to celebrate it with him. Although, I guess I supposedly "celebrated" it for him by flashing a "sign" (pens+foolscap paper) that said "Happy Birthday" at 12am in the library which was where we were the day before his birthday.


We, of course celebrated it properly, truffles and all after our exams and although it was a small affair, it was by no means any less enjoyable.

Many thanks to Brad who bought me a block of awesome chocolate (Haigh's!) from Sydney of which I used to make these lovelies! I would have used the entire block to make these truffles if not for the chocolate mouses residing in my house! As luck would have it however, a friend gifted me with a bar of chocolate from Switzerland which made up for the needed grams! Awesome is it not to have lovely friends?


Since I have made these truffles a million times over with the same recipe, I decided a little change was in order and thus tried out a new recipe. The bf being the bf could not discern between the "new" and the "old" truffles but declared it delicious nonetheless. I thought it pretty tasty although I have to say that I prefer it without the new addition of Grand Marnier. Call me boring but I like my truffles simple.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Some birthday Snicker-whats

Just showing some Snickerdoodle love I gave my friends for their birthdays!





I have not been exactly a good friend this year and I totally blame school. With all the time devoted to academic work and procrastination, I did not have time to get presents, make cards and bake yummies! Since my holidays started 3 days ago, I have been trying to make it up to them, or at least the few that I met with some snickerdoodles! The next few days/weeks/months will be spent on getting belated birthday presents, laboring over cards and baking a lot of treats!

I do suppose I have to look for a summer job soon with the prospect of my cash running out but I managed to convince myself that I have until after I get my results to decide. I mean, I may be looking for a proper job instead by then so it is no point getting my knickers in a twist about getting hired now right? Of course, I really do need the cash but ah well.

Hi procrastination, I can see you waving with all the resumes I have to write, we are going to be best friends again huh? Blahhh. I have nothing, nothing to put in my resume! Boooo. Well, I am off to to eat some snickerdoodles with some ice cream right now and maybe life will be a teensy bit better.

Monday, May 10, 2010

FITS











Remember the fashion show I was talking about in this post? These are just a few pictures from then. I am sorry! Quite a few meme-s up there. No one was there bearing flowers for me or clicking their cameras for me as I went down the runway but there were a whole bunch of friends of friends and new found friends who captured the memories and I guess I am pretty lucky to have a few snapshots! The Bf did bring me out for a big dinner although he was not at the show and that is good enough for me.

Credits: from top (Wilson Chua, Llyod Lee, Becky, Elicia, Esther, Vivian, Alison, Farhan)

Mommy Pie





Happy Mother's Day!
Mother's Day= Apple pie at my house because my mom LOVES apple pie. She knows how to make it alright but she says she is too lazy and so it has become a yearly tradition (burden) for me to make apple pie for her on Mother's day. I say burden because I mean peeling, coring and cutting 7 apples for a pie that size is a ho-hum chore. Besides, I am a very slow peeler, corer and cutter so yes, burden, burden, burden. It almost just makes it worth it with that first bite (I mean, mom's first bite). It was tasty, pretty yummy, tart with a sweet tinge, just the way I like it (Mom, too!) but if I had help with the peeling, it would have tasted so much better (I am just saying)!


There is however an interesting story (as always) behind this 'burdensome' chore of making my mom's day apple pie.



The pictures of the apple pie with the pastry rose? They are pictures of the apple pie I made thinking it was Mother's Day. That was sometime back in uh March. Till now, I do not have an inkling as to why I thought that Sunday was Mother's Day in that week of March.

In fact, I thought it was pretty odd that there was no usual sleuth of advertisements on which restaurants to go to on Mother's day, which florists to purchase your carnations from for Mother's Day, no tweets asking people what they were doing for their good ole moms, no siblings eagerly pushing the duty of getting the present to each other, no friends complaining about how carnations the size of their thumbs cost 2 dollars. Zilch.



I did ask my siblings if they knew it was Mother's day on that particular Sunday. Despite their raised doubts, I was still somehow stupidly convinced that it was and berated them about forgetting about it. So Sunday rolled by and my mom asked me if she could eat the apple pie on the table and I said of course, it is your Mother's Day present! She looked at me and said it was not Mother's Day, Mother's Day was not for another 2 months. We all had a good laugh about it over some pie but two months rolled by and I still had to make one last Sunday for the real Mother's Day! I did try to weasel out of it by joking with my mom the day before, telling her that hey, you ate your present 2 months ago, I am not making another! She pretended not to hear me. How convenient.


So, along with the usual sleuth of advertisements, tweets and complains, Mother's Day was celebrated at my house with some pie. Mom being the happiest of course having gotten two pies this year.


This is a pretty long post with lots of pictures because well, I have time now and I was away for pretty darn long! Truce?


I absolutely love mornings like this with apple pie and Murakami. Simple yet immensely satisfying.

The milk is just there because milk and cookies go together just like milk and apple pie or was it vanilla ice cream? Anyways, I do not drink milk so le brother/s will have to finish it for me later on with his/their slice/s of apple pie when he/they get/s back from school.