時光機 - 周杰倫

The boy from my past

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I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this fellow here. But I was really excited to see the books for sale at Harris. The stories were set in the school and around classmates, a little like Totto-Chan, except that one was in France, the other in Japan, and Nicholas was much more mischevious than Totto-Chan.

I remember the first time I got to know Nicholas was through my father. The stories were translated in Chinese instead of English as sold in the bookstores now. I forgot where he got the book from, but I could still remember it was light blue in colour, with a drawing of Nicholas and his classmates on the cover. My father has been encouraging my sisters and I to read Chinese books since young and I was glad he got Nicholas' story for me as it was one of the most fun and enjoyable book I've ever came across. Here is a story taken from one of the books.

Misunderstood

Sweetened condensed milk cake

Yeah! Finally I can safely say that my tiny 8" x 10" (rough estimate) conventional oven toaster can be used for baking. Well, it's not that I don't know that my oven toaster can bake (I did bake cookies with it before), it's just that I was quite skeptical about it when it comes to cakes. I was quite prepared for the first attempt to end up in a totally unedible disaster.

So, imagine my excitement when I peered through the oven door and saw that the cake was rising quite beautifully, if you disregard the slightly lopsided-ness of it. And it took a surprisingly short time to cook, about 30 minutes. I always thought that a cake will take up most of the day preparing and baking. It was the cooling down part that took a long time. I lost count of the times I went to check if it was ready to be turned out of the pan during the 3 plus hours that the cake took to cool down completely.

Despite the use of condensed milk, the cake was not too sweet. And quite edible too, I must say. :) The husband said it was not too bad for a first attempt, while BT said it was ok, but he would not encourage me to bring for my in-laws to taste, when I mentioned about it. Hmmm.

Anyway, it was not too bad for the taste. In fact, it tasted a bit like the Sara Lee cakes, just a teeny bit. But the texture was not as light and spongy as I expected, it somehow reminded me of the Chinese Huat Kuay (发糕) as I bit into it. I was not sure what went wrong, and the husband mentioned that I might not have "mix" enough air into the batter. So, he was quite enthusiastic to help me bake another one later. :)

Sweetened condensed milk cake (recipe from here)

Ingredients :
- 1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
- 4 eggs
- 120g all purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- 50g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- icing sugar, for dusting

Directions :
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; generously butter a 22cm (9 in) ring cake pan.

2. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

3. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely before unmolding.Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Note : I used a 20cm (8 in) pan, and my cake took about 30 minutes to bake.

小酒窝 - 林俊杰／蔡卓妍

Don't give me crap!

If YOU want me to help with the work, just say so.
If YOU want me to attend any work-related functions, just say so.
Do not give excuses about my needing to be around is becoz of requests from the higher authority, when we both know that it was YOU, and only YOU all along.
It makes me feel stupid, and it makes YOU look stupid.

2009 Public Holidays

A lot of long weekends... good year to plan for short getaways... heh...
(click to get a larger image)

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup

Had been "eyeing" this recipe for quite some time, and I finally managed to give it a try tonight. Looking back at my blog entries, it had been quite a while since I last cook. Since it's already the school holidays, I hope I'll have more time to try out the other few recipes that I've bookmarked.

Anyway, back to the soup. I almost didn't want to continue with it coz I was tearing like crazy while cutting up the big onion. I was only cutting up one half before my eyes started to sting, and I hadn't begun chopping it yet! But having bought all the ingredients and missing lunch, I just had to endure. It was almost as bad as being in a temple full of the smoke from the joss sticks and it all gets into your eyes. So, the onion ended up in cubes instead of being chopped as stated. (that's why you can see chunks of it from the picture)

One thing to note, as you would likely read from the reviews of the others from the original recipe, is that the onions need to be cooked much longer than 3 minutes to soften it. Also, if you prefer smooth and creamy soup to which you can swallow instead of having to chew, you can take an extra step to blend it in a food processor before serving.

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup
4 servings

Ingredients :

- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree (do your conversion here)
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 cups fresh spinach, torn
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions :

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Stir in milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato puree and sugar. Mix well, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.