A million tonnes....

Bila hati terasa berat
Tak s'orang pun mengerti bebanku
Kutanya Yesus
Apa yang harus kubuat

Dia berfirman mari datanglah
Dia s'lalu pedulikan aku
Ku datang Yesus
Dia pikul s'gala bebanku

Sujud di altar-nya
Kubawa hidupku
Ku t'rima anug'rah-nya
Dia ampuniku dan bebaskanku
Dia ubah hidupku
Bah'rui hatiku
Sesuatu terjadi
Saat datang di altar-nya

For the lack of knowledge of English songs - the above cames to mind on days where dark and gloomy clouds are fast approaching....

Matthew 11: 28 - 30

28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Peanut butter BREAD??

What log is that??? Hehe... The original name is... Dark Choc Peanut Butter Bread - but it has not dark choc - it has choc chips, and it's got banana in it too, so I'd say the name would be... Peanut Butter Banana Chips Bread. Thanks to the many flog (food blog) I've been reading, I'm VERY geared up to bake something every time I get back from work.

This is another oh-so-easy bake. No hand mixer needed - but you'll need an oven [or like some of us blessed ones - rice cooker with baking function will do too :)] Recipe will be here. For now, I won't put up the recipes from other blogs, since I dont own them :)

I have been dreaming to bake homemade bread - another unknown territory for me. So when i saw the name of this babe, I immediately took it in. Erm, it's a cross - between a cake and a bread. I think I used too much banana though. The recipe called for 2 medium sized, but I used 3 pulak. That's why, never trust your memory! HoHOHO.

What have I learnt from baking these?

1) I need to learn how to choose banana.

A good, ripe, sweet banana - The one I bought yesterday was still not ripe enough for baking / cooking yet I think. Anyone can help teach me? :)

2) Too much is not neccessary always good.

I learnt this from steaming the steamed banana cake actually, but still, made the same mistake. The banana affects the texture of the cake. I reckon this will be more "bread-like" as can be seen in the original recipe, if I had not put in too much banana.

OK, I think I used up most, if not all available resources in our pantry / fridge now. So I believe the baking will stop for a while. *sob, sob*.

I DID have liver and spinach last night - which is said to be good source of iron. Surprisingly, the liver didn't taste as yucky as I thought it'll be. I think that's because it's cooked as well done (instead of still reddish - yucks) and also because I practically numbed my tongue by coating the liver with chili. Whatever it is, I am glad I did something to increase my heamo :)

Another thing I'm proud of is, I woke up early this morning (early = 5am), to fry some yellow noddles :) So I have my breakfast and lunch taken care off. Snoopy and Woodstock is obviously happy.

See the cili in the middle of the noodles?

Hehe... that's the "killer"

Have a blessed day mates!

p/s: No, don't worry, I am not turning this into a flog!

Cheating Yeast

Made this beauties last night. As usual, The Bug comes to haunt. I was rather... scared to revisit this recipe, because the last time I made this, our hand mixer went kaput! Hehe... For that very reason, we got this...

A sturdy kind of mixer :) This actually comes with 3 functions (i.e. mixer, blender, meat processsor) and it was at a really good price. One of the best buys we made. So, after years of fearing the worst, I took this up last night, and decided to put this babe to the test. Yes, I was (and still am) really really scared.

Why cheating yeast you might ask? Well... yeast thrives in warm environment. Must, since it was night and though our kitchen is REALLY hot, I had to cheat the yeast to rise. So heated up the oven and put the mixing bowl near it and tada!!! The yeast cheated. Neh neh neh neh neh... hehe :)

Was worried that the yeast found out and refuse to make my buns rise, but I was not to worry... these came out from the oven....

Bun Kosong (empty bun)

And because Noel will hate bun kosong, and I wanted to try to replicate what's made in the bakery, I made these too...

Sausage bun

The smell of yeast + flour + butter as they were baking in the oven was divine... heavenly.... We sat down to a late night supper with those bun, and once mum, dad & Noel nodded their head, approving of the taste and texture, I was ready to flop down in bed! It took a long long time for me to get the final result, as this is a new unfamiliar territory, but it was, as always, good therapy.

To me, the real test of whether the goodies pass or not, will be the next morning - will they still be soft and fluffy? So this morning, the first thing I did was to check and I'm happy to say, the buns passed the test!

Coffee and homemade bun

Have a great day mates!

p/s: Recipe will follow once I get everything right (means more practise)

Give Blood, Give Life

Went to a blood donation drive at Church yesterday. It's been a long time since I gave, the last time was in Uni days (yeah, yeah, the young fearless blood). Then I got "old" and more "chicken". Hehe. So when the church organized the event, I thought - oh well, since I don't have anything else to give to the society, I might as well. Took Noel to the drive, he was curious, scared, full of puzzlement, etc all at the same time. The same reason I take him along to Tunas Bakti etc - good exposure :)

1st test - Weight - of course I passed (if not with flying colours!)

2nd test - Blood Pressure - normal - passed

3rd test - Heamoglobin - the droplet of blood taken from my finger took it's sweet time to go to the bottom of the testing solution - failed :(

The officer tested again to make sure - and to my dismay, again, it took it's sweet time. "Tak cukup darah, cik. Cukup untuk sendiri jer. Takpa, lain kali boleh cuba lagi. Terima kasih kerana niat baik" - literally means, not enough blood - just enough for my own body. So I can't give away, for now. The officer of course told me to eat more iron rich food - and to my parent's apprehension, Noel annouced "mummy not enough blood" when we got home.

Disappointed, yes I am. But there's nothing much I can do about it... just gotta go back to those preggy days with liver (YUCKS!)

Here's more info if you'd like to give life :)

Therapy... In it's simplest form

This. This is therapy for me. Even if I come home at 8pm or 9pm or 11pm - when I need it, I just have to have it. No!!! Not the knife!!! Hahaha... that's only part of the tool! :) This is my work table... where I play with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, etc.

My baking bug is still not satisfied since we got the oven back, so I've been baking for all's worth. Wednesday nite, I baked another batch of Cinnamon Rolls (which again, didn't make it to the office - thanks to the piggies at home) and last nite, I baked this:

What's that? Hehe.. Pure and simple Butter Cake. Well, I intended to bake some dinner rolls but didn't have the right flour for it - and still need to satisfy The Bug - so baked this with what's available. Since I didn't want it to be too plain, I just simply throw in some raisins and tada!!! This came to life in the oven.

Raisin butter cake :) My apologies for my Loyal Guinea Pigs (hereafter known as LGP). This didn't even make it through the night. Gone within half hour out of the oven. Yeah, Yeah.... bigger Piggies at home.

Ahhhh... this is indeed the needed therapy.

What's YOUR therapy?

Prediction... MY FOOT!

Barbequed, deep fried, goreng sambal, calamari mango salad, masak kicap cili kering... I can think of 1001 ways this horrid looking creature should end up in (instead of lazing around in his aquarium!)

Painfully Aching

Been reading a couple of Jodi's book, courtesy of Togou (Thanks ya Gou! - i'm done with both... nanti I go over to take some more - thank God for generous friends!)

Plain Truth potrays the memory of a sister who died of drowning, amongst it's plot... the memory so real, that you can almost see, almost taste, almost... touch the person. Almost.

Lately (weeks now), memories of one, once so dear, but now lost with death, has been so thick, so overwhelming till it's almost like I could relive those days together in real life at present. It's hard, the deep yearning is almost physically painful and I can't understand it. I guess, there were unsettled issues between us, words that were left unspoken... at times I wish to turn back the clock to those days!!... But I know that this is not possible... so the nearest I could do is to pray that "rest in peace" would please come through - for the both of us.

It's been 15 yrs now... i truly miss you with all my heart... there's so many things we didn't get to talk about... sigh... rest in peace dearest... We'll catch up when we meet.

Deep Craving... Satisfied

The rolls right before going in the oven

"Dad, see this oven - I think rosak - not hot anymore". That's me, being confident that my oven has given up on me. Who knows... actually, it's me being dumb!

Haha... I intended to switch off the rice cooker, who knows my fat fingers switched off the oven instead! All that in the middle of baking my cinnamon rolls!

So, anyway, I have been DYING for freshly baked, warm, right from the oven cinnamon rolls... not those like what can be bought St. Cinnamon but more like simple homemade ones... Anyway, as it is working with anything with yeast, the proofing (i.e. waiting to make it double in size), kindda put off the idea of waking up early on Saturdays to bake this. So, needless to say, I was really happy, to come across this and set up to bake them last Saturday.

However, sadly, buttermilk is almost unheard off in Kuching (I'm not sure about our West counterparts), so again, with the beauty of Google, I substitute the buttermilk with plain yogurt.

Another change I made to her recipe was that goopy sugar glaze outside... I reckon I'm more of a salty kind of person, so I simply put a good dallop of butter on top of the right-out-of-the-oven-roll and again, spread it to every nook and crany I could find :) The result? Wonderfully golden salty-ish rolls!

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING can compare to the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls baking in the oven... I'm telling you, it's heavenly.... [time to take a deep breathe to see if you can smell a hint of cinnamon from around you :)]. Anyway... as Kendra said in her blog, these beauties were made from scratch, baked and eaten - all within ONE HOUR! The result is densed heavy rolls, which satisfied that cinnamon monster in me - oh, so YUMMMMMM!!!!

Noel, who is not a fan of cinnamon even ate one whole big piece by himself (mummy chest puffs out with pride) and even specifically asked for one for Sunday supper + one for school today.

The rolls right after coming out from the oven & glazed

As you can see, the recipe is another keeper - for the lack of need for a mixer, for it's simplicity and for it's yummy-ness... and there's not too many pieces in a recipe, so you keep wanting for more, thus making you make more, thus honning your skills and making you a better baker! What better chain reaction can you ask for? :) So yeah, if you have something to bake this in, please, by all means, make some this weekend and enjoy :)

Blessed Monday people!

Yummy Banana Cake... for the Monkeys!

OK, I must, MUST rave about this banana cake... It's SO easy to get a fresh, yummy banana cake with this recipe - not to mention healthy since it's steamed :)

I gave this fantastic recipe a go and Noel finished half of the cake at one sitting (yeah, yeah, I shouldn't indulge him)... but it's THAT good. Next day, i woke up at 6.30am, mix the cake, put it in steamer, showered, and by 7, I just grab the cake, ready to go :) Colleagues loved LOVED it... so if you're in need of some homemade goodness, give this a go... it's really worth it :)

The best part? You simply mix everything into a bowl, steamed using the same bowl and SERVE using the same bowl! No mixer, no over, no steamer (a wok will do fine) and most of all - NOT MANY DISHES to clean up! SUPER DUPER EASY! Go, Go, GO!!! Give it a go!

I got my recipe from here :)

...and we're back!!

We're back in business people!!! I was so so so... HAPPY (delirious is more like it), when mom smsed saying the oven is back (and it cost a silly RM38 for the silly hinge) - well, at least it's not hundreds right? Hehe...

I got to work immediately... been missing this baby for ages! Tried a muffin recipe (from here), and as usual, noel gobbled up lots (love it when he likes my cake - which he normallly doesn't - he prefers his nenek's). However, I'm not too sure if this is the texture a muffin should be... it's still yumm though (esp when fresh from oven). I'll try more muffin recipes soon!