Lemon Butter Cake

I blame it on my parents. I blame it on the way I've been brought up. I blame it on the satisfaction it feels when the deed is done. You see, I have been brought up with the idea that when someone gives you something, it needs to be reciprocated - a container is never returned empty, a favored always returned, a treat always countered.

So when on one sweet day, whilst standing at the PA&AV crew console area (where he memang always hang out - the only kid there), Noel was given a lemon, this "teaching" was passed down to him too. He's got to "give back" to the lemon-giver. Well, shhh.... don't tell Noel, but actually, I was just looking for reason to make this recipe! So on a Saturday, Noel got down to business. He was incharge of shifting the flour and grating the lemon zest.

The cake was baked and left overnight, as it said to do in the recipe and I made a small cupcake just to try (incase it didn't taste nice enough to give away!). To my horror, my cupcake tasted so sickly sweet. However, it was so wonderfully lemony that I risked giving it away anyways. So mom cut the cake beautifully into 3 portions and I packed them for Noel to distribute. We didn't want to give a big portion to just one family (what if they don't eat simple butter cake? what if they don't like lemon? blablabla), so packed to give away some to other "PA/AV crew family" as well.

With 3 portions, I actually had 1 pack extra and since I was busy and couldn't find any other family to "deposit" the cake to, I brought back one pack and it became my personal office snack time treat. Boy, oh boy!!! Was I glad on my decision to give the cakes away anyways coz it.was.heaven. Fresh lemony tartness countered the just-right-sweetness and the crunch of the lemon zest on top of the cake made the cake burst with lemon flavor with each bite.

The families we gave the cakes to were pleasantly surprised and send wonderful texts indicating how lovely the cake was. The problem is.... I've now received a few packets of coffee from them as thanks and me being me, I'm now scratching my head for the perfect coffee bake!!!

Nightmare time is here...

Last round of exam in May, Noel did pretty badly. When I met with his teacher, apparently, her whole class did poorly as the exam was set by Zone and the school that set the papers this time are known to be tough ones. Unfortunately, by doing badly, Noel will also have to face the consequences i.e. spanking. Now, I've tried many positive ways to get him to work harder in school before this; motivating, rewards etc, but none worked too well, so last resort, spanks.

Spanking system was set before the exams. B = 1 spank, C = 2 spanks, D = 3 spanks and so on. However, when I calculated the total spanks, it came up to a whooping 21 spanks!!!! For the fear of having to rush to the hospital to patch up his butt checks, we recalculated starting with C = 1 spank, D = 2 spanks etc.... Ending up with 10 spanks in total.

It broke my heart. And his. Many tears were shed between the 2 of us. But I pray this will not break his spirit, but rather build him up. Anyway, exam week starts today again. We'll see how effective the spankings were...

Teacher's comment in his record book; roughly translated as - "Do more chinese and maths exercise. Good behaviour. Jia you!"

In trying to console myself...

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Proverbs 23:13

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Proverbs 13:24

Give Blood, Save Lives Part 2

A year ago (gosh, has it really been a year??!!), I blogged about not being able to give blood because I didn't have enough blood. A few blood donation drives came and went in the church throughout the year but there's always something that made it not possible for me to try again.

10th July came and I went this time, worried and telling a not-so-little-white-lie about my physical well-being, I passed through all the test, and the drawing of 450ml of blood, the resting, the getting-up-without-passing-out and yeay!!, I'm back to being a blood donor!! *dancing with joy*


See, my last donation date was 1998 - that's 13 yrs ago!!!! Gotta fill up this donor book moving forward!

note: They gave each successful donor a car sticker that reads "Don't hit me, I'm a blood donor". I've been cracking my head (still am) trying to figure out apalah kaitan???

Do you remember?

Anyone remember this game??? I was thrilled to come across this at a cheap store (this was RM1.50) and quickly grab to show Noel how to play it. We've been having great times playing this at least once a day and it feels good to be transported back to the easy and carefree childhood days. Oh, the simple joys of life!

Chicken Pie

It's funny how a certain thing must taste as our mind thinks it must taste. How a certain mashed potato should taste, how a certain bbq rack of rib must taste, how a potato salad must taste etc... to me, even Christmas has it's certain unique "taste"! One day, the "taste" of Chicken Pie was so strong on my tongue that I had to run out to the place known best for it's Chicken Pie in Kuching - Aloha delicatessen during lunch hour and gobbled up one immediately in the car. But sadly, despite being really good, the pie didn't meet the "taste" that I had in my mind.


So, woo to me, I had to make the pie myself.... I've been longing to make this for ages, but, the pastry puff dough part put me off. I knew that there's ready-to-use pastry dough easily available but being the typical baker I thought I am, I didn't want to succumb to using this easy way out. Ya, ya.... very action I know ;)


Given that thought, when I saw Jane churned out beautiful puffs, I quickly put aside my baker pride and quickly grab the pastry puff and made these right away. Well, right away after figuring out how to use the puff pastry dough that is!


Apparently, ours didn't come with a plastic separator in between the pastry sheets and ours turned into a big slab of dough! so some rolling was needed (along with lots of head scratching trying to figure out the dough). But we ended up with some gorgeous scrumptious chicken pie that tasted the way it should (in my mind that is!)


We had about 12 chicken pies to last us for a couple of days and though it was great, I think it will be a while before I use the other slab of dough now stuck in my freezer ;)

Adios Amigo...

Last Sunday night, in the midst of busy-ness, came the call saying Uncle George had passed away. We spend few hours in SGH on Saturday when we got an emergency call saying that he vomitted blood and was admitted. He never regain conciousness. 20++ vehicles escorted him back to his resting place in Taee on Tuesday morning.

Ask any one of the family of his / her memory of Uncle, and it will be this - him riding on his scrambler. Since small, I've always been fascinated by him and his ride when he comes over to the house. From far we could hear his scrambler and excitedly we'd exclaim "Uncle George is coming!!!"I couldn't help but weep when Boy; his youngest son rode it from their kampung home to the church for his farewell.

Adios Uncle.... I hope you're resting well now, away from the pains, limitations and the waste of this human body. I'll miss your deep comforting voice, always calling me Mei Ling and Ngui Cis, your tall towering height.... I'll miss you and I hope we'll meet again one sweet day.

It's July peeps.... half a year has gone... have we lived our lives to the fullest, enjoyed and cherished and loved our friends and each and every single one of our family to the best that we can? have we stopped to smell the roses? have we said that long awaited "i love you"? have we done our task and assignments like there's no tomorrow? have we.... ?