Of Heart and Mind

My husband had been asking me to bake this ever since like..... foreva!  Because I was afraid of yeast, I used to ignore his request... hahaha! Until I bumped into this at  Allrecipe  .. all I can say is.... it's worth a try.. definitely!  I made this 3 times already and they turned out good every time.  So... LET's! I added some variations to the original recipe... check out the notes below. For cinnamon dough: 2 packs yeast (11g each pack) 1/4 cup warm water (not too hot or you will kill the yeast!) 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I used plain yogurt) 1/2 cup vegetable oil 4 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda Filling: 100 gm butter, melted 1 1/4 cup brown sugar 2-3 tsp ground cinnamon Topping: 250gm cream cheese  1/2 to 1 cup icing sugar, sifted  1 tsp vanilla essence (Beat all ingredients on high speed until smooth and creamy) Preparing the rolls: Dissolve yeast in warm water until foamy - leave for about ...

Home made doughnut has always been my fav kuih... I can say no to Dunkin' Donut or JCO and the likes ..... but soft, home made doughnut covered with castor sugar will melt me anytime. Since i am now sooo in the mood to make kuih that uses yeast - partly because i love to see the foam when you add warm water to the yeast.. and also to see the dough rises - i thought why not I try this one out.  After I did some research (ha! ha!), I finally found one recipe from Azie Kitchen  sometime ago and I have been keeping it like forever... I have never tried it because yeast and knead used to scare the hell out of me! Anyway, I was so bored today and since it was tea time.... I decided to make some doughnut!  I ran through the list of ingredients to make sure I have them all... yes, you don't want to be soakin the yeast only to find out that you don't have enough flour... ak-ahh! OK, all checked. So.. LET's! 11gm (1 packet) of yeast Soak with 200ml warm water (not too ho...

i feel so pooped! I need my afternoon nap!

It was raining cats n dogs today and by the time i reached home it was already 8pm! Sigh!  I really  hate it when it rains in KL... like it's a guaranteed sign that you will be stuck on the road with feet going numb, tummy starting to growl and all you have is the DJ on the radio to keep you entertained.  If you are lucky, you'll get to listen to your favorite songs. There's so much going on in the office and they sucked out all my mood this week.  So today as soon as I got home, I reached out for my loyal friend in the kitchen.... my cake mixer... hee hee hee I've been saving this recipe for so long and it was time to give it a GO.  I never fancy sugee cake but I just love trying new recipes... it gives me a good feeling once the aroma of the baked cake fills the air... and the feeling when you take a bite of the hot-and-fresh-from-the-oven-cake.... priceless! So here goes... SUGEE CAKE  250 gm butter 230gm – 250 gm castor sugar (I used 230 g...

Colorful cupcakes , a photo by Naz - Mad About Cakes on Flickr.

life has its ups and downs.   there's no such thing as perfect lives...  some days , you just have to create your own sunshine and smile while you're at it. take a chance, go where the wind will take you, dance to your music and live your dreams. for life is meant be lived, not grieved, enjoyed, not endured. it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow... so slow down, take a deep breathe and enjoy every single minute of your life.  

Of late, i find myself wanting to bake something that I have the least interest in, not until these last few months ... like baking traditional kuih or cooking dishes that are not even on my cooking list.  I guess age is catching up on me that I am starting to cook what my mom used to cook ... :0 Last nite I was so bored that I started flipping my 'Saved Recipes - Not Tested' folder.    These are collections from so many sources ...  my friends, cousins, food blogs, magazines, etc.  Then I came across this recipe and I thought the steps are quite simple.. in a dash, I was already in my lil' office preparing the ingredients.  I like this kuih and this is my second time trying.  The first one was not at all successful :(   Anyway, you will need the following ingredients to make this nice Kuih Bakar Pandan: A 10-15 pcs of pandan leaves  2 cups water Blend these two ingredients and sift to get the pandan juice.  Take 1 1/2 cups of p...

they say i live life to the fullest but... they don't know what i went through to be here

I simply love pasta... any kind any shape.. well, who doesn't, right? This is one of my fav dish... yup, it's because i like to eat it, but above all.... it's the simplest dish to prepare :) For pasta, choose your fav pasta and boil according to the instruction on the packaging.  I always use either fussili or penne. Meatballs 500gm lean minced beef  (season with salt n pepper) 1 egg 1/2 cup breadcrumb  1-2 tsp dried herbs (parsley or oregano) Olive oil (to fry) Mix all ingredient (except olive oil) and make sure all are evenly mixed and well blended. Shape up the minced beef to make medium sized meatballs.  Heat up your frying pan (medium heat) with 1 tbsp olive oil.  Fry the meatballs just enough to dry 'em up on the outside.  Do not stir vigorously, otherwise you will break the meatballs apart.  But this is optional (the frying, I mean). You can straight away toss the meatballs into the tomato sauce without frying. Tomato sauce ...

The Sailor...  The aftermath of PRU13 continues.... PRU13 saw a big chunk of voters came out and voted for the first time on Sunday... and this Voters-Tsunami went across racial boundaries.  Analysts were saying that approximately 3mil out of total votes last Sunday were derived from First-time Voters (who are mostly below 35 and hailed from urban areas) and majority of them did so for the sake of BN's opponent (Nope... Yours Truly is not part of the statistics because I exercised my right for the second time already). Some statistics that I managed to pull out yesterday:  BN polled 5,237,699 votes for the federal seats while Pakatan Rakyat parties’ combined managed to pull 5,623,984 votes The PR pact also surpassed BN in the state seats, scoring in 4,879,699 votes in comparison to BN’s 4,513,997 votes. The voting pattern this year showed BN grew weaker than before in terms of total votes (BN vs Opposition) – analysts were also saying that this is an in...

It's been a month since New Year and I haven't been updating... Lazybone! So it's already February, 4th of Feb to be exact... In 2013. Happy new year folks! And yes, that hot bod wishing you a fabulous 2013 will be in my list of new resolutions.... Ho! Ho! Ho!