..how I channel my bad vibes...
When there's too much school work to be done at a time or when my feelings go haywire, I tend to lose direction on what should be set as priority. Some people go for hair wash and body massage while some may go for reflexology. Some may hit the k-box and there are also some that'll sleep on it. Others may sweat it out in gyms, at the track or field but there are some who'll go for the bottle. Whatever, channeling away the bad energy in a negative way wouldn't do us any good.
November last year I was way..wayy...waayy...down the drain. My dad died and I was totally heart broken. I couldn't let him go and the feelings began eating inside me slowly. I didn't know what I was doing until a week before Christmas. I began my baking expedition....
Most of the time, cooking or baking helps me to actually organize my thoughts because I get to focus on the energy I spent on making the food tasty. Once it's done, I'll be okay again. So, here are some of the artsy-fartsy things I did in the kitchen during that one particular week.
November last year I was way..wayy...waayy...down the drain. My dad died and I was totally heart broken. I couldn't let him go and the feelings began eating inside me slowly. I didn't know what I was doing until a week before Christmas. I began my baking expedition....
Most of the time, cooking or baking helps me to actually organize my thoughts because I get to focus on the energy I spent on making the food tasty. Once it's done, I'll be okay again. So, here are some of the artsy-fartsy things I did in the kitchen during that one particular week.
PROSPERITY BALLS (...kuih Makmur...)
I love making out this recipe. The ingredients aren't difficult and they nicely melt your taste buds... only the rolling bit is tedious.
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..ingredients..1 kg wheat flour
450 gm ghee blend (melted) 1 small packet of instant milk powder 1 packet of icing sugar Steps Firstly, warm up your oven. Then, fry dry the flour in a wok until its almost golden (no oil needed). Remember to stir it thoroughly. Put off the heat, mix in the milk powder and let it cool down. Once cooled, pour in the melted ghee bit by bit. Try pressing a little bit of the mixture tightly in your palm and roll it into a ball. If it doesn't crack, then the dough is just nice. Arrange the balls in the baking tray. Once ready, put into the warm oven and slow down the heat. Check the balls every 5 - 8 minutes. If the bottom part of the ball turns a little bit brownish, take out the tray and roll the balls in icing sugar. ...that's all..but more to come...hang on, readers!! |
FRUIT CAKE SPECIAL
...what's so special about this cake is, it can last for 3 months...the mellower it gets, the tastier it becomes... this cake is also a part of my family's tradition during Christmas for more than 10 years.
...make sure you have the side of the pot covered with flour too so that your cake would be easy to slide out of it once it's cooked...
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Ingredients
9 1/2 cups of wheat flour 10 eggs (leave 2 of the whites out) 2 large Cadbury chocolates or any cooking chocolate you'd prefer (melt or shred them first) 450 gm of butter / magarine 1/2 kg of yellow raisins* 1/2 kg of black raisings* 3 cups of fine sugar 2 cups of sugar (boil it til it melts) a small packet of horlick (it's a kind of malted beverage) 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda *Mince both raisins finely and soak them overnight with liquor...this is optional. Steps: Prepare your steam pot first. Make sure you have enough water to last between 4 - 5 hours of steaming. ...so, firstly... beat up the fine sugar with butter til fluffy. Then, break in the eggs one at a time. Next, put in the (horlick) powder and the chocolates. Mix them well. Sieve in the flour, bit by bit into the mixture as well as the bicarbonate of soda. In between the flour, scatter the soaked raisins and keep on stirring the mixture. Do this til the 5th (fifth) cup of flour. Next is the tricky part. The boiled sugar needs to be poured in at this moment while it's hot. Otherwise, it'll be difficult to pour in the cold, hardened sugar. At this moment, your mixture gets thicker and needs more of your energy to stir them. Your cake blender wouldn't do the trick but only will destroy your machine. Continue mixing the flour til the final cup... you'll be burning a lot of calories by this hour, I can guarantee you.. Finally, pour in the mixture into a cake tin/pot, big enough for the cake to rise. Cover it with plastic wrapping so that water droplets wouldn't get into the cake. Put it in the steaming pot and let it steam until it is cooked. ......enjoy the process...!!! |
ICE CREAMS....!!!!I get to sell some of these ice-creams in my school on hot days...and trust me, THEY ARE HOT..!! For 20 cents each, and if I'm hardworking, my sale for the month could reach around RM300....(minus the capital)... pretty good business, huh? oh, there's the grape flavour, durian in milk (yellow), sugarcane with milk, strawberry and cherry with milk and orange with sour plum....
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Ingredients: Fruity drinks' concentrate sugar cream milk Steps: 1. Mix any concentrate drinks with water. 2. Put in sugar. Be extra sweet..because once the sugar turns ice, it'll be tasteless if you're stingy on it... (forget the diabetes!! ...they are for the kids and they do need the extra energy for running around). 3. You can mix in the milk if you like. 4. Put the mixture into ice-cream plastic bags or cups and freeze them for a night... .....hmmmm... very nice on hot days... Actually, the idea of making ice-creams for x'mas came when I ran out of money to buy chocolates for the kids... that was the next best thing I could do for them and thank God, some kids came to our house for their 2nd visit... |