Braids

I'm here, I'm here! Still alive and busy!

So much to do, so little time - yet I had time to braid breads. See what I did there?

Had leftover strong flour from pizza-making earlier this year so I decided to make a 5-braid loaf. Only tempted to bake this because I saw photos while surfing through Instagram and it looked pretty! However I think my dough was too wet, and it didn't rise properly, so the texture wasn't great in the end.

Not sure if I'm gonna do a second try on this since I've got very little flour left and I don't really intend on getting any more. Partly because I discovered that I might have gluten-intolerance, I'm trying to cut down on stuff like this. Not avoiding bread totally though, since I love them quite a bit! 

Have you tried Sainsbury's Cranberry, Orange & Pumpkin Seed Loaf? 

or Marks & Spencer's Pecan and Cranberry Baton?

My two favourites! 

Anyway here's the recipe I sort of followed - tweaked a bit here and there since I didn't use cheese and herbs. 

I also really want to try some gluten-free recipes soon so hopefully I'll have the time! Back to work now!

#3 carrot cake

My mommy's recipe:

• 240g carrots
• 120g canned pineapples
• 60g raisins
• 60g walnuts/ I used an extra 60g raisins instead of nuts because Nicole's allergic to nuts
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 4 eggs
• 150g brown sugar
• 180ml corn oil/ canola oil/ I used light olive oil
• 240g self-raising flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder & 1/2 tsp baking soda/ I used Allinsons Wholemeal Seed & Grain Flour, a teaspoon of baking powder and baking soda each
• a pinch of salt, which I forgot to add

Beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets fluffy, everything else comes next.

Fold in the flour mixture until you get a nice consistency.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes on 170 °C.

Note: Squeeze the carrot juice out so that it's not too wet. Also, chop your raisins and nuts before adding for nicer bites. 

As for the cream cheese topping, it's a ratio of 1 to 1 of soft cream cheese, and an equal mixture of melted butter and icing sugar. Meaning that if I use 100g of cream cheese, it's 50g of butter and 50g of icing sugar. I thought that we didn't have any icing sugar left in the house so I missed it out in this batch of cream tonight. Was in the cupboard all along! 

That's it for this week's 52. Hope everyone will enjoy this recipe, goodnight folks! 

#2, detox

HA. Kidding! Nope, I did not have any mayonnaise on my healthy, veggie, fruity, week - that was a day before I started on week 2's challenge. Healthy week it is, but I might have gone a little overboard with the amount of groceries for this week!

Day 1 and 2 were easier than I thought. I actually get to snack on whatever amount of fruits and veggies, so that felt very nice! Grapes and melons are my personal faves. 

Day 3 failed because Kimmie hosted a Vietnamese dinner specially for us, and she really did put in a lot of effort to make it happen. That's a one-meal discount but I still kept up with my plan the next day. Tomorrow is Day 5 and it's beef day! Yep, I'm finally eating meat again after 4 days - it's not hard being vegetarian after all. 

Anyway, that's all I have for blog updates. Rather abrupt end but it's gonna be a crazy week at uni this week: 3 tutorials + 1 coursework presentation. Wish me luck folks.

more than just dough and cheese

Remember I mentioned that there were lots of pizza dough left from the week #1 challenge? I tried making different kinds of pizza (and buns) and I'm glad with the results! I used anchovies as fillings for my pizza buns and had them with seaweed and sambal. Yeap, Malaysian tastebuds ftw!

Well, enough of pizza for now, I'm moving on to week #2. This week's challenge... is to go for a detox! I've not tried any sort of dieting before, but my family is going for it and I should too. It only lasts for one week and I've also got to keep up with my workout regime, so wish me luck and hopefully I don't get lazy.

Project 52 is on again!

The last time I made myself do a 52-week project, I failed miserably after week... 3? (previously it was an attempt to do conceptual self-portraits)

I came up with something more feasible now, that is to make/ bake/ cook/ read/ do something new once a week. I think it's important to learn how to never be afraid of making mistakes and that it's okay to fail at things sometimes, so I intend to document my experience in this little space. Hopefully I'll keep up to it!

Here's week 1, and it's Pizza Wednesday.

Getting the dough consistency right was difficult for me - I used too much water for my yeast and ended up having to top up more flour until the mixture is just about right. And this baby grows twice its size after sitting in the bowl for an hour. Yeah, you can imagine the amount of leftover dough I have in my fridge. Guess what's for dinner tonight, and lunch tomorrow, and dinner too? Hur hur. 

The second mistake was to use greaseproof paper! DO NOT use greaseproof paper to line your pan/tin! (or maybe I used them wrongly) The paper was stuck to my pizza base, so I ended up scraping the pizza off with a knife and the meal turned out to look quite unglam, haha!

Pizza was rather bread-like too, I was hoping that it would turn out crusty but it didn't. Better try next time (or tonight).

Overall I thought today turned out okay - messed around in the kitchen, and the best part is that I don't have any classes today. Double yay!

Got tips or ideas to share, anyone? Join me in this project, google a new recipe and make something today! :)

Not feeling so happy about this

I can't believe I'm doing this! I'm going to put Project 52 on hold!

Arghhh - I'm slightly annoyed with myself, but I'm glad (or at least hoping) that I'm making some right decisions. There's so much going on, sometimes I feel myself getting sucked into fantasy, so much that I forget the reality around me. I have plenty of work to catch up on, I am travelling almost every weekend, and I would really love some time to just do whatever I want - those that also involve things beyond taking photographs. I'm just trying to find my balance.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still be doing lots of wackiness, but just at my own pace. :)

Bear with me! x

4/52

little houses all the same

3/52

you won't believe me but there really was magic in my room

2/52

behind the silver lining is nothing but yourself

Project 52: 1/52

One piece a week should be alright. 

1/52

And these are some of the stuff I did back in 2010, and none after that - I can't believe I stopped and I still don't know why. :( 

xxx