milo, milo, MILO!

"Who loves MILO?"
"Caressa does."
"Is that true?"
"Uh-huh. I do, I do, I do-ooh"

Man, I haven't watch Kel and er.....some1 for a very very long time (I even forgot the show's name).Well, the famous line is, "who loves orange soda?". "Kel does.".... It's a kid show I used to watch on Nickelodeon.

Neways, i haven't met any normal person who hates Milo. Milo's great. So is Ovaltine. Some people might like one better than the other tho Milo's more popular here in Singapore (there are even various drinks concoctions using Milo. Milo dinosaur anyone?) But I think Milo and Ovaltine taste almost the same. I bet other kids, like me, grew up on Milo or Ovaltine. I still remember back in Primary school how we used to get real excited when the Milo van came to our school to promote the product. We then would sit nicely and wait eagerly for our cup of ice cold Milo.

I used to prefer eating Milo powder, tho. I think it tastes yummier than when mixed with water. But my maid would get really annoyed cuz then there would be Milo powder all over the living room.

I don't love Milo juz becoz of its delicious chocolatey flavor (I love anything chocolate!) but I do think that Milo is a great energy drink. I remembered once a few of us were out raising funds by selling jumble sale tickets. We had to go to those industrial sites/workshops and sell it door-to-door. It was really exhausting. But after drinking a tall glass of ice Milo, I felt I could do ticket-selling the whole day. No kidding. And it can easily be everyone's fav comfort drink.

Yesterday I noticed there's a box with the Milo logo. I peered inside and saw that there are 6 cans of Milo. The 1.5kg ones. So I asked mom whose are those. And she told me that some1 gave it to her. I was like. WOW! That's 9kg of Milo! My eyes turned chocolate... We still have like a half-ful can of Milo. So, as much as my sis and I love our Milo, how the *....* are we gonna finish all those Milo. I'm gonna get seriously obese if I were to drink all those Milo. So mom gave 1 can to my cousing, 1 to church for potluck and 1 or 2 reserved for our mission trip fundraising day [Do watch out for more info on this ;)]

That left me with 2 more cans. Mom decided to make Milo pudding and I, Milo Dinosaur!! Perfect for a warm Sunday afternoon. But there are still a lot more left. So I googled for recipes. I've got quite a few. But decided on this one recipe for now since I've got all the ingredients on hand.

Milo Muffins

What's in it:
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Milo
3 Tspn Baking Powder
1 Tspn Baking Soda
½ Tspn Salt
4 Eggs1 Cup Caster Sugar
½ Cup Dark Brown Packed Sugar
250g Butter
1 Cup Milk
2 Cups White Chocolate Chips & Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

'mm-mmm...

How to concoct it:
1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200C.
2. Stir together flour, milo, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add in eggs and milk until combined well.
4. Fold in flour mixture until combined, finally fold in chocolate chips.
5. Divide batter among muffin cups (⅓ - ½ full) , bake for 20 minutes until deep golden brown, rotate tray after 10 minutes so muffins brown evenly.Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

I put extra Milo to the recipe, added some chopped almonds and omitted the white choc (cuz I didn't have it).


Oh boy, I totally dig the sweet aroma of this muffin. And I like texture also. Really soft. I didn't even wait for it to cool completely before I pop one into my mouth. Yumm!! =D

Double Chocolate Brownies

After failing the last two (it wasn't that bad really. Still edible, but a bit dry and hard), I went to find some more brownies recipe, even borrowed this brownies recipebook from the library (man, am I glad they finally build a library in Bishan). There are quite a lot of brownies recipe in that book, but somehow i prefer getting my recipe online from foodblogs, cuz I thot those recipe must be more do-able, and it seems easier when people have actually tried out those recipe.

But I still visit the library for recipe books. I still believe in Jamie and Nigella, and occasionally Martha and I need to satisfy my fettish for drool-inducing, yummy pictures on recipe books. That's why I really can't figure out why people would publish recipe books without pictures. I mean it's so silly. People need to sort of have an idea how the end product should look like, especially noobs like me, right?

I forgot the name of the book, but the chocolate frosting recipe was great! Neways, I found this brownie recipe online and tried it out during the weekend.

Double Chocolate Brownie
adapted from Martha Stewart's Double Chocolate Brownie recipe

What's in it:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
200 grams good-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed firm)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

How to concoct it:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree celcius. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper.
2. Put butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until completely melted. Let cool slightly.
3. Mix your flour, baking powder, and salt well and aside.
4. Using an electric mixer (or a handwhisk if you prefer), mix sugar, egg, and vanilla well until pale, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until well combined.
5. Pour brownie batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer, when inserted in the brownie, comes out clean.
6. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes then lift out to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

It turned out pretty good. See... (I took more pics actually, but my ever-so-smart sis deleted them *grrr*)

I sprinkled some chopped Brazil nuts on top. Aunt Soh gave us a big container full of nuts (brazil nuts, pecans, macadamia nuts etc). I've never tried Brazil nuts before and never came across a recipe that uses it. It tasted quite bland when eaten on its own. But it went really well with the brownies. It tastes kinda like walnut but with a tinge of coconut taste. The texture is also more dense than walnut, kinda like almond.

Oh btw, I know the recipe asks for pure vanilla extract. But I've read in several recipe books that imitation one is good enough and they are really close to the real thing. Unless you're a real pro, you won't be able to taste/smell the difference. But if u are a purist and/or have lots of dosh to spare, by all means, get the real thing.

Neways, although the the brownies was not bad at all, I wasn't really satisfied. The brownies was a bit too cakey I think. I prefer it to be more fudgy. But well, Ralph said it was good. I guess different folks different strokes.

I really like the brownies from the Secret Recipe. It's just nice for me. Top it off with vanilla ice cream to make it even more 'mmm :):) I shall look for more recipes that'll give me that kind of brownies. Yup!

For the love of food...

I've been wanting to post all the baked goodies that I've made during the hols but somehow I've been really busy that I've no time! What with internship, getting sponsorship for PPIS, planning for mission trip, reading new books yadda yadda yadda.... See I'm so busy right?

Oh okay, I've been addicted to J-dorama lately also. Ever since end of exams last April, when I watched Taiyo no uta. It's funny how i'm really into dramas now. i was never really a drama person but I guess it's how one show leads to another. Let's just say I've watched lyk 7 or 8 j-dramas and 2 j-movies (goin to watch another 1 tonite :P) in the past 2 months and those are outside my usual anime fix. haha.... I should stop and do sth more constructive. Like more baking! and posting them up ;)

I've actually started like a wk into my hols but haven't got round to write about it.

Just a fifth of what I've borrowed from library. Not to mention the hundreds of recipe I've found online :P

I was thinking of setting up a foodblog, but figured once school starts I won't have much time to bake cuz i'll be super duper busy (for real. not cuz of j-doramas), that I won't be updating much. So neways, it'll be food pics galore from now on till er.... I'm too lazy to blog again. haha....

PS: Do remember as u are reading my posts that I'm very much a noob at baking AND photography. So pardon the bad pics that make my babies look oogly. But seriously, apart from some minor glitches, they're all edible (and most taste real good too! Really!). So far, I haven't got any lawsuit pertaining to food-poisoning.

PSS: I wanna thank those who were willing to be my guinea pigs. But I think they should thank me instead for feeding them good food :P

"I'm a First Aider. I can help!"

Wait a minute... me? a first-aider???

That's right! You read right. I am now a CERTIFIED first aider. I kid you not. I've passed my first aid course. With flying colors, mind you. Tee hee... it's not often I pass an exam with flying colors :)

Finally, after sacrificing 3 whole Sundays on that course, it's finally over. Was quite worried I wouldn't pass the exams cuz I only started studying this morning. I mean, seriously... I'd feel real stupid if I can even fail a first aid course. After all, I kinda joined my school's youth red cross when I was in sec 1. Besides, this course ain't cheap yea. Cost me $90 + 3 Sundays! Bleah.... Cud've spent it on some nice tops or shoes or spent the time baking or hanging out.

But thank God, I passed. Anyways, the course was quite enjoyable, surprisingly. Thot it'll be boring. But the instructor was really funny with lotsa stories. And the people from Eduro PF are really funny. Always making jokes. So overall, it was quite fun.

So guys, "If anything happens, just scream" (like what ST said). And Caressa, the first aider will come and help ya. Complete with the cheesy line, "I'm a first aider. I can help!" ;)



PS: Disclaimer: If anything goes wrong, I shall not be liable. But rest assured, I'll do my best. Haha.... :P

I want more hols! >.<

I must be the laziest blogger. Summer's been on for 3 weeks already and i haven't posted a single entry since end of exams. It's weird. Seem like during hols that i'm more busy, esp in some days. But it's fun busy, not annoyingly exhausting busy, kinda days. Remember last dec hols? I was hardly home for 3/4 of my hols. But it was fun!

But dang, my hols ended too friggin' soon and now i'm already starting my audit internship. Yep, today's my 3rd day already. One word: SIAN!

One thing for sure, my internship isn't slack at all. My mentor already asked me to look at financial statements and do audit right from the very first day. Granted, the company is like a dormant company and the financial statement looked simple enough (for eg, there's only 1 item for income in the P&L) But still, I was like, "Wth?!? I haven't even taken my audit mod. Let alone do audit."

He was like, "Never mind. Audit very easy. Just follow how they do it last year. Dun understand anything, can ask me."

Right. I don't even know what to ask. Hell, I don't even know where to start. Totally lost. Even if I wanna follow last year's, some of the figures are totally different. Gah.... whatever.

But now it's slightly, only slightly, better. I kinda understand the company a bit and I'm actually doing most of the things myself, like vouching and even preparing the audit report. haha.... I just hope I've done them correctly cuz seriously, half the time I'm just sort of following last year's audit work.

Anyways, 3 days is enough to convince me that I don't want to be an auditor. Who says accounting is interesting? Who says accounting is 'more than just number crunching'?
Rubbish, I tell ya. Accounting's super boring. And it's nothing but looking at numbers, numbers and more numbers. Yucks. Zettai yadda!

Oh ya, have I told you that accounting and I are just not meant to be? I believe I'm jinxed when it comes to accounting. Seriously. I'm 100% sure. I can prove it. Let's see.... So far ALL my acctg mod projects are totally screwed up. As in it's either the final work is screwed or even if the end-product is good but the process of doing could just kill me. Then ALL my acctg modules grades are erm.... let's just say even Owen was totally shocked and kept saying," OMG, OMG, OMG!" when I told him my grades. Yep they are that bad. All of them. And there are more accounting horror stories. But I shall not bore you.

Sigh.... I've no freakin' clue why I'm still doing my acctg degree. Not like I've a choice though. Sigh.... Back to internship, at least my mentor isn't bad at all. In fact, I feel bad for him to have me as his intern. I must be the most clueless intern. I even forgot whether an increase in income is a debit or credit :P Well, I just hope my internship ends soon. Hee....

Friendship

It started with just the 2 of them, who were always there for each other; sharing happy and sad moments, laughter and tears.

More came along the way, to share jokes, rantings and bitchings, panda biscuits, ricola and milo.

They are there to keep an eye on one another's back and keep one another strong.

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" - Proverbs 17:17

It's week 13 now and things are getting crazy. Really glad I have friends who keep me sane amidst all the madness, who make me laugh till my face hurts despite the anxieties, who listen to my complaints and rantings despite having having problems of their own and who patienly explain stuff to me altho I have a Windows 98 for a brain. So very thankful that God sent them to be my friends :):)

PS: This is so random, but as I was browsing my photo album (i was feeling emo cuz i freakin failed my tax test. again. tax...urgh!) I found these pics, which were randomly taken by Alds during youth camp, and thought these pics make a very sweet story :)

HAPPY B'DAY TO U ALL!!

Phew, soooo many march babies I can hardly keep up. One b'day party after another and more to come. And it's a freakin wk 11/12 of sch. shucks... busy busy busy haha... Well i've said the happy bday's but again to all u march babies....

happy b'day cynthia
happy b'day erlina
happy b'day daniel O.
happy b'day olivia
happy b'day daniel A.
happy b'day my annoying lil' sis, clarissa. miss bickering with u :)
happy b'day erwin
happy b'day fiona
happy b'day clara
happy b'day xue wei

and to cynthia, erlina, clara n xue wei - welcome to Club 21! hee hee....

Okie, i need to get ready for fiona's b'day now. Sod the stupid fiim, twc and tax report i'm sposed to do. lalalalala.....

So U Think U Can Dance

Er.. no i dun think i can dance. I suck. Totally. That's why i didn't feel lyk going for yesterday's class. Besides I've AIS quiz on friday, and i've read only 30 pages out of 200 pages.

BUT, i'm glad i went. u noe why?

Cuz Ashle Dawson and Ashlee Nino was the instructor-of-the-day! In case u have been living in Mars, they are the winners of So U Think U Can Dance, season 1 & 2, respectively. I kinda knew they were coming, but thot that was juz publicity.

They are shorter than I thought. But they are sooo nice, esp Dawson. But maybe that's cuz she taught most of the time. But neways, she was really really sweet, funny, encouraging and fun fun fun! Even if you dunno how to dance, she juz makes u wanna move ur body. And even if you make mistakes, you won't go, "Oh shit, I'm so dumb." Instead, you'd go, "Oh, who cares." So basically she just wanted us to have fun. For the first time, I was thoroughly enjoying the dance class :) :)

So yep, despite the fact that the class was pretty tough and tiring, I had fun. Argh, wish i dun haf AIS quiz tmr. 170 more pages to go. It's soooo super duper boring. WTH am i doing here?!

Kamen Rider

Forgot to include these kewl pics we took on Fenny's bday. Viny was wearing so-she-called-it 'kamen rider' shades, so each of us took a turn to wear it :P

And the most kewl ones:

How do u peeps like my revamped blog? Hee... think i got tired of the old, dark and gloomy template and decided to use this white clean-cut template. Was thinking of adding some fancy stuff but now no time.

Argh! 3 reports, 1 quiz, 1 test, plus assignments. Argh!!! this wk's a killer. the nxt one, too. and the next and the next.... >.<

My first cake!

Ok this entry is lyk 3 wks late. But like they say - better late than never.

Neways, 26th of Feb was Fenny's 21st bday and I wanted to do 'sth special'. Was thinking of doing some craft stuff but i've been doing tt so often and i didn't haf much time to make sth really nice. Been watching this HK drama about baking and stuff where they make lots n lots of too-pretty-to-eat cakes and that made me wanna make cakes like those too (someday I will...) I've liked baking, but usually my role is just a baker assistant to my mom and hafn been baking since SMoo made my life soo super hectic. So i decided to bake my first cake just for Fenny *awwww....*

I started experimenting with brownies for my dad's b'day, which was on Feb also. It was just an excuse to mess up the kitchen actually cuz my dad dun really like cakes. I didn't know baking is a lot of work, esp since I'm a noob and I did everything by myself . Really thankful for my ever-so-patient, helpful and encouraging mom. I've this habit of starting sth and not finishing it. So when i baked, i dun usually finish the cleaning up. Thankfully my wonderful mom did the cleaning and washing up (I do the cleaning up now, fyi). The brownies turned ok tho it looked NOTHING like in the picture. It tasted ok too, for a first attempt. It was juz a bit dry when it was sposed to be fudgy. Thankful for the ppl who agreed to be my guinea pigs (they're still alive, fyi).

So I braced myself for baking cakes. And guess how my first choc cake turned out? Let's just say my mom jokingly said that I've invented a new kind of cake, called the 'Volcano' and that it looked cool. erm... thanks, mom.

It wasn't bad (nth's really bad if u use choc, i think), but definitely not presentable. I realised i read the recipe wrongly. It asked for fresh milk. I used powdered milk o.O



"If at first you don't succeed, try n try again". So try again, I did. And this is how it looked like.


Still looked like a volcano, but at least better; the first one was lopsided. I really think the oven was the problem (and of course, my lousy skill). Even my mom had already warned me b4. Uneven heat, I think.

But after an Extreme Makeover....











Not bad, eh....








The b'day girl and my cake :):)





The 2 people who seemed to enjoy the cake the most. haha....



thx for the nice comments guys. Really appreciate it :):)




Hmmm but i think it was juz Ernest's ploy to make me make him my signature potato salad, which he likes very much. hee...

Another Extreme Makeover done to the first 'Volcano'









Ittadakimasu! :)

If u notice, actually the top and bottom layer are different cuz they are from different batch. The top part was made by my mom (cuz one of the volcanoes cudnt be used :P). It's drier but my mom added rum to it.

The bottom part is softer, more spongy and more chocolatey. Made by me, of coz.

All the guys who ate it (abt 6 of them), except for one prefer the top, while all the girls like the bottom. I didnt tell them tt my mom made the top part until after they ate it.

I'm not trying to be psychologist or anything, but these are the possible analysis:

1. Guys like motherly touch. I'm not saying girls don't. But er how shud i say this... guys still prefer their mother than their girlfriend/girl-friend.
2. Guys. Alcohol. 'Nuff said.
3. Girls are naturally 'soft-natured'. And we make ppl happy. (if u dunno alr, choc induce the production of endorphine - the feel-good chemical) In essence, we are sweet, soft, and nice ;)
4. Whereas, guys likes to act tough, hard-headed and dry. LOL.... generalisation, of coz.
5. (go infer some more)

Okie, the end of the long post. gah! shud be studying my tax now. ciao!

Yay!! Finally i can access my account again. Stupid blogger waste my precious time trying to fix the problem. But yay, it's alrite now :)

Good Luck CNY Panties

For those who noe me well, you'd know that I'm not exactly the luckiest person on earth. I keep losing my stuff, money (if added together, i can buy a brand new nikon D80 or 2 of Canon Rebel TXi. seriously, i lost US$2,000 once), i'm accident-prone, keep missing my bus/train, etc etc...

So when I reached home today, my mom told me, "I bought you a new red panties, cuz it's chinese new year. Besides, it'll bring you good luck."

I dunno what makes her think that red panties bring good luck. I guess she got the idea from this chinese drama where one of the characters wears red underwear for a job interview cuz according to him, it'll bring him good luck.

Neways, thot it's juz a plain red panties (btw she bought me lyk a redish-maroon panties for good luck also. but i've never worn them). But no.... it's a very CNY-ish bright red panties WITH a golden pig picture in front. Lol.... my mom.... *shakes head*

Oh btw this panties not cheap ok - it costs $6.90. To me, it's quite expensive for a very obiang panties...(btw, i dunno how to explain obiang in english. any1?)

For those curious cats out there, here's a snapshot of it:

PS: Don't come n ask me if i'm wearing this ok, cuz i won't. Unless I really really desperately need good luck .

Been blog browsing nowadays. Not very keen to write on my own. Nth really interesting. Sometimes it's more interesting to read other ppl's blog (which i dun do very often) cuz i can catch up on what i missed, be amused or juz recently clear my misconception.

Yep, i stumbled, well not really stumbled, I saw some1 reading this person's, named breezy, blog. Yep, i noe breezy personally but not tt close. And it was during AIS class, which is super duper boring beyond words. So I decided to check it out. Well, let's just say that blog prove to me, yet again, that i shudn't judge a book by its cover. All along I thought breezy's life is wonderfully perfect. Breezy's popular, haf a high-profile, rich, smart, haf nice bod, haf lotsa friends and breezy's life's definitely more exciting than mine.

But breezy's not happy, so I read. Breezy thinks life sucks, that God may haf been 'sleeping' and that no matter how put hard work is put, it's hardly enuf. I dunno. But I feel that breezy's just trying too hard or never satisfied.

Sadly tho, i think i know the feeling. Like you've done all you can, but due to some circumstances, the result is still not as you expected. That's why I learned to lower down my expectations - not that I've high expectation of anything, including myself, in the first place. One thing I'm still find it hard to do is to "let go". I'm the kind of person who would think over a matter over and over and over again even tho it's already over and there's nth more I can do.

Oh well, this is just a random entry. It's just that reading others' blogs can open up my eyes about certain things.

Neways, saw this in teddy's blog and I find it pretty amusing. So I shall just pass it on.

i know you only want me for my body... -by Prawn

why do you always distance youreself away from me?-by Lizard

not everyone without pants is a sicko.-by Winnie the Pooh

not everything that is green is healthy-by Phlegm

why do you always disown me in front of other people??-by Fart

oh stop it! stop making me into a circle!!-by Booger

not all types of blood are suitable to be donated.-by Menstruation

So ironic. When I was a clueless, naive little girl I couldn't wait to grow up. Now, I wish I never grow up. Well ok, maybe I've never really grown up. So let me say again in the correct term - I wish I never grow older. I seriously hate growing older. More responsibilities, more worries, more headaches, more facade, more lies, more nightmares that turn into reality and the list goes on....

Gah, I told myself to be positive. But it's so hard. And I guess now I'll take a break before finally deciding that being positive is totally useless...