A worrying experience

The steering of my car seems to getting heavier. I am getting scared and worried. Is it anything wrong with my car. I normally do the servicing according to the schedule mileage. It is night time now. Most shops are closed. As i was driving I was wishing and hoping nothing will be going to go amiss. I tried to remain calm. With divine's help I was able to reached home safely. It must have been divine's help that enable me to drag for nearly 9 km safely, now thinking back.

Upon reaching home I had forgotten about the whole event. I water my plants as usual. Something caught my attention through instinct. I bent down to look at my car's tyre. My guess was right, my car tyre is punctured. What a lousy day.

Waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Waiting is always a heartache. Be it waiting for friends to go out with, waiting for school exam results, job interview, or recovering from illness just to name a few. Waiting is damn stressful.

Lately I have no mood to update my blog. This is partly because I no longer enjoy writing and partly because I am now very anxious waiting for a contractor to come to repair my bathroom water tank. I have contacted 4 vendors for the repair job.
Contractor A quote me RM X
Contractor B quote me RM1.6X
Contractor C quote me RM2X
Contractor D quote me RM X but with a more refine materials than contractor A.
It will take 2 to 3 days job.

Naturally now i am eagerly waiting for contractor D to come. The sooner the better to get the problem settled. However he told me he had to put me on waiting list first because he has earlier work to rush up. (and also he charge me just to cover his expenses only, he said so) . Wish that he is sincere in this aspect. I have tested his reasonable pricing in some other works. Average workmanship too. Until the job is done will i continue my blog again.

I love my bath tank a great deal. I do not want to dismantle and replace it with a smaller acrylic tub.

Does love at first sight still exist.

Ever wonder does love at first sight still occur or exist at this era. Ya, it happen to me just at a spur of the moment. However, it is not love for bodily beings or animals. It is my attraction or so called love at first sight on this piece of wood carving. I like to see the design of the carving a lot. Therefore I bought it at first sight without comparing and thinking any further. And luckily for me the next day when i compare it with other shop, still my this design is still the most pleasing to look at. I don't feel bored staring at it. What do u think?

Moon cake

Glad to say that I have successfully tried to bake moon cake. I made it from frying the paste till baking. Of course I knew there are ready made paste sold in the shop. That I am not so interested. I want to do it the whole from the scratch from soaking beans till baking the molded cake.

I will not be writing the recipes because there are already many blogs writting about mooncake.

Baking bread made easy

This is the fastest method to made bread. It does not need to manually knead and wait for it to prove. What is needed is that you dump in all the required ingredients into the bread maker.

Ingredients
320 g bread flour
25 g sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp milk powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
2 tsp instant yeast
1 egg
145 ml cold water
25 g butter
80 g raisins
20 gm melon seeds (optional)

Bread ready in approx 3 hrs time. Slice it when it is no longer hot with sharp knife. Suggested serve with serikaya.

Serikaya made easy

Serikaya has always been my all time favorite. As it is never easy to cook serikaya the traditional way since then I have stopped making my own serikaya. One has to stir and stand by the stove nearly hours to make serikaya the traditonal way. Today I cook it by using breadmaker.
Ingredients.
2/3 cup of sugar (1 cup will be more ideal for those not health conscious)
1 cup of egg (5 eggs)
1 cup of santan
12 - 15 leaves of pandan

Whisk the egg with the sugar, pour all the ingredients into the basket of the breadmaker. Press the jam function program button. The kaya will be ready in the next 1 hr and 5 mins. Never mind if it may looks a little bit like scramble egg. When it is luke warm, transfer the kaya into the blender and blend till smooth.

It is so fragrance. The smell of genuine home made kaya is totally different from the shelf ready made kaya at the supermarket.

The cost are :
Eggs - RM 1.50
Sugar - Abt RM0.50
Santan - RM2.00
Pandan - free (home grown)
Total cost RM4.00

If I were to buy from the wet market, this serikaya are sold at RM3.00/plastic cup . I can have about 3 cups - worth RM9.00. This is a saving of aprrox RM5.00 or in other words the RM5.00 is for labour cost.

Sources and idea of this breadmaker made kaya are from :
http://thelazychef.wordpress.com/2006/09/02/nonya-kaya/ and

http://www.agnestan.net/2009/05/07/kaya-from-a-bread-machine

Many thanks to the authors for generously shared their ideas of cooking.

Full Bloom

This plant was planted by me about 5 years ago. It has a purplish blue colour. The whole plant is taller than me. I guess it to be about 6 feet height. The plant is now growing wild and sturdy.