Cycle of Life ...according to Grant Snyder

Now am actually thinking, maybe just maybe Mr.S and I are ready for the cycle #5. 

Hopefully the day will come. 

Keep on trying love!

L'apprentissage du français: Petites étapes chaque jour

I haven't been posting at all this Ramadhan. Oh not that I don't want to...but somehow I landed myself a JOB! Haha not that I'm complaining but by the time I showered, changed and relaxed - I doze off. Yeap it is dead tiring - everyday! Anyways, I have been learning French since last year when I thought why not share here and we could learn this beautiful language together. I find it easier for me to learn through pictures/flashcards and songs. Maybe I will create a tab to share all this there. What do you think?

Ramadhan is around the corner...

Well last year I was in Mauritius and had the opportunity to experience Ramadhan and Eid there with my in laws. It was awesome considering issues we had before. But Alhamdulillah it turned to be a superb holiday. So this year since Ramadhan is peeking at us, I decided to test out a recipe which usually being served for iftar there. Traditionally, for iftar we break the fast by eating dates and water followed by a complete meal. In Mauritius, it is customary to have samoosas, gateau sale (salty fried cakes) along with alouda (rose milk with agar, similar like bandung with jelly inside).And yes another food that is significant to Mauritius is their naan bread. Usually store bought but I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to give it a try. Now am anxious waiting for Mr. S to come home and taste it. 

Ingredients:

250 g all purpose flour

2 tbs butter

1/2 packet instant yeast (standard one package is around 2 1/4 tsp)

1 tbs vegetable oil

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1 tbs granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cumin (heat it up in a pan on low heat to break the aroma and grind)

2 tbs milk (for glazing)

Method:

1. Sift flour into mixing bowl and add all the dry ingredients too. Make a well in the center.
2. Gradually add water to the dry ingredients and mix well forming a dough.
3. Add butter and mix it well with your hands. Add the oil and knead until fats are well incorporated into the dough. 
4. Continue kneading until the dough is firm and elastic. You will see the dough stops sticking to the sides of the bowl. Add extra flour if needed.
5. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and knead your dough for at least 10 minutes.
6. Return the dough to bowl and cover with damp cloth. leave to proof for at least 1 hour or till it doubled in volume.
7. Divide dough into 100 g portions. Flatten it slightly and shape into spirals. Dust lightly with flour.
8. Line baking sheets on your tray. Place spiral 3-4 cm apart and allow for second proofing for about 20 minutes.
9. Brush on milk and bake for 15-20 minutes at 200°c. Cool completely on a wire rack. 

p/s: I will post the recipes for previous baking later on. Sorry about that. 

No knead bread :)

No knead bread day. A smudge of butter on this warm bread and a nice cup of coffee....

Umpph! It made my day. 

When apples just sit and stare at you...

All that I am or hope to be, I owe it to YOU

"She is my first, great love. She is a wonderful, rare woman - you do not know; as strong, and intense, and generous as the sun. She could be as swift as a white whiplash, and as kind and gentle as warm rain, and as steadfast as the irreducible earth beneath us." - D.H. Lawrence

Run! Godzilla coming to town...

Yet another of my handiwork for today.

Ooh Doo Dah Day!

I know this might sound like a dumb post to most of you but I have been searching for an application that doesn't require me to do in-app purchases. You see I don't mind purchasing the initial application but when it ask you to buy every single essential tools there is, then bah! FORGET it! I love doodling and sketching stuff whenever my hands are free and I have been searching for an apps on Apple Store. Lets just say 98% require in-app purchases. I have always loved Paper by 53 but I find it silly having to buy everything else when the apps itself is not even free. So I started looking and reading reviews after reviews and tadaaaa!! I came across ArtRage. All brushes and strokes and colour mixer are there! The apps is not free but hey I don't need to spend more quid to get crayon effects or dry wet effects. Am finally content! (If only you could see my wide-all-the-way-to-ears smile when I found this apps and how Mr. S probably bleeding his ears out listening to me yapping about it.)

Yeah okay I know my sketch is no Van Gogh but am pretty happy with ArtRage. I can doodle my day everyday! Yippeee!!

Toss it higher and make it round -

I don't know if it is normal for everyone. For me when it comes to making dinner, am always annoyed because firstly, I have absolutely no idea what to cook and secondly, I hate eating outside. SO am back to square one standing in front of my refrigerator contemplating what can I make out of the freezer's 'occupants'. While I was busy looking around I realised I haven't done anything with the Italian lamb sausage I bought in March 2013! Yes you read it right, MARCH! Fingers crossed and phew! luckily the sausage was not expired or anything worst - like probably have something green and fuzzy on it. Yuckies!

When I saw sausages I was thinking of puy lentils so I went to see if I have some in the pantry. Sadly none of its kind in my keeping. Ergo I opened back the freezer door and stared at its 'occupants' again. Mr. S has been asking for me to make calzone but I don't have the cheeses needed to make one. But I do feel like bashing something today. Therefore c'est le jour de pizza aujourd'hui ! People keep telling me it is hard to make a nice pizza crust and all, but I think that is just wrong. Dead wrong. You have absolutely no idea how easy it is. You don't need to have Kitchen Aid to make the dough. You just need your hands and fists. Haha.

Making pizza dough is very inexpensive. Trust me. All you need:

Makes about 2 12inches pizza

1 tablespoon  active dry yeast

 1 1/2 cups warm water

3 1/2 cups plain flour (you can substitute with whole wheat flour, if you fancy)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

A pinch of salt 

Now that wasn't so bad was it? First thing first. 

1. Make sure your water is warm and not too hot when you add the active dry yeast. You don't want the hot water to kill your yeast else your dough wont rise. Set aside until the yeast starts forming bubbles in about 3-5 minutes.
2. Sift the flour (any unbleached plain flour will do) and make a well in the center. Pour the yeast mixture into your well together with a pinch of salt and extra virgin olive oil.
3. You can either mix with your hand or using a spatula, drawing the ingredients together. You will know that it is ready to be kneaded when you're having trouble to move your spatula through the dough. 
4. Prepare your work surface. Make sure it is clean and dry. Flour the surface to avoid dough sticking to it when kneading. Otherwise, if you do not wish to knead the dough directly on your table or work surface, you can always line it with parchment paper sprinkled with flour. Frankly, it is actually easy to clean the mess later with some warm, soapy water once you're done. 
5. Turn the dough onto your work surface. You should have a loose, sticky ball. It is time for bashing and kneading! (my personal favourite)
6. Wash your hands and dry them. Make sure you have no jewelry. Lightly dust your hands with flour to keep it from sticking too much. Form the dough into a ball and punch the dough. Kneading is EASY! Press the heels of your hands into the dough, pushing it forward slightly. Punching helps the gluten start working. Continue until the dough is slightly springy.
7. To know when to stop kneading, shape the dough into a ball and let it drop on your work surface. The dough is ready if it holds its shape.
8. Spread a little bit of olive oil inside a bowl and transfer the dough into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and set aside for approximately 2 hours until it doubles in volume. You will need a warm temperature (24-26°C) room for it to properly rises. 
9. When the dough has doubled, punch it down to eliminates the air bubbles. Split the dough equally and on a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. Use your hand and shape it to your pizza pan. 

Toppings can be anything that you like really! For dinner tonight I made a combinations of tomatoes, onion, cheese, Italian lamb sausages, and thyme. Layer tomato paste or if you are like me, I cheated and uses ready  made spaghetti sauces instead. You know a Ragu or Dolmio or Prego - whichever you like. They do have readymade pizza sauce but I usually prefer Ragu's chunky tomatoes and mushrooms spaghetti sauce. Then layer your thinly sliced ingredients onto your dough and off it go into your preheated oven. Oh don't forget to top it with your favourite cheese! Bake it for about 10-15 minutes (220°C) until the crust is golden all around. 

Reason why I said thinly sliced ingredients is because your pizza should stay in the oven for the shortest time possible to prevent it from drying too much and you ended with crunchy biscuit instead. 

And voilà! There you have it. Simple right. You don't need Dominos after this. Go ahead and try any toppings. Go crazy. I still have one batch left (from earlier dough) for tomorrow. Am making breakfast pizza with streaky beef bacon and eggs and cheese. Hot pizza in the morning. Yummieh!

Bon appetit!

The night where humans celebrated the ghosts -

31st October 2012

It has been years since I moved to my current place and not once I remembered celebrating Halloween. In the office or among friends - YES but home is always quiet and peaceful until that one fine night. And since we never had tricker treaters I never made any sweet candy-licious no-good-for-teeth shopping at all. No preparation for the night. Nopey NOPE! 

We thought we will have a quiet ghost movie night at home instead of going to any party when;

KNOCK! KNOCK!

We thought it was in the movie so we ignored it. Then there was the noise again. It was fairly faint but still audible.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Mr. S turned and looked at me. And me scratching my head. Nope. I wasn't expecting anyone tonight I said.  Then the noise came back. We went to peep and saw bunch of kiddies around with costumes knocking on our neighbours' doors asking for candies. 

Oh crap! Tricker treaters this year? I wanted to open the door but before we did so, Mr. S asked me did we have anything to give to these kids. I rushed to the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets and pah! there was nothing to give away! So we decided to keep our door closed and continued watching our movie. The noise subsided after a while but heck I never felt so bad before. SO this year 2013 we decided we are going to stick a some sort of postcard down each block inviting tricker treaters (kids that is!) to our ghostly home. I don't know if Mr.S would agree to wear costume but I guess if I let him choose what he wants to be, maybe he would say yes? 

To all the kids in SMC that came knocking last year, thousand apologies from us. It was not our intention to ignore you kiddies but we truly did not have anything to give away except for yoghurts in our refrigerator. I don't think you would want that. Anyhow this year I think we all going to have a blast! *fingers cross*

Absent-minded!

Hi people. I know it has been a while since I write anything in this blog. This is probably my second posts this year. Terrible me! *Sigh!* I have not been working since late last year and yet I have no desire to write anything in this page. Not that I want to shut this blog down. I want to keep it since I have poured so much effort into writing and designing it. It all began a year before my wedding. And now with just a blink of an eye am reaching two years into my marriage. How time flies! And Mr.S is still my same stinkybear. (Okay! Except for the tummy part that I would very much like it to go...oh well he blames my cooking. Lol!) Can't complain at least he loves my cooking. Haha.

I still have that tab that I needed to complete about my hometown- Kelantan; and all its wonders, yet somehow I found myself lost in translations. My mind was; frankly IS still totally absent. Never experienced it before. Hopefully this goes away and I can continue posting again. Probably it is all about practice? 

Am kinda missing the long hair...

Talk about being indecisive me. With the short hair now, I kinda missed having long ebony hair. 

Well we will have to wait and see if I have the patience to grow it again. Lol!