Assignmenting

First I worry about not having enough detail to write up recommendations.

Then I get frustrated that it takes so God damn long to write them up.

Then after spending so much time planning and writing, I worry that I can't fit all of them in

Then at the end I become thankful that I can't fit all of them in anyway because I'd rather be stuck with having to deal with what I've written than to put in the effort replace those fucking words.

Life of a last minuter :)

Ps. I'm going to fucking bake today!

Successful Macarons!

Yesterday, after trying three times and failing all three times, I finally made a GREAT batch of chocolate macarons!

This is what happened (following a recipe I haven't attempted before. This was different to the green (pineapple-avo) ones, which were also different to the pink (lychee) ones):

The first time, I cracked ALL of them in 2 minutes, they had no feet, and they were under cooked inside. So I thought, OVEN TEMPERATURE must have been too high.

The second time, I lowered the temperature a little and this time followed one advice which was not to rest them (contrary to every other macaron advice) and to cook them straight after piping, and to make sure they bake for about 25 minutes. In the end of that, some cracked (not all), a few developed feet, but they turned out like meringue cookies i.e. they just crumbled when bitten into rather than have the crisp followed by chewiness.

The third time, I used a different recipe, one which I was more familiar with - the one I used to do the lychee ones. I rested them, put the temperature even lower, and placed one baking tray above and one below my macaron tray and cooked for 20 minutes. The end? Same result as the second time, except the center was chewier and less crumbly.

After the third time, I was tempted to bake again. However whilst making the butter cream I got tired, and thought I'd sleep on it and just bake the next day (which was today). While I was in bed, I kept thinking about what I've been doing wrong. I basically fell asleep thinking about macarons.

But I got it - Thinking about the times I made them previously and succeeded, compared to last night.... I HAVEN'T BEEN FOLDING THE BATTER RIGHT. And I remember being very cautious with the folding (aka macaronage) and I even intentionally folded much less compared to normal because I remember reading so much about how easy it was to over fold.

zomggggggggg as soon as I realised this I couldn't wait to wake up the next day and start baking again.

I did exactly that this afternoon (woke up so late because I went to bed at 4 -_-).

I was careful with my macaronage (even tested the consistency), piped the little babies, and laid them out to rest.

TIP* If your piped buttons have nipples when you pipe them, and they won't flatten after tapping the trays against the bench tops, they need more folding!

Up close:

As you can see on the photo, if some of them still show a wittle bitty bit of nipple, it's still good. Just know that you should get worried when they become too runny and flattened way too much way too early.

The result from the right macaronage, the right temperature for 25 minutes and resting:

Cute macarons... with feet and uncracked!! :3 yaayyyyy

And I made salted caramel butter cream fillings, once assembled, they look like this

Yayyy mee!!! They look so cute and taste yummmmooooo B)

Practice does make perfect :)

Failed macarons (again!)

So far I've been trying to bake macarons using the french meringue method (as opposed to the italian). I baked agan during the weekend, this time I used green colouring on the biscuits and made pineapple-avocado-white-chocolate-ganache filling (recipes from Poh's Kitchen). The things on top are ground szechuan pepper (tried to be artsy fartsy).

And I failed agan! 

Anddd.... ALL my macarons cracked :(

ROAR!!!! I WANNA DO THEM AGAIN. I kinda get how guys get motivated when they get rejected by girls now.. hahaha

The next time I try this I'm gonna use the italian meringue method. So this requires the extra step of making sugar syrup, and while hot and at a certain temperature then add them slowly to the egg whites to beat. etc etc etc.

I'm gonna need a kitchen thermometer, but I'm gonna try without one since I've done something similar (while I was doing the pineapple-avocado-white-chocolate-ganache filling).

Anyway, I had heaps of filling left when I made the macarons. SO, I made cupcakes and coloured the leftovers fillings yellow, then filled my cupcakes "butterfly" style.

Gaahhh.. cute right!??! hahahah cupcakes are seriously so much easier to make -_-"

I WILL MASTER YOU MACARONS!

Food projects across the year

Mind you, some photos are better than others. 

At least I'm making the effort right :)

OK, from the oldest to the latest....

Sam and I did this dinner ages ago for some of my family friends. Going clockwise: Top right is my famous sweet potato mash with mustard seeds, next to that, my famous potatoes twice cooked (boiled then baked with pork oil in the oven), Sam's famous slow roasted garlic-lemon-fennel pork shoulder with crispy skin, steak salad with feta cheese, avocado, spinach, grilled capsicum and grilled zucchini, and lastly, Sam's delicious spring chicken.

Passionfruit macarons and mini caramel-filled chocolate cakes (for a friend's surprise birthday) - I didn't make the macarons. A friends did, but eventually I learnt from her how to make them and you'll see my lychee flavoured ones towards the bottom of this post :)

Mmmmm 24-hour cooked steak, thanks to Sam. With grilled eggplant and sweet potato mash again. We just love grilling veggies. hehe.. and we love our mash!

Red velvet cake with orange cream cheese frosting - can't really see the red. Well it wasn't even that red, it was more burgundy coloured. haha.. still yummy though.

Sam and I had a break and stopped doing anything really.. for awhile. And after a long period of not cooking or baking. Sam did something!

He made fresh pasta! He flavoured one batch with chilli flakes and the other with ground pepper. Yummo! and so easy :) 

This was the documented mess.

We continued to cook heaps but never took any photos. And they were really good food too. 

Anyway, the following are most recent. I went on a macaron craze trying to do it but failed. So to reclaim some pride, I made something I missed eating and made sure that it was EASY and fail proof.

Sticky date pudding! I think I made them at least 3 times. I loooved the recipe I found online. I started putting instant coffee powder the second time on ward and I prefer it that way now :) Those are frozen blueberries in the picture and they go so well with the pudding.

So I finally decided to give macarons a try. 5th time lucky! But I really couldn't have done it without my friend's help and tips... such temperamental biscuits these ones. But so worth it :)

Lychee buttercream macarons! This was using Poh's recipe (yes the 1st runner-up from the first season of AU Master Chef! Google "Poh's kitchen macaron" and you'll find the recipe!)

I was so excited I could make macarons but they were not exactly "crispy" on the outside like macarons should be and a lot of mine stuck to the baking paper. So I made another batch the next day, letting them sit longer before baking, and preheating the oven at a very high heat but bringing it down as soon as I put the macarons in. This time I had yellow colouring on them, and I made salty caramel fillings. 

*Sorry, no photo :(*

They turned out crispier - just what I wanted, BUT, most of them still stuck to the pan, and sticking to the pan means they were under cooked. Yet, the shells were starting to brown ever so slightly by the time I took them out. So, my analysis is, the heat is still too high, and I take them out earlier than I should. 

Oh yeah, I screwed up the original recipe for the salty caramel too. First, I screwed up the method for mixing the caramel, and I had sugar syrup instead which I didn't know what to do with. I thought, keep, these are great for iced coffees! (lol) the cheap asian in me. Then I tried making the second time, and I screwed it up because I burnt the mixture. The colour actually looked alright. But when I tasted? not alright. BURNT. So I chucked them. Then I ran out of cream. A crucial ingredient to the caramel. 

I panicked, then looked over at the sugar syrup. And thought, okay, I'll improvise with this and I did. I threw half the syrup away, but put in more butter and brown sugar (like what I do for the caramel of my sticky date pudding), and tada! Made my salty caramel.

Problem was, I didn't let it cool enough (too excited) and didn't beat/mix it enough (too excited) to make it the right texture to pipe as fillings. I piped anyway. But they couldn't hold shape and dripped everywhere.

AT LEAST, they were very tasty :p

(Ugh.. I wanna master these babies. And this weekend will be my opportunity to try again! muahah)

When I was done with the salty caramel macarons, I had a lot of left over caramel. 

What did I do?

Baked sticky date pudding. Why? 

Well why waste the caramel!

I bought more cream from the supermarket and started modifying the caramel, baked another sticky date pudding, ate the sticky date pudding (shared), and then...

I had left over caramel.

What did I do with the left over caramel!? 

No, I never waste.

I made caramel buttercream for the cupcakes that I made for my brother's birthday!

Here is the prettiest I could do with frosting. By the way, I've been using those freeze plastic bags to pipe all the baked goods. So considering that, I think I did well ya :D

The caramel buttercream was yummo, BUT.... the actual cupcake had the texture of a muffin. They tasted great... even had white chocolate chips in them. But... they were NOT cupcakes. They were frosted muffins. A little sad, and disappointed, and dissatisfied. I started researching like crazy and was excited to try again asap.

I came across Nigella Lawson's recipe and was pretty confident they were the right recipe I was looking for (and they were!). So, without wasting time..... in the same week. I went to try her recipe.

Below are her "royal icing" cupcakes, aka meringue icing cupcakes.

I didn't have icing sugar which she recommended for the icing. So I used caster sugar and stupidly added the same amount as what Nigella would recommend for icing sugar. The "meringue" was gross. So I used my newly developed (and still developing) baking sense to correct it. I set aside half of the grainy and sickly sugary meringue, and beat two more egg whites on a separate bowl. I didn't add more sugar to stiffen the egg whites, instead I added half the failed meringue which I set aside to stiffen them. And TADA. Grainy sickly sugary meringue transformed! See picture above :)

I added yellow colouring because I had a twist to Nigella's recipe. 

I added more lemon juice than the recommended amount and some lemon zest for lemon flavoured icing!

Then I had left over icing because I used extra egg whites to correct my meringue.

Again, I didn't wanna waste them. So I added MORE zest to the meringue, MORE lemon, and more sugar to stiffen it even more... and baked mini lemon pavlovas! and had them with mangoes and mango sorbet ^^ (yum!)

Then.....

Unlike Nigella's icing, the icing on my cupcakes never formed a thin crust. Maybe because it had different ingredients? I was unhappy with how soft it remained so I chucked my cupcakes in the fridge the next day to see if they would harden in a few hours.

They didn't.

Still unhappy... and MORE unhappy because my cupcakes were not cold and dense. I started thinking how I might improve them. Then, I thought about what I did with the leftover meringue the last night.

!!!!

I decided to add another twist to Nigella's cupcakes. And baked them in the oven for a few minutes to make PAVLOVA CUPCAKES! 

I even added some white chocolate chips to decorate them.

Tada! Cold/hard cupcake with overly soft meringue icing turned hot pavlova cupcake with white chocolate chips! The pavlova top was just the way I wanted it to be.. crispy crust outside, marshmallowy inside.

This was only yesterday. But I was so happy I made cupcakes with the right texture, I wanted to make them again but wanted a different look and frosting.

So........ tonight, I attempted by first multi-coloured cupcakes!

Too much blue colouring fell in one of my batter :( so the purple bits weren't that nice looking. (All my cupcakes were topped with purple)

At least my piping is improving :D

And the insides. The pink and orange parts were too similar.. so they looked like one colour :( The frosting recipe was also Nigella's. But I added a shot of coffee because I wanted mocha flavoured frosting. In the end, even though they looked odd..... they tasted yum ^^!

Gosh this post took longer than I expected!

Anyway.... I'm gonna bake again very soon I can guarantee that.

Heheee good night!

So cool!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/24/twins-black-white?fb_source=home_multiline&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_action_ids=10150421974147216&fb_ref=U-vusOD9DK9sxf4EwgIgoiyd-CFCONX01FRS-323vxXXX

It's an article about a pair of teenage twins (boys) - one is white while the other is black. One is gay, the other straight. One likes to study and the other doesn't.

Have a read :)

Ps. whoever thinks Australia isn't racist can eat their own shit.

xoxo!

Quickie

I have been MIA lately but here's what has happened over the past few weeks.

I've been eating like a pig. Either encouraged by stress or just simply being a food enthusiast, or both, not to mention having a foodie boyfriend as well. Definitely all the above. We've been going out to eat and cooking for people. Unfortunately I'm not a blog enthusiast so I never took any photos to share! heh :p

Obviously, from going out for meals and cooking for others too often... my bank account is also becoming anorexic. Sigh...... what is silly though, is that I just spent money by shopping online (I bought 3 dresses). I can't help it. When I work under stress, I look for ways to reward myself for working so hard! If I don't cook or bake I turn to retail therapy. How?

Now, I'm not gonna describe how much work I have done, just know that I've been stressing over it (hence the money spending and eating). What's worse is because of so much HOMEwork, I don't get to do REAL WORK much at all! I don't like not earning money... especially when I'm still spending money! But if I work, I don't get homework done :( And if I don't get homework done, I fail! If I fail, my parents have to spend more money on me! D:

Oh and you know what else has taken over since I've been working on my assignments? MY ACNE. HOMGAH. The acne on my face is like a Dalmatian's pattern :( Its horrible because I'm a chronic picker. And I pick the most when I'm stressed.. which means my skin never gets a chance to heal and instead the picking makes my already stressed pimples even stressed.

ON a different note, what's been keeping me going is the end of year. My holidays are eventful! Here's how the schedule from December onwards:

1st - Hen's night in SG!
3rd - Wedding ceremony!
4th - Wedding reception!
5th - 15th KK!
16th - 15th Jan Vancouver! (And while in Vancouver, ski trip in Whistler for 2 weeks!)

And back in KK!

See? all the reason to stay positive. I feel better already :)

And I feel better about buying dresses online too? I can wear all of them in this holiday! hehe!

Here are the links to the dresses I bought (I can't save their pictures :c)

http://www.lucyinthesky.com.au/shop/laws-of-infatuation-dress

http://www.lucyinthesky.com.au/shop/fantasy-feeling-party-dress-in-sherbet

http://www.lucyinthesky.com.au/shop/a-moment-or-two-dress

:D :D :D :D I can't wait to get my hands on them!

Preciousness

No doubt, I have been stressing for the past few weeks. I felt a little better though when my parents were here. Now its back to reality. Instead of doing my work, I worry about them. I get stressed about assignments before I even start them, and when I stress about assignments I stress about my future. How likely is it that, by failing this one assignment, my chances of getting a decent job is lowered? How likely is it that, by the time I'm finished with my course, I actually even have a full-time job?

I used to believe it doesn't matter what I do in the future, as long as I'm happy doing it and that it pays enough for me to live a comfortable life. I'd picture a healthy family in a modest home, a pet or two, not worrying about bills, or education for my children. In saying that, I'm not talking about the kind of "comfortable" that allows luxury cars or annual around-the-world trips... I don't need and want that much. Yet (the big yet), the more I think about it, the more I've come to realise that comfortable still.. means.. money.

So I'd think to myself, is comfortable too much, anyway?

The first drive home after I purchased the VW, it hit me, how lucky and fortunate I was to be in that position. I thought, there are so many people in the world, millions, in hunger, in poverty, in dirt, in shelter homes... many of those, have never even been/sat in a car, let alone own one. No one they knew, none of their friends or their families, ever able to afford even a taxi.

I worry about disappointing my parents and leaching off them as an adult, yet I have all the reasons in the world, NOT to.

Within the last few days I had heard 2 devastating news. The first is, one of my brother's high school friends was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And second, a terrible car accident in the city where a 20yr girl, who was drink driving, and having fun with speeding, lost control with her car and resulted her killing one of her friends. Due to the impact, the poor girl (who wasn't wearing her seat belt) was thrown through the windows. And died on the scene.

Just imagine, knowing you haven't much time to live, or, you have killed a best friend just for a moment of reckless fun? It hurts. And it hurts to be on the other side too, to know your son haven't much time to live, or to know you've lost a daughter whom you had dreamed about one day taking care of you on your last days.

Life is so precious. You've heard it time and time again... we all have. And we still tend to forget about it.

I have been counting my blessings. Although it doesn't completely remove my stresses, I am a lot more appreciative that I have the kind of stresses I have now and nothing more, and most importantly that I still have my loved ones in my life. These relationships are what makes everything else irrelevant. And I do try to remind myself every day.

C:

Because of them, I know I'll be alright.

IT REALLY IS because of them, that my imperfect life feels most perfect, uncertainties and all.



God bless everyone............ even those who don't believe!

Toodles from the Ngoodles.