While Dave was hard-selling Macs at the Discovery Week in Midvalley, I went hunting for materials to make Mei Li’s flower girl baskets. I love artsy craftsy stuff and I jumped at the opportunity to help this totally chillax-ed bride save some moolah (not that she doesn’t have the moolah *ahem*). Mei Li thanks for trusting me in putting together these lil baskets! Even though I haven’t shown them to you I know deep deep down inside you somewhere, you’d appreciate them as much as your oversized Juicy Couture bedroom slippers.

So, I went hunting in PJ Old Town for the baskets, ribbons, flowers and lace trimmings. Gawd, there’s so many types of baskets, so many shades of pink and brown, so many different ribbon width sizes and too many flower choices to choose from. I was having a headache walking around the shop trying to decide on which ones Mei Li would have given nothing but praises for. I hope they were the right choice.

Voila! Here’s all the stuff we need to get the project started, and I laid them all over my work table:

1. 3 small + 1 big rattan basket
2. 1 roll x 1″ wide pastel pink satin ribbon
3. 1 roll x 0.5″ wide dark brown satin ribbon
4. 2 meters x 1″ wide pastel pink organza ribbon
5. 3 meters x dark brown lace trimmings
6. UHU glue
7. Hot glue gun + stick of glue
8. Very sharp scissors
9. Lighter
10. Some wires to tie the flowers to the basket

I started by wrapping the basket handles with the pink ribbon. I then wound the brown ribbon over the pink ribbon to resemble a candy cane pattern. So sweet.

Using the hot glue gun, I patiently adhered the lace to the rim of the basket, making lil folds at every inch & a half so the lace would appear to look like a tutu. Ok, not really a tutu, but it just looks more elegant lah. Suffered some hot glue burns over the course of the assembly.

Then, came attaching the flowers. (No photos of them cos I was concentrating so hard, I forgot to take pics). Pushing the stem in between the spacings in basket weave, I then used some wires to secure the flower to the basket, and hid the wires just under the lace. I then used the pastel pink organza ribbon to further secure the stem of the flower to the handle of the basket. With the same ribbons I used to wrap the basket handles, I tied a bow at the other side of the basket handle, just so it didn’t look bare. Ta-da! All 4 baskets were done in 4 hours, in between 3 episodes of The Threshold of a Persona.

Mei Li … proud of me mou? Hope you like ‘em!

Oh oh … and guess how much all the materials cost to made these pretty lil baskets?

I flicked inspiration from EvaThePeanut to write my very own tulan list. Before I begin listing out all my frustrations, I decided to do a quick Google search on what the word tulan means. Here are the top 3 results:

1. The Obnoxious 5xmom blog came up and in a specific entry defined a selection of Hokkien baddies. It was here I found out that tulan literally means, pig’s penis.
2. A directory listing of restaurants and it seems Tu Lan is a popular Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco.
3. Kenny Sia’s guide to using the word tulan. He described it as a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

So here’s my tulan list of extreme dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

At work

• When our office cleaner comes in to wash our toilets, mysteriously our toilet rolls are all soaked and damp. Did she take a shower while cleaning the loo?
• When we have visitors to our office, as they leave, they press the panic button next to the exit although there’s a sign next to it that says “DO NOT PRESS”.
• When there’s no water and the nearest toilet is across the street in McDonald’s.

At home

• When I get home and some idiot’s car is parked at my allocated parking lot
• When there’s no ice for my coffee (my bad cos as I almost never refill the ice cube tray once consumed)
• When it rains in the midst of my favourite TVB drama at the point where someone’s about to get killed and the TV goes all fuzzy.

At my parent’s place

• When I wanna eat pancakes for dinner and mom’s already prepped 3 dishes and rice.
• When there’s no butter and I have the sudden urge to bake.
• When dad’s PC acts up and I can’t seem to log on into Facebook to monitor my Restaurant City stats.

At church

• When I get the seat right under the air conditioning vent and I forgot to bring my pashmina.
• When Dave is engrossed with his iPhone and I only have the iPod touch.
• When the kid sitting in front of me stares at me like I stole his lollipop.

On the road

• When crazy wacko motorcyclists ride like they own the road. On all 3 lanes of the highway.
• When you drive up to a petrol station and that pump you chose to stop at is “out of service”.
• When I pay for parking with RM 4 worth of coins and I key in the wrong car registration number and have to start all over again.

With friends

• When Josie doesn’t want to hang out with me cos she’s out somewhere karaoke-ing at the Curve
• When Grace and William manage to watch Transformers 2 before me and Dave.
• When Mei Li doesn’t laugh at my jokes

Ah … life.

Here i am, on a Sunday night, sitting in Starbucks, Dave trying to close a deal and also helping a friend out with adhering the ZAGG invisible shield onto her iPhone … and i’m monitoring the stats on this:

The last week i had been hooked on Restaurant City, taking all kinds of measures to get the ingredients that i want, adding random friends that i don’t even know just so i can get free ingredients, and even coming up with a spreadsheet put on my sharefolder so that my friends can analyse the ingredients that we have and organise a barter trade. I even watched my TVB dramas half heartedly while trying to re-vamp the layout of my 6-man strong restaurant simply named Yummacious.

I had unconciously ignored my blog, Grace, Mei Li and Josie’s blog, and ignored Twitter. YES, Twitter. I left Mei Li to spam Twitter on her own.

One day, this game will reach a level where i can’t level up anymore, and i will get my life back. Till then, to all my Facebook friends, please join this game so i can enter your restaurant to pick up a free ingredient. I love y’all.

Peace out.

I started playing Restaurant City on Monday and I’ve been hooked. When they shut down for maintenance this afternoon, I thought by night it’d be back online. Looks like, it’s not happening. I’ve never felt so deprived.

This is not my first attempt at baking a cheesecake, in fact I’ve done it so many times, it’s quite a walk in the park for me. IF there’s one thing you should know when baking a cheesecake, is to not OVER bake it. As long as the filling ain’t jiggly, it’s done! If you see a crack in your cheesecake, don’t fret, try again till you get it rite. This is however my first shot at having durian in my cheesecake. I’ve never thought the nasty fruit could complement the creaminess of the cheese but after hearing so much about it and tasting Secret Recipe’s Durian Cheesecake at FIL’s birthday, I decided to give it a try. Turned out pretty tasty. Give it a try!

Step 1 – The biscuit base

1. Line the base of a 9” springform pan
2. 40 pcs or more, marie biscuit crumbs, depending on the thickness of the crust you’re looking for
3. Melt a knob of butter enough to combine the biscuit crumbs together
4. With a spoon, compact the crumbs to the sides of the pan and the base
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 150 ° Celsius for 10 mins
6. Remove to cool then using aluminum foil, wrap the base of the springform pan to avoid water seeping through during the steam bake process

Step 2 – The cheese filling ingredients

• 500 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 200 g durian flesh, mashed with a fork
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup of sugar

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl 2 – 3 times during the process to ensure there are no lumps
2. Add sugar and continue beating for a further 5 mins
3. Add in egg yolks and flour and beat until combined
4. Pour in the milk and vanilla extract and beat on low speed until the mixture has come together into a smooth batter
5. Finally add in the durian flesh, and mix till combined, set aside
6. In a separate clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar + sugar until stiff.
7. Fold egg whites into the cheese mixture and using a spatula, careful not to deflate the egg whites
8. Pour batter into the biscuit base
9. Steam bake for 30 minutes at 150 ° Celsius
10. Leave to cool before chilling in the fridge overnight before serving
11. Warning, makes everything in your fridge smells funky!

Earlier I baked these “not-for-those-who-have-nut-allergy” cookies. It has 2 whole cups of chopped pecans, walnuts and almonds. Something in the nuts gave the cookies a slight spicy flavour. I also added rind from one orange to give it a lil bit of a citrus tang. This is a semi chewy cookie so, here’s the recipe:

170g butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds combined

• Cream butter and brown sugar until pale, for about 7-10 minutes
• Add in milk, vanilla extract and the egg, mix on low speed until combined
• Sift all dry ingredients together and fold into the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until everything is evenly combined
• Pour in the chopped nuts and mix on low speed for another 1 minute.
• Using a spoon, drop spoonfuls of the cookie batter onto a lined tray, keeping it well spaced in between each cookie. It will expand.
• Bake at a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celcius for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Cool before storing in an air tight container

As I was grating the orange rind last nite for this recipe, I thought I’d like to introduce you to my favourite kitchen tool. My very very precious Microplane grater. I love how it can get the rind out without much effort, just like how Anna Olson does it on Sugar. People, meet my really great, grater.

Did you know that vanilla essence is merely a chemically produced flavouring agent? Which is what got me to start using vanilla extract in all my baking adventures. But, buying it off the shelf costs a bomb, and after Googling for some simple make-it-yourself-at-home methods, I decided to make my own! You can make you own too … anything with vodka would be tasty rite?

My boss passed me some leads this morning for our Bangkok conference in October. As I was sifting through the stack of business cards, I came across this one:

Try saying it quickly 3 times! I wonder if he (I think this one’s a he) ever has enough boxes on those forms when filling out his name. Does anyone know of a surname that’s even longer?

If your truck broke down? You find a branch with some twigs and leaves stuck to it and you cucuk it wherever you can find a place to cucuk it. That’s the universal sign for “my truck has broken down”. Use it with cars, buses, vans, anything you fancy.

If your car broke down in the middle of a busy street? Get your buddies to wave danger to oncoming vehicles. Better still get your super genius buddy to korek in your car boot find something useful as the “danger” sign – like this plastic container.

If you are driving and you pass by an accident? Slow down, snap a pic, look at the damage, evaluate the damage, discuss the how the accident actually happened and then continue to your destination. 2 weeks later looking through your photo folder in your cameraphone you then come up with a brilliant idea of using that photo for a blog post, like the one I’m typing right now.

 If you got bored of your car colour and its exterior? Just DIY. Like this.

Now you’d know what to do