Megan enjoying ice cream at Pizza Hut subang Parade

Brownie Day

Made a batch of brownie couple of days ago, after found out I still have some walnuts in the fridge.

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a domestic Goddess" page 193. The only difference from the recipe was that I half (almost) the ingredient.

This is the tray that I bake the brownie


Walnuts after some spinning in the grinder (too fine, next time will hand chop)

Butter and chocolate (melted)

Eggs, sugar and vanilla (beat)

Flour and salt


After mixing and wet and the dry,
sprinkle chocolate chip on top

after 25 minutes in the oven

Ready to eat

Ingredient
- 180g unsalted butter
- 180g chocolate
- 3 eggs
- 0.5 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 220g of caster sugar
- 110g plain flour
- 0.5 teaspoon of salt
- 200g walnut (toasted)

Steps
1. Melt butter and chocolate in a glass bowl on a pot of simmering water (not boiling)
2. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl
3. Mix flour and salt in another bowl
4. Let the chocolate mixture cool a little, add in egg mixture and beat
5. add in walnuts and flour mixture and beat till smooth.
6. Scrap to a pan with parchment paper, sprinkle chocolate chip on top
7. Bake in 180C oven for 25 minutes
8. middle should be still dark and gooey. It will continue to cook when cooling.
9. Enjoy

What may I do different?
1. get better dark chocolate
2. bake for 22 minutes. the side was a little hard, not gooey enough

But overall, perfect!!!

Megan at Enopi

Taking time out at Old Town in Taipan. Catch up on some emails and idle around waiting for megan to finish the class.

Still very tired and sleepy.

Should I go to PCC ride tonight? Do I have the energy?

Need to rest more.

waiting for result of lab test for baby and visit the doc

Scheduled visit to the doctor. Blood test and other things that doctor do.

Doctor in at 10.30am and we are #8 on the queue. So, should be home by noon.

Another good news, McLaren will not have good performance in the opening race of 2009 season. Yahoo!!!!!

Day 3 picture, 23/arch/2009

First picture of her with eyes open.

Cute girl.

New pix of the baby

Second day back home. She is doing what a new born do everyday. Drink, shit and sleep. Occasionally will cry to get milk and get me to wipe her shit.

Oh joy.....

Reminder to whoever read the blog, angpow please...haha.. Joking....

Home made wholemeal bread

I have tried this several time, each with small variation. All of them came out nice, except one that I was too eager to remove it from the container, and broke the bread. I use a microwave oven with convection function.

Here is the recipe

Dry Ingredient
1.5 cup of bread flour
1.5 cup of whole meal flour
0.5 tea spoon of salt

Wet ingredient
1.25 cup of warm water
1 tea spoon of dry yeast
3 table spoon of melted unsalted butter
3 table spoon of honey

1. Put dry yeast in the warm water, leave it in warm place for 10 minutes
2. add in the butter and honey and stir well
3. add all dry ingredient in a large bowl
4. pour the wet ingredient into the dry ingredient bowl
5. use a wooden spoon to mix them
6. add more (one tea spoon at a time) bread flour while kneading the dough (about 15-20 minutes)
7. Put a glass of water in microwave oven and boil the water
8. put some oil (i used olive oil) on the dough, to prevent it to get dry
9. leave it in the microwave oven for 1 hour (use the oven's timer)
10. After 1 hour of first raise, the dough should raise to twice the size
11. punch out the air and knead for couple of minute and return to raise again for 30 minutes.
12. After 30 minutes of second raise, it should double the size as well
13. knead or use rolling pin to remove all air in the dough
14. put the dough in the buttered container and let it raise for another 30 minutes
15. preheat the oven for 190C
16. After 30 minutes of 3rd raise, be careful not to disturb the dough, put in the oven and bake for 40 minutes
17. leave the bread in oven for 10 minutes after the oven stop, and put on wire rack for 15 minutes for cooling

Hope you enjoy your bread. I am.

View from the room. still waiting.

Delivery ward has been busy. Almost all the delivery suite are occupied. They need to get us discharge asap.

Running out of room.

Economic news, TSMC cancel april force leave, ramping up production? semiconductor line recovering? Manufacturer building inventory?

it's a girl !!!!

Born 20/march/2009 2.54pm.

still waiting at labor wad

Wife still lying on the bed, contraction not regular.

I am still waiting. Listening to TWIT podcast.

At delivery room

Time check. 9.42am. SDMC. Just check in.

--
Sent from my mobile device

sckhoo

Daily reminder, to myself

Look not to the faults of others,
nor to their omissions and commissions.
But rather look to your own acts,
to what you have done and left undone.

Dhammapada 4.50

Menu for this weekend

Saturday

Guinness Lamb stew with carrot, celery and green beans

Sunday

Roast chicken

Any idea?

The Omega Man

Feeling anti-social today, went to Subway, got a Subway-Melt (nothing beat a real BLT, I miss subway in Changi Airport), went to Times, got a book from Richard Matheson, I am legend, never seen the movie. Not going to. But will catch up the story from the book, the old fashion way.

Maybe will get "The Omega Man" the movie instead. Not that Will Smith is bad, but Charlton Heston man.....

Also got March edition of TopGear Malaysia.

You know, some chun ladies walking around in Pavillion.

Slept 2 hours last night, will go to sleep early today, need to get up early tomorrow for RPM class in FF.

Good Night.

Picture from last friday St. Patrick's day celebration in 1Utama

one of the many that we consumed

Plenty of local band was performing. Pop Shuvit, one buck short and many more.

IBM is going to buy Sun??

Just read the tweet from Leo Laporte, a report from cnet that say IBM could be buying Sun as early as this week.

Well, this is not that surprising, look at how Sun losing market share, the share price nose dive to nothing, and Jonathan still talking about everything is fine.

Yeah, right. Jonathan, grow up. You should quit 3 years ago. Open sourced, oh please.....

Sad to see such a great company will become a footnote in IT history.

sad sad sad

Now I can't sleep.....

Putrajaya Night Ride

Just came back from Putrajaya Night Ride. The usual gang, the usual route, outer ring of Putrajaya with a good climb at the end.

Good ride.

Good night.

Distance : 28KM
Time : 1 hours 15 minutes

Pope tells Africa 'condoms wrong'

Is he for real? abstinence and fidelity to prevent HIV?

The Pope in Africa

As I read before, Mother Teresa did the same damage to Calcutta for discouraging the use of condom.

It is so wrong.

Richard Dawkins is so right, religion is the root of all evil.

OK, enough rant, need to get ready to go riding in Putrajaya.

More later.

St. Patrick's day food

I know, i know, St Patrick's day is over.

But how can one refuse this hearty guinness lamb/beef stew?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/meat-recipes/steak-guinness-and-cheese-pie-with-a-puf

I want to make this in the weekend.

Thanks Jamie for the inspiration.

Gone riding around PutraHeight

While mom was baking the cookies, I took the MTB out for a ride, from my house to Putra Height Giant, and went around section 7, 8 and 9. Nice flat road, with little car, maybe most of the people are still in office.
Ride time : 1 hour 5 minutes
Distance covered : 19.8KM

Making oatmeal cookies

Got inspiration from smitten kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/) to make this cookies which I always love to eat, especially the thick and chewy version.

Yesterday made the 4th batch, this time with walnuts (1/4 cup, not enough, next time I will double it to 1/2 cup) and choc chips. It turn out nice, a little less chewy and more towards crispy.

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, if you're impatient, but I do find that they end up slighly less thick.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.