Homade chocolate chip cookies

Last weekend, I tried my hand in baking choc chip cookies. Quite easy recipe, but for me I like to use the hand mixer rather than use your hand to mix the ingredients together. To do a simple homemade choc chip cookies, you'' need:

For dough (makes about 30 pcs)

280 grams plain flour

225 grams butter, softened

140 grams caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp orange extract or any other flavour (i used strawberry)

A pinch of salt

100 grams choc chips

For coating

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon powder

1. Add in sugar and butter and mix well with wooden spoon/hand mixer.

2. Then add in the yolk + orange extract + pinch of salt.

3. Mix everything until the caster sugar has dissolved or till the batter turns white.

4. Then add in the choc chips.

The mixture became a very, very soft dough.

Do not, I repeat, do not be tempted to add in more flour as the ingredients are just nice

Form the dough into a small ball like so

Roll the ball in caster sugar + cinnamon powder

Arrange the balls spaced apart to allow it to bake properly for

15-20 minutes in a preheated 190 degrees celcius oven.

The cookies after 15-20 mins....

...not so beautiful, but they taste good!

Allow the cookies to completely cool then store it in airtight container.

The end product!

My Kitties

The naughty kitties

Them again

Milking Mummy


Only 2 months old



Mummy the cat

The orange kitty sleeping

The tri-color kitty sleeping at a very odd place

Awww, my favourite kitty, the black one, very independant.

The three kitties were born by Mummy sometime in February. I have actually given away two of the kitties to a friend of mine, the black and the tri-colored one. The orange kitty were intended for my sister in-law, but never get to give it to her because somebody stole him.

Anyway, Mummy the cat is pregnant again. So, I'll get another litter of kitties again sometime in August. Anyone interested to adopt some kitties, please let me know.

Got the Monday blues?

Delayed in posting. I was recuperating after being involved in a car accident.

It all started last Monday, 16 June 2008. We were supposed to go to Saloma Bistro @ JalanAmpang for our senamrobik cum Perhimpunan Pagi. Who else, but 'twas our Minister who lead the senamrobik session. I guess she needed to relived her days in the Sports Ministry.

The three of us were running late. I was riding with my officemate's brand new Toyota Vios to Saloma, we weren't rushing as we decided to skip the senamrobik session. The road wasn't jammed, and we were coming from Rennaisance about to turn to Saloma, which was a 3-lane road. The cars on the first two lanes had already stopped to give us way. As we were about to turn into Saloma, a Satria GTI from the third lane rammed into the front part of my colleague's Vios. He was going, maybe about 60 kmph, and couldn't stop the car in time.

I was sitting on the front passenger and hit my head on the side mirror from the impact of the accident. My friend, who was the owner of the Vios sprained her neck and had to wear neck brace for two days. The driver who hit us didn't have insurance and roadtax for his car. Said that he was on his way to renew his insurance. Too bad for him, but he could've killed somebody.

This incident really unnerved me, and I couldn't work for the rest of the day. I kept having the incident played in mind, over and over again. Now I understand why people get traumatized by an accident. I have felt it. Thank God, we were ok considering we were involved in a car accident.

A very bad start for the week. Couldn't wait for the week to be over.

My own personal Threshold

As we grow older, our threshold for pain substantially lowers. This may not be an accurate fact, but it’s an observation from my own personal experience. I feel that as I grow older, my body’s threshold for pain plummets down, be it physically or mentally. I discover that the monthly period pains won’t go away, instead I’d have to take painkillers to relieve me. I discover that I absolutely cannot tolerate grotesque pictures of accident victims that you normally find in forwarded emails. Or I’d have nightmares for nights. I also find that I’m more paranoid than usual when I read reminders in emails, especially one that says you need to lift up public toilet bowls to look out for venomous spiders that might be crawling under it, and might bit you to death when you are doing your “business” there. Scary.

Makes me think that this world is not a safe world anymore. I really do pity our children who can’t enjoy their childhood for fear of being kidnapped or molested by a pedophile or contract some weird disease when they are playing outside. Scary.

I used to torture myself when I was a teenager. I wanted to test my threshold for physical discomfort. Nothing drastic, I just switch off the fan in my room in the sweltering heat of Alor Star. It used to drive my sister crazy. I wanted to ready my body in case there was a blackout, so I won’t feel so hot. Now, I can’t live without a full speed fan. Slow air-cond in the car suffocates me. So much for my “training” for threshold. I guess your body does change as you grow older. Just accept the fact and try to take care of it, as best as possible.

Just a reflection on my self…….*sigh*

A walk down memory lane: Kota Bharu

Year 2008 is a really the year for me to take my own personal trips to wherever I fancy, if the purpose suits me . Last week I was in Kota Bharu, revisiting some of my past haunts. The roads haven’t change much, I can still remember the roads to our old houses in Telipot and Kubang Kerian, to my primary school and to the small shops behind the school that we frequent once school’s out. Also, the best thing from this trip was to find my best friend’s house, whom I had lost contact. And that was 18 years ago when I left Kota Bharu.

Some other things that don’t change much was that people still go around the town in trishaw. I remembered when I was living in Kelantan in the late '80s, I used to go to school in a trishaw. It was kinda embarrassing, especially when the pakcik beca decided to stop in front of the boys school to pick up something:p another, it's the general laidback atmosphere. I can see that everybody is at home in Kelantan.

Our plans in Kota Bharu was to eat all the varieties of food that we can find there: nasi kerabu, nasi dagang, laksam, nasi air, nasi berlauk. Well, we did ate some of the food that we set out to eat…but it seemed different from my childhood memory. The nasi air MakSu Nab didn’t taste as good as it was then. My mum said I should’ve kept my memories instead of eating the nasi air. Maybe she was right, but I needed to taste it again! Next, we head on to Zakini’s Nasi Kukus. My mum picked out a few things and the next thing we knew, the Kelantanese had a field day overcharging us for dinner. Oh well, what do you expect, being in a foreign land during the school holidays?!

Funny that when you were a child, you’d perceive everything as very big or very tall. When I went to Pasar Siti Khadijah, I was disappointed to find that it is only 3 floors, instead of the 7 floors that I had imagined all these years. I was also expecting that batik sutera in Kelantan would be ridiculously cheap, but the tag price was the same like the ones sold in KL. Or maybe I didn’t know how to bargain. Or maybe I didn’t have enough money to bargain in the first place. Shopping is only fun when you have money to spare....*sigh*

Me thinks Kelantan’s charm is mainly due to the general laidback atmosphere, the culture, the food, the language, the sweetness of the people. None of that political crap if you are visiting for a few days. The Kelantanese are peaceful people. Go ahead, give Kelantan a try, you might like it.

More stories on our trip to Kelantan, please go to Kerabu Jantung's blog.