Bruschetta

Last weekend, I had the urge to prepare something different for the family. So off I went shopping at Tesco. Upon arrival, I went to King's Confectionery. Checked the baguette.....it was RM2.49...hmm...I thought to myself......cheaper than what I expected (I don't buy baguettes so I didn't know the market price).

Then I went into Tesco. Walked into the bakery section. Saw the baguettes hot from the oven. The lady was putting it one by one into the long paper bag. Checked the price...whoaaaaaa....RM 1.59!! Grab lor.....waiting for what summore? Any human in the right frame of mind would definitely grab it, what more 1 chinese lady stood next to another lady and told her Tesco baguette very nice. Then I went to gather a few other stuffs, paid and went home.

When my mom saw the baguette, she was quite worried. My aunt also gave the same reaction...err....we are gonna eat that hard-hard bread ah? Alamak! Eh.....you all are not being very adventurous with food la. And not very encouraging to me as well.

Anyway, here's what I did.

Ingredients:
Capsicum
Yellow pepper
Tomatoes
Ham
Bacon
Garlic spread
Cheese - grated
Pepper
Salt
Baguette - sliced

Here's how I did it. Not sure if it's the right method.

1. Chopped the capsicum, yellow pepper and tomatoes. Mixed them together with a bit of salt to taste.
2. Stir fry quickly the cubed ham and bacon. Set aside. Toast the sliced baguette in the oven. Once it turns brown, turn over to the other side until it turns brown as well. Remove and apply the garlic spread.
3. Add a dash of pepper.
4. Spread the chopped ingredients on top. Followed by the ham and bacon.
5. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
6. Put it back into the oven for another quick toast. Just to heat it up.

Serve hot. It tastes better.

Well, I thought I had cheese at home but when I got home I found out I had none. So mine went without cheese. Dad loves it. I do too because it's not heavy, not filling. Just nice for a light, healthy meal.



By the way, guess what? The following day I saw Giant advertised their baguette in the newspaper. Do you know how much? It was RM0.99!!!! And I thought I got a good deal at Tesco. Dummy me.

Dead tired!

I think I am getting very emotional of late. I don't know why. I am trying so hard to control my temper and yet I snapped. Sighhhhhh.....

I don't look forward to celebrating Chinese New Year. In fact I feel like running away from it. Leave all the stupid preparations behind...No eye to see.

Today was another busy day. I woke up at 7am and left for my Di Zi Gui at 8:15am. I finished at 10am. With a growling stomach (I was so worried that people seated next to me in the class would hear my hungry stomach), I went looking for food. I stopped by a bakery supplier shop to get some stuffs for my cookies.

11:45am I had to fetch Edrik back. By the time I got home it was past noon. I started preparations for my cornflakes cookies. This time I added dried mixed fruits and reduce the sugar amount by another 15gm. Well, it worked. It turned out fine.

3:15pm I had to take Edrik to his swimming trial at a newly opened pool. The pool has a length of an Olympic pool. (note: Just the length!!!) Ding dong here and there, by the time I got home it was 5pm++ Continued with my cookies again.

This time I did chocolate chips. I do not like chocolate but upon Master Edrik's request, I baked some for him. This is my first attempt at baking choc chips.

Macadamia Nuts

Hershey's chocolate chips
I am not sure if this is how it is supposed to look before being baked. For one who doesn't know that this is chocolate chips to-be, one would have imagined it as something else. (I thought it looked a lot like unbaked dung from far!!!).
I do not have a picture of the finished product but trust me it looked a whole lot better than the unbaked ones. Oh...and the taste was pretty good. While it was baking in the oven, the aroma of the cocoa lingers in the air. So fragrant that it actually made me drooled over it although at that time I was still unsure if the cookies would turn out well.

Personally, I think it would have been better with more macadamia nuts. I have actually increased the chocolate chips as compared to the original recipe. Here's the recipe by Amy Beh :

Ingredients:
120gm butter
140 gm soft brown sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 small egg, lightly beated
175gm plain flour
35gm cocoa powder sifted twice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
50gm macadamia nut, coarsely chopped
70gm chocolate chips

Method:
1. Grease baking trays lightly with melted butter and preheat oven to 175-180 degrees celcius.
2. Cream butter, sugar and egg in an electric mixer until light and pale. Stir in sifted flour mixture with a metal spoon and add in the nuts and chocolate chips. Mix well to combine.
3. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into larger-than-cherry-sized balls. Arrange them on trays, well spaced out. Lightly press them down a little and bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked and golden.
4. Leave cookies to cool slightly on the trays then lift them out onto wire racks to cool completely before storing in airtight containers.

So, by the time i finished baking, washing and storing the cookies into the containers...it was around 9:20pm. Then I had a very quick dinner. After that I proceeded to wash my car. I had to wash my car. It was so dirty and unrecognisable already. I could scribble words on it. So just imagine the layers of dust that has been sitting on my car!

That was not the end of it. After I showered, I had to iron Edrik's uniforms. And I supposed because I am too tired I just couldn't sleep. So here I am again, blogging down my frustrations and complains. No doubt the entire itinerary for today has nothing much to do with Chinese New Year except for the baking, I am still going to blame it on the festive season. Why? It's because the last weekend and the weekend before, I was painting, washing and cleaning.

I feel so haggard and tired. I even neglected my workouts. Damn! And now I have a stiff shoulder and sore on my neck. Where did those come from?

It is all Chinese New Year's fault.

I need to catch some sleep now. Got to wake up at 5:30am tomorrow.

Cornflakes cookies

Alas, I managed to bake decent cornflakes cookies. Was trying out another cornflakes cookies recipe the other day and the turnout was a major disappointment. Clueless about what went wrong, I tried again and the end result was still the same. The cookies were not crunchy. The recipe had exactly what I wanted in a cornflakes cookie - mixed fruits and mini paper cup. But after baking the output wasn't what I had expected, I was really disappointed.

It was a waste to throw away the cookies. So I decided to feed my poor neighbour's dog the somewhat soggy cornflakes cookies when my neighbour is not around. The poor dog ate for weeks (taking in perhaps 3-4 per day) until it got fed-up of it. i think it will not touch cornflakes cookies anymore for the rest of its life.

Not willing to give up. I decided to try another recipe. This time by Amy Beh. The recipe does not contain mixed fruits. Neither is it baked in a paper cup. But it was deliciously crunchy.

The cookies before being baked.

After baking.
When you put it into your mouth, you hear crunch...crunch...crunch. It tells you how crunchy it is from the sound of it. Will continue to bake more over the weekend as I don't have enough to share with family and friends.

Here's the recipe. Note that I have actually reduced the sugar amount from 110g to 80g.

Ingredients:

110gm butter

80gm castor sugar

1/2 tsp grated rind of lemon or orange

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg yolk

100gm cornflakes, crushed lightly

Sift lightly:

125gm self raising flour

1 tbsp cornflour

Method:

1. Cream butter, sugar and essence until the mixture turns light and fluffy.

2. Beat in egg yolk and lemon rind.

3. Fold in sifted flour and mix.

4. Put mixture into the rerigerator to chill for half an hour until slightly firm.

5. Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture onto the crushed cornflakes.

6. Shape into balls and placed on lightly greased baking tray and bake in pre-heated oven over 170 degrees celcius for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden in colour.

7. Cool on wire rack before storing into airtight containers.

Do try. You will love it.