018.  Baked!

My friends and family seem to appreciate my cooking, some of my experiments have been hits & yes, there were a lot of misses too, but overall the praises I get from them should mean I’m a decent cook…right? Otherwise, there are a lot of very polite people out there :p.  I originally did not like to cook at all.  I loathed the kitchen to the extent of never wanting to set foot in it unless I got really hungry and needed to rummage for a bite to eat in the fridge or pantry. I hated chopping and peeling and my biggest antagonist in the kitchen is frying! Frying foods and dealing with hot lard was never and probably will never be my forte.  But I’ve changed and grown and have been taking on challenges in the kitchen all thanks to the Food Network.  I’ve only really started cooking and experimenting with recipes ‘coz I LOVE TO EAT.  Watching all those cooking shows made cooking look so easy and I really wanted to taste what I saw on TV so I tried to cook it myself.  So that’s how I’ve made peace with the stove & the kitchen.  My relationship with hot lard is still a work in progress, but with more and more recipes that I need to try out, it’ll get there :p.  This was probably one of the longest introductions I’ve ever done! Lolz!

My actual goal was to highlight my original love for baking.  I was exaggerating a bit when I said I’d never set foot on the kitchen to do any manual labour.  Truth is, I bake…It’s one of the things I love doing.  I used to sell muffins & cookies during the holidays and package them in elaborately decorated cans & boxes (and yes, Jon, if you get to read this…I know I still owe you your favourites. It’ll come soon I promise ,-p).  I think one of the things that attracted me to baking is the ease of the tasks.  You measure, you mix, stick it in the oven, do 1 or 2 song & dance numbers while waiting, take it out and eat!  Baking is one of those things that bring me both pleasure and tranquillity.  In a sense, my thoughts are more quiet while I’m baking ,-).  It’s been a long while though since I last created a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I did however get to reunite with the mixer and oven today.  Seeing that all the ingredients were available, and with lack of anything substantial to do I’ve once again made a fresh batch of cookies and cupcakes!  I baked at around 8 am ‘coz I was expecting today would be hot and it was, so while I was slaving away in the kitchen I think I got baked while baking too…haha!  I took pictures to share ‘coz sadly I couldn’t share the goodies with you all so hopefully the photos will do :p.  I will need to have my guinea pigs (Tito, Vic, and Joey a.k.a. MJ, Mike, and Popo ) taste test it tomorrow.  I’ll figure out a way to share these baked goodies with you all soon ^__^ 

My usual beach ritual is to get up early in the morning and beach comb to find out what little treasures the tide brought in. I normally end up taking home a couple of unique looking stones and some pretty shells as souvenirs.  Yesterdays beach comb with my girl friends was especially fun ‘coz 1. We haven’t done “beachineering” (a sister term for mountaineering) in a long time, 2. Hanging out and bonding with the girl friends always end up memorable, and 3. We were in one of the many beautiful paradises you could find in the country.  The tide wasn’t high, we could walk for miles on the  beach and the water wouldn’t go higher than our knees.  Since we couldn’t swim we decided to just sit and cool down in the water and chit chat.  Before deciding on a prime cooling spot I was walking around and checking out what little things I could pick up from the water. I found a cone shell and grew a liking to it but since it was in the water I figured it might be inhabited so I tried shaking it to see if anything would pop out. After a few rigorous shakes I decided it was empty and tucked it in my pocket to bring it to shore after our swim in the “kiddie pool”.  When we got to our cabin I unloaded my pockets and placed what I’ve decided on taking home with me on the table outside our room.  After a couple hours of getting cleaned up, packing and getting ready to leave I was sitting and trying to make a mental checklist of what not to forget, as I was thinking of my list I was staring out from the bedroom looking at the table right in front of our door when I noticed something crawling across the tables surface. First thought that crossed my mind was that something landed on our table and was about to eat our lunch (I panicked a little ‘coz I haven’t had my share of lunch yet :p ). After a few seconds of observing the creature I finally realized that it was the shell I picked up off the water.  I ran to it but it retreated back into the shell.  To cut an unnecessarily long story short…I brought it home with me. It’s still alive, I was hoping it would’ve left its home by now but it seems pretty attached to it so I decided to keep it as a pet ^__^…I’ve created a temporary crabitat for it to see if I can take care of it past 24 hours…if it survives, I’ll invest in a more permanent crabitat. I’ve already done research on how to take care of Hermit Crabs…seems pretty easy, I hope it gets bigger and finally leaves its shell, then I can finally have my souvenir! Lolz!

Photo Courtesy of: Cath Coronel

View from cousins place. Lorong Mydin, Astoria Park. (Taken with picplz.)

Rainy empty Eastwood Open Park…I hope our flight pushes through today. (Taken with picplz.)

A cuppa hot cocoa with pretty little marshmallows for a cool rainy Tuesday morning. Hope you all are having a great day so far. Keep it awesome! ^__^ (Taken with picplz.)

Oh yes! Especially when he smells heavenly when he hugs you. ^__^

Savvy “Pink Flush” ^__^ (Taken with picplz.)

Souvenirs from SG. The shopaholic in me went a little shoe crazy!…because a girl can NEVER EVER have too many shoes! ^__^ 😍 (Taken with instagram)

For friends and family…just a hint…I would really love to have a Venetian Masquerade themed Birthday Party. A heads up so you can all start planning this early :)) 😝 (Taken with instagram)