project 6 - Banana Macadamia Muffin

My baking project last weekend :D. Project Numero 5 *flips hair*

Although muffin is relatively simple to make (from my reading, I've never baked muffins prior to this Banana Macadamia Muffin), it was a dup-dap dup-dap dup dap experience for me. Berdebar okeh!

I googled for recipe (albeit having bought a recipe book on muffins!). Finally shortlisted to Nigella's and Joy of Baking's. After pondering on the complexity level, I opted of Joy of Baking's. Reasons - lesser ingredients :D And Banana Muffin recipe from Joy of Baking has a video demo as well. Plus point :D

I kept checking the progress once they are in the oven :D How annoying kan. Naik ke tak?

Are they baking secara adil dan saksama or not?

Dalam dah masak ke?

When they swell into these panoramic hilly view, I literally jumped with joy!

And another plus point of muffin, tak perlu nak keluarkan electric mixer bcoz it requires minimal beating of eggs and teknik kaup-balik only (I'm the Sains Rumahtangga generation remember? Please don't translate fold in flour into mixture kepada lipatkan tepung dalam adunan. How can one lipat tepung??)

My muffin sulung! Banana Macadamia Muffin. Kids love these :D

Ingredients: -
1. 1 cup of macadamia - recipe says walnut or pecan but all I had at home was macadamia.
2. 1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
3. 1 tsp of baking powder
4. 1/4 tsp of soda bicarbonate
5. 3/4 cup of caster sugar - recipe says fine granulated sugar
(1-5 - dry ingredients)
6. 2 eggs - lightly beated
7. 1/2 cup unsalted butter - melted and cooled
8. 1 tsp vanilla extract
9. 3 large banana - mashed

Method
Dry ingredients: -
- Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder and soda bicarbonate.
- Mix macadamia and sugar with sifted ingredients.

Wet ingredients
- Add butter and vanilla extract to beaten eggs. Mix well.
- Fold in mashed banana into butter and egg mixture.

- Fold dry ingredients mixture into wet ingredients. Do not overdo this step as it would toughen your muffin (from my reading). It's okay if it appears a little lumpy.
- Spoon into greased muffin tray until 2/3 full. I used paper cups instead. Bake for 20 minutes in 165-170d.


By the time I am done with this entry, I have made another version of muffin - using the same ingredients but substituted mashed banana with blueberry filling (from my disastrous attempt of making a baked version of a blueberry cheesecake!) So brace yourselves for more muffin updates these days. Until I am done with this muffin phase hi hi ! 

jumaat

 

A little tensed these days. Alhamdulillah masih ada selera makan and boleh tidur lena :D

interference

Do you believe in telepathy? Well, to certain extend, I do.

After being married for sometimes (may Allah Bless our marriage), on certain occasions when I really wanted to eat something, next thing I know Tebby suggested just what I had in mind. Of course there are time when I think he ignored my telepathy messages :D :D Like the other day when I had a bling-bling in mind :D

Anyway, he went on an office road-trip down south to Johor, Melaka and the last stop, Seremban. After the session in Johor, he called up saying he was in JPO. JPO? My heart skipped a bit. I tried sending him the usual telepathy messages. Well I heard Fossil handbags are much cheaper there in JPO.

He came back after 4 days and he got me (and the kids) these!

Chocolate Factory Outlet. CFO peeps! CFO!

Signal interference eh? :D

Thanks Yang. For the fact that you know I love chocolates. And for the fact that you know I love them with loads of nuts. He knows me like the back of his hand, haven't you heard? :D

Now, time to fix the signal.....

grrrrrr!!

nombres quatre - Baked Blueberry Cheese Cake

Remember my 13 cooking challenges using the oven?

First being my disastrous Sausage Roll. I will redo this but am gonna cheat a bit. Am waiting for bonus to buy a bread machine :D

Second being Double Choc Cookies which, only achieved the good results after two batches were thrown away.

 Third being Bread Pudding with Pineapple Bits Sauce which I can consider a success at first attempt. Okay, you may roll you eyes now, how hard can baking a bread pudding be eh? :D But not to someone who struggles in kitchen like me.

I decided to try a baked version of cheese cake as my fourth challenge. This is my second attempt. The output was just as I had expected it. What most important is that my kids love this. Tebby is not so much of a cake person so let's leave him out of this discussion, shall we..

Oreo crumbs (I bought readymade, too malas to grind biskut) as bottom layer. Unlike chilled version, this Baked Blueberry Cheesecake lost its purple-ness. And it is brown on top. But it definately tasted better than chilled version. 

I did mine using recipe from www.bestrecipes.com.au, here. I altered it just a bit and my version is as below: -

Ingredients: -
1. Oreo crumbs (used just enough to cover the springform tin)
2. 125gm butter - melted
3. 600gm cream cheese - soften
4. 3/4 cup caster sugar
5. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6. 1/2 cup sour cream
7. Juice from 1/2 lemon
8. 2 eggs
9. 1 egg yolk
10. 2 tablespoon flour plain flour
11. Blueberry filling


Method: -
- Preheat oven to 170d
- Mix Oreo crumb with melted butter, pressed into springform tin as base. Bake for 5 minutes.
- Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, sour cream and lemon juice. Beat until soft.
- Add eggs and yolk one at a time.
- Add flour and continue to beat until light and pluffy.
- Add blueberry filling, beat until just mix.
- Pour into springform tin, on top of Oreo crumb base.
- Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until top in brownish.

The result? *flips hair* *beam*

But wanna see my first attempt?
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Here goes.. my Gooey Wobbly Baked Blueberry Cheesecake!

here, meet Calico..

Here, meet and greet this calico cat! The first cat Tebby and I let Kakak and the boys feed and sometimes play with her kittens.Calico is not the name, nor the breed but instead the color-pattern. My animal-loving daughter googled up and found the fact here. :D

Anyway. Remember our house renovations that took place September '12 to early January '13? And we rented our neighbor house during that period? One day, coming back home after fetching the kids from taska, we were greeted by Calico (we decided to call her just that btw) and her breed. 3 baby kittens on a wet rainy day, frightened and lost, who would've had the heart to shoo them away? It started off with a box. Then an old kain lampin. Then milk. Then nuggets, KFC, keropok and whatnots.

Long story cut short, we sort of adopted Calico and her kittens, except that we did not let the kids bring them inside the house. We even let them touched and hugged those cats. Kids were ecstatic as we never let them do so before. Kakak especially, was very happy.

When we started packing and moving things back to our house, kids wanted to bring Calico and kittens along. (It's just next door anyway :P). Tebby disagreed. Let nature takes its course he said. They will survive. And the next day Calico and kittens were gone! It's not hard to guess who my kids put the blame on :D saying that Calico might have overheard that :D

And guess what I found when I was in the process of moving things? Right in our house's porch? Calico and kittens! Yes, she might've heard. Instead of merajuk and went away, she, in fact dah pindah dulu!

But cats come and go. When they come, kids offer keropok and whatnots. Then Calico's kittens grew up and they rarely come anymore except Calico who occasionally shows up (and of course was given warm tender and loving attention by Kakak).

Then, one day Calico brought a dead rat home.

Tebby cleaned the mess away, complaining of course. Calico should've just eaten that rat he said.

And one day Tebby came back with another story. Story related from his cat-loving colleagues. When a cat brings something home. It is a gift. As a sign of appreciation.

That dead rat, Calico must've meant it for Kakak!

And few days back, Calico brought another one. She took one step further, a fresher one! A live rat! When Kakak went out, Calico casually played with the rat. Ran after that poor thing. Poking it with her paws but not eating it. While she had her eyes on Kakak, as if trying to tell her something.

Me on the other hand was running for my life. I literally jumped in the car and drove away.

Calico dear, we appreciate our friendship. We appreciate your effort bringing those gifts back home. But it has to stop.Those furry gifts.

stairs & staircase - finale!

Renovation works officially ended. I was hoping we'd be moving back in before 2013 commenced. Nevertheless we were a little behind target and eventually started moving in 5th January 2013. It was a messy affair with the kids starting new schooling term, Tebby with fractured arm and wardrobe and kitchen cabinets were not 100% completed. Even now after 2 months, things are not 100% settled - curtains were only installed last weekend (salah jahit! can you believe it? It's Macy!) and we still haven't purchased sofa. But we have our own cozy corner already :D :D 2 tatami mats and an IKEA's Sultan mattress pad. Yup, a mattress pad in the living area. Sangat cozy baring-baring sambil tengok TV lepas makan lunch hi hi.

I'll just share few of my favorites.

Remember this staircase which I rambled about?

It's been walled up as planned. Based on an architect's suggestion, we made 3 slots for display and later my SIL suggested we have small lights installed - functional and aesthetically pleasing :D

*Paint - Jotun's Antique Olive. Tebby's pick.

Also installed - wooden edging. One contractor mintak RM850 for 3 slots tu. Laminate only. This uncle seen here doing his job, mintak RM650. Kayu some more! Kayu it is then! Same uncle also supply our doors.

Taaadaaaa!! Finally those crystal vases that we got wayyyy back almost 13 years ago (wedding presents) have their well deserved display slots :D

We also changed the bottom-most step. Originally the last step was covered with marble-slab. Lantai pun memang marble. Kalau tak biasa memang ada possibility tak perasan. My late FIL pernah mis-stepped there and terjatuh sampai berdarah kaki bcoz he thought dia dah sampai lantai when in fact he was actually stepping on anak tangga. 

If you look closely behind and beyond Adam, nampak tangga yang last tu dah tukar bahagian atasnya dengan parquet.

3.3.13 - herbaline!

Went for a facial earlier today. I have never been to anywhere else for that matter so I can't compare. I have no complaints about Herbaline either. Probably bcoz they had never provoked me into signing-up into anything or pushing me too hard to buy their products. I am at peace, so to speak :D

I was in a hurry so opted for Relaxing Facial Treatment (basic facial). The receipt says it's pocket-friendly facial, I might as well go for that one in future hi hi. Bought Nano Moisturizing Toner as mine running out of stock. They have 2 types of toner - Nano Moisturizing Toner and Sterilizing Toner. My skin is dry and aging and was advised to use Nano Moisturizing Toner.

Must admit although I like being pampered like that, extraction of whiteheads and blackheads made me sweat even when the air-cond was set at 18d! What more with the existence of pimples which I occasionally get especially during that time of the month!

2.3.13 food - lamb marinade :: sup tulang

Did a make ahead weekday-dinner. Lamb shoulders. Marinade - salt, pepper, a little sugar, rosemary, oregano, garlic (most recipes say crushed garlic but I used MasterFood's Garlic Powder), bay leaves, juice from half a lemon and olive oil. Quantiti main agak-agak only. Lamb shoulders are resting in the fridge right now. Shall update the outcome later :D

 

Tebby made Sup Tulang for lunch. Simple but sumptuous. Easy peasy. Tulang and cubes of beef as well as potatoes. Makan sama Sambal Lada Kicap. My version - finely sliced cili burung, kicap kipas udang (manis), kicap cair (masin), a little sugar and juice from limau nipis.

Now that we have a Noxxa Multifunction Pressure Cooker, making soup has never been this easy :D At a friction of the usual 2-3 hours time (for sup tulang)

Nothing beats homecooked meals no matter how simple they are. Agree?

an update :: dinnerdate

An update from this morning makan-makan do:D

Barisan makanan. Was supposed to start at 9.00am but it started at 9.30am. I had expected that to happen. Nasib baik dah beli karipap 3 ketul pepagi morning tu.

Small Sweet Bun (RM0.35 seketul) cicah Kuzi Ayam. Kuzi Ayam RM55 seekor (siap masak). Minimum purchase is setengah ekor. According to my tastebud --> sedap! Ni my new boss yang belanja.

I actually ordered 50pcs of small sweet buns and half chic kuzi ayam bawak balik for the family.

Roti canai pantai-dalam-yang-kalau-dah-sejuk-pun-masih-lembut :D K Nora my ofismet yang belanja.

Bharat Strawberry Tea. Heritage Hotel Cameron Highland bagi souvenir after we all buat teambuilding ofis end of 2012 and stay kat that hotel.

I remember when I first stepped in my current office 1st July 2011, I was shocked at the calmness and quietness. So calm that it irritated me :D But then slowly new people coming in, start meriah and now we sort of have this makan-makan do from time to time.

As for today, moga Allah berkati dan murahkan rezeki to those that belanja us :D

And this was my dinner earlier on. Traffic was heavy. It always is every Friday anyway. Rerouted to Bangsar and dated @Mahbub. Had half portion of nasi lemak with ikan bulus, hati ayam, potatoes and boiled egg on the side.

To ease the guilt, washed those down with limau suam :D

Have a good weekend every one!

friday makan-makan do

To end the hectic week
To embrace and welcome March

ps - members only :D