Brown Nuggets

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Kinda belated but didn't get a chance till now...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I love Christmas :O)

But I hate Orchard during the Christmas and New Year season. It's like a mad house. Streets and buses packed with shoppers throughout the day. Fortunately, I didn't have any appointments the last 3 days so I've been able to stay out of harm. Heard from some people that they took over an hour walking from Orchard to Somerset. Siao...

Weather has been cold and wet lately. Nice when you're at home sleeping but kinda inconvenient when you need to go out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bought an Adidas Original jacket recently - it's the limited edition Rio De Janeiro blue and white one with a picture of the famous statue of Jesus in Rio. Wanted to buy it earlier last week but decided not to cos it was $129 then.

Not so expensive that I couldn't afford but I felt it was over-priced. And I never buy over-priced items coz then I'll feel ripped off and I won't enjoy my purchase as much. Anyway, I thought long and hard for a couple of days (that's what I usually do) and finally decided to go back last Friday for another look. And guess what! There was a 30% storewide discount! Boy was I glad I didn't buy it when I first saw it!

I was trying on the jacket when from the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar face! An old friend from Ngee Ann! Who is now working for Adidas! Gasp! In the end, I got a 51% discount and paid only $73 for my jacket! What a steal! Praise God and thank you KS :O)

That really made my day!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have been getting rashes on my hands and feet the past week and it's spreading to my arms and legs. My mom thinks it's because of the baking...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

23 December 06 (1500 hrs)

Having endless afternoons with nothing to do can be really frustrating, especially when you have one early morning and one late afternoon appointment, leaving a 6 to 8 hour gap in between. Should I stay in town to shop and workout or waste 2 hours travelling so I can spend a couple of hours at home?

Was feeling quite down recently and began seeking solace in the form of baking.

On Wednesday afternoon, I started experimenting with my first batch of Quaker oat and Cranberry cookies. The oat cookies tasted pretty much like plain cookies – not much texture. Desmond liked the Cranberry ones. I baked about 48 in total – they were warm and soft when they were fresh out of the oven but by the time they cooled, they were all rock hard.

Had a sudden burst of inspiration and progressed to cornflake and chocolate chip cookies on Thursday night. These turned out much better - softer. I used a slightly different recipe and added more flour – the dough was a lot dryer and firmer compared to the first try which was wet and lumpy. Baked 62 cookies altogether – but ended up with 8 burnt ones cos I was momentarily distracted with packing my cookies into containers.

They take only 7 to 8 minutes to bake coz I have a special oven-toaster with only one temperature - HOT (the recipe indicated 20-45 minutes on moderate heat). My friends reckon that's why the cookies turned out so hard.

I decided to try something else other than cookies with different fillings this morning...

BANANA WALNUT BROWNIES!!

They’re divine :O) At least I think so and they're not hard! Haha.. probably because of the self-raising flour. In fact, they were a little too soft and crumbly at first but after a day of sitting, the texture became more brownie-like.

I love baking!

Henceforth, I shall be referred to as Grace the Brownie and Cookie Whiz :o)

Here's the evidence that I really can bake...