Brown Nuggets

Is there a Problem with my Counter?

I'm blogging from my brother's room.

My computer has been down for over a week and I haven't had the time to send it for repair which explains why I haven't been blogging.

Firstly, I discovered that the system just kept restarting (a problem I had experienced before) so, I tried the Safe Mode which worked the last time. It didn't work and I decided to call the help desk the next day. Then, my keyboard stopped responding coz the computer couldn't detect the keyboard. It's not a keyboard problem.

The technician I spoke to suspects it's a motherboard problem and asked me to try to get a keyboard with a usb port or bring the computer down to their Service Centre at Commonwealth for repair. What a hassle.

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Amazing Counters

My counter has been jumping so fast the last couple of weeks that I can't help but suspect there is a problem with amazing counters. I checked my account for statistics and the highest hit I had was a couple of days ago when 216 people visited my blog. How bizarre...

Don't get me wrong. It is always a delight to know that others find my blog interesting enough to keep coming back. But sometimes I just can't help but wonder...

Oh well, even though I may not be a published author but at least my writings are being read on blogspot and I hope that I am, in my own little way, somehow making an impact or imprint on the lives of people who read my blog.

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Baking...

has become a hobby for me :o)

Who would have thought? Me!? A baker!? Haha...

Since I started this craze, I've been baking 2 or 3 times a week. I'm baking after I finish blogging. It has almost become an obsession. I give away most of the stuff I bake so I can bake more.

I started with my lousy 7-minute oven and produced my first batch of rock hard cranberry, cornflake and chocolate chip cookies. Then I discovered that brownies were much more fun and so much easier to make. So I experimented with the normal dark chocolate brownies (banana walnut, cherry coconut, chocolate fudge), white chocolate blondies (cherry macadamia), and healthy no-chocolate walnut brownies (using carob powder, lecithin granules, wholewheat/soya flour and honey) which turned out really well.

I didn't dare experiement with cakes coz I didn't think they would rise properly with the 7-minute oven which had only one temperature - EXTREMELY HOT.

Dad bought me a proper Morries oven a couple of weeks ago and I started baking banana walnut cakes! I thought it best to start with my favourite and that's basically how I've been going about my business. I mean there is really no point in baking something that I don't even like to eat right? Anyway, the banana cakes turned out quite well - moist and yummy.

Then, I tried making Banana Pudding (but that was just so I could finish using and not waste the entire bunch of over ripe bananas that my dad bought for my banana cake) which required 2 hrs of steaming. It was edible but a little tough and not quite as nice as the cake. Too much work.

Quite frankly, I would have preferred to start with the Sticky Date Pudding but up till now I haven't been able to purchase the sticky dates. The small packets are out of stock at the baking shop and I don't really want to buy the industrial pack.

Last week, I started on pineapple tarts - nicked the recipe from a Indonesian Cakes and Desserts recipe book from Kinokuniya. I didn't want to buy the book coz I didn't find any of the other desserts interesting and so I parked myself at the bookshelf and shamelessly copied the recipe. Hehe... Actually it was a recipe for durian tarts but I figured the recipe for the pastry was the same.

I invited my mom to join me for a baking session since she was free and unfortunately, the first batch turned out rather bad. Mom refused to follow the recipe exactly - she decided to knead the flour with the sugar and butter (instead of mixing the butter and sugar together until they were fluffy, mixing in the egg yolks, and then slowly stirring in the flour) and didn't think it necessary to add the egg yolks. My brother ate them all up even though they were too hard and their bottoms burnt.

The next day, I tried baking pineapple tarts again. This time, I did it on my own and followed the recipe down to the last word. Needless to say, they turned out fabulous - if I may say so myself. Almost as good as Bengawan Solo's :o)

I'm now experimenting with Pandan Cakes. The first one I did on Wednesday didn't turn out well at all. It didn't rise (so it was kinda flat and rubbery), it looked ugly (ghostbuster green), and it tasted horrible (I think it was because I used the bottled pandan paste instead of going au natural) but my brother ate half of it anyway. Gross. No matter. I will certainly try again.

Next on my baking list - Sticky Date Pudding, Bread Pudding, Cheesecake and some Women's Weekly Simple Slices :o)

There is something about baking that makes me happy. Really happy.

posted by Pocahontas @ 10:52 AM