Damn stupid words

by jon laa on April 15th, 2010

I thought the recipe for a macaroon looks really easy. It turned out that a macaroon is no a macaron, so I’m kinda disappointed. Don’t think macaroons are at all cool compared to macaron even though I haven’t tried one before - I’ll get to it.

And so it’s a lot of research/reading on different recipes/approaches of making a damn macaron. I am determined to get it right before the guys return from their overseas trip. Damn it, so impossible. But I am going to try anyways ya?

The macaroons, whether you like them or not, were a total success. Unfortunately, I don’t fancy them.

Gonna start to attempt a rustic italian bread tomorrow. The choice of bread being solely on that it doesn’t require a bread pan, which is a great deal to me for now.

:)

Gonna head off to kitchen once works end tomorrow. Better start packing!

:)

by jon laa on April 15th, 2010

I can’t wait to go for fha. I wonder if it comes with lots of free samples and cheap food. Either way, there should be a lot of cool stuff to see.

Damn tired these days, I don’t know why.

Did some running yesterday, 2.4k and it wasn’t too bad. Managed to finish in 11:50 sharp, 10 seconds ahead of my targeted timing. I can’t wait to continue training and see if I get far enough for my marathon.

I’m going to bed.

Planning dinner?

by jon laa on April 13th, 2010

I realised it make so much more9 sense to blog only when my keyboard is working fine. And perh9aps I shall not attempt to correct the er9rors you see now.

:)

I found the first choir concer9t I ever attended! It’s found here. To be honest, I knew nothing about concer9ts then and I was sure 9I remembered nothing from it besides how awesome everybody sounded. It was the beginning, I suppose. The concer9t was syc lite: nona sensilia held at univer9sity cultural centre on 2 march 2001 at 8pm. Er9, I think it started later due to wet weather.

And I didn’t know my first concert was so amazing. In ter9ms of exposure to a pretty wide9 range of composers, works.

Back to what I wanted to say. The bimbo asked me to cook dinner9 for her9, and probably also sn and miao. I think it’s an awesome idea, like to meet thre9e people in a single setting. Probably can bitch a lot too! Then I was contemplating a four-course dinner9 but I re9alised it doesn’t work that way - I’ll cook however9 much I want to.

And so on the list we have,

1) crab cakes with mango sambal and turkey with chickpea patties
2) spinach and cheese souffle
3) strawber9ry and passion fruit pavlova and mango sobert

I know I want a pasta and a soup too. Maybe some quality meat.

Banging, crashing

by jon laa on April 13th, 2010

Feels like I’ve hit the wall, really. I don’t see any way out of this, but I don’t really want get out per se. I’d just like to move forward instead. I’m sure they’re tired of me some way or another, the same way I’m tired of them.

Differences.

There’s so little certainty these days, so little commitment. I realised everybody takes flight at the mention of commitment. They put things in a very positive light, “we can talk about it over dinner.”

The truth is they’d rather just talk about it than to get anything done. It’s not that they can’t but they don’t want to - they don’t want to give more than what they have in extreme abundance to help you/me.

In that sense, I’m nobody placed outside of his defined boundary.

But we all know this is life.

Then why do I care? I don’t know.

Unanswered questions pisses me off. I don’t really see a point in asking anymore since nobody care enough to answer? It’s somewhat disrespect or whatever you’d call it. I’m tired, really. Don’t expect me to ask twice.

Don’t assume I would.

Look, there’s more to life than you and what you’ve to offer me. I don’t need you or what you can bring to tread through life. I was and am an individualist. I may desire your company, but I don’t need it.

This is when I know I’d drop what I’ve been carrying for so long. There’s nothing to hold on to anymore. I am detaching myself and move on without any of you.

:)

Garmin, I’m coming!

Oh dear me

by jon laa on April 12th, 2010

I think I’m highly critical. But I don’t think I do it at the expense of those I call friends. I think I tend to be critical of those I don’t know. I think, I’m not sure.

It sucks when people come to you and say to your face they can do better. It’s really difficult to understand the context of it since I’ve never seen the “better” in reality.

Besides, he doesn’t use a kitchenaid!

The ego is somewhat full-blown, on my side. And I don’t think I can deflate it for some one who doesn’t seem at all superior to me. These people also seem to be somewhat delusional, especially by telling people how busy they are when they are caught asking others out for a date in their boredom/loneliness - “I don’t mind watching any movie, I just want to get out.”

It’s not like he’s academically, financially or physically better than me. I don’t know what he’s good for, really.

Baking croissants

by jon laa on April 11th, 2010

The first attempt was completely hopeless. I threw the entire dough away. There was way too much sugar, too little butter. The scale died on me while I was measuring the sugar, which left me with no choice but to liberally, in my ignorance, estimate. Obviously feeling grumpy by how the dough turned out to be crappy (because hand mixers are a terror for dough-making) and by the unpredictable scale, I dropped what I thought was two tablespoons of butter - it was pretty much only one, I think.

But the second attempt worked, with a kitchenaid (yes, I bought it already!). There were issues with sizes of each croissant since I couldn’t quite get the dough to be spread out to the same size. It makes more sense to spread the entire lump of dough out then cut it evenly then cut it to the desired shape but it was way too much for me - I couldn’t handle such a huge dough, neither can my narrow table top. Either way, every croissant ended up in different sizes and shapes but still edible.

The butter square was not hard enough and it started oozing out of the torn dough, which was really dumb. But I continue folding everything up before lumping it into the fridge again. It did work. But it wasn’t flaky at all lah! It’s impossible to get distinctive layers since it broke right at the beginning and everything started to fuse together.

It didn’t help there were a few croissants that were hopeless which drove me to re-knead them. I refused to bake croissants that don’t look like one.

:)

Okay la, good experience.

The chocolate cookies turned out to be awesome. I took cliff’s comment of having nothing to look forward to because there wasn’t any chocolate chip (or other extra fillings). I poured the remaining chips in when I was left with the last few batches. It ended up an overkill because the ratio of chocolate chips to cookie mixture was one to one. Er, that means the chocolate chips melted once I scoped them onto the baking tray - yes, I reused them.

Ended up getting wet and fudge-filled chocolate cookies that slightly burnt on some ends.

Pfft.

The empire red kitchenaid is love! Now I need to figure if I can get a matching blender - hur hur!

Fan girl’s scream!

by jon laa on April 9th, 2010

Omggg! I saw an advertisement for sale of kitchenaid at $699! Now, how do I resist?!

Omg! Empire red please make yourself available okay? I’m coming for you in three hours.

Now all I need is a good food processor, really. That can wait till siahuat’s sale, yums yums.

:) I’m contented for now, unless empire red decides to be sold out. Pfffft!

Little cute boys

by jon laa on April 8th, 2010

There’s something very attractive about the two book lying beside me on my bed. I marked out a few pages which I kinda plan to try on, I can’t wait. And there are people whom I ought to do baking something for because they are nice, especially nice given I haven’t been going for work.

:)

But I am starting to wonder how long more will it be before it loses its charm. It’s ultimately a distraction.

Pork belly confit, blow-torched lamb, yada yada.

Mustafa I shall head to tomorrow. Baking tins and a digital scale for the least.

:)

More impulsive buys

by jon laa on April 8th, 2010

I am contemplating if I should get Grand Livre De Cuisine: Alain Ducasse’s Culinary Encyclopedia because it seems to be an awfully good read. I think those two cookbooks got me addicted to those glossy images and whatever not.

Pfft.

Plus, alex is coming back so I could get it off amazon and get him to bring it back for me. It’s like, um, $70? It’s dirt cheap for a 1000-page book that’s all glossy and whatever, don’t you think?

And of course the next thing I’d get is a kitchen aid.

And uh, food processor.

And uh, I think I should stop being spoilt.

There are reasons why God made us with hands and I don’t mind a bigger right arm.

Bed ridden

by jon laa on April 8th, 2010

Been stuck on my bed since forever. No idea what went wrong but I can’t stop the diarrhea.

Getting up now cos life goes on.