Do you know what date it was yesterday? It was the 31st of July. And that means….

31% off in Baskin Robbins for a pint, quart or half gallon. Yay!

I texted G because she was going to pick my youngest sister from school and asked her to stop by Baskin Robbins to grab a pint of icecream. Apparently she was already at Centerpoint Dsara. We decided to take 2 flavours : Jamoca Almond Fudge - ‘Java and mocha ice cream with a chocolate fudge ribbon and roasted almonds‘ and my favourite - Strawberry Cheesecake - ‘Cheesecake ice cream with cheesecake cubes and a strawberry ribbon’.

 Lousy pic coz we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it

Only RM 17 after discount. Best eaten when PMS-ing. Hehehe!

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Well I had a class yesterday morning at 11.00 - 12.30am. Its Software Project Management. I think its going to be very boring theoretical with boring a lot of report writing. At least we start tutorial next week so Im free on Thursday.

Today Im having Ethics and Professional Conduct (sounds boring also), Major Project (a bit worried about this) and Concept of Modelling (sounds like fun).  Sadly, that also means 9am to 6pm class including 1.5 hr lunch break. *sigh*

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Im also in the midst of a setting up something. We’ll see how it goes…

As i said in my previous post, my sister and i decided to make dinner for Father’s Day instead of the usual eating out in overly priced restaurants with their “Father’s Day promos” to entice you into spending more.

Anyway this is what we finally did

• Creamy Potato Gratin
• Garden Salad
• Buns
• Canned soup (Campbell’s of course)
• Rosemary Lamb Chops In the end we just had pre-marinated sirloin steaks from Tesco
• Sparkling Juice Coke
• Ice cream for dessert We were too full so didnt have dessert

So here’s the recipe for the yummy Creamy Potato Gratin which i adapted from Yahoo! Food.

1 large garlic clove, halved
1 kg potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 cup grated Chedder, set aside 1/4 cup.
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
Butter, for casserole dish

1. Heat the oven to 160 degrees celcius and line a baking sheet with foil. Rub the inside of a casserole dish with the garlic, pressing hard so it releases its juices. When the garlic juice dries, generously butter the casserole dish.
2. Layer the potatoes in the dish, seasoning them with salt and white pepper as you go. Be generous with the salt and pepper. Add a light sprinkling of cheese.
3. Combine the cream and milk in a large measuring cup or a bowl. Pour the cream and milk over the potatoes. Put the dish in the oven on top of the baking pan you covered in foil (to catch any spills) and leave to bake for about 45 - 60 minutes. Poke a knife through to test if the potatoes are soft.



4. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake for about 10 minutes till the cheese is melted and browned. Leave to sit for 10 mins and serve.

This is a very simple and plain recipe but tastes nice. Usually I make mashed potatoes but this is a much easier option. Enjoy

I’ve been wanting to try out the chocolate chip recipe from this website Choc Chip Perfection and finally got round to doing it the other day.

Wendy Gaynor’s ‘Perfect’ Chocolate Chunk Cookies
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chunks (preferably imported). {I used chocolate chips - but only 2 cups coz I forgot to buy more}

1. Place the butter in a large bowl and cream at high speed until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until completely mixed. (pic 2 & 3)

2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add to the butter mixture at low speed until just combined and add vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl down, until blended. Do not overmix.

3. Add chocolate chunks and mix till thoroughly combined. Refrigerate batter until cold, preferably overnight. {I only left it for like 10 minutes coz I was rushing for time}(pic 4)

4. Preheat a conventional oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit or a convection oven to 300 degrees {I put 170 degrees celcius in my microwave with the BAKE function}, and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheets and bake, turning tray once, until golden brown around edges and soft (but not bubbly), about 9 minutes in a convection oven or 12 in a conventional one. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 36 to 72 cookies, depending on size.{I forgot to count how many pieces I made and forgot to take a pic of the finished cookies}

How did i find it? Well the cookies were kinda flat and had a bit too much salt and sugar. The 2 cups of chocolate chips were not enough. Besides that, the cookie is delicious. Its not the hard type of cookie like famous amos or the huge soft one like Bakin’ Boys or Mrs Fields, but something in between, crunchy but a lil soft in the middle and when you bite into the cookie, the chocolate chips are melted…ahhh

I probably would try this recipe again but make these modifications to the ingredients.

1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chunks (preferably imported)

**Refridgerate the dough!!**

Happy baking~

Last sunday was Mother’s Day so my dad brought all of us to go makan seafood at Kuala Selangor. It was a 2 hour ride (including stops at a petrol station and at the side of the road when the rain became too heavy). There are 2 different shops at the end of the road where we went, we usually go to the one on the left hand side (I forgot the name), but decided to try the right-hand side one - River View Seafood Restaurant (it has a big crab in front of the shop)

From left : (first row) Trees and more trees, Sleeping beauties, distracting the driver (2nd row) the big crab, boat passing by, looking at the horizon (3rd row) panorama scene

Waited quite a bit for the food to come. We ordered a few different dishes (sorry most of them look like half finished coz we attacked the food the moment it arrived :

A loaf slice of Fried mantau, nice to dip in sauces

Crabs fried with salted eggs. We only ordered a small dish of this, only two small crabs. Very nice, its the wet type but not enough sauce. My younger sis (the picky one who doesnt really like crabs) gave this a thumbs up.

My favourite butter prawns - this is the wet version. Lots of sauce (to dip the mantau in) but a bit too salty and too sweet.

Vege..well, normal lah

Another butter prawn dish, but this is the dried version. I didnt really like how they did it here tho, because it was too oily, as if they just scoop up the deep fried batter from the bottom of the pot of oil.

Our favourite dish was a steamed fish. Looks very simple but has a sourish, slightly spicy sauce and it penetrated the flesh. Yummy. Unfortunatly i forgot to take a picture of it before it finished

And that was our seafood dinner at Kuala Selangor. Next time, we’ll stick to the other restaurant which we always go.

Pam just got back from seeing her Dad & sis who were in town for a few days and got a box of the hugest prawns I have seen in a while. So we decided to have a small gettogether with 6 of us girls and have “steamboat”. Picked Cass up from her place and went shopping. Bought lots of fish balls, quails eggs (Cass’s req), Taufu, baby corn, fish cakes and noodles and japanese mushrooms (or whatever u call em) and chicken stock flavoring (in cubes) - which we had to go and buy again coz we couldnt seem to find it anywhere.

Its quite easy actually, just prepare a pot of water + crushed garlic + ikan bilis + chicken stock (better if u actually got chicken bones or carcasses) and boil it. Then chuck in all your fish balls and what not into it, wait a few minutes and eat. We decided to just steam the prawns plain and eat it later with lemos & thousand island sauce.

The meal was fantastic, tho unfortunatly 3 people didnt turn up so we had tons of left overs. Had a good time talking, gossiping and laughing - esp about secondary school days back in KK. Those were the days.

Here’s to more good food and great company next week bbq plak k girls?

The Raw ingredients - huge prawns on the upper right
From right: fish cake, fish balls, jagung & mushrooms, taufu & more varieties of fish cake and fish balls
The fresh prawns waiting to be steamed

Our dining table at the porch

Prawns, steamed to perfection

Taking a quick picture before we wallop all the food

Wakame jejaka yg digilai ramai kat tag Joe telah membuat kelas membuat sushi kat umah Arc & Budak. Supposed to start at 3pm but Wak sendiri dtg at 4.30 and I came around 5pm coz i had to send and pick my sister. And when i was on the way i had to pusing balik coz I carelessly left my wallet at home.

There wasnt much food (or mayb dah byk habis) - got roti jala and curry, kuih bahulu, cempedak goreng (which i ate alot coz its my fave), pudding, karipap, keropok & of course ingredients for sushi. Was quite interesting learning all the different names (which i didnt jot down) and the ways to make yummy sushi

Photos :
My Camera
Zure’s Camera
Alangz Camera

Read more reviews from : Nini