Abstract Entry

Hi folks... Here is a shot that I created early just to join in an "Abstract" them in Treklens... A floor full of Autumn leaves. Just something to play around

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Here is how I do it...

• Apply Polar Coordinates filter


• Add border


• Resize


• Apply ripple

What do you think? Just something fun to play with! :D Have a wonderful day ahead everyone...

Good bye Necip Perver ...

Hi all, I gather a lot of you know that NecipP is leaving us for a while... (in Treklens) He has been a good teacher to me, he always share his knowledge, his skills with everyone else in Treklens, I always enjoy his photographs. His photographs is not only it is breath taking but very professional too.

With his photos, I can see his passion and his love with the nature photography. I would like to delicate this Photo to him. I know this is not a very good photo... hehehehe, but I try my best. It is a bunch of seagulls fighting over a piece of cookies some kids throw into the lake and the winner just fly away with it, left behind all those that still thinking the cookies is in the water. :PSo... Necip, this is for you, I am trying to improve my skill on capturing flying "object" and hopefully one day I can take one just like you. Thank you for all your advices over the years, wishing you all the best and I will surely keep track on your new site.

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Taken this in Western Springs park with Janice and the kids while we were having an photography outting... It was a fun day, even thought is a bit wet, but kids like it, Janice and I enjoy our little catchup. :D

How about some cookies for Els' birthday?

Cookies time!!!





I have bakes nearly 3 dozen of Choc-chips cookies, thought of Els's (a friend from Treklen) birthday, so I dress up the cookies, first with cyan colours ribbon.. ummm.. what do you think?

OK, how about in pink? I myself is not a pink person, but this pink look quite nice to me, what say you? :P
So pink it is then! :D Ok.. here I go...

Happy birthday Els... Some chocolate cookies for your birthday, I thought about sending them to you, but I am afraid the postie might eat them. :DHi folks, is Els's birthday today, and here I wish her a wonderful day ahead... she has tons of things going on at the moment, so here I also wish her all the best and hope everything go smoothly.

An afternoon tea...

How about coming to join me for an afternoon tea, I took this a while back, wanting to post it then, but I just dont' have the mood and the time to do it that time, so here it is, hope you enjoy your day or afternoon wherever you are.

What we have here is Tripple Choc-chips cookies and Alovela green tea, serve cold... sit around in the kitchen and enjoy.

Blueberries Marble cake

Who can resist a cake like this? Just the name is enough to make some of us mouth watering! Well... me for sure! :D So I decided to baked it, and I'll tell ya, it is soooo delicious! Especially if you have it with a cup of nice coffee. :D

Here is the recipe:

Blueberries Marbled cake

Ingredient:

- 2 eggs

- 125g(4 oz) butter

- 1 1/3 cups(165g or 5 1/2oz) self-raising flour, sifted

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 1/2 cup (125g or 4 oz)caster sugar

- 2 tablespons soft brown sugar (not too pack)Preparing your Blueberries

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 1 1/4 cups (195g or 6 1/2 oz) fresh blueberries, plus extra for decoration

Decoration:

- Icing sugar (to dust)

- Cream- Blueberries

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F. Lightly grease a 20cm (8 inch) round springform tin and line the base and side with baking paper. Place the sugar and 1/2 of the blueberries in a small saucepan. Stir together gently over medium heat for 1-2 mins until the juices begin to run then remove from the head. Stir in the remaining blueberries, and allow the mixture to cool.

Beat the eggs in a small mixing bowl, add the vanilla essence and butter, mix well. Combine the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Make a well int eh centre, using a metal spoon or knife stir in the egg mixture until smooth.

Take out 3/4 cup of the cake mixture and stir into blueberries. Place spoonfuls of both mixtures randomly into the prepared tin. Swirl the mixture with a knift of skewer to produce a marbled effect. Do not overmix as we want to keep the marbled look. Springle the brown sugar over the top. Bake for 45-50mins or until the skewer comes out clean. Stand the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool down for 5 mins before removing the cake from the tin and let completly cool down.

For decoration and serving, you can dust the icing sugar over the cake or with extra berries and cream. Alternative if the blueberries is out of season, you can use Rasberries instead. :D

Chocolate Rainbow Cake

Not long ago is my little boy birthday, normally we would have a little party to go with it, but just before his irthday, he came down with a bad cough and fever, so we give him his usual little party, but instead we have a family "party" with grandmother invited. I suprise him with this cake and he is thrill with it. After all, which little 9 years old boy don't like chocolate and marshmallows?

Ingredients:

(makes one 9" cake)

- 1 1/2 cup (161g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (61g) natural cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 2/3 cups (332g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) safflower or other neutral vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk (I used low fat milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) boiling water



Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degF. Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 3 inches round cake pan. Dust the pan with flour and set aside. (I lined the bottom with baking paper.)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add in sugar and mix at low speed until blended. Add in the oil and mix a few seconds until the dry ingredients are crumbly. (You can also used a spatula to mix in the sugar and oil).

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs until blended. Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract until blended. With mixer at low speed, add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl necessary. (I used a manual whisk to do the mixing. The batter will be very thick at this stage).

Add in the boiling water gradually and mix just until blended and smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. (The mixture will become very thin and watery.) Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 mins until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding. Let cool completely.


To assemble this 20cm rainbow chocolate cake:

- Place pouring cream (I used one tin of Nestle's pouring cream) and 150g dark chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside for 10mins before frosting the cake. (here I used both White chocolate and dark chocolate)

- Slice two large bananas, lengthwise into halves. Squeeze some lemon juice over. (according to the cookbook, but I used Peach slice from the can and without lemon juice instead)

- Slice chocolate cake into 2 layers. Spread one layer with the white chocolate frosting, arrange the sliced bananas (cut side down) on the cake layer to form 2 concentric rings. Cut the bananas as necessary in order to form the two rings.

- Spread the other cake layer with white chocolate frosting, flip over and layer it over the banana (peach)slices.

- Coat the top and sides of the cake surface with the dark chocolate frosting (here I only apply very thin layer). Decorate with colourful cereals or chocolate/lollies and marshmallows as desired.

**Recipe adapted from The Cake Book, by Tish Boyle**

Well... this is all of it, it sound like a lot of work, but it wasn't... it is pretty easy to make, and so delicious... :D Because I didn't apply too much of the dark and white chocolate layer, so it wasn't sickening sweet, but of cos if you like to have thick chocolate, then you can apply a thicker layer then what I did here.

My Seafood Chowder

You know what's good to cook during winter night for dinner? A bowl of Seafood Chowder, one of our favorite dish, I know a lot of my friends take a look at the ingredients they just shake their head and said, wow.. that's too much to do and prepare, but honestly, not really. Especially the end result is going to be so yummmmm. so here it go,

Ingredients:

- 4 oz Crab meat, cooked

- 8 oz Snapper Fillets

- 8 oz Tiger Prawns

- 7 oz Scallops, chopped

- 7 oz Mussels

- 1 medium Onion, minced

- 2 stalks of Celery, chopped

- 1 Tbsp Butter- 1 1/2 tsp Thyme

- 1 big Potatoes, peeled, cooked and diced

- 1 1/4 tsp Celery Salt

- 2 cups double Cream

- 1 1/4 cups Milk

- 1 tsp Salt

- 1/2 tsp Pepper

- Paprika and Parsley

Precook:

- Potatoes and dice

- Mussels

Preparation:

Sauté onion in the butter until transparent. Add the thyme and celery salt, then remove from heat. In another saucepan, pour the double cream over the snapper fillets. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes or till the fish flakes easily. Remove the snapper, then break into small pieces and remove any bones. Add the onion mixture and the scallops to the snapper poaching liquid. Bring to barely a boil, then simmer for about 1 minute or till the scallops are opaque. Now add the snapper, crab meat, mussels, prawns, potatoes and milk. Heat through, but do not allow to boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chowder in large soup bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with paprika and a small sprig of parsley in the centre. Serve seafood chowder immediately with your favourite soup crackers or bread. Enjoy!

p.s: I find that you can used whatever seafood you like, not necessary to follow the recipe, anything will do. :D As what I have done here too...

Mixed Berry Muffins

I really like to try new muffins every now and then, especially when different fruits is in season. Well.. even if its not, what I have here is mixed berry muffins, mixed berry from frozen section of the supermarket. :D









Ingredient:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups fresh berries (such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries or sliced strawberries, or a combination, as berries is not in season at the moment, I am using frozen pack)



Preparation:


- Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 400°F.

- Lightly butter twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups or place paper muffin cups in the muffin tin.

- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine and make a well in the centre.

- In another medium bowl, whisk the milk, oil and eggs.

- Mix well and pour into the well.

- Stir just until blended.

- Fold in the berries.

- Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about three-fourths full.

- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.

- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

- Remove the muffins and serve warm or cool on a wire rack.



(Recipe by Gingerbear)30 min, 10 min prep, SERVES 12

ROCKY ROAD

Now tell me anyone who don't like chocolate or marshmallows.. anyone? :D I am sure there is someone out there don't like it, but when you have a little child at home, this is something you do every now and then. :D Try to use good quality chocolate since you are making it yourself.

Ingredient:

- 190g packet marshmallows

- 60g of toasted nuts, any nuts to your liking

- 400g dark chocolate buttons (melt)Alternative, you can also put in raisen or dry fruit in it.Preparation

- Set up a square or round cake's tin with nonstick baking paper, put marshmallows and toasted nuts in a bowl.

- Melt chocolate with a heatproof bowl in microwave for 1-2 minutes, make sure you take it out and stir until it completely melted, then stir until smooth. leave it on the side to cool down.

- Pour cooled melted chocolate in the bowl over marshmallow mixture and stir to coat bits with chocolate, then pour the whole thing into the cake tin.

- Leave to set for 2 hours or if you want it fast, you can always leave it in the freezer for 10-15mins. When it is hardeen, take it out, cut it to pieces (however you like it) you can either serve it right there and then or you can store in an airtight container in a cool place, I store mine in the fridge.

My little boy really like it, I have fun making it, cos after all that, we have chocolate everywhere... lol.. I mean on my kitchen bench, and all my fingers is coated with chocolate, messy stuff! but the fun is yet to come, my boy just take the whole spoon and start licking it like an ice-cream...lol, as for me... yummmy fingers! :P

Orange Choc-chip muffins

One of my husband favorite, Orange Choc-chip... well, he like Orange and chocolate, but I turn them into muffins! :D It taste yummy too!

Ingredients:

- 2 egg

- 4 tbsp. salad oil

- 1/2 cup orange juice (preferable freshly squeezed)

- 1 tbsp of orange rind

- 1 1/2 cup self raising flour

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 tsp. salt

- 75g chocolate chips

Preparation:

Add oil and orange juice and rind one at a time with eggs, mixed them well. In separate bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and salt, drill a well, add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown at 400 degrees.

Happy Birthday Hans! :)

Is Hans' birthday, me and my family like to wish him best wishes and happy birthday, may you have many more happy days to come. :D I know there is only four Ferrero chocolates here, but if you are nice, Hans might share it with you. :D

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Background is white paper towels, using lights coming in from outside the windows.- Adjust brightness and contrast- Adjust level of curve- Adjust gamma- Increase saturation (a bit)- Apply USM- Add border and resizeso Hans... if you dont' have enough of the chocolate, I will get more for you when you arrive end of this year. :DHave a wonderful day my dear... hugs from NZ.

Banana Choc-chip Muffins

This batch I have prepare it for my son's class friends... they have this share lunch thing at school, so I have to make something yummy for the kids. :D

Party size (made 24 medium size and 24 mini size of muffins)

Ingredients:

- 490 grams

- All purpose flour

- 200 grams granulated white sugar

- 100 grams light brown sugar

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 130 grams white chocolate, cut into small pieces

- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten

- 16 tablespoons (226 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

- 6 very ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 908 grams), mashed well

- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation and baking:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Butter or spray a 12 - 1/2 cup muffin pan and small cupcake muffins tin (you will have to do this 2 rounds unless you have more then one muffin's tin)

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and white chocolate. Set aside.

In a another bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery muffins.) Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins and place a slice of banana on top of each muffin for garnish. Bake about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool for five minutes and then remove muffins from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature and you can always serve it with ice-cream.

Note: To mash bananas I have found the easiest way is to just use my fingers, a fork or a potato masher.

Leaving the nest

A bit slacking at the moment due to kid's school holiday... anyway.. No.. no food today, :P after all, we need to just make sure after all those food, we head up for a good walk! Here is what I see when we go for a walk...

I was fortunate that the wind wasn't too strong "just yet" as you can see, I still wasn't fast enough to "frozen" the action. :P I still like it, it seem to me that the little one wanting to leave the nest and the mother plant is trying to either to hold it back or just to say "good bye and take care"

From this shot, it remind me of how I left home for the first time long ago... my mother do the same to me, my dad wasn't that keen to let me go so far away for study, but my mum was the one who said "Go, when opertunity arrise, don't miss it!" so... here I am after university, meet the man of my life, marry and settle down... :D a bit of story about me. :D


When I was taken this shot, I was waiting patiencely as the wind keep blowing, the more it blow, the more the seeds were flying away, I was saying, please please... leave some for me... hahaha.. and yes, I think they heard me... leave me a bit to take the shot...:P

Come and have some snack!

Hi Folks, school holiday begin last week, I am so busy running around after the kids, bringing my boy and his little friends outting with Janice going to parks and playground etc... Our house is just so busy full of kids and noise! so far so good... all the kids are so well behave! :D

Is fun to spend time with them. I bought this snack bread from Asian bakery shop, they look so delicious and so photogenic, hehehe, well... at least that's what I think at that time, so when I got them home, no one can touch it till I took all the shot of it, I still can remember how my boy was watching me and asked me to hurry up! lol. When I finally finished the shots... both of us can't wait to taste it. Truely it just taste like bread, but a bit sweet, inside a very thin layer of "chocolate" taste of bread... not full chocolate, but it taste really nice.

I did asked the counter lady if she can share the recipe with me, she look at me like thought I am nutcase.. of cos not, but she just told me that she know nothing, is their pastry chief that will hold all that and he never review it to outsider. Oh well.. lol.. at least I try! So, sorry folks, no recipe this time. :P