Homemade chocolate cheesecake

Been ranting about being broke and waiting for payday to come... but yesterday, when it was payday, couldn't make it to the bank to withdraw money as it was raining and the jam was awful. So... no choice, went home and rummaged through the fridge to see what's left in there. Decided to make things simple and cooked fried riced with all the leftovers in the fridge. Then I spotted the cream cheese that I bought (extras you see.. just in case I failed the first round) to make the non-bake cheesecake to JW's gathering. That was all I had...no canned peaches left, no oreos left (I ate the entire tube 2 days back)...so, cannot make the non-baked cheesecake again. Looking through the old cookbooks I have at home and came up with this recipe which was simple and easy peasy. Quickly swallowed down the fried rice and started with the task at hand... my very first chocolate cheese cake :)

Got it done relatively quickly but the baking took a good 50mins. Whilst it was baking, I went to clean up and took a shower. When I came out...tada... it was all done. Took it out of the over, took a picture of it, stored it in a cool place and went to sleep.

When I took it out of the oven... the cake looked slightly lopsided hor?

This morning, when I went to check on it, it didn't look as fat and round as it did last nite. All the hot air has left the cake I reckon. Sliced it up.. pop in a big slice to fill my tummy and wrap up some for my test bunnies in the office.

But somehow.. it righted itself in the morning.... mmm...some little bakers' elfs came and corrected it overnight?? thank you wor :)

See... flat top wor

This was the piece that I kept safely...... inside my tummy haha

These are all wrapped up to be delivered to the test bunnies

Distributed most of it and now I have 2 pieces left....so..who else would like to be a test bunny?

PS..dcyk was one of the test bunnies and he said that if he does not make it after eating a piece, he is going to will his handphone to me..... so, what have I got to loose wor...hey..if the 1st piece didn't get you dcyk, I've still got 2 more pieces on my table (*evil laughter*)

PSS..I'll try to post the recipe soon as I didn't bring it today.

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No politics please but I want this lah!

Remember what I said.... this being a "politics free blog" heehee..but at Kenny Sia's blog... I saw these cute little "things" or could they be objects for pleasure (Kenny said one ah.. not me)... but whatever lah.. don't you think they are so cute??? I want lah...but after checking the website of the "Rocket People", there was not mention of whether they are sold or distributed freely or what. Do I have to ssssshhhh break in their office and "borrow" them.

Cute or not??

Anyone with more information on this, do let me know yeah?

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Terrific Tuesday ... after a Marvelous Monday

A rather heavy title but don't know what title to put leh.... especially after checking A Tale of Two Superheroes' blog last evening before I checked out from the Internet. Wah... they were so sweet as to dedicate and present their 4 awards to mua... and they called me their hengtai chimui ...(brother sister)...so touched leh.... and muchos gracias..xie xie..thank you...terima kasih.

These are their awards.....

The first one is their Award for Excellence. That is without a doubt... their's is an excellent blog. Following closely was their second award, the 5 star blog award. I would think that it was an award totally and fully deserved wor... see..if it was not such a blog.. how to get 10,000 hits in 4 months leh? Me.. I am still a struggling blogger.. no doubt also hit 10,000 but took a much longer time. Will work harder now to hit 20,000 since my hengtai chimui has given me their vote of confidence :)





Their 3rd award was the Peace Award. I only "met" them late last year and I have not read a single "politically" inclined posts...running back to when they first started, I read their Here We Come to Save the Day! post....and there you have it....they are truly the peace keepers of today...Yikes... now that they have shared this award with me... what do I do with my Move Over Samy...for Allan and Indi...post ?? Phew... luckily I had this disclaimer post...No Politics Here Please !



The Superheroes last and final award was Blog With A Purpose. It does not take an Einstein to figure out what the Superheroes purpose is..... and that is to free us from the mundane and boring food that we are normally used to. Just have a look at their

The Two Superheroes" Travel Adventure Series

That alone gave us so much insight to what's great and yummy to eat in Kuching. Now...Kuching will never ever be the same for me. I've been there a few times in the past (on work assignments) but it has always been the boring riverside food...day and nite..now I see Kuching through the Superheroes' eyes....yaa ba daa ba doooo...quick quick.. assign me to Kuching again...

Now...lemme see... now that I have been given the "super" ability to choose from my list of blogger friends to dedicate this award to....I would like to choose the following....

Babe of Babe in the City for the wonderful recipes and the great eating places in and around Kuala Lumpur.

Raising Mercury of NegativeNegativePositive for sharing the great things in life with me.... make me want to be 18 again..heehee

Gargies of Joy of a Homemaker for sharing her adventures as a loving wife and the wonderful mother to her children

River of Karma of Spiritual Driftings for his thoughts and views on the spiritual path and the unorthodox unconventional stuff that I crave

Kenny of Codename : Dreams for all his lovely anime, wallpapers... when I grow up.. I want to look like Saya

Fishman of Fishdiary Resurrection for his rantings, funny views on life and his precious little Axel

Joyce of My Random Thoughts for her real life episodes, her sister, her many god daughters and one god son and the King of her heart and her house..JAKE (long live the king)

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Taking the Easy Way...

There is always the long way and there is the short cut... there is the more complex way and there is the simple way.

I was actually looking at recipes on Fatt Koh (Huat Kueh) last week and I found a fair number of good ones. Wanted to make some to be placed next to the ancestors' tablet....coz my late dad loves fatt koh. The ones that impressed me the most came from Cooking Momster's blog, Lily's blog and Florence's blog. They have fantastic looking Fatt Kos ... lookie at the photos which I "flicked" from their blogs....

Cooking Momster's Fatt Kohs

Lily's Fatt Kohs

Florence's Fatt Kohs

When it came to making it on Saturday, I found out that I am always short of one or two of the ingredients... sigh.. or I didn't have enough "lead" time to make it... heehee.. one of the recipes required me to "mature" the mixture over night. After rummaging through the kitchen cabinet, found this bag of pre-mix which I bought before chinese new year. Took it out and read the instructions... yippee... simple and easy peasy.. coz all it wanted was eggs and milk (no milk, water also can). So, I chose the fast and simple way...and hopefully the fatt kohs turn out (fingers crossed coz I confidently told mum not to buy fatt koh from the market today as I was going to make them).

The premix. I think this only cost RM4.50

The first batch, I made pink coz my little niece loves all things pink

The rest were experiments with colors :)

Well, they didn't look as great as those real mcCoys by the 3 food bloggers but when you want simple and quick... this is what you can do... get the premix (I've got mine from Bake with Yen but I think you might be able to find it at the supermarkets too).

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Sigh... Monday again....

Every morning before I start work, I would have a look at the newspaper, but more importantly, I will browse through my friends' blogs and also my favorite bloggers' post.

This morning, I had a good laugh when I was reading my friend's fishdiary resurrection's blog. He has included this Putty Face Applications and he really looks like an idiot.. opps.. sorry ... but so did I went I played around with it.

Wanted to create a fatty me with sleepy eyes. This was as close as I got... I know.. I know..I look worse than an idiot.. but good for a laugh to kickstart my slow and long Monday.. first day of the work week....sigh.....

The Season of Eating has Ended!

I just realized that yesterday did not only officially mark the 15th day of Chinese New Year and the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, but more importantly, the end of the season of feasting and fattening. The ball started rolling when Hari Raya was celebrated in October of last year, all the lovely cookies and rendangs..... and that continued on to Deepavali, the yummy cookies, murukus and oooo..curries. Then we had Christmas... more cookies, the turkey, puddings....(*snap*...that's the zip on my pants giving way)....and without skipping a beat, Chinese New Year.....lagi more cookies, yue sang...(*ping*....ouch.. was hit in the eye with a flying button from this girl sitting opposite me at one of my low sang dinners....*smirk*..glad it wasn't me).

Today, as I was sitting down for breakfast at my desk, I looked at what's laid in front of me. A banana cupcake (made a batch last night as the bananas sitting on top of the fridge were nice and ripe) and a cuppa milo. Is this really the start of the "dry season" already??

So pathetic of a breakfast

Nah.. shoved that cupcake back in the box. Will bring this up for babe and some of the colleagues later for their tea break.



Me......buahaha.. I am going to go back to my morning ritual.. season or no season.......


ta da... this is what a real breakfast should look like.......

Bon Appetite!!

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Move Over Samy...for Allan and Indi...

I simply love these 2 Indian fellas ...Allan and Indi of Comedy Court. I was surfing around YouTube and chanced upon some of their latest uploads. Quite humorous and really, if these 2 fella were running for the elections this round, they will surely get my vote... I'd be laughing all the way to the polling station and back.

Check Three Times


Rough Little Indian Boys

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Crystals' been helping me zzzzzz

Since the beginning of this year, or was it end of last year, my dear friend Tobiyama has been very interested in Crystals and the healing powers that they were purported to have. He has been going to this place called Lightworks and has invested in a fair bit of these crystals. He gave some to me in a bag and I have been carrying them in my handbag since then. Shhhh.. don't tell him but at first when he gave it to me, I was not really thinking too much about the healing potentials of them.. rather, I look at them as weapons... they were sure prettier to put in my handbag than bricks :), in case I need to wallop a thief or two should they stop me for my handbag.



I have been feeling tired and sleepy in the mornings for the longest time and I have put this down to having rather restless nights, with dreams of which some I can remember, some which I cannot recall at all when I wake up. So, I decided.... nothing to loose but try to see if the crystals can help. So, what I was told to do was first, to reiki these crystals first and then place them under my pillow. Surprisingly, I didn't feel them when I slept on the pillow. Maybe it is because I am using this wonderful "therapy" pillow which is contoured to take the shape of your neck and head. Wonderful pillow...only RM15 plus pillowcase. Got it at IKEA.


Wow... every night since then, sleep has been wonderful. I just "switch off like a light" and when morning came, I would wake up fresh. No dreams or no recollection at all of any dreams (if I had any at all) and the body felt totally rested. There are plenty of websites on Crystal Healing but I found this page rather interesting.

These days, for me its "Have crystals will travel". Wherever I go, my bag of crystals goes with me. HeeHee..after food....sleep is the most important thing to me...(oink oink..grunt, grunt).

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A Lovely Meal at Restaurant King Crab

Following from the previous post, I just have to share with you the great food we had at Restaurant King Crab. JW order some simple dishes but they were so yummy that we did what was called the "mei yan chiu kean" (pretty lady viewing herself in a mirror - heehee literally translated from cantonese). It means that the dishes were so cleaned and polished that it can be used as a mirror :).

Egg Foo Yong

Deep fried shelled prawns

Stir fried vegetables (JW, was this Hong Kong Kai Lan?)

Calamari (deep fried sotong )

Stew pork with mui choy (preserved mustard greens)

This is their address (too lazy to type it out)...

For their official website, click here.

And if you want to more reviews on this Restaurant , go to either Lots of Cravings' blog or Precious Pea's. Great pictures of the crab and prawn dishes there.

There were 5 of us and we really did a great job polishing off all the food under 15 minutes. But we were there much longer as it was great to catch up but more than that... we truly enjoy being in each other's company and bitching about everything under the sun. It is good sometimes to do that.. release stress....Looking forward to doing the same again...soon.

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What the CRAB!!! They are huge!

Before JW left for Greener Pastures Sdn Bhd, she promised us that she will buy us a good meal at Restaurant King Crab after her 1st paycheck ... to replace the bottle of Champagne that she was supposed to open (heehee.. this was definitely a much better deal for us) and she came true to her promise.


Last nite, the few of us, including Babe were invited over at 7pm. I really felt like Ah Lian or some country bumpkin Ah Fa who has never ever seen such species of crustaceans ever before in her entire life. I was virtually gaping with mouth open looking at them and they were probably looking back and say "who's that idiot with a black hole for a mouth out there watching us??" They were just huge.

Whilst waiting for JW, I took the opportunity to snap some pics of these beauties. I was rather glad we didn't order any of them to be place on our table. They were just too beautiful to be eaten.

This shop must have taken at least 2 to 3 shop lot space. There are tanks lined up on either side of one of the entrances

This is the very impressive lot of crusties .... beats any of the public aquarium places I've been :)

I think these were called Snow Crabs

Lobsters

Chinese words... how is a "banana" expected to read this sign??

Isn't this a beauty?

This is the partner to the one above...they are both from Tasmania...Australia

Apart from the shark (for it's fin) most China-men and women are very well acquainted with these yum-yums

More friends from Australia

After the crabs and prawns, these poor fishies came up poor seconds, like the supporting casts in a great movie.

I'll put up our dinner dishes in the next post as this post must be dedicated to these creatures of beauty. It was a great meal with good company and I hope to do that more often but maybe going "dutch" the next time. Thanks JW.... it was simply a great first time for me at this restaurant.

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Thanks Lily for a great recipe...

I was wanting to make a Yam Cake (Woo Tau Koh) for the longest time and most of the recipe books that I owned had recipes which uses alkali water. What the heck is that ... especially to a non-cook like myself. I am not sure whether I could find it in any supermarkets.. I tried at Jusco and Giant..but I could not find it. My mom said that I can get it at the chinese sundry shops.

No need for that now coz I was so lucky to have stumbled upon Lily's Wai Sek Hong of Hearth and Home's blog. Wow.. she has great recipes there and I actually found her Taro Cake - Woo Tau Koh recipe just to my liking.

Got all my ingredients and followed her recipe to a letter. And this is what I got....

I ate mine with a little bit of the Kampong Koh Chillie Sauce at the background

Ate some, and gave some to my friends.. including JW and Babe. I hope they liked it.

Once again Lily...thank you for your wonderful recipe...hugz!!

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Chinese Lion Dance at MidValley

I was chatting with my friend MH and he told me that it was so festive at one of the hotels he was working in as there was a big troupe of lion dancers who were performing for the hotel guests. And it was already the 8th day of the Chinese New Year and I have not seen even one performance... those on TV is not counted.... lion dances have to watched live to enjoy the full festive spirit of the dance. Grunt grunt...complain complain.

On Saturday my usual day of rushing around doing my weekend grocery shopping at Mid Valley, the minute I walked in, I heard the familiar sounds of thumpings and clashings of the lion dance troupe's drums and cymbals. I quickly rushed up to the Centre Court and there they were. The troupe with 2 lions.

I simply love the lions. They are so majestic yet so graceful. This is due to the martial art skills of the people holding up the lions. I have loved them from young and I am always awed at the agility of the performers. My heart would beat in unison with every beat of the drums and cymbals that accompanied the lions.

The crowd was rather thick at Mid Valley's Centre Court. Took a few shots with my camera phone and then went upstairs to take another few shots.





Now I am happy... at least I caught 1 dance before the end of this Chinese New Year celebration.

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Clicking Sound When I Swallow

Yikes.. what is wrong with me? Since a few days ago, I realize that whenever I drink, there is this clicking sound coming from my throat. I thought that maybe it was the way I was swallowing down my drink. At first, I thought it was just me hearing it but when a colleague came over to chat yesterday, she must have heard the clicking sound too when I took a couple of sips of water. She was looking for the source of the sound but since she didn't ask me, I was also a bit too embarrassed to tell her that it was me.

But the worse has yet to come. This morning, the clicking sound came even when I was just swallowing my saliva. Is my throat constricting.....wah...am I going to suffocate.....Actually it is not painful but it is awfully irritating. I tried moving my head around and twisting my neck from side to side. I noticed that the sound still persists.

Googled for "clicking sound when I swallow". There are other people who have and is still experiencing this phenomena but no conclusive explanation for the clicking. My mum says that my body may be just "heaty" after walloping all the cookies and Mandarin oranges and fried food. I am just waiting for a sore throat to happen.....Sigh.. just have to live with it and and hope that it will go away.. or I might get use to it after a while :(. Shhhhh.. that didn't stop me from having a yummy nasi lemak today for lunch

No Politics Here Please !

I try to keep my blog free of politics. Not because I am a lallang that sways to whichever direction the political winds blow... but more because I have yet to find an honest politician to believe in. But that does not stop me from visiting bloggers who have much to say on this subject matter.

I stumbled upon one blogger who has posted a song by one of my chinese pop idol Sam Hui. I do really enjoy Sam's songs as it may all appear funny and light but I do believe there is a message hidden in each of his songs. This song will be enjoyed much better if one could understand Cantonese but nevertheless by just watching the clip you'll certainly get the message, this is really a no brainer.

Enjoy this little lighthearted clip from Youtube.

Borders' Staff Gave Me Extra Discounts

On the 3rd day of CNY, I decided to ignore the old folks' comments that one should not go to books stores to buy books (shue, in Cantonese sounds like "loose" as in loose money) if one wants to gamble during the new year and win money. Took the Monorail to Berjaya Times Square and headed straight for Borders.

I like shopping at Borders Book Store as their selection is rather wide and I simply love their Bargain Corner plus their special promotions. They were having the 3 books for the price of 2 promotions and I simply could not resist picking up several. After spending almost close to an hour browsing and selecting, I decided to make for the counter to pay for the books as I only had about 30mins left to get home as my brother was going to belanja (pay for) dinner at Klang that evening (read previous post).

I already did a mental calculation as to how much I am going to have to pay for all those lovely books and it should be around RM210, plus minus RM1. When the cashier was scanning in the books, I realize that she was likely to make a mistake as she totally ignored the fact that some of the books were under the 3 for the price of 2 promotion. When the final amount was tabulated, she asked for RM248.90. I knew that could not be right. So, I politely asked if she could print out the bill so that I could check it. She curtly replied "Cannot" and she called her colleague over. I tried to ask her colleague if I could have a look at the bill first before I paid for the books and he replied (at least a little bit more politely) that they don't do that for the customers. Customers only get to look at the bill after they have paid for the books. Alamak.... how can that be right?

So, I asked if I could borrow a calculator. They were both ignoring me this time as they were busy taking all my books out of the plastic bag. I noticed that they were scrolling the bill out of the cashier's machine and checking it against the books. They must have realized that they did something wrong. I decided to fish out my mobile phone and using the calculator function, I managed to determine that the cost of the books should total RM207.80 exactly.

When the two of them finally finished re-keying in the cost of the books, the value came out to RM204.90. Yikes.. how come? So I asked them if they were sure?? I can check for them. This time all I got were blank stares. Sigh...so, what to do.. cough out the RM204.90 and the get the bill first after paying then only check lor. By then, I have already spent a good 10 minutes at the counter and I had only 20minutes to get up the Monorail to get home on time.

When I got home, I found out where the problem was. I bought 2 lots of the "special 3 books for the price of 2". The sticker clearer stated that one can buy 3 books from a collection, and the cheapest book out of the 3 selected will be given free. The mistake of the cashier was billing me for all 3 books from the 1st lot ... no free book from this lot. But for the other lot (which was more expensive), she billed me for 1 book and gave me 2 books for free...yeah..

So, all I have to say is "Thank you Borders for the angpow of RM2.90... which is the difference of what I would have had to pay if your staff had been nicer and more responsive to your customers". Kong Xi Fa Cai!

The True Meaning of Valentine's Day

Little Melissa comes home from first grade and tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks, "will God get mad at me for giving someone a Valentine?"

Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a Valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," she says.

"Why Osama Bin Laden?" her father asks, reeling in shock.

"Well," she says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little. And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."

Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with new-found pride. "Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard!"

"I know," Melissa says. "And once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could blow the crap out of him!"

Good joke: The True Meaning of Valentine's Day

Bad Joke?? Never mind.... just to share a different perspective of Valentines Day :)

I'd just like to wish everybody a Happy Valentines Day, whatever this day may mean to each of us... just let us have a happy one.