banana cake

whew~ did quite abit of grocery shopping today. bought tons of stuff at cold storage to prepare for my banana cake, honey baked chicken and cheese baked rice. the list includes shredded cheddar cheese, honey, fine sugar, whole chicken, green and yellow pepper…. when the bill i was a bit taken aback. cost like 80bucks in total. the 2 glass baking dish cost 18bucks already.. ex man. 

decided to bake a banana cake after my pandan chiffon cake stint yesterday. glad it turned out good. the outside was crispy and the inside was moist and fluffly. hmm i would give it a 7.5 out of 10. i did a slight mistake though. i blended the bananas thinking it would be mashed. it turned out to be banana smoothie instead. lol. if not the appearance of the interior would have been perfect liao. its supposed to be yellowish with blackish streaks like what u see in cake shops. i think my banana smoothie was oxidized hence the brownish color. lol

a neighbour walked past my place and commented that the smell was good, lol. with things going well, im gonna churn out more cakes in future. maybe i can add choc chips and make it a banana choc chips cake. sounds yummy isnt it? haha cant wait to try it soon.

banana madness

yoohoo~ this shall be my breakfast for next few days.

 

pandan chiffon cake

yoohoo~ baked a pandan chiffon cake successfully on my maiden attempt. all thanks to the wonderful recipe from bakingmum and my newly bought tefal oven from courts. seems like i made a good investment.

the recipe was quite easy to follow. took me like one hour before i placed the end product into the oven. was quite elated when the cake turned out to be decent. the cake was soft but it was a pity the middle portion were still a bit moist. perhaps a little more baking would have made the whole cake even more fluffy and well raised.

recipe: http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2007/11/pandan-chiffon-cake-ii.html

hey not bad!

decent tasting

introducing the new Tefal Activys. tada! hmm.. no place to place my oven. so its placed in this awkward postion…

just tot i would include some pics for the cake i made last week. 2nd attempt at oreo cheesecake. turned out to be firmer and had a nicer appearance.

im going to attempt to cook up a feast on sun with my new oven. thinking of preparing honey baked whole chicken, cheese baked rice and cheesy mashed potato. sounds like lots of fun but hard work as well =]

 

ice cream galore~

met up with victor, kenneth and weifen last sat at shaw towers. victor introduced me to this ice cream outlet shop named tom’s palette. been there once and tried their rum & raisin. not bad. ordered my 1st cup of chocolate banana and granny’s favourite. heavenly sia i tell u.  the rich taste totally blew me away. granny’s favourite has got dough bits inside and its somewhat like a handmade version of ben & jerry’s ice cream.  chocolate banana is a delightly combination of as the name suggests – choc and bananas!

after my 1st cup, i was instantly addicted. decided to go ahead with my 2nd cup of rum & raisins and buttered pecans. buttered pecans had this hint of salted butter. i find the rum & raisins a bit too overwhelming with its rum flavor. couldnt quite make out the taste of raisins. there was this flavour which was totally unforgettable when i tried. it was lavendar flavour. its like spraying floral scented air freshener into ur mouth. found the taste a bit too strong and somewhat too artificial for my liking.

choc banana +granny’s favourite

tiramisu and i cant rem

rum & raisins + buttered pecans

simply irresistible!

nice selection!!

we went ahead to the pasta place when kenneth and weifen arrived. tried their seafood alfredo. nice! the whole meal cost me 11 bucks with no GST and no service charge. quite money for value i tot. very imptly, the pasta is cooked al dente (meaning with a chewy texture) and the seafood ingredients are   cooked just nicely and not overly done.

seafood alfredo

seafood marinana

 

haven quite played bowling for a while. alvin came down to join us after his movie. hmm, guess i still maintained my standard even though i haven been consistently playing it. but somehow i feel my posture is quite poor,  leading to slight back ache after 2 games.

this is how a pro poses

uncle mo’s style

kenneth’s unique sliding style

 

 

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a touching tale – christian the lion

a friend showed me this interesting youtube link on msn.  the video is about the bond between a lion named christian and 2 men. after watching it i felt really touched. its amazing how the lion still recognizes the 2 men after it has grown up and released into the wild. lions are known to be ferocious beasts and they would not hesitate to pounce on any humans who go near them. yet this lion is able to differentiate its owners and it still remembers the ties that held the 3 of them  closely together.

many ties are formed in our lives. its always wonderful to look 10 years back and reminisce the times you have spent with ur beloved pet, ex-household assistant, sec sch classmates, Jc classmates and others who have crossed paths with u ..

 

gathering @ cafe cartel

its been some time since 01S3B gathered. haven quite seen weiying for ages and was glad to see her at cafe cartel. but poor thing… weiying is suffering from slipped disc and she is now taking a hiatus from work. will be helping out household chores while resting at home. wanjun just joined her company now that weiying has left the place.  zhen hao also suffered from the same health ailment but it seems that he is now ok liao..

ooh… more jing bao updates from my JC classmates. seems like we spotted a sparkling dazzling stone on michele’s finger. bright sia! haha , quite happy to hear that she’s happily engaged. meanwhile, weilin will be joining the work force soon, left only the few of us still studying at ntu.

time sure flies past mercilessly… back in 2001 we were still in JC1. in the blink of an eye most of us have already stepped into the working society.. hmm i haven qute figured out what i want to work as. might be joining NIE upon graduation.

chicken and fish combo

munching away

me and weiying

rayner and huixin

say cheese!

bottoms up and cheers!

drinks at timbre- substation

 

UOC 2008 – ‘Project Runway’

its been like 2 weeks after UOC 2008 and now its the start of my final year… come to think of it its been my 4th yr in UOC!!!

UOC 2005 ZYRE – was a freshie back then

UOC 2006 ZENO – Group Leader!

UOC 2005 ZATAN – Main comm Programmer for fright night, hiak hiak (devilish grin)

UOC 2005 ZORGAN – Sub comm Programmer for ‘Project Runway’  aka fright night for the 2nd time!

never thought i would go back to UOC for so many years, so much that i have been ‘promoted’ to a grand senior lol. after going through 4 UOC camps, i can almost recite all the programs at the back of my hand.

Fright Night for UOC this yr sure is a success. whew, finally the event is over. sure took us quite a lot of effort to gather the stores and think of ideas.  think this year the fright night props are quite power as compared to last year, with stuff like mannequins with wigs, paper servant dolls, lots of kim zhua, a couple of cheong sam outfits and the list goes on… hmm some aspects could have been better improved though, like the makeup and route markers. well, considering that UOC doesnt have a strong history of fright night, Fright Night 2008 is considered a decent one. this is the 2nd fright night that i have helped to plan, wonder if there will be any successor for UOC2009 to carry on the legacy for fright night. its been an enjoyable experience working with zave (our boss), li ping, han, mindy and huiming. well done peeps and hurray for project runway team! sure was fun to hear that freshies screamed and some cried… what a sense of satisfaction!

Great news!! Z group finally won the cheer fight. E and V groups sure are strong competitors, judging from their history of cheer fight results. Congrats to Zorgan freshies for doing us Z groupies proud! hopefully next yr Z group will clinch the title of best group.

 fright night props

 ‘Project runway’ team plus Lynn

yummy donuts just at the right timing!

dinner time..

washing up after dinner, the 3 Maria’s

spooky looking zha bor

project runway model

delivery personnel

lijuan and zi hua’s big day

the maid

mortuary setup

praying for success

assortment of characters for Project runway

vengeful spirits

power packed props

ah gong’s wake~~

end of UOC!!!

 

oreo cheesecake stint

baked my 1st oreo cheesecake like 2 weeks ago. haha this entry came a little late..surprisingly,everything went quite smoothly when i was mixing the ingredients and following the recipe. all thanks to florence’s recipe found on her blog. the cake turned out creamy and yummy. sure gave me quite a bit of confidence for my subsequent attempts.

baking sure is fun.. gonna try out new flavours in time to come..

‘oreo cheesecake flavoured ice cream’

tada! yummy looking oreo cheesecake

one more slice please?

 

back from reservist

whew~ glad that i returned from ICT safe and sound. thought i would have a tough time surviving considering im all rusty with gun drill and stuff. come to think of it, ICT isnt that bad afterall, and my morale was much higher than expected during outfield trainings. the best part of it definitely was the ippt reward and my ICT allowance. yoohoo~ managed to maintain and get silver for the 3rd time after ORD, and this means i get my 200bucks from mindef. this ICT certainly drained quite a bit of my energy and took me some time to recover from the fatigue. hmm, thankfully next yr’s ICT will be a slack one, heng ar~ back to my normal civilian life for one yr before donning my green uniform..

 

back to camp

spent one afternoon getting my uniforms sewn with new name tags and badges. damn, the whole freaking thing cost me 50 BUCKS!!! heartpain ar! luckily im paid for reservist, if not quite bo hua sia. argh sian man, hate this kind of feeling.  2moro will be the day im gg to suffer for my high key ICT. i have almost forgotten all my field knowledge, wonder how i am going to survive. feel kind of weird and unprepared today.

samuel threw me a stun bomb in the morning. called to inform me he was activated for mobilisation. and best of all he haven packed his full pack. in the end i had to find the item pack list for him. but it was of no use cos he din have most of the items. dotz. samuel!, what on earth were u thinking? and u can even tell me u din know its mobilisation period. faintz~ being the kind me, i offered to lend him my readily prepared full pack, SBO and helmet, lol. or else i cant imgaine how he will survive the mob. poor me even had to carry these stuff to admiralty station. hey samuel, u definitely owe me one!  

11 more days before i shall regain my freedom. as much as i like the color green, i do not  look forward to don the camou patterned uniform at all.