I really want to blog more here. Really really.
I will aim to write here however long or short at least 2 times a week. Because writing here makes me happy! (and hungry) very hungry to be exact. Because, together with writing a post comes selecting and uploading pictures, and time in between trying to not let firefox die on me, doing what else, browsing all my favourite food bloggers(:
And after looking at all the awesome food photography and descriptive writings, or sometimes just about their lives, I feel even more hungry. And its always that time of the night where dinner has just sort of digested and raiding the fridge is just a bad bad bad idea.



Heh and I have no self control to choose fruit over biscuit / cookie when its 11.30pm and I'm standing in front of an open fridge door. If you have that self control please impart some skills to me. very much appreciated(;

True story.

So I deny my stomach the joys it could find in the fridge and conveniently try to apply the concept of 'out of sight out of mind' to doing the pictures for this site and looking up and bookmarking even more recipes from a list that I am pretttty sure I will never exhaust.
But I still keep saving them anyway teehee.
Plus it nullifies the run that I just did today. No cookies for me):

But I will ! write at least 2 times here a week. It makes me happy to see new entries plus I get to cook and bake stuff, and write about it(:
And its a good routine to keep (i think!) aside from schoolwork and uninteresting things like that. Plus I need somewhere to channel brain juices of the creative side of the brain, to let it be smothered by the analytical, numerical, logical side would just be sad. Sadder than having no cookies hee.



So much talk about cookies, here are some. Don't these looks cute pre-oven! If you have not already started googling snickerdoodles if you don't know what they are or feel the sudden need to go out and buy some to eat.
Don't! They are evil. They are so nice they make you want to eat and eat and eat and eat eat eat eat.



Me: (opens fridge) Hmm what should I have for breakfast. Bread with pb/nutella/jam/cheese?
Snickerdoodle: How about a cookie! I taste even better after a day in the fridge! (its true)
Me: Cookies for breakfast! No I need something filling and yummy to start the day on a good note

Snickerdoodle: Just eat me! And about 4 of my friends. Yummy AND filling.
Me: But thats not very healthy right.

Snickerdoodle: Its only morning! You have the rest of the day to eat healthily. Plus no-one knows!
Me: True.

Snickerdoodle: Aye just try one first, small one
Me: Okay maybe a small one

Snickerdoodle: See, its so awesome right but you're not full right, another one?
Me: omg these are good. (proceeds to grab about 3 more)
Snickerdoodle: heh heh



And the next morning the same battle is fought again. I shant tell you the ending, do you want to guess?

I thought I was a chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin girl. Love those two, I could eat them every day but I wont make them just yet because I have no self control. Oh waaait, you already know that.
But I might cheat on them a little with these babies. No mix-ins. Just pure cinnamonny, sugary and buttery goodness.
Make them and you might end up like me, or worse.
I'm just sayin'

OR!

You could make them and not tell anybody and eat them. Nobody knows the calories don't count.
Right!? (:
Well here's the awesome recipe. Once you throw in the cinnamon there's no looking back!




Best snickerdoodles ever

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

For rolling:

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with
an electric mixer on high speed. Add the egg and vanilla and
beat until smooth.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and
cream of tartar.

3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well.

4. Preheat oven to 300 degrees while you let the dough rest for
30 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator. (I let mine rest overnight)

5. In a small bowl, combine the sugar with the cinnamon for the
topping.

6. Take about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the dough and roll it into a
ball. Roll this dough in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and press it
onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining cookies.

7. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes and no more. The cookies
may seem undercooked, but will continue to develop after they are
removed from the oven. When the cookies have cooled they should be
soft and chewy in the middle.

Makes about 20 cookies.

(ps: chilling the dough is very very VERY important if you want super awesome cookies. I do that in every cookie I make even if the recipe doesnt say so. It really makes a difference. But if you're impatient (like I sometimes am especially when it comes to cookies) you can always make a few and pop them into the oven and eat immediately and bake the rest the next day. And appreciate the difference chilled dough makes. Trust me(:)



Snickerdoodle: Now how bout another one. Last one. Promise.
Me: STOP TALKING TO MEEEEEEEEE! LEAVE ME ALONEEEEEE
(proceeds to run out of the house, almost forgetting to lock the door behind myself)



they ARE evil.
Don't say I didn't warn you(;
Alternate serving suggestion - clasp 2 cookies in between vanilla icecream and tadaa icecream cookie sandwiches. Now, its a good thing I don't have vanilla icecream at home.
Am I the only one that yummy food speaks too. Please tell me that there are more of you out there that have noisy and irritating yummy food in the fridge.

I'm not a morning person.
I would very much with every ounce of my being, like to be one
But I am not.
So the other day I was thinking (while trying to solve some accounting grub) how to make myself transform into one. Imagine waking up early, say 730AM, just because I can and have in fact gotten enough sleep and woken up willingly. Opening the window and breathing in the fresh morning air, swinging legs off the bed and getting about the day, happily and not in fact grouching about the fact that it is in fact, early in the morning.
That is such ideal life.



Now that classes have slowed to a halt and revision classes have yet to begin full swing, its prime revision time. To consolidate, revise, practice, revise somemore, print papers, do time practices and of course drink coffee(;
And I need discipline. To wake up at do work. And not potentially waste the day thinking that I'm going to start that tutorial half an hour from now and never do in the end.
So I came to the conclusion that I need to sleep earlier to wake up earlier. Sounds simple enough? Apparently not.



Because I can't sleep.
I think I live in a different time zone, about 3 hours ahead of others. My clock is warped.
So the other day, I decided to turn off all electrical devices (because technology is sucha monster sometimes) and lights at 12mn and just lay in bed. Relatively cooling night and ideal for sleep. Tried squeezing my eyes shut and flipped and flopped so many times till I lost count on the bed. The feeling: highly frustrating.
So I flopped onto one side yet again (hopefully for the last time) and I was looking at a potential lighting storm.
I LOVE lightning storms. They just seem dangerous and cool and yet I know I'm perfectly safe in my room and watching the sky turn purple, red, orange and blue is so so surreal. Yet without rain, the lightning just thundered for a good 5-10minutes. Then it occurred to me to pick up the camera to try and catch some lightning in action right! And get some camera practice with slow shutter. Sigh I'm always too slow for things like that. So I found the camera in the dark, adjusted it, propped it on my knee and window ledge because the tripod is somewhere I dunno where,

And waited for the next flash of lightning.

And waited, and waited



(my legs are cramping right about now)

One reluctant rumble, and another
I got about five reluctant rumbles and disgruntled flashes and a ton of black, no lightning blurry photos. Story of my life.
Well I did manage one with some semblance of lightning in it but sigh it was so unlike all the previous vivid flashes I'd seen earlier.



yep this is all I got:(
After the lightning misadventure, at least I was somewhat tired with all that anticipation and misfortune and cramped legs. Turned off the camera, remembered to put on the lens cap even, and sunk into the pillow again.
And well hello there, the lightning show began again.
I just smiled a little at the irony of it all and continued with the show until I couldnt remember anymore.



And the next morning I edited the shot somewhat to the best of my ability and saw that it was 3.03AM when I took the shot. So much for sleeping early.
Consoled myself for abit and made some Eggs-in-a-hole for breakfast and enjoyed that for abit with leftover chicken mayonnaise before going about the day with accounting, economics and starbucks friends.

It's a Thursday.



Thursday's are not good days until Friday comes. Yes no doubt its 3 days away from Monday and its past the overrated midweek but its not the weekend yet.
Actually I don't even know why I hype my weekends up so, or attempt to, because weekends are not any different from weekdays.
Its still filled with accounting tutorials and economic talk. And the random mini panic attack that I cannot get everything done in time.



See, weekends are not all that awesome. I think its just a frame of mind.
Like a sugar pill for the placebo effect, to get me thinking its always better if its the weekend.
Sometimes I lie to myself like that. Boo.
Plus weekends are crowded and noisy. But weekends are an excuse for brunch.
Brunch on weekdays feels, wrong. Like its illegal or something, to be enjoying a weekend treat on a weekday and while everyone else is working or in school.
But then again I dont wake up in time for brunch on weekends. :x



Doing accounting at coffee joints like starbucks is, well to sum in one word: Lonely.
but necessary.
I talk to people and I dont do work, that's why I need to be holed up somewhere alone to do proper work. le sigh



I want May to come really fast but at the same time I want it to drag its feet.
Reading this people probably think I dont know what I want.
Which is true. I know what I want maybe about 20% of the time, other times I'm just a blur.
I write out lists. (for many things)
And I carry out some of them, and wish very hard the others carry themselves out.
I'm such a bad finisher, and that has to change.



But first let me eat some pancakes for some midweek brunch-ing and wish Thursday away.
Why does it take 3 weeks t form a habit but just one day to break it.
Ok I need to go fight some battles with my accounting tutorials and print some past year papers.

Leftover apples from apple crisps? Yep check! Make some muffins for breakfast. With crumble topping of course. Everything is better with crumble. Exam period is making me exceedingly upset-table and somedays I feel everything is fine and that is subject to change every 2 seconds. And the everything is not fine anymore. Fickle pickle.



Making breakfast helps me not think about anything, just concentrating on getting the oven timer right and creaming muffin batter.



That said, this week is crap boring. Everyday is routined and the only proper decision I have to make is where to park myself for the day, yes like a car. pft.
Ideally it would be starbucks, because I'm currently quite obssessed with their new english breakfast tea. Although people would pass it off as expensive $4 tehbing but I still like it so there, i dont careeee. Add alot of milk and some sugar syrup and I'm a happy camper.



Shant talk much about the papers because mainly, its over hah! And I can forsee myself talking nonstop about it come the next 2 months when May draws real close.
Lets talk muffins. Because these are long overdue(:



This was originally a blueberry muffin recipe but I adapted it and made it apples. Because as much as I do love blueberries theyre expensive and relatively not in season and hard to find now): Besides I'd rather eat them fresh with vanilla iccream than burst them in muffins. Ohwell): Apples it is. But they did turn out pretty yum(;



Browned butter apple crumble muffins
(makes 12)

Ingredients:

100g butter
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Apple filling preparation:
2 apples (I used 1 red 1 green) chopped into 1 inch by 1 inch pieces
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp sugar

For the topping:
50g butter
1/2 all purpose flour
3 1/2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F or 185degC. Line muffin trays with liners

Melt butter in a small pan over medium heat. Keep eye on the butter, melt and cook down the butter until a little brown bits appear in the pan. The crackling will subside and the butter will begin to brown pretty quickly from there. Keep a close eye on the butter and remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg and vanilla till combined. Add browned butter and stir to combine

Whisk together flour, sugar and baking powder in a medium bowl. Add milk and butter mixture all at once and stir gently to combine.

Combine the chopped and diced apple pieces with the sugar and the cinnamon. Toss well

Add apple to the flour mixture and fold in gently.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with fingertips until crumbly, Sprinkle over batter in the muffin tins

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes
Cool on rack for 15 minutes then remove from rack and serve warm or at room temperature. Eat with vanilla icecream for even yummier results(:



Munch.

Munch. Munch