It’s finally raining, after what feels like an entire day of zero wind and 100% humidity. I’m just gonna sit here and enjoy the rain for awhile. The reassuring patter on my windows, distant flashes of lightning, enjoyed all in the comfort knowing that I am safe behind panes. Vision slowly blurring as the droplets trickle down finding each their own way down. Can’t see much except for streetlights lighting up certain droplets in its own unique bokeh blurring everything around it.

Absolutely beautiful.

Safe. Definitely safe. Sitting here and enjoying the rain is in no matter the same as stomping around in rainboots feeling the rain run down your face occassionally prickling your eyes as it runs. Maybe I would just like to feel like a kid again, stomping puddles, running in the rain, not being afraid to fall, afraid to get hurt. Just free.

That one time we rode in the rain. It spoilt our plans, we had to stop, and stop. For the reluctance to let the bikes get wet or trap any more dirt that it should in the cranks, it was hot rain, the icky sort. After more than three stops on the way back, we decided to just go for it, through the rain, all the way home. Yes it did get heavier and rain was running down everywhere possible. It was cold, wet and the fact that we had to clean out those bikes sucked even more. But contrary to that, as we were sitting in the basement cleaning it out, down to the ball bearings, it was one of those times that you remember a long time after and thank God for it. Because he turned something like a failed ride into precious pockets of time that you otherwise would not have spent, getting oil on hands, dirt on legs but a smile on face at the end.

Worth it.

That said, there are other things other than 2am rain that makes me absolutely happy as well.

 

Smoked duck salad with roasted pumpkin. Hands down one of the best lunches yet. Downside: hole in pocket :/ 

Some loving from awesome colleagues who bring you the best chewy junior flavour there is (:

Yes I eat a salad more than once a week. This was pretty great as well(: 

Mediocre pizza, fantastic company. And thats all I need.

Yummy icecream from awfully chocolate. This never fails.

 

Haha attack of the mini post its. Thanks to less than extraordinary drawing skills from my sneaky colleagues. Still made for good entertainment though(;

And my favourite weekend breakfast. Of course I will not say no to brunch. But this was definitely calling my name this morning. Getting dressed and out before 10am is sometimes too painful.

Truly Singaporean because this sight makes me want to sing with joy. An empty bus! Sighh

And then this has to happen. WhyWhyWhy. Why my shoes. Why my subpar knot tying skills.
Yep, the right ribbon is still in that state now and making my shoes look horrid. MEH.
Whoever designed those things to be able to come undone. Rawrh.

You would think I'm going a little crazy when I spend time staying up till like 3am in the morning thinking of ways to motivate myself to wake up in the morning, not the usual snoozing the alarm till 11am and reluctantly rolling out of bed because the sun is too hot kind of waking up.

hot, sticky, icky and unmotivated. ew

I really want the open your eyes and thank God its a new day kind of morning. The kind where you feel and know for sure it's going to be a good day and everything is going to be just fine. And I go to bed feeling somewhat hopeful and positive the latter will come true but the former is always realised.

Then again staying up to think of ways how to make myself rise and shine early isn't probably the best way to do things, yeayea the best way is to just sleep at 11pm and rise and shine will come naturally
I am not most people and I cannot do it. I just can't so I need motivation. And that is to have food, that is only deemed acceptable at breakfast, like pancakes. Although I can probably out-argue myself on this one I am not going to.

Pancakes=Breakfast, for now.



And you will not believe the amount of time I spent contemplating between banana pancakes with chocolate chips and oatmeal raisin pancakes. Upon checking that I didnt have bananas ruled out the former. But being me, since I can't have the best of both, I shall have the best of both worlds in ONE. hah.
Oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes it is.

Plus i really have to get myself a bottle of maple syrup but I really really cannot walk 10 minutes in this crazydrought-like weather here. look at all the parched grass): so fruit it is.
Besides its healthier anyway(yes I console myself, let me be)

Weekend breakfast 1 : Lazybumness: 0



scratch to-do lists, eat some pancakes first(:

SCORE.

What can I say, I love the combination of oatmeal + raisin in anything. Anything except cooked rolled oats and raisins added in. Those are gross.

Cooked oats, like the kind you would eat for breakfast is icky.

So when making the previously mentioned oatmeal walnut cookie balls, rolling the cookies in oats left me with 1/2 a cup thereabouts of oats.

Throw or keep? Obviously the mother didnt fancy the former and suggested she made cooked oats for breakfast the next day.

Hello! EW!

So I would like to think I saved these oats from become breakfast, instead took the liberty of making my favourite cookies.



I love how my house has all the basic stuff that I need for baking cookies on a whim. And I love how the trusty oven hasnt let me down in the past 8 years! Quite amazing if you ask me.

This has got to be the fastest I've thrown together a cookie recipe. <30 class="media" id="fullSizedImage" style="WIDTH: 559px; HEIGHT: 381px" alt="oatmealraisin4.jpg picture by classifiedramblings" src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/classifiedramblings/oatmealraisin4.jpg?t=1266903867" galleryimg="no">

Ok, now let me talk a little about these cookies. I used the same recipe, but they're different.

Well, its my fault but they still turned out great, if not better than the normal ones that I always make. Its just that I know this recipe almost by heart and I just routinely took out all the ingredients I needed and went with the flow.

But, theres a but!

I forgot to add the egg!

(I normally read and re-read the recipe over and over again and am pretty good with following recipe instructions! but I think I was either day dreaming or sunk so deep into routine mixing that when I realised, it was too late, must be the pre-school blues rawr)

eggs! are essential in making the texture right and the batter creamier! and thanks to flour that has already been sifted in, my cookies are now going to turn out, eggless.



So I sifted in the flour and saw the silly brown egg sitting there. I even took it out beforehand and I knew it was in the ingredient list but remembered it a little too late, sigh!

But judging from the consistency of the dough I figured that the dough would still come together pretty nicely although it is a little stiffer than cookie doughs that I've put together.

Oh well! A little experimenting wont hurt right, anyway its a small batch plus I love anything oatmeal and raisin so its gonna be alright!(:

Turns out I kinda love this recipe that I accidentally created, not the usual chewy cookie that I usually get, more of the crispy kind you get with a cup of coffee at restaurants and cafes. And the fact that I made it mini sized, really made it look like it could go very nicely with a cup of hot coffee. Loves!



But I'm still gonna make some adjustments to this recipe though, like soaking the raisins beforehand in water or milk to make them fat and juicy:D Never done that before though, so I'm one step closer to finding that perfect oatmeal raisin cookie, I hope!


(how everything looks when its all over)

Yay for rolled oats and raisins(:

Oatmeal raisin drop cookies
(makes 30-40 mini cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (100g)
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2-3/4 raisins (depending on your taste)

Preheat oven to 350°F (180deg c)

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins (& nuts if using them); mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

mmm tastes like butter cookies, oh wait, not butter cookies, more like butter cookies with nuts, Actually you know what, tastes almost like cereal prawns, especially of the crunchy crispy bits of cereal often strewned abundantly over the prawns or squid or whatever seafood there is.
Wait, how can the taste of butter cookies evolveto cereal prawns within the span of 4-5 chews.
dont ask me, ask the cookies. dont look at me, its not my fault! its theirs!
*conveniently shifts all blame to the cookie for being difficult.



Aha cny brings about the mother going on a massive cookie spree. much like me during christmas time and aftermajor exams. I guess the apple doesnt fall that far from the tree in relation to this(; Its a good thing though, so no complains here. Cookies, big or small are pretty much good friends with mix-ins of any sort, most commonly being chocolate chips but that in itself brings about numerous variety for those who care to look.
dark, white, milk, semi-sweet,bittersweet, mint chocolate. ah chocolate.
BUT, onto that another day.



That said, we mustn't forget nuts. Although here in singapore the most commonly found and well, readily available nut (in non exorbitant prices) are almonds.
A trip to redman or phoonhuat can bring you face to face with an entire shelf or shelves of almonds.
Almonds done in every way possible. chopped, diced, silvered, whole, blanched, unblanched, powdered (ooh almond powder = macarons!), sliced, salted, unsalted. You get the idea. And its relatively affordable as well. Second to that is probably walnuts. Peanuts dont count here, those are for teasing your perfectly manicured fingernails with during cny or coupled with beer and pizza on a saturday night. or in my parents case, snacks to go with red wine..hmm no judging here.



But we're not here to talk about peanuts or almonds, its walnuts! hello! About $16/kg give or take. Sigh no farmers markets here to go to for pecans, macademia!, walnuts, brazil nuts and all other forms of nutty delights. Hence the obvious lack of nuts in my food endavours.but well, since these cookies have nuts as a key ingredient and I didnt have to fund these myself, hah walnuts it is!
200g of walnuts can make a whole lot of very-walnutty cookies. and very awesome i might add. so thats more than half a kg of walnuts for me to play around with in the near future. double yay.



The chopping up of the nuts could well be done by a food processor - yet again. But chopping them by hand (something not done by me) is definitely the easier way to quality control the size of the nut chunks. so it is recommended, by me(: Besides, food processing does ruin the fun, whizzing everything up into a food blur, plus the washing! haha.



Walnuts + oatmeal + cookie. i think this is my new favourite cny cookie. Still cant hold a candle, though, to my favourite cny snack(s) which grandma has perfected through years and years of making them. More on that sometime in the next post. I think this is what a cross between cereal prawns and a butter cookie would taste like.



Ah chinese new year, I really dont know whether to love or hate you.