FurryMaisy

His old phone keypad was getting more and more unresponsive, so….

.

.

.

.

Hello new toy!

I will have a fun time playing with it in the next few days 🙂

May 1st is May Day, or Labour Day, a day to celebrate the achievements of workers everywhere. May everyone enjoy their day of rest, and give your maids a day off from labour.

—-

Hubby is off to a neighbouring country for a short trip with his colleagues. Their host is going home for a short labour day break, and a few of them tagged along for a free tour of his homeland. So, I’ll be home alone this weekend, apart from dropping by the in-laws to check on things.

Ah…. peace and solitude….

I have been following this season’s American Idol, and the field’s finally cut down to the final 5. A rundown on what I feel about the 5:

Allison Iraheta – The only girl left in the competition. The 16-year old has the pipes of a been-there-done-that rocker!  I like her, but I fear with the masses of screaming supporters for the other male contenders (reflected in her being on the bottom 3 in more than 1 occasion), the Final 5 is as far as she can go. 

Kris Allen – Musically versatile cutie with a good voice. Has shown great talent on the piano and guitars, as well as a flair for song arrangements. Is contemporary, and I expect an album of his will be filled with solid tracks worth listening over and over.  I do not mind him being the next American Idol. 

Matt Giraud – Talented, but wildly inconsistent. Seems to perform better when sat in front of a piano. He’s a mixed bag for me, and it shows in the way he drops to the bottom 3 every other week.

Danny Gokey – Like many others, this man caught my attention during the auditions with the perfect backstory – his wife passed away just weeks before the auditions took place. Nothing grabs attention more than a man in a mission to honour his dead wife’s memory with a great run in American Idol. Good gospel-sounding singer, and can do no wrong in the eyes of the judges . He was good in the beginning, but as weeks passed, I don’t think he’s improved on his strong start. None of his performances have stuck to my mind. But hey, who am I to judge? Final 2.

Adam Lambert – Hot favourite at the moment, everything he does is lapped up by the audience and the judges, AFAIK, not one of them have put a bad word on his performance so far this season. A good singer with good showmanship abilities. But is it just me, or does he have a tendency to shout the high notes? He will be the American Idol, and will go on to win Tonys.

4 months has passed since my cone biopsy in December. Went to the hospital to get a pap smear done, and colposcopy for the doctor to see how the cervix has healed. The visible opening that I saw the last time has actually closed up, and the doc is satisfied with my progress. He again mentioned that it’s safe for hubby and I to try for a baby 😛

Hope the pap smear results are good, if it’s all clear I’ll get the results by mail, but if it comes back abnormal again they’ll call me in for a further visit.

Fingers crossed!

Decided to do a ‘simpler’ cake this time round, a marble cake. It’s essentially a butter cake with chocolate bits in it.

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter
• 200 g castor sugar
• 250 g self-raising flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• Milk
• Half a block semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 2 tsp cocoa powder

Steps:

1. Mix butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. 
2. Using a wooden spoon or a spatula, alternately fold in an egg and some flour until all of them are added. 
3. Add vanilla essence and about 3 tbsp of milk. Continue mixing the batter with the spatula until dropping consistency is achieved. If the batter feels too stiff, add in more milk.
4. Take 1/3  of the batter into another bowl. Add melted chocolate and cocoa powder and mix evenly.
5. Grease an 8″ baking pan, then layer the bottom of the pan with the white batter. Add chocolate batter and white batter alternately to the pan. 
6. Finally, take a chopstick and swirl it in the batter a couple of times to create the marbled look.
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 50 mins.
8. Enjoy! 

Sad to hear that A-Sun （阿桑） has passed away from breast cancer on 6th April. She was 34.

For those who didn’t know her, you may have heard her songs on the radio. Her first hit was <叶子>, which was the ending theme for the wildly popular Taiwan idol drama The Rose (蔷薇之恋). Her voice had this haunting & melancholic quality that sucks you into the mood of her (mostly sad) songs. Tunes like <叶子>, <受了点伤> and <寂寞在唱歌> accurately portrayed the aching pangs of loneliness felt by many a broken-hearted people, especially when you listen to it late at night. 

She was quite a low-key singer, you don’t find much news on her on the entertainment pages. I guess that was her character. Even her fellow artistes didn’t know much about her illness, up until her death. 

I hope her last days on earth was a peaceful one, her passing surrounded by loved ones.

Goodbye, 阿桑, may you find happiness in heaven.

Another cozy weekend at home, lounging on the sofa, with one hand propping up a book, the other deep in a pack of Ruffles BBQ flavour chips….

Hubby: Darling, have you been walking around in coal?

Me: What ??

Hubby: *points to soles of feet*

Me: *Lifts a foot up to look at sole*…..Eeeek!!

Puts book and bag of chips down,  drags self to storeroom, fetch broom and mop. 

The great weekend housework extravanganza begins.

The invisible baker devil stirred awake one day and surreptitiously slipped in the idea of baking a cheesecake into my husband’s head. The result?

Hubby: So, what cake will I be bringing into the office next Monday?
Me : (Blah blah blah) …. er what?
Hubby: You are going to bake a cake this weekend, aren’t you? *makes evil smile*
Me : Er…. marble cake?
Hubby: Cheesecake! *Evil smile widens into a triumphant one*
Me : ??!?

So Saturday came along and we trudged into a well-stocked hypermart to grab the required ingredients. While he sauntered off to the snacks shelves, I planted myself at the dairy section and searched for cream cheese. RM36 worth of cream cheese! Total damage for the day was close to RM50.

This is what I used for my cheesecake, a little modified from a recipe I found online:

• 15 Oreo cookies, or about 1.5 packs
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 4 packages of 8oz. cream cheese (3 1/2 of those 250g cream cheese packs)
• 1 cup sugar (230 g)
• 3/4 cup milk (180 ml)
• 4 eggs • 1 cup sour cream (230 g)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 flour (30 g)
(The original recipe calls for a 9″ pan, but I only had an 8″ one, so some finger-crossing there.)

Below are my exact steps:

1) Crush the Oreo cookies into crumbs. Initially, I broke the Oreos into quarters and used the back of a sturdy plastic scoop to bash the bejesus out of them. Struggled for a few minutes with flying Oreo crumbs and stubborn unbashable pieces. (Note to self: do not keep Oreos in fridge)

2) Butter’s still in the fridge! Take butter out of refrigerator, then carve out a piece that looks like 2 tablespoons’s worth into a small bowl lying in a deep dish of hot water to melt it.

3) Continue bashing Oreos. Give up the bashing, and pull out an electric grinder. Take that you Oreos! Mix Oreo crumbs with melted butter. Press firmly onto the bottom of a springform pan to form a crust. Set aside.

4) Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celcius.

5) Open packages of cream cheese – damn, still quite hard – and place into mixing bowl. Mix cream cheese until quite smooth, add in sugar, and continue mixing.

6) Mix in milk.

7) Add in one egg at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate them.

8) Add sour cream, vanilla extract and flour, continue mixing until smooth.

9) Pour mixture into pan. Bake in preheated oven at 175 degrees Celcius for 1 hour. After that, keep oven door closed and let it cool for at least 1 more hour.

11 ) Refrigerate to firm up the cake even more, then serve!

Top view of the cheesecake

Side view

I think I just scored more brownie points with the hubby!

Go. Get. It.

Whatchamacallit, how did I go through so many years of my life without knowing thee….

Thank you Hershey’s!!