N95 & N96

DH got me this Nokia N95 when it was just out in the market and I must admit it was a very good gadget. At least for a little while. Newer models keep on flowing in to the market. The it started acting up a couple of weeks ago that I decided to go back to my old mobile phone, Sony Ericsson. This phone works well but its' screen was however, painfully too small for me and I could not access all the data that I had. It's time for a new phone.

I don't actually care much about mobile phone, as long it is able to receive and send phone calls and messages. Features that come along with them are great but not that essential. Unfortunately good mobile phones come together with all sort of features whether we want them or not. I have camera, a better one that the 5MP that Nokia has and an iPod Touch with 32 GB capacity and it is superb. Phone is more for communication to me.

I was really weighing between getting an iPhone and Nokia N96. I have had iPod touch and I'd love to get an iPhone. But N96 has its pluses for me too, among them, I could keep the same phone number as my mobile operator does not sell iPhone, I am also familiar with Nokia product and can easily transfer my data to the new phone.

Well, one thing led to another, DH got me an N96. It's an excellent phone with great features, some of which, woul not ever be used because I truly do not need them. It's abit of a waste. Nevertheless, I am happy with N96 - big 2.8" screen, 5MP camera, 16GB capacity, and more good stuff! So, I am good.

Crunching The Numbers

It is holiday for my children, but it's sure loads of hard work for me. Not only extremely frequent meals need to be prepared, but also the tidying up and the cleaning that come with them. At times like this, I am longing for the beach, sitting under a giant umbrella with a mini umbrella on my drink and the serenity surrounding me. Hm.... if only.......

My middle child is such a hard working gal. To prepare for her forthcoming exams, she wakes up early, for a holiday standard, and has a schedule to follow. Her timetable includes lots of studying and working out at the gym as well. She pops out for her meals and snack time too. Occasionally she drags me into the world of high school and upper school math all over. So here I am, on top of my daily dosage of works, I also need to squeeze my brain out to solve the problems that she does not want to solve on her own after a few tries. She definitely should try more! This girl is not hesitant to interrupt my TV time with her Math question. I know, how dare she....We are talking about quadratic equations, reciprocal numbers, solving x and more , versus watching TV. We know which one is more important.

I am aware that more challenging math problems are coming my way too, you know, those with cos, sin and tangent and more stuff. How exciting. My head hurts.

Feeling Good

We did not normally made our flour tortillas from scratch. We just bought the ready made ones from the supermarket and wrapped whatever we want to eat. They are so handy and get along well with almost everything. Cheese quesadilla is one of our few favorites. I love to to put in hotdogs, just like my little niece Dione.

One fine day, as I was surfing the net, I stumbled upon a recipe that looked workable and passed it on to the one and the only one who would be interested in this. The little Miss Baker eagerly tried the recipe and substitute the shortening with the margarine since, shockingly, we did not have shortening in hand. She practically did all the work herself and the tortillas she made turned out alright.

Fast forward to a few days ago, I had the urge to make them. We had shortening, so we could follow the recipe much more closely. But then again, I did not use as much flour and probably therefore never really needed as much water as the recipe said. Nevertheless, the dough was really easy to work with and I got eight pieces of tortilla from the two cups ++ of flour that I used. Not bad at all.

There's always a good feeling coming out of doing the experiment, especially when the result is satisfactory. It's like a discovering something.... it is interesting knowing the way to get somewhere. I always like to learn how to do certain things and preparing some dishes that I have never done before, is one of them.

Here's what I used to make these Tortillas:

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup of warm water (the water is likely to be more than needed)

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. With the fingers, mix in the shortening until well incorporated.
• Add water part by part until the dough comes together, knead the dough until it becomes soft, workable, not so sticky dough. You are likely to have some water left.
• Leave it to rest for 15 minutes.
• Divide the dough into eight equal pieces.
• Lightly flour a board and roll out the tortillas to around 7-8 inches in diameter.
• Cook tortillas in a heavy skillet over medium heat until lightly browned on each side.

Tea Eggs - The Recipe

Tea eggs are salted-hard boiled eggs, that can be consumed warm or cold. The marble pattern created on the eggs are resulted from the penetration of the tea used to boil them after they are cracked.



Ingredients:
6-8 eggs
3-4 Tsp soy sauce
2 tsp salt
2 black tea bags or any dark colored tea
3 piece star anise
1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns (optional)

Directions:
1. Place eggs in saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 minutes.

2. Remove the eggs. With a spoon/knife, tap each egg to slightly crack the shells in a few places. Return to saucepan.

3. Add other ingredients and stir. Cover and simmer for 3 hours, adding water as necessary. You can leave the eggs in the saucepan longer to let the flavor penetrate further.

4. Drain, serve hot, warm or cold.

All In One Bowl!

I really-really want to bake more cookies and cakes, but we just have too much food around. We still have cookies and brownies as well. We should work on finishing them first before we get into more baking.

Over the weekend, we baked some cut-out Christmas cookies and we still have quite a bit left. My little one baked brownies at school and brought home most of them. I am trying not to excessively stack up food around the house unnecessarily, irregardless the reason. I have sent away a couple jars of cookies, baked one loaf of panettone for my niece and nephew in Jakarta too. We have not been very good eaters, which is good and bad. Good, because that means that everyone of us has a good control of what he/she eats. Bad, because when one stops eating, one does stop eating and the foods, no matter how tempting they are, will be left alone.

Anyway, I had fried rice noodles for lunch yesterday. It was Friday, no-meat day for me. I mixed some cabbage, carrots and sliced spring onions in there. They should be quite healthy, I got my important daily needs one bowl!

Marbled!

Bwah! It's 12th of the 12th month! I can't believe how fast the time goes. I got around to make some Marbled Tea Eggs a couple of days ago. They are so good and as always a big plus for me, is the fact that it is easy to make. Just a few ingredients and a few hours of leaving them simmering, they are ready for snacks or meals.

Deviating ...

Last night, I prepared a list of things that I have to do and need to do today and put them on my working table, with a high hope of having them done. No, I didn't miss the list. It is right in front of me. It's been there since last night, it was still here this morning and it is here with me now. I just could not bring myself to start yet. I went to my beading kits and started making two pairs of earrings for myself (!) to replace the ones I somehow, hopelessly misplaced. They have very similar design. I lost one of them in Beijing. I can be a queen of procrastination sometimes.

I have all the swarovski crystals and pearls that I need and in just a matter of minutes, I got myself two brand new pairs of earrings. In fact, it took me longer to get better pictures and I still am not happy with them. Anyway. To the list I go. Seriously. I am starting. Now.

When A Monday Is Off ...

Three and a half day of school left in this term, there's no school today as it is a public holiday and there's only a half day of school on Friday, the last day of school. The two big girls are scheduled to be very busy with studying as their exams are coming almost right after the school start in January. Did I say January?....... Goodness, it will be 2009 in 23 days and I am panicking.

I am all stressed enough that Christmas is around the corner and I barely have time to dedicate to prepare much of it. I hardly am able to even keep up with my daily things, moreover more things.

Watched the finale of The Amazing Race this morning, it was live telecast from the USA. I am glad that Nick and Starr won $1m. They deserved it, they have been strong competitors throughout, they treated each other well and I liked Nick's "cool-calm-collected" attitude the best. Both can be very aggressive and focused when they needed to be. They are amazing youngsters. It's nice to seem these sort of people win!

Panettone For Myself

As Christmas approaches, supermarkets are flooded with more and more Christmas related from many parts of the worlds. I couldn't help noticing that boxes and boxes of panettone are stacked up high every year. They do look attractive, but I am aware that my family is not a fan of raisin and dried fruits. Still, it did not stop me from trying to bake some and explain what I made at least four times and persuaded them to try some. ( I should have gotten them sit together and given one single explanation instead of doing the same thing again and again!) And failed miserably at them. So far, three less mean people, who were willing or unwilling but did anyway, tasted less than an thumb size of this yummy bread. I am living with hopeless people.

Panettone is originated in Milan, Italy, some smart people said. It is cake-like as it is made with eggs and yeast. It's not too sweet, but very moist. This bread is really good! I had it for breakfast, will have it for lunch and maybe dinner too, since nobody else is eating them. And the next breakfast, if there are still some..... poor me! Boo hoo.

Chilling Out With Mango Ice Cream

And it is now December. Today's weather forecast: Hi: 28C, mostly cloudy. Hot, humid. It's been raining quite a bit here, but it is still punishingly quite hot day and night. I sure do need chilling out, I need to go to the coldest place on earth after discovering that in one of the side table drawers in this house, NO DRUGS, NO CIGARETTES, NO LIQUOR, but a bunch of chocolate wrappers, dirty food wrapper, plastic bag with smoked ham label on it, Hershey's wrapper and a few others. Also, a couple of dirty plates, a few dirty cups and a spoon. This is not the first time, not second, third, fourth or fifth. Not sixth either. I has happened too many times. Yes, it is 30C inside the house but I feel 100C inside my body. I really wonder what's in the mind of a teenager???????????????????

Years ago, I was so happy when she was born, I was so excited seeing her taking her first steps when she was only 11 months and started uttering a few words a few months later. She was an absolute joy when she went to school for the first time, playing piano. She could run really fast, beating all the boys and girls in her grade. She could swim really fast too, beating many older competitors. She made me beaming with pride.

Now? Let me see....... I know, it is not smoking, drinking or sex. But for Pete's sake, the room needs to be clean too, the closet needs some tidying up as well!

Mango ice cream is in order, in fact this is the third batch we made in a week, made specially to cater my own preference, less lime juice, slightly less creamy but the same amount of sugar. It is absolutely yummy. It is like the best ice cream I have ever had in a long time.

I am in the mood to type down the recipe lately, before even asked, so here we go (it's actually a cut and paste from my recipe folder):

Mango Ice Cream

2 cups of cut up mangoes
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice
1 cup heavy cream

Make a syrup with the sugar and water simmered together for 5 minutes. Cool. Add to the mango with the lime juice, mixing thouroughly. Whip the cream until stiff and fold into the mango mixture. Freeze in refrigerator at the coldest temperature available. Stir after 1 hour, and again at the end of the second hour. The ice cream should be ready in about 2 1/2 hours from the beginning of freezing depending on how cold your freezer is.