Choc Chip Cookies

Recently my cousin Karen whipped up a recipe for me to cook. Since I hardly ever cook (is 4-6 times a year considered "hardly ever" or "never"?), she was trying to inspire me to start, throwing in a picture of her weeds green vegetables for good measure. So Karen, here's a recipe for you:

*But first, a little disclaimer, none of my recipes are original since:
1. I am not one to deviate from supposed tried and tested recipes. I just don't have the courage to switch anything. Except maybe reducing the sugar especially when the recipe comes from America.
2. Why reinvent the wheel?

Anyways, here's one for Chocolate Chip Cookies, the kind that are supposed to be chewy although here in Malaysia, everyone prefers the crunchy type.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
125g butter
1 egg yolk
1tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup choc chips

1. Beat sugar and butter.
2. Add yolk and essence.
3. Add flour and finally, the choc chips.
4. Roll them into balls, flatten them just slightly on a lined baking pan. They will expand just a bit.
5. Bake for 12 mins (I put it in for longer as I prefer it crunchier) at 180 degrees Celsius.

Easy, ain't it? I'll upload photos later. One thing though, I reduced the caster sugar to 1/4 cups but it still is too sweet for me.

Source: The Occasional Epicure which is hardly updated anymore.



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Comments from my colleagues:
"Too sweet!"
"Lau hong" (masuk angin) - I had to explain that this is a chewy cookie to almost every single person as they commented this.

This gives me a good excuse to try again! Anyway, they were all gone by the evening.

But there was one who pissed me off a little. She complained right from the first bite but ate the most pieces and even had it for her lunch.

Unusual Stuff

Lately at work, I've been trying to go around looking for tetsubin, or cast iron Japanese teapots Ron asked me to get for him. Walked around Chinatown and developed blisters but all I was rewarded with were blank stares, "Japanese teapots?". I reckoned they would know where to get teapots since their entire shop was filled with Chinese teapots and to me, Chinese/Japanese, they are all the same.

They recommended me to try Isetan. There, this sales boy also gave me a funny look and pointed to the ceramic ones, to which I shook my head and repeated, "Made of iron, NOT ceramic!". To my disgust, he delivered the most typical line any sales person in Malaysia would say (besides "I don't know"):

"Oh, I think we've run out of stock for those".

I shot him a look and enunciated "You mean you actually have the teapots and they're really just sold out?"

"What pots again?"

Idiot.

Anyway, the other unusual thing I'm looking for is a kneeling chair.

I sat on one many years back and it felt really comfortable to the backbone. I just don't know where they sell them here in Malaysia.

It Will Grow - Eventually

I've had long hair for quite some time now, about a few inches above my waist. Last week, I decided to accompany KS to cut his hair in Melaka. This was our first time there.

Initially, I wanted to just have a trim but the hair stylist confidently said he would give it a good cut with proper layering. Oh well, since he was the expert, how bad can it be?

Now, at this stage, one would know having this kind of thought at a hair saloon you've never been to before is actually a red warning flag.

Anyways, I settled comfortably into the chair and flipped through some magazines. It wasn't until he started working on my fringe and snipped off a good 10 inches when I realised how much hair was on the floor! He assured me I could still tie my hair - bollocks!

My layered portion is short while the layer beneath it is long enough to be tied. Unfortunately, the longer portion is curling out and with the bouncy shorter layer, it looks like the mushroom effect of an atomic bomb.

Freaks

When Ron was writing an essay during his teens, he accidentally described one of his characters as being 5m tall. We have been laughing over it since then.

I was recently filling up a form and filled up my wpm typing speed as 100. At best, my speed was 67wpm after 3 attempts and aching fingers on testmytyping.com. I then clicked on the Fame listing and saw the highest was 91wpm. I hope to goodness they won’t ask me to prove my 100wpm!

Are You An Organ Donor Yet?

It’s amazing what I can get up to while waiting for KS to pick me from work. Instead of continuing my work, it is more fun to do other stuff which you normally wouldn’t. Like calling up the National Donor Foundation and asking them to send you a form.

KS and I have talked about this and it’s always been a matter of fact thing. I mean, why not? Why would I need my organs when I die anyway? I think I’ve described my perfect burial before so I won’t go there. Now I’m actually taking one step towards making the first part a reality by registering.

And in the process, I’m going to start recruiting others to sign up too. Don’t like doing things alone.

June 10th

In 2003, KL was hit by one of the worst floods ever, with the famous Dataran Merdeka submerged under the murky waters which rose from the river nearby. Actor’s Studio and the Dama Orchestra had offices under the Dataran Merdeka and lost irreplaceable works and equipment. Cars parked nearby and under were quickly overwhelmed by the waters as most people could only run out of their underground offices before the water drowned everything in mere minutes.

Yesterday, KL was hit again, with all the same spots as 2003. I now work around this area and the mud caked roads and rubbish decorated shrubs are surely something to gawk at, since it has been reported the flood waters rose to 1m.

Both floods happened on 10th June. Why I remember this is because I was stuck in a 3 hour jam in 2003 while waiting for the waters to subside. And June 10th is Jan’s birthday so I kept linking the flood to her.

The good thing about yesterday was that it wasn’t a work day. Not as many people were affected as it could have been. The bad thing is, I didn’t get to see the waters rising. As you know, I’ve had this freakish desire to see the famous floods here. To my delight, I’m not the only freak as my colleagues have mentioned the same thing.

Local News

Wounded Man Dies at Clinic

Some of you may have already read Jan’s blog about the murdered man at the clinic in Paramount. In short, KS was waiting to see the doc when the CSI team moved in and sealed the place. He didn’t see the body and was told to come back in an hour to see the doctor. We had a quick dinner and proceeded to the clinic, which was swamped with curious on-lookers and the police.

I was dying of curiosity but was too proud to show it and instead asked a stupid question to a policeman nearby. “Lama tak?”. He just gave a smile and said, “Saya pun tak pasti lah”.

That was the end of my interrogation. I’ll never pass as a journalist with such brilliant questioning skills.


Prime Minister to Marry

Yup, for the first time in Malaysian history, our Prime Minister is getting married today. He’s marrying his late wife’s ex-sister-in-law. His late wife passed away in 2005, lost to breast cancer. I wonder when he had the time to date though.

Jeanne Abdullah has French blood. Other than that, all I know is that she was the Manager of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Official Residence when our current Prime Minister was the deputy. Apparently the press have been given strict guidelines as to not dig up any of her past info, no talking to people she has worked with, family or friends, even her kindy mates. Sigh, the price of being in the limelight.


Lina Joy Loses Case

Lina Joy was born Muslim but converted to Christianity. She tried to change her religion in her IC in order to marry her Catholic boyfriend so that he does not need to convert to Islam. The case which the world was watching. The case which outcome has caused a lot of concern to the non-Muslims in this country. The supposed freedom one is supposed to have in choosing their own religion.


Mongolian Murder

The high profile case of the Mongolian woman who was shot and then blown up with C4 explosives has been postponed.

To quote from jeffooi.com "...three days before the trial was scheduled to start on June 4, counsel Zulkifli Noordin was quoted in the International Herald Tribune June 1 as saying that: "We are interested to know whether there is any political link to the murder. Why were all the people involved linked to No. 2?" "

The counsel then pulled out at the last minute, citing "There were serious attempts by third parties to interfere with the defence that I proposed.". So the trial has been postponed under “unusual circumstances” to 18 June.

Enough said. I don’t want to be sued for blogging about "sensitive issues" but it sure raises eyebrows.


Green Pledges

Since it’s World Environment Day this week, the local papers asked readers to send in their pledges on what they can do to go green. Some have really weird answers:

• Nelsen, 21, from Petaling Jaya pledges to buy chickens and set them free.

• George Teh, 56, from Penang pledges to eat everything edible including edible skin so as not to create more waste.
• Jeremy Lim, 19, from Klang pledged not to eat French fries for a month to conserve water. (WHAT??)

Infected Eye

Ang Ku’s eye is still not well. We brought her to the vet again this morning and he taught us how to pill her. We have to do this twice a day otherwise the infection will not go away. Poor baby.

Been Away

Was staying in PJ over a good part of last week as KS was in Singapore for a conference. Although it wasn’t “home”, I was glad to be able to go to work early/on time and go shopping in PJ without having to plan an hour’s headstart.

And when I got back to Klang, we have been coming back really late so I haven’t been able to catch up much on blogging since I can’t do that at work. I know Karen posted a blogpost about veggies to try to entice me to eat the weeds. Karen, I can’t quite describe what your plate of fried veggies looked to me but it did not trigger any salivating. Sorry.

Back to shopping, AGAIN, I’m hit by the shopping bug. I just feel like doing some damage to my credit card, as it has been a pretty quite month last two months for my retail spending. Mega Sales are in a month’s time, Singapore Sale is on…