escapades of the elusive kat

My Dad has this what we call his "Pastry Bible" in German that he has been using every Christmas over the years. Last year, just when Christmas was over, he suddenly said he wanted to get the English version of the same book. He knows it exists because a colleague of his has it.

Being the nice daughter that I am, I did a search for him and voila! I found it. Pity these are 1978 (German) and 1979 (English) books, so I couldn't source a brand new one and had to get second hands. Did a lot of sifting through as some sellers won't ship to Asia, and some listings stated the book had obvious wear-and-tear marks.

Found one that costed around USD$7, but shipping was USD$20. That's why I hate buying books online. Anyway. Placed the order, received it today. Went to Dad to get my money back and he says "ah, your Birthday Present! It's for you!"

WTF!!?!?!?!????????

That's not how presents work LOL! You still need to pay me back, Dad! LOL. It's not even a book I wanted, and won't be using LOL.

Aaaaand when I looked inside the book, the original price was like 5GBP, so it was less than USD$7??? Aren't second hand books supposed to sell cheaper? Or maybe this one is an out-of-print thing? Whatever.

Had a good laugh, had to share this laugh ;-)

This is me being super lazy. I saw a video on Facebook of a Banana & Blueberry Bread thing. So I though I'd make it.

I was meticulous this time to measure everything first and only after mixing them. Still, I forgot to prepare a mold beforehand and when I was almost done, I started looking for a mold. Times like these, of course I couldn't find a mold. In a sudden strike of inspiration, I remembered my breadmaker and I thought I'd just bake it in the breadmaker.

As breadmakers go, at least the ones I've used before, there's no temperature setting... I didn't factor that, so after the first round of baking (1 hour), the inside of the bread was still gooey and wet, so I had to bake it again. I still have another 30 minutes to go, hopefully it actually cooks the bread without drying it out too much. Of course my Dad just looked at him in disdain, haha! Hey, if this actually works out, then I know I CAN use the breadmaker just for baking but I have to double the time. We'll see.

Edit to add:

It's done! It's baked! It worked!


Texture and looks are also ok, albeit the blueberries seem to have all grouped to one side. However, the taste of the bread was total yuck. Either it's just me who doesn't like honey (honey taste is strong - and I cut down on the honey already), or the bananas I used weren't sweet? No idea.

I think what I'll do is slice them thin and double bake them them, make a biscotti sort of thing out of that.

BUT! Now I know, the bread machine can do that too! (but double the bake time)

So, recently I've been using the bread machine like crazy. I wonder if it's going to break down soon...

I've been following the recipes that came with the manual one by one. So far my favorite is the White Bread recipe. 

Recipe for your information, as follows:

For 750g weight
250ml Milk/Water
2L spoon Butter
0.5S spoon Salt
2L spoon Sugar
3cups Flour
2L spoon Skim Milk Powder
0.5S spoon Yeast

S = small, L = large

Place ingredients into the bucket in the order suggested (or as long as all liquids underneath and dry ingredients on top)

The first time I made this recipe, it was a very dense, heavy bread and I LOVED it. I didn't have time to melt the butter so I used olive oil, and I used a processed milk that is low fat, high calcium but very dense (unlike usual low fat milk, the milk is very watery).

I tried to make it a second time but changed the following

200ml Earl Grey Tea (200ml water and 2 spoons of tea)
50ml Water
3L spoon Sugar
A bit of Earl Grey Tea Leaves as the dough is mixing


With the rest of the ingredients unchanged. Out came a very light bread. Not bad, but too sweet. I thought using tea would make the bread very bitter so I added another spoon of sugar (and I did not add salt as we ran out of salt... a really long story!)... Maybe next time I'm going to use the full 250ml tea... or to make it a bit more compact, 200ml Tea (but stronger) and 50ml Milk... yes... maybe I will do that...

A question for friends who are familiar with Japanese cooking: what does a store-bought Miso look like? Is it a bottle of sauce, a packet of powder, a tube of paste... ?? After I've mucked around enough with the Earl Grey Loaf, I intend to make a Miso Bread (nicked the recipe off Cookpad.com) 

In my search for Miso, I instead bought a bottle of Miso & Sesame Salad Dressing... perhaps I can use that... hm....!!!!

I can't believe my 4-day weekend is half over! Why do weekends pass so quickly!?? It's Sunday night already!?

I have to make full use of my Monday and my Tuesday!

Let me divulge a little more of my romantic past. A very select few of you might know something about this already (I made one such post a real long time ago!). I wanted to elaborate in the "I only attract weird, scary, old guys."

Around my early years in High School, I used to frequent one video games store. Not arcade games, but a shop that sold these games. I still remember at that time Sony and Sega were having their PlayStation and Sega Saturn wars. Everyone bought the PlayStation. My Sis convinced my Mom to buy us the SegaSaturn (bad, bad, decision!). And so, at the beginning of the month (our pocket money "payday") I would pass by the shop to look. I could never afford to buy a new game every month (heck, with that measly amount of pocket money... it was just enough for me to get my necessary school supplies and eat out twice a month with friends)

So, this shopkeeper had the hots for me. I didn't know it until it was too late. I would go to the shop every month, with friends, with my Sis, alone. You know, normal window shopping habits. When I found out he had the hots for me? There were a few incidents:

He gave me gifts.


You recognize that? That's the Pocket Pikachu! Oh yeah I was a fan! I wasn't too big a Pokemon fan, but I liked Pikachu and Charmandar (sp?) And that on the right is a Puyolin. It doesn't work anymore, pity. Puyo Puyo from the Compile era is my favourite! Too bad Compile had to close down, and now Sega (or someone else) has completely revamped the Puyo Puyo series and I don't like it anymore.

Yes, when my Sis and my cousin bought the Pocket Pikachu, Mr. Shopkeeper gave one to me. He sold the US version to my Sis and my cousin. He gave the Japan version one to me. At another point in time, he gave me the Puyolin. He also gave me an SD Gundam Piggy Bank... it was the shape of one of those Gundams and when you put a coin in the Gundam talks, LOL.

So yeah. He gave me gifts.

He also preached to me. His religion is Buddhism. And he talked ALOT of Buddhism talk to me. He let me work for a week during my Easter break. And he continued to preach.

And he never stopped from asking me out for dinner. I never went out for dinner with him. ahem. yah. Never.

Now the shop is closed, I don't know his whereabouts, but it doesn't matter, because I'm not seeking him out. He may not be old enough to be my father, but he is still uncle material, and he is a weird man. I don't remember when and why I stopped going to his shop, but it wasn't because of all the gifting. Nevertheless, I guess I was scarred for life.


So, after talking about such embarrassing things, let's make happy thoughts. Food makes me happy!

I had these for lunch with my parents yesterday. We went to the food court above the neighborhood wet market:


The first one is... a bowl of plain noodles (each one had his own) and a plate of "Everything Dish" (for sharing). These Soup Noodle stores basically just boil everything and anything in soup to cook them. The noodles? Cook it in some beef stock soup. The 2 balls you see on the noodles? Fish balls. Boiled in said soup base. On that plate? Oh, a little of everything that's on the menu. Chicken wings, chicken feet, beef internal organs, pork skin, mushrooms, potatoes, squids, veggies, beef brisket, pork knuckles, mini frankfurters... and that's just what I could remember right now. The second is a bean curd dessert... Call it Sweet bean curd, Soya bean dessert, Sweet Tofu, or the proper Chinese name, "Tofu-fa"... it's chilled bean curd, served in a special sugar syrup and a bit of carnation milk. I can assure you, that is the best Tofu-fa you will find in town.

Back tracking to Friday, despite being the last day Boss would be hanging around, I had a quick sandwich lunch and tried a new milk drink. It was yuck (the milk drink)


Ah... finally... I have run out of photos! 

I just baked a cake. Well, it was a recipe for one cake, but I used 3 small paper molds, so I got 3 mini cakes!

The cake smells so nice!

Since it was a recipe from a German cake/pastry book, I'm going to share the recipe - our modified version!