Funtastic Fridays- Sorry!

Hi everyone! I will have to apologize for such a late post today! I conveniently accidentally forgot that I had a staff meeting today.

Initially I wanted to make  peach pie for this post, but due to really bad traffic, I reached home really late and was unable to make the pie. 

At most I actually posted? Haha

Watch some adventure time instead. Adventure time is my favorite cartoon crack (anti-drug). It's so crazy that you'll be going "what the...heck just happened?!"

Yup. My not so secret hobby. Enjoy or have the feeling that you've just wasted 15 minutes of your life haha

Let me know what are the craziest cartoons you still watch in the comments below!

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Life's like a box of chocolates...

It's Friday! I have never appreciated Friday as much as I have today.

The quote "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get" from Forrest Gump the movie,

rings true for me today. I never knew that you can do something that you like and still feel so tired.

I would like to think that I worked hard this week and now it's time for some pampering!

Cue music, rockabilly time!

Nothing as pampering as a good self pedicure session! I personally feel that I neglect my feet a lot despite all the hard work they have to do with making me mobile.

Especially when I used to go for ballet classes... the abuse I put my feet through (shudders)

Inside our pretty little ballet slippers is probably a pair of feet uglier than average feet

The thing about doing pedicures for me is that , I have really tiny toenails (or nails in general)

Check out my cute feeties! (I'm being sarcastic, I know it looks terrible.)

Going to a nail salon to do manicures and pedicures are an absolute waste of money, especially if they only have options for painting nails. What my feet really need is to be rid of callouses and dead skin cells (and an exfoliation would be nice)

A lot of my friends ask me what I do with my free time, I usually just tell them I read books, but I'm actually watching cat videos on the internet! HAHA!!

I may be Kidding,  I do read books, but I also watch cat videos online and sometimes, I chance upon really....interesting stuff, which I end up reacting like this: YEEERRR!! SO CUTE ONE!!!

Yup, so, now you know what I do with my free time.

I'm off to enjoy the rest of my funtastic friday~

Let me know what you do during your free time in the comments section !

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays- Favorite things

It's Friday again! What better way to start of the day than to have your favorite breakfast food?

I don't really have a favorite breakfast food. It's a game of roulette in my brain minutes before I wake up and whatever food on the list gets chosen will be The Favored Breakfast of The Day.

Today's Favored Breakfast of The Day: Over peppered sunny side up egg and cheese sandwich

I could only capture my over peppered (I love pepper) egg because I was so hungry I ate my sandwich immediately after I assembled it. (You're not really missing out much, it didn't look that great anyway. Neither does my egg)

Other than sunny side egg and cheese sandwich, I love ICE-CREAM, but I love HOMEMADE ICE-CREAM even more!

Do I even need to tell you how much more delicious homemade ice-cream is compared to commercially made ones? OF COURSE NOT!

However, I found this ice-cream pre-mix in my local baking shop and I was really mindblown...I never knew they had such things, but I realised that this is probably how ice-cream is made commercially as an afterthought. Pretty disappointing, I know.

This pre-mix just lost it's mindblowing magic

Despite the fact that this recipe only calls for two ingredients (Full cream milk and the ice-cream mix), It requires too much fancy baking equipment. Weighing out ingredients like milk in grams....seriously? Come on!

It was a tad bit too sweet, so I added in some green tea powder to neutralize the  sweetness that's why it looks green.The flavour being too sweet would be another drawback about using ice-cream mix

Before

After  

I let it soften a bit before transfering to a freezer box for storing

Scoop, serve and enjoy!

P.s It's not as good as I thought it would be, I should expect that since it is a pre-mix. Still, this feeling of unsatisfied-ness is just so annoying!

I'm probably gonna make ice cream from scratch some time soon.

So, what is your favorite food? Let me know in the comments section!

I''ll be going off to enjoy the rest of my Friday. Ciao~

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Scrumptious Scones

TGIF! 

Thank God it's Funday!

I am happy to announce that Funtastic Fridays are back!

And this week. it's....(drumrolls)...

Now, doesn't that just look scrumptious?

Scones! (ba-dam-tss!)

Here's how these babies were born!

This recipe was adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scones/

Ingredients (Listed from left to right, top to bottom)

•  1 cup milk
• 3 cups flour
• 170 g unsalted butter, cubed (and kept as cold as possible, freeze it)
• 5 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used Himalayan rock salt, but you can use regular salt)
• 1 egg, beaten lightly

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Before you jump right in, here's some thing's you must should do(trust me on this one, I learnt the hard way):

1) Put what ever bowl you're using to mix in the fridge/ freezer and let it become nice and cold

• This will help the scones rise better by keeping your mixture (especially in warm climates)

2) Freeze your butter after you've cubed them

• Because you need to keep thing cold, so your scones rise higher

3) Preheat your oven at 200C degrees

• Grease your baking tray or line it with baking paper

4) Clear a large enough surface for kneading the flour

• Finally, some action!

5) Make sure your hands are clean and your fingernails trimmed

• Obviously, for hygiene reasons. Especially trimming nails...

Let's get on with the show!

1) Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into the cold mixing bowl and mix till combined

2) Throw in the cubed butter and, using your hands (you can use a pastry cutter but I like using my hands) break up the butter and mix with the flour until a bread crumb texture is achieved.

Your mix should look like this (this step is totally not long nailed friendly, hence, trim them)

3) Pour milk into the beaten egg and mix till combined

4) Make a well in the mix and pour milk and egg mixture into the well. Mix until you get a gooey mess.

• At this point you might think the gooey mess is a mistake, but DON'T PANIC! It's all part of the plan.

5) Flour your surface generously, much more generously than I did please!

Gooey mess FTW!

6) Scoop out the gooey mess onto the floured surface and knead away!

7) Feel free to add more flour as you knead and shape it into 1 and a 1/2 inch (approximate) and you're ready to cut

8) You can use a scone cutter but if you don't a straight glass will do the trick! Flour the cup thoroughly and press down into the flour to create round cuts!

• Optional: egg wash, use a basting brush to brush on beaten egg onto the top of the  unbaked scones

9) Pop them into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Why, hello there! Nice day for a spot of tea!

10) Serve with butter and jam (and clotted cream if it's available!) And now you're done!

Once more this recipe is adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scones/
I used this recipe and made changes as I saw fit.

Enjoy!

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Nerdy fun!

Okay you'll think I'm mad for trying to make studying into a 'fun' post but I must say that working on this project is tough and I may or may not have shed unseen tears because of it. HOWEVER!!

It is pretty fun if  I don't think of it as work. I really need to change my mindset planning a four day English program should be fun by right? Right?!?

So I will force my brain to make it fun. Mind over matter! For now, this is my situation:

So much  fun!

See you on Monday!

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Of culture and tradition!

If you've noticed, yesterday, Google's logo changed because it was mid autumn festival! Being a Malaysian Chinese, I feel that I have probably lost huge chunks of my Chinese culture.

In fact, I always tell my mother that I'm very Westernized from my speech (mah Chinese is so broken ya can't fix it back together! Yo mama jokes) to my dressing.

Mainly for practicality, Malaysian Chinese don't wear cheongsam's and samfoo's. It's too hot here.
Also, My lecturer insists that it was the Manchurian's who wore them. But aren't they a Chinese tribe too!?!?

Not to mention, I originate from a big-ish city (Petaling Jaya) where you don't greet your neighbors because the uncles and aunties just stare at you grumpily in response when you do, talk about extinguishing a behavior! Let's just say, our community life is rather non-existent.

However, during the mid-autumn festival, we do send mooncakes to our relatives and friends. I'm so un-Chinese, I don't know why we do it but we do...I think its kind of like an Chinese thanksgiving where we give it to people to say thanks for being around! or something...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong because I most probably am. Haha!

Mooncake.

Just in case you get the feeling that I'm completely smug about the fact that I don't know much about my culture. I am not! In fact I'm super embarrassed about it and I'm working on it! I promise!

Anyway, enough chatter about me and on to the exciting(or at least I thought it was exciting)  part!

I went out with two lovely girls for dinner/supper last night at a shop in a small town called Broga and people of Broga town just congregated at this community hall and were celebrating mid-autumn festival with flair!

It was seriously amazing!I mean the whole town, everyone chatting together and having fun...its just blows my puny little big city person mind (I'm not contradicting myself, read that again if you must :P) 

Here are some not so good quality pictures that I somehow managed to catch with my phone. I'm apologize about that but they were walking on the streets together and I was just too amazed and surprised.

Dragon dance walking down the streets!

Followed by lion dancers complete with percussion!

Practically the whole town with their grandparents and kids walking with lanterns after the dragon and lions

There was this awesome feeling of community which I probably never or hardly experienced before and it just makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and happy inside. I really hope that, one day, I too will be able to find and live in such a harmonious community.

Over and out!

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Movie!

It's Friday, I'm in love.

So I decided to do something mainstream today. Purely because I have run out of hipster ideas but the hipster in me lives still! 

I'm one of those people who are never current with movies. Honestly, I'm not really bothered about it unless I'm hanging out with movie buffs ( Half of the time I feel like I am.) So I watched Mary Poppins today.

 

If you have never watched it in your entire life, you SHOULD. I know  it's old but you know old is gold. In addition to Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, you're in for a good feel good time.

Spoilers if you haven't watched but it's still a pretty cool video

That's all for today. I'm totally out of ideas on what next to blog on Fridays and I'm open to suggestions! Do let me know what you'd like to read about on Fridays. :)

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Tea time therapy

Hello everyone! It's Friday again! This week has been rather hectic for me and here's why:

Yup that's my closet and practically all my clothes left. Give me a ":)" for arranging it according to the colours of the rainbow.  

The other half belongs to my sister. Some people may think that's so little clothes other would think it's a lot of clothes. Well I think it's TOO MUCH clothes! It's been  a nightmare. So this Friday, I'm gonna have myself  some tea time therapy!

What's tea time therapy? Guys probably won't understand this but if you ever want to make a girl happy, this might (all girls are different after all) help.

Felt Asian today.

Some girls enjoy going to really cute (probably pricey) tea places. Why? Because it's cute and it make us feel happy and pampered. But if you're on a tight budget, putting in the effort to make  your own tea time set up a little prettier would be even better!

Don't feel Asian? By all means go Western!

FromFalling leaves 25th/afternoon tea party. If you like artsy stuff you'll love her!

All you need is some tea and pastries. If you have cute tablecloth, cups and teapots WHY NOT?! Just go for it!

There is something just charming about having tea time by yourself if you set it up nicely. It doesn't have to be elaborate. I don't know how others feel about it but to me, it's like having a tea party without having to go through the small talk (I'm not very good at it that's why) and major preparation and clean up. All in all, I find this fun and therapeutic (very relaxing to just sit down and drink tea for no reason). 

That's all for my funtastic Friday, gotta get back to packing those clothes! :'(

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - No bake cake ( batik cake/ hedgehog slice)

Warning! This post is ultra long. Warning! This post is ultra long. Warning!

Everybody loves Friday except for everyone else who doesn't (me included). Why would anyone n dislike Fridays? Well in Malaysia, Friday is the day of terrible traffic because of several factors. 

Malaysian traffic often looks like this or worse.

Going chronologically: 

• 'Overly happy because it's the last day  of work for the week' workers heading off to work in the morning. ( Fine, this occurs every day minus the happy part.)
• Our Muslim friends have prayers in the afternoon = traffic jam. (You guys face the worst of it because you have to go out to pray. Sorry bout the jams :/ )
• Friday night fever people (All you crazy happening people who go out after work to partay the night away)

So obviously for all us spoil sport people who don't like Friday jams, we need a little Friday fun! What better way to have fun than to eat a deliciously rich  and fudgy chocolate cake and decline into obesity?

This is Wendyinkk's batik cake! So pretty! You have to check out Wendyinkk's blog tutorial, it's much clearer!

 I am fully aware that some people dislike chocolate but this one's for the rest of us who do.

Making cakes = The hassle of  baking a cake and the clean up that comes with it and let's admit it, there are those cakes which turn out like an alien baby from Uranus or something. 

I've probably convincingly discouraged you from trying by now. But fear not!! This no bake batik cake/hedgehog slice  is so SIMPLE and FAIL PROOF. You will NOT end up with an alien baby from Uranus. I promise!

Okay  enough chatter and down to getting this cake in our tummies! (There are a lot of different versions of this recipe on the web, mine is reduced sweetness so it's quite bitter)

Things you need:

1. Measuring cups (if you don't have these, using a small glass cup might work)
2. Baking paper ( or you can grease your container with butter/margarine)
3. Container of any shape to house your cake (usually square ones are good)
4. Pot and stove (if you don't have this, you probably can't make this cake...)

Ingredients ( My recipe is reduced sugar ):

1. 1 cup of water (250 ml)
2. 1 cup of cocoa powder
3. 1/2 to 1 cup of Milo/ drinking chocolate powder
4. 1/2 cups of brown sugar (if you like things sweet you can use 1 cup)
5. 125 g of butter/ margarine ( Roughly half a stick. Salted/ unsalted? Up to you.)
6. 3 eggs
7. 1 pkt of Marie Biscuits

Method (read to the end before doing anything):

1. Put ingredients 1,2,3,4 in a pot on low heat. Mix until combined.
2. Add in ingredients 5 and 6 in the same pot and stir until chocolate sauce coats your spoon. Turn heat off
   
   For people who want a nice even pattern or if you just have OCD and need things to be neat:
3. Arrange a layer of Marie biscuit to cover the base of your container
4. Pour chocolate sauce to cover the biscuits. Now add another layer of biscuits and repeat this process till you finish your chocolate sauce. 
5. Now proceed to step 8
   
   Alternately, if doing step 3 and 4 is too much of a hassle for you non-OCD folks:
6. Simply break the Marie biscuits into halves or quarters (or just break those buggers anyhow) and chuck it all into the chocolate sauce.
7. Stir to coat the biscuit pieces and pour into container.
8. Push the whole mixture down with a spoon to compress it. If you used baking paper, you can fold that on top and press down WITH A SPOON because we don't want hot chocolate sauce burning your hands.

   

   The mess on the right is what happens when you press it down
                        

   (The biscuits may shift about when you do this so please don't panic if something pops out of place, just keep pressing them back down)
9. Now chuck the container in the fridge and give yourself a pat on the shoulder.
10. Do the chicken dance.
11. Take a shower with your clothes on.
12.  Change out of your wet clothes
13. Do a twirl
14. Now, ONLY do step 1 to 9
15. Take cake out of the fridge when you're sure it's set (It usually takes 3-5 hours but if it doesn't seem to be setting,which usually happens to me, put it in the freezer in fact leave it over night in the fridge.)
16. Impress yourself , enjoy your cake and gain some weight. (Weight gaining may be optional if you don't eat it that is...) 
17. Wash up your saucepan, measuring cups and everything you used.
    DO NOT NEGLECT THIS STEP OR YOUR PARENT'S/HOUSEMATES/PEOPLE YOU LIVE WITH ARE GOING TO BE SO ANNOYED!!!

I hope you had fun :)

Asia Colion