Prideful me, sorry!

Prideful is really the evil I have been combating with, not that somebody told me  , it takes a very establishEd relationship to be able to hear a truthful comment from oneself.  It is also what I realized long ago and still sometimes loose guard of this evil character of mine.

I never wanted to accept this truth of it is already in me, argh! (scratching my head) But I believe self-examine is the first step to overcome this flaw (though I made this "first step" many times). ;p

I feel bad every time I over reacted with this character, though closed friends have noticed my improvement, I wish I could do better to at least get rid of it.

Trust me, I never wanted to do this to hurt you.
What a prideful me, I dislike this side of me.

A surprise gift from Hong Kong

A surprise parcel from childhood friend, who are now married to Hong Kong, thanks so much of this sourdough recipe book, nope, not my birthday, it was a surprise gift. Thanks so much, I loved this book.
She mailed me a cookies recipe book last year, this book also teaches technique for cookies decoration,sadly i haven't tried baking one yet.
Perhaps she saw many photos of sourdough breads posted up in my timeline recently, so thoughtful of her sent me this recipe book.
"Start baking sourdough bread with an apple" the title of this book was  written by a Japanese baker, translated into Mandarin. Recipes were written in small portion though, good enough for small family or individual consumption. Love it.
It teaches us to use apple enzyme to make sourdough starter, I believe fruit sourdough gives extra flavour and enriched the aroma of all breads, and hence without any hesitation I started the apple enzyme 3 days ago, temperature in Malaysia is higher than Japan, I reduce the fermenting period to 4 days instead of 5 days as written.  When I tried to take a sniff this morning, it smells awesomely good, apple enzyme simply richer than ordinary sourdough starter that is only called for water and flour.  I will have to come back and check it out tomorrow.
Just can't wait....

The cover of "Start baking sourdough bread with an apple"

Sourdough sandwich loaf

I forgot where I got this recipe..... mmm, ah, I guessed it was modified from a white bread recipe from Carol 自在生活 again, it wasn't tasting... haha, ya many of them not tasting which I have to finish all of them. 

Sourdough white bread

Yee Neo found a site Carol 自在生活she provides many sourdough bread recipes, with details of teaching how to cultivate sourdough starter. You should try this site, it's in mandarin somehow you may use 'google translate' to help you read those Chinese characters. 

Simple Sourdough bread

Have been searching high and low, watching many youtube clips for sourdough recipes, this is Baking Basic Sourdough Bread Recipe  by Chris so far the first recipe I have gotten online that is said "simple". A simple recipe, because he gave clear instruction, I followed, tastes okay, rather hard. It's my first sourdough bread, I was happy that I could bake one.

Sewing Octopus Coloured zipper pencil case

Zipper for Gab, as requested by him, I sewed a special compartment where only could reach by three zippers from the back panel. And I think it is a brilliant idea. 

Coloured Zipper Cases is a combination of YKK zippers, which I followed smiggle® zipper case, the only difference is the secret compartment, which only could be reached by three zippers from the back panel.

Measurement:
9" x 5"
YKK coloured zipper Cotton compartment

All open edges are carefully handsewn.

Visit Sewing Octopus for custom made request

Happy Peter Sourdough recipe

Happy Peter sourdough recipe 

As mentioned in previous post, I have changed some of the instruction which I found online to suit those who wish to start your own sourdough starter and yet live in one of the tropical countries which we have summer season the whole year round.


Here it is:

1st day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour
mix well, and keep in a warm place, what I did is, I turn on a small light in my kitchen to keep the place warmer.

2nd day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour 
Mix well and keep. Smell not quite pleasant.

3rd day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour
 
Mix well and keep. Normal fermenting smell.

4th day:

Ok, here is the key day, I didn't keep it in liquid form anymore, I add in more bread flour to make them paste form or till it is in dough form, up to you, just don't keep it in liquid form any more.
1 Tbsp water
Sufficient of bread flour

5th day:

1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp of bread flour
(mix well lah)

6th day:

1 Tbsp of water
2 Tbsp of bread flour

7th day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour

This is Happy Peter Sourdough Starter as
today's date 7th April,
I have start feeding it with rye flour and
wholemeal flour a month ago,
you may do some variation to it,
no harm brings. 

By then sourdough gas beginning more stable, and it won't turn bad easily.
(whispering) I don't actually follow the ratio, as long as I mix them and till I get the same consistency (same paste / dough form).
Remember to keep it in fridge if you are not baking, make sure you feed it once a week, if you would like to feed it every day, feed bit by bit, this will prevent sourdough turns very sour, unless you like the sourness.

I have read some questions that posted online, some like the sourdough to be very sour, this is easy, if you keep the sourdough starter longer period in fridge the sour-est it could be.

If you do not like the bread tasted very sour, try to feed sourdough starter everyday no matter if you are baking or not.

Good planning helps to keep everything in control. Feed it in small amount. Or..... giveaway to friends.

Cranberry walnut sourdough country bread with
 home-cooked Roselle jam I bought from
Carpenter's Daughter Artisan Bakery in Taipan.

Another cranberry pumpkin nut sourdough country bread.

Rosemary Biscuits

 Mun Wah tagged me in a post that says sniffing rosemary could improve memory by 75%

Everybody knows I have bad memory, this is a good news to me, I went to Asia Bakery shop to look for rosemary herbs, it was out of stock, but I reserve 100g of rosemary herbs without hesitation, it costs about RM30+ Next is to sew a few small sachets for this herbs, for me to keep under pillow, wardrobe and car, hall.... everywhere I can smell them.

Later of the day, I searched a recipe that calls for rosemary, here I found this Flaky Herb Biscuits. Easy to make, something like making scones. Best thing is I have thyme and rosemary herbs at home. I can bake it right away.




It does give a pleasant aroma to your house while baking it. tasted salty, and I had this serving with a small piece of salted butter which I bought last night, recommended by Leonard, to really know the butter well, I took a small cube of it alone. I can I take SCS butter alone, but I find it rather salty by taking this alone. It should go well with sour dough bread.

This herb biscuits are salty biscuits, it went well with this French butter though.

Here is the recipe for Rosemary Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme
• 100gm Salted butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup milk

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven 200°C. Line baking tray with parchment paper.

2) In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together 

3) Add butter cubes into mixture, knead into crumbs 

4) Pour in milk to knead into dough form

5) Move dough on lightly floured table top, use a roller to make a 1/4" thickness, cut out with round shape cutter. Transfer it onto lined baking tray.

6) Bake until golden brown, it takes roughly 18 minutes, serve immediately.

I

Sourdough starter

After a few attempts, finally get this time successfully cultivated, hooray!! What happened to the old unsuccessful sourdough starter? "Those? " "most of them gotten maggots on the 5th day, some turned blackish and smelled badly." I was finally realised that I should not wait till 5th day, as the temperature in Malaysia is warmer. Hence, I got this sourdough recipe for myself, use this recipe if you are in tropical country. Go to - Happy Peter Sourdough Recipe

I finally decided to use 2:1 ratio instead of 1:1 ratio. Meaning 2 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of water, make them into paste form rather than liquid form. And with this try and change, I got it successfully cultivated and I name it "Happy Peter Sourdough Starter" Meet my "Happy Peter Sourdough Starter"

I made a few more, simply don't like the idea of throwing away, I gave them to Cynthia, Yee Neo and KC Goh. "Happy~"

I made a few more, simply don't like the idea of throwing away, I gave them to Cynthia, Yee Neo and KC Goh. "Happy~"

上帝的用心良苦

一月进入第四个星期了，靖雄在上个星期终于愿意自个儿睡了。弄好被单，抹干净床边的储藏"沟"，搬了一堆的书籍，文具，也弄好一盏灯供阅读的。
我早对他说有自己的空间是一桩乐事也！
今天早上起床后因为没把校服预先烫好就被我训话了一顿，接下来就命令他从今天起必须搭公共巴士上学，立刻看见他用手擦了擦眼泪。

我连忙说:"有什么好哭的，妈妈以前也是搭巴士到处去。"
"妳说会陪我一起去的。"
"不用陪的，路途很短，已经替你打听了巴士号码，也带你去看要下车的巴士站，还要什么陪的！"

“万一你来载我的时候见不到我呢？”

“怎么会见不到你？你来告诉我，你有什么看见？”

“万一我迷失了，怎么样？”

“什么？迷路？从安亲班中心到学校的车站才隔了两个车站，着一辆 T523 Rapid 巴士只去到梳邦购物中心再回来USJ， 如果你从中午时间迷失了，到傍晚还没办法回到家，那么你的脑袋真有问题！”

我接着说：“别在说了，今天就开始搭车去，待会儿十一点半告诉刘老师你要出去搭巴士上学。”

早上八时十五分到安亲班中心补习，在中心吃了午餐就得要出门，走几步路就到巴士站了，Madam Tan 说巴士大概会在11:45 与 12:00 之间到站，只要靖雄11:30 出门就不会误时了。

那一天早上一直无法休息，一直烦着要不要陪他走一趟，心里又想要他独立，但又担心他无法适应。。。看着手表，时钟指着11:40.。。。连忙又开着车子赶到巴士站去，看见他已经在巴士站坐着。我连忙下车看着他走过去，嘴角上扬咪咪笑着直到他看见我，哈哈笑起来。

我问他有没有害怕？他点了点头，“好啦，妈咪来陪你走一趟吧！开心吗？”
他又点了点头。

上了巴士问了几道问题，发现他们有定时路线，所以都不会要等上半个小时，大致上都控制得蛮好，只有下班时候难以控制会有点误时。

下车后，带着他走小径，沿着房屋后墙有一条小径，两旁的树木密集矗立，恰好覆盖着这个小径，在树荫下走着走着，清爽，宁静还有小鸟的歌声陪伴着呢！

我不停地感谢上帝的用心良苦，之前还因为靖雄无法入读USJ的学校埋怨上帝，现在才知道上帝早已预备给我们最好的。感谢上帝！