Karaoke @ Neway Cheras

We pre-celebrated my brother's birthday this year. It was his 21st birthday, so we did something stupid different. We decided to go for a karaoke session to celebrate the occassion at Neway karaoke in Cheras.

So we sang for 3 hours straight, from the evergreen songs to the current pop songs. I'm amazed none of us got sore throat after that.

It just sinked in to me that my little brother has turned 21 !!! And the days when I used to help mom babysit him were just like yesterday. Gosh, I'm old :P

Baking : Lemon Muffins

If you want to try making these lemon mufffins, just try to Google on the Internet, because unfortunately I printed the recipe but didn't bookmark the url. This is a simple recipe, with just a handful of easy-to-get ingredients and can be whipped up in a jiffy.

fresh out from the oven	cooling on the rack
without icing sugar dusting	with sugar dusting

Masak-masak : Sambal long beans

Long beans has never been a favourite in my cooking menu. But it's good to go with omelette, fried rice, curry etc. It usually sits at the bottom of the fridge until I realise oh-you-are-still-here-and-not-wilted-yet, then I'm forced to think of a way to prepare it.

This time I cooked it spicy style. I added some mushrooms since I had some to spare.
















Ingredients
long beans
few stalks of mushrooms
1 tomato
2 teaspoons of cili boh paste
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
salt to taste
1 onion
cooking oil
half bowl of water

Stir fry the onions in the oil. Then add long beans & mushrooms and stir fry. Then add tomato, cili boh paste and water to simmer the vegetables. When the vegetables turn tender, add salt and sugar to taste.

You might have a better way to prepare it, but this is my simple version.

Baking : Lemon Cake

I couldn't think of a gift idea for N's birthday. So I told him I will bake a cake for him since I've been doing some baking projects lately. But I had to bake this cake one day late as we were both working on his birthday. And this is the second time I'm baking a birthday cake for him :-)

I had lemons in the fridge and I love lemons…so I decided to bake a lemon cake.

This is a very simple recipe. And you could substitute the lemons for oranges, or just have both!
I tried to bake this recipe the first time with my sisters, and this time I baked it on my own. The kitchen was a mess but the cake turned out fine with a sweet sourish syrup drenched on the cake top :-)

fresh from oven	lightly toasted almond flakes
decorated cake with DIY birthday flag	N and his slice of birthday cake
yummylicious!

Baking : Apple Crumble

I'd a few leftover apples in the fridge. Can't seem to finish them before they turned soft. And then this recipe caught my attention – Apple Crumble! It looked so simple to make with just a few ingredients.

I had too much peanuts and sunflower seeds, so N & I first spent some time to "kopek" the peanuts from their shells. Then I cooked the apples with sugar and water until it turned soft and syrupy. Scooped them up and arranged them in the base of the baking tin.

Then I rub butter to the brown sugar, flour and nuts mixture, and used my fingers to rub them till they turned into rough crumbs. The crumbs were then spread on top of the apples and sent to the oven for baking about 20 minutes. And then it's done!

I think it's a fail proof recipe, try it if you like apples! I suppose you could also try pears instead of apples ;-) http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2006/05/apple-crumble-recipe.html

butter, flour, sugar mix	cooking chopped apples with sugar & water
ready for baking	fresh from oven - nice golden brown topping