Hang On .....



We wish to live longer

  

We learn to never give up on things that matter to us



Sometimes, when  you only have yourself to believe




You would think that life is a beach



And you learn to hang on even if things seemed to be difficult at times

When I was young, I used to think that growing up was difficult. I thought that being a teenager was a phase I needed to get rid of. I hated the imbalance of hormones, the merry-go- round moods and the unrequited crushes. I was eager to be an adult. I thought being an adult was easy, with a secure job and lots of cash. I even thought adulthood was the answer to my never ending questions in life. Life was confusing then and things were different. It was always school, friends and family. There was never really a big responsibility, but I learnt a lot through out my school days. Coming from an all-girls school, I learnt to be tough, to be a perfectionist or rather truthfully I learnt that life was not easy at all. I first learnt the word failures in school, picked up the pieces and stood up as if nothing had ever happened. That was a real lesson in life. You see, I learnt to be tough when the going gets tough. It was not an easy task to survive in an all girls' school-- as we learnt the word "competitive" from the beginning. Everybody would want to be the best. However, only those who had the tough spirits would survive.

     I wished I would have knew then what the future really looked like- for me. Sometimes, it is difficult just to stay afloat in a world full of misunderstandings and confusions. But what I learnt in my school days was  it was easy to give up rather than to stand back, it was easy to say good bye rather than to say hello. However, what I really learnt -in one of those incidents in school, (which I chose not to forget now), was to get up, walked and  ran. I chose to think positively out of difficult situations. I chose to believe in my own strengths and abilities. I chose to think that no matter what people think of me, God knew the truth back in those days. That was me then, that is me now. No matter how difficult things are, there will always be possibilities to be found and opportunities to be gained. Some people may misunderstood us, but there are some other people who would understand. But the most important thing in life is, hang on during difficult times, and never give up.... That is all that matters.

Hopes And Prayers

Hope is like a single lone flower

It gives us the courage and determination to hold  on...

We realise that life is too short when tragedy strikes



But we always have doa and prayers for those who are affected.
Hope is like a light in the darkness of a tunnel. It gives us purposes in life
and prayers are our only solace when tragedy strikes.



My thoughts and prayers for those who are affected by the 8.9 Richter Scale earth quake in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia today ( 12 April 2012). Doa and prayers for the fishermen in Kuala Muda, Kedah, residents near the coastal area of Perak, Penang and Kedah - hoping that nothing bad will happen to them. The Boxing Day tsunami of 26th of December 2004 is still remembered by all Malaysians from all walks of life, and it is a sad memory for me. I truly hope that tragedy will not strike again. I am praying for the safety of everybody. God is great and He knows the best......

The Ultimate Banana Bread




Banana bread - a prime favourite with friends and family

 


Sprinkle some brown sugar  on the banana bread @ cake and decorate it with roasted pecans



I have never expected this creation of mine would be a hit among my friends especially. This banana bread recipe is created by me to fulfill the request of my son. I have done countless of baking experiments just to get the ultimate recipe. Each time would be a sold-out among friends and students. My son especially liked this banana bread, it is definitely his favourite. Therefore after, making some adjustments here and there, I  am finally ready to share this original recipe of mine. This is simply an original version which really suited my taste bud.  One tip to be shared is - please use very ripe bananas. I have used the Malaysian type of bananas - pisang emas or loosely translated as golden bananas. They are  yellowish gold, small in size and very sweet. You could google the picture for "pisang emas". However, if it is not available, you could use other type of bananas as well, as long as they are ripe and yellow in colour. Please set your oven to 150C for about 7-8 mins, (I used electric conventional oven) before putting in your banana bread. I have used the loaf tin to bake this bread. Use roasted pecan nuts to decorate your bread. I have found out that these pecans gave another aroma to the banana bread. To do this cake, you could always roast your pecans in the oven beforehand. Now, here goes the recipe;

The Ultimate Bread (Recipe)

** Grease the loaf tin  with butter, (here I used unsalted butter) and outline it with baking paper.

* Please do not use baking spray to grease this loaf, as the sides of the bread will turn out to be

  very crunchy after baking.

* Set your oven to 150C ( for about 7-8 mins)

Ingredients

7-8 mashed pisang emas (golden bananas)

A handful of roasted pecans

1 tbsp of brown sugar (to be sprinkled on the bread)

4 large eggs

1 tsp of salt

1 cup of unsalted butter ( I used SCS)

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of fresh milk - add one tsp of fresh lemon juice into the milk

2 tbsp of sour cream

1 tsp of fresh lemon juice

1 tsp of vanilla essence

**To be sieved together

2 1/2 cup of bread flour (high protein) - it would make the bread soft - you can always use the plain flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of baking powder

11/2  tsp of nutmeg powder ( do not omit this- it is crucial to the taste of the bread)

How

1) Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in a stainless mixing bowl.

    Add in eggs, one by one. Add in vanilla essence.

2) Add in salt, the sieved flour, baking soda and powder, and also nutmeg.

    Then add in the fresh lemon juice. Mix them well again.

3) Add in the fresh milk (which has been added with lemon juice). Next, add in sour cream.

4) Lastly, put in the mashed bananas. Mix well

5) Immediately, using wooden spoon, put the mixture into the loaf tin.

6) Decorate the bread with roasted pecans and sprinkle some sugar on it.

7) Bake the banana bread for approximately 45 mins- it could be longer- check if it is ready by inserting a skewer into the bread. If it comes out clean, then your bread is ready.

** Don't worry if there are cracks on the bread. That is the beauty of the banana bread.

Happy baking, everyone......

Carrot and Pecan Cake- Again?



Carrot and pecan cake with cream cheese frosting, topped with roasted pecans and sugar flowers

 

My sister brought this to her neighbour's house

 I say that it must be a baking madness this weekend, as I have baked three cakes in a row. A carrot and pecan cake, a banana bread and then back to carrot and pecan again. Family and friends seemed to like this carrot cake again and again. Not only that, they specifically asked for this particular cake.

    I baked this cake as requested by my elder sister- she wanted to give this to her neighbour. Again, it was a last-minute order, and being me the ever obliged sister, decided to bake this at 4.00 am on Saturday. Yes, rushing again as I had an obligation at 9.00 a.m, the same morning. The neighbour's party was supposedly to  start at 3.00 p.m. So, you could imagine my rushing here and there. What with the baking part, the cooling process and the frosting part. All to be done by 9.00 a.m.

On top of that, I went and bake this banana bread ( the third time successful attempt- that I have mentioned in the earlier post). I was just crazy to do a two- time baking spree. Well, sometimes when we have that baking bug, we could not even stop for a moment. We just need to bake and bake. What took me long was that, I underestimated the  baking time for the banana bread. The middle of the bread was liquidy a bit, so off it went into the oven again. Perhaps the temperature was a bit too low for the bread.



Can't get enough of this- Banana Bread



Back to this carrot and pecan cake, my sister was happy as I finally managed to bake the cake that she liked most. At first, I forgot that I had promised her earlier on and I thought that the party would be next week. Luckily, she called me on Friday evening and reminded me on the promise. Well, I thought I could go nuts at that time. Well, short-term memory syndrome must have got into me. Finally, I managed to bake the cake as requested and happily went to my meeting armed with a banana bread.



I went mild this time- just to keep it simple...

A crazy baking weekend? Yes, it definitely was, but I was happy as well. Happy days ahead, everyone!

Banana Bread @ Cake




This is a best-seller's banana bread @cake

 


Actually, this was the second time I baked this banana bread







The latest batch- a third time successful attempt of baking my own recipe of banana bread .
It was a melt -in- the mouth banana sensation, topped with roasted pecan nuts.
 Baking this is definitely heaven.



 

I have attempted to create my own recipe, having left the challenges of creation madness lying rusty in the cupboards of my mind. To tell you the truth, my son had been pestering me to bake this, as I had promised him many times to bake  a banana cake or loaf or bread ( what ever we would say it). The cake was  a hit for everybody, from a six year old boy up until adults. I must have hit the right notes this time. The secret was using over ripen bananas, sour cream and milk fused with a tinge of lemon juice.. For all the experiments, I have used "Pisang Mas" which are easily available in Malaysia... loosely translated as "Golden Bananas". This type of bananas are small in size and they are very sweet. Apparently, it was a trial and error experiment relying on the instincts of a self-taught baker, and finally I got it right. Just the way it should be. For the time being, let me entertain you with the pictures of this baking sensation until I got the time to fine tune the recipe and post it here. Enjoy the pictures....




Life is definitely on bananas.... ;)

 

Life's good? Yes, it is- especially with bananas around....

Carrot and Pecan Cake



I guess, we could never go wrong with carrot and pecan cake

  



Thank You, Boss! You'll be missed ..
. Carrot and pecan cake frosted with cream cheese and unsalted butter,
topped with chopped roasted pecan nuts and sugar flowers and mini carrots...

     

I baked this  Carrot and Pecan cake as a favour, as a thank you gift for a boss who is moving. I have used this recipe (click this)Walnut and Carrot Recipe  but replace it with pecans as I ran out of walnuts. Apparently, I did not know that my boss was going away for a job promotion- but since my friend, S was asking another friend, F to bake a carrot cake, I got to know. To cut the story short, F could not bake the cake. So, I told S that I would do it as a thank you gift to the boss. Apparently, S was not asking me earlier as she thought it would be a chore for me, as I did not feel well quite lately. I told her that baking was a cure to my stress. And voila the cake was delivered on last Friday afternoon, just before the party began.

   The story behind this cake- I got to know about the party on Thursday- a day before the party. I wanted to bake this cake on Thursday afternoon but was too tired to come around. So, I woke up early in the morning at 4.00 just to discover that I should have prepared the ingredients earlier on. It was tough as I only started to grate the carrots and roasted the pecans early in the morning. Luckily by 5.45 am the cake was ready. Thinking that I should get ready for work, I decided to frost the cake in the afternoon just after work. Since it was Friday, I was even blessed that I could rush from work after 12.30 p.m. Arriving home at 1.00 p.m., I found myself with a gigantic task of decorating a cake as I needed to go out from the house by 2.00 p.m. So, I only have an hour to spare. All frosting and decoration were done from scratch - from the mixing of icing sugar and cream cheese and unsalted butter until the decorating of the cake. Thank goodness for store bought sugar flowers and mini carrots. They always come in handy for my last minute baking madness. Well, I went shabby chic this time for the decoration ;). Not just because I ran out of time, I just loved the home-made feel of cake decorations.

 People say it's always difficult to say good bye, especially to those who are dear to us. So, even if it is difficult, we could only hope the best for those who are moving to greener pastures. To my boss or accurately ex-boss, "You are one fine  example of a people's person and you are sure to be missed dearly". Well, it was nice to think that at the end of the party, there were happy people around as they got to taste the carrot and pecan cake. Until then, have a marvellous Sunday every one....

I Have A Dream or Simply Said- I Have So Many Dreams





Yellow Daffodils In Cameron Highlands, Malaysia- Daffodils are my favourite flowers.

  




Blue Flowers- Parents' house in Melaka

  



Yellow Beetle (Google)

 




Bognor Regis, West Sussex (Google)

  




Tower Bridge, London, England (Google)

  




Mecca (Google)

  

There is a saying that goes by this - Never Stop Dreaming! How true it is.. I am a dreamer, definitely. Dreams are cheap, they say, but to achieve the dreams, it is not an easy task. The process of achieving dreams is actually expensive. We know that we need to work hard for our dreams. That is why it is easier to dream on things. It is free, it does not require any single dime.

  I am Ms Perfect all the time, I really dream to have a perfect life, perfect work, perfect happiness. But, perfection is underrated. To err is human, God is perfect. At times, it is not easy to please everybody in our life. Sometimes, people expect too much from us, but they forget that we have our own limitations too. The recent phenomenon on social network made me ponder at times. Could we really take things seriously or could we keep our privacy at bay? One wonders. Don't get me wrong, I have so many praises for things like FB or Twitter, but at this time of the year, I wonder where do we go after that? Am I going to keep my account on FB even after I am no longer  in this whole world? Probably I 'll ask my best  friend to close my account the minute she knows I am no longer around. I dread the idea of people remembering my good deeds only after I am long gone. Well, I make mistakes too, only God knows how many times I  have dissatisfactions on certain issues or people. But hopefully, this blog will be around for a long time, I hoped it served as a reference stop for those who appreciate it even though it is quite  unpopular, compared to other blogs. Only time could tell.....

   Back to my dreams, I dream of one day being able to take pictures of the daffodils again in the UK. I particularly like those yellow ones- especially during Easter or Spring. When the birds were chirping happily early in the morning, to mark the beginning of Spring in the UK, and I could see the bulbs of daffodils sprung up, and the chill of the morning made me snuggling in the bed instead of going to the college, those were the moments when I truly felt blessed and happy. I could still hear the birds chirping near the white French window at my landlord's house in West Sussex, UK.  I shall treasure that too. I remember having come across a yellow Beetle in Sussex, and I fell in love straight away. That was the moment too. I dream too, on being able to go back to my hometown and reside there, when I have my elderly parents  and happy kids around. There is also a dream to visit West Sussex in the UK, where I have spent two years of my happy life. It maybe  only two years of my short life but those two years were  definitely the best (apart from having a kid of my own). Lastly, I have a dream of paying a visit to Mecca. I am working towards this, as I slowly learn and find myself again. Yes, people have dreams, it is not hurtful to have dreams. I dream of becoming a good daughter and a loving mother. I dream of having plenty of time to spend with my child, and not to be burdened by work. Work could wait, but times spent with our loved ones are precious. Children grow up very fast, and we become older, and time may not come back again. Time (as I read in a poem that  I have found online) ; sometimes can make us cry..

    Yes, if dreams could make us happy, let's have as many dreams as we could, and then we will definitely be happy....