once upon a norza

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Hamlet

I believe that it's all in the mind. The more expectations we have of people, the angrier we become when they don't live up to our expectations. Why not we "relek one corner" once in a while because we're the ones who control how we react. We can't change people, that's for certain.

A weed is only a weed when we don’t like it. Children are only naughty if we don’t like their actions. Life only sucks if you judge it as bad.

The Elements of Living Lightly

When I did cinnamon palmiers last week, I didn't expect anything but the end result was so satisfying that I made another quick batch for teatime. It's a very frugal treat with just ready-made pastry, cinnamon sugar and butter. Very easy to make but you get a fancy-looking treat that uses very little ingredients. I can even make this everyday till I'm bored of it (which of course, I won't!).

Recipe for Cinnamon Palmiers | from Indulgence Petit Fours

Ingredients

4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 x 25 cm square sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
30 g unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar onto a clean work surface, place the pastry on top and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar. Gently roll over the pastry with a rolling pin to secure the sugar, brush with half the melted butter and slice in half. Use your fingers to gently roll up one long side as tightly as possible to the middle. Repeat with the remaining side and the remaining piece of pastry. Brush with the remaining butter. Wrap the rolls tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for 15-20 minutes, or until firm.

Use a small, sharp knife to cut across each roll into 1 cm thick slices. Place the palmiers, cut side up, 1-2 cm apart, to allow for spreading, on the prepared tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until beginning to caramelise. Remove the tray from the oven and carefully flip the palmiers. Bake for a further 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, caramelised side up.

Labels: baking treats

It's hard to say no to creamcheese brownies. Well, at least for me. I have always loved brownies and cheesecake. So when I found the recipe for creamcheese brownies, I knew I had to try it.

It was a very easy recipe because I baked a few hours in the morning before we visited my parents. Besides my mum loves brownies and cheesecake too so I thought I could bring some for her. I made half of it with cream cheese and the other half without because the husband don't eat anything cheese.

It's fudgy and moist and something that you can’t go wrong. If you like fudgy brownie + cheesecake, this is like the best of both worlds!

Recipe from My Kitchen Snippets

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate
1 1/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of flour
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt

For the topping :
1 (8 oz) low fat cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup of sugar

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 8 x 8 inch square baking pan. Set aside.

Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth (4 to 7 minutes). Remove from heat.

Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flour, baking powder and salt; mix just until all ingredients are moistened and brownie mixture is smooth.

Spread brownie mixture into prepared baking pan.

For the topping beat the cheese, egg and sugar until smooth. Dollop the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter. Swirl together using a knife or skewer.

Bake for 25 to 33 minutes or until brownies just begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely and then cut into bars and serve.

Labels: baking treats

I AM very late but I just found out about Bruno Mars when I did a SoundHound while doing grocery-shopping at NTUC today. True story!



It's been quite a while since I made quick trips to junction8 with Sarah (while her sister is at school) because of the rainy season. I felt a sense of joy when we managed to rush to junction8 to do some errands. Yep, even to NTUC. I know I'm becoming so makcik already! :p

Labels: youtube

When I started IRC (internet relay chat), I got so hooked on it that I'd still be awake after midnight just to chat. I attended a few gatherings, met quite a few people and even made a couple of good friends through irc. My best'est and I would always say we would never stop chatting till we're old. BUT we did stop. The 'old-timers' left the channels we frequent and newcomers came. It felt boring to re-introduce yourself again and again so I left too.

I was hooked to twitter too and would publish just about anything what I was doing at the moment. I noticed I'm tweeting lesser now (just like blogging). I used to tweet about my breakfast, lunch and dinner. hah. Nowadays I check my tweetline to chk out new recipes left by fellow bloggers. Even my friends don't tweet much nowadays.

I also tweet because my husband reads my tweets and his handphone can't receive mms (canggih hor my hb? hehe) so I spam my twitterline with the girls' pictures and (boring) updates about what the girls' are doing. And since my tweets are published in my facebook, my mum gets updated too. Of course, I can mms her but mobypic'ing is FREE. :D

I tell myself that I think I will still be tweeting when I'm old but there'll always be new social platforms in the future. I'm sure I will leave twitter one day when it feels like a chore to just tweet. heh.

Labels: personal