Something to ponder on

Do we remember God throughout our life?

Do we remember to thank God when we achieved good results in studies, when we got a great job, when we married to a good partner, when we have our children, ...everything? Or we just said it's just our pure luck.

How often do we really thank God for everything that we have? We take everything for granted. As if we deserves everything that is good and blame those around us when something goes wrong.

I attended a funeral mass today and the priest told us that today's mass is very special as the deceased herself has chosen every readings and hymns for her last mass. The homily given by the priest, Father Derrick (he looks like my "un shu") really touched my heart. I shall quoted what I remember.

"The greatest gift from God to the living is the gift of FAITH. No one deserves it but those who accept it are blessed."

"Lord said, Whoever believes in me will have eternal life. It doesn't mean that eternal life starts from the moment we die. It starts when we recognise God."

"The gift of life comes from God and shall return to God one day."


The hymns selected by the deceased are good as well. I only remember some of the lyrics for opening and closing hymns.

=Opening hymn=

I, the Lord of sea and sky,
...
I have heard my people cry,
...
Whom shall I send?

Chorus:
Here I am Lord,
Is it I Lord,
I have heard you calling in the night,
I will go Lord,
If you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart.


=Closing hymn=

...

Chorus:
Mother of Christ,
Star of sea,
Pray for the wanderer,
Pray for me.

All of us are afraid of dying and only remember God when we know our time has come. It is never too late to thank God and remember Him in our daily lives now. 

Chinatown

 Chinatown, Glasgow

Hubby told me that he will bring me to Glasgow Chinatown on Saturday. I said, "What?! Got Chinatown in Glasgow and all these while I thought the nearest Chinatown is in London? Of course I want to go." So off we went on foot (30 minutes walk).

The entrance of Chinatown 

(blurry effect caused by my hp due to condensation)

It has a restaurant called Chinatown Restaurant and is very popular among the locals especially the Chinese. We had our lunch there and it costs us £21.40. I checked its reviews and ratings online and it is very positive as angmoh loves Chinese food. They said you can taste REAL Chinese food here without being Westernized.

Food verdict: big portion and worth it if you don't do the pound-RM conversion. We will come again if we have cravings for Chinese dim sum.

Awesome lightings. 

The restaurant manager sure can afford these as he makes a lot of money - people keep coming in = money keeps flowing in  

 The menu and the PRICES. Seeing this, I must eat all delicacies in Malaysia when going back next year.

A jug of green tea is served to us. £1

 Singapore Style Fried Vermicelli  

£10.80

 Chicken feets in black bean sauce 

£3

I crave for chicken legs since last week and thought I will only eat it next year. So happy to have it.

 King prawn dumplings

£3.40

 Shanghai War Teap - 1 missing (in hubby's mouth)

£3.20

We feel very full after eating there. Continue exploring the place nearby.

Beside the restaurant is a corner selling fresh seafood. I dislike the wet fishy smell place but I love fish (I mean I like to eat them. Haha). Forgot to take the pic.

Inside this building is a bakery and a mini shop selling Malaysian and Chinese products. I don't know why the shopkeeper pasted the "Malaysian" and "Chinese" stickers onto his wall. Maybe he is a Malaysian Chinese? Maybe Malaysia is famous of its food? He talked to me in Cantonese but I replied him with my broken Cantonese (I don't have the chance to practise Cantonese at all cos I always converse and stay in Hokkien-speaking community. Really ashamed to admit that I'm a born Cantonese. Luckily my Foochow is good and I'm married to a Foochow but he also doesn't speak Foochow at home. Cheh, waste my Foochow speaking talent only. Hehe) 


On our way walking back home, 

Crowds of people at Buchanan Street on weekend. Glasgow is popular among tourists and locals as it is the second largest shopping centre in UK. Click here to read more.

Good weather makes everything looks prettier even the buildings

The infamous George Square 

1st time reach here and see George Square, "wah" here and there. Now, erm okla. A lot of angmoh like to sunbath here (with clothes on) as spring is here now. Wohooo. Daytime is longer now and I like it.

I love spring cos I love flowers. Hmm, when I first came to Glasgow in June, it was summer. Then, autumn (Sept), winter (mid Nov), and now early spring. Thank God, this will complete my 4 seasons experience here.

My first homemade bun

I make my first bun successfully TODAY! 

I did this bun-making process once before but the mission was unsuccessful cos I forgot to do the kneading process. So this time I'm determined to try it again by using another person's recipe; a Korean recipe. Her name is Maangchi and she has a lot of recipes in her blog.

You can watch the video of making this pork bun in her blog.

=Her recipe yields 16 steamed pork buns but I only managed to make 10 buns=

My assorted shapes of raw bun. I use aluminium foil as its base cos one reader suggested it. Baking paper is a no-no as the bun will stick to it when it cools down.

~For dough~

3 cups all purpose flour
2 ts dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 ts salt
1 ts sugar - light brown
2 tbs vegetable oil


Make the dough

1. In a large bowl, add 1 cup of warm water (under 40C), dry yeast, salt, vegetable oil and sugar. Mix well until the dry yeast is fully dissolved.
2. Add 3 cups of flour to the yeast water. Mix with a wooden spoon - I use silicone spatula, then knead for 2-3 minutes (rub your hands with vegetable oil first before kneading to prevent stickiness).
3. Set aside in warm place until the dough doubles in size. *another faster tips -watch Maangchi's video to learn how
4. After the dough has risen, knead it again for 1 minute to remove any extra gas. Set it aside in warm place with the lid closed for 30 minutes.

While waiting for the dough to rise, let's prepare the fillings:


1 cup chopped onion - white
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 1/2 cup zucchini/ courgette
1 1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 cups chopped white mushrooms

1. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Sprinkle 1 ts of salt over top and mix it by hand. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.
2. Squeeze the excess water out (Maangchi suggested using cheesecloth - I only use siever and my fingers).

400g minced pork
1 ts soy sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 ts sesame oil
1/2 ts black pepper

1. Mix the above ingredients in another bowl.

COOKING TIME

1. In a preheated pan, add 1 tbs vegetable oil and saute the chopped vegetable for 2-3 minutes. Transfer them to a large bowl.
2. Heat up the pan again and cook the marinated pork for 3 minutes until fully cooked.
3. Put the pork into the bowl with the vegetable and mix it all together.

MAKING BUN

1. Split the dough into 16 smaller pieces.
2. Take a few dough balls and put them on a floured cutting board. The rest of the balls should be in the bowl with the lid closed, to prevent them from getting dried out.
3. Roll out each ball into a disk 4" (10cm) in diameter.
4. Place a disk into your palm and add 2-3 tbs of filling mixture to the center of it.
5. Lift the edges of the disk up around the filling, then press the edges together to seal the filling snugly inside the bun.
6. Repeat step 3-5 until you have made 16 buns. - I only managed to make 10 buns
7. Put water into the steamer and place each bun on the rack. Leave 1 inch gap between them because they will get bigger when steamed.
8. Wait for 20 more minutes to let the dough rise even more.
9. Bring to boil over high heat and steam for 20 minutes.

As I still have a lot of fillings leftover, I 'puak' kuey teow with it, red onion, oyster sauce and soya sauce for dinner tonight. Hubby said yummy and would like to eat it again for breakfast tomorrow.

Happy that he likes it too ^^

Coffee almond cake

Infected by baking fever today. Don't feel want to eat rice but want to bake cake. The weirdo me.

Coffee flavour is not strong enough

=Ingredients=

1 cup plain flour = 128g
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter = 113g
1/2 cup soft brown sugar = 110g
2 eggs

1 tbs instant coffee granules - I use instant mocha, not strong enough
1 tbs hot water

2 tbs chopped almonds


Method

1. Dissolve the instant coffee granules with the hot water. Leave to cool.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Stir in the cooled coffee. Fold in the sifted mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased and flour or paper lined pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for about 30 minutes (skewer comes out clean) - I bake for 25 minutes. Remove cake from oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate cheese layered cake

Since I still have some cream cheese in my fridge, I make up my mind to try this recipe by Pusiva. The cake turns out great and my hubby loves it.

This cake is really nice.

Pardon me as I don't have skill to take good pic of food but I can eat a lot.

Ingredients

=Mixture A=
250g cream cheese
60g caster sugar - I use 50g
1 egg

=Mixture B=
180g butter
150g sugar - I use 130g
3 eggs
3 tbs cocoa
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder


Method

1. Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well incorporated. Set mixture aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, one at a time until well incorporated into mixture. Sieve all the dried ingredients together. Fold into egg mixture (use spatula).
3. To assemble, pour 3/4 of mixture B and level with spatula, then all of mixture A and level with spatula, and finally the remaining mixture B and level with spatula. 
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 45 - 50 minutes (I followed Puspa's reader's advice - bake for 180°C for 10 minutes first then 160°C for 55 minutes). The cake is ready when the skewer comes out clean. Once the cake is cool, chill in the fridge. 

Sweet potato soup

I think everyone knows how to cook this. But the extra ingredient GINGER makes a difference as it soothes my stomach too. Thanks to Lily's blog for reminding me of this comfort food.

=Ingredients=

Sweet potatoes
Ginger
Sugar
Water


Method

1. Adjust the ingredients to your liking. Cut the sweet potatoes into cubes. Cut the ginger into slices. Add in the potatoes and ginger into a pot of water and let it boils.
2. When the potatoes become tender (when a fork can pierce through it), add in sugar and taste. 
3. Remove the ginger before serving the sweet potato soup. Enjoy it.

Custard cookies

Texture is like kuih bangkit to me. Crisp and melt in the mouth. The taste is good though. Got this recipe from Belachan's blog.

Look like mocha cookies but texture is so different.

To be honest, I still prefer mocha cookies.

=Ingredients=

2/3 cup cornflour   *
1/2 cup plain flour  *
1/2 cup custard powder  *
*sifted all those three together* - let's name it A

10 tbs butter (141g), soften
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkles or dried fruit


Method

1. In a bowl, use an electric beater and cream together butter and sugar. Add in yolk and beat together. Add in vanilla extract and cream together. 
2. Add in sifted A and use your hand to mix it into a dough.
3. You can press it with a cookie press or roll it flat and use cookie cutter.
4. Place them on baking paper in a baking tray. Sprinkles on top.
5. Bake in preheated oven 175C for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack and store.

Rabbids

Rabbids as in rabbits.

Welcome to the rabbids fan club and enjoy the freebies.

Extra rabbits joining us for this year 2011 - their funny designs make me laugh only.

Bear boutique

Saw this bear making shop in Buchanan Galleries last week. Quite interesting cos can choose type of bear you like and its attires and also the accessories.

Lots of people inside, mostly couples.

 Ya, that's the step-by-step

Flattened bear skin. Haha.
Choose the skin colour that you like.

The samples and the prices at display 

There are 2 staffs who will help you to stuff and stitch your bear. 

She will ask you to insert a 'heart' inside your own bear (as if you give a life to a bear LOL) before she stitches it completely.

 You can dress up your bear by choosing the dresses or shirt and trousers

 Lots of shoes, sandals, and boots. 

Wow, it's only a bear and deserves such luxuries?

Handbags and mini purses.

I really envy the bears now.

The bear samples at display

Oh no, I forgot to capture the area that they use to name their bears. Only computers with the bear homepage. Actually I'm quite scared that the security there will warn me if he saw me taking pictures without buying one. Haha. I rather buy a ready 'naked' bear and dress it up using baby clothes. A lot cheaper but maybe not so nice. How about using 'sarong' and make it like Hang Tuah? Ok, enough craps.

Types of hot chocolate in Scotland

I miss Milo when I just reached Glasgow last year. But after sometime, I get used to the hot chocolate here.

 I think this is £1.99 if I'm not mistaken. Too sweet to my liking.

This is a good hot chocolate. Highly recommended.

Only £1 sold in Poundland.

Hubby and I agree that this is the best hot chocolate that we have tasted so far.

Only £1 sold in Poundland too.

Good for sweet tooth

This is only 99p (sold in Aldi). Nicer than milo. 

The first hot chocolate I tasted when I reached here.

 

 This one costs £2.49. Taste good
(but we prefer the ready 10 cups in a pack version)


 Final review: Hubby loves Galaxy and I love Cadbury.

My Winter flowers

Bought these three flower plants from Lidl (15 minutes walking distance from my flat). Two hyacinth (£1.99 for 2) and one kalanchoe (79p).

Initially I only have a bulb and the glass for this plant called Hyacinth. I bought 2 sets of these (one purple and one blue). I add water and put the bulb on top of the glass. The roots eventually grow out  from the bulb and the flowers start to blossom on top.

Close view of the purple hyacinth. 

I search more about it online - it is said to produce a wonderful scent.

Amazing close view of its roots

Blue hyacinth is still in the 'growing' stage though I put them together in the water glass at the same time.

 Blue hyacinth - still green at the moment

 Kalanchoe

(said to be a long lasting flowering plant)

I just love flowers. 

I'm thinking of growing tulips but no garden beds for me here. Hehe

Is 20 a big amount?

Maybe £20 is considered big in Glasgow as people normally use £10 the most. Tesco cashier even asked me whether I have smaller notes and I showed her my transparent coin bag. Haha. Also, they still use 1 pence here (as in 1 cent). I'm expert in identifying the currency already cos I'm in charge of the household shopping everyday. ^^