We can make a difference

It's said in a Chinese proverb, don't treat people they way you don't want to be treated upon.

I'm not an expert in this kinda fancy classical Chinese and I'm neither an expert in environmental issues. But I do enjoy the beauty of our mother Earth. Yes, this is one common mother we are sharing regardless our colour, our class of order in society or the language we spoke.

This is where we are born, this is the only island that we live and we don't have a second that we could escape to if anything were to happen on it.

Let's assume our neighbour planet Mars, we can live on it. Here is a visual how big is the Earth if you can see from the Mars.

That small little pixel is our Earth as seen from Mars. Now, how long do you take to travel half a globe? 13 hours maybe? Bravo, you just travel from one end of that pixel to another end. How long do you think it's going to take to travel to Mars? One of the nearest object to us that gives us some hope to escape to. Furthermore, how many people that we can transfer there? That 10 percent of the richest people and all of them are from the US?

As I said earlier, I'm not an expert in this. But one thing I know for sure, I don't want to live in a world without corals, without glasiers, without the rain forests. I don't want it and I'm not going to enjoy them now and let the future generation live in a place where they can only see those in TV. We can make a difference everyday.

www.climatecrisis.net

Learning how to walk

While Elmo is growing elder day by day, his balancing skill subsequently become better and better. Few days ago when Elmo was placed high up on the piano stool, I swung a piece of treat above his head intendedly so that he would look up at me. Out of my expectation that he started to gradually raise his front legs, at an andante pace that he was able to balance his whole body so that he wouldn't tumble. I rose the treat even higher, and he stretched himself even further, till he eventually crunched on the treat that I initially thought he can never ever reach.

Elmo spotted the treat

raising up his front legs slowly, trying to reach the treat

Got it!

A moment ago while I was chewing on my not-so-much-left Craisins, as usual Elmo came in (after he heard the sound of the plastic bag) and begged to have some of my dried cranberries. Just when my hand was still in the bag trying to dig a piece for him, Elmo started to stand on his hind legs again! I held on the cranberries and tried to move around the room, he followed me around with 2 legs, just like how HUMAN WALKS!

I was so stunned and captivated by this act of Elmo, and this cutie never stop to amaze me since the first day he came into my life. And I think it's not a surprise if one day he can finally call me "Mama". Oh... my baby.

It's near...

Ever since I started working, I don't get much chances to see the morning sky. As I always arrived at the office when it's still dark. When I see the sky again, it's probably at noon.
Today's different, although I still don't get to see any sunlight when I came in. Darkness is turning to light and it's beautifully decorated with fish scale clouds. Although it's not so obvious here in Tropical, but the summer is near...

坊太与你: Ah Fong Egg Tart

This is one recipe that I wanted to try so long, as I used to be an egg tart freak, and my highest record is to eat 4 tarts at one time. Generally there are two varieties of egg tart crust. One has flaky kinda outer crust, which is called puff pastry (酥皮 in Chinese) and has an extremely crisp texture due to the several layers of butter in the doughing process. Another type is shortcrust pastry, which has a cookie-liked texture with rich butter aroma.

The type of egg tart that I love most (so far) is with puff pastry crust, and that's the type of egg tart that I can eat 4 in a row. But last Sunday when a group of us had dim sum at The Home of Dim Sum, a few of them claimed that they prefer egg tarts with shortcrust pastry more. Since the making of puff pastry is much more complicated and time-consuming than shortcrust pastry, I didn't want to trouble myself too much in this tranquil afternoon; moreover I need to satisfy most of the testers. :D

Ingredients:
For shortcrust:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of room temperatured butter (or margarine for health-conscious people)
2 eggs
½ tsp of vanilla essence

For tart filling:
2/3 cup sugar
2 ½ cup milk
10 eggs
½ tsp of vanilla essence

Yield: approx 24 tarts


Method:
For tart shell:
1. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour. Add in sugar.
2. Add in butter and mix all ingredients with a spatula till resemble bread crumbs.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla essence into the mixture. Start mixing to form a dough. If the dough is too wet, add some flour. And if it's too dry, add a little bit more of butter.
4. Take an adequate amount of dough and place it in the tart tin (I used Teflon coated non-stick muffin tray) and push the dough all the way up to the rim to form a shell. If the bottom of the shell is too thin, patch it up with more dough.

** At this stage, you can start to preheat your oven at 200°C.



For filling:
1. Make sure all the filling ingredients are in room temperature.
2. Lightly stir the eggs with a fork and try not to produce any air bubbles. Add in the dash of vanilla essence into the egg mixture.
3. In another bowl, dissolve the sugar in the milk. The amount of sugar used can be adjusted to suit your own taste. Make sure that the sugar is fully dissolved at this stage.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the milk mixture over a sieve (to create a smooth texture of egg tart later on). Stir lightly.

To assemble:
1. Pour the egg mixture into the tart shells you made earlier. (I used a measuring cup with a pour spout to pour the mixture accurately into the shell.)
2. Place the tart tins in middle rack of a preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (or till golden brown) at 180°C.

Personal note:
** Pierce the middle of the tart with a metal skewer or toothpick (I used a thin-ended chopstick) and it's considered done if it comes out clean.
** If you find out that the crust is too brown but the filling is still not quite done, reduce the temperature to 150°C and cook till done.

The first batch of 6 egg tarts came out to be too thick-skinned (just like me) and hence too little egg filling (Elmo didn't complain though). Therefore the second batch onwards, I made the shell thinner and everything turned okay. The tarts are really mouth-watering when they were just out from the oven, but the crust turned soggy after kept overnight. I woke up earlier today to reheat all the tarts in the oven, the tarts became crispy but again turned soggy when I reached the office. Arghhh, and I accidentally burnt my hand! *sob sob*

Elmo was trying hard to reach the egg tart.

Yummy!

Tell me what do you think of my tart? Feel free to leave your comment too. :)

PollPub.com Vote

Ah Fong Egg Tart is:

Wow! I am looking forward for your bakery!
Thanks. Ah Fong Egg Tart is as nice as those I can get outside.
Ah Fong Egg Tart is nice, but not as nice as those I get outside.
Erm, I don't quite fancy egg tart actually.
Yucks! That's the worst egg tart I ever had!



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good reference

Recently apart from busy with the work... with a milestone to hit. I've been surfing the net for travel information. Came across this site which I find it very useful when you intent to travel to places in Asia. The site is non-commercial, that's the part I like the most.

Here's the link http://www.asiaexplorers.com

Things changed in just 1 month

I just happened to browse through some old videos in the camera, and accidentally found out how much Elmo changed in merely 1 month. Do not believe? Witness it for yourself:

Little Elmo when he was about 3 months old:



**Note that Elmo had not had his shave yet, looked so chubby and short. :) His actions were kinda clumsy, striving hard to move inch by inch across the cage.

Here's my baby Elmo at 4 months:



See the difference? Elmo is like a grown up now, handling himself proudly with loads of confidence and agility. I still remember how he howled when he was put high up the chair when he first came home.

That's my goooood boy.

Application of the renewal of membershiT of Ling

Hmm...I think I really need to do something, as the mail finally sent to me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear member #3 of the fellowshit of the Ling,

Please be informed that your membership of The Fellowshit of The Ling will be expired in 2 days. In order to extend the life of your membership, you are required to post at least 1 entry in these 2 days, or else your qualification will be terminated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But frankly, I really don't have anything in my mind, what should I write here? She asked me write about my life, what I do everyday. Hmm..I don't have story about dog as I don't have a dog that i can train "him" jump here jump there and then praise "him" goooooooood boy... :S. Then he asked me to write this, "I am writing this blog, and I am going to sleep now". Err...Are all fat boy really so cute???

I think I will just take the questions from the first post (FAQ) from lengcai 1 (2>1, obviously lengcai 2 is more lengcai than lengcai 1) and re-answer here.

What you are doing now?
Also half-naked, sitting in front of the laptop in the living room, digging my brain to squeeze out anything to write. One more thing, my TV is on but I don't know what the show is on.

Will there be any reader?
I think there are. If no, please let me know, I will post some of my naked photos up. Again, my goal is to have >30 readers per day.

Who are you?
I am lengcai 2 (can call me han-han if you are pretty. Guys, please don't if you do not wish your dad cannot recognise your mum). She is "leng lui" with world's sexiest hair and he is lengcai 1 that always do crazy stuffs.

What makes three of you come together in one blog?
This is really a very long story....In short, she has a very sexy G-string and she was so innocent that she wore the string in front (OMG); I got a name GSH (G-String hunter) and he is a gay named Sterling.

Can you tell me more about three of you?
For those who do not know Hokkien, Siaolangs means crazy people.

Why should I read your blog again?
What else other than read? Can you eat or drink our blog?

That's all?
For guys, yes. For pretty gals, you can leave your message or add me in frienster.

worst haircut

Had a really bad hair cut yesterday. Till now I still can't believe that I ever had the courage to cut my hair that short. When the stylist recommended to cut my long hair short, I remember I just casually murmured,"Okay." and that was the beginning of a disastrous experience. Sigh, I think the gang is going to laugh their head off, just like that day when I wore like an OL to the office. I can't help combing and pulling my hair hard since yesterday, as if my hair will turn longer after that. *sob* Now I finally understand how Elmo feels when I brought him for a shave. It's certainly an awful experience when you lose your previous hairstyle that you think suits you better. And I bet Elmo will need to take some time to really recognise me. *sob really hard*

My coughing is still not recovering. I woke up in middle of the night when I coughed till my lungs nearly came out, and need to sip a few mouthful of warm water to soothen my throat. Last Friday when I drove from Penang to K.L, I coughed like 1 hour in the 5 hours journey. Pity my old friend ChuYon who was forced to "fuk si" me along the way, feeding me water and doughnut while I was driving. *blush* Despite the "heartwarming" feeding moment, the whole journey wasn't too boring as we gossiped and we poured out our worries... who doesn' know I am the renowned "sum jie jie" (心姐姐)? I am so good in giving advices kaka... Anyway, the traffic wasn't so bad overall, just a slight obstruction when I sent one of the passenger back to Bangsar.

Missing baby Elmo badly. Can't wait to see him tomorrow, but I will be missing my parents heaps when I am in Penang. That's the contrariness of life.

I finally got back my bag of Craisins! Can't believe that I left such heavenly snack in KL during the last Chinese New Year. I plan to gobble all up while lazying in front of the TV, that's the best past time in weekends. So.. tata!