Archive | April, 2020

A Timely Purchase

28 Apr

It was supposed to end today, the third phase of our Movement Control Order (MCO) but no… the government has decided to extend it again. Another two weeks from tomorrow until 12 May for Phase Four.

Well, we have gotten so used to staying home, being in partial lockdown for six weeks already, what’s another two weeks, right? We’ll just continue with our home routine. No problem.

The home routine revolves around food – what to cook, what to bake, when to cook, when to eat because these activities are the highlight of each day while house chores are definitely not. We can skip sweeping or mopping the floors but we certainly can’t skip a meal.

Two weekends ago, I decided to buy a stand mixer from my regular online shopping site. This is one kitchen appliance I don’t have because I’ve never had a use for it before so the thought of owning one never came about. But now, it’s a much needed appliance since hubby’s baking so much.

Since we cannot go to the stores to shop, online shopping was the way to go and the box arrived a week later. Never have I been so excited by a kitchen appliance before, what more a stand mixer! Little things in life now thrills.

It’s a timely purchase because with the MCO Phase 4 in place, our baking endeavors or should I say hubby’s is about to be more exciting. He can now try all those recipes that require intense mixing with the addition of a stand mixer now. Bring on those recipes!

Not the most high-end appliance but sufficient

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Being Thankful

27 Apr

2020 will forever be etched in stone as the year everyone looked forward to but now wants to forget – for the first half of the year that is. The Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the globe and has caused lives to be upended, events cancelled, routines disrupted and birthday celebrations postponed. Some people even want to reset the year, get a refund for the months lost and such.

For me, I can’t decide what I want but for sure, it’s the first time in my life I’m celebrating a quiet birthday at home, not outside or away. With the MCO in place, there’s no restaurant to go to nor a destination to visit for a getaway celebration.

It’s okay because…

I’m thankful for being healthy;
I’m thankful for my loved ones who are keeping safe;
I’m thankful for my friends who are keeping me sane;
I’m thankful for my hobbies and discoveries that are keeping me occupied, and
I’m thankful for technology for us to stay connected to be closer while staying apart.

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What a Nasty Woodpecker

24 Apr

Hubby is not pleased. The woodpecker squatting in the staghorn fern in front of the house has certainly made itself unwelcomed. He attacked another staghorn fern to make another home!

The first home in the staghorn must have become unsuitable or unlivable because of the peeling and holes in the shield fronds. So the Rufous Woodpecker must have decided to relocate.

The first home, riddled with holes and peeling

The second staghorn is a beautiful lush and dense pride of hubby’s, and the nasty woodpecker helped himself to it to make a second home. And in the process, damaged the beautiful plant. Grr…

The damage to the second staghorn

Hubby then decided to put a stop literally to this by plugging the entrance of the second hole on the staghorn with a stalk of cut-off plant. Let’s hope this works. We will have to monitor.

Putting a stop literally to the damage

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300 Jacks

21 Apr

Towards the end of last week, I started doing jumping jacks. With all this baking and cooking at home, and having stopped the 16/8 diet, I have to do something to counter the intake. Hence, the jumping jack exercise.

Dalgona coffee

We didn’t have a mixer and ten thousand whisks later to yield a sinful glass of Dalgona coffee

Butter cookie

Hubby baked butter cookies. So sweet and buttery, how to resist?

I think it’s an ideal form of exercise without having to go out of the way to exercise. Honestly to even exercise, I feel lethargic just thinking about it! So I find other means to exercise like going up and down the stairs more often, walking more around the house and keeping busy with chores.

Fish & Chips

Team effort for a golden beer batter dinner! So good.

Dhal curry

I even made dhal curry from scratch!

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Fresh from the oven, hubby’s new hobby, baking.

Besides I find setting up to properly exercise not conducive when there are days I actually have some design work to do in between the daily cooking and cleaning. So doing jumping jacks has worked out well.

Each time I’d do a set of 50 and they don’t actually take up a lot of time. Spread out the routine and I find myself doing 300 jumping jacks each day!

I do feel good and less guilty. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

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Tag Team Baking

20 Apr

We found the right combination to bake during the MCO last week. Hubby did the dough and I did the filling. The tag team baking worked out well for our first combined attempt – apple tarts because I have the molds. For someone who doesn’t bake, I sure have a lot of baking equipment.

The ideas were from googling up recipes and watching YouTube to find the next easiest thing to bake with the best combination. And basically just to pass time instead of baking bread and cakes (from boxes) individually, this effort was a good variation.

First attempt at apple tarts

The first batch of only five tarts was accidental because there was some dough left from making something else. And since we had apples, why not bake apple tarts? It was experimental as something was right and something was off: the filling was good, the crust needed work.

We tried again two days later. As long as I don’t have to deal with letting the dough sit and rise, I was perfectly contented to make the apple filling. And I made more this second time, using three apples. The first time, just one apple! After all, it was an experiment.

It was fun decorating and after a good 45 minutes in the oven, our effort came out beautifully. The taste? Very good if I must say so. We make a good tag team at baking.

Happy star and Smiley tarts

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MCO Extended, Phase 3

17 Apr

It looks like this Movement Control Order (MCO) is never gonna end as the Covid-19 cases keep growing. There are still idiots who are not abiding the law to stay home. So after the second phase concluded on 14 April, it was extended!

Even my Gnomes are showing the way to do it – stay home!

We are now into our third phase which started on Wednesday, 15 April and will conclude by 28 April. For the record, we have been confined, restricted, staying home and distancing ourselves since 18 March. That’s a whole month already. Dang!

Will we be the same once the MCO is lifted and we are allowed to be out? I think no. Life from then on will never be the same again.

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Baking is The New Normal

14 Apr

After the ‘success’ of the accidental bread last week, hubby urged me to bake another loaf. So I did, just to kill time. And discovered what went wrong with the first loaf.

I got the units wrong! Silly me. The measurement was correct but the unit was wrong. The teeny weeny print on the measuring cup was ‘ML’ which I couldn’t see and I simply assumed it was gram. Signs of being a dinosaur… sigh.

Thinking I had it right, I measured 350ML of flour and not 350G as required by the recipe. No wonder the mixture was watery with the flour ratio way off to the milk. Don’t forget, this was my first attempt at baking a bread after so long. To even attempt something like this, common sense to what was required was not present. Luckily we were able to save the dough with the additional flour thrown in.

So having learnt the mistake, I was more careful with measuring for the second attempt. But patience’s not on my side. I find I don’t have the patience especially when it comes to allowing the dough to sit and rise. I couldn’t wait for the yeast to do its thing.

Unlike baking a cake (from a box that is) where I just throw everything together and pop it in the oven without wasting time, bread making needs more precision and patience.

The second attempt. Ugly but edible

The second attempt turned out a little less stellar than the first loaf but still edible. And since then, it’s hubby who has been baking every other day to pass time. It’s as if baking is the new normal as we continue adhering to the MCO as laid out by the government.

He’s baked several loaves already as well as a batch of bagels. We have so much bread to eat now.

Bread, bread and more bread plus bagels!

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Days of My MCO Life, Part 2

13 Apr

The bread that I baked last week was an out-of-the-blue decision. I called it the accidental bread. I was set to bake a cake in the beginning, the instant cake-from-the-box easy peasy one of course. Then I decided why not bake bread too? Since we have all the time in the world.

Also I wanted to give the Kenwood Rapid Bake bread maker another chance but the bread maker tripped the electricity in the house again. This reaffirmed that it’s a machine problem and wasn’t a user problem the last time when I used the machine.

So Plan B had to be kicked in because we had an unbaked bread in hand.

Rather than wasting the dough because the trip occurred when the bread maker went into the baking mode, we managed to salvage it. With some modification – adding more flour to the unusual watery mixture (don’t ask me how it became like that), we let the dough sit for a bit.

Then into the conventional oven it went. The final outcome turned out pretty good despite its appearance! A pat on the shoulder for the both of us.

Tastes better than it looks

Do I look forward to baking my next loaf of bread in the oven? I’m not too sure, we shall see.

Besides these self-discoveries and time-consuming activities, I caught up with my reading, finishing several titles and I started watching a Netflix series, something I never did previously. It’s certainly interesting times with the days of my MCO life.

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The Big Clean Up

10 Apr

So on Tuesday we got to see our M2. My… my… I think a wee bit taller and definitely fairer but not skinnier which is good. This means I had fed her well during her two-week quarantine.

The customary selfie upon release

We had a big clean-up that day, disinfecting the whole room and throwing whatever that can be washed into the washing machine. The windows were all opened to let in some fresh hot and humid air to start anew!

It was a busy day and it felt good.

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Days of My MCO Life

7 Apr

We are now a week into Phase Two of the MCO. What this means is that the rules are stricter and anyone caught going beyond 10km from their home will be arrested if they don’t have a valid reason. Well, I don’t have to worry as I have not ventured out even to the front lawn of the house.

Being confined to the house for so long during this MCO, I found myself doing things that I’ve never done so much before within a certain time frame.

Like cooking. And constantly at it, twice each day, trying out all sorts of recipes sourced from the internet. It’s the most logical thing to do and besides, I have all the time in the world for the preparations.

Then there’s the carving. I’ve carved so many Whales in March and these would all make lovely gifts for my friends when I see them.

All these carved during the MCO

There’s also another homely thing that I found myself doing every now and then. Baking! Although it’s the instant out-of-the-box, it’s a good variation from the cooking routine. Twice I baked and once I even baked a loaf of bread! Surprise… surprise…

The second cake – Lemon Cake with poppyseeds of course!

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