菊花枸杞柠檬酵素

最近，制作了一瓶菊花枸杞柠檬酵素，不知是否成功，两个星期后自有分晓。有兴趣的朋友，不妨也试一试。

功能
对电脑一族, 眼睛容易干涩疲倦, 失眠后眼球红肿, 有黑眼圈的最佳酵素选择。

材料
菊花(无硫磺) - 30g
宁夏枸杞皇(无硫磺) - 50g
柠檬 - 400g
Oligo 900 纯寡糖浆 –15 汤匙
椴树花蜜 - 250 g

作法
(1) 将柠檬洗净后晒干,切片备用。
(2) 把材料分成3份。 顺序将枸杞，菊花，柠檬以层段的方式堆叠放入玻璃瓶内，淋上花蜜及纯寡糖浆。其余两份材料皆如此处理。
(3) 把3份的材料都放置好后，最后在食材上铺上一层花蜜及纯寡糖浆，然后密封。存放阴凉处约2个星期后即可饮用。

（资料来源：南洋副刊2007年5月10日）

Unique 独特

Men and women are different, they think and behave in different way. To be more specific, actually every human is different and unique.

你觉得别人很奇怪，别人也觉得你很奇怪。。。往往我们都觉得自己很正常，别人很奇怪。^o^ 别人不了解你的热情，你也猜不透别人的想法。。。你给的也许并不是别人想要的。其实，每个人都是独特的 -- 独特的思想，独特的性格，独特的行为。人与人之间的相处是一门学问，需要耐心+ 细心+信心。

My Ang Pow Collection

Chinese New Year is coming soon....11 days to go. Tired with spring cleaning, busy with shopping...the only thing that can cheer me up is the Ang Pow (red packet). I started my Ang Pow collection several years ago...so whenever I do shopping, I ask: "Tauke, any Ang Pow packet?"

I think it is a trend to collect Ang Pow in Sibu especially the auties group ^o^ . Most of the shops will use Ang Pow to attract customers (a popular and effective marketing strategy). The customers need to spend up to RM50, RM80 or even RM100 to get the Ang Pow packets. Last time, a packet has 10 pieces of Ang Pow; nowadays, a packet only has 3 or 5 pieces....worst is 1 piece only. You can get the Ang Pow from banks, restaurants, supermarkets, departmental stores, hotels, cinemas, skincare centres, boutiques, car service shops, petrol stations, insurance companies, securities firms, bakery, haircut shops, TCM centres, mobile phone shops, shoes shops, goldsmith shops, furniture shops etc. Haha...quite a lot.

Overall, there are several themes for this year e.g. rat / Mickey Mouse (Year of Rat in Chinese Calendar), Fuwa (Beijing Olympic 2008), flower, fish, chinese painting etc.

** Year of Rat **

** Flower (puzzle type) **

** Fuwa (Beijing Olympic 2008) **

For this year, CNY will be a bit different from previous one. My uncle (whole family) will come back and stay with us during CNY. It will be merrier...more people, more noise... ^-^

You're a German Shepherd!

What Breed of Dog Are You?

My result: German Shepherd

No bones, about it, you're a loyal, hard-working German Shepherd. Dedicated and always low-maintenance, people flock to you — they know they can count on you to get any job done, and done well. That focus and attention to detail spans from your personal to your professional life, too. Although you can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the projects you tackle, you still manage to keep cool and laid-back in social situations. You get a kick out of the little things and thrive when you're constantly busy and on-the-go. Easygoing and unpretentious, you don't need constant pampering and reassurance. A genuine, carefree pup, you're a true-blue friend, employee, and partner. Woof!

*Out of curiosity, I took the test and the result is German Shepherd...Actually, I'm scared of dogs...had been chased by a few big and fierce dogs before, that's why still scared of dogs until now.

Kindergarten Life

Recently, I got a new task – send my niece to her kindergarten in the morning. Previously, it was my brother-in-law’s job. How did it become my task? Because my niece said so…she wanted me to send her and she promised that she wont cry in the classroom.

Maybe after a long holiday break, she is lazy to go to school…that’s why she cries loudly every time she reaches her classroom especially when my brother-in-law sends her there.

Maybe this is the new semester and she was arranged to sit at the back, separated from her friends. That’s why she feels lonely and reluctant to go to school. Yesterday, she asked me to drive slowly on the way to her school…my goodness, I will be late (indeed, I was late yesterday). She walked slowly to her classroom, with tears in her eyes. But today, she performed better, she started talking to the boy that sits beside her, before she put down her bag and chair. (she is very talkative actually ^o^ ). His name is Jeremiah, but she calls him “Zho No Miah” (in Foochow).

I tried to recall my kindergarten time, hardly can remember anything…still remember my teacher, but forgot my classmates ^o^ .

Nowadays, the education standard is much higher as compared to my time. Last time, I remembered we just study alphabets and some basic words during kindergarten time, more play than study. But the situation is different now – they have to learn the languages (Malay, English and Chinese), science, maths and moral. For example, the other day I saw my niece writing something like this: 不说谎，承认错误，并且改过。 I just wonder whether a 5-year-old kid can understand the meaning of the phrase…I just knew 天 地 人 水 火 土 when I was five. ^o^

Cotton Cheese Cake

Chinese New Year is coming soon, so start thinking about the cakes and cookies. In the past, I used to make steamed layer cake and it really took a lot of time. You have to steam the cake layer by layer, so basically you need to stand beside the stove all the time, sweating in the hot kitchen, just like sauna. This year, I decided to make something easy - bake a cotton cheese cake. It is not very sweet and cheesy; easy to prepare and nice to eat. At least, my family members like it, so no need to worry much about it. If they dont like the cake, I have to be the SMC garbage collector and finish all, that's why I always put on weight after CNY. ^o^

If you're interested, you can try it...

Ingredient
(A)
250g softened cream cheese
50g softened butter/margarine
100ml whipping cream/Neslay reduced cream
100ml fresh milk

(B)
100g low protein flour
6 egg yolks

(C)
6 egg whites
half tsp cream of tartar
100g castor sugar

Methods
1) Melt ingredient A and then let it cool.

2) Ingredient C: Whisk egg white until foamy, then add in cream of tartar and whisk on the highest speed. Then add in the sugar gradually and whisk until soft peaks form when lifted up.

3) After ingredient A is cool, add in egg yolk one by one. After that, fold in the flours and mix well.

4) Mix the mixture with ingredient C.

5) Prepare a 8” round cake pan. Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper. Pour the mixture into the cake pan.

6) Preheat the oven. Pour some water into the roasting pan.

7) Bake the cake for 30 minutes at 170 C or until it turns to golden brown colour.

8) Leave the cake inside the oven (cooling purpose) for 1 hour.

9) Take it out of oven and turn cake out of cake pan. The cake is ready for serving or you can wrap it with aluminium foil and put into the fridge.

Do not make it too early before CNY because cream cheese can't last long. It looks similar to this (got the picture from Internet because I hadnt made it yet):

MacBook Air

The world’s thinnest notebook – MacBook Air, a new product from Apple. It’s priced at $1,799 and will be available soon. The laptop is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.6GHz, 2GB of 667MH DDR2 SDRAM , 80 GB of hard disk, 13.3 inch LED widescreen display, backlit keyboard and a built-in webcam. These features really sound attractive to laptop owners.

Frog Again...

Another news about the frog...Two men barbecued a giant frog (or toad) and ate the meat together with its eggs. After that, they were poisoned - one died, one was hospitalized. It was believed that the eggs were poisonous actually. So never ever eat anything that are strange.

Some people like to eat something different e.g. snakes, worms, fried cockroaches, cats, monkeys, rabbits etc. I heard before that some restaurants even put an alive animal on the table and cut its head, let the customers eat the fresh brain. Waaaa...so disgusting...want to vomit when imaging the scene.

Ok...end of story for the frog.

Amazing Frog

Ever seen a frog that rides a toy motorcycle? Very cool... ^o^

Its name is Oui - a frog that stays in the Eastern Thai beach, town of Pattaya, Thailand. Its owner says that it loves playing with toys and posing for photographs. Wahaha...like posing for photographs, just like model. Sometimes, Oui could give the correct number for gambling bet, and many people come to watch its show. Its owner even needs to move to somewhere else to avoid the crowd. Really an amazing frog...Gambate!

(Picture source: Reuters)

Special Bread Toaster

Creativity is a way to cherish our life. Just found a funny stuff - a bread toaster, very special one....you can write message on the writing pad on the toaster.

After that, put in your bread and toast... and the final product looks like this:

Cute? I think all the messages will be hammered into the head... ^o^

Confession

This New Year started with a big bang…our politician involved in the sex scandal. He admitted it openly in a press conference. He expected the society to accept his apology and forget about this. Well, sorry…the society gave a negative response, thus he resigned all the posts held. When he was asked what was the lesson learnt in this incident, he said: "I used to go to the same hotel and same room due to convenience. It was a mistake." He even advised others not to repeat the same mistake. What an advice! Last time, there was a famous movie star involved in the sex scandal as well. He said: "I made a mistake that all men will make"… another funny excuse. People tend to rationalize their deeds.

Maybe the society put a high moral expectation on the politicians and celebrities. They may say: “Well, we’re human too and we make mistake like others, nothing special about this.” Personally, I think the politicians and celebrities have the responsibilities to behave themselves and set a good example to others. This is the price that you have to pay. If you want to be famous, then you have to sacrifice a bit of your privacy and behave yourself. If you think privacy is important, then just be a nobody and people will not be interested in you.

This incident made me wonder what is the value of faithfulness in a marriage? Maybe in this modern era, faithfulness is forgotten gradually…