Daring Bakers - Challenge SIX!

And the challenge for October is ... is ... PIZZA!?

!! LOL. NO. YEAST. ARGH. AHMAD + YEAST = FAIL. !!

This month's challenge is hosted by Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums. When I logged on to the forums and saw it was pizza I *groaned*. Sigh. Yeast. Yeast. Slimy little buggers. All they do is eat your sugar and fart out gas. Haven't quite yet got a hold of them. Last time we did something with yeast (well besides the crackers) it was a disaster.

Anyway, might as well get on with it I said! There is "daringness" in DB after all :P. I tried the recipe a few days after it went up and had a few problems. 4 cups of flour does not equal 605 g where I live. LOL. So I made the mistake of taking 4 cups as 4 x 250 g. Silly me. So I ended up with things in the bin. Or being left outside so long it fermented into demon soup.

Sorry no millions of pics + explanations today! One, I really don't have any expertise at all LOL and two I've been way WAY too busy (in final exams now gah) to spend a lot of time so this will have to do!

I made 2 pizzas: A desert pizza (an AMAZING peanut butter, chocolate, pecan, banana and cream-cheese explosion) and and a regular margarita. You can see I attempted to do a stuffed crust (but it didn't turn out. LOL!)

Well, clearly the dough turned out eventually (LOL :P). It was SO stretchy but still held together! It was AWESOME. I think I might have just tossed it around a biiiit too much. Excuse the funky-fied brightness/contrast of the picture. Didn't feel like showing any face.

As a result I look like a demon trying to catch your souls with my purpley membrane thingy. Humour me. LOL.

Hope you all had a fun one!

[Recipe available @ TheDaringBakersBlogroll.]

RANT.

I'm about to stay up studying the whole night and the only emotion I'm feeling right now is desperation. Is that even an emotion? I'm almost 100% sure I'm not going to be able to attain a high enough mark to pull up my WAM to 80, and yet I keep on trying.

I'm so jacked up on caffeine (thanks RedBull) that my left eye will not stop twitching. Remember, only 2 cans a day if you're sane! I'm pretty sure I've gone over the limit. A few times over.

ACCOUNTING is just not going into my head. ARGH.

Eating. Rose. Meow.

I recall telling you the story of how I ate a rosebud sometime in the past but I can't seem to find the post and so I will assume I didn't. Somehow in the midst of final exam studying madness this story popped into my head.

For some reason or another (actually I know the reason but it's just too random/weird/occult to confess on the internets) I had to eat a rosebud. Yes, a rosebud. Somewhat against my will. And very much against my better judgement.

Anyway, here I was sitting on the floor at the apartment we rented for a while in Singapore during certain eventful times of my life I rather hate to relive, with a rosebud in one hand, and 5 people looking at me waiting for me to munch on it.

And so I did.

Nom.

Nom.

Nom.

Little did I know that the I didn't really have to munch on the whole damn thing, just the petals. Don't ask why, I won't tell (and I really don't know myself). And so I accidentally the whole economy (lol jkz) I accidentally ate all the stamens and fugness and bitter shit and so I was gagging to death but see I was still obliged to eat it. I asked the person if I could spit if out but he obviously he said no and he went and got me a glass of water to help it down.

You know how much I hate drinking water on its own, but I took a gulp anyway. Turns out the genius got me a cup of warm water (YUCK) and so now swirling around in my mouth was a warm soupy mixture of rosy filth.

Joy.

I almost lost control of my mouth and spat it all out but that would have had very unfortunate consequences and so somehow I managed to force myself to swallow it all, even though I was almost about to cry from how unfortunate the feeling was in my mouth (urgh the taste still torments me).

So, basically, the moral of the story is, if you offer me sugar-crusted candied rose petals, please don't be offended when I say, "f*ck off."

:)

Semester 2 is overrrrrrrr!

Semester 2 is over! And I didn't ditch my last lecture! I am AWESOME. Ending this semester on an unsure note. How will I go!? I need an ultimate ultimate performance in these finals or else I am gonna be analised.

In other more random news, I rode in an Australian taxi for the first time! I know right?? I've been living in this country for more than 12 years and the first time I ever ride a taxi is when my cousin is too lazy to catch the Wynyard train to Circular Quay and so we take a cab. Cost $10! Bejaysus! I wonder how much it would have cost to come back to Lakemba.

I think Singaporean taxis are a lot cheaper. And better.

In other news, I am SUCH a bad employee. My quasi-boss called me up for training on Saturday but my cousin came so I wanted to go to Parramatta and eat waffles with him (Max Brenner *droool*) and so I DITCHED WORK. OMG. I SUCK. I felt so bad afterwards.

But the waffles made me feel all better.

Racism...?

One in 10 are racist study says:
September 29, 2008

FORTY per cent of Australians believe some ethnic groups do not belong in the country, with one in 10 having outwardly racist views, a study shows.

Professor Dunn said people revealed who they singled out the most. "The most often-mentioned groups were Muslims or people from the Middle East."

[Full article @ smh.com]

...

Great.

Makes me sad because I know it's oh so true.

Sigh!

Project Runway Season 5

Congrats LEANNE!!!

Can't find a more hi-res pic. Bah.

Crashing Jap-1B...

Totally embarrasing thing happened today. 7 out of 10 embarrasing.

ANYWAY. One of my random through the family acquaintances on Facebook gave me the idea of free education at uni (a.k.a. jumping into random lectures to learn stuff). I thought YAY I ARE SO SMARTS LETS JUMP INTO A BIG JAP LECTURE AND NO-ONE WILL NOES US!

Except NO.

Turns out the lecture was a Jap-1B lecture (as in ppl already could speak rudimentary Japanese) and so it was a total wtf experience. Add to that the fact that the classes were really small and the lecturer knew everyone by first name basis and we stuck out like BIG FAKE SORE THUMBS.

The lecturer went up to ppl during the class and the whole time I was praying PLZ PLZ don't come up to me but damn HELL Murphy's Law she came up to me. Sigh! Then she started asking me stuff in Japanese and I had no idea what was going it was SO BAD. I tried to do some astral projection which totally didn't work so I was stuck there totally embarrased rambling nonsense ARGH FAIL FAIL FAIL!

In other news, I'm chewing a Mentos now and it hurts. Frakking ulcers.

P.S. Did you know Jehovah's Witnesses are banned in Singapore? LMAO WTF?!

...

Found this on Digg. Made me laugh! But I prefer reddit.

In other news, there is no news.

Uni starts again JOY!

Uni started again today. Midsemester break was so amazing. As in relieving. Today was another amazingly fun day of uni. Totally radical joyful sexed up fun times.

Skipped lectures again even though I swore (for the 967578th time) that I'd go to every single one as a result of my crap-tascular results. ARGH! Studying sucks!

Anyway. I felt stupid again today. No-one can make me feel more stupid that bloody effinfg Vladimir. Why does he have to be so smart for? In MY domain too. Why, oh why. In other joyful news I get that exam result tomorrow and that will determine if I jump in front of a train or not.

Joke!

Heat black out

Far out. It's so bloody hot these days. Summer came so fast this year. Hell, it's not even Summer yet. Bah! Clothes are sticking to my skin againnn it feels so nasty. Well at least waking up early is a lot easier. No point staying in bed if it feels like a sauna. Maybe I should stop using a blanket.

But it's way too comfy.

Hmm. I was driving home from my friend's place in the evening and it was all Summery stuffy and the clouds were all red and dark and ready to pour and then my mum sends a txt msg telling me that there's a black out of the whole street at home. How fun. I like blackouts. I didn't think they happened anymore. So much for modern technology and watever.

Blackouts remind me of more innocent times. Running around in the dark with candles. Being too terrified to go to the toilet because there was light and something might rape me as I was sitting on the dunny. No television? Hmm. Not really.

Anyway, as I was driving back it turned out that the traffic lights had gone out too. All the big intersections had no lights working. I swear there was an accident about to happen anytime. Dumb cops were so useless! Lucky I was on the main road so I could just keep driving straight throught the lights (win for right of way). All the side roads had to wait and try to sneak in an entrance.

Lucky I got home in one piece.

Eid Mubarak!!

Happy Eid! Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri!!

The holy fasting month of Ramadan ended yesterday, so today is the Muslim holiday of Eid! Everyone's all joyful and celebrating and kiddies running about happy that they have tasty food and cash from parents.

Whole family stayed up late last night making the traditional set of Malay Eid food, i.e. lontong, kuah lodeh, beef rendang, sambal udang, ayam masak merah, etc. Sigh! Malay food is SO GOOD. Not really as widely known as say Chinese food but it is SO good.

It was so funny having to organise everyone to cook all the dishes simultaneously disaster. 6 PEOPLE in one tiny kitchen!! HELL. I like it though. Everyone has to contribute, male or female (don't you just love the gender equality??) My brother isn't so kitchen friendly and didn't cook the chilli properly in a certain dish and so quite a few people are going to have upset tummies. But happy tongues. XD XD.

It's so funny our house is always so packed out on Eid cos all the local families my mum knows come to our house cos we famous on Eid and eat and be merry.

And sooo I had to make a cake! DAH!

I made a traditional Malay cake called kueh lapis (literally "layered cake") which is made from a CRAP load of unhealthy fatty ingredients (20 egg yolks. In one small little 25 x 25 cm cake. LOL! Not to mention half a kilo of butter. But anyway...) but tastes SO GOOD.

(Pic stolen from MadBaker. Sorry!)

My cake really wasn't as pretty as this one, but according to all the old Malay mummas (there were a LOT of them) it was very much moist and tasted very authentic. Awww! That made me happy. Apparently they sell for a crapload. $70 a cake. Oosh!

I should start my own business.