Lady Marmalade

Last weekend was fun and tiring but definitely worth it. Although I think I got food poisoning from what I ate last Sunday. Anyway, my friends and I went to a cabaret show at Mirota Batik, Yogyakarta. Don't expect it to be as awesome as Moulin Rouge. Nevertheless for the price of Rp10,000 (RM3.70/USD$1) per entry it was definitely worth it. Dead cheap, pretty entertaining. 

 

We ended the night karaoke-ing of course

Will write about my friend's Javanese wedding next. =)

Foodie Friday: Rainbow Cupcakes

I made Rainbow Cupcakes for a friend's Hippie Sixties (here and here) themed party last February. Had a few people asking me how I do it. Its actually simple and easy but time consuming if you're used to pouring cupcake batter all in one go.

My easy way of making rainbow cupcakes is using your favourite cupcake recipe (or any other cupcake recipe the you already have) and adding the food colouring of your choice. My favourite and very simple cupcake recipes are these Yellow Cupcakes and Sour Cream Lemon Cupcakes.

After making the cupcake batter I divided it into 5 bowls. I then added the colours of my choice: yellow, red, purple, green and blue. Don't add too much food colouring cos it might change the taste of your cupcakes. Stir well so that no streak of plain batter remains.

Add a teaspoon (or tablespoon if your cupcake is bigger) of each coloured batter into the cupcake cups. Its up to you which colour you want to start. Mine was purple followed by blue, green, yellow and red. Don't spread out the batter as the colours might combine. Just spoon one on top of the other and let it spread on its own. If you don't feel like layering one colour at a time cos it's time consuming just fill cupcake cups with different colours like the second picture below. 

Bake the cupcakes according to the instructions of the recipe you used. Its up to you if you want to put frosting. I like to leave out the frosting to show how colourful it is. Enjoy! =)

Have  a great weekend everyone!

Monk-ing Around at Borobudur on Wesak Day

I've been to Borobudur countless times. I seriously lost count. Normally I go there to bring friends and family who came all the way from Malaysia. But yesterday we went to witness the celebration of Wesak Day. I went last year but this year I decided to go again just for fun.

The day started out misty and cool. We arrived around 730am. The sun was barely up but visitors were coming by bus loads. The ticket for today was Rp23000 (local price). I'm not sure how much other foreigners paid but normally the tix is USD$10. We paid local price cos we were foreign students studying in Indonesia. Before going up the steps heading towards Borobudur we were asked to wrap a piece of sarong around our waist out of respect.

Monks and buddhists gather at Candi Mendut at 8am and start walking towards Candi Borobudur. The walks takes about 3 hours. While they are walking the stage at Borobudur was still being set up. We took this opportunity to take photos. At that time the weather was still cool but as the sun started to rise above our head we were getting anxious cos it was hotttt! We didn't bother going up Borobudur cos the all of us has been there before. 

After waiting for 2 hours we were getting thirsty and hungry. Unfortunately they were not selling food in the compounds of Borobudur so we had to go out to find food. After drinking a refreshing es kelapa muda we headed towards Borobudur yet again. Penattttt kayyy! Naik turun twice!

Thank goodness the event was about to start when we came back. No more waiting! First there was the small food offering. Then some of the monks gather to pray onstage. 

We decided to go back around 1pm and not stay till evening. The event was much longer. In the evening there will be an opening speech, the monks & buddhists will gather and pray together. But the biggest highlight of it all is the candle procession and the release of 1000 lampions into the air to symbolize the lighting of the universe. Maybe we'll stay for that next time.

We were at least one shade darker but it was worth it. =)

Monday Blues

{Image via Jeanine Gabrielle}

I woke up this morning feeling a bit tired but optimistic about today. Normally I hate Mondays. Not because its the first working day of the week but Monday is my Orthodontic day. Orthodontic day is no fun when your advisor is no fun. 

I woke up at 6am, watched a movie and the same time pack my stuff for the day. Took a bath and rode the bus to campus. My day started out good I guess. Met up with my groupmates and settled what needed to be done at the Periodontics department. Alhamdulillah that's settled.

One thing done for the day, another thing to do. My Ortho patient came at 10am as usual. Everything was still on scheduled. About an hour later I got a text from another Ortho patient. It was bad news. That's when my Yellow Monday started to turn Blue. There and then I decided to go back and not stay at campus. My therapy for a bad day at campus is walk back home. Somehow the 25minutes walk calms me. Its either walking back home or retail therapy. But I was on a budget so retail therapy was out!

There are many other ways to beat the Monday Blues. Here are some sites that offer other alternatives to beat the Monday Blues:

• Growing Happiness
• Work Happy Now!

Lika's Engagement

I've attended a wedding in Indonesia before this but this was the first time I attended an engagement ceremony. It's slightly different from Malaysia. Honestly, tak ingat sangat engagement kat Malaysia macam mane. The last engagement I went to was Sha's which was 2 years ago. Itupun gi skejap je (like around half an hour) cos I had a flight to catch. 

What's the difference between the engagement ceremony in Indonesia and Malaysia? I guess I can say its more intimate in Malaysia. But now engagement ceremonies in Malaysia are becoming more like a wedding reception. Seriously! The amount of money some people spend on their engagement is almost the same as their wedding reception. But if they have the money and memang the family nak buat besar-besaran, silakan.

Another thing that was different is the future bride and groom sat right next to eat other throughout the whole thing. In Malaysia, the guy doesn't have to go to the ceremony. At my friend's engagement I didn't understand what the MC was saying throughout the whole thing cos he was speaking in Javanese. So I can't really elaborate the whole event. But in the end, I had fun and am happy I get to experience a different kind of culture. 

Lika

After the engagement it was time to eat!

 Dentistry 2005  

My groupmates!

 

Dentistry 2004

They're officially engaged! Congratulations!

Don't worry that's not their ring, it's mine & Wafa's. Hehe.

Belated Foodie Friday: French Silk Pie

Haven't been in a blogging mood for the past one week but was pretty excited to blog on Friday. Unfortunately, Blogger was down yesterday so had to write yesterday's post today.

We celebrated Wafa's Birthday last Sunday. So I decided to do another experiment, as in try a new recipe. Searched high and low on what to make and finally decided on Strawberry Cream Pie. But after realizing I didn't have cream cheese and was on a budget I decided to search for a recipe that didn't require cream cheese. So I found the recipe for this awesome French Silk Pie!

Honestly I had trouble making it and I had to try twice. Nobody is perfect, right? The first time I tried, after adding the third egg the mixture started to separate and I had to throw it out. Thankfully the second time seem to be how it was suppose to look like. But of course I was nervous because I had to wait at least 4 hours for the pie to set and taste it. I made a few tweaks not because I'm an expert but because I had to make do with whatever I had. 

Part 1 : The Crust

The recipe for the French Silk Pie (click here for the recipe & instructions) required making the pie crust out of flour. I haven't tried that before. So I decided to make a shortcut and made digestive biscuit pie crust instead. I like this way better because I love how it crumbles when you bite it. Just like eating cheesecake. The recipe for the digestive biscuits crust actually uses graham crackers but since I couldn't find any here so digestive biscuits was a great substitute. And since I was running short on butter I used margarine instead. 

Firstly, I crushed the digestive biscuits into pieces and added the sugar

 Then I added the melted margarine

Then I pressed it to my pie dish and baked it for about 10 minutes

Part 2 : The Filling

While waiting for the pie crust to cool I started to make the filling. As I said before I failed the first time I tried making it so that was sort of a setback. But in the end everything worked out fine. Yayyyy!

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

I only had unsalted butter so I added about 1/4 teaspoon salt

Then I added the melted chocolate and vanilla. I used dark chocolate.

After that I added the eggs one at a time and beat it for 5 minutes each. 

I ended up using 2 eggs instead of 3. 

 I poured the filling into the pie crust and let it cool in the fridge for half a day. 

Simple right? 

Here's the end result!

 I decorated with whipped cream and strawberries! Yummm!

 'Sixteen' candles for the Birthday girl. Hehe.

Dig in!