Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Chocolate Chip Cookies


Semasa Ramadan baru-baru ini, Embak mencari bagai nak rak resepi Chocolate Chip Cookies yang Embak buat saban tahun... tapi tak jumpa. Puas ditanya adik, ipar duai dan rakan-rakan yang Embak rasa pernah dikongsi resepi ini tapi tak sorang pun ada simpan. Tapi akhirnya jumpa , terselit antara buku-buku. Jadi Embak ingat, kalau direkodkan di blog ini pun bagus juga. Agar boleh dirujuk setiap tahun. Dengan harapan, tahun depan Embak dapat la hamper chocolate chip cookies pulak.

Asalnya resepi Embak ambil dari makalah Eon/Proton, tak ingat pulak masa Embak beli kereta pertama atau kedua. Kalau kereta ke-2 maksudnya dah 9 tahun, kalau kereta pertama dah 14 tahun. Banyak tahun tu jugaklah Embak dah pakai resepi ni. Yang takjubnya, resepi ni menjadi, tak payah adjust bahan-bahannya tak seperti resepi-resepi yang kedapatan di majalah-majalah di pasaran.

Ingredients:
100g butter
100g shortening ( if possible use Crisco brand)
200g soft brown sugar
4 drops vanilla essence
2 large eggs, beaten
200g chocolate chips
100g chopped walnut or almonds
1/2 level tsp salt
Sift together:
400g plain flour
2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda


1. Cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, salt and essence together for 2-3 minutes, adding the eggs gradually. Fold in the sifted flour, chocolate chips and chopped nuts.
2. Using two teaspoons make small mounds of the mixture, well apart on a baking tray.
3. Bake 10-13 minutes until crisp and brown (temp 160 F). Transfer on a cooling tray and store in airtight container when cooled.

Will yield about one and a half standard-sized plastic jars or approximately 750g cookies. If you add up the mass of all the ingredients, the yield is much less. I wonder where the rest of it goes!

Monday, October 08, 2007

Some unimportant updates

My, it’s been weeks since my last post. My vacationing brother has come and gone, Ramadhan too, is ending very soon. What’s to update? These are the trivial things:

1. I have repainted my car. Now it is respectable again. It’s funny how it drives better too.

2. I finally got the hang of “torrents”. Too bad for the “pirate” merchants of Ferringhi night market. I now watch House MD Season 4 almost as if I'm in America. The torrent will be available 1 or 2 days after the episode is aired. J'adore les torrents!

3. And I have fallen in love with the music and word wizardry of Jason Mraz. Try listen to his debut album “Waiting for My Rocket to Come” – you’ll be hooked. Here’s a sample of the words from his song “Life is Wonderful”, from his sophomore album:

And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
It takes some fears before I trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished.

Brilliant!

4. I am a few pages into “A Walk In The Woods” by Bill Bryson. God, help me finish it. I like to finish my books as fast as I could, but this one is difficult – it is so funny. Last night, I laughed until tears came out. I’ll give it another go tonight.

That's all for now. I'll come back after the Eid, insyaAllah. So, happy celebrating y’all. Drive safe.