when we see Christ in someone, it should be evident in their everyday lives right? not only when the person is in their christian-ny element, eg. preaching, evangelising, befriending, cell leading, worship leading, etc.

something i noted. a person whose private life's deep truth is far from the superficially professed ideal, should refrain from preaching that they pursue only after God loving/centred/consumed women/men.

it makes them not just look stupid, but it is hypocritical and stumbles others.

Driving Instructor Uncle Vocabulary Trivia

Update:

Generous = Dangerous
Hedges = Hazards
Kuiz = Squeeze
Prup = Pull Up

It's funnier when i get to pronounce it outloud for you! ;-P

Hello folks! For your and my entertainment, i shall now present you with a Driving Instructor Uncle Vocabulary Trivia! Try to guess what these words (really) are!

"Generous" = ?
"Hedges" = ?
"Kuiz" = ?
"Prup" = ?

Er, no prizes for right answers.

Potato Bake Version 2

Cut up: 1 Red pepper, 1 big yellow onion, and grated a bunch of garlic. The pieces that were too small to grate are there on top of the peppers.

My cheddar cheese which i cut into small pieces, so that when the scattered pieces melt, they melt out evenly throughout the dish.

My button mushrooms. You decide how many you is want! :-P
Some random box of chicken nuggets that i found in the fridge. I've no idea who put them there and no one at home admits to its existence. Well, it no longer exists! It's going into the potato bake. :-D See the ones in aeroplane shapes. Hurhur. I toasted them so warm them up and give them a nice brown colour.
My grated garlic which i used to scatter in with the filling, as well as scattered on the top of everything with the cheese topping, mixed herbs and coarse black pepper (you'll see later on).
The boiled and scalloped potato base on the baking dish. OH YES. Don't forget to grease the base and sides of the dish with margarine or butter. This prevents the cheese and other stuff from sticking to it after some of it melts and burns slightly.
This is the cream i used. Instead of the 1 1/2 cups that i used in version 1, i used 1 instead. Healthier i guess. Less fat.
Fried up the bits of garlic, red pepper, onions, mushrooms in olive oil, and added a tiny amount of salt and black pepper.
Zees is the filling: red pepper, onions, mushrooms, diced chicken nuggets, grated garlic, cream and cheddar cheese, french onion soup, a bit of coarse black pepper again.

Put scalloped potatoes on top again with the grated garlic.
Top with mozarella cheese, cheddar cheese, mixed herbs, coarse black pepper. Dump in oven!

Ok, here we go. Kinda looks similar to version 1 anyway, but it's different on the inside!

Sitting pretty by the kitchen window. :-9
Close up for your viewing pleasure. Whee!
And finally... on the dinner table. It's a bit sad that i have to "force" my family to eat my stuff. I have to keep asking them if they've tried my food, or i have to bring a plate to them and ask if they want a bite. Only my dad took a portion by himself last night. Otherwise, no one other than myself and Van has eaten a decent portion! Grrr. I need food test subjects, and gem is too busy to stick around long enough to be one. I need daring, willing and FREE participants, or else the fridge will be full of stuff that i make and no one will eat!

Potato Gratin/Potato Bake sort-of-recipe

For those of you interested in making the potato thingy i made, here's the sort of recipe!
The reason why it's only a sort-of-recipe is because i did not use much measurements. I just added things according to how i liked it to be.

1) Boil 7-8 russet potatoes. Some people might find the russet variety too crumbly and soft so they use the harder yellow-er types.

2) Fry 2 (big) yellow onions in a shallow frying pan with olive oil, slow cook them, so that they don't burn and they should caramelize in the pan. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt and pepper to taste.

3) After the potatoes are boiled and tender, de-skin them and scallop them. Grease an oven-safe glass dish with a bit of butter, so that the food doesn't stick. Line the bottom of the dish with the potatoes. Don't use up all of them.

4) I had some leftover cooked chicken chunks, so i layered them over the potatoes. I also added ham slices, add half of the previously fried onions.

5) I used something like 1 and a half containers of Bulla cream (350ml to 400ml), and added dollops of it, scattered among the meat, onions, etc. Don't use all of it yet. As and when you feel that some corners/portions are dry, just put some cream there. Added dollops of butter also, but not too much.

6) Slopped ready made packet french onion soup all over to flavour the dish. Add amount according to your own disgression. Similarly, if you find it a bit dry, you can slop some more. Up to you! Just keep in mind that as you add, you are adding more flavour/salt into your dish, so you want to mentally keep stock of what you are dumping into the dish so that when you finally eat it, you aren't overwhelmed with the taste of one particular ingredient.

7) Also throw in cheddar cheese. I added red cheese and the regular yellow one. However, make sure that you cut up the cheese into little pieces, so that when it melts, it melts out evenly and not in little lumps here and there.

(at this point, i would recommend adding some cubed green/red/yellow pepper. Reason being it's good to add some vegetable and it also adds a crunch to the dish. You can either fry it first with the yellow onion or if you want it a bit more raw, just add it as it is in this layer.)

8) I sprinkled a tiny amount of salt, but in this case, i did so because not many of the other ingredients were salty naturally, except for the cheese and ham. If your version has other stuff that is salty, then don't add anymore.

9) Once the middle portion is done with all the layering and stuff, put your final layer of potatoes and also the fried onions as the top layer of your potato bake. Add the rest of the cream too. Use a ladle to gentle press everything into the dish. After that, grab a pack of shredded mozeralla cheese and add a generous layer of cheese on top of the potatoes and onions.

10) Lastly, sprinkle a tiny amount of mixed herbs evenly, and also coarse black pepper.

11) Throw everything into the oven and wait for the mozeralla cheese to brown to the colour you want!

Hope this helps and doesn't sound too messy or complicated. It isn't complicated once you get your ingredients prepared really.

Ask me if you have any doubts! :-D

1. Did i mention that beginner motorcyclists in the circuit (relative to beginner car drivers) and inconsiderate ones outside are really pesky. I tell you, they are asking for an accident to happen, with the way they simply shoot out from the lane without considering or even SEEING that a car is coming their way/coming out or that they are the vulnerable ones when they try to squeeze by the side of the car. Sheesh.

2. Kitchen is mine for the next few days! Hopefully i can be making food that people will enjoy eating (which happens to be the minority of the time).

3. Shape run is tomorrow. I hope my lungs and legs won't give me a hard time. I'm mentally strong (in my mind, 10km is considered an ok-not-that-long distance, and 5km is considered to be a fun run distance) but i'm physically kinda weak, for some weird reason despite having been training for months. And i have 7 other girls coming with me. WOW, RECORD NUMBER! FINALLY!

i was enchanted...

Over lunch at home, i channel surfed and decided to watch Enchanted because it looked entertaining and quite amusing... Little did i know that i would find such a gem of a song. It's a little sad, message-wise, but it's just the moment that captured my heart.

I had goosebumps while watching them dance but most of all, through listening to the way the song was sang. The tone of the singer's (Jon Mclaughlin) voice, the pitch, dynamics, the heartfelt emotion poured into it. (oh man, the actor guy, ok patrick dempsey, sang a bit of the song softly to her, it was SO SWEET. Augghhh....)



Ok, a version without the actors talking midway.



Lyrics (Music Video of Giselle and Robert dancing from Walt Disney's "Enchanted"):

You're in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music playing on for only two
So close together
And when I'm with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams will stop
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you're beside me and look how far we've come
So far we are so close How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?
We're so close
To reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let's go on dreaming for we know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

Part 2 of Home Cookout: Potato Gratin/Potato Bake

Just some of the ingredients... But i had more stuff sitting elsewhere. Like a packet of onion soup, cream, etc.
Slow fried (to caramelize) these yellow onions in a little olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Boiling the russet potatoes first before baking, otherwise it would take forever to bake and the cheese on top would burn to carbon!
Messy cross section. But just you wait! We have a potato base, onions, red and white cheese, chicken, ham, cream, dollops of butter, a sprinkle of salt, french onion soup.
The unbaked finished product. Topped with potatoes again, onions, mozarella chesse, coarse black pepper and mixed herbs.
Baking in zee oven!
Tadah!
Yummers. Everyone loved eet! For once, joline makes something that she didn't have to eat all by herself to finish it (like in most other cases because got no business from family members even...).

In future, i could add prawns, button mushrooms, red/green/yellow peppers and garlic. Muah hahaha...

Part 1 of Home Cookout: Strawberry Cheesecake

Was on a quest to reattempt to make my strawberry cheesecake for V to try. Also doubled up as dessert for Jun who was coming over for dinner.

Creaming the cheese manually with the sugar and gelatine mixture.
Poured the mixture over my biscuit base which i had prepared earlier and placed in the fridge.

There we go! Into the fridge to set for a while before i lay out the strawberries.

Ok, this dude is my proof that i used organic strawberries. I was washing the strawberries that i had bought about 2 days ago, when i turned a berry over to find this little dude still and not moving with all his legs hidden somewhere. I turned my attention away for a bit and when i returned to my berries, i was surprised to find that s/he was crawling fine and dandy about! So there. No pesticides, fresh organic strawberries with a ladybug thrown in. Took the liberty to snap pictures of the lovely little harmless creature.

After the cheese had set, i placed my strawberries in rows and then poured my jelly mixture over the whole thing. Jelly mixture is the pink liquid you see... Raspberry flavoured.

The finished product after setting in the fridge for a few hours to ensure it was ready! The pink is actually a deeper shade. The colour here looks a bit washed out.

Here you go! :oD

Stay tuned for part 2...

I need a break from life. Not that i want to temporarily cease to exist. I just want a life without having to go through the mandatory aspects of surviving in this world. Know what i mean.