Houston 2015 - January

In January, I went to Houston for a work trip for a week (10th Jan to 18th Jan). Making this my 3rd trip to Houston, the 1st was in 2008, the 2nd in 2013. It was a pretty last minute trip, so I didn't have much planning done. 

Flying to East of USA is a pain. The flight time is looong, 13hrs from KL to Amsterdam, transit for 4hrs, and then another 10.5hrs from Amsterdam to Houston, worse still if you go with an airline like KLM, which I did, where the seats are smaller, and the space between rows of seats are narrower. It was quite torturous in my opinion. Luckily the food served was pretty decent, and they have quite good in flight entertainment. 

These are just some photos captured during the trip for memory keep sake. 

♥Amsterdam Airport Schiphol♥ 

(photos are all taken from mobile, hence the quality is not as good) 

 It's a nice airport, with lots of cafes, but I like the Dutch Kitchen the best. The Gevulde Koeken, which is an Almond Paste filled Cookie was so delicious, I had it again on my transit to go back home. The are quite a number of shops there to keep me occupied; and of course, most of the souvenir shops sell cheeses. I didn't buy any, didn't know what was good.

I was attracted to the Meditation Centre, and went there to check out, I think it was meant to be a surau (Muslim prayer room), so I saw some people praying there, but also a few taking a nap in the quiet room. 4hours transit isn't that bad. 

♥Houston Shopping♥ 

 When in the US, of course, we have to do some shopping. I really really love the variety of items available there. At Sports Authority.

At REI. Of course, can't miss a visit to the Outlets. I was so tempted to get the Samsonite Cosmolite (check out the price!), but buying it would mean incurring additional baggage charge on the KLM flight, which only allows 1x23kg checked suitcase. Sigh. I always love to visit supermarkets wherever I am. And I just realised on this trip, there's a Wholefoods Market just near the office. The variety of organic and natural product is just amazing. This is where I purchased my very first set of natural skin care product from, many many years ago, in the Wholefoods Market in California. Hilton Garden Inn 

This is the hotel we always stay in when we're in Houston. Nice room, but electrical appliances in my room were noisy, so I had to turn off the air-condition (heater actually since it was winter), pull out the plug for the fridge before I could have a good sleep. Breakfast was included, and they were pretty delicious although not many choices to choose from.

For dinner, usually we went out in a group, only a couple of times I had to eat on my own. At PF Changs near the hotel, having a romantic dinner all by myself. At BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. I managed to meet up with my Texas BFF Jerry, who drove 45mins to meet up with me at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Mekong Grill. Food wasn't great, and we joked about how authentic a Pho can be if it's served with crab sticks, but it was nice to just have a catch up with him. The best dinner I'd had on this trip is at Mia Bella. This is another restaurant that our colleagues like to frequent, as the food is always so delicious. I had a Pan Seared Sesame Crusted Salmon, it was heavenly. The sesame gave the salmon a nice flavourful crunch. Oh boy, if I were to go to Houston again, I have to go back to this restaurant for another of this heavenly dish. It really really tasted nicer than it looked. 

My favourite meal of the day is lunch, as I love the variety of delicious food served in the company's cafe. Check out the Asian section - pot stickers, sushi, Vietnamese rice rolls. The Italian Station have super delicious looking pizzas, and flat bread pizzas. The salad bar has such nice raw vegetable and delicious toppings that I actually have salad for lunch for a couple of days. My lunches. Salad with over the top toppings. Chicken Pot Stickers, so yummy. Turkey Burger, which was so juicy and well grilled. After a week in Houston, I put on weight, of course. 

 I drove in Houston to get to the office and to go to the shops. Actually, you rarely see people walking. I did walk to restaurants a couple of times with my colleagues, and we can see that Houston roads are not meant for pedestrians. There is no pavement for one. And the roads were so wide you have to do a hundred meters dash every time you cross a road. 

While driving, I have to remind myself to keep the right all the time, just so I don't make any mistakes, since in Malaysia we drive on the left.

Unfortunately, this trip was so last minute and short for any sight seeing. This was the scenery I saw daily, while walking to the car to get to the office. This one was on a day when it got really foggy.

Temper Cancer

The little one has been extremely difficult, even though she gave us her promise, she still has tantrums and fit of anger triggered by the smallest thing. 

Me: You know, you really should control your temper. 

Zaria : I try to ma, but sometimes I cannot control it 

Me: What you have is like a temper cancer you know. We try to help you but if it doesn't work, we'll have to send you to Monfort Boy School, they are like a hospital for all the temper cancer patient 

Zaria : Then when can I come back? 

Me: Until you are fully healed from temper cancer, and you can control your temper so you don't get angry so easily 

Zaria : But cancer cannot be cured right? o.O" 

Anyone has any suggestion on how to cure Temper Cancer? 

We try to speak to her nicely, it doesn't work. 

Taking away privileges, it doesn't work. Punishing her, it doesn't work. 

We kept telling her we all love her, she knows it, and starts feeling sorry and sobs, but then it's easily forgotten, and next day, the cycle repeats. 

She's only like this at home, at school, she's always conceding, no teachers have ever complained about her except that she day dreams sometimes. 

I just hope this is a phase she's going through, and it'll be over soon.

My Promise - By Zaria

Zaria has been extremely difficult the last week, using foul language, spiting in her sister's tea just because her sister made tea without telling her (they always brew tea together), using her sharp tongue to talk back, sometimes even telling us she wished we weren't her family, she wished she was an orphan etc etc. 

This little sweetie pie has a sweet sweet sugary filling, but sometimes her temper gets the better of her. After a few 'counselling' sessions we had with her, she decided to write us her promise or her ode to her family. (She even signed it in red to indicate she's serious). 

Sweet Sweet Zaria, we all love you very much, and hope you will be able to control your temper, and outgrown this episode in life, and we hope you will keep all these promises you made to your family.

Homemade Sandwich Bread Loaf

I have bought these bread tins from Penang for more than a year and never tried using them before. Few days back, the girls requested for sandwiches for school lunch so I thought why not made a sandwich bread loaf. The girls don't like sweet bread unless it's cinnamon buns, so I tweaked the recipe I found in this recipe book, using only 1/3 of the sugar listed on the recipe. 

It takes a long time to make produce the loaf because of the ferment, but using a ferment creates a nicer flavour and softer bread, which to me, is worth the wait. ♥Recipe adapted from Carol♥ 

Ingredients: 

For the ferment： 

200g strong white flour 

135g water 

1/2 tsp yeast 

For the dough: 

210g strong white flour 

90g cake flour 

1/4 tsp yeast 

20g sugar 

3/4 tsp salt 

60g extra virgin olive oil 

145g water 

1 egg 

Method : 

For the ferment : 

1) Mix ingredients for the ferment together (I use hand) for about 5mins until you have a rough dough. 2) Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave it to rest 4hrs~6hrs. 

For the dough: 

1) Put the flour in a mixing bowl and add in the yeast. Scoop the ferment into the bowl, then add the egg, water, oil, sugar and salt, mixing well until all combined; knead for 4-5mins (I use the Thermomix and knead for 4mins; but you can use hand or a mixer with dough hoook). (Step 1, 2 at the below pix)

2) Remove the dough, and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, forming it to a ball, cover 

3) Leave it to rest for 1.5hrs or until double in size. (Step 4 at the below pix) 

4) Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and turn the dough out in one piece, deflate the dough slightly. Divide the dough equally into 2 portion (it's very soft but supple). Roll them into balls, cover and let it rest for 15mins. (Step 5 at the below pix) 

5) Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into long flat strips, and then roll each of the strip up into logs. Once again, roll the dough out into long flat strips with the rolling pin, and roll them up again into logs. (Step 6 to 10 at the below pix) 

6) Place the 2 pieces of roll up dough in the bread tin. Allow it to proof for an hour. (Step 11 at the below pix) 

7) Mean while preheat the oven to 210C. When the rolls are ready (should rise to almost 90% covering the bread tin), place the lid on and put the bread tin into the oven. (Step 12, 13 at the below pix) 

8) Bake for 40mins. 

9) Once baked, remove the bread from the tin and let it cool on the rack.

Book page from Carol's 2nd book

And viola, a nice loaf of sandwich bread. It has a strong crust which holds its shape, and the bread itself is airy and soft. Note : The bread tin I have is 20cm x 12cm x 11cm. After the dough was rested, I could see that it has risen much bigger than the bread tin, hence I took about 100g dough out and formed them into buns (baked at same temperature for 12mins). It probably would have spilled out of the tin or making the loaf denser if I haven't done so.

Life Rushes By

Since the end of the year, I have been so busy, hence the long absence of new posts in this site.

The 1st few weeks of the year were spent sorting out classes the girls should attend, finding tutors for the girls etc etc and finally a routine is established.

I'm involved in 2 big global projects on top of my normal day job. Every day, besides working the regular hours, we have night calls so all regions can work together for 2 hours. Globalisation and mobility get you sucked into work 24x7 that's what I think.

Life just rushes by the last couple of months.

Feisty Zaria

Happy New Year to everyone.

Ever since we gave Zaria the barista title, she makes coffee or tea for me daily.

Yesterday after breakfast, I asked her for my cup of coffee as usual. Zaria said later. And repeated her 'later' for the next 1hr and eventually did not bother to even reply when I asked about my coffee.

I lost my patience and went downstairs, to see her lying on the sofa reading.
Me : From 9 till 10:30 I asked for my coffee, and you kept saying later, and then didn't even answer me any more! Today is my 1st day of work, you are still on holidays, and you can't even make your mom a cup of coffee? Do you have anything to say?
Zara : Sorry ma, what do you want ma? Do you want me to make a cup of coffee or tea for you?
Zaria : ....
Me : Ok. For lunch, I'm not cooking for you, and Auntie (our helper) cannot cook for you too. You go and figure out what to eat. There's lots of cereals and milk.
So I made my own coffee, and thinking Zaria will come over to apologise; but instead, she went to our helper and asked, "Auntie, do we still have mee sedap?"
o.O"

At 12pm, she boiled a pot of water herself, cut opened a pack of mee sedap, and made herself lunch!!
o.O"

While I was eating roast chicken sandwich, and fried button mushroom with Zara at the same table with her, I asked "You can have some if you say something to me."
Slurping her noodle, she said, "Even if I say sorry, I don't really mean it, so what's the point of saying it."
o.O"

That's my 8 year old alright, feisty, independent, non-complying.

Chocolate Coated Butter Biscuits for the Neighbours

My daughters wanted to distribute biscuits to the neighbours for Christmas, so I baked some heart shape butter biscuits for that purpose.

Since I have some cooking chocolate at home, I dipped half of the biscuit in melted chocolate as decoration and also stuck ice cream sticks in to a couple of them (it was difficult to stick sticks into the biscuits as they were going soft very quickly even though I'd refrigerated the dough to harden it) which the girls then called them lollipop biscuits.

♥Butter Biscuit ♥
adapted from Baking by James Peterson

You'll need :

2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
268g butter
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

Method :

1) Mix the flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl.
2) Cream the butter with sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
3) Beat in the egg and egg yolk.
4) Sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon until it's well combined and there's no loose flour.
5) Roll the dough between baking paper into a rectangle about 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate until cold.
6) When dough is cold, cut it into desired shapes. Put the biscuit on baking paper in a tray and refrigerate.
7) Preheat oven to 325F (160C).
8) Bake biscuit for 15 to 20mins until very pale brown.
9) Let cool until set then transfer to wire rack.

To coat the biscuit with chocolate:

1) Heat a pot of water on low heat.
2) Cut desired amount of chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl.
3) Put the bowl of chocolate into the pot of simmering water, and melt the chocolate
. 4) Dip the cool biscuit (whole or partially) into the melted chocolate and leave the biscuit on wire rack or baking paper to allow the chocolate to harden before storing.
The girls help to distribute the chocolate biscuits to the kids around the neighbourhood, and kept the 'lollipop biscuits for themselves.