Not So Yummy Oreo Flavoured Cookies

Ginger Oreo Bread Man Cookie

Since Christmas is near, I was planning to make something festive. Though I'm not celebrating, it is not gonna stop me from enjoying the festive season. =)

I like gingerbread man cookies because they look cute, not because I like to eat them(not a big fan of ginger). So what am I to do if I wanna make gingerbreadman cookies and cant eat them?

So while I was browsing the various websites and blogs which teaches people how to make easy gingerbread man cookies, I came across a comment on replacing ground ginger with other ingredient. They suggested chocolate or oreo.. And voila, that's how I came about to the idea of Ginger Oreo Bread Man Cookie!

I followed the recipe of gingerbread man cookies from this website but I changed alot of the ingredients. Probably this is also part of the reason that my cookies failed. LOLS. Darling also said they tasted weird. HAHA..

My recipe:

350g / 12oz plain flour

175g / 6oz light soft brown sugar castor sugar

100g / 4oz butter

1 medium egg

4 tablespoons of golden syrup honey

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1½ teaspoon of ground ginger ground/crushed oreos

and I did not follow the measurements strictly either.. Excuse: I don't have a kitchen scale =)

Oreo

seal the oreos in a plastic bag securely and roll the rolling pin on it to crush them

Like this

Ok, my hands were all so oily and dirty while making the dough so there are no pictures of them. But I felt weird with my dought because it was not tough like it was supposed to. It was soft and moist and I know it shouldn be like that.. Hmm.. I wonder what is wrong.. Can someone tell me? Not enough flour?

Ok, so I didn't have a man shape cookie cutter..

the dough was soft so I just kinda molded the shapes I wanted using free hand.. sort of like playing play-dough

It's baking It's baking

And there.. when it's baked.. (or I thought it was)

Gingerbread house shape

Xmas Tree shape

Candy Cane shape

Stick man figured shape

And I decorated with some white royal icing

Recipe for royal icing is here

I only used 1 egg white and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and added icing sugar until it's not so watery..

Oh this is MY stick woman oreo breadman cookie

which had been beheaded

Poor Me!

Luckily Darling's Stick man version is all fine, the exact same one in picture #7.

Well, all I can say is that, I don't think I like oreo in this cookie too.. I should probably try chocolate next time..

I wonder what other pastries I can attempt next.. Hmm.. I really wanna try egg tarts.. =)

Oh ya.. Went to Tropicana City Mall with darling and had dinner there.. Errr.. Royal Thao I think, is the name... only 2 pictures.. Hungry d that time..

As usual our favourite order

Pandan leave chicken

And Seafood tomyam..

Yums.. This tomyam is just the exact composition for me..

Not too spicy and can still taste the tomyam-ness and I rich in coconut milk..

If we had ordered the bowl instead of the cup.. I bet I can finish them all (sharing with darling)

Okay, it's been a long and tiring day given the cookie baking and all.. I guess I should stop here now.. See Ya!

Letters To Juliet

"Dear Claire,

‘What’ and ‘if’ are two words as non threatening as words can be. But put them together, side-by-side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life. ‘What if? ‘What if? What if?’

I don’t know how your story ended but if what you felt then was ‘true love’, then it’s never too late. If it were true then, why wouldn’t it be true now? You need only the courage to follow your heart.

I don’t know what a love like Juliet’s feels like; a love to leave loved ones for, a love to cross oceans for. But I’d like to believe if I ever were to feel it, that I’d have the courage to seize it. And Claire, if you didn’t, I hope one day that you will.

All my love,

Juliet"

This letter, the words are adapted from the movie, "Letters To Juliet" starred Amanda Seyfried. I just thought that the letter was beautifully written and that I should share. Maybe the words in this letter are not fully powerful enough to touch the core of everyone's hearts, but at least they meant something. 

Good Night to all true lovers out there. And to those who are waiting for the one true love, Buona Notte. 

If by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Did my daily runs on blogs today and I came across a new entry from Sweatlee. This poem, I knew this poem ever since I was 11. It was pasted on my brother's study table wall. When he left for his studies, I sat on his table everyday to do my homework and studies. And everyday I would read through this poem before I start my work to give myself motivation and inspirations. I read it everyday, till I could remember every stanza perfectly and memorized every word by heart. 

At that moment, I was too young to understand the meaning of some words, but I knew that this poem had always been encouraging and motivating. When I was much younger, I wasn't as smart as anyone thought I was. I wasn't only stupid, I was also dumb. And when you are dumb, you get no where. You sit right at the bottom of everyone's hearts. Nobody gives a damn about what you say or think, because you are stupid and you can't think right. 

And I asked God, why do you have to make me so stupid? Nobody like stupid girls. Why did you make me so skinny and sickly till everyone think I'm too weak to do anything? Dear God, why do people hate me? Why do they like to make me feel so inferior and think that I could be belittled? Am I just a nothing on this Earth? And then I thought, if only I were smarter, people would like me.

This poem gave me so much strength that it somewhat become like my motto in life. At that moment, the only thing I could thought of was to have people to like me and to be the smartest.

And I did, I excelled and it proved my theory right. People like to befriend you if you are smart. If you are not, you are all on your own. Even till the extend that they would try to make your face disappear from this Earth. I gained one thing which I really wanted, but I gave up so much more in order to get it. Let's just say that every success you made bound to have its sacrifices. This is common and I bet everyone have been through this. It was not easy for me to have survived what I've been through. And it's really a waste that I've thrown all those sacrifices into the deep ocean because I'm not as strong as I used to be. It's even more shameful that I've forgotten this poem entirely. Only up till today when I read Sweatlee's blog, I suddenly remembered that I know this poem a very long time ago. And that it had such a great impact on me. 

I was only 11, and I could understand the heart of this poem. But it's a shame for me to say that, I don't get it now. I'm nothing as described in that poem, I have achieved not a single variable. And I wonder, when would the day come that I would grow up and be a man! A man as in the ideal human being. 

As human, we might not be perfect, but yet, we could be ideal. 

Taman Pertanian 2nd Visit

Hello, this is the 2nd time I went to Taman Pertanian. Today it's a holiday so it was really crowded.. Luckily that we reached there at a perfect timing, so we just waited for like half an hour to get the bikes.. Heard that all the bikes were all rented out since 9.30 am. OMG! We are damn lucky. Neways, we explored more places today and there were more uphills this time. And I swore that I almost died of exhaustion. 

Really, I've not done so much exercise for the pass 7/10 years.. My stamina are all gone! 

Me & Sayang

I dun like all my pictures lately.. 

Big fishie.. It's fake =)

some kampung idaman

in front of Cultural village main office

This is the fly fishing place

empangan kuning smtg... 

Look.. fishies..

That's all for today! so tired already. Plus I have to save my energy to go for war tomorrow. It's course registration day! 

See ya!

Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam

Yes, we went to the Taman Pertanian Malaysia yesterday(Saturday). It was already quite late when we reached there cos it was sorta last minute plan plus we made a mistake to go eat at SS2 which was not on the way. And that lunch took us bout 1 hour including the travelling time.  By the time we reached there it was already 4. Luckily they said that they would close bout 5.30 or 6, despite the time stated on the board was 4.30/5.00 (I dun remember). It was actually a nice weather that day apart from the drizzling. It wasn't hot at all.. The entrance fee for adult was RM3 which is very very cheap. We rented a bicycle each at RM5 for the first hour and additional RM1 for the subsequent hour. Cycling was one of the main reasons we went there. Believe it or not, I don't really know how to cycle(jakun). Of course, I did ride a bike when I was younger and that was like... hmmm??? 17 years ago??? I doubt I have any cycling skills left in me now. =)

Miraculously, the cycling went well. I was a little shaky and unbalanced at first, cause I was afraid of falling. But after cycling for a few minutes, the process was quite smooth. And only got scared when there were vehicles and other bikers passing by. Apart from that, everything was smooth sailing and of course, Darling was always watching close behind. Going down hill was definitely the best part of riding a bike and also the easiest. And now, I can proudly say that " I can ride a bicycle - beginner level" .  *teehee*

The area was really big, so renting a bike to go around was a great idea. The problem is just that we can't take too many pictures of the scenery and environment. Or else we would need to make a lot of stops. 

some horsies

monkeys invading horsies' food ^.^

Darling was so sweet to take my bag cause the bikes we rented have no baskets. All the bikes with baskets were being rented out =( 

jungle shot

Dunno what's living inside there

Darling and his rented bike

Me and my bike

so sad I couldn't get a purple bike

the purples left were all too big for me

and I saw one group of youngsters grab all the purple bikes =( 

buffalo?

rise and shine porcupine 

They sleep in a row.. lols

Oh ya, another thing which I wanted to do there was to visit the 4 season house.

I just wanna see see what is that all about.

It's actually a building, decorated according to the season during that time of the year.

Since now it's winter, so winter it is.

Brrrrrr .. So cold

US

There's a hut over there

I wonder if they just ice or snow 

????

Must be ice la.. 

After all the sweat from cycling, I was practically freezing inside with thin clothes

Frosty the snowman.. 

But it was not snow =(

Hmm.. I actually dunno what this post means

I think we only went 1/4 of the whole area

We would come again next time

Darling said he wanna try the fish flying

We watched some monkeys stealing food before going home

Oh ya, haha.. I was really excited that I could ride a bike. So I asked darling to take a video of me riding a bike as I prove that I've passed my beginner's level. *wink*

Haha... I know I looked stupid! 

Well, that's all for now... I'll go visit the Taman Pertanian again some other days to cover the rest of the areas that I've not seen. For more information, please visit their main website. So long!