Berry-good scones!

*ahem ahem ahem*

It is with great pleasure (and a little apprehension) that I introduce my first ever batch of scones!


Kyle was telling me how great his newly purchased jar of French raspberry jam is and how great it'd be if we had some scones and clotted cream to go with it.

Since I have the ingredients for scone-making on hand it it is, I volunteered to bake some scones and he agreed to get the clotted cream.

Since this is my virgin experience with scones, I figured I ought to try something fancy.... So instead of your regular raisin scones, I decided to try baking some berry scones! And a good thing too! Coz Kyle doesn't like raisins! (Phew!)

Additionally, seeing as how much of a health freak I am (and the fact that I love to alter recipes and my seeming inability to follow recipes to the "T"), I swapped half of the plain flour for wholemeal flour.... And added less sugar and less salt.... And swapped buttermilk for skimmed milk.

Healthy berry scones. Mmmm.........

Our target was to have scones for breakfast this morning. Thus to ensure that we didn't have to wait for the scones to bake, I started baking them last night!

Now off we go!

The dry & wet ingredients....

The batter.

The frozen berries dusted with flour...

The berries rolled in flour - to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the batter during baking.

The berries folded into the batter... Mmmmmm

Dollops of batter onto baking tray.... And whisked off into the hot oven for baking!!!

The first batch of scones.... Mammoth berry scones.

Yeah, I overestimated the amount of batter and so these scones were HUGE! Think size of your fist huge! Hahahahha! But as you can tell from Kyle's thumbs-up, the scones smelt and looked temptingly scrumptious.

I altered the amount of batter I dished out on the baking tray, so the next few batches of scones reasonably normal in size. (Hahahaha)

Finally....

The resulting mountain of berry-good scones!!! Whee!

Well, we waited, went to bed and woke the next morning to THIS:-

Breakfast is served!

The scones were sooo delicious! It wasn't heavy but rather light and fluffy... Like a muffin....

See? All juicy with berry-goodness and you can tell that the dough isn't as dense as that of a normal scone.

Okay, I think this is probably an error on my part - I think added just a tad too much baking powder; hence the unusual fluffiness....

Nevertheless, they were still undeniably delicious.

The berries were a nice change from the usual raisins you find in normal fruit scones - they addded a tinge of sourness to the scone and was a refresing change. They were also the perfect complement with Kyle's seedy raspberry jam (which was SUPERB).

All in all, I thought the berry scones were delicious! And breakfast has never tasted more satisfying than today's.

The best part? ----> There's still half of batch left!

Guess what I'll be having for breakfast/tea for the next few days! XD

Kyle in the kitchen.

I've been in a baking frenzy lately. *chuckles* I can't help it I guess, I've been so 'baked' deprived that I'm just loving every moment of this realisation. Not only can I bake in Bristol, I actually do have enough time to bake in Bristol.

It's an amazing epiphany.

Anyway, so Kyle suggested baking a crumble dessert for a post-FUZE celebration of sorts and I, being the ever crumble-lover, jumped on the project eagerly! (How can anyone ever say "no" to crumble?)

Between Kyle and myself, we made a delicious apple blackberry crumble..... And as usual, it was heavenly delicious.

The said baked crumble.

Look at how gorgeously bruised the blackberries are and the apples absorbed most of its juices.... *sighs happily* Delicious!

Nope! Crumble didn't stay whole for very long! Between Azwan (my other flatmate), Kyle and myself, we demolished 1/2 of the crumble in 10mins!

Whee!

That was so good.

And yes ladies, Kyle is in the kitchen.

Go on, you know you want some. ;)

Bombay Dreams

Bombay Dreams....

Sounds like the title of some let's-all-dance-round-the-papaya-tree Bollywood flick.

But no, as much as I wish it to be, I am sadly quoting the name of the restaurant where I had dinner last night.

Bombay Dreams indeed.... Hahha. (Ok, I need to stop. I'm cackling too maniacally for my own health... And maybe yours too)

Some people!

Anyway, seeing as how mad school has been and everything, Lisa, Ashley and myself agreed that we ought to hang out at least once outside of school.... Basically, prior to last night, our friendship revolved around seeing each other in lectures and having a quick cuppa coffee every Thursday (it's tradition! And one that I absolutely enjoy).

So last night, we went out for dinner @ Bombay Dreams. It's located on Alma Road, just round the corner from where Ashley stays.

That's all of us right there! From left: Lisa, Ashley, Me!

We LOVE Indian cuisine and were ravenous by the time we walked through the door.

We first ordered a stash of papadums (which came with sauces/dips) to quell the incessant grumblings of our tummies.

NB: No picture of papadums - I believe we all know how it looks like; so here's a shot of the dips/sauces (a much more interesting picture, I promise):-

See? Interesting. Yummy too.

As you can tell, there was a really good array of dips but out of all of them, my favourites are:-

1. The sugared coconut shreds

So sweet and flaky - a nice contrast to the dry texture of the papadum.

2. The chilli chutney

This reminds me a chilli jam... Except of a thicker consistency.

These 2 were sooo good.

Then came main course.

Both Ash and Lisa ordered Chicken Tikka Masala with a side of rice.



While I settled for Trout Masala with a side of naan (3/4 of which is still sitting in my fridge coz I was stuffed!)

Visually unpleasing I know. Lol!

Sadly, the taste and experience was equally unsatisfying. Firstly, I didn't expect a whole trout! Haha! I thought they were going to serve chunks of fish meat in Masala sauce.... Guess I was wrong huh? Second, the general taste of the masala was bland and boring. It lacked ZING!

The saving grace though, was that the fish was fresh and that always matters more than how the general taste is. As usual, I desecrated the poor trout and all that remained was its center bone and the tail.

And then we had dessert. Both Ash and Lisa had coconut ice-cream while I settled for Tartufino - a dark chocolate ice-cream delight.

You probably remember this from my Tenerife post. Same dessert. Same goodness.

Innards shot! Yum!

I elicited a cascade of chuckles from the neighbour table. *grin* I think people find it incredibly amusing whenever I take pictures of my food. I, in turn, find it amusing that they find something like this amusing. I mean, food IS meant to be appreciated no? Just as how memories are cherished and pictures are taken to preserve that memory &/or to share the memory with others, so too does this mentality extend to my catalogue of my memories of delicious food!

SO chuckle away people. Coz I'm chuckling right back at ya! ;) Hahha! And then we can laugh together and be merry.

Hehheheheheheh!

Anyway, we're probably going to make this a tradition... Now I wonder what cuisine we're going to try next!

I can't wait!

Quaker Oats into Ginger Cookie Dough + Other happenings on a beautiful Friday

Yep! That's right, I couldn't stomach the oats any longer so I threw the remaining sachets of oats into a new cookie dough - Oatmeal Ginger!


I love ginger cookies and always love it more if their incredibly spicy. I thought to shred raw ginger into the dough but somehow, the spiciness I had hoped for didn't come through.... I'm guessing I should just stick with ground ginger spice next time.

What's interesting though, is that as you bite threw the cookie, you can see ginger fibre in between the soft chewy layers. It's amusing but unsatisfactory. Hahah!

Anyway, I met Kyle and his friend, Jess, for lunch @ Nando's.

I suggested Nando's since Kyle's never had Nando's before and there is NO excuse for anyone to not try Nando's! So here we go!

That's right pal. This sign says it ALL.

Seeing as there were 3 of us, we ordered the whole platter which gave us the options of 2 large sides. So we naturally went with chips and corn on the cob.

A whole chicken, chips & corn. Mmmmm. Extra spicy of course.

Jess! She's such a sweet and nice girl! SHame we couldn't hang out more. Would love to get to know her better.

Oh happy happy Kyle.

Just see his look of absolute bliss. Hahah! (I know you want more Kyle)

After such a spicy and satisfying meal, we needed something sweet to achieve a maximum high on our gastronomical conquest (and also to mellow the sharp spice of the Extra Hot XXX Peri-peri sauce we were were dousing our food in) and headed into Brown's Brasserie for some good old tea-time sweet treats!

This raspberry chocolate brownie is the BEST I've ever had. It's warm, MOIST and filled with the crunchiness of raspberry seeds! I love it!

Innards shot. See the gooey goodness? Mmmm. Yum Yum!

Kyle had their vanilla ice-cream which came with a cookie.

So GOOD. I was on cloud 9.

I had to leave the 'party' early coz I had FUZE to prepare for. And wow, what a night to remember.

One of the most amusing sights ever always occurs backstage. Upfront, as the audience, all you see is the glamour and the finesse of he production. Now here're some exclusive shots of what REALLY goes on backstage.

Our dressing room:-


Complete with chocolate candies!

These were finished in an eye-blink!

Also, I absolutely loved Hannah G.'s hair last night. It's soo.... Gothically delicious.

Side profile.

Gotta love the hair & her make-up!

I love seeing how we're all always chipping in to help each other look good.

Nothing short of a semi-stip tease. Yep! The things we do when we're all high on performing.

Love ya Group 2.

All the girls.

The boys.

After FUZE concluded, we headed over to JAVA for the after party! It was a MAD HOUSE!

Yep that's right. I'm stamped VIP.

And nothing works better than a bag of chips to finish the night.

Quaker Microwaveable Oats for breakfast

Ok, so I've finally finished my box of cereal and decided to have the remainder of the microwaveable oats I bought for the batch of oatmeal cookies I made fo Valentine's Day.

The said box of ready oats. =)

Instructions. I think it's pretty cool how the bag functions as a measuring cup as well! Pure genius!

As delicious as it sounds, I think I'm not quite used to the taste just yet... I mean it's all mushy and... well, MUSHY.

Kinda like baby food.... But.


I dunno. It makes me feel like I shouldn't have teeth when eating this. :S Maybe I need more time to familiarise myself with the texture. Hahah!

Let's see what I feel tomorrow morning. I have 4 packets left to go - wish me luck if I continue hating it!

I mean, it does look quite bad....

MUSH!

Hahhaha!

My 1st ever all girls' night out!!

For those of you who know me, you will know what a rarity it is for me to be caught in an all-girls' groupie party. But lo and behold!

Here I am, featuring myself happily in a recent all-girls' gathering!

It began when Traci and I were out @ Borough Market where I needed to get some jam and dried fruits etc and asked if Traci would like to accompany me! Whereupon, Shin suggested that Traci be introduced to the yummy goodness of the raclette (gosh! I've been raving about this raclette for 3 posts now! )

Traci - all smiles with her raclette!

Mmmmm. BLISS.

I, on the other hand, got myself a nice chicken tortilla wrap!

It was sooo healthy. Just boiled chicken breast wih tomato salsa and rocket.

Happy happy me!

Sadly, I killed my healthy meal by sharing a bag of salt & vinegar chips with Traci (damn my PMS craving! :( )

All that delicious vinegary fat!

See the thing about Borough Market is that you're always spoilt for choice as to what to eat... There're just too many good things to feed yourself!

Well anyway, Traci and I eventually picked up a big box of brownies for dinner later that night.

See large layered chunks of fudge brownies.... So good. Ultra chocolate brownies indeed.... Mmmmm Mm! =P

Later on in the day, we met Shin along High Street Kensington where we decided to try out a quaint little french (I think) cafe called Cafe Concerto.


Traci and I had walked past earlier and agreed that it was such an inviting cafe. I mean, just look at the cakes that were displayed in the window!


They collectively spell "TEMPTATION", give "delicious sin" its full meaning and shrieks "EAT ME" in falsetto.

Yep.

In we went.

Hahah! Traci's so cute here.

Shin too!

So anyway, Shin and myself ordered a pot of herbal tea each,


While Traci sipped luxuriously on her creamy latte.

And then we dug into tea-time goodness.

First, the apple tart.


When it arrived, it was already a pleasurable sight and then we dug our forks into it and took the first bite.

That's when we fell in love.


The apples, which were delicately cooked and naturally sweet, rested atop a creamy butter cheese cream filling which hid a layer of chunky apple jam. The pastry was also magnificently crumbly and yummy.

Oooo! So good!

Unfortunately, after having had such a great apple tart, our profiterols failed to match up.

It was merely a pretty sight.

The insides were bland, flat and the chocolate much too sweet for my liking.

That night, we ordered take-out and had dinner on the floor in Shin's apartment.

Remember the brownies we bought? Well, we spooned it out and everyone loved it!

This is mine - plain and as healthy as I could make it....

This was how it was meant to be enjoyed. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce with the brownie.

Shin also took out an array of snacks to enjoy while we watched 'The Devil Wears Prada".


The night was pretty fun!

And oh! Must feature Woon's t-shirt. It's hilarious!

Hahahhaha!

So was this signboard which I saw in the bathroom of a mini cafe!


Anyway, one thing that irks me about the UK is the lack of caramel popcorn. Instead, they have these weird boxes of stale poporn covered in chocolate, pretending to be yummy goodness but failing miserably.

Deception in a box.

*shudder* Eating these will give you diabetes in 5 mins.