Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese

I have been waiting and waiting for this week to arrive. Yeah! I'm on long leave and this is the only time I can bake in peace *smile*. I have been eyeing this recipe for quite a few weeks and finally I had a chance to bake it just before Christmas!

Its a pretty easy recipe to work with but nonetheless, I dont know why my cake turned out crumbly.
Taste wise, it was just delicious and sweetness was just right. I have never baked a cake that taste just nice like this one. I am so proud of myself .. hehehe.

Here is my modified recipe according to what I had in my pantry.


Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese
125 gm butter
125 gm cream cheese
180 gm fine granulated sugar
3 eggs (large)
200 gm cake flour + 1 tsp baking powder sifted together
100gm mixed fruits soaked 3 days before with 3 tbsp of brandy
a handful of chopped walnuts


Method:
Cream butter, cheese & sugar till creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix 2 tbsp sifted flour with mixed fruits to prevent it from sinking while baking.
Fold in sifted flour and then stir in mixed fruits & nuts.
Pour into 8in round tin.
Bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 50 mins or till cooked.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.



For reference purposes, here is a pic of the batter ready to be baked.

Why no updates geh?

Ha! Ha! Ha! Been MIA for a couple of days already. Not too lazy to blog but just no time to blog! Wah .. sound like I'm super busy huh ... but actually I am super free .... hee hee.

I'm on long annual leave ... till next year ... hurray! Well, I had to clear my 2008 annual leave and this is the first time this year that I am am on a real holiday away from the office! I am not on a "holiday" per se ... but just on leave and loitering around town ... but dont worry, I am not painting it RED :-)

So far, I have spent some time shopping for the house and also on some new clothing for the lil one for the upcoming CNY. The next day, I spend a couple of hours at the hair saloon ...which I only visit twice a year! Hubby went for his favourite past time while I was spending the few hours stuck on the chair at the saloon ... watch a movie lor .. what else. And today, we took lil one for a swim at KLCC Park .... which our dear friend refused to leave!

I must say we found some real good bargains while shopping for clothings especially for mens' clothing. Metrojaya, Parkson & even Jusco had real good bargains for quality & branded clothings for mens' casual, work attire as well as sports attire. Hubby found his CNY clothings (which were new season designs) at a whopping 70% discount! It was a special weekend bargain sale which we spotted while at Mid Valley *happy wide smile*.

Tomorrow, our plan is to take lil one to his first ever visit to our National Zoo. Then in the afternoon, we will visit a warehouse sale for kitchen goods at Puchong. I am still undecided on a hood & hob brand ... but wish to get a real good deal at this warehouse sale. So wish me luck!

Free Party worth RM15,000!

Doesn't the word FREE make you read the headlines again! It did that to me!

I had no idea that F&N was having such a contest until I surfed into Nuffnang (you know them right, the people who were kind enough to throw the Friso Family Day Out Party)! And being the ever kind hearted Nuffnang, they requested for people like us (meaning Bloggers lah) to help out 2 other bloggers who are participating in this FREE party contest!

So you think I helped them or not? Sure I have to help lah ... cos Nuffnang ask one wor .... must help, cannot say cannot help .. hehehe.


You can see how committed these 2 young people were at hoping to win the FREE PARTY! Huai Bin & Pam - I salute you lah!

Young means young lah .. have all the energy on earth to pursue what they want - and all the want is to WIN! Go for it guys! Wish you all the luck!

Of course - given a chance, I also want to win a FREE PARTY .. but timing not right now. Even if I really win also no house to host it yet! Cos as you know, I am currently waiting for the darn day to arrive where the developer would call me to come over and collect the keys to my dream home. And then there is renovation. And then the furniture and all the stuff to buy to fill up the house, else no chair to sit, no bed to sleep and no TV .. so how to host party right???

But before all that, I need some advice ... I mean FREE ADVICE .. on interior designing .. and even best still .... free furniture, free TV, free bed, free dining table set, free sofa set, free aircond, free refrigerator, free kitchen cabinets, free .. free ... I think I am going crazy over this free thingy. I better stop now.

Ariston Carnival Sale

All along I have been eyeing an Electrolux built-in oven. So when I missed their year-end sale a couple of weeks back, I was pretty sad. Their new units at normal retail prices is beyond my budget, so I started shopping around for a Fagor or a Rinnai instead.

Electrolux ovens retail at about RM3,500 and above. Whereas for a Fagor or a Rinnai, you may be able to get a new unit at the range of Rm2,200. With some discounts and bargaining, it is pretty easy to get one at RM1,800 as well. Never did I try even going close to a Ariston.

I saw the notice for Ariston Carnival Sale in the local newspapers and decided not to go at first. But last Saturday, we happen to have an appointment with a kitchen cabinet designer at Kota Damansara and then it striked my mind that Ariston's head office is at the same area as well! I did not have any hope of purchasing anything there or even think there would be any units left of the built-in ovens but I was in for a pleasant surprise!

I managed to spot 2 units of display units being offered at 40% discount! Ariston normally retails at more than Rm4,000 each and with nearly half the price, even a display unit looks exciting to me! Just to try my luck, I started to bargain for a better price and guess what - I ended up with almost a 50% discount and for a BRAND NEW MODEL & BRAND NEW UNIT! Gosh! I was jumping up & down inside my heart but dare not show the salesman lah that I was behaving like a monkey hahahaha.













Multifunction 8 Chefs OvenFunctions :

• Fast Cooking,
• Gratin,
• Grill,
• Multilevel,
• Pastries,
• Pizza,
• Rising,
• TraditionalEnergy Class: A
• Net Capacity : 58 Litres
• No Of Glass Door: 3
• LayerCooking Programme: Electronic Start/End Of CookingControl
• Type: Knob Control,
• Lighting: Yes
• Cleaning: Catalytic Type,
• Colour : Stainless Steel
• Air Flow Cooling System

Ariston provides a tutorial class for buyers on how to use the complete function of the unit at the comfort of your own home. They also guarantee a 1-day express service for repairs. And if the unit cannot be repaired on site and needs to be taken back to the factory, a temporary unit will be provided for free. Do you think I made the right choice?

EOE Online Digital Prints

I was pleasantly surprised by the speed of their service! I only placed my order last Thurs and within 3 working days, I received their package!
The package arrived via courier service on the 3rd working day morning. The photos were placed individually in a paper album and the album was neatly protected with some hard cover sheets. This ensures that the album and the photos inside are not dented or damaged.


The prints itself were quite sharp, clear and colours were pleasant to the eye. I have been to photoshops where when developed, they had such strong colors that the photos turned out so artificial but these were so soft and pleasant to view.


I ran through the pictures at least 3 times and went through those lovely moments of childbirth, confinement days, and those cute baby days where all lil one did was enjoy his milk & nap times ... cute eh. Then reality striked when I flipped through his growing days, from his 1st birthday pics right up to now, 20 months. Gosh! Suddenly feel so tired .. knowing lil one loves to run & run only ... hahahaha.

Honestly, I love flipping through old photographs that bring back lovely memories of our past. They could be either happy or sad moments, it does not matter, but most importantly, we can saviour those moments whenever we wish, at the comfort of our own home or anywhere we wish, with such lovely photos.

Pardon me for posting bad pics of the album. My office has a very "romantic" feel and thus the interior design of my desk area has got lots of downlights which I could not avoid.

For those of you who are keen to try their services, feel free to upload your pictures online at http://www.eoe.com.my/.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

When I was young, whenever I wanted some fancy toy, my mom used to say ... you think money grows on trees???? Hahahaha. So one weekend when I visited my friends place .. I really saw money growing wor .. money plants that is *smile*.

I really love these. She has such green fingers. All her plants are growing so well and these money plants are left to grow falling off their pots and resemble a curtain! Yeah! It even helps shed the walkway from the hot sun too .. lovely eh?

Personally I have yet to explore the joy of gardening .. simply because I never grew up in a house that has ample space around for us to have plants growing. Mom lives in an aparment and she does have some indoor plants but just a few.

However, after getting married and moving over to live with hubby & MIL on a terrace house, MIL loves gardening (in her own unique way that is) and we have lots of plants at home now. I cant recall their names but she even has a few papaya trees as well as sugar canes planted in addition to her many flower pots. She has quite a bit of herbed plants too, one of which is the "lam fei tai yip" loosely translated as South African Big Leaf .. which is known to cure high blood pressure, lower cholestrol and sugar levels.

I believe when it comes to gardening, you need to pour in a lot of TLC (tender loving care) to ensure they grow well .. just like our kids. So that is a no-no for me at the moment. I have enough on my hands with lil one.

My new home-to-be is also a landed property and it also has an indoor courtyard which I am thinking now whether I should remove it when the house is ready to be handed over to us.

I really dont fancy have an indoor garden cos I dislike mud & wet land and creepy crawlies. Yeeks! I dont mind having some nice potted plants at the porch or verandah area but they have to be of the easy maintenance type .. yeah.

Fun Kiddy Beds

I have recently started my pre-renovation window shopping, getting geared towards my upcoming home renovation!

I am still at the sourcing, shortlisting and budgeting stage but nevertheless, never too early to window shop to see whats trendy & new in the market right?



I spotted this very cool toddler bed and suggested to hubby to get one of these for my lil monster. This would be one of those "nice to have" things but thinking twice, I think it would not be suitable for him after all, cos my lil fella rolls all over the bed, does 360 degree turns several times a night, so before you know it, he might fall & land on the floor! Better be save than sorry yeah ...

Itchy Tooth?

I have yet to ask the doctor but sometimes I really wonder why oh why ... my son never stops biting! He really loves to bite! Everything! I posted about this before .. and at that time I thot he was still teething.

But now he is 20 months old and all his teeth in place .. and he still loves to bite! Especially his mommie!


Ok ok dont stare too long ... I know you are looking at my fat arms .. I distort the pics already .. but still look fat lah ... cos I am fat mah .. so its ok lah ... life is always fair .... kekekekekeke.

But ar .. this bite ar ... the moment he sank his teeth on my t-shirt, I immediately pulled him away ... the bite probably lasted for about 1 second only I tell you .. and even then, this is the damage! Most of the time, the "damage" is on my b**bs! Loves to pretend to hug & cuddle me, then suddently ... kena! Daddie also kena a few times already. His grandma .. aduh .. don't mention lah ... always kena one.

Christmas @ MidValley Megamall

Living in Malaysia is sometimes so much fun ... cos we have lots & lots of holidays for many festivities! Although we are not Christians like many other Malaysians, I believe almost everybody I know of all races love Christmas!













Its the time of joy & merriment! Most shopping malls are brightly decorated with lots of lovely lights & christmas trees with raindeers, fake snow and loads of other decorating ideas. For us, without fail, we have to visit Mid Valley Megamall.













You can see lots of mommies & daddies busy taking pics of their little ones .. and little ones love lights & colors & candies! But mine .. sigh ... dont wanna get down .. only wants to be carried! Big time headache & back ache & feet ache!!!!

Wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas & Happy New Year!

Chinese Kung Fu Shirt

I simply adore tradition. And with Chinese New Year fast approaching, I look forward to adhering to the tradition for the sake of festivity such as no sweeping on the first day of the Lunar New Year, giving of angpows (money in red packets) to the young & single, lots & lots of oranges to symbolise "gold", etc etc.

During the last CNY, my son was only 8 months young. It was an adorable age and my mom bought him a gold traditional outfit. Boy! He looks absolutely adorable! This coming CNY, he will be a year older, running about everywhere. Told hubby that we should stick to the tradition and dress him up in a chinese kung fu shirt as well *smile*.

I find it rather difficult to shop for boys but when it comes to girls, there are abundance of choices in the shopping malls. Luckily, this mother recommended me Domii - a fashion outlet exclusively for boys clothing. I was ecstatic!



The above sample might look a bit "mature" for my toddler son, but don't despair ... Domii offers very exciting choices for all occasions. Be it a party, or casual wear and even smart formal wear and festive choices too!

I was rather surprised to find out that Metrojaya outlets have their range too in addition to their own outlet located on the first floor of The Curve. Or if you are FB (Facebook) fan like me ... check out ...dommiboyswear.

And specially for blogging mommies (or daddies), do check out the opportunity to win a RM88 voucher for your shopping spree! Closing date is 20 December but its never too early to try your luck! Happy Blogging friends!

Transparent Shoe Box

I've don't own one but I think its a brilliant idea! Especially for us women!
A friend of mine happens to have recently bought 5 of these and when she told me about it, I was like .. what .. transparent? Got meh? I have yet to go over to her place to check it out but will surely do so ... cos I have really never seen one.

She also told me that she really likes it and might purchase many many more to replace all the current old and ugly shoeboxes she has :-)

However, they dont come cheap. I mean, you can always get it free when you buy any pair of shoes right? Why pay for it? But my friend thinks its pretty cool .. and she paid RM29.90 for 5 empty boxes. Hmmm ... shall I?

Best Deal in Town for Online Photo Prints!

I could not believe it when I saw Ai Lian's post about this great deal from this online store! A mere 30 sens for a 4R print sounds like a really good bargain!



I had always had great pics in hard copies as I always believed that it was a nicer way of sharing pics with others in albums like those good old days. I have lots & lots of hardcopy albums from my various travels around the world.

I had planned to do the same when I had my lil one over a year ago.. but oh boy .. how wrong I was! I hardly had the time or energy to do it .. and kept posponing this lovely little activity right until now!

I love this online facility. Its such a breeze when you need to order pictures. Its easy upload function also makes it so user-friendly for first-timers like me. And the best part is they DELIVER! Dont need to waste my (limited) time with driving out or finding a car park! And mind you, we have to drive out twice to complete one errand like this .. driving there to deliver and then another trip to collect it!

But now, its super easy in 3 easy steps!

Step 1 - choose upload function
Step 2 - upload photos
Step 3 - select print sizes

Viola! Done! Cool eh! Why dont you try it now? I promise you this will be the only photo print store you'll ever need from now on!

I really dont know ...

I personally do not know how to really feel & think about this and whether I should even consider it should the circumstances warrants for one.

My paternal grandma is now placed in a nursing home since she only has one son (my uncle) left in KL (others have since passed away or live in another state & country). She is 87 years old. Physically she can hardly walk but overall, she seems ok.

Recently, my maternal grand-aunt (now 97 years old) was placed into a nursing home too. Her daughter in KL has Alzheimers (which makes her incapable of taking care of her mom) and the other daughter now lives in Canada and will not be able to fly her mom over to stay with her.

I feel so sad and disheartened to see such situations but what can I do? I guess those in their homes have no choice but to go out to earn a living and thus, no one is at home to take care of them?

I am afraid that someday, I might be faced with a similar situation and I would really really feel totally hopeless and useless if I had to send my mom to a nursing home.... I will probably feel so depressed that I cant imagine just how difficult this would be for me ... I am too afraid to think about this.

I pray for God to provide me the best solution when this day comes and hope that I am able to provide for her and take care of her till her last breath. I really love you Mom.

Mommy! I want!

I can see that my little one has got a little of both of our "good habits" in him now. My hubby loves to read books and I love to read newspapers & magazines *wink*

And our dear friend below, is checking out his favourite magazine, the Jusco Redemption Book 2008 - hahahahaa. Perhaps he is trying to see what can he redeem from mommy's points which will be expiring soon! Smart fella! Or is he yawning already .... ????



But with only 20,000 points, there is hardly anything worthwhile redeeming ... however, its better than nothing. Perhaps a soft toy for lil monster or maybe a rice cooker for my new home? Hmm .. let's see.

More & More Gated Communities

A Moonlight Rendesvouz who is based in Canada, visited my blog yesterday and mentioned that he keeps hearing the word "gated community" more often these days and asked me if the crime rate was that high that it warrants us to live within fencing walls and security 24-7!
Well, Uncle Lee .. here is a newspaper article I copied from The Star Online yesterday for your info. I guess it explains well how we need to "help" ourselves and safeguard ourselves rather than leave it to the hands of the authorities .. who are busy with "other" stuff!

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP Parliamentary Leader and Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang has taken the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan to task for trying to explain the worsening crime index by claiming that it is purely a problem of misperception.

Lim called on Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs to take a common stand in Parliament on Wednesday to reject Musa’s explanation.

Over the weekend, Musa and deputy IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar said that the latest statistics showed the crime index in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia were worse than the figures in Malaysia.

“What is outrageous is that the Cabinet and the National Economic Council (NEC) could be browbeaten so easily by the IGP on Tuesday to accept such a ‘ploy’, to the extent that this has been adopted as the official policy position as publicly enunciated by the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Monday,” he said.

Musa said that figures show that Malaysia is a relatively safe country with 772 crimes for every 100,000 residents in the country and this ratio compares favourably with Hong Kong where there were 1,166 cases for every 100,000 residents, Japan with 1,569 cases and Australia with 4,470 cases.

Lim said the statistics were misleading.

For instance, Malaysia has 90.49 cases of robbery per 100,000 compared with 4.78 cases in Japan, 17.56 in Hong Kong while homicide was 2.12 per 100,000 population compared with 1.09 cases in Japan and 0.26 cases in Hong Kong, he said.

Rape per 100,000 population in Malaysia was 11.47 compared with 1.62 in Japan and 1.54 in Hong Kong.

“How could the IGP be so irresponsible as to mislead the Cabinet and the NEC to believe that Malaysia is safer than Japan and Hong Kong?” he said.

On Tuesday, Lim had said that instead of fighting crime, the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was trying to fight the people’s perception.

While Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had acknowledged five years ago that crime incidents in the country was serious, Najib was denying it when figures had even soared higher than it had five years ago, he said.

So how can we NOT live within high wall fencings & round-the-clock security? How can we allow our children to be out of our homes and expect them to be SAVE? How? How?

Fantabulous Time @ Friso Nuffnang Family Day Out!

Boy! What a blast it was! We really had a totally awesome, complete cool, absolutely fabulous time at the Friso Nuffnang Family Day Out event at Kidsports & Gym, One Utama last Saturday!

We were there right on time at 10am and once we got ourself registered, my lil one spotted the pool of balls! From the on, he was in there and only in there! Refused to come out even when the event officially started! Since he enjoyed it in there, we allowed him to spend his time there. But of course, balls are not his only favourite. He has a greater love for running!

There were many games and activities for kids of all ages as well as talks for the parents. Gifts were generously given away to all participating kids & mommies or daddies who were sporting enough to participate and have some fun!

Overall, it was indeed a FUN FUN FUN event! Loved it - although we had to endure 4 hrs of aching back & tiring feet having to run after lil one. Gosh! I dont really remember having THAT much energy when I was a kid! Could it be the probiotics & prebiotics in the formula milk ???



Although we did not win any of hampers or prizes (cos we did not participate mah, cos need to run around chasing the lil one mah), each and every family went home a WINNER! Yeah! Cos we were all given a large & heavy goody bags that was filled up with yummy products from Friso. Thanks Friso. You definately made me switch over!

His Borrowed Toy

Grandma has not been to well, so we try to visit her every week, or at least every other week. And while we are there, lil one loves to ride on the battery-operated motorbike that belongs to a neighbour.

He used to love the smaller manual version, and since he loved it so much, we bought him one. But after a while, he kinda lost interest in it. He still occasionally rides on it, but not as "hot" as we first got it for him.


















Now, it's this battery operated motorbike. Sigh ... feel so sad not to buy one for him, but feel the pinch when he loves it for only a short while. Moreover, we dont live in a corner lot with lots of space and its too dangerous for him to ride on the roads outside our home.

Hopefully, when we move to our new home within a gated community, lil one will have a chance to enjoy outdoor activities like we once used to during our growing up times. Miss those days.

Window Shopping - Refrigerator

Its year-end time and the Mega Sale has begun. So its time for me to decide on which particular model I wish to purchase and start hunting down the best price.

As this is my first time buying ANY household items, I, of course, did some research. And oh boy, the choices out there a mind-boggling! Top mount or bottom mount freezers, side-by-side freezers, french door refrigerators, single door ones --- haiz ... so confusing!

Many have recommended me Panasonic, Toshiba. Mitsubishi and Sharp. But I like Hitachi - its wide and the space inside is BIG! Nothing fancy but just a simple BIG fridge .. hehehe.

And electricity is darn expensive these days, so I am also looking for an energy-saving model. So need to look out for their "Energy Star"ratings.

More tips on energy-saving from FOMCA:

• Refrigerator coils must be vacuumed at least twice a year to keep the compressor running efficiently.
• 30% of cooled air will escape every time the refrigerator door is opened. The same rule goes for oven.
• Do not overload the refrigerator or freezer, cold air needs to circulate freely to keep food at the proper temperature.
• Place the refrigerator right so that it can automatically swing and shut the door. This will prevent wastage of energy if the door is left open.
• Refrigerator door seal must be checked. Place a One Ringgit bill and close the door. If you can pull the bill, you need to replace the gasket.

... i like the one Ringgit tip *smile* ... go back and try tonight on my existing fridge. Can you pull yours?