Chinese Walnut Cookies

I already mentioned that I made some biscuits last weekend.

These were the last batch I made on Sunday night.

I like eating chinese walnut cookies so when I found an easy recipe compared to the traditional recipe, I gave it a try.

I think this wasn't as good as the one I can get from Chinatown.

But my mum said it's nice.

I think maybe I should have roasted the walnut 1st before adding to the dough & put more walnuts in.

I'll try to make some again.

Recipe:

75g icing sugar

55g butter (unsalted)

150g plain flour

1g soda in 20g water

25g whole walnut (suggest 30g or more)

1 egg (beaten) for brushing

Roast walnut in the oven at 150'C for 15 min, then grind into small chips once cool.

Butter (softened) + sugar, beat until smooth & fluffy.

Add soda + water & blend well.

Stir in sifted plain flour.

Add walnut chips & mix well.

Roll into small sized balls, place 5 cm apart, flatten slightly, then use a brush to put some egg (beaten) on top.

Bake at 180'C in preheated oven for 18 - 20 min.

Graduation gift 1

I finally started working on the graduation gift last night & got it finished today.

I'm going to make 3 necklaces as my friends (Lan, Jessie & Lucy) graduation gifts.

I have received an e-mail from Lan saying that she's coming back for the ceremony in Oct.

Previously, I thought some of them might not come back for it.

Then, I'll have to send the gifts via post.

I also baked a light lemon cheesecake although I don't like cheese today.

It's for my mother as she likes to eat cheesecake.

I have also baked some biscuits over the weekend.

My brother just said I'm mad in baking but in fact I'm not.

I just like to eat home baked cookies rather the ones sold in shelves, so I just bake my own.

Saturday's incident

I went back to Basildon yesterday morning.

There was an minor incident that happened which made me feel a bit angry.

There was a lady shouting at me 'For God's sake!' when I was on my way to the bus station.

She was walking behind me & she thought I blocked her way.

I think it's alright if she simply said 'excuse me' & pass through me.

But shouting at people is not polite plus it's not a good way in solving problems.

Maybe I'm overreacting...

When I browsed through my picture folder, there's a photo I took long time ago.

It's a necklace made for my mother's friend in HK.

I took the picture & was supposed to put in on my blog soon.

But I totally forgot about that.

Well, it's another necklace in black.

Almond Choco Cookies

Finished work earlier yesterday due to an accident in the lab.

Someone broke a bottle of chemical, so the lab had to be closed.

It happened around 4 pm, so we just finished work earlier.

Accidents do happen in the lab, so when it happens we just learn from it.

So, I used my extra time to make some cookies again.

This is my favourite cookies.

Recipe:

1 egg

75g sugar

75g butter (unsalted)

100g plain flour

30g corn flour

25g cocoa powder

75g almond flakes

Butter (softened) + sugar, beat until fluffy & smooth.

Add egg, mix well.

Sift plain flour & corn flour in & mix well.

Add cocoa powder & mix well.

Add almond flakes, blend into a smooth dough, then make in a long roll.

Wrap with plastic film & refrigerate for 30 min until stiff.

Cut the roll into 0.5cm thick slices & bake at 170'C for 18 - 20 min.

Swirl Choco Cookies

Made some cookies last night.

Seiko (new Japanese flatmate) likes it very much, she ate a few of them.

She said she shouldn't have eaten cos it's already 10 pm when I baked the cookies.

Recipe:

1 egg

80g butter (unsalted)

1/4 tsp rum

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

100g plain flour

30g corn flour

40g sugar (original recipe 50g)

10g cocoa powder

Butter (softened) + sugar, beat until fluffy & smooth.

Add egg, rum & vanilla extract, mix well.

Sift plain flour & corn flour in & mix well.

Add cocoa powder to half of the dough & mix well.

Flatten both doughs into thin sheets, then put one on top of the other & roll it up.

Wrap with plastic film & refrigerate for 30 min.

Cut the roll into 0.5cm thick slices & bake at 180'C for 15 - 20 min.

Butterfly

Going to see the musical 'Les Miserable' on Tuesday.

This is the 1st time going to see musical in a theatre even though I've been to London for many times.

I know musicals generally take about 3 hours, hopefully I won't fall asleep~~~

I made this butterfly for my mother as a replacement.

I made her a yellow one before, but she lost it when she went to a casino months ago.

She met her friend (maybe not, just a person she knows) who got it in London airport.

She didn't get it back, instead she let her friend kept it...

Well, I think she's just too kind as the materials cost a bit as there're Swarovski crystals.

现在上班有点力不从心似的，我想可能是工作太久了。
想要放假了，可是要一个月后才有假期，真是太痛苦了。
看在每月的薪水份上，挨下去了！

Birthday

Photo taken by Sei-Him Cheong

I went back to Basildon yesterday as today is my sister's birthday.

We had a lunch together in Dockland.

I made her a set of necklace with earrings.

Although I didn't think of making her jewelry, I don't know what to give her.

Well... plenty of stones lying in my drawer, so...

Hope she doesn't mind.

回到家后，见到弟弟还有老妈，当然还有那两只狗。

除此之外，我想我其实并不想回去吧！ ？

在伦敦习惯了一人独睡，很难再和我姐一起睡。

那只是其中之一的问题，家里其实蛮多问题的，我没回去就不会接触到。

可能是我太没有责任感，不好？

我也不知道，有时候我只想一个人静静地过活，什么也不管的。

可是，人生不是什么时候都可以随心所欲的。

感觉到现在的我比以前有点悲观了。

Stone Wrapping~~Fluorite 2

Green & grey fluorites.

Last 2 fluorite stones (12mm) in my stone collection.

The motifs not only for keychain, also on mobile phones, hangbags etc.

I think this is a perfect gift for anyone so I'll order more stones of this size.

Keep in touch with my old friends in Malaysia ^___^

I haven't contacted them for a long long time, make me feel guilty.

Hope everyone there is getting on well.

这个周末假期过得蛮快的，不过过得还蛮充实的。
做了些手工，打扫房子，补充食物。 。 。
另外，也和很久没联络的朋友联络上了，大家都过得还好。

下个周末回家去，星期日是我三姐的生日，所以打算去吃点心。
生日礼物也还没准备好，不知道要准备什么好。