Baking Pavlova: Lessons to learn

It feels like it has been quite a while that I didn't do any baking. The idea to try baking a pavlova was triggered when I saw the pics in facebook, that made me drool upon seeing it.

I imitated the recipe from joyofbaking website, and yes , the ingredients are easy to find in the market. I'm not going through the details of the process , but along the process, I learned a few lessons in order to  bake the meringue successfully, and rather, it was interesting learning process!

The lessons were:

1) all 4 eggs that are beaten should be baked at once, as I tried to divide the meringue into two portions, but it has ended up that the second portion slowly dissolved. plus , my first meringue became really thin and it was less drooling. huhu
2)  use as low temp at 100 degree c all the way. This helped greatly to avoid the meringue from being overbaked.
3) as for whip cream, do not mix  sugar and other ingredient when you first beat the whip cream. It turns to buttery form. Huwaaaaa~

 

Nonetheless , no matter how ugly it looked -my ugly pavlova,  my sibling love it that it has finished at one go. But in order to get the right-almost -perfect look pavlova, I bake my second attempt on the following day. This time I used the whip cream spray, easier and faster . And it turned out the second try looked wayyyy better . So , with that satisfaction, I can rest from any baking activity for another one or two months later. hihih

Shangri- La Putrajaya

I got another chance to explore luxury hotels in Putrajaya recently, so I chose to stay at Shangri La Putrajaya.

The location is a bit isolated from the hectic roads in Putrajaya. Situated on top of the hill, next to a palace, this business trip felt like a holiday.

The room has luxury of space in bedroom and even we can use valet parking at the front door to park our car. How cool is that.

This is rare,surely. 

Another thing I like about staying here is that they offer variety of breakfast choices, that I could sit there for hours savoring the delicacies. Ah well, for my case, I need to be there as early as 7 to eat to ensure that  I could reach my training class punctually, no?

Twins of Faith 2014 : World of the Unseen

13th- 14th Dec2014

I've heard about this islamic conference since last year.  But only one year later,  the interest and curiosity of the conference crept in my mind..and so, I purchased the ticket!

Apart from lecture mode at the main auditorium, there was also workshops conducted concurrently at the other side of the complex.

So it went back to us to choose which speaker and topics that interest us more to listen. This annual conference lined up speakers from various countries across the globe. Therefore, the experiences when listening to these speakers were fantastic.

 

 

So here are some of key messages that I managed to jot down from the 2-day conference.

The signs of Allah by Sheikh Daood Butt

1) When you remember Him, your heart will shiver
2)We love Allah swt because he is the One that blesses us
3) We pray for Allah swt for His Blessings
4) We dont use His Blessings to displease Him

Important pillar in believing Qadr by Sheikh Muizz Bukhary

1)Allah swt knows everything i.e past, present, future
2)Believe that everything has been written that is 50,000 years before creation of heaven
3)Bring in our heart ; When Allah swt will someone to be guided, he will be guided BUT when Allah swt will him to lead astray, no one will be able to guide him. We have the free will, but Allah swt ALWAYS knows what option you going to choose.
4)Allah swt created every single thing. Our decision is the creation of Allah swt.


Duaa between the Seen and the Unseen - Dr Jamaan Al Zahrani

It was narrated that Rasulullah saw has said :
"There is no duaa of a muslim without response but:
1) Allah swt keep it from you to hereafter
2)Allah swt avoid from bad things happen to you."

Aisyah r.a said she knows Allah swt answers her duaa when she duaa with tears.

6 adab when make duaa ,
1)dont be hurry to get result
2)amal maaruf nahi mungkar
3)ensure halal income
4)have good heart to love muslim brothers and sister
5)seek Allah swt , good or bad time
6)make connection between ourselves and Allah swt.

The ultimate abode by sheikh Yahya Ibrahim

Jannah : No one has heard of it, no human heart can ever imagine it.

In jannah, grass is zaffron, the youth shall never departed.

Jannah is earned through trial.Allah swt hid jannah with all these :
1)loves the one who does not love him/her
2) restrains your anger

Some questions raised for us to ponder. Those imply our place to jannah.
1) How many juzuk of Al Quran you complete in a week?
2)How many solat have you done apart from solat fardhu?
3)Do you bring comfort to people of people relieve when you depart?
4)Are you source of comfort or source of trial to others?

Creations of smokeless fire by Sheikh Muizz Bukhary

Definition of jannah : hidden garded, no human has witnessed it, heard of it, crossed mind of human being.

Jin : Hidden from human sight, created before mankind from smokeless fire

Types of jin
1)jinni : general
2)(forget the name) :live with people
3)marid : evil, demonic
4)ghilan : disturb you, so call the athan
5)ifrit : fly to the air , take form of black snake

We can see the jin but not in the original form. Oldest individual living on the face of earth is Iblis (Azazil).
Iblis is a jin, not malaikat (angel)
Malaikat doesn't disobey Allah swt command.

Jin produces 9 at one birth

Rasulullah saw recites 3 Qul when he cannot sleep.
Read ayatul qudsi before sleep , and no devil will disturb you until morning.


Creatures of light by Sheikh Karim Abuzaid

1)When a sister loves another sister for the sake of Allah swt. , tell her.

2)If you want your spouse to love you, be obedient to Allah swt. Aishah r.a never jealous to the other wives but to Khadijah r.a.

3)Angels have different sizes. Jibril has 600 wings that block the horizon.

4)Jibril earlobe and shoulder takes 700 years to reach.

5)We cannot see the angels in angelic form unless Rasulullah saw.

6) At Kaabah, angels get only once in a lifetime visa to visit as the others are taking turn too.

7)In creation of Adam a.s , angels do not question His Command


Note : Ok. That's it. Hopefully it benefits us in any way possible.But at remote possibility, if there is any of the info above has some discrepancies, it is totally my bad.


Apart from learning session, there are also bazaar for shopping, yes shopping!

The organizer is also brilliant in their strategy to attract more participants by providing mother's room , and play and pray section. So parents can have some freedom to listen to the talk while the kids are having fun.

Sister's corner was set up for sisters to listen while having some relaxing activities such manicure and other spa services. Well, personally,lecture hall experience is still the best for me.

Some of the knowledge is the basic knowledge that we have known all our live. But then, there is something about the atmosphere, surrounded with people who crave for ilmu which make the feeling of being in the conference become another interesting life experience.

 All in all, I start to fall in love with the conference of this liking ,and I wish I will get the opportunity to join more of it in the future.

Big Bad Wolf 2014

12th Dec 2014

Last year I cudnt make it to this annual exhibition, so this year I determine to go and see it by myself and buy myself the books.

 

Yes, there were a lot of people in the hall, but we still can choose the books at peace. Good thing is that the organizer has also provided basket for the visitors,so it saved us from bring our own trolley bag to buy masses of books at one go.

The price of the books are unbelievably cheap and I took my own sweet time to find my usual fictional books.

 

It was not hard to find the books of my favourite authors, well, I was over the moon. Picked up the books without seeing the price tag. And just to find out the cost is less than RM60 for all these books I chose.

This is heaven for book lovers. Must.come.next.year!

Aging Gracefully with SKII. (Meowww~)

It started about two years back, when I was having severe skin allergic at u-zone of my face. The worse acne allergic were all over my face, but thankfully they were well covered by my hijab.

The process of healing the allergic effect was not found overnight. I went through series of  "try and error" skincare products and just to find out that the efforts went straight to the drain. Hmpphh..

I was  using the other Japan skincare products back then ( I dunno, but  I have certain degree of confidence in using Japan products ), but due to the prolong allergic effects, I started to use all ranges of skincare to cure them  from as cheap as rice soap until I decided to try the priciest skincare I ever known, SKII.

 Until I went to see the doctor, then only I started to find the true cure to my horrible acne attack. It's not that the use of it has solved the entire allergic problem, but boy, I found it hard to stop using it when I started feeling the result of it over time.

When consuming skincare, anti aging stuff or any other beauty products , I have the belief good products show result slower but lifelong, if it is maintained properly.  So nothing much difference that I expected overnight, but wait I until I grow wiser ..( I refuse to use word older here. Kah kah kah)

Good thing I enjoy shopping for this skincare is that they give free mini size of other products for certain amount of purchase...

....Which is just perfect for traveling kit. So you get some stuff you bought along with some gifts. Isn't it fun to shop more? Tee hee...

When reaching Christmas season, the bargain becomes a lot more overwhelming. Using points collected  from previous purchases for the entire year, we will get more free gift for redemption, some of them worth hundred ringgit of face masks, and other fabulous skincare stuff that you won't bother to buy in regular purchase.

I was happened to visit the store to replenish my stuff and apparently I have ended up buying a little more than planned but received a lottttt more gifts than I have expected. Weee hoo~

Nuttela Pod

Let's talk about food some more. I've been meaning to do something new, but not so sure what to do.

 

The idea popped in my mind in one of my lazy weekend on raining Friday. It is November, means that monsoon season is starting to show up nowadays.

 

This whole idea was triggered from conversation with Ainul via whatsapp, who brought nutella pod for her officemates.  Knowing that the recipe is easy to do, and when I know that it costs RM15 for 10 pcs of them, I just couldn't wait to try it myself. As suggested by Ainul, I got the recipe from here .

The ingredients are easy to get, and it doesn't require so much time to bake a tray of them. Just 10 minutes at 180 degree C. I use chopstick to make an indentation and icing pipe to insert the nutella into it. Smudge- free.! Nevertheless, every pod is "vanished" just when nuttella is inserted in it. All my siblings are at home, I barely able to save a container of them by the time second round of the mix is baked. Ho ho.

I kept doing the same process from 11 o'clock in the morning until last tray in the oven at 7 o'clock in the evening. Thankfully the few last batches were successfully saved to be brought to office on the next day. I finished full jar of nutella, and left another jar at home for the next weekend's plan. I came home 5 days later just to see an empty jar, the nuttella was exhausted by siblings due to prolong starvation in the past raining days. Bertuah!

Normal nuttella pod I saw was just plain nuttela filling in it. But I chose to use crush almond on top it, just to add some cosmetic value on it. Hi hi.

Jeruk Mempelam Asam Boi- the recent craving phenomenal.

Skimming newsfeed on my FB page, it seems like many of my friends are 'talking' about this jeruk mempelam asam boi. Looking at the pictures that were posted, I didn't care less, initially.

Until one day when one of my officemates brought it to work. I started to get a taste of one piece and the rest is history. (Ok this might sound a bit drama la kann).

Yes I can opt for buying the ready made from the other friends at office (I'm telling you this jeruk is phenomenal at our place nowadays), but I decided to be rather thoughtful. Heh heh.

So I went to buy the mango , guave, asam boi ,chilies to give some hot flavour in it.Small chilies are the right choice, actually.

It is not that hard to do it, just chop and mix everything with some sugar altogether. The water from fruits will settle overnight, which will add flavour to this.

And I brought it to office, and voila! It lasted by lunch time. The mango that I bought were enoug for three days supplies of jeruk mangga asam boi for the team at office. I didn't actually eat much of them, for preparing and serving them to friends are enough to make me feel content about it. hi hi.