a month and 4 weeks trip later...

After a whirlwind 4 weeks spent with my family in Indonesia (I must insist that it is too short), I am back to grey and cold Holland. Same old, same old, apart from me being able to boast that I have a tan for the first time in ages! Work is super busy that I am left reeling with no time to rest or recover from my jetlag. So promise that I will share some of my Indo's adventure once I have time to breathe.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

I can't believe that we are having such a wonderful late summer weekend. After weeks of gloomy rainy grey days, the sun decided to peek out and shine to our delights. It makes me feel very languid and lazy, but I can't forgo the opportunity to have a summer picnic! After the invitations were shelled out and finger-food planned, I was more than ready to enjoy myself. Happily many decided to attend and join the Saturday picnic in the Queen's stable. Good wine, good food, good weather, and good atmosphere, I couldn't ask for more.

Anyway with this post, I just want to share one of my favourite cookies recipe: chocolate marshmallow cookies. It is such a favourite that sometimes, half of the batch would be gone before I finish baking all of them! It also looks very cute because of the marshmallow's pastel colour ;-)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract
a pack of marshmallows

Steps:
Preheat the oven to 190C. To make the cookies, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a big bowl. Put butter and sugar in another bowl, mix on medium high until fluffy. In medium low, add in egg, milk, and vanilla. Then combine the flour, 1/2 cup at times.

With a big spoon scoop the dough into the parchment. Space it generously because those lovely dough will grow healthily. Bake them for 8-10 minutes then perch the marshmallows on each of the cookies. Put them back for 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows stick to the cookies. Cool them out and voila!

Bla bla bla

I am having a slow day in the office. It is not as if I don’t have anything to do. I DO have tons of obligations to catch up to but somehow I just don’t feel like doing anything but continue reading my book, lazing around for awhile and then tinker around in the kitchen trying out my recipe. YES people, I LOVE COOKING now. No more lamenting over my garlic perfumed fingernails (still hate it though and poor Da Fonz has to put up with it) or crying over disastrous fried egg. Julia is now a battle-hardened amateur cook. Practices make perfect right? And I have had more than enough bad experiences to turn it right; I even have scars to prove my stupidity. Anyway I am not being coherent right now, I kept on daydreaming about my impending trip back to Indonesia. It has been 3 long years since the last time I saw my family. I am soooo homesick. Sometimes I just wonder how tall my sister and brother are, or would my parents still look the same… 4 more weeks to go! Hopefully I won’t be turning into a blubbering mesh when I see my family, which in return reminds me that I have a dental appointment this week (big groan and dramatic sob). Urgh I hate dentist.

Errr hopefully I am back for good

Hey folks, I realized that it has been ages since the last time I have updated this blog. I am so sorry about my hiatus but this time it has a valid reason. I am currently busy writing for another blog you see. Before you accused me of being frivolous, I do have a valid reason. The blog, generically called Yuli's Journey, is for my job as a trend-watcher in training. It is filled with the latest interesting fad and campaigns that caught my eyes. However, I will do my best to maintain this blog for my more personal stories. Just check out Yuli's Journey and don't forget to sign up for email subscription ;-)

Woman can't be raped if she wears jeans

I was browsing through the news when I read this reportage. Apparently Italy's Supreme Court has ruled that a woman wearing jeans can not be raped. I'm outraged! How can that be a base of such a decision? I do not know further about the background situation on this case but the mind frame that women couldn't be raped when they are wearing jeans are wrong! There many possibilities like threats or under drugs influences to count. One layer of jeans is not going stop a man/men from raping a woman. It is a simple fact that most of men can easily overpower women. To hurt and destroy such sanctity is one of the biggest crime. Remember it is the body of woman who gave birth to humankind (with little help from mr.sperm of course).

Cute overload

The idea of personalising your favourite item has always been popular. With the increase of iPod popularity, it is a common sight to see Apple's signature offbeat-white headsets firmly attached to their proud owners. For those who feel the need to customize their favourite headsets, Emotibles offers cute accessories to complement your look! Termed as iPod charms, you can pick the expressions and colour that you like to be attached to your headset. The brainchild of Jonathan Curtis Hall and Kate Hall, Emotibles also sells different range of stickers and post-it notes apart from free emoticon downloads and wallpaper. You can get a pair of Emotibles iPod charms for 4$ and it does international shipping too ;-)

Moved to a new place

I finally found my new crib! 12th floor with great view towards the city. Yohooo xxx

2007 & 2008

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas 2007 and a Happy New Year 2008! (better late than never right *wink*)