Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

I love pancakes. Absolutely adore them. Could eat a whole serving of the SF coffee's Pancake breakfast, and that's a lot my friend! In order to have 'em at the comfort of my home sharing it with the family, we normally settle for the instant ones that comes in a box, all that needs to be done is add water and eggs, and of course fry them. They're good, no problem but I have been wondering of late if there are too much preservatives in them being instant and all.

So I have been surfing the web for an authentic recipe that has very basic simple ingredients, came across one in All Recipes.com, with a really good rating and review. Tried it last weekend, it was unbelievably awesome, if I can say so myself he!he! Honestly it came out the way it should be, my hubby can testify to that. Though he asked me a couple of times, ok so more than just a couple of times whether or not I truly made them from scratch myself. Well, yesterday I made them again and I got even bolder and doubled the recipe so that I could save some leftover pancakes for the weekend. This time I have evidence.

Here's the recipe, if you click on the recipe link above, you will get the actual recipe. I have somehow combined the recipe to have a bit from the original posted recipe plus taking into account the 1st review, where the reviewer posted some changes that she made to the recipe.

Please note that the recipe below is for double servings. Please reduce them by half if you are not feeding for 10 people or like me want to save some leftovers to spare all the measuring and sifting.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups milk

4 tbsp baking powder

1/8 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter

a splash of vanilla

2 eggs

Method:

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately.

Let the eggs come to room temp, heat the milk just a little so that when it was added to the melted butter it would not re-solidify the butter. Since I almost always forget to take the butter out in advance to soften it, what I did when I heated the milk was to dump in the butter into the milk to melt it. Whatever it is, I guess the reviewer mentioned how crucial it is to ensure that the wet ingredients are not cold.

Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Use a whisk sparingly and you will see it come together beautifully with no lumps.

Allow the mixture to sit for about 10 minutes before starting to make the pancakes (that's what the reviewer said in the web, don't know why perhaps to let the baking powder and eggs do their thang).

Heat a non-stick pan, so I didn't even need to oil it at all over a medium high heat. Pour or scoop as much batter as you like, depending on how big you like your pancakes to be. I used a small ladle, so that it is about 3-3 1/2 inches in diameter. I find this is a good enough size especially if you are serving to kids. This I leave it to my maid, she is more consistent when it comes to this particular part.

Brown on both sides and serve hot. Don't forget to have your pancake syrup ready or honey. Slather the pancakes with butter or margarine spread before the syrup or honey, it makes the pancakes more buttery and yummy. I also added some canned peaches just to be fancy. This is the sweet version of serving.

If you are also having omelette/ scrambled eggs with beans, sausages, mushrooms for breakfast or in other words a salty breakfast, these pancakes works great in replacement of the usual toasts.

Happy Cooking and of course Enjoy the pancakes!

Promised you that I have evidence:

Dry & Wet Ingredients

Sifting the flour and baking powder, if your salt and sugar are next to each

other like mine are make sure you don't screw up the measurements! (speaking fr experience!)

separate the wet and dry ingredients and mix like so

whisk sparingly until the batter looks well mixed, it does look a
bit runny but don't panic, that is fine.

once you see the air bubbles on one side and and the edges begin to loosen fr the pan turn over

this is the amount of pancakes that came out of about a single recipe

I mixed the sweet and salty

heavenly

modest serving , though not THE ONLY serving that I had, he! he! thank god I'm pregnant!

This is what I do when I don't join my friends for lunch on weekdays

I drag myself to the Gym. Well, now I waddle to the gym!! Waddle !waddle! Waddle! I try to go at least once a week, it used to be twice, but somehow, it doesn't happen that frequently. Either because there would be a holiday in the middle of the week that disrupts the flow of you know, exercise one day, rest the next exercise again the day after.

Since I don't go on Mondays, that leaves only Tuesdays and Thursdays. If something were to come up on Tuesday, like a meeting that finishes late, or a very good invite for lunch, then I would try to go on Wednesday. So then you might think that I could always go on Friday right? Well this rarely happens, cause on Fridays the ladies normally would venture a little further beyond Ampang Park or KLCC for lunch so that, I cannot miss. Anyhow, today I was strong. Inspite of the lunch plan today is Al-Rawsha in Jalan Damai, I thought, I better go since I just don't have the time to exercise in the evening afterwork cause I gotta cook! Since this Thursday is another Public Holiday, I better go, just in case I decide not to go on Friday too!! Today I thought I'd take some pictures too.

These are the row of treadmills. Excuse the quality of the picture, I was on a treadmill myself while taking this. I normally do about 10 minutes of warm up on the "Glider" machine, then another 25-30 minutes on the treadmill.

Halfway into Lap 3, 14 minutes and 20 seconds and I've gone about 0.95 km. Waddle! waddle! waddle!

Still managed to smile though! This was cooling down already, no more swinging arms at 90 degrees angle. Who took the picture? Ha! ha! managed to ask the trainer who was nearby to take it. Ha!ha! so malu, but pregnant ladies can get away with anything! Almost!




Then it is off to the studio for some stretching. Side stretch here.

This leg stretch thingy there.

Reach for the toes!

There are a couple more but I doubt that I should share them here, plus it was impossible to take a picture, maintain a decent facial feature and do those stretches. After all that, it's shower time and I waddle, waddle back to the office. Late as usual. But hey did I mention to you that my lady boss is on leave today. A bonus waiting for me at the office, Z brought home some Briyani from Al-Rawsha, bought some curry, Acar Timun and Fried Kacang Panjang from the Mamak Stall downstairs and Happy Days!!!

Horton Hears a Who!

Yesterday, we took the kids to the movies. It's been so long since we last saw a movie, can't remember the last one. Probably, the first one this year. Well, it was either the Spiderwick Chronicles or Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! Since Nayli is so into Dr. Seuss's books right now we decided on this one. She has never read this book before, it seems that she has never come across this particular book during her weekly library visits. Luckily, on Saturday after her swimming lessons, and the normal rush to the library to exchange this week's books, she managed to find it. So great, we all took turns reading the book on Sunday morning before leaving for the movies in the afternoon. Except for Zarif, we all went to the movies with the storyline in mind. In case you are wondering, we didn't read out loud to Zarif, cause it was quite a long story and in rather small prints, will take a few days if it were to be read out loud, perhaps we could read a few pages per night this week. If he wants to revisit the story.

Anyhow, the movie was quite good actually, they stuck to the storyline but probably added a few bits here and there to make it a full length movie. Very enjoyable.

Below is the excerpt about the book from Wikipedia:

Horton Hears a Who! is a 1954 book by Dr. Seuss. It is the second Seuss book to feature Horton the Elephant, the first being Horton Hatches the Egg.

Plot

The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant who, on the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. It turns out the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called "Who-ville", inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos.
The Whos ask Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well) to protect them from harm, to which Horton happily obliges, proclaiming throughout the book that "a person's a person, no matter how small". In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear. His chief tormentors are Vlad Vladikoff, the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo, and the small kangaroo in her pouch. Horton tells the Whos that they needed to make themselves heard to the other animals, lest they end up as part of "beezlenut stew", which they finally accomplish. The Whos finally make themselves heard by ensuring that all members of their society play their part. In the end it is the smallest Who of all, Jo-Jo, who provides the last volume lift to be heard, thus reinforcing the moral of "a person's a person no matter how small".
Now convinced of the Whos' existence, Horton's neighbors vow to help him protect the tiny community.
The book was published in August 1954,

Pull out beds

Thinking of getting your kids to share a room, and you are planning to get pull out beds, to minimize space. That's what we have in the kids room. In fact Zarif has been sleeping in his bed for 2 years already ever since he was 2 to be exact with his sister at the top bed. However, this happened last Tuesday, my hubby slept late as usual, me I am way in lalala land already. Anyway, he discovered Zarif in this position at about 1 am in the morning!!! Scarry huh! He!he! Now we can laugh about it! I guess the reason that happened is because the bed was pulled out a little way too far from the top bunk. If it weren't, there will not be such a big gap, enough for him to slip through. Don't worry parents out there, it is safe to get this kinda beds. And it isn't that light that it could slip in and out easily enough to be moving each time the kid in the bed tosses and turns!

Today it was the first time that the kids

• saw their soon to be baby brother! an amazing experience. they were totally amazed, especially when they heard the heartbeat. only a couple of months to go!

• went to the National Museum. it was rather dissapointing though, because the two main galleries downstairs were closed for renovation. it'll only be ready in June. so any of you parents out there planning to take your kids to the Musuem try again much later in the year. we finished covering the two small galleries on the top floor in less than 45 minutes. tsk! tsk! tsk! it is quite sad that our National Museum doesn't have much exhibition space and materials. managed to take some photos though as evidence that were were there.

2008 General Election

I voted, did you??? Happy with the results? I dunno. I'm no political analyst. Just want to live in a peaceful country. Voting was the least that I could do.

walking to the polling centre

my polling room

in the Q

Fly FM's Wake Up Your Brain

I have been following this morning quiz on the radio on weekdays on the way to work on Fly FM.



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An excerpt from their website:

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Fly FM's Wake Up Your Brain is a brain teaser of head scratching proportions as we ask Malaysia the questions that matter!The Fly FM's PAGI Show crew will ask the nation the questions and you have to call in to guess the answers. The amount snowballs each following day if no one gets it right today. Two lucky callers will be picked by the Fly FM's PAGI Show each day and they will be told a fact followed by a statement, for example,

The average woman thinks about this 43 times a day - what is it? Answer : Shoes. Get it right and walk home with at least RM100!!Pass Question:What are 18% of people in the world capable of?: Answer-Reading

The thing is the current cash prize is RM8,100!!!! That's a lot of money man come on!!! Here is the question:

29% of households DON'T own what?

Wrong answers that they've got:

1.Credit Card

2.Microwave Oven

3.Dress

4.Non stick pan

5.Air-cond

6.TV set

7.Electricity

8.Job

9.Iron

10.Satelite TV

11.Fridge

12.Insurance

13.Telephone

14.Fire Extinguisher

15.Dining Table

16.Flushable Toilets

17.Dishwasher

18.Housewives

19.Air-cond

20.Water Heater

21.Clean water

22.Pets

23.Vacum Cleaner

24.Children

25.House alarm

26.Computers x 2

27.Dictionary

28.Dishwasher

29.Car

30.Savings

31.House

32.Sofa

33.Automatic Rice Cooker

34.Karaoke Set

35.Toolbox

36.Washing Machine

37.Fire Extinguisher

38.Radio

39.Gate

40.Umbrella

41.Carpet

42.Sugar

43.Internet Access

44.Love

45.Maid

46.Toaster

47.Water Filter

48.Shoe Rack

49.Care

50.Sewing Machine

51.Happiness

52.House

53.Loving

54.Garden

55.Unity

56.Water Filter

57.Mailbox

58.Address

59.DVD PLAYER

60.Wall clock

61.Mobile phone

62.Family

63.Air freshner

64.Camera

65.Kitchen Cabinet

66.Lizard

67.Calendar

68.Mirror

69.Marriage

70.Bed

71.Electric Kettle

72.Electric Fan

73.Respect

74.Newspaper

75.Torchlight

76.Motorbike

77.Bicycle

78.Hairdryer

79.Romance

80.Piano

81.Doorbell

82.Doormat

That's about everything that one could come up with right? What else could there be??? I just have no clue???

Whatdya reckon???

Handbag Update!

My must have handbag of the moment:



Fawn leather tote with mirrored metallic gold trim and gold hardware. Anya Hindmarch tote has a clasp fastening pocket on front, a shoulder strap across top and a concealed magnetic fastening. Saw it on the window of AH in Suria KLCC, alamak to die for lah. I love the size too. Just perfect for me, huge!!!

For more infor check out http://www.net-a-porter.com . The price on this website is US$1,195. Didn’t check out the price in KLCC, could be a few hundred ringgit more than a direct 3.4-3.5 US-RM conversion.Sigh! For that price I’d stick to my number one favourite brand ever… and buy the "Saumur" – for RM4,300. If I had that much to splash out that is!!!! Sigh!